Bentley Users Give Thumbs Up to V8i Updates for MicroStation, ProjectWise, and Navigator During Test Drives at 'Be Together Conference'

PHILADELPHIA, May 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Be Together: The Be Communities LIVE Conference -- Architects, engineers, constructors, geospatial professionals, and CAD managers gathered in Philadelphia this week to connect, communicate, and learn from each other at this interactive user event sponsored by Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the leading company dedicated to providing comprehensive software solutions for the infrastructure that sustains our world. They also came to get hands-on experience with the newest offerings in Bentley's software portfolio, including the V8i (SELECTseries 2) versions of MicroStation, ProjectWise, and Navigator. V8i (SELECTseries 2) supports and extends the resilience of today's practitioners, empowering them to move up to information-modeling levels. Bentley's SELECTseries approach to software updates, new to V8i, facilitates such work process improvements without the disruption, cost, and risk of competitors' mandated upgrade policies.

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In particular, V8i SELECTseries updates:

• assure compatibility with and across all V8i products and prior SELECTseries updates, easing software administration;
• apply and leverage new horizontal technologies (such as SharePoint 2010 and touch screens) for infrastructure practitioners;
• serve to mainstream once-specialist technologies (such as Luxology for rendering and Pointools for referencing point cloud datasets) for widespread adoption.

Commenting on V8i (SELECTseries 2), Bhupinder Singh, senior vice president, Bentley Software, said, "With V8i (SELECTseries 2) updates for MicroStation, ProjectWise, and Navigator, our SELECTseries approach is really hitting its stride by delivering valuable innovations to users across all disciplines and project types while streamlining adoption. To take advantage of new computing environments, V8i (SELECTseries 2) provides users with supported implementations for Windows 7 and SharePoint 2010, and is "Citrix Ready" for application virtualization. And, with V8i (SELECTseries 2), our platform now incorporates, for all applications and users, state-of-the-art licensed technologies – introducing the Pointools Vortex engine for referencing point clouds, significant Luxology visualization enhancements, and RealDWG 2010 libraries for increased interoperability."

As attendees at Be Together filled the demo workshops and "LIVE Zone" test drive areas, they quickly discovered that V8i (SELECTseries 2) has much to offer.

Designers working in the context of existing conditions benefit from new point cloud capabilities in MicroStation V8i (SELECTseries 2). Point cloud datasets captured by 3D laser scanning and comprising billions of points can be referenced and manipulated at super-fast speeds inside Bentley design applications. This means time need no longer be wasted modeling context.

Designers can also take advantage of the new Clash Resolution Visa, applicable to both MicroStation and Navigator, to identify and resolve conflicts in the design phase, before construction starts. This is essential to avoiding costly on-site errors, which requires not merely finding and viewing interferences, but also making and tracking the appropriate design changes.

Project reviewers can now immerse themselves in the virtual model for iterative project review inside Bentley's Navigator. V8i (SELECTseries 2) enables bi-directional dynamic scheduling, so teams can edit the project schedule in either the original scheduling software or Navigator – with changes automatically updated in both environments. And thanks to the step-change performance gains in Navigator V8i (SELECTseries 2), users now enjoy a more "game-like" experience.

Projects with mixed software needs can now apply ProjectWise for data and standards management to Revit models. This solves the big-Revit-file problem faced when changes must be saved over the WAN to the central Revit model in "work-sharing" mode.

Project managers responsible for defining and tracking project requirements can, for the first time, create and manage dependencies between different disciplines and content through the new ProjectWise Dependency Service visual interface. This improves the quality of decisions, mitigates risks associated with change propagation, and reduces the cost of change.

By taking advantage of the SharePoint 2010 integration with ProjectWise, IT directors can connect platforms for business collaboration and AEC project team collaboration. This provides federated search access and streamlines project delivery processes.

IT and CAD managers responsible for software delivery and maintenance will benefit from an Automatic SELECTseries Update Service, announced this week at the conference, that will be available in the near future. This will offer non-disruptive incremental SELECTseries installations that will ensure users always have access to the latest innovations from Bentley.

During the conference's technology keynote, infrastructure practitioners saw innovations from Bentley that will transform their information modeling experience. Shown first was model documentation, which leverages dynamic views to place annotated drawings in real-world locations within models for interactive navigation. To directly connect the user with his or her work, by supplanting the mouse and keyboard with human touch, Bentley previewed this groundbreaking technology in a Windows 7 Multi-Touch environment, truly delivering immersive project review.

For the construction managers tasked with on-time and on-budget project delivery, V8i (SELECTseries 2) offerings deliver enormous advantage. Radhika Menon, CIO, DPR Construction, Inc., ranked in the top 50 general contractors in the United States over the last 10 years, had this to say about the new capabilities included in the latest version of ProjectWise V8i: "We currently utilize ProjectWise in 32 projects, across more than 1,300 users, representing $3 billion in construction costs alone. As most of the design data we currently manage is Revit based, ProjectWise V8i (SELECTseries 2) with Revit integration, as well as Delta File Transfer, will further enhance our Revit community by incorporating their workflows with supercharged network performance. ProjectWise has been tremendous in helping us collaborate with our business partners."

Laura Handler, director of Virtual Design and Construction, Tocci Building Corporation, a leader in virtual design and construction and integrated project delivery, said, "We are so impressed with the capability and potential of ProjectWise Navigator V8i (SELECTseries 2) that we compare its value-add to sophisticated model authoring tools, rather than other reviewing tools. It is the collaborative software we need to push our next generation of BIM and integrated project delivery projects."

For additional information about V8i (SELECTseries 2) software, visit www.bentley.com/products.

About Be Together: The Be Communities LIVE Conference

Be Together: The Be Communities LIVE Conference, taking place this week at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, enables the architects, engineers, constructors, geospatial professionals, and CAD managers who regularly exchange ideas virtually on the Be Communities professional networking site to connect, communicate, and learn from each other in person. In addition, guided by Bentley product experts, attendees acquire knowledge critical to the adoption of an information-modeling level of practice as they earn Bentley Institute Learning Units to track time invested in professional development. The conference hosts nine sub-conferences: Roads and Bridges, Structural, Water, Geospatial, Utilities and Communications, Buildings, Plant, Applied Research Seminar, and MicroStation and ProjectWise. For additional information about the conference, visit www.bentley.com/BeTogether.

About Bentley Systems, Incorporated

Bentley is the global leader dedicated to providing architects, engineers, constructors, and owner-operators with comprehensive software solutions for sustaining infrastructure. Founded in 1984, Bentley has nearly 3,000 colleagues in more than 45 countries, $500 million in annual revenues, and, since 1999, has invested more than $1 billion in research, development, and acquisitions.

For additional information about Bentley, visit www.bentley.com. To view Bentley's May 2010 Annual Report, visit www.bentley.com/annualreport. To subscribe to an RSS feed of Bentley press releases and news alerts, visit www.bentley.com/rss/news. To view a searchable collection of innovative infrastructure projects from the annual Be Inspired Awards, visit www.bentley.com/yearininfrastructure. For information about Be Communities, a professional networking site that enables members of the infrastructure community to connect, communicate, and learn from each other, visit http://communities.bentley.com.

Bentley, the "B" Bentley logo, Be, Bentley SELECT, SELECT, MicroStation, ProjectWise, and Be Communities are either registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks of Bentley Systems, Incorporated or one of its direct or indirect wholly owned subsidiaries. All other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE Bentley Systems, Incorporated