Dubai - MENA Herald: Bentley Systems, Incorporated, a leading provider of software solutions for advancing infrastructure, held its CONNECTION Event in Abu Dhabi recently and drew 119 infrastructure professionals from the region. Attendees learned about the CONNECT Edition, Bentley’s common environment to comprehensively support the delivery of infrastructure projects. The common environment unifies work across the entire project ecosystem and over the full lifecycle of the project. The result is improved performance, with infrastructure projects being delivered on time, on budget, and with less risk. The CONNECT Edition comprises a comprehensive modeling environment, common performance environment, and common data environment, while leveraging the Microsoft Azure cloud service, and supporting a hybrid environment that includes on-premise servers, desktop applications, and mobile apps.
By the end of this information-rich, one-day event, attendees were able to return to their respective organizations with an in-depth understanding of how this next generation of infrastructure engineering software provides a purposefully connected environment to improve the performance of infrastructure projects and assets from design through construction and operations.
Keynote: Advancing Infrastructure
Francois Valois, Director, Product Management, Bentley Systems, delivered the keynote address Advancing Infrastructure. The presentation included a brief overview of the company’s 30 years of cumulative BIM advancements that have enabled its users to more comprehensively deliver their projects, as well as to enhance the performance of the assets being designed, built, and operated.
In discussing the CONNECT Edition, Francois explained how the CONNECT Edition enables organizations and enterprises, including the supply chain beyond your organizational firewalls, to “connect” their projects to a greater degree than was ever possible. He spoke on the convergence of project delivery and operations, and how connecting assets is critical to improving asset performance and how reality modeling is connecting the real world to the virtual world.
The keynote presentation included four innovative projects from the Middle East drawn from Bentley’s annual Be Inspired Awards program, nominated by Bentley users around the globe, that recognizes outstanding achievement in applying technology for advancing infrastructure.
Highlighted projects included:
Structural Integrity Assessment of a Ship Impacted Wellhead Platform (Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.) by Zakum Development Company (ZADCO)
Detail Engineering Works for Flare and Bridges for Upper Zakum Project (Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.) by Technip India Ltd.
Water Quality Open-loop Control for Al-Raha Beach Development Network (Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.) by AECOM
Inshaat – Utilities Management System (Dubai, U.A.E.) by Dubai Municipality
Construction of Two Units of GustoMSC NG-2500X Jack-ups (Dubai, U.A.E.) by Eversendai Offshore
The keynote address continued with a roundup of enhancements to its existing software and key acquisitions and advancements that expand Bentley’s capabilities. The release of new ConstructSim products, for example, enables users to gain visibility into the path of construction using advanced work packaging best practices. ConstructSim Planner simplifies the WorkFace planning process using a virtual construction model, while ConstructSim Work Package Server combines real-time construction information with automated work packaging to increase project visibility, improve productivity, and reduce costs. With the new releases, Bentley has made a major advancement into construction modeling, which progresses the design model with construction sequencing, craft assignments, and materials procurement status – improving project performance, reliability, and safety.
Bentley’s next advancement, reality modeling, which can be applied not only to the project but across the entire asset lifecycle, began with the acquisition of ContextCapture. Through reality modeling, observations of existing conditions using digital photographs provide context for design modeling and construction modeling workflows. Bentley advanced its reality modeling capabilities further with the acquisition LumenRT– for “visual optioneering,” with real-time, immersive interaction, enlivening infrastructure environments with rich libraries of dynamic content. Lastly, the acquisition of AssetWise Amulet – for industrial-scale predictive and prescriptive analytics – advanced Bentley’s AssetWise solution from reliability-centered maintenance and risk-based inspection to asset performance modeling.
Francois ended the keynote by saying, “The common data environment represents our strategy to help you further advance infrastructure. And the core value of this connectivity is the ability to leverage digital engineering models throughout the infrastructure lifecycle – from design and engineering, through construction, and into operations – for better performing projects and assets.”
Best of all, with the CONNECT Edition, users in the AECO community don’t have to start all over again. The CONNECT Edition allows them to use their existing Bentley software and services in whatever hybrid computing environments they are currently employing. They can now connect comprehensively across their project through the Azure cloud. They also can connect to other environments and enterprise environments with i-models for project deliverables coming in and going out, and add the field environment for their devices via Bentley Apps. Moreover, users can introduce this new technology in stages of advancement, at a pace with which they are comfortable, thereby making the transition seamless in terms of their existing workflows.
ProjectWise for Comprehensive Worksharing
With the CONNECT Edition, ProjectWise extends beyond design coordination to comprehensive worksharing, empowering the project team to collaborate throughout the entire project delivery lifecycle. Keith Alexander, Consultant, Design Integration Product Delivery, explored how ProjectWise CONNECT Edition advances project information management and collaboration to virtualize talent and secure all supply chain communications by providing a common environment for comprehensive project delivery that improves how you design, build, and collaborate on projects. Attendees heard about the latest technology enhancements designed to help them shorten approval cycles and ensure data integrity with increased transparency throughout the project delivery lifecycle.
Advancing Project Delivery
In the final presentation of the morning, Vivek Kale, Solutions Director, Design Integration Sales, provided an update on technology and capability advancements for specific Bentley software applications. He reinforced the message of “convergence” emphasized in the keynote and expanded on how Bentley Could Services enables increased depth of information modeling and increased breadth of information mobility.
Vivek walked conference attendees through Bentley advancements for design modeling, analytical modeling, construction modeling, reality modeling, and asset performance modeling, citing along the way key acquisitions that brought new capabilities to each of these. Notable concepts discussed were engineering content management, advanced work packaging, optioneering, and scenario services.
In the afternoon, attendees participated in product-focused seminars where Bentley subject matter experts and application engineers demonstrated the benefits of some of Bentley’s most popular software applications, discussing local industry trends and highlighting best practices and the latest technologies to improve your project delivery and information management.
