FREE subscriptions AECMAG.

COM/SUBSCRIPTIONS
Feature

Bentley Connect Edition

Bentley Systems hosted a two day event in Manchester to focus on its
early access program for the Connect Edition of products, which share
the MicroStation common environment.
by Martyn Day

B
entley has two great strengths. enterprise licensing so customers can use is to enable a project-centric hybrid envi-
The first is its ecosystem — no whatever solutions they need and through ronment across desktop, cloud, project-
other design developer has the online training can provide expertise to server and mobile. To enable this, Bentley
breadth of applications across apply it. Because most of the applications has utilised Microsoft’s Azure cloud-ser-
AEC, Plant, and Infrastructure (Civil), are based on MicroStation, the core inter- vice to connect all users across projects.
with all the management and ‘glue’ in face is the same and all the data can be Azure also provides a computational back-
place to bring project teams together. The managed through ProjectWise, again a con- bone to provide lightning fast analysis and
second is the MicroStation platform, sistent interface for project documentation. ‘optioneering’, for computationally refined
which is a consistent platform throughout designs and ultimately improved perfor-
the product range and rarely changes its Connect Edition mance of designed assets. Azure also is the
DGN file format. In fact only twice in the The latest generation of MicroStation- platform for Connect Select Services and
company’s history, which started in 1984. based platform products are called the Select Open Access, through quarterly
This has not impacted development and Connect Edition, taking over from the pre- term licensing.
the latest release remains true to form. vious generation V8i. Bentley has dabbled Each user of the Connect Edition gets
The Bentley Systems pitch is a holistic with Microsoft naming conventions (95) to what has been called a Bentley Playlist of
one and suits large firms that are seeking a straight versioning over the years, this applications and apps, which are specific
one stop shop for design tools and project represents a break from all previous to their project role within projects,
backbone. branding. including access to structured learning
Beyond MicroStation, ProjectWise is The Connect Edition has already been tools and ‘just-in-time’ recommendations.
probably the company’s biggest brand in made available to early access participants, Projects also have project-specific ‘Bentley
the industry, having been used on many and the rest of the Connect offerings will Playbook’ with appropriate applications
high-profile projects, such as London’s be released throughout 2015 and 2016. The and apps to fully address the project’s
CrossRail and Olympic Park. good news is that the current generation of requirements and to support each partici-
However, there are many other prod- solutions (V8i) will work happily with the pant’s role.
ucts and technologies that do not get as new Bentley tools, so transitioning to the These project-specific workspaces can
much press. The company pretty much latest generation should be fairly seamless. include cloud-provisioned software or
has a solution for every major and minor ProjectWise Connect Edition services, content, such as catalogs of what Bentley
infrastructure design vertical, from map- along with the Bentley Navigator Connect calls ‘functional components’ and speci-
ping, to modeling buildings, roads, mines, Edition application, will be available for fications.
plant and rail. Early Access by year’s end. Functional Components are a new capa-
With so many products, the firm offers The core premise of the Connect Edition bility unleashed with MicroStation

The core premise of the Connect

Edition is to enable a project-
centric hybrid environment

www.AECmag.com July / August 2015 27

FREE subscriptions AECMAG.COM/SUBSCRIPTIONS

Bentley Navigator Connect

Edition is an entry point into
the Bentley world

Connect and comes with a suite of con- Acute3D choose from a number of best practice
straint tools that allow users to capture Back in February, Bentley acquired templates, following standards, to
design intent and create parametric ‘func- Acute3D and its software Smart3DCapture, streamline workflows and connect team
tional components’ for use in designs. The which automates the generation of 3D members. ProjectWise Essentials pro-
new ProjectWise Catalog Service provides models from high resolution photographs. vides version control, change manage-
a way to manage and distribute these in These can be taken by mobile phones to ment, document relationship creation,
house components to all project partici- DSLRs being flown around sites by search and distribution. It comes with
pants via the cloud. drones. Acute3D makes it possible to fly free Bentley Connections Passport access
A Bentley Connections Passport pro- over a city in a morning and have very to the Bentley range of mobile solutions.
vides authenticated access to ProjectWise accurate 3D geo-referenced mesh in Access is secure and data can be accessed
and AssetWise services and software MicroStation in the afternoon, with mini- on or offline. This opens up the tool for
spanning a user’s hybrid computing envi- mal intervention from the user. It is also those not in the Bentley ecosystem but
ronment. For example, the Bentley possible to augment initial datasets with looking for industry proven management
Navigator Connect Edition provides a user more close-ups and therefore get millime- and remote access solutions.
with the same immersive “hands-on” tre accuracy on buildings of interest.
interface across Windows, Android, and With the boom of Unmanned Aerial Conclusion
iOS, wherever they are. Vehicle (UAV) usage, site surveying is set Bentley’s Connect Edition builds on all the
Documentation Center is a new capabili- to undergo a radical revolution, before, work that the company has been doing
ty that allows team members to aggregate, during and after construction. Greg since its inception in 1984. Despite the
publish and share, consistent and combined Bentley said recently: “You can fast for- front end and the file format not changing
deliverables across multiple disciplines. ward to when every engineering project all that much everything in the back-
ProjectWise Deliverables Management will have a UAV operator on site. Up to ground has been re-written, re-worked, re-
provides an “instant-on” cloud service for now Acute3D has mainly worked on city- wired and turbo charged, against project
the management of transmittals, submit- scale mapping using images from aircraft. road-maps that are longer than anyone
tals, and RFIs. Backing this up, ProjectWise But all of us can see how UAVs are going else’s in the business.
Transformation Service manages automat- to make this applicable to site-scale.” To go for over 30 years and change the
ed publishing and workflow-driven deliv- Bentley has not taken long to integrate file format only twice, while delivering on-
ery of i-models and standardised content to the technology into the MicroStation going subscription-based upgrades and
project and field workers. Connect platform and the company is several new generations of code is
already using it to map at the city scale for astounding.
Navigator several high profile uses. The naming conventions can get confus-
One of the products that Bentley was very ing but it is best to think of Bentley’s port-
keen for early adopters to use was the new ProjectWise on demand folio as a platform-based modular system
Bentley Navigator Connect Edition, as it is One of the most interesting solutions that can be configured and enhanced on
an entry point into the Bentley world and launched recently has been ProjectWise demand. Connect Edition is not just about
for a relatively small amount per year pro- Essentials, which is Bentley’s popular integrating the cloud but regimenting
vides some very useful capabilities, such design management tool, cloud-based and projects as collaboration spaces and ensur-
as i-model viewing, clash detection and leased by the quarter and designed for ing that the right information is available
punch lists, features that many other firms smaller firms (up to 40 seats). everywhere at the same time.
charge thousands for. Access is immediate and users get to ■ bentley.com

www.AECmag.com July / August 2015 29