Currently Item Types with Expressions update whenever properties are displayed. etc and are always "live" even via referencing, etc. This causes many issues where the original Excel lookup spreadsheet or Civil data is not present (when viewed in Microstation). There is the "Last Valid Value" functionality but this is relatively unreliable and updating the Last Valid Values is extremely slow for large models. Use of many expressions can also result in the properties dialog of an object taking a very long time to display.

We need a less convoluted Item Type Expression system that simply writes static text string values when data is updated, similar to annotation text fields. This would make the process much more reliable and less expensive for performance. It would also negate the need for an over-complicated "Last Valid Value" system as the expression would simply stay static in external environments like ORD Annotation Group text for example.