Bentley applications

Question

Dear Bentley community, 
 I'm new to this forum. This is my first post here. My name is Andrei (or Andrej in my native spelling), I live in Serbia, and I have worked on architectural projects as a BIM specialist. Soon and for the first time, I will be working on infrastructure projects. My future employer has tasked me to do research and a rough evaluation of the applications that are currently available on the market. So, I hope you could answer just a few questions, and help me get a picture of what Bentley is offering.

We need a modeling tool for terrain, railways (and everything that follows: drainage, electrical conducts etc...), tunnels, train stations, and possibly even bridges. Can it be done using one Bentley application, or multiple applications? If we need to use multiple applications, what is the recommended workflow for combining everything that is modeled into a single file? 
 Assuming that we have combined everything we've modeled, can we export IFC that contains all the BIM properties that we can use in another application for 4D/5D/6D simulation? 
 Can we add custom BIM properties to the native model? 
 Is work sharing possible? Ideally, two or more people should be able to build a single model together. For example, team members who work in Revit are synchronizing with the central model that is being saved on the local server or cloud, and they are occasionally changing it as they work. Do Bentley products have similar functionality? 
 Are Bentley products limited to certain engineering standards only, or can they be adapted to any standard in the World?

I appreciate the support. 
 
 Best regards, 
 
 Andrej Ilić

jpln · Accepted Answer

Hi Andrei, 
 I would let others also share their vision of our offering, but can give you a "quick" overview on Bentey world. 
 1. You can do everything with a single application if you don't look for engineering tools but just modelling tools. We are sharing MicroStation, a great 2D/3D modelling CAD engine, as a common platform for our engineering applications. Engineering applications are bringing specific tools ("intelligence") to engineering disciplines. We are using single file format for all: DGN. It means you can use basic referencing to coordinate all disciplines. 
 Civil Design Software | Bentley Systems 
 To name few engineering applications: 
 
 OpenBuilding Station Designer: bundle of OpenBuilding and Legion to design stations and analyze pedestrians flow 
 OpenRail Designer (includes all OpenRoads, OpenSite functionalities and adds rail): Rail Track Design (includes Survey, Drainage and Subsurface Utilities, Reality Modelling, Some geotechnical capabilities), to design Rail Track alignments, turnouts, corridors, signalling capabilities are coming with trench and cables. 
 OpenRail Overheadline Designer: OpenRail Designer + Overheadline (SICATmaster engine but not limited to Siemens equipment) 
 OpenBridge Modeller and Designer: to design 3D model and perform analysis (link to RM Bridge) 
 OpenTunnel Designer: to design Tunnels, link to Plaxis for soil analysis 
 
 As said all are sharing same MicroStation platform so same file format DGN but also are supporting many other formats such as IFC, SHP, DWG, etc. The simple Bentley View free viewer allows to navigate the models. 
 Note that most of our tools and all listed above can work in ProjectWise Design Integration / ProjectWise 365 environment our Common Data Environment: single source of truth that can be connected to our iTwin services ( Design Delivery Software | Bentley Systems ). Engineering Applications can also be directly connected to iTwin services (without ProjectWise) 
 Infrastructure Digital Twins | Bentley Systems | Infrastructure Engineering Software Company 
 
 2. Actually iTwin platform is one of the best solution to aggregate your models (different sources: software, formats) to a single one you can consume (review, analyse, report, ...) using a web browser. Engineering models are aggregated in the full "Digital Twin" (even often limited to 3D+properties at the begining of the journey: the iModel). Synchro is the tool dedicated to 4D/5D and construction and maybe more. It is not my area of expertise. It can also connect to the iTwin platform to use your 3D models. iModel from iTwin can be exported to IFC, Synchro can also export to IFC. IFC export is not limited to these tools. OpenBuilding is also a usual one to export to IFC. 
 3. Yes you can add custom properties. The name you will find in our applications is "Item Types". It is MicroStation based functionality so shared in all applications. 
 4. We are using referencing system. It is the core functionality that allows to work with mulitple users and disciplines on same project. Because all disciplines are working with the same format (DGN), you can reference any file at any time. It is best in ProjectWise for document management (versions, approval, workflows, etc.) The iModel (the aggregated 3D model on iTwin) could also be synchronised automatically or on demand from PW or Windows files. 
 5. Most of our tools are customizable and some datasets from around the world are available. It is not exhaustive and many datasets are probably not available for some countries but you can certainly create your own with probably some limitation (maybe some calculation methods for bridges can only be added through development). We also have SDK to extend the applications.

Bentley applications

Top Replies