the cloud

Feature Bentley Systems embraces the cloud

Bentley is taking a measured approach to cloud services, allowing its users to set their own pace as they embrace data mobility, simulation and flexible licensing

by Martyn Day & Greg Corke

As a consequence of an industrywide move to Building Information Modelling (BIM), it is without doubt that collaboration has become harder. File formats have given way to relational spatial databases; lines, circles and arcs have become parametric models of real-word components; drawings are increasingly seen as a byproduct, or legal requirement, not an end goal.

To this backdrop, one of Bentley CEO, Greg Bentley’s favourite topics is that of collaboration, what he terms ‘Information Mobility’. At Bentley’s recent Year in Infrastructure event in London Mr Bentley reinforced the problems faced by the federated infrastructure industry. Project information must not be locked inside corporate databases, accessible to only the privileged few, but made available in a controlled fashion to all project participants.

BIM presents new challenges as well as new opportunities to revisit the whole ‘connectedness’ of project information and its flow. Bentley’s ecosystem of tools, servers, mobile applications and i-models (containers for the open exchange of infrastructure information), is aiming to ease this flow of data between industry standard applications.

Bentley recently sponsored a SmartMarket report on Information Mobility, along with Bluebeam, BIMForum and the Building Smart Alliance. The free 48-page document makes for interesting reading, highlighting that only 20% of companies track project information to or from other firms and 41% track internal flows (tinyurl.com/IM-smart-report).

Improved collaboration helps every aspect of the design and build process, from scheduling to versioning, with new mobile devices and applications enabling onsite information to be fed back into the system. Everyone knows that reducing errors, decreases costs and providing

Bentley Systems today

Bentley Systems has come a long way from being known as the developer of MicroStation 2D drafting software. It now has annual revenues of over $500 million and remains a privately held firm, with over 3,000 employees in 45 countries and is a major player in all the AEC, plant and infrastructure markets. With MicroStation still the founding platform technology, the company has developed a plethora of industry-specific solutions and applications to create, manage, and distribute complex design data. The company specialises in supporting major projects through its ecosystem of desktop, mobile and server-based design and analysis tools together with its management / collaboration platform, ProjectWise, which lies at the heart of many major multi-billion pound projects, such as the UK’s Crossrail. Every year it compiles a list of the top 500 Infrastructure owners, in terms of billions and trillions worth of assets owned. The kinds of firms and government bodies listed are an indication of the typical Bentley customer. As the company’s products have developed it’s clear to see that Bentley is not just engaged in adding ‘features’ to products but is just as focused on attempting to solve the many process issues that face us in creating complex models and sharing this rich 3D design information from client to construction worker, from concept through lifecycle to demolition.

access to accurate information can be achieved just by using existing tools.

When asked what formats firms use to exchange project information, as probably expected, PDF and CAD files, paper drawings and handwritten notes took the lion’s share of responses (72-92% for each). However in two years’ time, the majority of firms predict that ‘central’ cloud storage will host their data, with the majority (89%) expecting a major reduction in the use of paper and handwritten notes.

The combined benefits of ‘digitalisation’ of project information, the centralisation of management and the expanded reach of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets, means that projects can be better connected end-to-end.

Mr Bentley highlighted how increasing mobile bandwidth such as 4G (LTE) certainly helps in cities but other technologies such as satellite data is also being employed to enable WiFi onsite. By utilising these cloud-enabling services, design and construction teams can be connected, getting the latest design information to those in the field and the latest reality on site back to base. Mobile apps like Bentley’s Field Supervisor for the iPad and iPhone are helping shape this vision.

To highlight the importance of collaboration to the entire BIM world, Mr Bentley has taken to calling BIM, B/IM, where IM stands both for Information Modelling and Information Mobility. We are unsure how many other CAD vendors will take up the convention but can see how Bentley’s strength in management and distribution technology would make it want to give it equal billing in the move to the industry adopting new complex processes. Bentley leverages the cloud With the focus on connectivity and the benefit of cloud within the design ecosystem, last year Bentley announced ‘Bentley Connect’, a cloud-based storage and sharing service, which provided each user with full audit trails, versioning and data file transfer.

Now Bentley has fleshed out some soon to be available cloud-based services, some of which could radically impact the way core applications are located and accessed.

Bentley has been experimenting with Microsoft’s Azure cloud service for a num-

ber of years now and it seems that next screen pixels. Products such as information, including DGN, DWG, raster, year the company will have enough confi- ProjectWise may be delivered with tech- PDF, Microsoft Office, and IPS files into dence in the technology to provide rental nologies from Numescent, which use some intelligent i-models, PDFs, and raster files. of portfolio licenses as well as hosted very clever ‘cloudpaging’ technology to The i-model composition server is all ProjectWise services. stream the actual application code to desk- about automation. Files can be generated

Select Open Access is a quarterly- tops on-demand, without having to install according to rules or project standards — based subscription based service that the entire application. published to a schedule or by triggers, provides access to any Bentley informa- This move by Bentley is very much in such as when a model is approved, edited, tion modelling application at any time, by keeping with the way that the industry is or viewed. The technology can use any user. These subscriptions come with moving and follows news that Autodesk ProjectWise or AssetWise as the informathe Bentley LEARNservices training to will offer its applications via rental, as well tion source and, because it’s server-based, speed up proficiency. as through ‘the browser’. Bentley, however, is scalable across an enterprise to reach all

No pricing was available at the event but has respected that many of its larger cus- parts of a company. it is expected to be ‘competitive’ to other tomers prefer to manage data on their side With Bentley’s commitment to pushing rental products from companies such as of the firewall. By opening the access to its data out to mobile devices this looks to be Autodesk. This is good news for custom- tools without the ‘joining fee’ of buying a an exceedingly important technology. The ers that have perpetual licenses and need perpetual license, Bentley could finally be challenge of course is ensuring users have ‘overflow’ access when times get busy. the latest revision and this is where It also opens up access to Bentley the new i-model validation services products for those that don’t want the come into play. expenditure of purchasing perpetual When in a managed environment licenses and paying an annual like ProjectWise, users know the conBentley Select fee. tent is up to date because it’s a live

Bentley has an established system. However, when interacting Enterprise License Subscription with content out in the field, or that’s (ELS), which is an all ‘you can eat’ been checked out or emailed, it’s hard proposition for large firms. With the to tell. new Select Open Access, individuals i-model validation services allows and smaller firms can also gain access users to check that the information to the whole breadth of Bentley tools they have is up to date. The service at the right time for an incremental isn’t restricted to i-models per se; it time-licensed price. can also be used to check printed

Bentley MANAGEservices pro- drawings. Simply scan the QR code vides cloud deployable access to using any smart phone QR reader and ProjectWise and AssetWise. This this links to a website that states if the enables rapid deployment, and opera- drawing is the latest revision. If not it tion of Bentley’s collaboration and can also redirect the user to the most asset tracking platforms. The service current version. This looks to be a is not only available as a pure cloud great tool, not least because of its simdeliverable but provides hybrid/ plicity. cloud and desktop usage for those that prefer to operate an internal pri- Analysis and ‘optioneering’ vate solution. Through Bentley’s At the event we had time to catch up MANAGEservices, firms can lower with Santanu Das, senior vice presitheir internal IT infrastructure spend dent, design & simulation to hear how by opting for a SaaS (Software as a Bentley plans to use the cloud to not Service) model or mid-size firms can Bentley’s Year in Infrastructure event, held at Hilton London Metropole this year, is always a hotbed for new technology only cut analysis times, but encourage now deploy ProjectWise or the use of simulation to get early stage AssetWise without some of the investment able to address the needs of SMEs (small feedback on different design options. overhead. The company recently released to medium enterprises) and compete After years of aggressive acquisition, templates for projects of up to 25 users and against the likes of Revit, ArchiCAD and Bentley owns many of the key structural for design collaboration and work-share Vectorworks for small team BIM collabo- analysis tools including the popular for up to 1,000 users. ration in the volume market. STAAD and RAM product suites. The com-

The technology behind all these capabil- pany has now rewritten all of its analysis ities is particularly interesting, with i-model management engines so they can be used in the cloud, Bentley being very aware that it has many One of the cornerstones to Greg Bentley’s making use of clusters to crunch big datacustomers that don’t want their data trans- vision for ‘Information Mobility’ are sets in double-quick time. This is enabled acting to a third-party server hosted Bentley i-models. These act as a container through Bentley Simulation Services. remotely. Bentley is adopting a hybrid for exchanging all types of infrastructure But cloud-based simulation isn’t just approach where services can be deployed information and can be used in a variety about cutting solve times; it’s about using on internal corporate clouds, as well as on of applications, desktop and mobile. scalable resources to test out multiple public networks. This year Bentley introduced the design variants at the same time, then

Products such as AECOsim will be i-model composition server, which it choosing the best one. available for quarterly rental and deliv- describes as the publishing hub for Bentley refers to this as optioneering, ered across the cloud to customers’ desk- Information Mobility. The technology can enabled through the new Bentley Connect tops using Citrix technology to deliver the be used to combine a variety of types of Scenario Services. The technology isn’t

just restricted to structural analysis or use vice will also be able to be used from with- AECOsim also has ‘dramatically by specialists though — far from it. in non-Bentley applications including enhanced’ capabilities in terms of how it

Bentley plans to boil down the capabili- SketchUp, Rhino and Revit. Indeed, with supports IFC and COBie data through the ties of the various engines it owns in civils, Bentley’s close ties to Trimble, access to use of Bentley’s iModel technology. structural, and energy simulation and the service will be available in the ship- “Fundamentally there is nothing that supmake them available to designers so they ping version of SketchUp without the need ports either of these formats better than can get early feedback on the performance for a plug in. Pricing hasn’t been set yet AECOsim Building Designer does,” said of their designs. Third party software but is likely to be very affordable, either on Huw Roberts, Bentley’s VP, core marketing. developers can also plug-in their engines a pay per use basis of just a few dollars per Bentley also introduced new rendering so there’s a huge scope for this technology. run or a set fee per month. capabilities for its MicroStation-based

Designers will be able to get baseline products. A new Effects Manager enables feedback on different design options tak- AECOsim Building Designer users to get real-time visual feedback on ing into account anything from heat gain With the growing importance of ‘BIM- lighting and other rendering adjustments and occupancy to right to light and struc- ready’ manufacturer content AECOsim before committing to a time consuming tural systems. Constraints can be set for Building Designer’s new ability to inter- production render. The technology uses cut and fill, material availability in the pret Revit’s RFA format is big news. sliders, and a preview pane to allow users supply chain, even the cost of letta- to change the settings dynamically ble floor space. This may sound like an absolute nightmare to manage, not least ‘‘ Select Open Access will allow and see the impact in real time. Images can be adjusted for brightness or users can swap out new because of all the different studies that need to be set up, but Mr Das smaller firms to gain access to materials and it only renders the new material without having to resays Bentley is committed to keep- the whole breadth of Bentley calculate the whole scene. ing things simple. The technology can use Generative Components to tools at the right time for an Construction automatically come up with a num- incremental time-licensed price Last year Bentley bought ber of different options. Once all the different engines have done their analysis every’’ SpecWave, a developer of software for the creation of structured text content, including engineering thing is aggregated and users can com- RFA content is becoming widely avail- specifications, codes and standards. Now pare designs against each other. Results able from building equipment manufac- the technology has been integrated into are presented in pareto charts and users turers so this gives Bentley customers Bentley’s software and connected with can give weight to different criteria in access to a whole new world of parametric ProjectWise. terms of their importance to the project. components. SpecWave Composer allows users to

Bentley Connect Scenario Services Bentley software has long been able to author, compose and consume specificasounds like a very exciting technology, bring in Revit models as geometry with tions as structured documents instead of which should steer projects to more opti- information but the parametrics were less dumb text. So, instead of having a Word mal outcomes by enabling informed deci- predictable. Now RFA content can be doc or reams of printed output, each spec sions early on. It’s not an entirely new con- brought into AECOsim Building Designer can be managed as an individual object. cept – Autodesk talked about using the and interpreted as intelligent parametric The big benefit is that if the design cloud for optioneering as long as four objects, retaining rules, constraints, con- changes, the spec can be updated automatyears ago — but Bentley’s novel take is that nection points, and other data. Users can ically reducing the risk of using wrong or Scenario Services can be deployed across change materials, configurations and use outdated information. Specifications can multiple disciplines. Importantly, the ser- these objects intelligently. also be filtered. e.g. by discipline, phase of

The future: Augmented reality

Bentley rarely shies away from showing future technology and research director, Stéphane Côté gave a glimpse of what Bentley is up to in the field of augmented reality - putting data in the context of the physical world.

There are countless applications. For maintenance - seeing through buildings or under roads, to query physical assets such as structure, services or underground pipes.

For construction using virtual sticky notes to flag up differences between a 3D model and the on-site reality. Builders could also display drawings in context, superimpose animations to help understand how components should be assembled on site.

According to Côté, the big challenge is accuracy, tracking the exact position and orientation of your mobile device as you move on site and making sure it matches the 3D CAD model. GPS and in-built motion sensors can only do so much, but Bentley has found a workaround in the form of panoramic images.

Rather than taking a live feed from the backfacing camera on a tablet, Cote is exploring the use of geo-referenced panoramic images that match the virtual CAD model exactly. It’s not augmented reality in the traditional sense, but the results look impressive.

work, or work package.

SpecWave Composer works with another new Bentley technology - ProjectWise Construction Work Packaging Server, which is due for release next year. The software is designed to manage the lifecycle of construction work packages, improving the flow of information between engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, and handover.

A key part of its capabilities is providing clear visibility on progress. For this it features a dashboard where users can see, for example, which packages have been issued, how the different contractors are performing, what’s completed and what’s on schedule. It also links to ConstructSim, which is enabled by Bentley Navigator, for dynamic project review and analysis. Here, thematic representation helps users visualise all manner of status information such as what’s on site, what’s ready to install, what’s delayed, who’s carrying out which tasks, and which supplier is delivering to site. Structural Bentley has a new release of Structural Synchronizer v8i (SELECTseries 5), which creates a shared repository of common structural model data so it can be synchronised between a range of applications, including STAAD, RAM, SACS, AECOsim Building Designer, Revit, Tekla Structures and others.

The big news for the new release is that it now fully integrates IFC, as well as allowing users to manage sub–structures, so models can be broken down for different teams to work on.

Structural Synchronizer was originally developed to help bring together the smorgasbord of structural applications Bentley has acquired and developed over the years. And while it’s well regarded in industry, Raoul Karp, VP structural and BrIM, Bentley Systems, acknowledges that there are still times where direct, closer integration is wanted between Bentley’s products

Mr Karp shared details of a forthcoming standalone structural modelling technology currently in development called ‘shared modelling components’.

He explained how the technology will find its way into Bentley’s vertical products that require structural modelling – products like OpenPlant and Pro/Steel.

With a set of shared component set of modelling tools a structure created in OpenPlant will immediately be able to be opened in Pro/Steel without transformation, he said. We should hear more about this interesting technology next year.

In other structural news the SELECTseries 6 releases of ProConcrete and ProSteel V8i will now run standalone

The i-model composition server can automate the creation of i-models, PDFs, and raster files for use on all types of devices

on the Power Platform and do not need AutoCAD or MicroStation.

ProConcrete has a new capability called Template driven Solids, where users can create 3D linear objects from 2D templates. According to Mr Roberts, this can give a more accurate quantity take off for concrete as the volume excludes rebar.

There are also new parametric modelling tools for foundations and spiral columns and B-spline structural shapes — complex concrete structural shapes to match the geometries of today’s building, says Mr Roberts.

ProSteel also has some new intelligent parametric modelling tools for stairs, handrails and anchors. According to Mr Roberts detail goes right down to plate connections, stiffners and the threading of holes, so the model can go straight into fabrication. Civils There was a big focus on rail and transit at the event, a key takeaway being that there were huge benefits from combining pointcloud and CAD data. Also, by using mobile applications to access ProjectWise, companies could save a large amount of money in reduced site visits.

Bentley’s acquisition of UK point cloud software developer Pointools was an investment in the core MicroStation technology, which the company sees as being a key future format in infrastructure projects.

With HS2 being mentioned throughout the event, an excellent rail example was shown, which combined a CAD model of an animated train travelling down a section of rail. This was combined with a point cloud captured model of the trees, bridges and environment. As the train sped along the track the system clash detected the CAD geometry against the point cloud foliage and bridge to check for problem areas. Conclusion Bentley Systems is a very technically proficient company that doesn’t rush into the ‘new’ thing until its portfolio of products can benefit. Its commitment to using MicroStation as a platform and building extensive vertical capabilities upon it provides a great sense of commonality between its solutions. However, with the software development market moving to the cloud as the platform of choice, this could have meant a huge amount of re-architecting of all its solutions, which many of its competitors have had to do.

Bentley is a devoted single platform Microsoft-based company so it’s perhaps no surprise that it has opted to use the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. With this addition to its desktop-based Windows applications, the new capabilities of license rental and cloud delivery will mean Bentley solutions will finally be available on the Mac, or any other operating system.

If Bentley gets the rental price right and continues to grow the number of its applications that can be accessed in this way, especially with ProjectWise, there is a potential for the company to finally appeal to those outside of its ‘corporate’, ‘big project’ traditional client-base. Small architectural practices could also bid and take part in DGN-based workflows without the overhead of buying perpetual licenses with SELECT.

Within the next year the CAD market will have radically changed the options open to customers to pay for and access design tools. The old model of highly priced perpetual licenses is set to fade, with individual term-rental or subscription pricing becoming the preferred payment options by vendors.

With more capability being available immediately on-line the market is certainly turning on its head. While this could be seen as users being even more in the vendors’ pockets, the advantage of being able to drop seats or quickly swap design technology providers should keep the software developers as keen as ever to provide value for money.