Emerging Practical and Scalable Pacesetter in Information Modeling for Multi-discipline Plant Teams

HANNOVER, Germany – Hannover Messe 2013 – April 12, 2013 – Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the leading company dedicated to providing comprehensive software solutions for sustaining infrastructure, today released OpenPlant V8i (SELECTseries 5), the emerging pacesetter in information modeling software for multi-discipline plant teams. OpenPlant V8i is being widely adopted by leading plant engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractors and owner-operators who have confirmed it as the most practical system for plant design, engineering, construction, and operations – in terms of fastest return on investment – and the most scalable. Through its use of iRING/ISO 15926 as an intrinsic data model, OpenPlant V8i enables users to coordinate and share information across multiple disciplines and the infrastructure lifecycle, as well as among third-party systems – all with full fidelity, while also empowering them to easily migrate from other vendors’ legacy systems.

CEO Greg Bentley said, “At Bentley Systems, our commitment and our hallmark is to accomplish software superiority in both practicality (that is, quick ROI) and scalability for the largest projects and the largest challenges – in particular, the work sharing and global sourcing required in plant creation today. With the SELECTseries 5 release of OpenPlant V8i, I believe our users agree that we have understood their priorities, to hit this mark.”

He continued, “Reinforcing the emerging market leadership of OpenPlant is its selection by Siemens Industry Automation, officially announced earlier this week, to augment its offerings in the process industries for information mobility across CAPEX and OPEX. I’ve enjoyed observing the enthusiasm of Siemens and Bentley colleagues, and of our joint users and prospects, as we’ve demonstrated this week – at Hannover Messe in the Siemens exhibit – our OpenPlant ‘working smarter, together’ with the Comos engineering software solution from Siemens to deliver this breakthrough.”

OpenPlant Provides Information Mobility with Data Integrity

OpenPlant V8i (SELECTseries 5) provides enhanced information mobility across project team disciplines and the infrastructure lifecycle through its use of not only iRING/ISO 15926, but also i-models – containers for open infrastructure information exchange. In addition to using i-models to share information among the broad range of Bentley applications, Bentley provides tools to create i-models from third-party systems, such as SmartPlant, PDS, PDMS, and Revit, for integrated review with OpenPlant. This information mobility is secured by Bentley’s ProjectWise system of collaboration servers and services underlying OpenPlant ModelServer.

The OpenPlant V8i (SELECTseries 5) Offerings

The SELECTseries 5 releases of OpenPlant V8i include the following product offerings:

• OpenPlant Modeler V8i, providing:
  • the ability to work stand alone or synchronized with the rest of the team in a distributed environment;
  • 2D/3D comparison tools with OpenPlant PowerPID V8i, enabling data to be shared between the P&ID and the model, speeding the design process and facilitating consistency checking across tags;
  • KKS workspace for users working on projects requiring the classification system used by power plant operators throughout Europe (available as a separate download);
  • persistent point-clouds, enabling users to interchangeably maintain and interact directly with both point clouds and geometry in hybrid models, made practical for even the largest plant projects through point-cloud streaming from ProjectWise Point-cloud Services;
  • support for over 80 new component types, including the Lindab HVAC catalog;
  • a custom component builder, catalog editor, and dynamic slope placement;

• OpenPlant ModelServer V8i, featuring new automation tools to create and manage i-models across the design project, and new tools to provide more granularity around the checking in and out of components; together, these provide more robust access control and management, along with greater visibility into project status;

• OpenPlant Isometrics Manager V8i, delivering a simple user interface to quickly create isometrics styles for each project, eliminating the complexity and extensive time typically needed to configure isometric production using other plant design systems; with this new functionality, projects can start up faster and address the needs of each project with less administrative overhead.

Endorsements of OpenPlant by Industry-leading User Organizations

“The flexibility and openness of OpenPlant have enabled us to develop a common platform for our water projects – both large and small. It allows us to leverage our existing systems, processes, and resources without loss of productivity or data. By using OpenPlant, we can deliver client requirements for open BIM data models using both ISO 15926 and IFCs. Also, through the comprehensive i-models that OpenPlant delivers, we can share information with our construction partners, significantly reducing risks of overruns.” – Bruce Strupp, ATL CPE-Design Technology Director, CH2M HILL

“Santiago Engenharia is a mid-sized EPC, and we’ve been working with Bentley software since 2004. Last year, we made the decision to migrate from PlantSpace to OpenPlant and ProjectWise to take advantage of leading-edge information mobility solutions such as i-models. The move to OpenPlant has increased our engineering productivity and cut in half the time it took to create isometrics and other deliverables. In addition, being able to better communicate with owner-operators and visualize project status via ProjectWise has improved our ability to manage projects and client relations.” – José Salisberto de S. Carvalho, President, Santiago Engenharia

“OpenPlant and the i-model framework enable us to exchange data with partners that use Bentley solutions or other plant design solutions. OpenPlant is a modern, open solution with bigger possibilities in the future. We can do our jobs better with this system than we can with other plant design systems.” – Zbigniew Harezlak, Engineering Manager, Rafako S.A.

“By increasing the interoperability of our fully integrated 2D engineering software solution Comos with Bentley’s open 3D system OpenPlant, we will be generating exciting new potential for users, based on the global standard ISO 15926 and iRING. This will benefit EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) service providers as well as owner-operators.” – Andreas Geiss, Vice President of Comos Industry Solutions, Siemens (in a press release issued Monday announcing that Siemens and Bentley have extended their collaboration to the process industry)

“The interoperability provided through OpenPlant with its MicroStation foundation and the ISO 15926 open data model enables us to both protect our investment and reuse our design models, all while achieving greater productivity across our disciplines and project phases.” – Dr. Oliver Hoffman, Application Compliance Manager, Siemens Energy

To Download OpenPlant V8i (SELECTseries 5) and for Additional Information

OpenPlant V8i (SELECTseries 5) is now available for download on Bentley’s SELECTserver. For additional information about OpenPlant V8i (SELECTseries 5), visit www.Bentley.com/OpenPlant.

To read the press release “Siemens and Bentley extend collaboration to the process industry” and learn more about this collaboration, visit www.Bentley.com/Siemens-Comos.

To read the press release “Bentley Systems and Siemens Initiate Strategic Collaboration to Unify Product and Production Lifecycles with Factory Infrastructure Lifecycles,” click here .