In these challenging times when COVID-19 is imposing significant disruptions to day-to-day activities and affecting normal business flow of our much-valued users and employees, we at Bentley are committed to ensuring a smooth transition of work from office to remote location or home. Our innovative software and services are all geared for working from home or remote locations and do not impose the need to be in an office set-up.
To ensure a smooth transition of work and effectiveness of your daily workflows with Bentley software, we have assembled information that you can refer to while working remotely or from home. We are working hard to deliver high levels of customer service, and welcome feedback, questions, and ideas on how we can serve you better in a remote work environment.
Additional help is available for working from home with OpenUtilities Substation and Promis.e Machine Requirements
There are several options to work remotely. You may decide to install the software on your home computer. Please click here to see these minimum machine requirements for OpenUtilities.
4 GB minimum, 16 GB or more recommended.
Additional memory will almost always improve performance, particularly when working with larger data sets.
20 GB free disk space minimum.
This includes space for temporary installation files, product setup packages, required prerequisite pack installation and ~1 GB footprint for Bentley OpenUtilities , and ~300 MB in user data (configuration files, data files, examples, etc.)
Graphics card supported by DirectX 9.0c
See the graphics card manufacturer for latest information on DirectX drivers. 512 MB of video RAM or higher is recommended. If insufficient video RAM or no graphics card supported by DirectX can be found, MicroStation attempts to use software emulation. For optimal performance, graphics display color depth should be set to 24-bit or higher. When using a color depth setting of 16-bit, some inconsistencies will be noted. For more information on recommended workstation profiles for Bentley OpenUtilities, see Microstation System Requirements and Hardware Recommendations.
Internet access is required for downloading, installing, and licensing the software (unless the machine concerned has a checked-out license). As the OpenUtilities installer is almost 8 GB, installation may take a significant time over low bandwidth connections. Ensure the connection used has sufficient data allowance if it is not an unlimited data package. Many CONNECT Edition products are installed from a small installer file that pulls the rest of the installation files from our servers. If you encounter problems with this installation route, please refer to the DOWNLOADING SOFTWARE section below for links to full software downloads or guidance on the use of Deployment Images to take home.
OpenUtilities will try to obtain your Internet Proxy Settings from Internet Explorer browser. If it is not feasible, you can fill the details manually as described in this page located here.
Virtual Private Network enables organizations to provide secure connection to their network over the internet so their employees can connect remotely or from public places. Click here to follow these instructions to connect to Windows VPN. If your organization uses a different VPN software, contact your IT administrator to guide you with the steps.
The following features of OpenUtilities may not work properly in the absence of internet connectivity.
Important notice about use of Bentley applications in virtual environments - click here
Virtualization enables organizations to create virtual machines from a single physical machine and administer them to their employees on demand. Bentley is exploring virtualization providers like VMWare Horizon and Azure Virtual Desktop. If your organization uses any of these, please reach out to us with your questions, and we’ll try our best to assist.
Virtual Machines and Remote Desktop
Virtual machines are a great way to manage operating systems and work remotely with a running Remote Desktop Connection, login credentials and a valid IP address. Installing virtualization software allows one or more virtual machines to share one physical computer. Your IT administrator can create VMs with a readymade image of Windows operating system that includes OpenUtilities and any other software needed. When such a VM is provisioned to you, you can directly launch OpenUtilities and start working on your project.
You can create a new VM and install its operating system by following these simple steps located here.
You can export and import existing VMs in Windows Hyper-V Server by following these steps located here.
If you work on a heavy-duty desktop machine that is difficult to carry or if your organization does not allow employees to move computers out of the office premises, Remote Desktop Connection offers a great way to log into that machine from your personal computer. You will require your computer name or IP address. Click here to follow the instructions on this page.
Tips to Maximize Screen Real Estate
At home set your default printer to PDF to avoid sending prints via a VPN to an unattended printer.