Release Date: 30th March 2021
Release Name: iTwin Analytical Synchronizer CONNECT Edition V12
Release Version: 12.00.00.08
Structural Synchronizer has now been renamed to iTwin Analytical Synchronizer. The motivation for this rename is twofold.
- Firstly, Bentley’s iTwin technology allows multidisciplinary and dispersed teams to coordinate and collaborate in a common cloud environment. Having a cloud-based coordination mechanism as an alternative to the traditional file-based repository is increasingly important and relevant.
- Secondly, although Structural engineers are still a significant proportion of Synchronizer users, over the years we have increased our interoperability technology beyond structural including piping and geotechnical objects in our schema. Hence, it is more accurate to replace Structural with Analytical.
iTwin Services
iTwin Analytical Synchronizer can now interact with Models hosted on iTwin Hub (Interaction available as Technical Preview).
As part of Bentley’s iTwin Services, iTwin Hub is a cloud service that enables alignment, accountability, and accessibility of infrastructure digital twins. It is the control center for iModels, responsible for coordinating concurrent access as well as maintaining a timeline of change – a record of who-changed-what-and-when.
This means the Engineers model (and subsequent changes) can now be part of the wider team. iModels (containing the Engineers model and models from other disciplines) can be viewed and collaborated upon in the web browser. Features include (but not limited to): viewing of model in browser, measurements, issues resolution, clash detection, geolocations, data visualization and version comparison (Figure 1).
Figure 1 - A model originating from ISM Repository shown in the browser
Access to iTwin Services is via Model Manager and can be accessed from the File menu (see Figure 2) or from Tools menu (see Figure 3).
Figure 2 - File menu as shown in ITwin Anaytical Synchronizer (Open from iTwin Services)
Figure 3 Open from iTwin Services - Model Manager Sidebar accessible via iTwin Services button or Open from iTwin Services under file menu
Projects host iModels, and iModels themselves can contain multiple Models. It is the Models themselves that form a relationship with your selected file base repository (*.ism.dgn). See Model Manager as a sidebar (Figure 4). Model Manager provides a simple 1-2-3 wizard to navigate to an iModel and provides interaction to the selected Model.
These interactions include ability to:
- View iModel in browser.
- Create a New Model within an iModel. If a file-based repository is already opened, it will be use as basis to initialize the model.
- Open a selected Model for viewing in iTwin Analytical Synchronizer.
- Push– Compares and uploads the changes from your opened repository to the selected Model.
- Pull– Compares and downloads changes from the selected Model to your currently opened repository.
- Edit the model description .
- Delete the model.
Furthermore, this version of iTwin Analytical Synchronizer is a prerequisite to allow for direct in-product (e.g STAAD, SACS, RAM) interaction with iModelHub via push/pull buttons in the sidebar (see Figure 5). For a general overview of iTwin and Engineering Analysis applications see iTwin Services for Engineering Analysis
Figure 5 - In-product synchronization with iTwin Services (iTwin Analytical Synchronizer is a prerequisite for synchronization workflow)
Download Instructions
After signing into the CONNECTION Center, select Software Downloads under My Services. Once on the Software Fulfillment page, the installer can be located by performing a search on “iTwin Analytical Synchronizer”. Direct Software Downloads link.
Subscription Entitlement Service (SES)
This product version utilizes Subscription Entitlement Service, which is not supported by SELECT activation key(s). SES is a free service, featuring new behavior to enhance your organization’s user administration and security with mandatory user sign-in via CONNECTION Client to access the application. If you are already signed in to the CONNECTION Client, you have met this prerequisite. If you have not, please refer to the Administrator's Resource Center and/or contact your administrator for assistance in the registration and sign-in process.