Tags are not directly replaceable by Item Types not to mention backwards and forward compatibility.
With Items:
No option to remove grey background as view attribute only as per user. Does not adhere to local standards.
No option to easy edit attributes. There is separate and easy to use edit Tags dialog to edit in table format. With Items need to open full and slow Properties panel.
Reports for both features are not easy to use. Tags could have been used more only if it was not abandoned 20 years ago but at least it was mature feature not as technology preview.
DWG compatibility.
Cumbersome to place Items as text.
Oto, we are working to make Edit Item quicker to use and will fix any bugs we find.
So, for point 1, would you just like to toggle the Text Field background as a view attribute? Or do you need something else in Text Styles?
Point 1 can be addressed by the "Hide Field Background" or "Apply Field Background from Text Style" Text preferences (in the Preferences dialog)
No it is not solution to the problem. It is user preference and is not saved as DGN setting. Receiving party is unaware why it shows as grey background and from where this background comes. This grey background by default makes Items not allowed elements as it doesn't adhere to local standards.
For point 2, we have the Edit Item dialog, which is available in the right click menu
Not replacement for edit tags tool. Takes too much time to get it to it and many more clicks to edit. After edit the Update button is inactive until Enter is input.
As long as the ease of use with items (for the daily user) is not similar to tags.
Completely agree it is disaster from user perspective.
Tags will be completely deprecated at some point in the future.
As most likely Items will be similar abandoned technology as Tags without fully addressing all issues then I do not have confidence that it can replace Tags. We need tags to stay and fix some minor issues with its usage.
Another question what are Items compatibility with FME, Teigha library? This will be another issue in the future as these libraries are still based on v7 approach.
Point 1 can be addressed by the "Hide Field Background" or "Apply Field Background from Text Style" Text preferences (in the Preferences dialog)
As Item Types offer a lot more intelligence than tags, and we are working to close the remaining gaps between the two technologies (including in the interoperability with other Bentley products), Tags will be completely deprecated at some point in the future.
Gerd, Item Types are exported to DWG as Enhanced Attributes, same as tags. DWG does not support array and struct properties, so we will need to investigate how to cover the more complex cases, but simple Item Types properties will work as tags do, we are also adding support for exporting empty and expression driven properties in the next release.
@Marco Salino:
Regarding No.4: We are not able to export Item Types to .dwg as far as i am aware. Will this be implemented?
Tags are not fully compatible with DWG anyway since they can be attached to any type of graphical element, which is not supported by ACAD
As long as the ease of use with items (for the daily user) is not similar to tags.
See issues with DWG compatibility, Anchor point, association point, copy a cell with label,
create a cell that contains a label, etc
Hi Oto, could you please help me undertsanding point 1 better?
For point 2, we have the Edit Item dialog, which is available in the right click menu, and - spoiler - we will be able to open it directly by double clicking on a text-field that is driven by an item type property.
We are working on number 5 and could you elaborate a bit more on n.4 please?
Thanks