CAD Insider

Keith Bentley Wants to Make it All Work Together

BALTIMORE, MD (BE Conference) - I caught up to Keith Bentley at this years annual user meeting in Baltimore. I enjoy meeting with Keith, who despite his stature in the CAD software business (CTO of Bentley Software), makes himself accessible, listens patiently and answers every question, no matter how foolish. I resolve to test his limits. "Any little Bentleys ready to take up the reigns?" Keith laughs easily, naturally. No, his son wants to be a teacher, he says. How can you not like this guy?

We discuss the conference. Bentley seems to have cut back this year. Last year there were 2 user meetings, one in London and one in California. This year, BE (Benley Empowered, as the annual user meeting and conference is known) is more about engineering applications. The talk is more talk of energy analysis, sustainability, bridge building, water modeling, etc. MicroStation is more or less as a given and is deemphasized. Also, gone are the hands on training classes of previous conferences -- an omission lamented by more than one attendee.

Disappointed drafters notwithstanding, Bentley is clearly going after the "high end user." It's acquisitions are clearly on that path and the company sees engineering (the "E" in AEC) as where it can distinguish itself and grow, almost conceding entirely the "low end" (quotes are mine) to its archrival, Autodesk.

So with all these diverse applications being acquired, surely the challenge is to get them to work together, maybe even share the same look and feel. It's the biggest job I have, says Keith has. Sharing data through neutral files is still happening between certain applications, and customers are demanding better. Less of a priority -- but still important -- is some commonality in look and feel. However, don't expect the sameness of MS Office applications -- the engineering applications are far to dissimilar to allow that.

Though for years, MicroStation has been getting bigger and bigger, another of Keith's jobs is now to break it down. Parts of MicroStation will find themselves in different Bentley applications. For example, a geometry creation module from MicrStation could find its way into the water modeling application, substituted for whatever Haestad had used when they owned it.

Athens is the code name for the next release of MicroStation products. I wonder out loud if Bentley was naming releases after defunct empires. Again, the quick and easy laugh. No, Bentley's theme is Olympic cities. Jeez, anybody else would have thrown me out by now.

Maureen Pomeroy Heads Bentley's Training Programs

Maureen Pomeroy heads up Bentley's training programs (known as Bentley Institute). Since only half of you Bentley software users have no formal training (you know who you are), you'd do well to take one of her courses. What you don't know will undoubtedly make you work more efficiently.

I know. I used to teach CAD (AutoCAD at Northampton Community College, PA). I was always amazed how some of my students, many of whom had been CAD operators for years, had gotten by. Even veterans could be taught some tricks.

Maureen found time to talk to me at Bentley's annual user meeting. Maureen has been at Bentley for less than a year. Previously, she was at SAP, where she was in charge of  knowledge management and training for SAP’s 11,000 field services consultants.

Here are some highlights of our discussion.

• Most training is still traditional classroom type, but Bentley also offers live, distance learning courses and streaming, self paced courses.
• Only about 2% of training is currently done as live, distance learning.
• Live, distance learning is growing fast in the in the US, but a little slower to catch on in Europe. "Europeans seem to be able to travel."
• Most distance learning is conducted in English, even in Europe.
• Learning units are given for completing course; these appear on user transcripts. However, as of yet, there are no tests to pass or be graded for any Bentley classes.
• In 2006, Bentley awarded over 420,000 learning units*. 
• Enrollment in Bentley Select (subscription program) entitles uses to 2 free courses, MicroStation v8 User Update and Moving to MicroStation
• The live, distance learning courses were reviewed by TenLinks and got a "CoolTech" award (see link)

*A learning unit equals 1 hour of training

Bentley's Next Big Thing - GenerativeComponents

LONDON (BE Conference Europe), June 13, 2007 - A degree from an architectural school might just entitle you for toilet detail in a big architectural firm for your first few years. One way to accelerate your career, says Robert Aish, director of research at Bentley Systems, is to have studied parametric design technology. Firms are hiring those students to do conceptual design.

Supposedly the distinctive Bishopsgate Tower in London's financial district was created using GenerativeCcomponents, Bentley's name for parametric design technology as used in its building products. The ease with which parameters could be changed allowed for over a hundred design iterations during the massing study, something that would have take forever with conventional CAD.

What are GenerativeComponents exactly? GCs, as they are being called, are ways to make the CAD geometry used for architecture behave parametrically*. In a simple example, lengths of columns can be assigned parametrically so that if the parameter changes, all the column lengths change. In a more complex example, the radius of a curved exterior of an office high rise can be modified, and the façade window panels (if the model is created with GenerativeComponents) will change in size so the glass won't suffer from too much bending.

GenerativeComponents are created from conventional CAD geometry. When this is initiated, a table is shown where values (or parameters) can be placed. Parameters can be simple and self explanatory (like length), formulas, or complex to the point of calling data from files or even running programs written with high level programming languages.

Bentley recommends a user take a course before attempting to use GenerativeComponents. When shipped, it will also come with a 200 page user manual including many practical examples.

GC has been a long time in development (see Generative Components Technology, AEC Magazine, January 18, 2005) but Bentley hopes to ship it this year "in the July timeframe," when it first appears in MicroStation XM 8.9.4.

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*Though it has a different interface, GenerativeComponent technology appears to function much like the parametric modeling that has been popular in mechanical design for about 20 years.

Bentley's Magic Paper

June 11, 2007, LONDON (BE Conference Europe) - What if you could mark up a paper drawings and the CAD drawing would automatically show your markups? Sound like magic? Actually, Bentley is displaying this technology and is calling it "dynamic plots." So instead of having to supply everyone in the field with tablet PCs, you could just supply them this magic paper? Well, not quite... It does take a special pen and paper.

Mark up a paper drawing and the markups appear on the proper MicroStation CAD drawing with this special pen and paper. (click for larger picture)

I had Mark Smith, Director of Bentley's new Applied Research Labs, explain the magic to me.

The secret is a pattern of dots that is printed on the paper and a miniature camera on the pen that can see the dots. The dots are arranged in a special pattern. The pen can interpret the dots to determine not only the location and motion of the pen as it writes but also to identify the paper and hence, the CAD drawing that was printed on it. You see, when the design was printed on "dynamic plot," Bentley's ProjectWise stored the dynamic plot ID.

The pen is wireless and can be used away from a computer. But when the user gets back to a computer, the pen is docked and the information is transmitted to the appropriate CAD drawing. Alternatively, it can use a Bluetooth equipped phone. The pen uses regular ink but unlike a normal pen, it has a camera and memory. "No trouble holding a weeks worth of markups" says Mark. But don't misplace it -- it costs something less than 400 Euros (over $500) .

The technology is on loan from Anoto (www.anoto.com), a Swedish company. Bentley is seriously looking into licensing the technology for use in future versions of their software.

The dots on the paper are small but visible to the naked eye. They make the sheet of paper look a medium shade of gray but the plot and markups are still easily visible. Still, I wondered why the the dots could not be printed in infrared as the pen uses infrared technology. The dot pattern printed each time is not unique but is probably unique enough -- it would take a vast number of prints (the say enough to cover Europe and Asia combined) before the dot pattern was duplicated.