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Amid Canals and Bridges, Bentley Honors Inspiring Infrastructure
22 Nov, 2011 By: Cyrena Respini-IrwinThe software developer invites AEC professionals to share their finest work at its Be Inspired: Thought Leadership in Infrastructure event in Amsterdam.
"How can we make the world a better place?" H. Kit Miyamoto, structural engineer and CEO of Miyamoto International, presented this question to an audience of AEC professionals and media representatives at Bentley Systems' recent event, Be Inspired: Thought Leadership in Infrastructure. If the quality of life for world citizens is directly proportional to the quality of their infrastructure, as put forth by Bentley COO Malcolm Walter, then the answer is: by improving infrastructure.
That's a goal shared by keynote speaker Miyamoto, who provides earthquake engineering and post-disaster reconstruction services around the globe, and all the Bentley customers attending the invitation-only event, held November 8–9 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Whether they plan greener buildings, design safer highway interchanges, or construct more efficient power distribution networks, these users are devoted to improving infrastructure.
Cream of the AECrop
The projects showcased at Be Inspired were chosen from 270 organizations' submissions by independent juries. The finalists in each category traveled to the conference to present their projects, sharing best practices with colleagues and helping the juries make their final selections for the Be Inspired Awards.
During the dinner that concluded the event, Be Inspired Awards were presented to 20 winners, representing project work in 11 countries. In addition, the event acknowledged winners of the previously announced Be Inspired Special Recognition Awards, as well as the Bentley Educator of the Year. (See a list of Bentley Be Inspired finalists and winners in all categories.) Detailed descriptions of all nominated projects will be included in the 2011 edition of The Year in Infrastructure, to be published by the end of the year.
Bentley CEO Greg Bentley commented on the degree to which this year's nominees are taking advantage of as-built models from point clouds. The winner of the Innovation in Multimedia award, Oregon-based i-TEN Associates, has built its entire business on point cloud data. Working with MicroStation tools, the company creates animations and renderings for varied applications such as architectural preservation projects, BIM (building information modeling) and facilities management, marketing, education, and even crime scene analysis. For a five-story waterpark and aviation museum, i-TEN produced both an advertising animation and models; the latter provided measurable data for architects and engineers to make changes and verify the as-built conditions of structures in the facility.
When preparing walkthough animations from point cloud data, such as inside the Evergreen Wings and Waves Waterpark, i-TEN can choose perspectives that would be challenging to achieve with an actual camera.
Plans for the Present and the Future
Be Inspired isn't only about inspiring user projects; Bentley also shares status reports and news updates via the media conference and keynote speeches.
On the business front, Greg Bentley reported organic growth in every region around the globe, and noted that Bentley's run rate among "top owners" has shown a double-digit increase over last year (referring to top public- and private-sector owners of infrastructure, as ranked by the value of their cumulative infrastructure investments). He noted that his company's "fine and formidable competitor," Autodesk, "is ahead of us, but not out of reach."
Collaborations, Alliances, and Information Mobility
I-models are Bentley's relatively new technology described as "containers for open infrastructure information exchange that enable bidirectional feedback in dynamic workflows." Thanks to new agreements with Adobe, Bentley is introducing i-model–enabled PDFs and associated i-model plug-ins for Adobe Acrobat and Reader. The plug-ins will be available through Bentley’s early adopter program before the end of the year. In addition, Bentley and Bluebeam Software will collaborate to support i-model–enabled PDFs within Bluebeam's PDF Revu and related products.
According to the company, the marriage of PDFs and i-models will enable users to exploit PDF-format deliverables at every stage of an AECO project, as information is transformed from design to construction to operations and back again. Users will be able to interactively navigate and query 3D models and drawings, and interact with project-scale models, within PDF documents. "3D PDFs have really made a difference in a hurry over the last several years," noted Greg Bentley. "This is so important for AECO," he said, explaining that almost half the documents managed in the company's project-management platform, ProjectWise, are PDFs.
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About the Author: Cyrena Respini-Irwin
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