Helps Deliver High Performance, Intelligent Buildings; AECOsim Compliance Manager Is Immediately Available, and AECOsim Building Designer and AECOsim Energy Simulator Are Continuing Early Adopter Programs

PHILADELPHIA — (BUSINESS WIRE) — May 25, 2011 — Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the leading company dedicated to providing comprehensive software solutions for sustaining infrastructure, today introduced at this annual gathering of infrastructure professionals its new AECOsim family of information modeling applications. Software tools from other vendors, despite their individual merits, impede best practices for integrated projects and require users to manage, learn, and transfer data across a disparate combination of independently purposed tools. The premise of AECOsim is that integrated projects benefit from interdisciplinary integration – and that rigor in analysis and simulation, as opposed to merely notional analysis, need not be sacrificed in an information modeling workflow based on full information reuse.

Bentley’s AECOsim family uniquely provides interdisciplinary building design, analysis, and simulation software focused on helping architectural, engineering, and construction professionals deliver high performance, intelligent buildings. AECOsim enables best practices in integrated building systems design and performance simulation, and results in simulations that properly represent design intention and accurately predict the performance of the delivered building. These applications enable architects and engineers to author and use rich information models to:

• predictively design and interactively optimize the performance of building systems, while benefiting from integrated workflows among multiple disciplines – all facilitated by the software’s decision-support capabilities,
• produce high-quality building and project documentation, including by way of Bentley’s new hypermodel innovation, for use throughout the project lifecycle of design, construction, and operations.

They also extend the capabilities of commonly available design tools from Bentley, Autodesk (including AutoCAD and Revit), Graphisoft Archicad, and others through their support of open standards.

Bentley’s AECOsim Compliance Manager software as a service (SaaS) is launching today and immediately available. AECOsim Building Designer and AECOsim Energy Simulator are currently in the course of Bentley’s early adopter programs, through which software becomes field-proven and refined with the assistance of Bentley users. During the remainder of this year they will be available to Bentley SELECT subscribers for their use and review as product previews, followed by general availability.

AECOsim Building Designer

AECOsim Building Designer provides information-rich multidisciplinary models for use as the centerpiece of a building design workflow, as well as for the integration of design simulation, analysis, and documentation. This innovative Building Information Modeling (BIM) application empowers architects and structural, mechanical, and electrical engineers to:

• create the most complex of buildings and constructions with unparalleled design freedom using comprehensive engineering tools in an immersive design environment,
• simulate designs with direct links to analysis applications for interdisciplinary optimization,
• produce photorealistic images and animations,
• generate fully coordinated construction documentation for output as paper or dynamic PDF deliverables,
• interact with drawings in their appropriate 3D context – hypermodels – navigating callout links to enhance and clarify the 3D model, which serves as a spatial index,
• deliver hypermodels, for immersive review, to constructors and owners conveying the design team’s full and best work, and offering integrated-project benefits regardless of the project delivery method.

This single, integrated application includes tools for architectural, structural, mechanical systems, and electrical design as well as construction documentation. At the same time, its users can take full advantage of the many benefits associated with BIM. Among these are an informed work environment that leads to better decisions and better-performing infrastructure, along with lower-cost and faster project execution. In addition, its task-oriented, consistent user interface and compatible data formats improve interdisciplinary coordination, work integration, and tool sharing – enhancing project quality and reducing project risks.

Santanu Das, Bentley vice president, Integrated Engineering Group, said, “AECOsim Building Designer provides users with the ability to work in a multidisciplinary model integrating design, simulation, analysis, and documentation. Distributed project teams will be able to work on large, complex, and comprehensive information models, resulting in the ability to deliver bigger and more finely detailed projects. With the new built-in clash detection capability, users can quickly identify and resolve interference issues directly in the design environment and earlier in the project timeline. AECOsim Building Designer’s unique capabilities should help users reduce project cost, time, and risk, and enhance overall project quality. At the same time, owner-operators benefit from higher returns on their investments.”

AECOsim Energy Simulator

AECOsim Energy Simulator is a rigorous yet intuitive application for the design, simulation, and analysis of building mechanical systems, environmental conditions, and energy performance. Used in both design and retrofit work, the software contributes to better-performing, more-sustainable buildings that consume less energy; provide greater occupant productivity, comfort, and safety; and control lifecycle operational energy costs for their owners.

AECOsim Energy Simulator incorporates the EnergyPlus simulation engine, the emerging standard for the industry developed by the U.S. Department of Energy. AECOsim Energy Simulator allows designers to quickly assess design trade-offs in both new construction and retrofits. It is ideally suited to the needs of engineers, building energy consultants, and designers who determine building energy loads and explore building HVAC systems and design configuration options by simulating and analyzing building energy performance in workflows utilizing commonly available design tools from Bentley, Autodesk (including AutoCAD and Revit), Graphisoft Archicad, and others.