Bentley Adopts Open-Source Technology for Plant Infrastructure

Newly launched OpenPlant product line adopts ISO 15926 data model for company's new and existing plant applications.

Bentley states that it plans to apply the OpenPlant designation to both upcoming (ISO 15926-based) versions of its existing plant offerings and newly developed applications. Bentley's first ISO 15926-compliant offering was its ProjectWise Lifecycle Server. The company also just introduced OpenPlant PowerPID, a commercial Piping & Instrumentation Diagram (P&ID) solution based on the open data model.

CEO Greg Bentley said, "I pointed out at daratechPLANT last year that I had observed a change in the projects we serve towards more creative and productive distribution of work through digital work packages, which increasingly involve industrial solution suppliers. Driving this change is the reality that global engineering resources are not growing quickly enough to otherwise meet today's project demands. To deliver on these new productivity-enhancing strategies requires interoperations and the sharing of design innovation throughout distributed enterprises. Today, we are here to announce that Bentley has moved forward to become the first plant-creation software vendor delivering truly open solutions, including our adoption of ISO 15926 data models as the basis for the next version of all of our plant applications."

"Now that plant software datasets can be open -- by adhering to ISO 15926 data models -- there is no excuse not to guarantee plant owner-operators and creators unimpeded access to, and unlimited leveraged reuse of, their information investment," added Rob Whitesell, vice-president, Bentley Plant, Building, and Structural development. "Because they are based on a nonproprietary, internationally recognized standard, OpenPlant products empower project teams to engage in streamlined collaborative workflows that empower and harness the constant organic innovations that unfettered engineers and industrial solution suppliers can accomplish. By enabling distributed teams to connect and work instantaneously and federate their data and work packages seamlessly, OpenPlant compresses project schedules and time to market for improving profitability and sustainability."