I came across some threads on the OBD forums about BCF compatibility. There are already some ideas on the MS ideas portal as well, but all seem a bit fragmented.
I think what we really need is a complete BCF manager, either developped by Bentley or a third-party, that is compatible with all the PowerPlatform applications. Some references:
Forum post with some interested users (5 years old): https://communities.bentley.com/products/building/building_analysis___design/f/aecosim-speedikon-forum/108280/bcf-bim-collaboration-format-in-aecosim?ReplySortBy=CreatedDate&ReplySortOrder=Descending
Forum post (>3 years old): https://communities.bentley.com/products/building/building_analysis___design/f/aecosim-speedikon-forum/143265/why-is-there-no-support-for-bcf-in-abd-ce/525724#525724
MS Idea-189 (only Export to BCF/PDF): https://microstation.ideas.aha.io/ideas/MS-I-189
MS Idea-195 (import BCF into saved views): https://microstation.ideas.aha.io/ideas/MS-I-195
Both previous ideas are too limited in a BIM environment. I-189 only wants to export to a (XML) bcf file, which could indeed be read by any other BCF manager. But it lacks the ability for participation/feedback from other (non bentley users) project participants.
I-195 suggest to import BCF into saved views. It's not a bad idea but again limited to a specific use case. BCF is much more than only a viewpoint, so converting it to a saved view would only deal with part of that information.
There are 3rd party plug-ins for many softwares, like for example "Arup" https://github.com/arup-group/issue-tracker. It's the only one I found that supports Bentley products, last development is 3 years old though.
Recent BCF development in many applications focuses more and more on cloud-based BCF. In my opinion a BCF manager should be able to:
Import/Export BCF files
Synchronize to a cloud service (like eg. BIMCollab, which I personally use from BIMCollab Zoom, Navisworks, Revit, ...) via openCDE API. BCF 3.0 will only support this form of exchange
I think Bentley should focus on the BCF 3.0 for both cloud services (PW365, iTwin, ...) as well as the PowerPlatform products. Maybe it could be a good idea to partner with an external developper who provides a plugin for this, like BIMCollab does for many other software?
Well said, I need BCF files also for my projects in Holland!
VenturisIT recently did release the TriCad BCF Manager. It is based on BIMCollab technology.
From a trial I did it works until a certain extent. I'm not certain if it is even possible for them as 3rd party developer to do more than this.
At least it does integrate issues (either manual BCF Import or with connection to BIMCollab Cloud) with possibility to zoom to viewpoints.
It is also possible to save viewpoints from whithin Microstation (I tested on OBD but I assume the same capabilities) and then zoom to those viewpoints, including sectioning by clip volume in MS/OBD, in another application like BIMCollab Zoom.
I'd say give it a try for yourself and see if it meets your individual criteria.
If I remember TriCad (BIM-Addon by Venturis IT) can export BCF. It does IFC for sure.
Pity that Bentley has not much done here to be "Open" recently. PW365 and iTwin appear to be for larger scale projects. (Though I have not looked recently.)
Connections and third party plug-ins to cloud services such as BIMCollab or BIMTrack are essential to current workflows
iTwin has the option to import a BCF but OBD does not have an option to export one? this is frustrating as we are still using OBD for our clash detection as iTwin has no functionality to group clashes. So if we could import the BCF it would save the manual work of duplicating the clashes in iTwin via the issue tracker
As discussed in this thread on the OBD forum:
https://communities.bentley.com/products/building/building_analysis___design/f/aecosim-speedikon-forum/234812/report-on-clash/743029
Additional to the BCF management it would also be very useful to make a connection to the clash detective. There are examples where this kind of connection is done in a very good way (BIMCollab Zoom and I think Solibri as well). Other examples where there is no connection at all (Navisworks <=> Autodesk Issues from the ACC), which is very annoying and close to useless!
Exactly. Well put Johan