The general architecture and main components used by a MicroStation based application that consumes an i-model and outputs the information to a 3rd-party respository/format is depicted in the diagram below.

Using the SDK, the MicroStation App would perform the following tasks:

• Open the i-model.
  • If the current Session is not viewing the i-model to process then use the mdlSystem_newDesignFile function or the SessionMgr to open the i-model.
  • Process the Active Model. To get the active model, use the SessionManager and call GetActiveModel.
  • Use the GetDgnCache from which it will iterate across the graphical elements in the cache.
• Read the graphics from the i-model.
  • Using an iterator, each element will provide the DGN graphic for each element in model.
  • Using the ElementGraphicsProcessor class invoke the Process method.
  • The process method will require an ElmHandle and a reference to a sub class of the IElementGraphicsProcessor class.
• Read the business data from the i-model.
  • To read the business data, the MicroStation App needs to use the XmlInstance API.
  • For each element processed, a call to XmlInstanceAPI.ReadInstances returns a list of the attribute data as an XML fragment.
  • Attribute data is formatted as an XMLFragment that needs to be processed using the appropriate XML API.
• Reads the provenance information from the i-model.
  • Create a reference to the ProvenanceManager using the static method provided in the class.
  • Extract the needed provenance information either as an XML fragment or a list of specific data sources.
• Writes the information to the 3rd-party repository/file using the method most appropriate for the performing the task (e.g., 3rd party API, etc.).

The libraries required for this use case are:

• Bentley.XmlInstanceNative.lib
• Bentley.IModelConnection.lib
• Bentley.ProvenanceNative.lib
• Bentley.Publish.lib