BIUC A-OK, AC NJ
by Ralph Grabowski

Bentley International User Conference 2002 was A-okay, and was held in Atlantic City, Jew Jersey


One of several hotel-casino districts in Atlantic City, as seen in this 180-degree view from the beach of the Atlantic Ocean.


At last week's Bentley International User Conference (May 19-23, 2002), the emphasis was on MicroStation as the Single Platform. Ceo Greg Bentley took pain to differentiate his company's line of vertical applications from those of Autodesk. Whereas Bentley has a single platform (MicroStation), he noted, Autodesk has a series of non-contiguous products for the MCAD [MDT and Inventor], AEC [ADT and Revit], GIS, and rendering [3D Studio] markets.
        In addition, Bentley continues to talk only of its large accounts and the use of MicroStation in large projects. While sounding impressive, the marketing strategy fails to acknowledge the many small shops and projects also using MicroStation. There was, for example, no mention made of MicroStation PowerDraft, the low-cost 2D/simple-3D alternative.

MicroStation V8.1

Bentley is adding to and subtracting from their software lineup. One addition described by cto Keith Bentley is MicroStation V8.1, which is not due to ship until this fall. It'll feature:

A live demo of v8.1 applied a digital signature to the drawing. When the drawing was modified by another person, a large red X appeared over the signature.

CTO Keith Bentley and two demo jocks show off V8.1's digital rights feature.

        Digital rights lets you specify how much of the drawing can be accessed by others, and for how long. You could give client #1 the ability to view (but not save or plot the drawing) for a period of two weeks; you could give client #2 the ability to view and plot (but not save) with no time limit. These multiple restrictions are stored in the one design (drawing) file. Mr Bentley showed how he (as client #2) could override client #1's restrictions by inserting a magnetic-strip card in a card reader hooked to client #1's computer.
        One journalist wondered if digital rights was a way to force users to upgrade, because the rights data is stored in V8's new file format; if saved in a pre-V8 format, the rights data is no longer available.

The subtraction was not formally announced, but acknowledged when I asked about it: Bentley is getting out of the MCAD business. Many (but not all) features of its Modeler product will be added to MicroStation v9.
        Also "missing" is Viecon.com, the much-hyped product of two years ago. Bentley acknowledged Viecon was created in reaction to the dot.com hysteria. As PlanetCAD (and more recently Microsoft) discovered to their dismay, customers want software _behind_ their firewall, which is where a Bentley product called Project Wise already is. It is likely that Viecon will change to something called Bentley Content.
        Bentley calls Project Wise a "better way" to share drawings than networked drives. The company is adding plotting (via InterPlot obtained from Intergraph), publishing, viewing, redlining, and ProjectBank (handling .dgn and .dwg files at the component level).
        Now, if by this time you're getting confused by the many product names, you're not alone. One journalist complained that Bentley is constantly shifting strategy [remember Object MicroStation?] and ever-longer list of product names [I never know just quite how to pronounce or spell Viecon].

Feature keynote speaker was Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City.

New Products, New Alliances

Bentley announced these new products, along with alliances with hardware and software vendors:

* Bentley View (free, sort of) views MicroStation .dgn and AutoCAD .dwg files, while Bentley Redline (US$295) adds redlining and design-history rollback. Bentley is following other CAD vendors by prefixing product names with their corporate name -- hence Bentley View and not MicroStation View. While other CAD vendors work to make their file viewers widely available, Bentley is restricting free distribution of View to members of their subscription program and "invited team members."

* MicroStation Descartes (US$888 thru Sept'02 for competitive products) is an add-on that does mapping, visualization, and raster-to-vector conversion.

* A change to its subscription program, named SELECT, lets you pay for monthly subscriptions (a.k.a. rentals) of a "portfolio." A portfolio a group of software products in a single discipline, such as plant or rail design. Pricing was not divulged.

* Earlier in the year Arc Second announced it developed a .dgn file viewer for its Pocket PC software. That triggered Bentley to get an OEM license [original equipment manufacturer] from Arc Second to create ... well, stuff described as "a new class of product solutions." Maybe we'll hear about it at BIUC in a year's time.

* Oce will be reselling Bentley's Digital InterPlot software, which creates, stores, and distributes plots over networks and the Internet. One week earlier, if you recall, Oce said it has the option to purchase similar software from Autodesk. "Why both? I asked Oce's Francis Fay. They will sell whichever product the customer prefers, but that InterPlot has the advantage of handling both .dwg and .dgn files. Perhaps will Oce will see which product sells better, and then make the decision next year whether to finalize its purchase of the ex-Buzzsaw software.

* During the technical keynote, Cyra's 3D laser scanner scaned the auditorium. The demo was to announce that MicroStation V8 can now read the scanner's 3D "point clouds" directly. Inside MicroStation, the point clouds can be converted to 2D and 3D objects, or just used as a backdrop for existing conditions and as-builts.

A portion of the auditorium and 2000 attendees in a 3D scan and displayed in MicroStation.

 

 DWG or Not?

Bentley made much of the MicroStation's ability to handle .dwg files created by AutoCAD and work-alikes. To prove the point, they contracted Ziff-Davis Labs to write a whitepaper to be made available next week at the A/E/C Systems conference. I'm looking forward to reading its findings.
        Banners were hung about the conference halls quoting a prominent British architect: "MicroStation V8 is probably superior to AutoCAD as a DWG editor and may be worth getting as a replacement for AutoCAD just to get superior AutoCAD tools." And just about every press release and speech mentioned how wonderful it was that Bentley software works with both .dwg and .dgn.
        This is a benefit to dual-CAD shops. The current issue of 'Architectural Record' surveyed architectural firms, of which 53 responded. The following CAD systems were in use:

The addition of .dwg into MicroStation V8 schema has, however, its limits. The digital rights and signature operate in .dgn files only. Bentley said it wasn't possible to add to these features to .dwg, which isn't technically accurate: the .dwg file format has tons of places for storing user-defined data.
        Bentley is using Verisign's system of authentication; they intimated it would be neat if Autodesk used the same system. It is in Autodesk's best interest that they not use the same system.

On the BUIC Exhibit Floor

The exhibit floor was laid out in a radial pattern: Bentley's booth in the center, with five spokes of vendors in a Pentagon-like shape, keeping in line with the Pentagon Renovation keynote. I was impressed by the number of international vendors and visitors; there were an estimated 2,000+ visitors in total.
        Some of the booths I visited:

Walkinside from VRcontext of Belgium <http://www.vrcontext.com> exports .dgn files to their virtual reality software. While VR is not new, this software lets many users view the same model independently (I saw several avatars wandering about); real-time collision detection allowed me to "walk" up and down stairs. I could toggle gravity off and on to keep from falling into pits, as I did when I "walked about" an oil refinery. Other features include level (layer) toggling, redlining, and fast file conversion.

Rowse Company of the USA showed me their SiteMenu <http://www.rowseloring.com/sitemenu.htm>, which has nothing to do with civil design. Instead, the software customizes MicroStation and AutoCAD to the CAD manager's preferences. It includes a customizable menu bar and command dialog, an element-based right-click pop-up menu, an internal browser, and several tools to conserve screen space. I was impressed at how the Rowse programmer's had eliminated the need for the OK button on their dialog boxes. The current version is free; the next version will be available in August at US$2,500 for a ten-pack.

Alna of Lithuania <http://www.alnasoft.com> provides product development, customization, and e-business solutions. They sell a range of MicroStation add-ons for electrical diagrams, asset reporting, ProjectWise reporting, vehicle tracking, and so on.

Axiom of USA <http://www.axiomint.com> has 28 utilities for MicroStation users, ranging from FileFixer (cures corruption in .dgn files) to RefManager, which merges a reference (xref) file with another design file.

Optech of Canada is a competitor to Cyra in the 3D digitizing industry. Their ALTM scanner is  used in aircraft to scan buildings and sites from the air, operating at day or in the night. You can view sample scans at http://www.optech.on.ca/imagegall.htm

AEC CADCON of USA <http://www.aeccadcon.com> is a rare breed of software dealer, handling both Autodesk and Bentley products. I asked them how they were able to pull that off. Their reply: "The larger the firm, the larger the client base, the more likely they use both AutoCAD and MicroStation." This firm solves integration problems using ProjectWise for .dwg and .dgn files.

Disgruntled Developers

Not every third-party developer is a happy developer. Some dissident developers courted attendees at the nearby Sheraton hotel, home of the Miss America contest. Although these developers wanted to tell me their story of disillusionment with Bentley Systems, they didn't want me telling you.  In general, however, they allege that Bentley is attempting to create its own MicroStation "monopoly." In this scenario, Bentley becomes the sole provider of vertical apps, training, sales, and so on. The disenfranchised developers survive by paying for the software and getting tech support through Bentley's subscription program, like any other MicroStation user.
        Another third-party developer told me he manages to stay part of Bentley's developer program because his product solves the problems of users, even though Bentley doesn't like to acknowledge the problems exist. If it wasn't for the add-on product, the developer told me, customers would leave MicroStation for another CAD product, so Bentley tolerates his existence.

Photo Gallery

For the Abbotsford-Calgary segment of my flight to Atlantic City, the pilot chose to fly low over the Rocky Mountains.

 

Calgary International Airport relies on Microsoft software to display departureand arrival times.

 

Atlantic City calls itself "America's Favorite Playground" and features lots of hotel casinos, a lovely beach, but little else.

 

In the Fortune Dome, the winner tries to grab money bills whirling past.

 

Avoid the casino districts, and Atlantic City feels more like Mainstreet America.

 

Back in the casino district, a valet driver parked this Lamborghini Espada in front of the Trump Marina Hotel.

 

Next Year in Baltimore

BIUC A-OK, AC NJ = Bentley International User Group [was] A-okay, [held in] Atlantic City New Jersey. I've gotta say that this BIUC event was an excellent event for me to attend, spending time with old friends and meeting new ones.
        Walker Lee Evey heads up the Pentagon Renovation project, and was a dynamic speaker, describing the problems and successes of overhauling the 50-year-old building and making repairs from the September 11 disaster. More info at http://renovation.pentagon.mil
        Robert Aish ran a fascinating Research Seminar on advanced parametric design of architectural buildings using the programmability of MicroStation. The techniques used to control surfaces by Foster and Partners made our collective jaws drop. More info at http://www.benbentley.com/research/  and http://www.fosterandpartners.com/internetsite/html/Project.asp?JobNo=1121#
        I could have written much more about this event, but I figure 2,000 words is long enough. Next year, BIUC will be held in Baltimore, May 18-22, 2003. http://www2.bentley.com/biuc/default.cfm

 

Return to My Travelogues

(c) Copyright 2002 by upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd.