There is a trend towards the integration of geospatial information that involves data creation, design and the representation of information. It applies to a wide range of activities from water to cadastre to building and site design, and it is international in scope. Vector1 Media editor Jeff Thurston spoke with Joe Croser (right) and Richard Zambuni (left) of Bentley Systems, Incorporated about these topics and the challenges ahead for design and data users. That company is providing the tools for this effort, both now and with an eye to the future.
V1 Magazine: What does Bentley mean when it announces ‘Design, Model, Visualise, Document, and Map’ ?
JC: For many infrastructure professionals MicroStation has become the preferred “Software Foundation for Infrastructure Design” because it delivers an integrated and proven suite of intuitive, interactive, and highly interoperable design capabilities to the desktop. These core capabilities enable users to design projects and interoperate with other team members using information from multiple sources; to model the projects intuitively based on common standards and processes; to visualize the designs with a speed and reality previously reserved only for TV and film creatives; to document the designs using interactive drawing composition tools that dynamically and automatically update drawing views, and to map out the global context for all designs with full geo-coordination.
V1 Magazine: Can you provide more details about your modelling tools?
JC: In MicroStation V8i we have integrated many intuitive 3D modelling tools which enable users to take models from concept to completion in the same design environment. Conceptual modeling tools make it easier to intuitively sculpt solids and surfaces, and generative modeling tools make it easier to iterate through many design alternatives. The combined benefit of these intuitive modeling tools for user’s results in increased design productivity, improved information quality, and reduced project rework.
Now for our V8i update – which we call “V8i (SELECTseries 1)” – we are adding a new capability for users to easily and affordably create physical model prototypes through 3d printing support. While some software providers lead you to believe that it is a one click procedure, the fact remains; converting a complex, full scale model to a printable 3D form takes a lot of time without the proper tools to optimize the geometry. So in MicroStation V8i (SELECTseries 1) we concentrated on improving the quality and consistency of 3D printed output, because that is where the most time and money can be saved.
In parallel, and with the first release of MicroStation V8i, we licensed and integrated the iterative Luxology rendering engine to better balance speed and quality for users who need to deliver realistic images in less time as they validate the fit and finish of a project and gain stakeholder buy-in to and secure funding for design alternatives. Key user benefits include reduced render processing times, improved image quality and the elimination of risky and parallel processes.
This is also getting better in the MicroStation V8i (SELECTseries 1) release as we leverage even more advanced capabilities from the Luxology engine and we deliver a new Distributed Rendering engine to give firms the power to utilize all computing power on the network when they need to deliver competition quality renderings and animation on tight deadlines.
V1 Magazine: Where does the documentation capability fit into MicroStation?
JC: Many people use MicroStation to produce design and engineering documentation packages for infrastructure projects. And here’s why: as designs are developed there is a concurrent need for the team to “describe” and “present” the design using different media. I already addressed the need to create models and produce realistic visuals, but that only represents a part of the whole. In sheer number terms by far the largest volume of deliverables created to describe design information is still 2D drawings.
We’ve always been good at pushing these drawings out to paper – and with the new ProjectWise Dynamic Plot solution we moved the bar considerably by intelligently connecting the paper to the original digital source. And for users who need to create electronic documentation we were one of the first infrastructure software vendors to deliver 2D and 3D PDF creation capabilities. Now, To make these PDFs smarter we can include hyperlinks to streamline user navigation between detail and drawing sheets. We can even use ProjectWise InterPlot Organizer to produce integrated documentation packages that include reports, spreadsheets, and other non-CAD engineering documents in the same hyperlinked and bookmarked packages.
V1 Magazine: Can you describe how all this comes together? Please provide an example.
JC: Absolutely. Imagine you need to produce an integrated package of plans, sections, elevations, and construction details for delivery at a given project milestone. The hyper-linking capabilities inside of MicroStation enable any user to create interactive or clickable connections between different electronic drawings and views. Thus any consumer receiving the electronic drawing package, can easily hop between one drawing sheet or view within their PDF viewing application. In essence, we have created a graphical navigation environment to streamline many complex document relationships.
But the big win here is the ability to include other document types in the same package. Microsoft Word and Excel files can also be included and linked. Better still, links can be created for specific headings or sections inside the document to further focus the interactions. It’s really neat stuff.
V1 Magazine: Can you explain ‘dynamic views’ and how they help project participants and the design process?
JC: Last year with MicroStation V8i we introduced dynamic views as a further way to streamline 3D modelling. With the new Dynamic Views built right into MicroStation we leapfrog competing software products by enabling users to work in 2D or 3D views at the same time and see both update dynamically. Users can slice and filter 3d models to remove much clutter from the screen and see only what’s needed in view. And they can automate 2D view updates for full drawing and documentation package coordination. Users that have already adopted MicroStation V8i are now spending less time coordinating plan sets, they are improving the quality of their deliverables, and they are simplifying their 3D modeling experience.
In MicroStation V8i (SELECTseries 1) we have taken Dynamic Views to the next level by further streamlining the model design process and the drawing extraction workflow. Processes that once took a number of clicks now take just one. While that may not seem like much – and clicks and speed don’t light up everyone’s imagination – this is a big advantage for people whose job it is to create and maintain many thousands of drawings per project. The gain is all about scale and as the scale of the task increases so to do the financial benefits of time saved. Which could make the difference between hitting a deadline and missing it.
V1 Magazine: What has inhibited a more rapid adoption of 3D in your view?
JC: A large factor relates to the complexity of 3D models. You see the bigger the model the more detail you create. And as the detail increases your ability to easily work with the model diminishes making the whole experience for some quite overwhelming. That’s one very good reason why we introduced dynamic views – to help users overcome the on-screen complexity by slicing and filtering 3d models to remove the clutter from view.
But there is another good reason why some folks shy away from working in 3d, and that’s the significant and up-front time-investment required to build a 3D model before the more traditional 2D drawings can be extracted. You see, it’s a daunting task that requires deep faith in the process to spend weeks or months on a model while not – at the same time – seeing progress in the drawing department. That in itself kept hesitant users away from model-centric documentation creation.
Now with the introduction of Dynamic Views, we enabled users to – in real time – layout their drawings as they build their models. And because there is no blind-faith required – all changes to the model are immediately reflected in the 2d drawing views – so the fear is overcome as teams’ see the drawings develop concurrently with the model.
V1 Magazine: What is Bentley doing about the geo-referencing of design drawings and related information?
JC: At Bentley we have become quite expert in our ability to work with complex coordinate systems and in the V8i software portfolio we pass on our expertise to our users through elegant new capabilities which we call Geo-Coordination.
MicroStation V8i and its new Geo-Coordination capabilities enable project teams to accurately and quickly coordinate project information from multiple sources, stored in multiple file formats, using multiple coordinate and grid systems. Using MicroStation V8i’s Geo-Coordination tools, project teams can easily and accurately attach vector and raster reference data inside the same file. MicroStation V8i includes OGC Web Map Server underlay’s and concurrently integrates real-time GPS location information inside the same MicroStation design environment.
In MicroStation V8i (SELECTseries 1), we have added new and innovate ways to leverage geospatial data from ESRI SHP files. In addition users can now publish and reference Adobe Geospatial PDF files as part of their workflows.
Infrastructure professionals really do benefit from improved information coordination. They get to save time by reusing data in its native format, they get to increase information quality by enhancing its richness, and they get to reduce the risk of errors on site.
V1 Magazine: Have designers always been interested in geo-coordinated data?
JC: Good question. I think you – and the designers – may be a little shocked by the answer, but “yes” I do think they have necessarily been interested for a long, long time, but perhaps never gave it a name.
I don’t think that the term “geospatial” has ever really been applied by designers to design work, even though every project is geospatially located somewhere. And as designers never really embraced geospatial coordination, their approach to resolving different coordinate systems generally resulted in hit-or-miss re-invention on every desktop. That was a time consuming and risky approach to essential information coordination.
So how, you might wonder, have designers solved their age-old coordination issues? The answer is not very reliably. In the days of on-site construction it didn’t really matter, everything was made to fit one way or another as it was cut to size on site. But with new pre-fabrication processes occurring off-site before the various parts are assembled and erected on site, every single tolerance is scrutinized, or else nothing fits. And that costs money and may badly impact a tight project schedule.
An organized team always looks for ways around the coordination issue and many settle on their own “made-up” solutions for every project. This all works fine so long as everyone follows the rules. But when the rules dictate that 0,0 is the bottom left hand corner of the building, and there are 10 different buildings on the site, the process of accurately locating each building on one site is made much harder than it needs to be.
It’s for these folks, and others, that we put Geo-Coordination into the design environment. With the Geo-Coordination tools architects can easily and seamlessly coordinate their information with the various engineer’s information. The whole building model can be accurately located with other site data, and the site can be easily aligned with the roads and utilities and so on. All the problems of coordination magically vanish. That’s a great thing and it’s something that most CAD software just can’t emulate.
V1 Magazine: Do you think these software capabilities are changing workflows in infrastructure design and construction?
JC: Yes for sure. As software enables greater coordination across disciplines, infrastructure professionals are free to make their software selections based on individual needs rather than project consensus. It means that the best software will overcome the most prevalent, as users are more free to choose the best product. We know that’s a win-win – for our users, and for us.
V1 Magazine: Does this relate to GML then? Is there a connection here?
RZ: It really goes beyond GML – although we support GML as an industry standard in Bentley Map V8i (SELECTseries 1). We can deliver any engineering project with full geo-referencing through MicroStation. For advanced 3D geospatial workflows, such as 3D City GIS initiatives, you need a product that allows you to leverage the power of MicroStation and its ability to deliver the accuracy of a CAD design environment, together with the ability to draw on spatial and other data wherever it resides to support (3D) geospatial workflows. And this is exactly where Bentley Map comes in to play. At the enterprise level we can serve up data for editing in Bentley Map through access to structured spatial data and other unstructured, non-spatial data with Bentley Geospatial Server. In our experience it is important to support industry standards and to give engineers and mapping or GIS specialists access to all the different data they need to support their workflows. There is no doubt that after many false dawns large-scale 3D mapping projects are now going mainstream.
Bentley Map V8i (SELECTseries 1) has some powerful new capabilities in addition to the support for the OGC’s GML standard for exchanging spatial information. Bentley Map now has a 3D Smart Editing tool to make the editing of 3D objects intuitive and very fast, it supports Oracle Spatial 3D objects, it can publish i-models for review by ProjectWise Navigator, and there are enhanced polygon split/merge capabilities.
V1 Magazine: How does all of this information come together for a 3D model?
JC: Well Richard just touched on that a moment ago when he mentioned “i-model” and “ProjectWise Navigator.” Both fall into our strategy for substantially revolutionising design and project review.
An i-model is the market’s most information-rich file format available for design review. A key strength and competitive differentiator is in its ability to combine 2D and 3D model geometry and business attribute data from multiple sources in a single lightweight file. Furthermore, every i-model is self-aware – knowing which files were used to create it, and when – and it is self-describing so it requires no source application logic to redisplay all content. We refer to this self-awareness as “provenance.”
Unlike competing offerings, each i-model delivers unquestionably reliable content – with complete engineering precision – and is protected by industrial strength security wrappers to prevent misuse. And every one is optimized for purpose to ensure full portability between compatible software products to provide users with the very best interactive experience.
In realizing the need for such a rich, reliable, and optimized file we scoured the market to find the right one to use. After an extensive search we found none that could do what our broad user base needed. None could deliver files with such fidelity, none even claimed to be as reliable, and none have managed to optimize their content for performance while retaining complete engineering precision. That’s why we wrote our own.
ProjectWise Navigator is the software product we produced for users to consume and augment i-models throughout the review and mark-up workflow. ProjectWise Navigator delivers a broad set of capabilities for users to interact with i-models in a single desktop product. This single product approach will help users save thousands of software dollars as they can now interactively section review models, mark-up designs with comments, measure from accurate engineering content, resolve design clashes, simulate construction and planning schedules, and produce 2d and 3d PDFs all from the same desktop software for a fraction of the costs they are paying other vendors today.
But that’s not all. ProjectWise Navigator and our i-model strategy gets a whole lot better when rolled out in a ProjectWise managed environment to enable what we call “dynamic review.”
V1 Magazine: Can you explain more about dynamic review?
JC: Sure. Dynamic review is the term we have applied to a new process which is enabled through our ProjectWise collaboration system.
But let’s start with the “why?” Ordinary design review workflows have poor change management processes which rely upon a manual process for publishing content to a single model for design review. Comments are applied in an ad-hoc, unmanaged fashion, and they are stored in a way which is divorced from source content. This means that it’s impossible for team members to know if the right people have had the right information. With Dynamic Review, we eliminate the manual publishing steps, we capture all comments and synchronize them with the source data for reuse, and we record a complete history of user interaction so that everyone can see who did what and when.
We are uniquely positioned to enable Dynamic Review because of our services-oriented strategy for ProjectWise. And we achieve this revolutionary process by integrating of a number of integrated ProjectWise content services for management, publishing, automation, extraction, transformation, rendering, and review. These combined services are then orchestrated to streamline and manage the process of change and leverage the provenance built into every i-model.
Our first real dynamic review product was the ProjectWise Dynamic Plot software which we launched in May 2009. Just like the i-model a dynamic plot has provenance and retains all knowledge about its source and the state of the source at the point of creation. We now refer to this approach of revolutionizing paper drawing mark-ups – in the context of dynamic review – as dynamic review for paper. And we are starting to think of i-models and ProjectWise Navigator – in the context of dynamic review – as dynamic review for models.
Firms of all shapes and sizes are already clamouring to embrace dynamic review workflows as they look to replace their poor change management process with reliable change management processes to reduce their project risk. They are hungry to replace inaccurate, incomplete, and inflexible models with reusable and precise information to save time and eliminate rework. And they are urgently seeking a replacement to their existing and non-integrated software products which are a drain on software and financial resources.
We are very excited as you can tell, as we are quite convinced that in dynamic review we finally have the solution.
V1 Magazine: Can you comment on your work in wastewater and water infrastructure? What is new there?
RZ: For Bentley, the Middle East is the fastest growing area for our water and wastewater products. This growth is driven by a combination of strong population growth and rising living standards. And, in the Middle East it is important to manage the whole water and wastewater cycle with high competence because of the scarcity of the commodity itself. Our core products for wastewater systems design and modeling are SewerCAD and SewerGEMS. For example SewerGEMS V8i (SELECTseries 1), which uses a dynamic wave solver, is now also able to use the Gradually Varied Flow solver with hydrologic routing previously only used in SewerCAD. This means that SewerGEMS modelers can now use the powerful and easy-to-use Automatic Design features. And as always, SewerGEMS users can work in the ArcGIS environment as well as AutoCAD, MicroStation, and standalone mode. There are also improvements to WaterCAD and WaterGEMS (our water distribution systems design and modeling products) in V8i (SELECTseries 1), with a new GIS-ID property (also available in SewerCAD and SewerGEMS) that maintains the association between the source file and elements in the model. In addition, there are performance enhancements for all-pipe models, a new air release valve element (that handles pumping over high points more accurately) and the ability to export files (in KML) to Google Earth for viewing.
V1 Magazine: You recently won an award for your cadastral products in the Middle East – Emirate of Sharjah’s Directorate of Town Planning and Survey, United Arab Emirates. Can you describe that work?
RZ: This was a major win for us against Intergraph’s GeoMedia product. Our ability to work natively with Oracle Spatial was key to the win. This allowed the client to operate a non-proprietary database that could be leveraged by many Bentley products. Another key element in winning this project was the ability to deliver a team collaboration environment with Bentley Geospatial Server (which is based on ProjectWise). The structured and secure workflows that Bentley Geospatial Server supports not only deliver improved workflows internally, but they also provide a structured and secure environment in which to share or receive information from contractors for e.g. survey work.
It has taken us a while to see widespread adoption of Bentley Cadastre but the win at the Department of Town Planning and Survey in the Emirate of Sharjah is not the only major win featuring Bentley Cadastre in recent months. We have also just won a major project in Australia with the Department of Planning and Infrastructure (DPI) for the Northern Territory that involves the use of Bentley Cadastre with Bentley Geospatial Server. The DPI is also using Bentley Descartes for imaging and document conversion, and Bentley CADscript for map finishing and publishing. These wins, along with the win at the City of Prague (Czech Republic) are great examples of how the Bentley geospatial solution is often being deployed in its entirety and all of these projects use the non-proprietary Oracle Spatial database.
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Joe Croser and Richard Zambuni are employed at Bentley Systems, Incorporated.
