# Project Environment 01 - Configuration model and scope

Status: **published / supporting knowledge**
Branch: **MSet 2026 / 64-bit Bentley CONNECT/Open generation**

## Purpose

This track helps an AI reason about the MicroStation project environment around MSet. It is intentionally lighter than a full Bentley administration reference.

Load it when a task materially concerns:

- Configuration / Custom Configuration,
- WorkSpace or WorkSet,
- project/environment `.cfg` files,
- Standards/resource ownership or search order,
- environment diagnostics,
- shared/network deployment,
- or V8i Project/PCF migration.

For ordinary MSet XML authoring, keep using the Instruction Author track without loading this domain.

## 1. Core CONNECT/Open model

A useful conceptual hierarchy is:

```text
Configuration
  -> WorkSpace
      -> WorkSet
          -> DGN / project data
```

MicroStation configuration processing also has levels such as Organization, WorkSpace, WorkSet, Role and User. Those levels help determine where configuration statements are applied.

Do not confuse configuration level with guaranteed resource priority. Effective resource selection can also depend on the variable being used, assignment operators, final search/list order, locks and resource-family behavior.

## 2. Default layout is a convention, not a prison

A typical environment keeps reusable standards at WorkSpace level and project-specific material at WorkSet level, but physical roots are redirectable.

Do not force every customer into one folder tree. A valid design may keep:

- managed/shared Standards centrally,
- project data on another drive/share,
- WorkSet-specific overrides near project data,
- product-owned MSet resources outside the customer tree.

The important question is **who owns each resource and how MicroStation resolves it**, not whether every file sits under one parent folder.

## 3. MicroStation 2026 guided configuration UI

MicroStation 2026 provides guided UI for creating/managing Configurations, WorkSpaces and WorkSets. Treat that as a useful authoring/administration workflow, not as a replacement for understanding the resulting `.cfg`, variables and resource paths.

When troubleshooting or reviewing an AI-generated environment, the resolved configuration remains the evidence that matters.

## 4. Production boundary

Keep customer/company production configuration out of Bentley-delivered program content. Prefer Custom Configuration and supported user/admin touch points.

If a workflow would require editing product-owned/generated configuration files directly, treat that as an administrator/deployment action and verify it against the target MicroStation version before recommending it.

## 5. Interaction rule

For a greenfield request, do not start with a long questionnaire. Ask only for the smallest missing input that blocks the next useful step.

Good first questions are usually about the intended project family or whether the environment is reusable across multiple related WorkSets.