2020 Release Notes

Meridian Enterprise 2020 was released in January 2020. The major themes of this release are:

Integration with Meridian Portal
PowerWeb functionality
Third-party component updates
Numerous quality, stability, usability, scalability, and performance improvements

The following sections describe the specific changes and improvements in this release. Additional minor enhancements, third-party application support, and bug fixes are also included.

Administration Improvements

The following improvements have been made to the administration of Meridian Enterprise.

Administration improvements
Reference	Description
MPS-16871	Fixed an issue that could cause a vault to remain open after the EDM Server service was manually stopped during a long running process.
MPS-16886	When an empty Active Directory group is synchronized with Meridian Enterprise Server, the Meridian group will now be emptied also. Previously, the group was unchanged.
MPS-18173	Packages to be sent to Meridian Portal no longer need to wait to be sent for unsynchronized document revisions to be synchronized to the Meridian Explorer repository by a scheduled publishing job. The first synchronization job defined for a vault will now be run automatically if an existing document or one of its references is unsynchronized. New documents that have never been synchronized must still wait until they are synchronized.
MPS-18655	Fixed an issue that could cause repository synchronization jobs to fail that contain renamed folders.
MPS-19244	The Vault Consistency Wizard log now includes column names for item data to help interpret the results.
MPS-20260	The Meridian Cloud Connector installation package now no longer shows options that are not used in remote or cloud environments.
MPS-20571 MPS-23019	This release includes ODA Platform 2020 Update 1 (Teigha) components.
MPS-20806	The Meridian Cloud Connector installation package now includes the same application links as the full client installation package.
MPS-20949	The Package can be returned option has been removed from publishing job definitions. It is replaced with the new Send to Portal option that is available when packages are created as described in Send documents to Meridian Portal.
MPS-21001	The SAMLConfigurator tool no longer saves URLs with trailing slash characters, which can lead to authentication errors.
MPS-21161	Fixed an issue that prevented some text in the installation packages from appearing in the user's selected language.
MPS-21305	A new client registry value ExcludeCertificates has been added as described in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Cyco\AutoManager Meridian\CurrentVersion\Client. When set to 1, it prevents the names of certificates from appearing in the User Name list when electronically signing documents in PowerWeb with the ActiveX compatibility mode option enabled and a security policy is configured to use a certificate and PIN.
MPS‑21310	Fixed an issue that could cause the error Index and length must refer to a location within the string and prevent entering license numbers in Meridian Enterprise Administrator with the Chinese language configured.
MPS‑21462	A new option Meridian Portal has been added to the Meridian Enterprise Server connectivity settings to set the domain in which the tenancy resides as described in View and edit the connectivity settings.
MPS-21628	Fixed an issue that could cause repository synchronization jobs to fail that contained renditions larger than 2 GB.
MPS-21670	The default data of the CollectExisting registry value has been changed to 0 (off) as described in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Cyco\AutoManager Meridian\CurrentVersion\WebLink\Published Locations\<ID>.
MPS-21763	Fixed an issue that could cause repository synchronization jobs to fail that contained hybrid documents with parts larger than 2 GB.
MPS-21913	Fixed an issue that could cause PowerWeb to stop working during an operation when the application pool on the Meridian web server is reset at the same time.
MPS-22120	The Meridian Cloud Connector client now supports Active Directory authentication and configurable installation options so that it can be used for on-premises deployments. For more information about the benefits, see Meridian Cloud Connector.
MPS-22206	Documents imported from Meridian Portal with the issue reason of For Handover are now released instead of routed to the Quick Change state and assigned to the BC_MeridianService account.
MPS-22215	Fixed an issue that could cause the error Cannot insert duplicate key row in object 'dbo.Folder' with unique index 'IX_Folder_Name' when a synchronization job is run after an already synchronized folder is deleted and then recreated.
MPS-22265	Fixed an issue that could cause the Meridian Portal tenancy name to appear incorrectly for imported packages.
MPS-22292	Documents in a workflow with the status of Update may now be imported from Meridian Portal packages.
MPS-22352	Fixed an issue that could cause the error The application called an interface that was marshalled for a different thread when opening Meridian applications after installing Windows Updates that include .NET Framework 4.8.
MPS-22583	Fixed an issue that could cause publishing jobs with the Windows file system as the destination to require a Meridian Explorer Standard (M--EXC) client license even though a Meridian Explorer Plus (M--EXP) license is available and should be used.
MPS-22726	Fixed an issue In PowerUser and in PowerWeb with ActiveX compatibility mode enabled that could allow users unlimited authentication attempts when the Logon retries option is set to 0 (no retries).
MPS-22839	Import packages may now be imported to destination project folders by using the Project number property and Destination folder options described in Manage a Meridian Enterprise vault with metadata described in Import with packages.
MPS-22913	Fixed an issue that could allow users to continue to access a vault after failing to authenticate within the configured number of retries when a site cache is used.
MPS-23100	Fixed an issue in the AMRep.exe tool that could report incorrect operating system version numbers.
MPS-23393	TLS 1.2 is now supported by all Meridian applications by default for compatibility with SAML authentication.
MPS-23537	Fixed an issue that could cause a User...is locked or not identified as a valid user error when a new user logs in via PowerWeb instead of adding the user to the system as in PowerUser.
MPS-23817	Fixed an issue that could cause an error when running the iconlsver tool to reindex a restored vault.
MPS-23989	The DataList PowerWeb profile setting described in Deploy standard preferences can now be set in the web server registry setting as described in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Cyco\AutoManager Meridian\CurrentVersion\WebLink\UserPreferences\Default.
MPS-24001	Microsoft .NET Framework 4.7.1 or higher is now required for server and client deployments. The installation packages will check for its installation and stop if it is not found.
MPS-24709	Important! When this release is installed as an upgrade to an existing installation, the Meridian Enterprise Server web.config file is reset to its default settings. This disables HTTPS security mode and makes publishing jobs unavailable. To enable HTTPS, see Configure HTTPS.
MPS-24766	Fixed an issue that could cause an error when attempting to delete a document in the root of a vault with site cache connected.
MPS-24769	Attempting to save an import profile after mapping a property to an expression that fetches a Meridian Portal property value will cause the error The current expression has errors. Do you want to save it anyway? Proceeding to save the mapping will cause errors when documents are scanned during import and the property will not be set as expected. This issue is expected to be fixed in a future release.
MPS-24994	The Tag Synchronizer and Tag Link Synchronizer tools have been improved to import asset tags to a Meridian Cloud tenancy as described in Configure Tag Synchronizer and Configure Tag Link Synchronizer.
MPS-25089	Fixed an issue that could cause an error when attempting to enter license information in Meridian Enterprise Server with the Chinese language installed.

Application Link Improvements

The following application link improvements have been made.

Application link improvements
Reference	Description
MPS-19114	Fixed an issue that could cause MicroStation v8i to crash when attaching external references.
MPS-19436	The CAD application links now support updating title blocks with script functions in Remote mode.
MPS-19627	The AutoCAD link now creates references between AutoCAD drawings and Inventor models inserted with the VIEWBASE command as described in Inventor models.
MPS-20261	In the MicroStation link, stability and performance have been improved.
MPS-20684	Fixed an issue that could prevent documents in a shared workspace accessed in Remote mode from a mapped drive from being recognized as being managed by Meridian.
MPS-21373	In the MicroStation link, the performance of synchronizing tag hotspots from MicroStation drawings has been improved.
MPS-21528	In the MicroStation link, references created with absolute paths are no longer converted to relative paths.
MPS-22223	In the AutoCAD link, fixed an issue that could cause Internet Information Server to stop working if multiple users import documents with title block synchronization enabled.
MPS-22285	In the Revit link, fixed an issue that could cause Current document is opened as read-only errors when trying to work on documents in a shared workspace in Remote mode with a site cache connected.
MPS-22353	Fixed an issue that could cause AutoCAD title block synchronization to fail in Remote mode.
MPS-23057	A new setting DisableCircularRef has been added to the TAGEXTRACTION section of the AutoCAD link settings in a vault configuration as described in Configure the AutoCAD link. If set to 1, warning messages about circular reference creation are suppressed.
MPS-23064	The SolidWorks application link now supports SolidWorks 2020.
MPS-24629	In the MicroStation link, a new client registry setting named ButtonsForAll has been added as described in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cyco\AutoManager Meridian\CurrentVersion\MicroStationLink.

Client Improvements

The following improvements have been made to the PowerWeb client application unless otherwise noted.

Client improvements
Reference	Description
MPS-165	Fixed an issue that could prevent the workflow Status property of a document from updating after running the Start Change, Revoke Documents, or Approve Documents commands after changing a lookup property on a custom page.
MPS-376	Canceling a Copy with References or Derive with References operation now gives the user the choice to revoke any copies made up to that point.
MPS-144	Fixed an issue that could cause an error when linking a project to an empty Meridian Portal repository.
MPS-432	When opening a document using Application Integration from within an application, users can now select any valid workflow transition similar to what is described in Open a document from within Meridian.
MPS-14689	When the ActiveX compatibility mode option is enabled as described in Set personal preferences and a site cache is connected as described in Configure a site cache connection and the Unlock document command (Lock and unlock documents) is run, the error Document...is locked by... can occur and the document is not unlocked. To prevent this error and succesfully unlock a document, temporarily disable ActiveX compatibility mode, unlock the document and re-enable the option. This issue is expected to be resolved in a future release.
MPS-16129	Fixed an issue that could cause Object not found errors when attempting to revoke a newly imported document .
MPS-16796	New commands Download to Folder and Download Renditions to Folder have been added to allow easy downloading of documents to a specific folder (other than the local workspace folder) as described in Download documents and Download renditions, respectively.
MPS-17141	Fixed an issue that could cause the Rendition updated property to not appear in the correct color unless the mouse cursor is hovered over the field.
MPS-17400	Fixed an issue that could cause files for deleted documents to appear in folders copied out of the vault.
MPS-17795	Fixed an issue that could cause thumbnail generation to fail with the ICViewPlugIn viewer is active.
MPS-18521	Minor UI text improvements.
MPS-18600	General usability and visibility for users with color vision deficiency has been improved in the workflow diagram window.
MPS-19073	Fixed an issue that could cause Object not found errors when attempting to view a document when the site cache server is deployed separately from Meridian Enterprise Server.
MPS-19189 MPS-22585	Fixed an issue that could cause excessive memory consumption and sub-optimal performance by the Meridian application server when folders are expanded that contain >1000 items.
MPS-19203 MPS-20584	The package names on the Export Packages property page are now hyperlinks that, when clicked, open the package in Meridian Explorer where its contents can be viewed and if desired, opened in Meridian Portal for collaboration with external contractors.
MPS-19308	Fixed an issue that could cause the current revision to appear in the viewer when a user clicked the thumbnail of a prior revision in the list of revisions as described in View prior revisions.
MPS-19710	Fixed an issue that could errors when a site cache is connected and downloading documents with fully qualified paths longer than 260 characters.
MPS-19964 MPS-22707	The stability of user sessions under stressful conditions has been improved.
MPS-20073	Documents sent to Meridian Portal in a package for modification while they were in a workflow are now automatically imported back into the vault when they are returned from Meridian Portal. The To-Do Person value is restored to the user that was assigned at the time that the documents were sent. Previously, the package had to be imported manually. However, the documents are not automatically released from their workflow even if the Workflow state option is set to Released in the import profile.
MPS-20301	A new command Open Document has been added to the Assembly ribbon menu to make it easier to download an assembly or part from the Assembly Browser and to open it in its registered application.
MPS-20520	A new folder command Unlink From Meridian Portal has been added as described in Link folders to Meridian Portal.
MPS-20582	When a package is sent to Meridian Portal and later retracted, the documents are now automatically unlocked in the Meridian vault.
MPS-20635	The usability of the Send to Meridian Portal dialog box has been improved.
MPS-20932	Documents may now be sent to Meridian Portal with the Issue Reason of For Information as described in Send documents to Meridian Portal.
MPS-20949	A new Send to Portal option is available when packages are created as described in Send documents to Meridian Portal.
MPS-21234	Batches of renditions may now be printed as described in Print documents.
MPS-21254	Fixed an issue that could prevent virtual tags from appearing for project copies without at least one literal tag reference.
MPS-21274 MPS-24131	Fixed an issue that could cause outgoing tag references from appearing in reference explorer dialogs shown in PowerWeb and in PowerUser. Note: All customers with release 2019 or 2019 R2 who upgrade to 2020 and who use document to tag references must set (or reset) and save at least one option in the reference definition as described in Create and edit reference types to prevent those references from failing to appear in the assembly browser dialogs.
MPS-21350	Fixed an issue that, when using a document property page to navigate to a different document in a different scope, changed the current scope.
MPS-21530 MPS-21834	A new clipboard feature has been added to make moving and copying items easier. New commands Cut to Clipboard, Copy to Clipboard, and Paste from Clipboard have been added as described in Meridian clipboard.
MPS-21712	When a user has a document selected and the page is refreshed because the user changed navigation views or selects a different document, the navigation tree automatically scrolls to make the selected document visible.
MPS-21973	Fixed a bug that could cause focus to jump to the root folder of the vault when a document is opened but the active focus is on a folder other than the folder where the opened document will be released to.
MPS-21996	Fixed an issue that could cause PowerWeb to stop working during an import.
MPS-22066	A new option Include transmittal in report has been added to the Generate Transmittal Sheet dialog box that, if enabled (the default is disabled), causes the transmittal report itself to appear as a row in the report as proof that it was included in the briefcase.
MPS-22088	Fixed an issue that could cause focus to jump to the root folder of the vault when a folder is deleted instead of to the parent of the deleted folder.
MPS-22309	Fixed an issue that could cause a custom workflow transition to be assigned to the wrong user.
MPS-22343	Fixed an issue that could prevent shared workspace files from being removed after they were deleted from the vault with a site cache connected.
MPS-22723	The Meridian Cloud Connector installation package now includes the AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Revit, MicroStation, Solidworks, and MS Office application links.
MPS-22803	Fixed an issue that could cause only the first document in a selection to be added to an export package and the rest to fail with the error Invalid pointer.
MPS-23410	Fixed an issue that could cause sending of packages to fail due to long project names.
MPS-23501	A new option Include objects has been added to the Create Project Copy dialog. When enabled, asset tags are also shown and can be included in the copy operation if permitted by the reference type.
MPS-23537	Fixed an issue that could prevent new users from logging on with PowerWeb to create their account. They will now only receive the User...is locked or not identified as a valid user error message if their account is actually locked.
MPS-23549	The error message has been improved that is shown when a user's session times out during a lengthy operation such as importing documents.
MPS-23600	Fixed an issue that prevented the Create Project Copy with Lock command from appearing in the ribbon menu if the Copy Project Copy command is disabled in the current scope.
MPS-23706	Clipboard cut and copy operations are now logged to the audit trail.
MPS-24287	Fixed an issue that could prevent asset tags from being processed correctly for project copy operations on linked documents. Note: All customers who upgrade to 2020 and who use document to tag references must resave (click Edit and then click OK) the options on the AMM Settings page of the vault configuration as described in Configure the document to tag relationships to avoid this issue.
MPS-24361	Fixed an issue that could cause duplicate files to be created in the local workspace in remote mode when saving a document in the vault with a type that calculates the file name.
MPS-24554	Fixed an issue that could cause Execution Timeout Expired errors when opening large audit logs.
MPS-24642	Fixed an issue that could cause the Select Folder dialog to be empty when a newly imported document in a project folder is released as a new master document with a scope active that has a root folder set for it.
MPS-24675	Fixed an issue that could cause custom commands that are run on a batch of folders and documents to generate errors for the folders even if the Execute recursively if applied to folders option of the custom command is disabled as described in Create and edit custom commands.
MPS-24797	Fixed an issue that could cause errors when attempting to open in its native application a hybrid part that is attached to a main document with a file size of 0.
MPS-24959	Fixed an issue that could cause an incorrect revision information to be shown for a previous revision of a document in PowerWeb.
MPS-25006	Fixed an issue that could cause repository synchronization jobs to fail for vaults with more than 1000 asset tag types.
MPS-25026	Fixed an issue that could cause errors when updating a rendition is attempted for a document under change for which its rendition has been deleted and the rendition update job has a prior revision type watermark profile assigned.

Configuration Improvements

The following improvements have been made to the configuration of Meridian Enterprise.

Configuration improvements
Reference	Description
MPS-17592	A new option Execute recursively for referenced documents has been added to custom commands as described in Create and edit custom commands. If enabled (default), the command will be run on each child reference of the selected document.
MPS-19391	Fixed an issue with particular properties not being included when the vault configuration is exported to a MET file.
MPS-20924	Fixed an issue that could cause the error The required property...does not exist for the current view. It is no longer possible to remove required properties from a navigation view.
MPS-21429	Fixed an issue that could cause false unknown error -2147352319 messages when entering a configuration expression.
MPS-22128	A new option Secure PDF has been added to rendition watermark profiles as described in Configure rendition watermarks. If enabled, the option assigns a randomly generated password to the rendition watermarks to prevent tampering.
MPS-22308	New options have been added to reference type definitions as described in Create and edit reference types.
MPS-22347	A new format named Master/Project Copy has been added to the Revision number option as described in Configure document revision numbers.
MPS-24676	Fixed an issue that caused documents to not import if the source of a property mapping was an expression.

Customization Improvements

The following improvements have been made to the Meridian Enterprise customization features (VBScript and .NET API).

Customization improvements
Reference	Description
MPS-19032	Fixed an issue that could cause the ProjectWorkflowEvent_PrepareBrowser event to ignore the RootFolder argument.
MPS-20349	Fixed an issue that could cause Client.Argument to return 0 for strings over 255 characters long in PowerUser.
MPS-21430	Fixed an issue that could cause the Vault.User.HasRole property to return an incorrect value.
MPS-22131	Fixed an issue that could cause the returned value from Vault.FindDocument to not include the newly created document when executed in the OnProperties event during document creation.
MPS-23961	Fixed an issue that could prevent results from appearing for dynamic scopes as described in VaultEvent_ChangeScope event.
MPS-24054	Fixed an issue that could cause an outdated version of a rendition to be shown after the source document has been updated by the AddRendition method.

Viewer Improvements

The following improvements have been made to the Meridian Enterprise viewer.

Viewer improvements
Reference	Description
MPS-136	Fixed an issue in the AutoVue Setup For Meridian installation package that prevented the viewer from filtering files correctly.
MPS-466 MPS-22606	Source documents in PDF format that do not have a corresponding rendition are now shown with PDFTron by default.
MPS-16878	The PDFTron viewer now supports marquee zoom when comparing documents.
MPS-17429	Added a new option Embed Acrobat viewer into Web Browser control for the Acrobat viewer that, when enabled, opens URL hyperlinks in a new browser tab.
MPS-17840	Fixed an issue that could prevent renditions from being shown with Acrobat Reader when a site cache is connected and the UsePDFTron registry value is set to 0 as described in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Cyco\AutoManager Meridian\CurrentVersion\WebLink.
MPS-21304	Fixed an issue in PowerUser that could cause the Search pane from appearing when a document is opened in Adobe Reader.
MPS-21835	Fixed an issue with some changes not being detected when comparing renditions.
MPS-21632	Fixed an issue with printing the differences between two revisions.
MPS-22263	Fixed an issue that could cause the remaining hotspots to not appear after removal of a manually created hotspot.
MPS-22301 MPS-23547	Fixed an issue that could cause some documents to fail to load in PDFTron.
MPS-22077 MPS-22820	Fixed an issue that could prevent annotations from being saved for very large PDF files.
MPS-22605	Source PDF documents and their revisions may now be compared using PDFTron.
MPS-23591	Fixed an issue that could prevent a confirmation dialog from appearing when a user has unsaved annotations made by PDFTron in an undocked window and they close that window or change focus to another document.
MPS-23616	In PowerWeb, if the View renditions option is disabled as described in Set personal preferences and a source document in PDF format is selected, it cannot be viewed with PDFTron in Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge. The workaround is to download the document and view it in Adobe Reader or a similar viewer. This issue is expected to be resolved in a future release.
MPS-23848	Fixed an issue that could cause an undocked AutoVue window to crash Internet Explorer 11 when the window is closed.
MPS-24040	Fixed an issue with the AutoVue 3D viewer that could produce random Loading error. Turn verbosity ON and check log errors when viewing a 3D model in an unsupported format.
MPS-24208	Attempting to print a rendition from PDFTron in full-screen view can cause Out of memory errors on Windows 8.1 in Internet Explorer 11.0.9600.19573 only. Repeating the command requires terminating the extra browser process with Task Manager.
MPS-24718	Fixed an issue that could cause a master document that has had its rendition manually updated by a project copy to show the outdated rendition in the viewer.

Explorer Improvements

We made these improvements to Meridian Explorer.

What’s new in 2020
Reference	Description
MPS-16796	New commands Download to Folder and Download Renditions to Folder have been added to allow easy downloading of documents to a specific folder (other than the local workspace folder) as described in Download files.
MPS-18011 MPS-21269	Fixed an issue that prevented DWG and DGN references in subfolders from being resolved when packages are imported.
MPS-20398	The home page now initially shows the lists of views collapsed for easier selection when many views are available.
MPS-20583	Fixed issues with the Open In New Window command that could cause property pages to not open or the same page to open repeatedly.
MPS-21235	Batch printing of renditions is now supported by the PDFTron viewer.
MPS-21464	Fixed an issue that could cause Document count is invalid errors when attempting to download a document that is locked in an export package.
MPS-21529	Fixed an issue with the Contents page when downloading both content and the rendition of documents.
MPS-21607	Exporting metadata to Excel is no longer limited to 1000 items.
MPS-21831	Fixed an issue that could cause an error message to appear when creating an import package and the Source folder option is left blank.
MPS-21898	Fixed an issue with documents appearing in the wrong orientation in the Draft Print selection window when a non-English language is enabled.
MPS-22168	Fixed an issue that could cause moved references to not appear in the correct folder.
MPS-22246	Fixed an issue that prevented item names from not appearing completely in the Recent Items list on the home page.
MPS-24761	If a user removes all columns from a document list view, the grid header will disappear and the view can no longer be reconfigured. The user can now press and hold the Ctrl while clicking the document list to restore the hidden columns.
MPS-24793	Exporting a package now requires that a project name be selected to which to link the package as described in Export a package.
MPS-24945	Creating a new export package by adding a document to a collection is no longer allowed. Packages may now only be created as described in Create a package.
MPS-25037	Fixed an issue that could cause a blank page to appear when attempting to view a rendition in a new tab after already viewing the document on a property page.

Publisher Improvements

We made these updates to Publisher.

What’s new in 2020
Reference	Description
MPS-19270	When publishing jobs of the type Rendition have the option Publish existing renditions if they are up-to-date enabled and the PDF file extension mapping is set to Publish unrendered, when the job runs, the Rendition updated property of the source document is now the date and time that the job ran instead of the rendition file modification date as before.
MPS-21798	Fixed an issue that could cause the prior revisions of a document to show the rendition of the latest revision.
MPS-21991	Fixed an issue in the AutoCAD rendering module that could cause errors when rendering with AutoCAD Architecture.
MPS-21224 MPS‑22602	A new option Label item as "Failed" has been added to publishing and rendering jobs as described in Configure rendering options.
MPS-22644	Fixed an issue in the AutoCAD rendering module that could cause Cannot set plot settings to layout errors when the Use all values from layout option is enabled but the plotter name in the layout is invalid.
MPS-23003	Fixed an issue in the AutoCAD rendering module that could cause the rendering options to not be reset to their default values between the rendering of multiple layouts in the same drawing.
MPS-23615	AutoCAD drawings with models inserted with the VIEWBASE command may fail to render with the AutoCAD rendering module and result in AutoCAD generic error messages in the publishing log. This issue was not able to be resolved in time to be included in this release. It is expected to be resolved in a future release.
MPS-23620	The SOURCE DOCUMENTS settings of Export Package type publishing jobs described in Configure the publishing options have been removed from the Meridian Enterprise Server Administration Console user interface and are now set to default values for new jobs. Existing jobs that use non-default settings will retain their settings until the job configuration is edited, then the options will be set to the default values and you will be prompted to save those changes even if you did not make any changes manually.
MPS-24478	Both the source and rendition files of documents are now included in export packages by default and the final result is determined by the publishing job configuration.
MPS-24859	Some hyperlinks in renditions might not work. This issue is expected to be resolved in a future release.