Design Compare detects an element that was actually modified — moved, given a new vertex, or changed in color, weight, style, or fill — between two matched DGN or DWG models, or two IPARM/IPS plot sets. Per Bentley's own documentation, it explicitly does not detect a change in an element's appearance caused by level symbology, plot-time design scripts, view attributes, or color-table shifts, and it does not check the design content against a specification or another discipline's drawing.
What Bentley's documentation describes
Per Bentley's own ProjectWise Web Parts documentation (accessed 2026-09-14), Design Compare works on matched pairs: IPARM with IPARM, IPARM with IPS, IPS with IPS, DGN with DGN, or DWG with DWG — the DGN and DWG pairs need Saved Views in both models. "Design compare is designed to detect changes in the element itself," meaning a user has to actually move it, add a vertex, or change its color, weight, style, or fill.
The same documentation is explicit that the feature "is not designed to detect changes in the mere appearance of the element that are caused by level symbology setups, plot-time design scripts, view attribute changes, or shifts in color tables." Renditions produced from non-MicroStation sources cannot be compared, and comparing IPS plot sets needs a ProjectWise working directory set up locally.
A separation distance is a design fact, not an element edit
Design Compare is built to catch a moved or modified element. It has no stated way to evaluate whether the distance between two unmoved elements — say, an exhaust outlet and an outside-air intake — satisfies the requirement that applies to them.
In Groundbook's published hotel review, the exhaust-intake finding was a roof plan where the shown separation followed one exhaust classification's rule, while the outside-air intake nearby had a different applicable requirement for that kitchen exhaust's classification. Both elements could be entirely unedited between issues — nothing for Design Compare to flag — while the separation itself still did not satisfy the governing requirement.
Element changes and design adequacy are two different checks
Use Design Compare for exactly what Bentley built it to do: confirm which elements were actually moved, added, or restyled between two matched models or plot sets. For whether the resulting layout satisfies the applicable separation, clearance, or coordination requirement, that check needs the requirement itself read alongside the drawing — see cross-discipline coordination and drawings vs. specifications review.
If your firm also works in desktop AutoCAD
AutoCAD's native DWG Compare command answers a similar question — which objects changed between two DWGs — with its own separate scope and limitations. See what AutoCAD's DWG Compare checks, and what it skips.