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Industry News
Be Inspired – Infrastructure Fever and Thought Leadership in Amsterdam
By Susan Smith

Be Inspired, Bentley Systems’ awards event for its finalists and winners in various categories of infrastructure, is an inspiring event no matter where it is held. This year, however, the event was held in Amsterdam, at the Hotel Okura, the week of October 16-21. Sixty journalists were among the 400 or so invited to attend the Conference.

The way the Be Inspired Conference is set up is as follows: unlike the basic user event, this is a conference celebrating the achievements of the finalists for the Be Inspired Awards of the current year. A maximum of three finalists in each category were chosen and invited to present their project in breakout sessions called “Thought Leadership Presentations.”

All technologies at Bentley are designed to solve an infrastructure challenge, whether they are architectural, engineering, structural, plant and process, transportation or geospatial. The award finalists demonstrated how different Bentley products are integrated together to solve big infrastructure problems. And of course, not only Bentley tools are used: most projects involve a lot of legacy data in various software and file formats. Many finalists were also early adopters of Bentley technology.

Emphasized in categories such as “Connecting Project Teams” is how disparate data is pulled together into project management using Bentley products such as ProjectWise, Navigator, and AssetWise. Other categories such as Visualization show how a project can be illustrated so that stakeholders can better understand what the intended impact of a structure might be. The Building category demonstrates how Bentley tools are used to design and construct a particular type of building.

The contest was run a little differently this year: jurors attended the presentations in the categories they were judging, in order to see if any of their choices changed when they saw the presentations. The presentations then also counted in the final judging, unless of course, the winning finalists were unable to attend.

Water, Water Everywhere

For me, coming from New Mexico to a land that is literally under water is a novelty. The Netherlands is known for its infrastructure – the country has depended on windmills and dykes that keep land and sea separate for centuries. COO Malcolm Walter said in Tuesday's keynote that without infrastructure to pump water and keep it at bay, everything would be under water.

A past Dutch award winner was mentioned - the Float Over Vyborg project in North Korea. This year Dutch finalists included the $60 million expansion of the Vopak Tank Terminal Expansion, and sustainable site operation with SiteView infrastructure and asset management from Sitech Services.

Senior vice president, Bentley Software, Bhupinder Singh, talked about the challenge of improving and expanding global infrastructure. He spoke of Luxology tools now inside the MicroStation environment, with point clouds in MicroStation and Navigator as well as other products.

Model synchronization was a new term used. Singh noted that dynamic collaboration is synchronous, bidirectional and can be real time. IFCs and other standards don’t support how design changes over time the temporal process, he said. Some features of model synchronization include - federation, consensus model, and collaboration services.

i-models are being used to share information with others. I-model plugins are available for DWG Revit, PDMS and PDS. By the end of 2010, Singh said you will be able to view i-models on the web, and they will be integrated into ProjectWise. 

For construction, effective risk management is key for contractors, and workflows are typically fragmented and involve many people. i-models, ProjectWise and the movement to BIM will help.  I-models can be assembled in Navigator. ConstructSim can be used for  “workface” planning which Singh says is “the future.” It can do visualizations, and bring in data from various sources.

Bentley Infrastructure 500

In a press briefing on Wednesday (see at GISCafe Today) CEO Greg Bentley introduced the launch of the Bentley Infrastructure 500 – modeled after Fortune 500 – which would identify Bentley customers who are especially successful. Bentley said their business represents $13 trillion in revenue.

This determination is made based on reported net tangible fixed assets – “the balance sheet view of the infrastructure. “ 

Most top candidates are private companies, coming from geographically diverse locations - all over the world. 

Bentley went on to say that “flat” pretty much describes Bentley’s financial growth right now.

Revenues went down almost 10% in 2009. In 2010 to date, revenues have been reported to be “within sight of 2008 revenues. By the end of the year Bentley predicts their run rate will be back to what it was before 2009. “Maybe our organic growth is the new growth,” he said.

New Bentley Products

New Bentley products coming up:  

- The V8i portfolio extends through various disciplines and operations.

- OpenPlant Modeler extends breadth of applications offerings.

- Navigator v8i addresses information modeling in construction – constructors want to resolve conflicts with “dynamic collaboration”. New functionality in upcoming release will deliver bidirectional schedule synchronization with Microsoft Project or Primavera and introduces new markup templates.

- 3D cities requires the ability to relate information together in a BIM model.

- Civil Engineer for Geotechnical Analysis passport subscription – geotechnical professionals will get to pick from a variety of modules from a dashboard - cantilever wall, spread footing, slope stability, etc.

- ProjectWise v8i SelectSeries 3 introduces a Navigator web part to view i-models in a browser or SharePoint 2010 web parts.

- ProjectWise Dynamic Plot v8i SelectSeries 2 enables dynamic plots to be published from PDFs as well as from DGNS and DWGs.

-ConstructSIM will be integrated with ProjectWise Navigator in the next release.

- Bentley Substation v8i is a standalone application with deeper integration with ProjectWise to increase enterprise support for i-models. It also includes embedded point cloud capability.

- Bentley Pipe Renewal Planner

Presentations

It was impossible to see all the presentations as there were two blocks running concurrently. I’ve picked out some here that were interesting. More infrastructure is being built outside the U.S. right now, which might account for the fact that most of the winners were from firms and countries outside the U.S., or U.S. companies working in other countries.

In the category “Innovation in Construction,” PT McDermott Indonesia faced unexpected costs and an extremely tight schedule on a high profile oil processing platform project.

Innovation in Structural Engineering winner Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort in Singapore is truly an exercise in integration with its multiple use structures – several separate projects - connected together.

AO2 Architecture Office
Zlin, Czech Republic
Winner "Innovation in Visualization"
The A02-Architecture Office in Zlin, Czech Republic takes the prize for “Innovation in Visualization” with its depiction of a renovation of two industrial buildings into a gallery, museum and library.

In “Innovation in Utilities,” two finalists (one being the winner) were from China, the other from Germany. The scope of those projects is indicative of the potential for future technologies, particularly in emerging economies such as China and other parts of Asia, where Greg Bentley said there is no recession.

In the category “Connecting Project Teams,” winner Crossrail Limited’s Malcolm Taylor talked about the integration of geospatial into the ambitious project of creating a new Crossrail system for the city of London.

Below are descriptions of some of the presentations:

Innovation in Construction

PT McDermott Indonesia won in this category with their Cuu Long Su Tu Vang Project, Mekong Basin, Vietnam.

Su Tu Vang means “gold lion” in Vietnamese. The Su Tu Vang Central Processing Platform project off the coast of Vietnam included a 4,400 ton, eight-jet jacket; 17,000-ton floatover topsides, 66 person, 1,323-ton living quarters; pipelines, umbilicals and manifolds. The project encompassed integrated engineering, procurement, construction and installation and had to be completed on an extremely tight schedule, with unexpected cost escalation before construction. This was “a strategic project with high visibility and economic importance to the Vietnam economy,” explained project manager Joseph Anand.

Anand said that they suffered a shortage of qualified manpower, heavily booked fabrication facilities, and there were significant backlogs among industry equipment suppliers. Steel costs nearly doubled before they broke ground on the project.

Their strategy involved a virtual, integrated team, it was an EPCI job with flexibility. They standardized as much as possible, and integrated the 3D model with ConstructSIM.

PT McDermott did all modeling in PDMS, directly from ConstructSIM, and did piping in ConstructSIM. This data was downloaded into PIMs information modeling system where piping fabrication can be visually displayed.

Being able to see progress visually in ConstructSIM helped them cut the schedule time and focus on structural design. They got the steel ready ahead of time and finished two weeks ahead of schedule. The project was completed in 2008.

Structural Engineering

The Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort in Singapore, winner in the Structural Engineering category, is really a series of smaller projects: it encompasses convention facilities on a waterfront promenade, events plaza, multi-level retail arcade, three hotel towers, skypark across a park, “Lion Bridge” and two theaters. A “wave-form” podium roof and canopy structure the size of a football field encloses the buildings.

Awarded to Arup Singapore in June 2006, the project costs were $5.5 million in Singapore dollars. At the height of the project, Arup employed 15 3D modelers and drew in designers from other Arup offices around the globe. Partners on the project included Moshe Safdie Associates, Aedas Architects, Parsons Brinkerhoff and Marina Bay Sands Project Management.

The Lion Bridge spans 55 meters, and supports the cantilever action of that canopy. It measures 120 meters in one direction, 110 in another. Arup used Bentley’s reference management technologies to divide the model up into manageable parts, which could then be brought together for review and class detection.

As structural engineers were dealing with complex geometry with each tower made of individual blocks, they were able to use GenerativeComponents to parametrically model the steel structures and modify variables.

Communicating through Visualization

Not present to present or to pick up their award was Competition Proposal Cultural Centre Zlin, Zlin, Czech Republic, for their international architectural competition entry, the A02-Architecture Office. The office is a cultural and education center located in Zlin. Two industrial buildings are to be renovated for public use and converted into a museum, library and gallery.

For the design and visualization, A02 used MicroStation and Luxology for rendering.

Innovation in Utilities

Central Southern China Electric Power Design Institute (CSEPDI) represented by project manager Bailu Quan, spoke about the Jiangxia 500 kV Transformer Substation located in the Wuhan city center, where they use the relatively new Bentley Substation v8i. The $59 million project was the winner in this category.

Central Southern China Electric Power Design Institute
Jiangxia 500 kV Transformer Substation
Winner "Utility Transmission & Distribution Networks"
Originally, Quan said they introduced a test project with a total investment RMB 400 million, and the project investment return rate was 7.71%.

CSEPDI’s strategy employed a combination of MicroStation J, v8i and Substation v8i to measure the minimum distance of bodies, by doing a collision check of a spheres’ electric distance. Quan said it was much easier to do an air clearance check using 3D, and they saved on land and materials by using this technology.

They have used the same technology at the Qingdao Converter Station. The converter station with the greatest capacity is Ylong Converter Station, at 7200 MW. There CSEPDI used Bentley Substation, MicroStation, Bentley Architecture, Bentley Structural, STAADPro, GEOPAK, Inroads, Navigator, and ProjectWise.

“China is fast developing,” said Quan. “The scale of these projects is mind boggling – new technology from Bentley is in full scale production. Substation was only launched a year ago.”

Imp GmbH of Germany’s Carsten Lipinski spoke on “Reliable Point Cloud Modeling of Substations.” He said they use 3D laser scanning for asset data capture, design and management as well as for electronic towers.

“Europe is building up windpower at the North Sea, and no one lives there so they have to transport materials and build parts there,” said Lipinski. “We use Bentley Substation, MicroStation and ProjectWise.”

Lipinski made a case for how point cloud modeling can be used very effectively for retrofit projects. After the Berlin Wall came down, people found most of the building plans were Russian or East German. Lipinski said they don’t touch the old plans, it is cheaper and more accurate to go with the point cloud.

“It’s a dream to have point cloud and the 3D model together,” Lipinski said. 

Costs involved for 1 crew 2 people doing a point cloud capture for one substation equals approximately 8,000 euros. Laser equipment is cheap right now at less than 40,000 euros, “but you need people who know what they’re doing and the right software,” said Lipinski.

State Nuclear Electric Power Planning Design and Research Institute (SNPDRI)

Located in Beijing, China, SNPDRI business focuses on developing nuclear power projects and thermal power projects, and on nuclear power and R&D. “Our goal is to develop intellectual property rights to promote reform of the energy structure in China,” said Zhu Li, director of Engineering Center for SNPDRI.

The company has signed cooperation agreements with companies in other countries and entered into a strategic partnership with two Chinese companies.

SNPDRI has developed a technology platform for a large capacity thermal power project and for the trans-regional interconnected power grid. In addition, SNPDRI has participated in national major science and technology special programs research which span from the year 2006 to 2020.

The Ningdong – Shandong 660kV HVDC transmission project -+ 660kV level is the first power HVDC transmission project in the world, according to Li. The total investment in this project is $400 million.

SNPDRI has adopted an advanced 3D design platform to address a number of technological obstacles.

For digital engineering in the first trial application in the transformer substation design project, they used MicroStation, Substation, Bentley Architecture, Bentley Structural, BBMS, and GEOPAK.

The new technology encompasses the following requirements:

• Digital engineering
• Database is core of system
• 3D model is core
• Precision
• Shortening the engineering cycle
• Whole life memory

The Substation v8i design platform allowed omission/error checkout, soft/collision checkout and increased engineering efficiency, according to Li. They used GEOPAK for the triangle generation network. “Using Bentley software we only needed nine days to design the substation,” said Li. 

The work for this project was divided between different four design institutes, because everyone was eager to participate, Li said.

This was the first time SNPDRI had used Bentley software and wanted to see what it could do. The owners demanded the visualization and details provided by the infrastructure 3D model and now it is a requirement for all transformer substations.

Li said the used some specifications from manufacturers, and saved all the information for the 660V project, as there are “a lot of different components used in this type of project.”

Connecting Project Teams

Crossrail Limited

Malcolm Taylor, head of technical support services for Crossrail Limited, gave a guest keynote address on their work building a “world class building information management system.” Crossrail ended up winning the “Connecting Project Teams” category, with the other finalists also Crossrail projects.

“Data is the blood that runs through Crossrail veins,” said Taylor.  With construction starting next year, the Crossrail project will take eight years to complete.

To tackle a project of this size, Taylor said they had to create an integrated design facilitating multidisciplinary collaboration through the life of the project, which becomes the base for an asset management system, namely, in this case, Bentley AssetWise.

Mapping is a big part of crossrail – Taylor said they didn’t know that the Olympics was to be in London when they started the project, but they have to make sure that the event doesn’t impact the continuity of the Crossrail.

“The way we use data is going to change all the way through these different processes,” said Taylor. Crossrail will put 3D mapping and aerial photography on the London survey grid primary control including building surveys, topographical, below and above the ground data, point clouds and laser scan surveys, radar surveys, hand trace and tag surveys (rail), graphics plus associated database), environmental statement/plans, FLAB (property that Crossrail is going around, through or near – taking into account impact on land acquisitions and define boundaries in terms of what’s below and above ground and around).

Crossrail Maps will be instrumental in pulling all this information together and seeing how it fits. They will use CAD standards BS 1192:2007 to ensure consistency.

Crossrail has 30 teams currently at the design stage, and will probably have about 85 construction teams, said Taylor. They are using to date ProjectWise, Enterprise Bridge (eB), MicroStation and CloudWorx.

“Configuration management is how business requirements are driving asset information,” Taylor said. Change of design can have change effect, and for this they use eB.

The environmental impact of this project is huge. Ultimately 20,000 people will be using public transportation, and will take about 30,000 car journeys off the street. The amount of carbon saved is estimated at 100,000-200,000 tons a year. Over 200k meter per month at peak of excavated material must be taken out of Crossrail. “We take about 2/3 of excavated material from stations and tunnels to Essex to Wallasea Island where we are creating a 1500 acre wetland preserve, the largest in the last 50 years,” said Taylor.

Crossrail is taking into account the need for getting information to the public, as the project will impact 700 schools, heritage buildings, existing wildlife, the biggest archeological dig in London taking place right now, and will increase transit and rail use in London by 10%. It will generate approximately 200,000 passengers a year and create new jobs in the future.

Extraordinary Engineering Accomplishment Award

Codelco of Chile won this award for their extraordinary rescue of the 33 Chilean miners. No Bentley products were used in this rescue effort. Alfredo Castrejon, Bentley’s vice president of Latin America, said, “Bentley recognizes extraordinary accomplishments in sustaining infrastructure; in this case, in sustaining life itself.”

GISWeekly Be Inspired coverage

2010 Be Award Winners and Finalists

Top News of the Week

Code and government officials meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina voted to improve the 2012 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) standard by 30% beyond the 2006 IECC as called for by Architecture 2030, and by a large coalition including the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National Association of State Energy Officials, congressional officials and the broad-based Energy Efficient Codes Coalition (EECC) of which Architecture 2030 is a member.

The AutoCAD WS Plug-ins for AutoCAD and the AutoCAD LT both 2010 and 2011 releases and product family are now live and available for download at AutoCAD WS Download

Alliances, Agreements, Acquisitions

Oracle announced that it has made a strategic investment in Mellanox Technologies, Ltd., a supplier of end-to-end connectivity solutions for servers and storage systems, to further align product vision and maximize partnership efforts.

CTC Inc., the upper-Midwest’s provider of building information modeling solutions,  announced that it has partnered with Eagle Point Software Corporation to offer their Revit add-on programs.

Announcements

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)  announced the launch of the new CDP Cities program, which will provide a system for cities worldwide to report on their greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related strategies. CDP Cities, in partnership with the C40 and the Clinton Climate initiative (CCI)*, has asked the largest cities in the world committed to tackling climate change – the 40 member cities and 19 affiliate member cities of the C40 – to voluntarily measure and report to CDP so the cities can proactively manage risks, reduce carbon and further adopt strategies that safeguard the future of cities. London, Toronto and New York have already agreed to report their carbon emissions data to CDP.

Research and Markets  has announced the addition of the " Commercial Construction Contractors" report to their offering. The US commercial construction industry includes about 80,000 firms with combined annual revenue around $550 billion. Large companies include Fluor, Bechtel, Jacobs Engineering, Turner Construction, and Peter Kiewit Sons'. The industry is highly fragmented, with many small companies working as subcontractors on larger projects.

Commercial construction includes apartments, office and retail buildings, hotels, schools, public buildings, industrial and manufacturing buildings, highways and bridges, sewers, pipelines, power lines, power plants, and other civil engineering projects.

Cadac Organice, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and developer of Cadac Organice (a SharePoint based Engineering Document Management solution), has opened 3 new offices in Scandinavia and the UK.  From these offices Cadac Organice is able to maintain a close relationship with customers in these regions.

Applied Software, a nationally recognized Autodesk Value-Added Reseller, announced  that it has hired several experienced Autodesk reseller sales executives and technical experts in manufacturing, AEC and plant solutions, in support of its recent territory expansion to encompass all of Alabama and Mississippi. An Autodesk Gold Partner in Architecture, Engineering & Construction, Government and Manufacturing and one of the most prominent and longest tenured Autodesk Resellers in the Southeast, Applied Software now serves Autodesk customers throughout Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Central and Eastern Tennessee and the Florida Panhandle.

Financial

Deltek, Inc. announced financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2010. press release

People

Architecture, engineering and construction industry consultant, Microdesk, Inc., announced the promotion of Alan Morse to Vice President of Business Development, East Coast. He will now oversee sales and business development for all East Coast operations, from Maine to Washington, DC.

New Products

The Project Bluestreak team released an update. Project Bluestreak is a technology preview on Autodesk Labs that helps distributed AEC project teams collaborate informally with self-organizing groups and coordinate their work with real-time communication. With this new release, Project Bluestreak now combines team communication with automated notifications from Revit Server and supports collaboration from the desktop or the web.

IMSI/Design announced that it has increased the performance of its flagship AutoCAD work-alike product, 2.5D DoubleCAD XT Pro v3.

Oracle's Sun Ray Software helps reduce the maintenance, upgrade, and operational costs and complexity associated with traditional desktop environments and provides users access to their virtual desktop from nearly any location.

Sun Ray Software 5.1 includes enhancements to media, Adobe Flash, audio, USB support, and multi-display capabilities, enabling customers and partners to enjoy a highly secure and rich virtual desktop experience through Oracle's Sun Ray Clients, PCs and laptops.

ZWCAD Software Co., Ltd. announces the release of ZWCAD 2011 Beta software for global testing with the ZWCAD 2011 Free Upgrade Program. The world's leading multi-lingual* CAD software gets even better in 2011 as ZWSOFT introduces its latest innovations to its best selling CAD software.  

The new HP ePrint & Share and HP Designjet T2300 eMultifunction Printer (eMFP) solution allows design teams to easily access, share and print large-format project files online. HP also introduced new HP Graphics Solutions Partner Program offerings that come bundled with the HP Designjet T2300 eMFP to help simplify and improve the technical design process.

Corel  announced the newest edition of the company's technical graphics software, Corel DESIGNER Technical Suite X5. Designed for technical illustrators and technical graphic users alike, this new version contains key enhancements to precision tools, extended 3D visualization capabilities, new format support for enterprise standards such as WebCGM 2 and S1000D, and for the first time, the renowned creative capabilities of CorelDRAW X5. This complete suite brings together tools that enable users to create, interchange, and deliver standardized technical graphics with accuracy and speed.

New VariCAD 2010 3.0 brings substantial improvements in STEP file import and includes a number of minor improvements.

To update your current version of VariCAD or to evaluate a free 30-day trial version, download it here. The current version is 2010 3.02.

Canon U.S.A., Inc. announced the addition of the imageFORMULA DR-6030C document scanner to its award-winning lineup. The new scanner provides comprehensive scanning functionality in a desktop design that effectively delivers document-capture benefits across business applications.

Eos Systems  announced the release of PhotoModeler 2010 and PhotoModeler Scanner 2010. PhotoModeler, a Windows application, is used to create 3D models and measurements from photographs using ordinary digital cameras. PhotoModeler Scanner software adds the capability of creating dense point clouds like a laser or 3D scanner but eliminates the need for expensive and cumbersome equipment. The flexibility in using the ubiquitous digital camera offers sophisticated 3D capabilities for technical professionals and home users alike.

Cadac Organice BV, Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and developer of Cadac Organice (a SharePoint based engineering document management solution), introduces Cadac Organice Gatekeeper. Cadac Organice Gatekeeper helps companies to define and enforce design standards on AutoCAD drawings and saves substantial time and effort in the design and control process.

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Events