Hi Dominic,
It appears that you are looking to be able to ensure proper change notification workflows can be implemented and respected based on each element/component being uniquely identified for any and all applications that encounter it.
Though we currently do not provide end-to-end GUID support of component elements across all products and various workflows possible, a combination of MicroStation and ProjectWise does support that level of uniqueness with two different implementations.
ProjectWise does use GUIDs for each unique document. When a document is created in ProjectWise a unique GUID is created (using Microsoft APIs) to ensure the uniqueness of that document (GUID) to ensure almost 0% of conflict with documents created by other processes, users, computers, etc. In other words it would be near impossible to create a document and/or component that would ever be in conflict since GUIDs are typically created using salt consisting of MACID, Date and Time and a short list of other standardized items to ensure uniqueness of a GUID. When a ProjectWise document is created the GUID is created by the database server, assigned to the database (data source), and if the document is a MicroStation design file the ProjectWise document GUID is embedded upon first opening of an integrated session. This helps ensure that someone could not replace a ProjectWise managed document with an unmanaged one without detection.
MicroStation on the other hand has a couple areas/features that do use GUIDs, but for historic reasons the MicroStation V8 design file format uniqueness of components is resolved using: Design File > ElementID (unique 64-bit integer that should never be re-used even if element/component is deleted). The MicroStation dependency manager can help ensure any elements that have been identified as related/dependent in the chain allow only changes that are allowed by a product or custom application (present or not) and perform a rollback if any applications in the chain do not wish to allow a subsequent change to occur.
Going back around to ProjectWise, it does provide a powerful Component Indexing feature that allows you to perform space/time/metadata related operation and queries; ensuring a managed document's uniqueness along with the MicroStation design file element IDs uniqueness. ProjectWise also supports "Workflows" that can provide event notification and custom actions to be performed as a managed document changes from one state to the next in a workflow.
So in some sense we do have and can managed most of what you present by the "copy monitor" though we currently do not have that exact type of feature implemented at this time. If you do find value in the "copy monitor" feature and would like to see that implement a consistent behavior across various Bentley product lines I would recommend either creating a simple request on the MicroStation product forum or opening a service request asking: I as a user find value in the Autodesk Revit "copy monitor" tool and would like to be able to perform similar actions in MicroStation and various other related Bentley vertical applications.
HTH,
Bob
It appears that you are looking to be able to ensure proper change notification workflows can be implemented and respected based on each element/component being uniquely identified for any and all applications that encounter it.
Though we currently do not provide end-to-end GUID support of component elements across all products and various workflows possible, a combination of MicroStation and ProjectWise does support that level of uniqueness with two different implementations.
ProjectWise does use GUIDs for each unique document. When a document is created in ProjectWise a unique GUID is created (using Microsoft APIs) to ensure the uniqueness of that document (GUID) to ensure almost 0% of conflict with documents created by other processes, users, computers, etc. In other words it would be near impossible to create a document and/or component that would ever be in conflict since GUIDs are typically created using salt consisting of MACID, Date and Time and a short list of other standardized items to ensure uniqueness of a GUID. When a ProjectWise document is created the GUID is created by the database server, assigned to the database (data source), and if the document is a MicroStation design file the ProjectWise document GUID is embedded upon first opening of an integrated session. This helps ensure that someone could not replace a ProjectWise managed document with an unmanaged one without detection.
MicroStation on the other hand has a couple areas/features that do use GUIDs, but for historic reasons the MicroStation V8 design file format uniqueness of components is resolved using: Design File > ElementID (unique 64-bit integer that should never be re-used even if element/component is deleted). The MicroStation dependency manager can help ensure any elements that have been identified as related/dependent in the chain allow only changes that are allowed by a product or custom application (present or not) and perform a rollback if any applications in the chain do not wish to allow a subsequent change to occur.
Going back around to ProjectWise, it does provide a powerful Component Indexing feature that allows you to perform space/time/metadata related operation and queries; ensuring a managed document's uniqueness along with the MicroStation design file element IDs uniqueness. ProjectWise also supports "Workflows" that can provide event notification and custom actions to be performed as a managed document changes from one state to the next in a workflow.
So in some sense we do have and can managed most of what you present by the "copy monitor" though we currently do not have that exact type of feature implemented at this time. If you do find value in the "copy monitor" feature and would like to see that implement a consistent behavior across various Bentley product lines I would recommend either creating a simple request on the MicroStation product forum or opening a service request asking: I as a user find value in the Autodesk Revit "copy monitor" tool and would like to be able to perform similar actions in MicroStation and various other related Bentley vertical applications.
HTH,
Bob