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Read the articleExtends scope of infrastructure engineering digital twins beyond IoT, to include IT
Bentley Systems Incorporated, the leading global provider of comprehensive software solutions for advancing the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure, today announced the acquisition of ACE enterprise Slovakia, provider of innovative technology solutions to interface with enterprise resource planning (ERP), enterprise asset management (EAM), and geographical information systems (GIS). ACE enterprise has been a technology partner of Bentley Systems, and the ACE Enterprise Platform is used for the Bentley AssetWise connector that is certified for both SAP ERP and SAP HANA.
Alexander Cimbalak, founder of ACE enterprise, said, “We have enjoyed our partnership with Bentley to provide enterprise connectors and are very excited to be part of Bentley and also now to enable Bentley’s digital twin cloud services to uniquely synchronize with infrastructure assets’ enterprise IT, OT, and ET data sources.”
Alan Kiraly, senior vice president, asset performance for Bentley Systems, said, “ACE enterprise has consistently overcome IT interoperability challenges for us at Bentley. Now, as colleagues, this talented team will enable us to continue to expand the scope and breadth of information that can be accessed through AssetWise and digitally aligned within infrastructure digital twins.”
About ACE enterprise Slovakia
ACE enterprise Slovakia is an innovative provider of interoperability and mobile solutions for industrial users. They have developed the ACE Enterprise Platform, which enables quick, visual development and configuration of interoperability solutions. ACE enterprise Slovakia has provided solutions to interface with ERP and EAM systems for automotive, manufacturing, mining, oil and gas, and utilities. The company was established in 2003 and is headquartered in Bratislava, Slovakia. www.ace-eprise.com
About Bentley Systems
Bentley Systems is the leading global provider of software solutions to engineers, architects, geospatial professionals, constructors, and owner-operators for the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure. Bentley’s MicroStation-based engineering and BIM applications, and its digital twin cloud services, advance the project delivery (ProjectWise) and the asset performance (AssetWise) of transportation and other public works, utilities, industrial and resources plants, and commercial and institutional facilities.
Bentley Systems employs more than 3,500 colleagues, generates annual revenues of $700 million in 170 countries, and has invested more than $1 billion in research, development, and acquisitions since 2012. From inception in 1984, the company has remained majority-owned by its five founding Bentley brothers. Bentley shares transact by invitation on the NASDAQ Private Market; strategic partner Siemens AG has accumulated a non-voting minority stake. www.bentley.com
Image and caption:
Greg Bentley, CEO, Bentley Systems announced the acquisition of ACE enterprise Slovakia, provider of enterprise software interoperability.
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Bentley, the Bentley logo, AssetWise, MicroStation, and ProjectWise are either registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks of Bentley Systems, Incorporated or one of its direct or indirect wholly owned subsidiaries. All other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.
Extends scope of infrastructure engineering digital twins beyond IoT, to include IT
Bentley Systems Incorporated, the leading global provider of comprehensive software solutions for advancing the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure, today announced the acquisition of ACE enterprise Slovakia, provider of innovative technology solutions to interface with enterprise resource planning (ERP), enterprise asset management (EAM), and geographical information systems (GIS). ACE enterprise has been a technology partner of Bentley Systems, and the ACE Enterprise Platform is used for the Bentley AssetWise connector that is certified for both SAP ERP and SAP HANA.
Alexander Cimbalak, founder of ACE enterprise, said, “We have enjoyed our partnership with Bentley to provide enterprise connectors and are very excited to be part of Bentley and also now to enable Bentley’s digital twin cloud services to uniquely synchronize with infrastructure assets’ enterprise IT, OT, and ET data sources.”
Alan Kiraly, senior vice president, asset performance for Bentley Systems, said, “ACE enterprise has consistently overcome IT interoperability challenges for us at Bentley. Now, as colleagues, this talented team will enable us to continue to expand the scope and breadth of information that can be accessed through AssetWise and digitally aligned within infrastructure digital twins.”
About ACE enterprise Slovakia
ACE enterprise Slovakia is an innovative provider of interoperability and mobile solutions for industrial users. They have developed the ACE Enterprise Platform, which enables quick, visual development and configuration of interoperability solutions. ACE enterprise Slovakia has provided solutions to interface with ERP and EAM systems for automotive, manufacturing, mining, oil and gas, and utilities. The company was established in 2003 and is headquartered in Bratislava, Slovakia.www.ace-eprise.com
About Bentley Systems
Bentley Systems is the leading global provider of software solutions to engineers, architects, geospatial professionals, constructors, and owner-operators for the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure. Bentley’s MicroStation-based engineering and BIM applications, and its digital twin cloud services, advance the project delivery (ProjectWise) and the asset performance (AssetWise) of transportation and other public works, utilities, industrial and resources plants, and commercial and institutional facilities.
Bentley Systems employs more than 3,500 colleagues, generates annual revenues of $700 million in 170 countries, and has invested more than $1 billion in research, development, and acquisitions since 2012. From inception in 1984, the company has remained majority-owned by its five founding Bentley brothers. Bentley shares transact by invitation on the NASDAQ Private Market; strategic partner Siemens AG has accumulated a non-voting minority stake. www.bentley.com
Image and caption:
Greg Bentley, CEO, Bentley Systems announced the acquisition of ACE enterprise Slovakia, provider of enterprise software interoperability.
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Bentley, the Bentley logo, AssetWise, MicroStation, and ProjectWise are either registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks of Bentley Systems, Incorporated or one of its direct or indirect wholly owned subsidiaries. All other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.
Leveraging digital twins’ analytics visibility for infrastructure asset performance
Bentley Systems Incorporated, the leading global provider of comprehensive software solutions for advancing the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure, today announced it has entered an agreement to acquire Quebec City-based AIworx, Inc., provider of machine learning and internet of things (IoT) technologies and services. The addition of AIworx brings advancements in data collection and analysis to leverage infrastructure engineering digital twins, continuously updated with real-time contextual information, to optimize productivity, operations, and maintenance.
Andre Villemaire, co-founder and president of AIworx, said, “AIworx has been providing machine learning and IoT technologies and services to help organizations generate, understand, and act on data so they can make better business decisions. The biggest opportunities we’ve worked on have to do with improving infrastructure asset performance on an industrial scale, by way of the data from connected machines, instrumentation, sensors, and communications systems—and we’re excited to dedicate ourselves to that advancement. Now, by incorporating our tools into Bentley’s services for digital twins, we enable infrastructure operators to multiply the potential benefits of machine learning and IoT.”
Francois Valois, vice president of portfolio development for Bentley Systems, said, “Machine learning and IoT technologies have created the opportunity for profound improvements in productivity and efficiency of infrastructure. Our new colleagues from AIworx have already been delivering on this potential, and now, leveraging the analytics visibility, which Bentley’s digital twin cloud services uniquely provide, these advancements from going digital will accelerate exponentially!”
About AIworx
Since 2011, AIworx has been simplifying innovation by providing artificial intelligence and sensor technologies and services for the industrial, aerospace, and defense sectors. www.aiworx.com
About Bentley Systems
Bentley Systems is the leading global provider of software solutions to engineers, architects, geospatial professionals, constructors, and owner-operators for the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure. Bentley’s MicroStation-based engineering and BIM applications, and its digital twin cloud services, advance the project delivery (ProjectWise) and the asset performance (AssetWise) of transportation and other public works, utilities, industrial and resources plants, and commercial and institutional facilities.
Bentley Systems employs more than 3,500 colleagues, generates annual revenues of $700 million in 170 countries, and has invested more than $1 billion in research, development, and acquisitions since 2012. From inception in 1984, the company has remained majority-owned by its five founding Bentley brothers. Bentley shares transact by invitation on the NASDAQ Private Market; strategic partner Siemens AG has accumulated a non-voting minority stake. www.bentley.com
Image and Caption:
AIworx machine learning and IoT technologies leverage digital twins’ analytics visibility for infrastructure asset performance.
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Bentley, the Bentley logo, AssetWise, MicroStation, and ProjectWise are either registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks of Bentley Systems, Incorporated or one of its direct or indirect wholly owned subsidiaries. All other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.
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Read the articleBentley Systems, Incorporated, the leading global provider of comprehensive software solutions for advancing the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure, has announced the winners of the Year in Infrastructure 2018 Awards. The annual awards program honors the extraordinary work of Bentley users advancing design, construction, and operations of infrastructure throughout the world.
Twelve independent jury panels of distinguished industry experts selected the 57 finalists from 420 nominations submitted by more than 340 user organizations around the world.
At a ceremony and gala at the conclusion of Bentley’s Year in Infrastructure 2018 Conference, Bentley acknowledged 19 Year in Infrastructure Awards winners and nine Special Recognition Awards winners.
Year in Infrastructure 2018 Special Recognition Awards winners:
Advancing Collaborative Digital Workflows in Rail and Transit
China Railway Engineering Consulting Group Co., Ltd. – BIM Project for the Beijing-Zhangjiakou High-speed Railway – Beijing, China
Advancing Digital Twins for Airports
Infraero Empresa Brasileira de Infraestrutura Aeroportuária – Digital Airport-Londrina – Paraná, Brazil
Advancing Digital Twins for Bridges
Composite Structures Lab, Chung-Ang University – Innovative Bridge Maintenance System Using Digital Twin Model – Seoul, South Korea
Advancing Digital Twins for Roads and Highways
Guangxi Communications Design Group Co., Ltd. – BIM-based Collaborative Design and Construction Management of All Elements and Objects in the Lipu-Yulin Expressway Project – Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Advancing Digital Twins for Tunnels
AECOM – Tideway Tunnels C410 Central Contract – London, United Kingdom
Advancing Digital Twins for Utilities Transmission and Distribution
POWERCHINA Hubei Electric Engineering Corporation Limited – Cha’anling-Xiaojiazhou
220-kV Electric Transmission Line Project – Xianning City, Hubei, China
Advancing Industrialization through Digital Components for Urban Infrastructure
CCCC Water Transportation Consultants Co., Ltd. – BIM Technology Application in the Municipal Infrastructure Phase 1 Project of Zhong-Guan-Cun Science and Technology Town – Baodi District, Tianjin City, China
Advancing Digital Workflows for Asset Performance Modeling of Transit Systems
Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. – Nagpur Metro Asset Information Management System – Nagpur, Maharashtra, India
Continuous Surveying in Constructioneering
Shell Chemical Appalachia LLC and Eye-bot Aerial Solutions – Pennsylvania Chemicals Project – Monaca, Pennsylvania, United States
The winners of Year in Infrastructure 2018 Awards for going digital advancements in infrastructure are:
Bridges
PT. WIJAYA KARYA (Persero) Tbk – Design and Build of Road Bridge at Teluk Lamong Port Project – Gresik-Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia
Buildings and Campuses
Shalom Baranes Associates – Cannon House Office Building Renewal – Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Communications Networks
iForte Solusi Infotek – iForte Fiber Management System – Jakarta, Indonesia
Construction
AAEngineering Group, LLP – Phase II of Pustynnoe Gold Plant: Modernization and Capacity Increase – Balkhash, Karaganda region, Kazakhstan
Digital Cities
Yunnan Yunling Engineering Cost Consultation Co., Ltd. – New Municipal Road Construction PPP Project of the Municipal Public Facility Construction Project of Guandu Culture New City – Kunming, Yunnan, China
Environmental Engineering
PT. WIJAYA KARYA (Persero) Tbk – Landslide Disaster Protection Project on the National Road Network – Cianjur, West Java, Indonesia
Manufacturing
Digital Engineering (BIM) Center of Shenyang Aluminum & Magnesium Engineering & Research Institute Co., Ltd. – Alumina Refinery Project Cooperated between CHALCO and Indonesia – Bukit Batu, West Kalimantan, Indonesia
Mining and Offshore Engineering
Northern Engineering & Technology Corporation, MCC – SINO Iron Ore Mine – Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Power Generation
Sacyr Somague – Hydroelectric Use of the Foz Tua Dam – Foz Tua, Alijó- Vila Real, Portugal
Project Delivery
AECOM – Gaining New Perspective through ProjectWise Project Insights – United Kingdom
Rail and Transit
Skanska Costain STRABAG Joint Venture (SCS) – HS2 Main Works Lots S1 and S2 – London, United Kingdom
Reality Modeling
Skand Pty Ltd – Building Envelope Inspection Powered by Machine Learning and Reality Modeling for RMIT University Brunswick Campus – Victoria, Australia
Road and Rail Asset Performance
CSX Transportation – Annual Patch Rail Capital Planning – Jacksonville, Florida, United States
Roads and Highways
Lebuhraya Borneo Utara – Pan Borneo Highway Sarawak – Sarawak, Malaysia
Structural Engineering
Shilp Consulting Engineers – Alambagh Bus Terminal – Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
Utilities and Industrial Asset Performance
Oman Gas Company S.A.O.C. – Asset Performance Solution for Reliability Management – Al-Khuwair, Muscat, Oman
Utilities Transmission and Distribution
Pestech International Berhad – Substation Design & Automation for Olak Lempit Substation Project – Banting, Selangor, Malaysia
Water and Wastewater Treatment Plants
MCC Capital Engineering & Research Incorporation Limited – 400,000 ton/day Water Supply Project of Wenjiang District, Chengdu City – Chengdu, Sichuan, China
Water, Wastewater, and Stormwater Networks
DTK Hydronet Solutions – Conceptioneering and Master Planning of Bankura Multi Village Bulk Water Supply Scheme – Bankura, West Bengal, India
Bentley Systems has posted highlights of this year’s winning projects on its website. Detailed descriptions of all nominated projects are in the print and digital versions of its 2018 Infrastructure Yearbook, which will be published in early 2019. To review the past editions of this publication, which together feature more than 3,500 world-class projects recognized in the Year in Infrastructure Awards program since 2004, access Bentley’s Infrastructure Yearbooks.
Image and caption:
Winners of Bentley Systems Year in Infrastructure 2018 Awards
About the Year in Infrastructure Conference and Awards Program
Since 2004, the Year in Infrastructure Awards program has showcased excellence and innovation in the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure projects around the world. The awards program is the only competition of its kind that is global in scope and comprehensive in categories covered, encompassing all types of infrastructure projects. The awards program is open to all users of Bentley software. Independent panels of industry experts select finalists for each category. Learn more.
Bentley’s Year in Infrastructure Conference features a series of presentations and interactive workshops exploring the intersection of technology and business drivers, and how they are shaping the future of infrastructure project delivery and asset performance.
Shell Chemical Appalachia LLC and Eye-bot Aerial Solutions were recognized by Bentley Systems with the Special Recognition Award for Continuous Surveying in Constructioneering at Bentley’s Year in Infrastructure Conference, held in London this week.
Shell Chemical Appalachia is constructing a multi-billion dollar, world-scale ethane cracking plant to create polyethylene in the western Pennsylvania region. To help monitor and manage construction of the facility, the organization used unmanned aerial vehicles to capture real-time, accurate data of the entire site and the surrounding areas, close to 450 acres total, and processed the data into a high-resolution orthophoto and 3D reality mesh model. The 3D data provided a strategic perspective of the existing site conditions and served as a single source of truth for both future and retrospective progress analysis, optimizing collaboration and decision making between the client and the EPC contractors, with over 500 multidiscipline end users across 10 companies.
On a weekly basis, the project team captured more than 8,000 images and processed the images as 2D and 3D deliverables within the required 72-hour window using Bentley’s ContextCapture software. The high-speed processing engines of ContextCapture produced a dimensionally accurate 3D reality mesh, enabling the identification and resolution of potential construction problems before they impact operations on site. The 3D reality mesh models are expected to facilitate inventory control and improve emergency response management.
Phil Christensen, senior vice president, reality modeling for Bentley Systems, said, “It is our pleasure to present Shell Chemical Appalachia and Eye-bot Aerial Solutions with a Special Recognition award for the pioneering work they are doing in constructioneering. Using drone imagery and our ContextCapture, the team continuously surveys and creates 3D reality meshes of the entire construction site, supporting weekly inspections and monitoring of construction progress. To do this for the entire site on a regular schedule, the team leverages Bentley’s cloud services, and we are working together to further streamline automated work flows and improve processing time.”
Dmitry Gurevich, Shell’s Information Technology Manager, said, “Constructing the plant of the future means embracing digitalisation. In construction, Digital is about advancing the technology that helps us staying on top of progress and assure quality, while keeping people safe. In that respect, the 3D reality mesh modelling technology has made a profound impact on ways of working on the Project, rendering benefits above and beyond of what we had imagined when starting the modelling program 18 months ago.”
OpenSite Designer, OpenBuildings Designer, OpenBridge Designer, and OpenFlows FLOOD further extend Bentley’s design engineering and analysis portfolio
LONDON, U.K. – The Year in Infrastructure 2018 Conference – 18 October 2018 –
Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the leading global provider of comprehensive software solutions for advancing the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure, today launched OpenSite Designer, a built-for-purpose application for the design and construction of civil site projects. It also launched OpenBuildings, bringing together its AECOsim building design and Speedikon factory and industrial design applications; and announced the availability of OpenBuildings Station Designer, a specialized application for designing rail and metro stations. At the same time, Bentley announced the availability of OpenBridge Designer, which combines Bentley’s bridge modeling, analysis and design capabilities into one comprehensive package, and OpenFlows FLOOD, a flood analysis and early warning system.
In addition, in pursuit of its ‘industrialization’ strategy, Bentley announced it has rebranded under its Open portfolio several of its applications based on MicroStation technology which collectively accelerate the advancement of its comprehensive modeling environment by connecting digital workflows across disciplines and sharing digital components in its Connected Data Environment (CDE).
Bhupinder Singh, chief product officer, Bentley Systems, said, “Open has three meanings. First, it signifies open to multiple disciplines. Second, it means open to analysis and simulation. Using different applications, two different disciplines, for example, a geotechnical engineer and a structural engineer, can iterate on the same dataset in our comprehensive modeling environment, providing a ‘digital feedback loop’ and enhancing their collaboration across BIM workflows. And third, because MicroStation technology underpins Open applications, users can produce multidiscipline deliverables and accomplish multidiscipline clash resolution from any Open application. Bentley’s comprehensive modeling environment is ‘Open’ for collaborative digital workflows.”
Fully 49 of the 62 finalists and awardees of this year’s Year in Infrastructure Awards credited collaborative digital workflows in their successful outcomes. For example, OpenRoads, Bentley’s civil design applications for road networks, is credited by 22 awards finalists’ projects in 12 categories, and OpenPlant, Bentley’s plant design project management applications, is credited by 10 finalists’ projects in 9 different categories. ProjectWise and/or AssetWise were credited by finalists’ projects in 16 of 19 awards categories this year.
OpenSite Designer
The collaborative nature of digital workflows connecting analysis and simulation with design and modeling is exemplified in OpenSite, Bentley’s new solution for the design and construction of civil site projects. OpenSite provides rapid site modeling and analysis, earthwork optimization and quantification, drainage and underground utilities, and automated project deliverables.
OpenSite Designer provides the most comprehensive site design workflow available including reality modeling, geotechnical, underground utilities, stormwater drainage, terrain modeling, detailed drawing production, and visualization. OpenSite Designer optimizes design outcomes with multidiscipline information modeling and analysis. Interoperating with PLAXIS, Bentley’s newly acquired geotechnical engineering solution, site plans can be enhanced with new information about the active properties of soil including bearing capacity, stresses, and displacement.
OpenBuildings Designer
The newly launched OpenBuildings Designer incorporates all of the capabilities of AECOsim Building Designer as well as Components Center and a range of new capabilities and standards including EnergyPlus, a building energy model to help users comply with ASHRAE standards in the US, and UK energy requirements; support of international standards including IFC 2x3, IFC4 Reference View, COBie, and Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority; new capabilities to design curtain wall systems; and OpenBuildings Speedikon, a leading application for industrialized design and construction. OpenBuildings Designer takes advantage of collaborative digital workflows with other applications in Bentley’s Open portfolio, for example templates in OpenBuildings Station Designer for tunnel segments created through GenerativeComponents based on linear alignment from OpenRail. Showcasing their robustness and versatility, OpenBuildings applications were credited by 32 of 62 of the Year in Infrastructure Awards finalists projects in 15 of 19 categories.
OpenBridge Designer
OpenBridge Designer is a new, all-encompassing application that integrates the modeling capabilities of OpenBridge Modeler and the analysis and design features of RM Bridge, LEAP Bridge Concrete, and LEAP Bridge Steel to meet the design and construction needs of both concrete and steel bridges. OpenBridge Designer enables bridge designers to rapidly create an intelligent, parametric bridge model, fully integrated with analysis and design, as well as drawings. It enables seamless synchronization of various disciplines for analysis, design, detailing, documentation, construction engineering and load-rating.
OpenFlows FLOOD
Bentley also announced the rebranding of its Haestad water modeling and ACTION Modulers flood analysis product lines to form OpenFlows for water districts, sewer utilities and flood plain managers. OpenFlows extends smart water networks capabilities with GIS-based asset-centric information for water loss reduction, water operations, flood prediction and prevention. OpenFlows FLOOD continuously monitors watersheds, integrating data from real-time monitoring stations and numerical models to calculate risk levels. OpenFlows FLOOD mitigates flood risk, improving understanding of the processes involved in flood generation, and transmitting early alerts to reduce the impact caused by floods.
Connecting Digital Workflows Across Disciplines
Applications for analysis and simulation, on the one hand, can collaboratively and iteratively work with applications for design and modeling, and on the other, connect operational workflows and converge the work of different disciplines. Collaborative digital workflows are characterized by data captured or created for one purpose being accessed and used by other applications for other purposes thereby saving time, minimizing rework, and improving data quality over the asset lifecycle.
An example of multidiscipline collaboration with OpenFlows involves workflows that use ContextCapture to create a 3D reality mesh, feeding into OpenFlows FLOOD modeling and using the terrain as input to various analyses in a single review environment for visualization and presentation to stakeholders using LumenRT.
Connecting analysis with modeling in another Open collaborative digital workflow involves the layout of road geometry, and hydraulic analysis and design using storm analysis tools including the determination of the size of storm inlets, pipes, depth of pipes, and manholes. The collaborative nature of the workflow enables clash detection in the subsurface environment, and iteration and adjustment as needed, to confirm functional and physical characteristics.
Other instances of Open collaborative digital workflows connecting design and analysis include OpenUtilities with Siemens’ PSS©SINCAL, which helps utilities improve resilience and deal with weak spots in the grid; and OpenBuildings Station Designer with LEGION pedestrian simulation, to enable designers to design, test, and validate simulations of scenarios for pedestrian traffic.
Rebranding
Completing its announcement about Open applications, Bentley said that Bentley Map will be rebranded as OpenCities Map; and OpenComms, aimed primarily at multisystem operators, will incorporate Bentley Fiber and Bentley Coax.
About Bentley Systems
Bentley Systems is the leading global provider of software solutions to engineers, architects, geospatial professionals, constructors, and owner-operators for the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure. Bentley’s MicroStation-based engineering and BIM applications, and its digital twin cloud services, advance the project delivery (ProjectWise) and the asset performance (AssetWise) of transportation and other public works, utilities, industrial and resources plants, and commercial and institutional facilities.
Bentley Systems employs more than 3,500 colleagues, generates annual revenues of $700 million in 170 countries, and has invested more than $1 billion in research, development, and acquisitions since 2012. From inception in 1984, the company has remained majority-owned by its five founding Bentley brothers. Bentley shares transact by invitation on the NASDAQ Private Market; strategic partner Siemens AG has accumulated a non-voting minority stake.
# # #
Bentley, the Bentley logo, AECOsim Building Designer, AssetWise, ContextCapture, LEGION, LumenRT, MicroStation, OpenBridge, OpenBuildings, OpenCities, OpenCities Map, OpenComms, OpenFlows, OpenRoads, OpenUtilities, and ProjectWise are either registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks of Bentley Systems, Incorporated or one of its direct or indirect wholly owned subsidiaries. All other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.
Open-source JavaScript library for creating immersive connections to
infrastructure digital twins
LONDON, U.K. – The Year in Infrastructure 2018 Conference – 17 October 2018 – Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the leading global provider of comprehensive software solutions for advancing the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure, today announced the initial release of its iModel.js library, an open-source initiative to improve the accessibility, for both visualization and analytical visibility, of infrastructure digital twins. iModel.js can be used by developers and IT professionals to quickly and easily create immersive applications that connect their infrastructure digital twins with the rest of their digital world. iModel.js is the cornerstone of Bentley’s just-announced iTwin™ Services that combine iModelHub, reality modeling, and web-enabling software technologies within a Connected Data Environment (CDE) for infrastructure engineering.
Bentley’s iModels have become a de facto standard for visibility into digital engineering models. iModelHub manages an iModel as a distributed database with an intrinsic ledger of changes—enabling alignment, accountability, and accessibility of its digital components—to form the backbone of an infrastructure digital twin.
The iModel.js library is a comprehensive collection of JavaScript packages that build on the most open, popular, and flexible standards for modern cloud and web development. It is written in TypeScript, and leverages open technologies including SQLite, Node.js, NPM, WebGL, Electron, Docker, Kubernetes, and of course HTML5 and CSS. The same codebase can produce cloud services and web, mobile, and desktop applications. The source code is hosted on GitHub and is distributed under the MIT license.
With iModel.js, it is simple to create a web-based experience that shows interactive “nD” views (1D, 2D, 3D, 4D, etc.) of iModels that are assembled and synchronized from BIM files and other digital engineering models, and from data created directly with iModel.js. Those same views can also include digital (reality) context, real-time sensor data, and other data from enterprise sources and analytics. Since the iModel is synchronized by iModelHub, it always reflects the most recent updates from all project participants, who are thus able to visualize and analyze changes between points in time or between versions. Importantly, only users and applications authorized by the iModel owner, through iModelHub, are granted access through iModel.js.
Johan Palm, program manager – Digital Project Delivery at Hatch, said, “iModel.js gives Hatch the ability to implement a stakeholder engagement technology that extends the iModelHub visionary technology. We can expose complex project information to a level that is accessible, consumable, and extendable via the cloud and in context to the 3D model. Most importantly we can do so in a manner that embraces change as the project progresses. iModel.js aligns with Hatch’s internal development strategies as it is built on modern, highly portable web technology. Bentley is a key software technology partner on Hatch projects globally where our main objective is to provide a positive impact to our client’s assets and operations.”
Cai Chengguo, chair and general manager, Shenzhen Expressway Consulting Group, said, “The digital twin powered by iModelHub is efficiently improving project management, substantially reducing the waste of resources caused by site problems and will achieve digital handover after completion of the project for visual operations and maintenance.”
Keith Bentley, Bentley Systems’ founder and CTO, said, “We firmly believe that iModel.js, and of course the foundation upon which it is built, is the most open, productive, intuitive, and powerful development environment for capital projects and infrastructure assets, ever. We’re excited to work with user organizations, strategic partners, and third-party developers to build an open ecosystem around iModels to tap the vast potential of infrastructure digital twins. With iModel.js, the well-refined techniques of mainstream cloud and web development can leverage the physical and virtual reality in digital twins with near-zero impedance. By open-sourcing the libraries we use to create our iTwin™ cloud services, we expect to foster a substantial and vibrant ecosystem of innovation.”
More about iModel.js: iModeljs.org
More about iModels and iModelHub: iModelHub.com
About Bentley Systems
Bentley Systems is the leading global provider of software solutions to engineers, architects, geospatial professionals, constructors, and owner-operators for the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure. Bentley’s MicroStation-based engineering and BIM applications, and its digital twin cloud services, advance the project delivery (ProjectWise) and the asset performance (AssetWise) of transportation and other public works, utilities, industrial and resources plants, and commercial and institutional facilities.
Bentley Systems employs more than 3,500 colleagues, generates annual revenues of $700 million in 170 countries, and has invested more than $1 billion in research, development, and acquisitions since 2012. From inception in 1984, the company has remained majority-owned by its five founding Bentley brothers. Bentley shares transact by invitation on the NASDAQ Private Market; strategic partner Siemens AG has accumulated a non-voting minority stake.
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Bentley, the Bentley logo, AssetWise, Connected Data Environment, iTwin, MicroStation, and ProjectWise are either registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks of Bentley Systems, Incorporated or one of its direct or indirect wholly owned subsidiaries. All other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.
Confluence of technologies enables project digital twins and performance digital twins for infrastructure engineering
LONDON, U.K. – The Year in Infrastructure 2018 Conference - 16 October 2018 – Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the leading global provider of comprehensive software solutions for advancing the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure, today announced the forthcoming availability of iTwin™ Services, digital twin cloud services for infrastructure projects (project digital twins) and assets (performance digital twins). iTwin™ Services can be transparently provisioned within Bentley’s Connected Data Environment (CDE) for ProjectWise and AssetWise users.
Requirements for Realizing the Potential of Infrastructure Digital Twins
Infrastructure asset owners and their teams have recognized the potential for leveraging digital twins in many ambitious use cases including the application of analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in simulations and decision support throughout the lifecycle of design, construction, and operations. To realize this potential, representations of assets need obviously to be digital—but to be safely relied upon as a twin there must be practical solutions for their synchronization to changing actual conditions in the real world. Moreover, merely capturing and representing physical conditions, including IoT inputs, can never be sufficient to understand, analyze, or model intended improvements, without also comprehending the “digital DNA” captured in the project or asset’s engineering specifications.
To actually be worthwhile, therefore, would-be digital twins for existing infrastructure must reliably synchronize reflections of both an asset’s physical reality, and its “virtuality” (engineering data). A digital twin can meet this requirement by geospatially converging the digital context (representing the physical) and digital components (representing the virtual), naturally resulting in an immersive environment for both visualization and analytics visibility.
To date, however, the evolving 3D physical reality of an as-operated asset has been too formidably difficult to capture digitally, let alone to keep up-to-date. Meanwhile, corresponding, as-operated engineering information tends to be unavailable or at best, dated, as typically an assortment of effectively inaccessible “dark data” in either opaque engineering files or unintelligent document formats. Bentley has now surmounted both of these challenges, with the confluence of its reality modeling, iModelHub, CDE, and web-visibility technologies.
Reality Modeling
A representation of any infrastructure asset’s physical reality can now be reliably captured and maintained through increasingly continuous surveys and Bentley’s reality modeling software, providing digital context in the form of “reality meshes”. Overlapping photographs and (as needed) supplemental laser scans, largely from drones and ground-level imagery, are processed to generate spatially-classified and engineering-ready reality meshes at any desired level of accuracy—within which each digital component can be automatically recognized and/or geospatially referenced. The reality mesh can provide an efficient and immersive visual “twin” to intuitively navigate for finding, viewing, and querying the associated information within, or related to, the asset’s digital engineering models.
Adding iModelHub within CDE
The challenge in comparably capturing and maintaining these engineering counterparts of the physical asset— its digital components—is the opacity of their existing representations, compounded by continuous changes. Bentley’s iModelHub, introduced in 2017, overcomes these hurdles through automated digital alignment (to achieve semantic consistency from otherwise dark data in known formats), and synchronization, based on change ledgers, corresponding to the CDE’s project workflows (ProjectWise) or configuration management (AssetWise).
Web Visibility
Once populated and synchronized by way of digital context and digital components, iTwin™ Services deliver their benefits through Bentley’s new (separately announced) open-source iModel.js library (iModeljs.org) for web-based immersive visualization. Infrastructure teams can easily develop custom applications that connect their digital twin for specific use cases by leveraging a vast open source ecosystem. In addition, a geospatially immersive environment for city-scale digital twins is now available through Bentley’s new OpenCities Planner services.
Introducing Project Digital Twins
ProjectWiseCONNECT Edition users of Bentley’s CDE can instantiate cloud-provisioned iTwin™ Services for any project without disruption to their existing ProjectWise workflows. iModelHub will then transparently create and maintain the project’s comprehensive iModel: a distributed database, with its intrinsic change ledger updated at each deliverable-in-progress check-in state. For each such update to engineering information, application-specific “information bridge” processing effectuates digital alignment of the iModel’s digital components.
To the extent of available reality modeling for the physical site, the CDE’s corresponding ContextShare service maintains updated digital context. The iModel’s digital components and ContextShare digital context are immersively merged through Navigator Web and iModel.js visualization, as authorized and secured by iModelHub.
Accordingly, iTwin™ Services enable comprehensive project status reviews to be continuously available, synchronized to any requested project state on the iModel change ledger timeline, and/or for visualization and analytics visibility into changes between any project timeline states. iTwin™ Services will also integrate Bentley’s SYNCHRO 4D construction modeling.
iTwin™ Services for project digital twins will be available early in 2019, with quarterly base subscription charges for each iTwin™ based upon its scale, in terms of digital components and digital context, and inclusive of cloud provisioning and web accessibility.
Adding Performance Digital Twins
The iModel.js library supports functionality to create and curate iTwins fit for particular asset performance purposes, including “agent” updating of “data lakes” for analytics visibility. This enables emerging AI and mixed reality technologies to be advantageously applied throughout an asset’s lifecycle, and across assets—relying, for assured fidelity spanning physical reality and engineering data, upon the necessary digital alignment, change synchronization, and immersive visualization uniquely provided by iTwin™Services.
Also at the Conference, Siemens and Bentley unveiled PlantSight™, a new range of cloud services to be jointly offered for as-operated digital twins of any process plants. PlantSight will provide increasingly comprehensive as-operated digital twin services, to incorporate Bentley’s AssetWise APM with Siemens’ operational technologies, MindSphere, and Teamcenter, for industrial plants’ asset performance modeling. And to accelerate owners going digital, Atos and Bentley announced a new strategic partnership to create and curate performance digital twins.
Keith Bentley, Bentley Systems founder and CTO, said “Our work with early adopters of iModelHub over the past year has confirmed to me that its unique strengths for alignment, accountability, and accessibility find their highest and best use, in conjunction with our reality modeling technologies, for enabling project digital twins and performance digital twins. I look forward to actively working with users and external developers to create an open ecosystem of innovation for iTwin™Services, leveraging the iModel.js library. I expect Bentley Systems to lead the infrastructure engineering community, as the ‘infrastructure digital twin’ company!” Learn More.
About Bentley Systems
Bentley Systems is the leading global provider of software solutions to engineers, architects, geospatial professionals, constructors, and owner-operators for the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure. Bentley’s MicroStation-based engineering and BIM applications, and its digital twin cloud services, advance the project delivery (ProjectWise) and the asset performance (AssetWise) of transportation and other public works, utilities, industrial and resources plants, and commercial and institutional facilities.
Bentley Systems employs more than 3,500 colleagues, generates annual revenues of $700 million in 170 countries, and has invested more than $1 billion in research, development, and acquisitions since 2012. From inception in 1984, the company has remained majority-owned by its five founding Bentley brothers. Bentley shares transact by invitation on the NASDAQ Private Market; strategic partner Siemens AG has accumulated a non-voting minority stake.
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Bentley, the Bentley logo, AssetWise, Connected Data Environment, ContextCapture, iModel, iModelHub, iTwin, MicroStation, Navigator Web, OpenCities Planner, ProjectWise, and SYNCHRO are either registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks of Bentley Systems, Incorporated or one of its direct or indirect wholly owned subsidiaries. PlantSight is a trademark of Siemens AG and Siemens PLMS Inc. All other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.
The Beihu Sewage Treatment Plant project is located on the east side of the intersection of Tengfei Avenue and Bajifu Road in the Wuhan Chemical New Area. Its coverage area includes about 130 square kilometers of the Shahu, Erlang Temple, Luobuzui, and Baiyushan sewage systems and serves 2.48 million people. Covering 532,000 square meters, the Beihu sewage treatment plant will initially treat 800,000 tons of sewage daily and eventually reach a final production rate of 1.5 million tons per day. The new plant is the largest scale sewage treatment plant ever built in China and in greater Asia.
China Railway Shanghai Engineering Bureau (CRSEB) is responsible for constructing the main structure of each unit and the pipeline installation work in the factory. This scope includes civil design of more than 31 buildings, ranging from pump rooms to distribution wells, multiple tanks, and other related treatment equipment. Eleven major categories of electromechanical pipelines are covered by the project engineering requirements. There are major challenges in this project that require highly efficient and controlled design and project management practices to deliver it successfully. Some of the requirements include managing the deformation, shrinkage, and cracking of highly sensitive biological and membrane pools, while accounting for the difficulty of controlling the impermeability of concrete. Minimizing field rework to place the numerous reserved holes and pre-embedded bushings across multiple structures is a monumental challenge requiring robust methods and standards.
To achieve the stringent requirements of the project, CRSEB turned to BIM methodologies to establish a digital twin of the sewage treatment plant. Incorporating unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to capture photos of the existing site extended the information-based digital twin to an immersive one. Leveraging the immersive digital twin establishes more reliable engineering workflows, such as rebar modeling. Using the graphical representation of the digital twin helped improve methods for managing project progress and cost and enhance the execution and safety of on-site construction.
CRSEB’s implementation of BIM methodologies combined with Bentley’s OpenBuildings Designer, ContextCapture, ProStructures, and LumenRT resulted in tremendous ROI for this project. Construction durations were shortened by using UAVs and ContextCapture to support calculating the number of earthworks required by seven-to-10 days per square kilometer, resulting in a RMB 310,000 savings for this calculation alone. Likewise, the immersive digital twin, used with ProStructures for advanced calculations, helped ensure that the delicate and highly sensitive pool walls were more easily constructed, saving the project an estimated RMB 2.3 million. Changing the mode of design and construction of rebar saved an additional RMB 1.71 million, while also shortening the construction schedule by 25 days. And, in construction, the immersive digital twin was used to educate the on-site teams, shortening construction by an additional 121 days due to improvements in efficiency, saving another RMB 1.27 million.
The success of this project has enabled CRSEB to transform the way it does business. Lei Huang, a senior executive with CRESB, said, “Based on the way we applied Bentley software, certain technological advancements in this corporate water environment protection project have been obtained. By combining project features in the current phase, our company will further promote the application of BIM technology.”
The results CRSEB achieved on this project have laid the groundwork for the engineering bureau to look for more opportunities to advance their digital maturity. This includes research and development in areas such as structural live-action modeling technologies to build intelligent construction sites, making multi-aspect data acquisition by combining various sensors and sharing information and realizing application of digital construction sites. By adopting BIM methodologies and industrializing their project delivery methods using immersive digital twins and Bentley technology, CSREB has built a foundation for future success.
Telecommunication infrastructure owners have some of the most widely distributed and remote assets to build, maintain, and repair. With approximately 27,000 distributed sites and 6,000 communication towers under management, Telstra is Australia’s leading telecommunication service provider. Traditional inspection methods of towers involve manually taking photographs and measurements. This requires workers climbing on the towers, usually in remote areas, making the process dangerous, inefficient, costly, and time-consuming.
In 2017, Telstra engaged SiteSee to perform automated as-built and condition assessment reports by applying machine learning and object recognition technology to 3D reality meshes. The objective of the AUD 66,000 project was to assess the suitability and accuracy of SiteSee’s technology and provide a business benefits analysis for performing a portfolio-wide rollout.
Creating 3D models of communication towers using reality modeling applications is a challenging task and requires specific workflows, camera settings, flight plans, and a sound understanding of photogrammetry principles. As a recognized reality modeling solutions provider of Bentley Systems, SiteSee provided reality modeling training and support to Telstra’s UAV teams and preferred contractors tasked with performing data capture. Captured imagery was then uploaded to SiteSee’s platform for processing and analysis. SiteSee’s web-accessible solution achieved 98 percent object recognition accuracy of all installed equipment with a dimensional accuracy of +-10 millimeters over 50 meters. As-built information was then automatically assessed against Telstra’s database of records to deliver actionable information for multiple department groups and third-party stakeholders.
To enable SiteSee’s object recognition technology and position elements accurately within a 3D environment, SiteSee utilized Bentley’s ContextCapture. Previous attempts using other photogrammetry solutions had resulted in low-quality 3D meshes. However, Bentley’s ContextCapture produced highly accurate 3D reality meshes when flown using SiteSee’s proprietary capture methodology. From an environmental perspective, SiteSee’s technology is minimizing site visits, mobilization of access equipment, and the need for tower climbs by up to 60 percent. From a safety perspective, SiteSee’s additional value-add electromagnetic energy (EME) simulation is improving radiation compliance for carriers with cellular installations on towers in populated areas. Using Bentley’s reality modeling technology, SiteSee’s EME assessments provide as-built transparency on antenna placements, which allows engineers to make accurate EME assessments without physically climbing towers.
For wireless network engineering design teams, SiteSee’s web-accessible reality mesh and object recognition technology reduced travel and design time by a minimum of eight hours. Through development of an automated UAV application, data is captured in less than 20 minutes. SiteSee was also able to identify damaged equipment, which caused the tower to repeatedly drop coverage. By notifying the appropriate departments, SiteSee was instrumental in returning service to customers.
Utilizing off-the-shelf UAV equipment and cloud-based processing and hosting services, SiteSee’s condition assessment and tower auditing solution is highly scalable and easily reproducible. When compared against traditional tower assessment solutions requiring teams of engineers, climbers, or access equipment to lift assessors into place, SiteSee provides improved accuracy and transparency at less than 25 percent the cost of a standard inspection. Moreover, easily accessing up-to-date, as-built information and making more informed decisions allows clients to benefit from reduced site visits for planning and design works.
SiteSee’s unique application of machine learning has already been recognized by multiple third parties, including Spar3D. SiteSee’s globally applicable solution has also been recognized by TowerXchange, with SiteSee’s co-founder Lachlan Crane being awarded the under 35 Rising Star award for new technology. Crane summarized Bentley’s contribution to SiteSee’s success by saying, “Bentley’s ContextCapture provided the foundation technology stack for SiteSee to deliver premium web-accessible 3D mesh models.”The INR 11.98 billion Chenab Rail Bridge, which is under construction, is located between Bakkal and Kauri in the Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), India. At 359 meters above the river bed, the rail-arch bridge will be the highest in the world and, with an arch span of 467 meters and 1,315 meters in length, the longest span-exclusive, broad-gauge rail line and seventh longest single span bridge. The bridge is a part of the Jammu-Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Line (JUSBRL) project being undertaken by the Indian Ministry of Railways, which consists of many tunnels and bridges in highly rugged and mountainous terrain with difficult Himalayan geology. The bridge will reduce the current 12 hours of travel time to six hours to help stimulate the local economy and provide weather connectivity between the summer and winter capitals of Jammu and Kashmir.
The alignment crosses the deep gorges of the Chenab River near Salal Hydro Power Dam, which necessitates the construction of a high, long-span bridge. A steel arch configuration was chosen for the aesthetics, economy, and availability of local expertise and construction materials. The bridge site selection was based on important technical and geological parameters, such as the narrow valley at the site, competent rock mass at each bank, favorable orientation of joint sets, straight reach, and river flow without cross-currents.
The project faced several challenges, such as slope stabilization, high-wind, extreme weather, seismic activity, and possible terrorist attacks, which required the bridge to be built to withstand 260-kilometers-per-hour wind forces, blast impact loads, and temperatures below -20 degrees Celsius. Sophisticated train control and bridge monitoring are also required to ensure train regulation for wind speeds, earthquake activity, and strain gauging of critical steel components. Construction must be done with cable cars, using the world’s longest span cable crane.
The organization used OpenRail Designer to meet the rigorous rail alignment demands, OpenBridge for bridge planning and analysis, and STAAD for structural behavior analysis of the massive bridge. ContextCapture was used for construction planning, monitoring, inspection, and surveying. The application was critical in managing the construction site progress and conducting inspection during construction to accelerate the project and ensure quality, repeatable documentation of the bridge inspection. ContextCapture helped save 225 days in surveying, equating to USD 40,000 in savings, and reduced construction inspection time by 80 percent, resulting in savings of more than USD 100,000.
B.P. Awasthi, executive director – Track at Indian Railways, noted, “Bentley’s ContextCapture solution empowered our project teams to efficiently and effectively carry out construction monitoring, ensuring immersive visibility, safety, and adherence to delivery schedules.”
As one of the first rail railway bridge projects in India to adopt the latest technology to traditional survey and construction work, the success of this iconic project will change traditional workflows and will trigger the use of modern tools in similar projects worldwide.
Infraero, Empresa Brasileira de Infraestrutura Aeroportuária is one of the three largest airport operators in the world, managing 54 airports across Brazil. It facilitates more than 100 million passengers each year, accounting for nearly 60 percent of Brazil’s air traffic. Infraero is creating a parametric 3D model and database of Londrina Airport’s underground, land, and above-land information to improve its business intelligence and operations.
Londrina Airport will be the first in Brazil to have a digital twin. The final product will include 3D modeling of 20 buildings, one take-off-and-landing runway, two aircraft yards, taxiways, and access roads—a total airport surface area of 920,354 square meters. Infraero is going digital to improve its business intelligence and decision making.
By leveraging digital DNA to manage its assets, Infraero can take a more preventative approach to maintenance, effectively use airport space, and improve airport safety. Maintenance teams will be able to utilize real-time monitoring and control of assets for improved efficiency of remote asset management. The model will serve as a large-scale information repository to improve performance and obtain data more efficiently.
The digital engineering information, or digital DNA, of the project was modeled using Bentley’s design software. MicroStation’s point-cloud import feature enabled the team to model the entire airport via point clouds and conduct point-cloud studies to verify the existing facilities. OpenBuildings Designer was used to model existing buildings, such as the passenger terminal, cargo terminal, and fire station. OpenRoads was used to create the geometric project and runway system surfaces map: a comprehensive model of take-off and landing runways, taxiways, and service roads. When complete, the comprehensive building and infrastructure model will serve as a basis for future airport expansion projects, enable effective maintenance, cut maintenance costs, and increase asset availability. The live model will also facilitate a range of studies: passenger flow, demand and capacity, layout changes, and launch studies for new commercial areas.
Infraero has already experienced savings of BRL 540,000 per year with improved information management. The company plans to expand its use of BIM methods in the operation and maintenance phase of its other assets. The Digital Airport Pilot Project at Londrina Airport will serve as a model as the other 53 airports managed by Infraero seek to effectively leverage their digital DNA.
Patrícia Oliveira, BIM champion, Infraero, said, “[Bentley’s software enabled] comprehensive digital modeling [to] promote integration and collaboration across different areas of the company. [This will] benefit all business sectors [and offer] consistent and up-to-date information to all stakeholders.”
Londrina Airport is the first airport in the region to effectively leverage its digital DNA to improve business intelligence, asset management, and operations; it serves as an example for other airport owner-operators in the region that seek to promote safe and high-quality airport infrastructure.
Constructioneering Academies expand insights, create change
LONDON – The Year in Infrastructure 2018 Conference – October 15, 2018 – Topcon Positioning Group, a world leader in positioning technology for the survey and construction industries, and Bentley Systems, the leading global provider of comprehensive software solutions for advancing the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure, announce new developments in the constructioneering workflow initiative.
Constructioneering Academy
The Bentley Year in Infrastructure Conference 2018 (YII) marks the first anniversary of the launch of the Constructioneering Academy initiative of Topcon and the Bentley Institute. The program has been held in multiple locations across North America and Australia throughout the first year and now expands into Europe with the first London-based Constructioneering Academy, part of the YII.
“The Constructioneering Academies are filled with a mix of professionals from companies, governmental agencies and organizations who are involved in putting important infrastructure projects into motion and seeing them through to completion. The uniqueness of the dialogue taking place among participants, representing more than 80 organizations in the first year, cannot be overstated,” said Ewout Korpershoek, executive vice president of Topcon Positioning Group. “The program’s educational and collaborative atmosphere is creating awareness of potential productivity gaps that can be encountered on a project, and how those gaps can be filled, resulting in a paradigm shift in how work can be accomplished.”
Alan Lamont, Bentley Systems’ vice president for Digital Advancement Academies, said, “The active participation and feedback that we have experienced during the various Constructioneering Academy events have been very informative and encouraging. The level of interest and feedback demonstrate that there is a clear need for automated digital workflows between design and construction to help project teams be more efficient and avoid mistakes. We look forward to expanding the reach of Constructioneering Academies to other geographic locations.”
“We are looking forward to building upon the success of the inaugural year of the Constructioneering Academy,” said Ron Oberlander, vice president of Global Professional Services for Topcon Positioning Group. “The industry needs these types of programs as a catalyst to drive digital automation adoption. A key part of the initiative is the interaction of field and office professionals from the ‘front lines’ and we are excited to provide this opportunity to professionals around the world.
“We believe the Constructioneering Academies are truly fostering progress. For the industry to be successful in meeting future infrastructure demands, we have to change the mindsets and processes on how we approach construction. What Topcon and Bentley have initiated and will continue to evolve is an exciting journey to help shape that change,” Oberlander said.
As additional dates and locations for the Constructioneering Academy become available, they will be provided at constructioneering.com/academy.
Integration agreement
As part of the ongoing constructioneering initiative, the companies have signed an agreement that will integrate the Topcon point cloud and 3D mesh service, MAGNET Collage Web, with the Bentley ContextCapture Cloud Processing Service. The Bentley cloud service enables operators to upload UAV imagery direct-to-web without the need for high-end hardware requirements or IT constraints. Topcon instrument, control systems and software users will benefit from an industry-leading, cloud-based photogrammetric engine for fast generation of 3D engineering-ready reality meshes and digital surface models.
Ted Lamboo, senior vice president of Bentley’s strategic partnerships, said, “We are very pleased with Topcon’s expanded commitment, through MAGNET Collage Web integration, to Bentley’s ContextCapture reality modeling cloud services. Now, all of Topcon’s positioning technologies can help to continuously survey a site’s digital context, synchronizing project digital twins to make constructioneering even more compelling.”
“The agreement for a web-based integrated workflow solution is an excellent example of the ongoing collaboration of Topcon and Bentley to simplify and speed up digital construction workflows,” Korpershoek said. “Through our partnership, we are continuously working together to create new solutions to improve survey, engineering, and construction processes.”
About Topcon Positioning Group
Topcon Positioning Group is headquartered in Livermore, California, U.S. (topconpositioning.com). Its European head office is in Capelle a/d IJssel, the Netherlands. Topcon Positioning Group designs, manufactures and distributes precision measurement and workflow solutions for the global construction, geospatial and agriculture markets. Its brands include Topcon, Sokkia, Tierra, Digi-Star, RDS Technology, and NORAC. Topcon Corporation (topcon.com), founded in 1932, is traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (7732).
About Bentley Systems
Bentley Systems is the leading global provider of software solutions to engineers, architects, geospatial professionals, constructors, and owner-operators for the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure. Bentley’s MicroStation-based engineering and BIM applications, and its digital twin cloud services, advance the project delivery (ProjectWise) and the asset performance (AssetWise) of transportation and other public works, utilities, industrial and resources plants, and commercial and institutional facilities.
Bentley Systems employs more than 3,500 colleagues, generates annual revenues of $700 million in 170 countries, and has invested more than $1 billion in research, development, and acquisitions since 2012. From inception in 1984, the company has remained majority-owned by its five founding Bentley brothers. Bentley shares transact by invitation on the NASDAQ Private Market; strategic partner Siemens AG has accumulated a non-voting minority stake.
About Constructioneering
Constructioneering automates digital construction processes through surveying, engineering design, constructible model development, and as-built data collection within a connected data environment to improve construction execution and reduce project costs.
About Constructioneering Academy
The Constructioneering Academy is designed to educate civil design build professionals on the digital construction process. Attendees will learn how they can leverage mass data, digital cameras, design models, and automated machine control to win more work and execute their next project more efficiently.
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Press Contact:
Topcon Positioning Group
CorpComm@topcon.com
Staci Fitzgerald, +1 925-245-8610
Greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants have been a critical challenge for India and it is a challenge that needs to be addressed head on given the country’s increasing demand for electricity. For example, electricity consumption grew from 375.39 billion kilowatt hours in 2000 to 1.108 trillion kilowatt hours in 2018. Additionally, electric power generation grew from 529.12 billion kilowatt hours in 2000 to 1.311 trillion kilowatt hours in 2018. The aspiration for rapid economic growth leading to industrialization, accelerated urbanization, and mechanization of agriculture is responsible for this growth in demand.
As part of India’s growth in solar energy, Adani Mundra Solar PV Limited manufactures solar cells for the Indian market. To obtain successful operational and financial performance, Adani Mundra Solar PV’s 1-gigawatt solar PV cell manufacturing project requires the continuous and reliable production of ultra-pure water 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. Ultra-pure water (UPW) systems are often referred to as the “life blood” of modern solar cell production facilities. The cell products will encounter UPW on many occasions during their production cycle, and any disruption of service and/or “out-of-spec” water can seriously compromise their yield, costing perhaps millions of dollars in lost production.
Suez Water Technologies & Solutions (SWTS) is the worldwide industry leader in the UPW systems business to both the semiconductor and solar industries. SWTS’ patented UPW generation using membranes and filters produces 1-gigawatt-capacity PV cells and modules for solar power plants, enabling the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. Adani Mundra Solar PV contracted SWTS to design, engineer, procure, supply, erect, commission, and performance test a new solar PV manufacturing facility. The facility was required to produce 1,560 cubic meters per day in UPW production, plus 2,280 cubic meters per day in the UPW loop. This was made more complicated for SWTS because of the need to take influent flow from an existing 20 milliliters-per-day seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant, which has a high total-organic-carbon (TOC) -5.9 ppm, very high chlorides (380 ppm), and very low hardness/alkalinity, which would cause severe corrosion in carbon-steel and stainless-steel materials. As a result, this project required innovative, one-of-a-kind thinking in both materials, manufacturing techniques, and in new, improved design modeling and project delivery methodologies.
Using a variety of Bentley applications, including OpenPlant, AutoPIPE, Navigator, ProSteel, and STAAD, SWTS created and implemented a digital model for managing this project. From performing structural analysis of polypropylene (PP) tanks to performing stress analysis, performing detailed civil, concrete, and tank design, managing multidiscipline design reviews, and producing detailed bills of materials directly from the digital model, SWTS was able to revolutionize their digital workflows and leverage the digital DNA they have created. Moreover, remote offices were connected via Bentley’s Connected Data Environment (CDE), based on ProjectWise, to ensure that the latest version of drawings and deliverables were always shared by the customer and site teams.
SWTS realized significant ROI by implementing these technologies and techniques. Savings include approximately USD 70,000 through optimized pipe routings and reduced field rework and 30-percent savings in resource hours during the design modeling phase (USD 35,000).
Utilizing Bentley software also lessened the civil, structural, piping, and cable tray site execution time by 60 days, resulting in a flawless construction of civil foundations, concrete and steel structures, equipment, piping plus allied supports, cable tray, and instrumentation within the stipulated project schedule.