In an interview with Richard Zambuni, Bentley’s Global Marketing Director, Geospatial & Utilities, Benoit Fredericque, Product Manager II (Responsible for Bentley MicroStation/Descartes Point Cloud Product Management and 3D City GIS), and Faraz Ravi, Director of Product Management (Responsible for Pointools), Bentley Descartes 8i new functionality was discussed.
According to the press release, Bentley Descartes V8i (SELECTseries 3) offers 3D modeling that combines point clouds, raster imagery, and geometry. The resulting models enhance the usability of point clouds by supporting hybrid design workflows that deliver “as-operated” 3D models to serve the operations and maintenance needs of owner-operators. By uniquely enabling hypermodeling – the intuitive navigation of as-operated models in 3D context that includes engineering information in any form – Bentley is committed to enhancing infrastructure safety and resilience while increasing owner-operators’ returns on their engineering investments.
Zambuni said that point cloud data is becoming ubiquitous, as gathering data is becoming more cost effective. “ The challenge has been to bring data into workflows in an efficient way,” Zambuni said. Those who make use of this data include infrastructure engineering workflows, design, construction, operation or planning and designing.
“Initially, we licensed the Vortex engine from Pointools to allow us to visualize, animate and view point clouds in MicroStation, but then we wanted to make point clouds a fundamental data type which means we can manage them alongside raster and vector.” The questions remained, how do we support visualization, animation in MicroStation and how do we deliver the advanced processing of point clouds that people need which we are going to support in Descartes and Pointools? What do you do in extended and enterprise workflows?
“That’s where ProjectWise streaming services come in, where you can literally isolate the elements of the point clouds you want to work with and stream them into a desktop session,” said Zambuni. “This allows you to get all the advantages you want with ProjectWise and workflow management and getting files aligned with projects. You can really bring point clouds into extended workflows rather than have them sit on thumb drives or hard drives somewhere or fedexing them around, it starts making them manageable in the way you manage DWG and DGN or any other engineering documentation.”
This is not just about individual products, he cautions, but rather about workflows and supporting point clouds in a very connected way across a range of products.
Scalable terrain models (STMs) are slightly different from point clouds as they are so huge and people must slice and dice them to bring them into projects. Often a very large STM can’t be used because it is unmanageable.
“We have made technology that allows you to to bring an STM in, even if it’s billions of points and to view that, you can work with that single scalable STM at city, regional or country level and you do it quickly and effectively,” said Zambuni.
Fredericque said that with the adoption and growth of our aerial lidar sensors, more and more people use aeril lidar and ask for STMs with a large number of points, increasing the need for this data type. Most products cannot cope with the sheer size of these files. Greg Bentley, CEO of Bentley Systems, says this is part of the big data problem solving for users – the way Bentley can manipulate and process point clouds and bring STMs into engineering worfklows.
“It also is a big plus for geospatial workflows for national mapping agencies where you want to manage large scale geospatial projects,” said Fredericque.
Ravi said that Pointools engine was integrated into MicroStation in 2009 which by extension made it a part of the Bentley platform. Descartes has extra layers of Pointools functionality on top of the engine.
Bentley Descartes V8i (SELECTseries 3) running on MicroStation V8i (SELECTseries 3) advances information modeling, in particular for infrastructure assets and 3D cities, through:
advanced point-cloud processing
the ability to handle extremely large scalable terrain models
It seems that HP has invested in its hardware division big time with several unveilings this week, including notebook PCs, the HP Photosmart 5520 e-All-in-One printer, Ultrabook and Sleekbook offerings as well as for businesses, the HP t410 All-in-One (AiO) Smart Zero Client.
HP Pavilion notebook PCs include enhanced features and reflect the company’s new HP Mosaic design approach.
From the press release: The company also unveiled the HP Photosmart 5520 e-All-in-One printer, featuring HP wireless direct printing (1) and HP ePrint, enabling users to print from virtually anywhere.(2)
For stylish on-the-go computing, the HP Pavilion m6 is the ideal balance of mobility, performance and entertainment wrapped in a sleek, brushed silver aluminum design.
The redesigned HP Pavilion dv-series and g-series notebook PCs offer performance in a simple yet distinct and colorful design.
For users that want to balance affordable printing and brilliant quality at home, the HP Photosmart 5520 e-All-in-One is a compact, web-connected all-in-one printer for the home.
HP expanded its award-winning notebook portfolio with thin and light Ultrabook™ systems and Sleekbooks packed with the latest technologies for both consumer and business demands.
New additions to the HP collection include:
The HP ENVY SpectreXT is an ultramobile premium Ultrabook that delivers an overall premium experience with extraordinary design and performance.
Offering both style and substance, HP ENVY Sleekbooks and HP ENVY Ultrabook systems provide the ultimate entertainment experience in 14-inch and 15.6-inch diagonal display options.
The enterprise-ready HP EliteBook Folio 9470m was built from the ground up to be everything a business Ultrabook should be, with the security, manageability and reliability features IT demands.
HP Z220 Workstations and HP EliteBook Mobile Workstations with professional-class features;
HP Officejet 150 Mobile All-in-One, the world’s first mobile all-in-one printer,(1) and an ideal companion for business professionals who need a compact, durable solution for printing, scanning and copying while on the go; and
Four new HP LaserJet printers and an HP Scanjet, providing small and medium businesses (SMBs) and enterprise customers professional-quality documents and fast print speeds, along with the ability to extend the office beyond its physical location.
New Ultrabook systems for business — including the HP EliteBook Folio 9470m, HP’s first no-compromise Ultrabook for business users — which deliver the style and simplicity users demand, combined with security and manageability to help businesses keep control of their IT.
HP EliteBook p-series notebooks that are designed to MIL-STD 810G testing for vibration, dust, altitude, temperature and drops.(1) The new series features the HP EliteBook 2170p, the smallest, lightest HP business notebook, as well as new additions to the highly configurable HP ProBook b-series and the redesigned HP ProBook s-series.
Four desktop PC series — the HP Compaq Pro 4300 Business Desktop and All-in-One PC, the HP Compaq Pro 6300 and the HP Compaq Elite 8300 — balancing secure manageability, flexibility and trusted reliability.
New commercial displays, including the HP Compaq L2206tm multitouch-enabled monitor and the HP Compaq LA2405x LED backlit monitor.
New software solutions, including HP Premier Image(2) for a cleaner, faster user experience with streamlined deployment and HP BIOS Protection,(3) which offers hardware-level protection against virus attacks and other security threats to meet National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines.
Among the products announced for businesses are:
The HP t410 All-in-One (AiO) Smart Zero Client, featuring new and innovative one-wire Power over Ethernet (PoE) technology while still providing outstanding multimedia performance and a true PC-like experience.
The highly customizable HP RP7 all-in-one retail system with a sleek and stylish design that fits into a variety of retail settings.
The HP L6015tm and L6017tm Retail Touch Monitors with multitouch projected capacitive screens for retail and hospitality environments, and the HP L6010 non-touch Retail Monitor for use as a customer or associate-facing display.
New high-performance HP Z220 Workstations and HP EliteBook Mobile Workstations, packed with reliable and professional-class features.
The Autodesk Media Summit held in San Francisco last week sports news of the latest Autodesk 2013 product suites and products launch. CEO Carl Bass opened the Autodesk Media Summit with some business results, big trends, followed by specific product information by Amar Hanspal.Check out the video here:
This latest release, AutoCAD 2013, is tightly integrated with Autodesk 360 which is cloud storage. Autodesk 360, a cloud computing platform that enables customers to improve the way they work by providing the ability to store, edit and share their designs and access virtually infinite computing power anytime, anywhere. Check out this and many other features:
Last night at SmartGeometry 2012 (sg2012) (hosted by Bentley Systems) kicked off for the press with a tour of the workshop itself, located in the EMPAC building on the RPI campus in Troy, NY. This is where architects are busy putting together their projects, working in “clusters” with various materials. The theme is “Material Intensities – simulation, energy, environment.” Participants have been working in their clusters for four days now.
