Advancing ‘BIM’ Objectives Through Information Modeling for Multi-disciplinary Roadway Teams

EXTON, Pa. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — April 2, 2013 — Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the leading company dedicated to providing comprehensive software solutions for sustaining infrastructure, today announced the immediate availability of the V8i (SELECTseries 3) releases of its InRoads, GEOPAK, and MXROAD products, and the forthcoming SELECTseries 3 releases of its country-specific PowerCivil products throughout 2013. All of the products now share the powerful and unifying capabilities of Bentley’s OpenRoads technology, advancing through information modeling for multi-disciplinary roadway teams “BIM” objectives such as better design decisions, increased construction awareness, and interoperability for asset management. As a SELECTseries upgrade, OpenRoads technology uniquely provides a nondisruptive path to achieving these objectives while preserving users’ investments in their existing civil engineering software, including previous releases of InRoads, GEOPAK, MXROAD, and country-specific PowerCivil. Moreover, it adheres to established required organizational standards for drawing, engineering specifications, engineering computations, and roadway design within – and, in the case of consultants, for – the numerous major civil owner-operators who have adopted and invested in Bentley’s civil engineering software.

OpenRoads technology provides the common workflow, data structure, and modeling tools that civil engineering organizations need to meet today’s information modeling and accelerated project delivery requirements. Among the rigorous requirements it supports are those of the U.S.’s Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) Act and the U.K.’s BS 1192 methodology for managing the production, distribution, and quality of construction information, which is crucial to implementing the U.K.’s Government Construction Strategy of May 2011.

Ron Gant, Bentley global marketing director, civil engineering and transportation, said, “Bentley civil software provides the most comprehensive design solution for all phases of the infrastructure lifecycle – from data acquisition, planning, analysis, and conceptual design to modeling, construction, operations, and maintenance. OpenRoads technology advances what’s possible in road design, construction, and operations through the use of industry-leading innovations including immersive modeling, design-time visualization, design intent capture and persistence, hypermodeling, information mobility across engineering disciplines and project phases, and construction-driven engineering. Moreover, it works purposefully with persistent point clouds and scalable terrain models – for example, concurrently with Bentley Descartes V8i (SELECTseries 3) and with ProjectWise Point-cloud Services to improve projects, including through automatic recognition of roadway features such as centerlines, ditches, and edges of pavement – and, of course, all files are easily managed in ProjectWise.

“This shared technology represents the next step in Bentley’s advancement of its civil engineering and transportation products as we continue to build on our hallmark of both practical and scalable information modeling software, now including comprehensive, unified, 100 percent 3D modeling software for roadway design for all of our civil engineering users.”

Michigan Department of Transportation’s (MDOT’s) Design Services Section was able to take an advanced look at the capabilities offered in Bentley’s new OpenRoads technology and evaluate it relative to the department’s current standard design platform, PowerGEOPAK V8i (SELECTseries 2). Rachelle VanDeventer, engineering services manager with MDOT, said, “Based upon our early evaluation of Bentley’s PowerGEOPAK V8i (SELECTseries 3), powered by OpenRoads technology, we are inclined to move rapidly towards implementation and department-wide use. There are apparent advances in the integration between survey and design with this technology, especially relative to the recent version of the software. We look forward to being an early adopter in order to realize exciting capabilities like the new civil cells functionality. This will allow us to create typical layouts and reduce repetitive work as civil cells can be used over and over with the advantage of the software retaining design intent and automatically updating to meet each design condition encountered.”

Mo Harmon, VP, director technology deployment team – incubation, HNTB, said, “HNTB’s Incubation Center, as part of the OpenRoads technology preview/beta program, believes that the technology is aligning well with the concept of virtual design and construction. Workflows are becoming more integrated across disciplines, and we expect a key benefit around revision times in both design and production.”

Advantages of OpenRoads Technology

The V8i (SELECTseries 3) releases of Bentley’s InRoads, GEOPAK, MXROAD, and country-specific PowerCivil products, empowered by OpenRoads technology, help engineers and designers to:

• work with any data available for their design or survey projects as a result of enhanced data acquisition – From photogrammetry to total station surveys, GPS, LiDAR, and point clouds, the new releases can upload the data and analyze and manipulate it, all while ensuring the original data’s provenance.
• enhance conceptual and preliminary design – The new offerings combine rich analysis with the ability to view and visualize data all in one package. They include constraint-driven templates, a context-sensitive, intuitive interface, geospatial analysis, and a dynamic 3D modeler. Users can visualize the design at any time and on demand within the modeling workflow, with no translations, software, or special workflow processes required.
• make design decisions while building dynamic models – The interactive, dynamic, intelligent modeling of roadway components enables users to create information-rich models, with no user programming required. All design, editing, and decisions are provided in all views of plan, profile, cross section, and super diagram.
• quickly and cost-effectively respond to road rehabilitation projects – The new releases include 3D information modeling tools such as 3D parametric modeling capabilities that allow interactive design and review in a synchronized viewing environment. Information-rich modeling tools integrate with CAD, mapping, GIS, and even business tools like 3D PDFs, empowering engineers to make the most of their acquired knowledge while supporting traditional, proven methodologies.