This document contains frequently asked questions related to the Bentley OpenUtilities V8i (SELECTseries 4) release.
The FAQ is divided into a number of different sections:
| Question | Answer |
| What is Bentley OpenUtilities Designer? | Bentley OpenUtilities Designer V8i (SELECTseries 4) is a desktop product to design, manage, and analyze the GIS representation of electric, gas, water, wastewater, or district energy networks using MicroStation-based editing tools. It also includes the ability to do on-the-fly cost estimation that lets designers quickly refine designs and has built-in workflow management to assign, track, and manage work, as well as interfaces to enterprise GIS and Workflow Management products. |
| What is Bentley OpenUtilities Map? | Bentley OpenUtilities Map V8i (SELECTseries 4) is a desktop product to design, manage, and analyze the GIS representation of electric, gas, water, wastewater, or district energy networks using MicroStation-based editing tools. |
| What is Bentley OpenUtilities PowerView? | Bentley OpenUtilities PowerView V8i (SELECTseries 4) is a desktop product to review, explore, and markup data created with either Bentley Utilities Designer or Bentley Utilities Map. |
| What is Bentley OpenUtilities Workflow Manager? | Bentley OpenUtilities Workflow Manager V8i (SELECTseries 4) is a desktop product that offers built-in workflow management to assign, track, and manage work, as well as interfaces to enterprise Workflow Management products. It works with Bentley OpenUtilities Map or any other MicroStation-based desktop product. |
| What is Bentley sisIMS? | Bentley sisIMS V8i (SELECTseries 4) is a web server to review, explore, and markup data that was created with Bentley sisNET (now part of Bentley OpenUtilities Designer) in internet browsers. |
| Question | Answer |
| What Operarating Systems are supported by OpenUtilities? |
Bentley OpenUtilities V8i (SELECTseries 4) supports Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1. Both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of these operating systems are supported. Bentley does not support its software running on Microsoft operating systems versions that Microsoft has "retired". For more information see Microsoft's Windows lifecycle fact sheet and the Bentley Application Support Lifecycle. |
| What is the minimum recommended workstation profile for installing OpenUtilities? | Bentley OpenUtilities V8i (SELECTseries 4) requires: • Intel© or AMD© processor 3.0 GHz or greater • 2 GB of RAM minimum, 4 GB or more recommended • 2 GB free disk space minimum • Graphics card supported by DirectX 9.0c |
| What are the database requirements for OpenUtilities? | Bentley OpenUtilities V8i (SELECTseries 4) can be implemented using number of different persistence models, including models that leverage Oracle and SQL Server databases. |
| What are the requirement for implementing OpenUtilities with Oracle? | Bentley OpenUtilities V8i (SELECTseries 4) supports Oracle 10g Release 2, 11g Release 1 and Release 2, and 12c Release 1 servers. On the client, it requires a full 10g or 11g 32-bit client installation. |
| What are the requirement for implementing OpenUtilities with SQL Server? | Bentley OpenUtilities V8i (SELECTseries 4) supports SQL Server 2008 R2, 2012, and 2014 databases. |
| What are the requirements for adjusting or enhancing the industry standard data models that come with OpenUtilities? | In Bentley OpenUtilities V8i (SELECTseries 4) data model definitions and macro routines used to generate a working Bentley OpenUtilities Map setup are stored in Microsoft Excel 97-2003 Worksheets. Adjusting the standard data models delivered with the product, or creating new data models, will need a working version of Microsoft Excel 97 or higher. |
| Does OpenUtilities support integration with FME by SAFE Software? | Yes. Bentley OpenUtilities V8i (SELECTseries 4) offers FME Desktop integration with FME Desktop Versions, 2013, 2014, and 2015 (32-bit). |
| What are the network requirements for OpenUtilities? | Bentley OpenUtilities Map V8i (SELECTseries 4) will typically be configured in a LAN or comparable setup when implemented with Oracle or SQL Server persistence. Minimum network requirements are: • A bandwidth of 500 Mbit/s minimum, 1 Gbit/s or higher recommended • Latency < 5 ms minimum, < 1 ms recommended |
| Question | Answer |
| What is going to change? |
Bentley Utilities Designer is going to merge with the Bentley sisNET desktop products (sisNET, sisFLOW, sisVIEW) into a new product called OpenUtilities. There will be three Bentley products for Utility Network Analysis and Design: |
| What does this mean for the sisNET user? | The Bentley sisNET desktop products – sisNET, sisFLOW, sisVIEW – will change from a layered application based on MicroStation and Bentley Map to an add-on for the OpenUtilities products: • Bentley OpenUtilities Designer can be extended with a sisNET add-on • Bentley OpenUtilities Map can be extended with a sisFLOW add-on • Bentley OpenUtilities PowerView can be extended with a sisVIEW add-on The so-called sisNET modules – e.g. HRM, IMB Connector – will be included in the sisNET add-on. |
| Can a sisNET user continue to work as before? |
Yes. They will replace their traditional sisNET, sisFLOW and sisVIEW clients with OpenUtilities-based clients. • Bentley sisNET desktop clients will become Bentley OpenUtilities Designer with a sisNET add-on Databases are updated in the same way as with previous sisNET upgrades, there is no migration needed. |
| What does this mean for the Bentley Utilities Designer user? | • All functionality of Bentley Utilities Designer will be consolidated in the Bentley OpenUtilities Designer product. • The Bentley OpenUtilities Map product is essentially the Bentley Utilities Designer graphical editor but will not include the Workflow Manager and Design Assistant modules included with the Designer product. There is also no SmallWorld or enterprise integration (for workflow management, e.g. with IBM Maximo) included in the package. • The Bentley OpenUtilities PowerView product is a review and markup tool with a read-only interface for Oracle Spatial and SQL Server Spatial, while preserving the analytical, reporting, and print preparation tools. |
| What does this mean for licensing? | Each of the Bentley OpenUtilities products will have a separate product license. There will be no separate licensing for the sisNET add-ons; use of the add-ons is covered by the licenses listed above. When upgrading, portfolio balancing will be used to bring forward sisNET, sisFLOW, and sisVIEW licenses to Bentley OpenUtilities. Please contact your Bentley representative for more information. |
| What are the licensing implications for sisNET users? |
For Bentley sisNET users, licensing is simplified. For the Bentley sisNET product suite, the desktop clients are licensed as follows: Bentley OpenUtilities is licensed as follows: |
| Why is a MicroStation license no longer needed? | Bentley OpenUtilities Designer includes all the capabilities of MicroStation. These capabilities are available to users of the sisNET add-on In addition, sisNET, sisFLOW, and sisVIEW users will be able to use all of Bentlley Map's capabilities. |
| What does this mean when updating a sisNET implementation? | For Bentley sisNET V8i users, the update to Bentley OpenUtilities is no different from sisNET updates in the past: it requires an installation of the new product(s) and a database update. All sisNET implementations can remain as they are. • Bentley sisNET desktop clients will become Bentley OpenUtilities Designer with sisNET add-on. • Bentley sisFLOW desktop clients will become Bentley OpenUtilities Map with sisFLOW add-on. • Bentley sisVIEW desktop clients will become Bentley OpenUtilities PowerView with sisVIEW add-on. |
| What is the impact of OpenUtilities on sisIMS? | Bentley sisIMS will continue to exist in its current form, accompanying the Bentley OpenUtilities release to allow users of the sisNET, sisFLOW, and sisVIEW add-ons to use sisIMS to publish data in internet browsers. |
| What does this mean when upgrading from Bentley Utilities Designer? | For Bentley Utilities Designer users, upgrading to Bentley OpenUtilities will require an installation of Bentley OpenUtilities Designer and some minor updates to the database related to the Workflow Manager and Design Assistant. |
| When will OpenUtilities English be released? | A first Bentley OpenUtilities English release is not expected before the end of Q4, 2015. This will be a V8i (SELECTseries 4) release, based on the Bentley Map V8i (SELECTseries 4) MR that was released at the end of Q2, 2015. |
| When will OpenUtilities be released in other languages? | The default Bentley release policy with regards to other languages will apply to Bentley OpenUtilities. Allow for 3 to 6 months after the English release. Note that this also applies to Bentley sisNET users, who – up to this point – are used to seeing German releases at the same time as the English release. |