Bhupinder Singh began his presentation by discussing the software development strategies that set Bentley apart from other vendors. Said Singh, “With our V8i SELECTseries, we deliver to our users continuous innovation without the disruption normally associated with software upgrades and enhancements. V8i innovations include improved collaborative workflows, by way of Bentley Navigator V8i for iterative project review and advances in information modeling such as model documentation. Together, these provide users better coordination during design and construction, earlier identification of conflicts and integrated clash resolution with Bentley design applications, improved civil visualization, and point cloud referencing and manipulation – to help them deliver lower-cost and better-performing infrastructure.”

In announcing the release of a new Navigator web part, Singh explained that users can publish key formats, including DGN, DWG, Revit, PDS, or PDMS, into i-models (containers for open infrastructure information exchange) and view their 3D models or 2D drawings in a web browser. This capability empowers even casual project participants to easily explore and manipulate models. The wider communication reduces project risk and improves project quality.

Singh also described or demonstrated many of the innovations included in the V8i (SELECTseries 3) versions of Bentley Navigator and ProjectWise, which are scheduled for release by the end of 2010. The innovations include improvements in interoperability, work-sharing for international teams, and mobile design review tools – each of which makes design and construction data more accessible to all members of extended project teams.

Specific enhancements to Bentley Navigator V8i (SELECTseries 3) include:

• support for Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), enabling IFC files to be opened natively. Bentley users can also publish IFC files into i-models. In both cases, the geometry and intelligence in Building Information Models delivered in IFC format can be reused in design review workflows without the cost and risk of error-prone translations;
• clash result groupings. By easily grouping clashes together based on user-defined criteria, Navigator now helps project teams focus on the set of clashes being reviewed, speeding project review sessions and improving team communications;
• bidirectional dynamic scheduling that automatically synchronizes schedule changes between Navigator and scheduling software such as Microsoft Project and Oracle’s Primavera. This new upgrade saves time and reduces the chances of teams working with out-of-date scheduling information;
• improvements in workflows and reporting for constructors who need to not only detect conflicts, but also to resolve them, through dynamic collaboration. This enables them to more quickly prepare a model for construction;
• new markup templates. The ability to customize markup reports using organizational or client standards facilitates the production of consistent project documentation;
• the ability to export clash result reports in GPX format. This innovative feature enables field workers using GPS devices to download clash reports to easily find the actual location of clashes. This is particularly valuable when doing field inspections on large geographically distributed projects like highway designs.

New innovations in ProjectWise V8i (SELECTseries 3) include:

• the Navigator web part, which enables 2D and 3D i-models to be viewed and explored through a browser or Microsoft SharePoint 2010 portal. This thin-client model review tool provides easy access for users, simple administration for IT departments, and secure access to drawings and models for distributed design review teams;
• support for AutoCAD and Revit 2011, including 64-bit versions. This increasingly empowers projects and firms using Revit to benefit from ProjectWise to manage design and construction information, and to streamline information sharing throughout integrated project teams;
• dramatic performance enhancements for work-sharing across high latency networks typically found in construction projects and with international teams. The improvements complement and enhance the accelerated file access delivered with ProjectWise delta file transfer in V8i by minimizing network delays and maximizing network bandwidth. Accelerated access to project information lets organizations employ their best talent on projects, regardless of geographic location, reducing travel costs, maximizing employee utilization, and speeding the exchange of project information;
• new tools that speed the process of setting up projects and defining user permissions. Time can be saved commissioning new projects through improved ease of use and the ability to delegate certain administrative tasks for approved team members.

Singh also announced the release of ProjectWise Dynamic Plot V8i (SELECTseries 2), which creates an intelligent link between paper plots and digital models, shrinking the time required to synchronize written comments and digital data from days to seconds. With paper plots and digital models always in sync, markup and review workflows become error-free, mitigating project risk. With this new release, dynamic plots can be created from any PDF file, as well as from design files, extending the value of this dynamic workflow to virtually all project documents. Support has also been added for dynamic plots to be published to PDFs, so they can be easily shared with remote offices for local hard-copy production, reducing shipping charges and saving time.

Commenting on his firm’s use of ProjectWise Dynamic Plot, Mo Harmon, vice president, Design Support Manager, HNTB Corporation, an employee-owned infrastructure firm serving federal, state, municipal, military and private clients, said, “ProjectWise Dynamic Plot is playing a key role in seamlessly integrating HNTB’s QA/QC process with design and production workflows without any disruptive learning curves. Our senior staff that are not necessarily CADD-savvy, can easily perform design reviews and have their input immediately integrated into our ProjectWise production environment, enabling faster, more accurate design review, with reduced risk of miscommunications, and cost savings on shipping.”