Bentley Announces Subscription Program for GenerativeComponents
14 May, 2008Program includes a one-year subscription and online support.
Bentley Systems today announced a new annual subscription program for GenerativeComponents (GC), Bentley's generative design software for architects and engineers. The GenerativeComponents Discovery Subscription program includes a one-year subscription to GC, plus online learning and support resources to help users acquaint themselves with the new technology.
GC reportedly enables architects and engineers to pursue designs and achieve results that previously were impossible, including buildings that are freer in form and use innovative materials. The GC Discovery Subscription is available to new U.S. users for $250; for pricing outside of the United States, contact the company. GenerativeComponents is available to Bentley SELECT subscribers at no additional charge.
Commenting on this new subscription program, CEO Greg Bentley said, "Thousands have taken advantage of our free trial download of GC that we introduced last year. They have experienced the ability to quickly explore a broad range of what-if design alternatives, and their feedback has been most gratifying.
"To empower others to employ computational power through GC to discover their ideal designs, we have developed an extremely cost-effective program. To my knowledge, our Discovery Subscription is the first of its kind among providers of software for infrastructure. We are proud to offer it to architects and engineers around the globe eager to pursue a new approach to design."
GC users can dynamically model and manipulate geometry, apply rules and capture relationships among geometric features, and define complex forms through concisely expressed algorithms. Through GC's extension of Bentley's MicroStation environment, the resulting generative designs can flow through to detailed production and fabrication without information loss, the company reports.
The GC Discovery Subscription is available for online purchase. Along with the software, users receive a set of GC-related resources, including OnDemand eLearning, and gain entry to the new and expanding BE Communities Web site, which includes blogs, wikis, forums, and a resource gallery for sharing generative design project work. BE Communities is still in beta.
According to Bentley, GC has already been incorporated into the curricula of top architectural and engineering colleges and universities around the world, including Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, and MIT in North America; the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London, the University of Bath, and the Architectural Association in the United Kingdom; TU Delft and KTH Stockholm in Continental Europe; and RMIT University in Australia.
Designs that have been completed using GC include Dostyk Towers by NBBJ and E/Ye Design, Cutty Sark Pavilion by YOUMEHESHE, The Pinnacle by Kohn Pederson Fox, and Museo del Acero by Grimshaw Architects.
