Software developer Bentley Systems has doubled down on its emphasis on open data standards and data lakes for design and construction, introducing two products earlier this month—OpenSite+ for civil design and Carbon Analysis in iTwin. "Openness is essential for infrastructure," Bentley CEO Nicholas Cumins said. "If you think of infrastructure projects, they involve so many organizations and there's just no way they will use software from just one vendor."
The products illustrate the firm's emphasis on open standards and data sharing, said Cumins at the firm's Year in Infrastructure conference held Oct. 8-9 in Vancouver, British Columbia, also noting its new data partnership with Google for Google Maps data.
"Our iTwin platform was open right from the start, designed to be open," he said. "The core of iTwin is open source. It supports more than 2,030 file formats. From a technology standpoint, we didn't announce something new here when it comes to the corporate path." In September, Bentley also acquired Cesium, the platform for creating 3D geospatial applications.
Generative Design Arrives
OpenSite+ leverages generative artificial intelligence for civil site design using a copilot experience that taps into project information stored in documents, known specifications and 3D site models through natural, spoken language.
“This is the first [product] of its kind in the industry to use generative AI," said Francois Valois, Bentley vice president of civil infrastructure. "With a severe shortage of engineers and the problem of climate change, the answer is AI."
OpenSite+ can import design changes directly into an iModel without the need for an intermediary file format such as DGN or DWG, unlike other generative design products. OpenSite+ can also provide answers to such questions as whether a residential high-rise can be bullt in a certain area or the number of parking spaces needed at a site to fill local requirements. Drawing is automated through OpenSite Designer, an existing platform product based on MicroStation.
Bentley Chief Technology Officer Julian Motte said Microsoft Copilot in OpenSite+ handles the question and answer processing, but the project data powering the large language model that actually creates designs is from open sources. Valois emphasized that OpenSite + can reduce the time engineers spend on lower-value drawing tasks such as placing text or printing and signing documents.
Many civil projects use a 2D overhead view of the overall infrastructure asset while detailing individual buildings, roads and sections of track in 3D, leaving aesthetic considerations for later in the design process. OpenSite+ can generate early 2D and 3D views while critical site decisions are still being made. Using generative AI at this stage allows engineers to better explore alternatives to find those that optimize costs while meeting engineering requirements, he said.
Valois and Bentley Chief Product Officer Mike Campbell both said that future versions of OpenSite+ will have an option to allow customers to train the generative AI model on their own data. Current training data used is licensed from existing open-source libraries. OpenSite+ is in beta testing and will be available next year. Valois encouraged conference attendees to join its technology preview.
Pulling in Google Maps
Bentley also announced a new asset partnership with Google that allows its software users and developers to use Google Maps geospatial content, including Google’s photorealistic 3D Tiles, for real-world geospatial context and immersive 3D experiences in Bentley's digital workflows. The partnership follows the software firm's purchase of Cesium, a leading platform for 3D geospatial application creation including the 3D Tiles open standard used by Google.
Esri, ArcGIS pro and Esri Location Services can all be brought into Cesium JS, its open development platform. Cesium can also import 3D parametric data from Revit or IFC files into a Cesium 3D tile. The digital twin of Delaware Memorial Bridge construction created by Philadelphia-based engineering consultant Pennoni was shown at the conference.
The firm is using information from Google Maps, in the form of Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles, and Cesium for Unreal, a plugin that taps capabilities and renderings produced by Unreal Engine. “Rather than waiting years for a project to be completed, and then capture and post photos, we can show visualizations immediately,” said Joe Spadea, Pennoni associate vice president. Patrick Cozzi, former Cesium CEO who now is Bentley chief platform officer, said such uses of Cesium's visualization technology would be a key part of the iTwin platform moving forward.
"With the acquisition of Cesium we are effectively changing the engineering model from a stand-alone iTwin product to a geospatial model with information about subsurface conditions, ground conditions and local context," Cumins said, adding that Cesium aligns with Bentley’s beliefs on open standards while allowing data to flow from GIS into BIM.
Embodied Carbon Analysis Integration
Bentley also shared Carbon Analysis capabilities in iTwin, which include allowing a user’s design data to be analyzed using either of two popular embodied carbon dioxide calculators, EC3 or One-Click LCA. This can be done at the conceptual design phase or throughout the design process, allowing for more-informed decisionmaking at an earlier stage.
Designers can see the embodied carbon output as cloud-based heat maps in a live 3D digital twin model powered by Cesium's visualization technology. Chris Bradshaw, Bentley vice president for sustainability, said this allows users to explore sustainable design and material alternatives to create higher-quality designs.
One of Bentley's oldest and most widely known products, desktop design authoring tool MicroStation, also is being updated through new iTwin integration.
CTO Motte said bringing Microstation onto the iTwin platform did not require rewriting or changing its code. While still a desktop application, its data can now be more easily used during design, construction and operations through the platform, enabling Microstation 2024 to now integrate real-time GIS information like any other design created in an iTwin, he said.
