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September
2010
Rob Snyder presents Dynamic Views 3.0
by Robert Klaschka - 21 May 2010
For me this event was one of the high points of the conference not least because it is something I have been working with Rob on, but also in the continuing theme of demo bravery I spent the last 15 minutes of the presentation showing the functionality on one of our projects using a pre-alpha of the software!
As presentations go Rob's was both entertaining and contentful, it was prepared with a former employee and very talented young Architect Aaron Scales. DV3.0 is the feature set for dynamic views that will be included in SelectSeries 3 due in November this year. The principle behind it is a innovative and automated approach to combining dynamic views in a 3D model with the 2D downstream information.
One of Rob's particular focuses has been to ensure that it works with dynamic views, 2D drawing models and sheets that you have already created. Behind the scenes the software harvests the models and sheets including referenced 2D content in those files.
The first thing that one notices when opening an existing project master file is that the DVs in that model are revealed by means of icons that lie around the model in space. There are icons for plans, sections and elevations, and then an additional icon for detail bubbles. These icons naturally attract exploration and when one hovers a ribbon menu with a series of buttons appears. This is a much more interactive interface with access to the DVs right there for you. The buttons allow the DV clip to be revealed, and more importantly all down stream 2D information to be revealed on the plane. When this function is activated our 2D annotations, notes and dimensions are revealed.
It gets better they can be edited in place using the activate command on right click.
As Rob highlighted this transforms DV form a drawing output tool to a round trip 2D/3D model documentation tool. It is so much more than that though. The way that the documentation reveals the model and all the design information in it begins to deliver an interface that cuts through the complexity of the model.
After the presentation so many people have come up to me wanting to know when it will be available, that its clear the resonance this functionality strikes with people.
Thoughts on the improvements in SpacePlanner
by Robert Klaschka - 19 May 2010
Space planning in Bentley Architecture has seen a number of improvements in the last two years, however at my office we haven't yet started to use these tools. The talk was a useful refresher and covered the broad work flow. This product, which I understand comes from a facilities management tool that was acquired by is starting to look quite promising. There is a powerful importer from a spreadsheet which brings and creates spaces based on programme area. These are then arranged into the a building plan.
This functionality has been around for a long time, however the really powerful tool that has recently been added is to this feature set is the a new tool which adds walls based on the spaces layout. Whilst initially a little obscure, this tool performs one very valuable function, to associate the spaces to the wall. This effectively makes the translation from space planning mode to a conventionally flooded associative spaces that you need as the design develops.
This is a big step forwards for the functionality of spaces and in many ways finally provides the whole round trip from a briefing space schedule through planning, and on to building mode, with the detailed space schedule output.
As with the rest of the datagroup system, there is still no live link out to spreadsheets at either end of the process so there is room for improvement, but the new linking functionality is another must have feature.
Arriving at the BE in Philadelphia
by Robert Klaschka - 18 May 2010
There is a different feel to this years conference with a smaller than usual attendance, particularly for the European contingent. There are around 15 here from the UK, but some of the other groups are represented in fairly large number. I compared notes with members from the Danish User Community last night during the reception. However there is a good feel here in Philadelphia and a very positive vibe coming from many of the Bentley staff. I very glad I made it here, because it feels that development, particularly in the Building applications is going to move forwards at a new and accelerated pace with their new head Santanu Das.
In fact I very nearly didn't make it out, with Heathrow airport being closed just an hour and a half after my flight left on Sunday, but the ash and wind gods seem to have favoured me and so here I am. I spent most of Monday with Rob Snyder in the North of the City at his home near the Art Museum working on our presentation of Dynamic views enhancements that will be included in Select Series 3 and then rushed back into town to make the evening reception.
This morning I have been to a really fascinating talk on the inclusion of powerful point cloud manipulation tools in Microstation from the next version of V8i Select Series 2 which began its early access phase last week. I have always been interested in the potential of point clouds because we do so pretty much all of our work with Bentley Architecture, and so this development in the product was a must see for me.
Pointools (a UK based company) which has a pointcloud engine called Vortex has been licensed by Bentley and is now built into Microstation at platform level so it can be exposed to various applications (Microstation, Powerdraft, Bentley View, Projectwise Navigator, Power Civil and Power Survey. It is open to very many point cloud formats including XYZ, LAS, PTX, PGZ, ASCII and many manufacturers formats.
The presentation started with an impressive colour animation of an hour scanning exercise in Kew Gardens. An outline of the types of laser scanning available including aerial from planes, mobile from ground based vehicles and ground based fixed scanners. A second animation showing a large area in the region of 20 hectares scanned at 30mm spacing over a two day period with a file size of 2GB of data.
Chris Bober showed an example of a shop front and a road bridge as pointcloud and snapped to and drawn over to produce a 3D model. Then a complex survey of a station was shown and then the model that was created from it. It is evident that the tools have been integrated to make working with pointclouds straight forward and accessible to any proficient 3D Microstation user. Examples of standard MS tools to create surfaces from a pointcloud was very impressive, processing, looks really straightforward to use.
Paul DiGiacobbe from HNTB discussed the benefits that inclusion of these tools into the platform allow, including the accessibility to Microstation Users compared to in the past where working with point clouds has been prohibitively expensive. Now the tools are built into MS Paul sees the use of laser scanned or lidar data throughout the design and construction process, as built process. He also believes that the accuracy of point cloud on site work including clearance checking, and buildability will become increasingly frequent.
Presentation tools were demonstrated showing how the visual appearance of a pointcloud can be changed with sliders and colour display modes. Walk through of the model showed the level of detail was hugely impressive. A road model was combined with a point cloud and then illustrated with a DV clip showing a section.
It is clear that a high level of discipline and planning regarding the positioning of point clouds is required, but one thing is sure, the inclusion of this type of data manipulation into Microstation is going to mean we will be seeing a lot more use of point clouds in our everyday work. We will have to do an evening talk on this exciting new technology.
More later.
MicroStation SELECT Update 2 beta posted.
by bentleyuser - 17 May 2010
As expected, a beta version of the next major MicroStation update has been posted on SELECTserver prior to the 2010 user conference that started today in Philadelphia.
Highlights include the new Point Cloud tools and visualisation enhancements.
Winter Workshop 2010 - Presentation 6 - Stuart Milne: iModels and Projectwise Navigator,
by bentleyuser - 29 March 2010
Stuart gave us an insight into this new collaboration tool covering iModel creation from Bentley applications as well as the Revit plug-in. iModel promises to be a significant technology in the future enabling veiwing of data from various sources, without the need for translation in many cases.
The paper and digital pen based ProjectWise Dynamic Review tools were also covered.
Download Stuarts's presentation
Winter Workshop 2010 - Presentation 5 - Chris Lepine: The Stone Towers
by bentleyuser - 09 March 2010
This talk focused around a pair of projects. The Signature Towers, Dubai and the Stone Towers, Cairo a business park with mixed use facilities including retail and a 5 star hotel. Chris has headed the implementation of 3D Microstation in Hadid’s office. The talk included a discussion of interoperability with Rhino and Maya and explored approaches to getting a team working together quickly in a complex 3D environment.
Download Chris's presentation (this is a large download).
Winter Workshop 2010 - Presentation 3 - Volker Thein: Dataset Masterclass
by bentleyuser - 04 March 2010
The dataset and customisations made to it stand at the centre of each of the Building products. In this revealing discussion Volker covered the core components of the dataset and takes you through the process of an office set-up.
Download Volker's presentation.
For further detailed reading try the Bentley Architecture Dataset Overview and Bentley Architecture Dataset Upgrade Guide 08.11.07. Please note that you have to be a Be Communities member to access these files.
Winter Workshop 2010 - Presentation 1 - Mervyn Richards: BIM, What do you think it is?
by bentleyuser - 02 March 2010
Our keynote presentation was given by Mervyn Richards, an established expert in the processes now known as BIM. The question "What is BIM?" has a variety of answers, many of which are at best misleading
It was an impassioned and hard hitting, discourse on collaborative working and BIM today, outlining some of the lessons learnt, with historical precedents from the many projects he has been involved with.
Download Mervyn's presentation.
Autodesk RealDWG 2010 patch available for V8i SS1
by Marc Thomas - 01 March 2010
Happy St David's Day!
A patch is available to add Autodesk RealDWG 2010 compatability to Bentley V8i (SELECTseries 1) applications. This update is available for download from Bentley SELECTservices Downloads/MySELECT CD.
The patch will automatically install to the relevant applications, the supported applications are listed here.
See the FAQ for installation details.
The patch simply adds RealDWG 2010 as yet another DWG format option to those available.
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