Looking for a solution? 

There are volumes of good information to be found in the KnowledgeBase.The follow page contains information on how to effectively use the searching tools  to find the solution you are looking for.

The Bentley KnowledgeBase can be found here: http://appsnet.bentley.com/kbase/

Overview

The "Search Text" field can be used by simply entering words and/or phrases pertaining to the solution you are looking for.  However you can get even more mileage from the system by using the "Advanced search" area.

In the Advanced search section you will see two main fields as well as a third section, Include/Exclude Attributes.

Any word Search

Type in any words or phrases that are relevant to the description of your issue.The results will try to match the entered words, but also return similar words and parts of words (Also known as "fuzzy").  The results are sorted descending by relevancy.

Specific Operators:

Space - The operator "OR".

Example:Any Word Search: MICROSTATION POWERDRAFT

Will return solution entries containing words such as...

"MICROSTATION POWERDRAFT" or"BENTLEY" OR "POWERDRAFT" or"POWER" or"DRAFT" OR "POWERCIVIL" or"DRAFTPAK" or"DRAFTING".

Comma - The operator "AND "

Example:

Any Word Search: MICROSTATION, POWERDRAFT

Will return solution entries containing words such as...

"MICROSTATION POWERDRAFT" AND "MICROSTATION" AND "POWERDRAFT" AND "POWER" AND "DRAFT" AND "POWERCIVIL" AND "DRAFTPAK" AND "DRAFTING".

Exact Phrase Search

Type in words or phrases that are relevant to the description of your issue.This is more static than "Any Words".  The results will contain ONLY the words specified.

Specific Operators:

Space - Search as a literal string.

Example:

Exact Phrase: POWERDRAFT

Will return solution entries containing...

"POWERDRAFT" only.

Comma - "AND" operator.

Example:

Exact Phrase: POWERDRAFT, MICROSTATION

Will return solution entries with words...

MICROSTATION AND POWERDRAFT only

Common Operators

These operators will work the same regardless of what field they are used in.

Asterisk (*) - Use as a multiple character place holder.

Example:

Any field:  PD*

Will return solution entries containing words such as...

"PDF", "PDN", "PDA" or "PDF.plt"

Question mark (?) - Use as a single character place holder.

Example:

Any field: PD?

Will return results such as... "PDN" or "PDF" or "PDA" (but not "PDF.PLT")

Category Tags

Each solution has a search tag associated. These tags are similar to standard webpage/blog/wiki tags used for assisting in finding the content on the Internet.  However the Knowledgebase solutions contain some specific tags.  These tags should allow you to direct the search on which "type" of solutions you are looking for.

There are 7 standard categories.

PROBLEMSOLVING - General Problem/Solution types (most common).

You are experiencing a problem, and are looking for a solution.

ERRORMESSAGE - An Error message

Explains what the error means and how to correct and/or avoid it.

DEFINEDSTEPS - "How to" instructions.

Steps on how to do a specific task.

ARTICLELINKS - Groups of article links on a certain topic.

A collective of all known articles and help paths on a specific area of a product.

BESTPRACTICES - Best Practices

This is procedures recommended by Bentley on a specific area of a product.

GENERALINFORMATION - General information on a specific topic.

This is free for all factual information that is normally not specific to Bentley Products.

MAXLIMIT - Known technical limits of a specific area of a product.

The known limit of a certain area of a product.

If these tag categories are used in "Exact phrase"  field, they will restrict the search to only return that type of solution.  If that is then combined with a comma operator (AND) you can include keywords to further narrow the search.

Examples:

Exact Phrase: PROBLEMSOLVING, LEVELS, SYNCHRONIZE

Exact Phrase: ERRORMESSAGE, MDL ABORT

Exact Phrase: DEFINEDSTEPS, CUSTOM LINESTYLE

Both fields can be used to first narrow to a specific category, then move relevant keywords to the top of the list.

Example:

Exact Phrase: DEFINEDSTEPS

Any word: BYLEVEL, REFERENCES

Example of use

Example Problem #1

In MicroStation, for some reason, you cannot snap to elements in a certain file.

You could search "Cannot snap" in Search Text field...

Notice how there are multiple pages of results.

At this point, you may try one of the solutions with the most relevancy (85% in this case).

If those solutions is not what you are looking for, you could then refine your search by adding more search terms in the "Refine results" field at the top.

OR

You could go to the "Advanced Search" and tell the search exactly what type of information you are looking for.

Using the standard category tags (as defined previously), you will want to think of the type of information you are looking for.

In this case, not being able to snap to elements in a specific file, appears to fall under the tag "PROBLEMSOLVING".

With that thought...

Exact Phrase field: PROBLEMSOLVING, MICROSTATION, SNAP

Now, there is only a single page, still with good relevance percentage and the list only contains problems with solutions for snapping and is only related to MicroStation.

This has effectively narrowed down the search into smaller more manageable groups of information.

The list before you shows a little bit of the recorded problem with a hyphen (-) the a little bit of the solution.

|---------first 40 characters of problem-----------| - |-------first 40 characters of solution---------|

This is done to alleviate the need to open each entry to see if it relates to your issue.

If you do open the entry...You will long descriptions of the problem and solution.

Example problem #2

Maybe you now want to find specific steps on how to do something regarding snapping in MicroStation

You can then use the category tag: DEFINEDSTEPS instead of PROBLEMSOLVING

Exact Phrase field: DEFINEDSTEPS, MICROSTATION, SNAP

As you can see, the type of solutions have changed.  Now the results are steps for how to do a certain task regarding snapping in MicroStation.

See Also

Product TechNotes and FAQs

External Links

Bentley Technical Support KnowledgeBase

Bentley LEARN Server

Comments or Corrections?

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