Offerings Include Newly Released ProjectWise Point-cloud Services, ProjectWise Explorer for the iPad, and Bentley Navigator for the iPad.
Philadelphia – Be Together: The Bentley User Conference – May 17, 2012 – Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the leading company dedicated to providing comprehensive software solutions for sustaining infrastructure, today announced at this gathering of infrastructure professionals from around the world that an unprecedented number of the highest-ranking ENR Top Design Firms rely on the ProjectWise system of servers and services for work sharing and substantive collaboration. In accordance with Engineering News-Record’s ranking of the 500 largest U.S.-based designs firms published April 23, 2012, ProjectWise is the system of choice for:
• 24 of the ENR Top 25 Design Firms,
• 42 of the ENR Top 50 Design Firms,
• 72 of the ENR Top 100 Design Firms.
Bentley further announced that ProjectWise users, which also include the majority of U.S. state departments of transportation and 234 of the Bentley Infrastructure 500 Top Owners, can now benefit from newly released ProjectWise Point-cloud Services, ProjectWise Explorer and Bentley Navigator iPad apps, the SELECTseries 4 releases of ProjectWise V8i and Bentley Navigator V8i, and forthcoming Bentley Transmittal Services being demonstrated this week at the Be Together user conference.
Paul Bonington, McGraw-Hill vice president, media and publisher, ENR, said, “The number of Top Design Firms using ProjectWise is impressive. As McGraw-Hill Construction SmartMarket Reports repeatedly point out, interoperability is a key factor, particularly in engineering workflows, in realizing the value of the newest and most productive approaches to design and construction delivery, and ProjectWise is among the leaders – if not the leader – in meeting this need.”
ProjectWise Point-cloud Services
Bentley’s new ProjectWise Point-cloud Services uniquely unlock the value of point-cloud data contained within gigabyte or even terabyte files, enabling users to persist and share this information across the infrastructure lifecycle, rather than being limited by practical considerations to only using it once. For example, owner-operators can now use point-cloud data to create and maintain “as-operated” 3D models for use in renovation or operational workflows. ProjectWise Point-cloud Services facilitate this by streaming on demand to Bentley applications only the subset of point-cloud data being viewed or queried at any given time as the user pans and zooms around the model. Point clouds can now fulfill their potential as an intrinsic, fundamental data type in information modeling workflows.
Project-ready ProjectWise Explorer for the iPad and Bentley Navigator for the iPad Apps
Project-ready versions of ProjectWise Explorer for the iPad and Bentley Navigator for the iPad are immediately available in the Apple App Store and on iTunes. The new iPad apps capitalize on information mobility – the long-awaited payoff for interoperability – by ensuring the right version of information, in the appropriate format and with the required level of precision, can be accessed by engineers working remotely, construction managers on the job site, and owner-operators reviewing designs for quality and compliance. These apps, with ProjectWise, connect all project stakeholders to the benefits of mobile work sharing and substantive collaboration. Users can now provide feedback from anywhere, and ensure that it is dynamically synchronized across the project team. The apps are available at no additional cost to ProjectWise Passport subscribers, who can visit www.bentley.com/ipad to get started.
Huw Roberts, Bentley vice president, core marketing, said, “Information mobility is now a must have in today’s highly competitive market, which increasingly finds project teams on the move and demands ready and confident access to project information in the field. Our iPad apps are exciting, and everyone who sees them wants to put them to use right away!”
ProjectWise Explorer for the iPad provides users with synchronized and secure access to a wide variety of project content managed by ProjectWise, including 3D i-models, Microsoft Office documents, PDFs, images, movies, point clouds, and more. Users can easily create secure work packages from these documents for iPad use right on the construction site or at any location. They can open the packages, view the contents, display properties of individual components, and even share them with other iPad applications, such as for field annotation. Once such work is complete on the iPad, a package can be returned to ProjectWise and synchronized for team review. ProjectWise Dynamic Composition Services can automate the provision of i-model work packages to assure that apps are always using up-to-date project versions, to deliver information mobility with integrity.
Bentley Navigator for the iPad enables users to dynamically navigate, view, and mark up models for design review and coordination, as well as to conduct field inspections. Moreover, the new app uniquely provides panoramic navigation of 3D design models using iPad’s motion sensors and touch screen. Users can easily query object properties, for example to determine a pipe’s thickness, insulation properties, and pressure rating, while on site during pipe inspection.
With Bentley’s iWare, available at www.bentley.com/iware, users can utilize their DGN, Revit, DWG, DXF, Rhino (3DM), and 3DS files as optimized i-models for the iPad. These i-models can readily be combined with other files, such as spreadsheets, photos, PowerPoint presentations, and PDFs, to create packaged i-models for easy distribution.
Commenting on his experiences with the new iPad apps from Bentley, Sean Forward, CAD systems specialist, Calibre Global, Australia, said, “With ProjectWise Explorer for the iPad we have an easy, efficient way in which to bundle documents of all types for our engineers, construction crews, and anyone else who needs to visit the site, including vendors. It also is great for client reviews outside the office environment.”
For additional information on the new ProjectWise iPad apps, visit www.bentley.com/ipad.
Bentley Transmittal Services
Forthcoming Bentley Transmittal Services provide a secure process tightly integrated with ProjectWise that enables users to manage and lower risk around contractual, legal, and financial compliance, and to track the entire lifecycle of the process. They ensure trusted transmittal information, speed the transmittal processes, and make it easy to identify and resolve urgent issues. Early adopters expect Bentley Transmittal Services users to cut time wasted searching for critical project information by 20 percent, decrease transmittal processing time by 25 percent, and reduce delays caused by the delivery of inaccurate information by 5 to 10 percent.
Alan Kiraly, Bentley vice president, engineering information management, said, “A key aspect of this new set of services from Bentley is tight integration for the creation of transmittals directly from ProjectWise, with reference files automatically included to ensure transmittal quality. In addition, an external-facing web portal enables transmittal recipients to securely access and review package data, acknowledge receipt, download package contents, and provide review comments back to the transmittal sender, all directly within the portal, in a highly efficient manner. Finally, internal and external dashboards save time by making it easy to identify and resolve urgent issues, thereby compressing project schedules. Also coming is the delivery of these services through Bentley’s other en
gineering information management offerings, including eB Insight for our AssetWise platform.”
Herb Fiddick, P.E., IT director, Water, Black & Veatch (U.S.A.), said, “We see Bentley Transmittal Services providing the Black & Veatch global water business with increased efficiency for our transmittals processes. Being able to use this feature as an integral part of our existing ProjectWise environment to package, send, and track transmittals will be more efficient, save time, and provide more accurate and reliable tracking of the important data and documents we exchange with our business partners.”
Will Sims, associate director, Arup (U.K.), said, “We see Bentley Transmittal Services saving time and administration costs associated with our transmittal processes, including preparation, sending, receiving, and tracking. We also see potential financial gains by ensuring compliance with contracts and not incurring costs for non-performance.”
ProjectWise V8i (SELECTseries 4)
The SELECTseries 4 release of ProjectWise V8i provides a long list of new features and capabilities. Highlighted innovations for content reuse include:
• i-model-enabled 3D PDFs – the new Bentley iWare i-model plug-in for Adobe adds the benefits of i-models, including security and provenance, to PDFs. Moreover, they enable PDFs to contain AECO-scaled 3D model content, making it broadly accessible. Using the plug-in, i-models can be incorporated into standard PDF deliverables to provide both 2D and 3D project content so that all project stakeholders can conveniently view, pan, zoom, rotate, and search these i-models within their familiar PDF workflows. The plug-in is compatible with both Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader.
• new ProjectWise Dynamic Composition Server capabilities – In addition to being able to automate the production of i-models from ProjectWise managed content, ProjectWise Dynamic Composition Server now adds the ability to produce PDF and raster renditions combining multiple input formats, including DGN, DWG, PDF, and Microsoft Office content.
New work-sharing innovations in ProjectWise V8i (SELECTseries 4) include:
• new deployment options including virtual servers from VMware, Microsoft, and Citrix; platform as a service through Amazon EC2; and software as a service via ProjectWise OnLine,
• support for British Standard BS 1192, as a ProjectWise Business Process Template,
• web access options enabling ProjectWise Web Parts to be used on mobile devices.
Bentley Navigator V8i (SELECTseries 4)
Bentley Navigator V8i (SELECTseries 4) now delivers the following new capabilities that further facilitate dynamic feedback:
• closed-loop redlines that empower project teams to easily create markups and assign them to other ProjectWise users as feedback that can be seen as an overlay in 2D designs in MicroStation or in 3D hypermodels,
• simulation enhancements to control clash detection display using color and transparency, and to show time and tasks during schedule playback to understand the event sequence,
• custom touch screen menus for control and navigation using simple hand gestures.
For additional information about ProjectWise and Bentley Navigator, visit www.bentley.com/ProjectWise.
About ProjectWise
ProjectWise is a system of collaboration servers and services for AECO information in the design and construction of infrastructure projects while the work is in progress. The system provides secure and managed work sharing, content reuse, and dynamic feedback capabilities including review, mark-up, clash resolution, visualization, automated publishing, and more. Deployed in 92 countries, ProjectWise is the system of choice for 24 of the ENR Top 25 Design Firms, 42 of the ENR Top 50 Design Firms, 72 of the ENR Top 100 Design Firms, 29 of the ENR Top 50 Design-Build Firms, 234 of the Bentley Infrastructure 500 Top Owners, and the majority of U.S. state departments of transportation.
About Be Together: The Bentley User Conference
Be Together: The Bentley User Conference, taking place this week at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, enables the architects, engineers, constructors, geospatial and operations professionals, and CAD managers who regularly exchange ideas virtually on the Be Communities professional networking site to connect, communicate, and learn from each other in person. In addition, guided by Bentley product experts, attendees acquire knowledge crucial to the adoption of information-modeling best practices as they earn Bentley Institute Learning Units to maximize return on time invested in professional development. The conference hosts 12 tracks: Bentley Civil, Bridge, Building, Communications, Engineering Information Management (including ProjectWise and AssetWise), Geospatial, Geotechnical, MicroStation, Plant, Structural, Utilities, and Water. For additional information about the conference, visit www.bentley.com/BeTogether.
About Bentley Systems, Incorporated
Bentley is the global leader dedicated to providing architects, engineers, geospatial professionals, constructors, and owner-operators with comprehensive software solutions for sustaining infrastructure. Bentley’s mission is to empower its users to leverage information modeling through integrated projects for high-performing intelligent infrastructure. Its solutions encompass the MicroStation platform for infrastructure design and modeling, the ProjectWise platform for infrastructure project team collaboration and work sharing, and the AssetWise platform for infrastructure asset operations – all supporting a broad portfolio of interoperable applications and complemented by worldwide professional services. Founded in 1984, Bentley has grown to nearly 3,000 colleagues in more than 45 countries and over $500 million in annual revenues. Since 2003, the company has invested more than $1 billion in research, development, and acquisitions. Additional information about Bentley is available at www.bentley.com and in Bentley’s annual report. For Bentley news as it happens, subscribe to an RSS feed of Bentley press releases and news alerts. To view a searchable collection of innovative infrastructure projects from the annual Be Inspired Awards, access Bentley’s Year in Infrastructure publications. To access a professional networking site that enables members of the infrastructure community to connect, communicate, and learn from each other, visit Be Communities. To download the Bentley Infrastructure 500 Top Owners ranking, a unique global compendium of the top public- and private-sector owners of infrastructure based on the value of their cumulative infrastructure investments, visit www.bentley.com/500.