Hello, is Autodesk's quantum project similar to Bentley's process of turning all software into Connect?
As Marc mentioned, It would be interesting to see how Bentley's new i.Model 2.0 develops in the near future. Apparently, the 'bridge apps' are already in the works, including one for IFC.
Interesting to note that both AD and Bentley claim that no changes are required to the client apps, in terms of the tools that the user will experience.
Some interesting vids on AU on Quantum and Forge High Frequency Data Management (HFDM), which is the underlying API:-
FAB125512, FDC125274, FDC128313
Bentley in theory should be able to provide what PQ is promising pretty quickly. PQ is pretty much what Bentley has been calling Engineering Component Modeling (ECM)... something that dates back almost 20 years to Objective MicroStation and JMDL.
Granular Access Control: Bentley has had Delta Transfer as part of ProjectWise for a long time. Even Mstn continually writes incrementally to disk. OpenPlant has its ModelServer, and Bentley Map has its Oracle Spatial store. Bentley had a go with Project/Component-Bank repositories of Components that allowed more granular changes, compared to files. But, there are speed penalties to converting to/from a central database. Who knows, but this could be solved when dgns are replaced by the SQLite-based .imodel format in future. Bentley would have a huge advantage here as all its apps are based on one format... where AD has to struggle with .rvt, .dwg, .nwc etc etc. Component-Indexing is available with ProjectWise. Not sure if this can be used to provide DB-type functionality like controlling visibility, locking and assigning privileges. SQLite?
Real Time Collaboration: What is impressive with PQ is the instantaneous updates. The AU presentations talk about the problems of 'oversharing' data especially with Revit, which stores everything centrally in one file, which of course has a lot of advantages (OpenPlant / Bentley Map also do this). While Bentley carried on with its 'federated' approach that is a natural result of staying with and relying on its excellent Ref files technology. Still tons better and easier that Revit's Model Linking. So, it is less of an issue for Bentley users who are used to breaking up the model so if you need just the 'nodes' coordinates in a steelwork frame, you don't need to have to scan through a whole Central File.
This kind of fast, reactive updates are already available in AutoPlant; which can incrementally update .imodels viewed side-by-side in Navigator. Hopefully, PQ and .iModel 2.0 will spur Bentley to enhance Cross Disciplinary Coordination Services' xDCS/DesignSync/ISM so that this kind of 'Companion' workflow will be standard. Component-Indexing has apparently been available for sometime on ProjectWise but does not seem to be used very much. Maybe, an API would be forth-coming with i.Model 2.0.
Getting granular also paves the way for Fine-grain History. Bentley has been looking at this since Design History... and hopefully ISM's will benefit from the new i.ModelHub technology. Another thing that PQ provides is GitHub / OnShape style-branching and merging of changes; and GC-style graph-based tools for transforming or 'wrangling' the data between the tools. Bentley's i-Model Transformer tool already has a graph-based data flow tool. Not as slick as the one shown at AU (HFDM Operational Transform), or Flux.io or FME but this should be easy enough to fix by leveraging GC's graph tools?
The data transformation code would be an essential part of the interop 'data flow' process. HFDM offers three modes: Standard, Auto-Custom Conflict Resolution and Custom with User Intervention. Pretty much already part of the ISM tools/workflow... especially the third one. ISM could do with some merging with i-model Transformer and Bentley Class Editor?
Asynchronous collaboration: Old hat and another natural by-product. Design History, OpenPlant ModelServer ProjectWise/Bentley Facilities Briefcase mode.
Design Exploration: This kind of GitHub / OnShape branching and merging way of working would be interesting and new to Bentley. Not sure if Bentley Scenario Services / Catalog Services or GC or Functional Components can be adapted to provide a window into this way of working. As presented at AU, there is a precedent for this in the MCAD world where configuration management is used to build up custom products.
Schemas + Property Sets: Hoh! Bentley has been talking about this since Mstn-J, and integral to OpenPlant. Seems like AD is stealing and implementing all of Bentley's ideas... 20 years on. Most Bentley apps can export i.dgn's... so some of the Schema work has already been done. But, not all can export ISM's. And looking at the ISM capabilities and limitations table, there are missing features that still do not transfer, 6 iterations on. Hopefully, by providing an i.Model Bridge, there will be a big push forward.
Persistence: on the cloud. Old hat. I suppose that OpenPlant's ModelServer will be Azure-based.
Commit Graph / Change Sets (delta, reversible, serialised JSON, atomic contextualised schemas): sounds a lot like ISM.
On top of HFDM, AD has Forge Application Framework... Data Management, 3D Viewer, Stream Decoding, Solid Modeling, Smart Insights, UI rendering, Declarative UI, Orchestration for cloud-based apps. I don't think that Bentley has a cloud / web-brower based SDK. SITEOPS is the only design app on the cloud.
Microservices:...?