"The broad acceptance of BIM has substantially benefited AEC professionals and projects over the last fifteen years, but now—with cloud services, reality modeling, and advanced analytics—we can advance BIM through digital twins," said Santanu Das, Bentley's senior vice president, design integration. "Until now, the use of BIM has been limited to static deliverables, which, after handing off to construction, quickly go out-of-date, losing the potential further value of the engineering data locked in BIM models. Now, with digital twins, we can open up the engineering data in a BIM model with its constituent digital components as a starting point, continually refresh the digital context with drone surveys and reality modeling, and—this is where it gets really exciting— continue to model and simulate the fitness for purpose of an asset over the digital chronology of its lifecycle. Finally, the value of the engineering data in a BIM model can extend beyond handoff to construction, and even beyond handover to operations, assuring and improving both project and asset performance. Advancing BIM to 4D through evergreen digital twins means that design models and simulations can serve a greater purpose than merely project deliverables, as the living asset's digital DNA!"
New Digital Twin Cloud Services for Design Integration
Bentley's design integration offerings now extend from desktop applications to cloud services to enable organizations to create, 4D-visualize, and analyze digital twins of infrastructure assets. iTwin Services enable digital information managers to incorporate engineering data created by diverse design tools into a living digital twin and align it with reality modeling and other associated data, with no disruption to their current tools or processes.
iTwin Design Review facilitates faster design review sessions. It enables practitioners to initiate "ad hoc" design reviews in a hybrid 2D/3D environment as well as project teams working on digital twins to conduct design reviews and multidiscipline design coordination. It provides workflows:
- (for practitioners) to markup and comment directly on elements of 3D models and switch between 2D and 3D views without leaving the 3D environment
- (for projects using ProjectWise) to visualize 4D digital twins—capturing engineering change along the timeline of the project, and providing an accountable record of who-changed-what-and-when
iTwin OpenPlant Design Service provides OpenPlant users with a distributed work environment and bi-directional referencing between 2D and 3D representations of plant digital components.
Open Modeling Applications and Open Simulation Applications
Sharing digital components and connecting digital workflows across disciplines are the foundation of an open modeling environment. Comprising MicroStation-based engineering and BIM applications specialized for asset types and solutions, Bentley's open modeling environment advances collaboration, enabling clash resolution and production of multidiscipline deliverables from any application.
Building its applications on the MicroStation platform ensures interoperability, access to a connected data environment, and digital services like Components Center for shared components libraries and GenerativeComponents for generative design capabilities. In addition, integrated engineering analysis and simulation empowers designers to iterate on various scenarios to achieve the most appropriate solution, not only for the initial design, but also for subsequent interventions and capital improvements to infrastructure assets.
Open Modeling Applications Updates
(New) OpenWindPower offers interoperability between geotechnical, structural, and piping analysis and design applications, automating data-exchange workflows between disciplines, to minimize risk in the design and operations of fixed and floating offshore wind farms. OpenWindPower enables users of a wind turbine model to check design status, perform analyses, mitigate risks, and generate insights into its predicted performance.
"OpenWindPower shortens the overall design cycle and effectively solves the problem of large design margins, reducing the cost of offshore wind power development," said Dr. Bin Wang, deputy chief engineer of the New Energy Research Institute, POWERCHINA Huadong Engineering.
(New) OpenTower is a purpose-built application for the design, documentation, and fabrication of new communication towers, and for the rapid re-analysis of existing telecom towers for tower owners, consultants, and carriers who need to continually update equipment. OpenTower's introduction is timed for the upcoming 5G rollout.
"With the help of Bentley's applications, tower design and analyses are easier, faster, and reliable. It also gives our clients satisfaction, trust and peace of mind, and improves public safety," said Frederick L. Cruz, president and CEO, F.L. Cruz Engineering Consultancy.
OpenBuildings Station Designer now includes LEGION and improves design quality by optimizing the functional space layout of the station building and the path of travel for the pedestrian.
OpenSite Designer now includes residential capabilities, supporting the conception and design of residential parceling and parcel grading, and custom parcel creation.
OpenBridge Designer now combines OpenBridge Modeler with the analysis and design features of LEAP Bridge Concrete, LEAP Bridge Steel, and RM Bridge Advanced.
OpenRoads SignCAD enhances OpenRoads to perform 3D modeling of signs within new or existing roadway designs.
Open Simulation Applications Updates
(New) Bentley Systems announced the acquisition of Citilabs, to enable its CUBE traffic simulations to be intrinsically available from OpenRoads.
PLAXIS and SoilVision geotechnical applications allow engineers to run multiple analysis methods, in either finite element or limit equilibrium, interchangeably. New interoperability with RAM, STAAD, and OpenGround enhances the quality of comprehensive geostructural solutions for integrated design and analysis of soils, rocks, and associated structures.
Digital Co-ventures for Design Integration
(With Siemens) Bentley's OpenRoads will take advantage of Siemens' Aimsun for micro level traffic simulation.
(With Siemens) The forthcoming OpenRail Overhead Line Designer integrates OpenRail Designer, and Siemens SICAT Master.
(With Siemens) OpenRail-Entegro Train Simulator combines Siemens Entegro and Automatic Train Control Simulation with Bentley's ContextCapture, OpenRail ConceptStation, OpenRail Designer, and LumenRT, for rail operations digital twins.
Captions and images (Images courtesy of Bentley Systems):
Bentley Systems' SACS accommodates floating wind turbines constructed in deep water.
About Bentley's Design Integration Offerings
Bentley Systems undertakes to provide uniquely comprehensive and uniquely open modeling applications, and open simulation applications, for infrastructure
design integration. Bentley's open modeling applications, including OpenRoads, OpenBuildings, OpenRail, OpenPlant, OpenBridge, and OpenSite share MicroStation's continuously advancing modeling environment to support each respective engineering and architectural discipline, and to increasingly enable automated and iterative digital workflows across all disciplines, for infrastructure conceptioneering ( ConceptStation applications), design ( Designer applications) and constructioneering. Bentley's open simulation applications, including STAAD , SACS , PLAXIS , AutoPIPE , RAM , LEAP , MOSES , LEGION , LARS , and CUBE , assure and improve compliance, resilience, and throughput. Design integration for all projects is advanced by market-leading iModel-based interoperability with third-party applications.
