iModel 2.0

New iModel army

At the Year In Infrastructure event, held in Singapore in October, Bentley Systems CTO Keith Bentley unveiled the company’s most significant technology update in a decade, writes Martyn Day

BENTLEY AND 3RD PARTY APPLICATIONS

WEB APPLICATIONS AND SERVICES

Ten years ago, Bentley Systems unparalleled digital workflows and apply introduced iModels as a format multi-disciplinary analysis and machine to exchange information learning to consistent project data. between design, construction and operations environments. As a At Bentley Systems’ Year in Infrastructure event, held in Singapore in iModel Services bespoke format, it was designed to hold October, Keith Bentley, the company’s information pertinent to the construction CTO and chief software architect, industry, supporting business properties, geometry, graphics and relationships. These optimised files are self-defining; explained in his keynote presentation the reasons behind this development and why he believes the benefits will make Data Lake Agent in other words, they don’t require a CAD the new technology a game-changer for Data Lake system to view precise model geometry distributed project teams. (there is a free viewing application Bentley View on mobile or desktop), they Digital workflows know their source and when they were Despite CAD, document management produced and can conform to multiple systems, the internet, the cloud and BIM, schemas, supporting industry standards. the industry hasn’t really travelled very Companies such as Trimble embraced far in the last twenty years. We still buy Legend the format and plug-ins were developed for popular products such as Tekla large format printers and the industry has adopted PDF as a digital replication ChangeSets Aligned change from Digital Engineering Models Structures, ArchiCAD, Rhino, AutoCAD of the printing substitute. But just and SketchUp. because a PDF is electronic it doesn’t

As the software industry moves to the mean that it provides a much better altercloud, Bentley continues to harmonise native to older workflows. Much time is Keith Bentley first started his presenthe data structures of its multitude of spent creating data-rich models and then tation by talking about what the cloud is products within the DGN format. While flattening them out into a format that can – and what it is not. Many people think DGN is still the most stable and consist- be emailed. That just adds to a noise of of the cloud as a large supercomputer ent format in the industry, internally files that muddies the waters when it with infinite resources, that can solve developed Bentley applica- any problem instantly. tions and acquired technology do not necessarily store data in identical ways within ‘‘ I’m very excited about how iModels now While you might be able to buy a machine like this, the cloud isn’t actually one big DGN. This can become an have a life of their own, with access to computer, but lots of smaller issue as Bentley’s product stack accelerates to enable seamless digital workflows applications, analysis and intelligence through connection to cloud services computers running multiple applications. In fact, most applications running in the between all its products on its common MicroStation platform. comes to team-wide understanding. ’’ cloud use similar resources to those written for a single personal computer.

With that in mind, the company has To build a format fit for the cloud gen- In the days before personal computers, taken a fresh look at the iModel format, its eration, Keith Bentley and his team have there was typically one computer for capabilities and how it can homogenise its come up with a way to share data with many humans. When the personal comown internal data structures to deliver seamless elegance. puter arrived, the ratio changed to one to

ProjectWise CONNECT Edition iModel Bridge Service

PROJECT BEGINNING

iModelHub

PROJECT XYZ

CURRENT STATUS

Other Services Web Access

LATEST IMODEL CHANGES ARE SYNCRONIZED LATEST IMODELCHANGES ARE SYNCRONIZED LATEST IMODEL CHANGES ARE SYNCRONIZED

Aligned change from Digital Engineering Models Navigator Web

The iModel 2.0 Platform Architecture

CONNECT Edition

The iModel 2.0 Platform Architecture

one. This was progress. The source of information In coming up with iModel However, in the cloud world, for the iModel’s timeline 2.0, Keith Bentley explained the ratio changes again, to of changes is ProjectWise workflows; iModel that there were three issues many computers per user, and Services and web, mobile, in iModel 1.0 that needed to this is where the greatest and desktop applications be resolved in order to leveropportunity lies. So, when consume iModels age the cloud. Keith Bentley talks about cloud platforms and cloud services, there can be many Issue 1: dark data programs and services running all at the The first is a concept that Bentley calls same time and that can be of real value to ‘dark data’. With many projects, there is a users. lot of this. It’s information that is rarely

Historically, iModels were a way to col- used and only understood by the applicalate large sets of project data into a single tions that created it, because intelligence file or container. You could practically and data are separated. put anything you wanted into an iModel. According to Bentley, the real problem While this has worked out pretty well for here is that data considered to be dark is users, Bentley feels it can improve on that stored in a format by the application that approach, and specifically, provide more created it, developed by a programmer convenience and closer collaboration who was thinking only about one job in than PDFs provide today. particular. The data needs to be saved out to disk, so that a user can read it back in the next session. Bentley equates this to that data being stored on a disk through a ‘filter’ that only the programmer knows or understands.

Another file on the same disk from a different programme will be written by a different programmer who stored their own data in a slightly different way. With different angles of filters running across a large project, you could have six or seven – or even a dozen – different applications. In other words, when you put all those filters together, that’s why data is dark. It’s a tangled mess.

For iModel 2.0, Keith Bentley says the company has undertaken the alignment of this dark data. Alignment involves lining up units, deciding whether distances are stored in metres or feet, whether tem-

peratures are in Fahrenheit or Issue 3: accessibility 1 Centigrade, and angles in radians or The third and final issue Bentley degrees. By aligning data, it becomes addressed is accessibility. If iModelHub digestible and can be shared and used as stores only the changes to an iModel, an input for many other systems, such as where’s the master iModel, you might machine learning. wonder? The answer is that there is no

This is not a pretty problem, Keith master iModel. Instead, there are lots of Bentley acknowledged, but it’s real and copies of the iModel and they are all synthe company knew it needed to realign its chronised through iModelHub with data before it could be repurposed for changes. Each one of these iModels is as digital workflows. reliable as the next as they are derived from the same recipe of changes. The Issue 2: making changes master copy, in fact, is the timeline itself. The second issue is another common As iModels are files, they can be problem that occurs when someone cre- stored on disk, but need to be synchroates an iModel from a number of dispa- nised to iModelHub to stay up-to-date. rate files and another person updates one However, you don’t need to connect to of those source files. This requires a re- the iModelHub in order to perform any run to make a new iModel. That’s a lot of operation on an iModel. Should you too, by adopting and benefiting from digwork, especially if the second iModel is have an iModel on your iPad, for exam- ital workflows. By embracing change, 97.7 percent the same as the original. ple, it doesn’t need connectivity to iMod- change becomes a first-class citizen in Keith Bentley describes this limitation as elHub to still be of value. It only needs project ecosystems. “insane”. Change is the lifeblood of pro- connection to iModelHub to change its With a change-based system, it’s also jects, and iModel needed to be more point on the timeline. When iModels are easier to keep track of changes on a prochange-tolerant. The net result of this stored on the cloud, they can be connect- ject from data edited across multiple thinking has been to store changes, rath- ed to services such as tools for analysis, applications. Notifications can be sent er than the results of changes, as per the quantity surveying, or facilities/asset when something important changes, alloprevious file-based methodology. management. These can be used by cation of changes and responsibility for

Changes, of course, happen in many individuals, for many different changes become more identifiable. In sequence. A person changes one thing, a applications, simultaneously. This is some ways, and to carry on the banking subsequent team member then changes exceptionally liberating for CAD data. analogy, the system can alert you when something else. Bentley Systems has changes are made, similar to when the addressed this by coming up with a cloud iModel bridges bank notifies you that your credit card service it calls iModelHubs. This is a sin- So how can firms start using this technol- has been used in a different country. gle, centralised hub where changes to ogy? Bentley explained a concept that the iModels also feature a timeline slider, so iModels are reliably and securely stored company calls iModel Bridges. These you can see what changed in a model and time stamped. According to Keith iModel Bridges connect to ProjectWise, through its lifecycle – red denotes deleted, Bentley, it’s a bit like the bank statement so ProjectWise customers just need to green denotes additions and blue denotes you receive every month, with a start install an iModel Bridge for every appli- modifications. Users can also spot areas date and an end date, and the balances cation or format that they want to map where there have been many changes, for those days. The list of identifying design problems transactions in between show how you got from opening to closing balance. ‘‘ The decision to focus on change and to via ‘a heat map’ that provides an indication of issues that may delay a project or that

So, in effect, iModelHub is distribute rich content in a managed and have proved contentious. The an accounting system for projects. You can see from secure environment has great potential to also system is also not limited to geometry, but highlights propthe list what happened at any overcome some of the industry’s most painful erty changes too. point in time in a project. You create an iModel 2.0 at the BIM collaboration problems Bentley hopes that machine learning will be used to anastart and the iModelHub will synchronise it forwards or backwards to get to any point in time in into their iModels. The bridge runs auto ’’ lyse project changes, so that successes and failures can be identified and carried forwards into subthe project’s duration. Some points on the matically when anybody checks a change sequent projects, as a lesson to designers timeline will be milestones and these can into ProjectWise and it marks the change based on their past errors. be named. It’ll give an indication, for in the iModelHub, too, which in turn With iModel 2.0, iModelHub and example, of when approvals, reviews or updates the iModel 2.0 files. Users have iModel Bridges, Bentley has come up submittals occurred. One important no idea this is happening, as it’s all done with a unique solution to project manaspect of this is that you can’t go back and behind the scenes. agement using the cloud. Keith Bentley revise history – so if you remember a Bentley explained that the develop- was asked about what other firms were point on the timeline in your iModelHub, ment team has been working on iModel doing to solve this, and said that other you can always be guaranteed if you go 2.0 for a long time, but now believes it solutions focus on a centralised databack to that point, you’ll get the exact will change Bentley’s business and help base with other applications reading same version of the iModel. customers change their own businesses, and writing directly to it. This approach,

2

1 Keith Bentley, CTO and chief software architect at Bentley Systems 2 The iModelHub is a single, centralised hub where changes to iModels are reliably and securely stored and time stamped 3 Connected Data Environment 4 Design Insights shows the impact of change between iModel versions on the key indicators of cost, schedule and safety

iModel Bridge Service

CONNECTED DATA ENVIRONMENT

Shared Services

iModelHub Components Center Context Share ContructSim

ProjectWise AssetWise

3

4

he said, addresses the issue with alignment, because you are not really able to use any other data, but doesn’t embrace change at all, and can become a bottleneck with little scalability. And, at the end of a project, a massive database gets handed over, which the customer has to adopt. With iModel 2.0, the client simply takes over the timeline for the lifecycle of the building. Conclusion While on the face of it, iModel 2.0 may sound complicated, with its hubs and its bridges, it is underpinned by some very elegant thinking when it comes to cracking the problems that BIM designers and engineers face with today’s project workflows. It collates data from multiple packages from different vendors, keeps data from going dark, enhances portability and accessibility, tracks changes, helps identify problem areas in design, 2D sections and elevations, drives collaboration and frees CAD data for others to use.

The notion of a single massive centralised database on the cloud may have seemed like an inevitability, but Bentley has taken a more revolutionary view, by boiling down what is important and how this can be driven using the cloud, in what is almost a blockchain approach. The company’s decision to focus on change and to distribute rich content in a managed and secure environment has great potential to also overcome some of the industry’s most painful BIM collaboration problems.

Similarly, PDFs may be the industry standard format, but they just replicate old processes and offer little more than dull digital prints. With version 2.0, iModels come alive, to be fed by traditional project management tools. They can be taken offline and re-synchronised later, while still offering a deep insight not only on the current state of a project but also into the ‘who, why and what’ of changes. Milestones are stored in the file, which means no more transfer of files and no more mushrooming file management issues across project teams.

I’m very excited about how iModels now have a life of their own, with access to applications, analysis and intelligence through connection to cloud services. They could act as an interface to many asset-based applications, perhaps even real-time systems. It will be interesting to see what new functionality comes online.

So how might you start to use them? Bentley is not quite there yet, but iModel Bridges will be available in the first quarter of next year and the company is looking to find beta sites to help it decide on final functionality.