Bentley Systems has announced the immediate availability of three new products in Bentley’s OpenPlant software for plant creation based on an open data model. The new plant offerings from Bentley are the first commercially available products to share and meet the primary goal of the iRING user community – that is, to enable real-time, seamless sharing and interoperability of data and information across different organisations and systems using an internationally recognised standard. iRING implementations (ISO 15926 Real-Time Interoperable Network Grids) address the challenging workflow requirements of today’s globally distributed and sourced plant projects.

Among the firms actively involved in the iRING community are Bayer, Bechtel, CH2M HILL, Consolidated Contractors Company, Dow, DuPont, Emerson, Fluor, Hatch, and Zachry. The new plant applications from Bentley enhance interoperability across data formats, workflows, and plant design systems, and add to the comprehensiveness of Bentley OpenPlant – extending its ability to integrate across multiple infrastructure disciplines while improving project team collaboration and providing breakthrough value.

Regarding the new OpenPlant products, Bruce Strupp, CPE-design technology director, CH2M HILL, a leading provider of the full spectrum of consulting, program management, design, construction, and operations solutions, said, “CH2M HILL has been an active member and participant in both FIATECH and, more recently, the iRING community of users. We’re committed to the goals of these organizations to achieve true interoperability and deliver business value through ISO 15926, and are delighted to see Bentley standing up to meet these challenges. The capabilities being delivered by Bentley with these new products are what the iRING community has been waiting for.”

The three new Bentley OpenPlant products being released include:

• Bentley OpenPlant Modeler V8i – the first 3D plant modeling software to natively use the ISO 15926 data model as specified by the iRING user community. OpenPlant Modeler V8i incorporates the ongoing and ever-advancing capabilities of MicroStation V8i, the market-leading platform for plant creation and every infrastructure discipline. OpenPlant Modeler V8i is the only plant modeling software to natively support workflows that combine commonly used software standards including DGN, RealDWG, point clouds, and PDF.
• Bentley OpenPlant ModelServer V8i – the first plant design server software to effectively and productively manage both files and components – ideal for globally sourced projects that are necessarily loosely “coupled.” File management, enabled by Bentley’s ProjectWise collaboration services, is essential for the efficient exchange of deliverables and work packages, while at the same time, component management supports a higher level of abstraction, productivity, and quality of work. Projects using Bentley OpenPlant ModelServer V8i can benefit from yet another first: interoperable workflows across multiple design environments, including Intergraph’s PDS as well as Bentley’s AutoPLANT and PlantSpace.
• Bentley OpenPlant Isometrics Manager V8i – the first isometrics generation software to extract and incorporate complete intelligence from 3D plant models, automatically and in real time. Uniquely, such “on demand” intelligent isometric views remain relevant for owner-operators throughout the plant lifecycle – beyond procurement, fabrication, and construction to “as built” and “as safely operated” maintenance and compliance.

Bentley’s new OpenPlant offerings also provide breakthrough value, with new Bentley subscriptions (www.bentley.com/subscriptions) typically costing less than the Unix-era maintenance fees of other vendors’ proprietary piping design systems. For example, with Bentley’s Designer for Piping Passport Subscription (OpenPlant), individual piping designers gain access to Bentley OpenPlant Modeler, Bentley OpenPlant Isometrics Manager, ProSteel Modeler, ProjectWise Passport, and ProjectWise Clash Resolution Visa – plus complete virtual training – for the single annual fee of $5,995. Value-creative pricing is also available to those acquiring Bentley OpenPlant products through perpetual licenses, which cost $7,295 for OpenPlant Modeler V8i, $25,000 for OpenPlant ModelServer V8i, and $6,500 for OpenPlant Isometrics Manager V8i.

Bhupinder Singh, senior vice president, Bentley Software, said, “Bentley announced its OpenPlant strategy for enhanced interoperability in 2008. In 2009, the iRING user community demonstrated, using prototype software, the benefits of interoperability achievable with a full technical implementation of ISO 15926. Leveraging our MicroStation and ProjectWise platforms, the new OpenPlant applications enable users to achieve that level of real-time interoperability by using software that’s now commercially available – dramatically increasing the quality, cost-effectiveness, and freedom with which plant projects can be performed.”

Added Anne-Marie Walters, Bentley global marketing director, “Our new additions to OpenPlant are key facets of our ‘Smart Plan’ (www.bentley.com/SmartPlan) for PDS users that we introduced in March. The plan provides users of PDS software around the world with an economical migration path that protects their knowledge investments and enables them to reuse their catalogs, specifications, and PDS databases.

“Strategic initiatives such as these have been instrumental in making Bentley the number 1 provider of plant creation software to owner-operators, the number 1 provider of schematics software, and the number 2 provider of plant-creation software overall, as reported annually by Daratech.”

Jeanine Hargis, CH2M HILL senior technologist, “CH2M HILL recently completed Bentley’s early access program for the new OpenPlant products, which I see providing opportunities to add value to the project delivery process. We are a global delivery firm focusing in six key markets, so having data-open software that’s compatible with the core tools used on multidiscipline and cross business group projects, such as PDS, AutoPLANT, and PlantSpace, is something we’re really looking forward to.”

Added Brent Mauti, CH2M HILL architect and BIM leader, “I’m impressed with the interoperability that OpenPlant products provide across platforms and business streams, and I will be implementing these products across my business group. As a multidisciplinary firm, our architectural, structural, civil, and piping disciplines and tools for any given project all have to talk to each other. With OpenPlant products, all the tools use the same platform, leverage the same dynamic views and data sources, and provide a single hub of information, helping to improve efficiencies.”

The versatile and productive OpenPlant Modeler V8i provides functionality for piping and equipment, and serves all of the other disciplines involved in real-world plant design projects through Bentley’s V8i intraoperable applications for civil, construction, environmental, building and HVAC, electrical, structural, instrumentation, and process design requirements. OpenPlant Modeler V8i offers infrastructure organisations the ability to:

• rapidly and easily create 3D models using the widely employed and highly intuitive MicroStation V8i user interface, making it the most productive and easy-to-learn “industrial-strength” plant design environment ever introduced;
• easily reuse corporate standards, including piping catalogs and specifications from PDS, AutoPLANT, and PlantSpace, facilitating faster project start-ups and continuity of design;
• review and augment existing PDS designs, through ISO 15926 protocols and/or i-models, to escape proprietary lock-in;
• cut IT costs and meet new budget imperatives.

OpenPlant ModelServer V8i can automatically migrate PDS models, piping catalogs, and piping specifications so data can be reused for design modifications. In addition, it lets infrastructure organisations around the world:

• empower individual users to easily check out the information they need to work on – wherever they are located – and maintain tight version control for all deliverables;
• quickly create reports from any and all project components, enabling the tracking and management of design work distributed to teams;
• simultaneously manage all files and components on a project, reducing both collaboration costs and errors;
• securely administer project contributions across disciplines.

OpenPlant Isometrics Manager V8i provides management control capabilities for pipe models and isometrics from OpenPlant, Bentley plant products, and PDS. It offers users:

• automatic versioning and global distribution of isometrics using ProjectWise;
• the ability to easily create intelligent isometrics that contain component information from multiple sources.
• This powerful new functionality is valuable to not only designers and constructors, but also owner-operators, who can use it to automatically, and in real-time, generate required legal and useful documentation from as-built 3D models.

Bentley also announced the next versions of Bentley OpenPlant PowerPID V8i and ProjectWise PDx Dynamic Review Service V8i. Bentley OpenPlant PowerPID V8i is the only commercial software for process and instrumentation diagrams to be based on a completely open data model. The V8i (SELECTseries 3) version adds support for ProjectWise Managed Workspaces and common specifications/catalogs, and shares the same iRING-enabling schema with OpenPlant Modeler. ProjectWise PDx Dynamic Review Service V8i enables real-time interactive workflows to visualize, query, analyse, and annotate complete PDS data, and to extract i-models and V8 DGN files directly and completely from the PDS relational database.

Bentley’s OpenPlant products are featured in the following Bentley Passport Subscriptions:
Designer for P&ID Passport Subscription
Process Engineer for Feed Passport Subscription
Designer for Piping Passport Subscription (OpenPlant)
Mechanical Engineer for Piping Passport Subscription (OpenPlant)
Designer for Piping Passport Subscription (AutoPLANT) – includes Bentley OpenPlant PowerPID V8i
Mechanical Engineer for Piping Passport Subscription (AutoPLANT) – includes Bentley OpenPlant PowerPID V8i

For additional information about Bentley’s OpenPlant products, visit www.bentley.com/openminds. For additional information about Bentley’s “Smart Plan” for PDS users and to read the white paper “Making PDS Interoperable,” visit www.bentley.com/SmartPlan.