CU Nov-Dec 2023

CONFERENCES
of open source code utilised by GiTHub's
Copilot, he was acutely aware of both the
need to retain proprietary control of some
of the more specific coding, and to ensure
that clients data remained secure,
resulting in Bentley setting up a three-part
perpetual commitment to responsibly
steward client data.
ACCELERATING INFRASTRUCTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Extending the focus on Infrastructure
Intelligence much further, the follow-on to
Greg's keynote was a panel presentation
which looked at how infrastructure
intelligence can be developed further to
address other issues within the industry,
such as the very real shortage of engineers,
designers and skilled tradespeople, and
the drive towards greater sustainability.
Led by Bentley's Chief Product Manager,
Mike Campbell, who described the
development of digital twins from its earliest
inception in Bentley way back in 2011 and
the investment in the development of the
IoT platform, leading up to the introduction
of Bentley Infrastructure Cloud last year, the
panel outlined ways in which companies
were now able to do more with less,
lowering design costs and delivering better
quality projects sooner.
His theme was taken up by Henry
Okraglik, Global Director Digital
WSP Australia, accompanied by Lori
Hufford, Vice President, Engineering
Collaboration, Bentley Systems. Henry is
responsible for developing WSP's 'digital
maturity', and he described how going
digital is fuelled by people, processes and
technology - three elements that WSP was
able to bring together.
WSP rolled out a pilot project to
modernise a system with complex, solid
structures and basic network drives,
making it difficult to access and share data
which was not to scale - aiming to
encourage greater use of ProjectWise and
to standardise processes, centralise
document repositories, and improve
version control. Their team can now
visualise data better and collaborate in real
time with a linear flow of data across all
platforms, with Infrastructure Cloud
enabling them to improve both planning
and construction tracks.
Henry illustrated WSP's approach by
describing how the company handled the
transformation of a container and freighthandling
port in Northern Australia,
requiring them to seamlessly collaborate
across multiple disciplines, and all stages
of the project. Aiming to get trucks off the
road to reduce road congestion and onto
an existing rail network, build a new rail
terminal, and boost efficiency, WSP
employed ProjectWise and iModel to
facilitate collaboration between WSPs
engineers, contractors and port officials.
A second project involved the removal of
100 plus level crossings from a rail line
which divided a community. This involved
much more than just removing the gates,
and included upgrades to the rail network,
train stations and tracks, plus the reduction
of safety risks and additional congestion.
WSP used Bentley's Open Bridge module,
iTwin, Synchro and a tranche of other
products, and have calculated that they
were able to reduce modelling time by 60%
and increase productivity by 25%. And
because they were able to use precast and
prefabricated components for the job, they
also reduced their carbon footprint by
about 30%.
CREATING DIGITAL TWINS IN
MICROSTATION.
A digital twin, Mike Campbell explained, is
an inherently structured way to federate
information from lots of different systems,
unlocking the data and files. It can also be
the foundation for quickly applying AI and
machine learning. Bentley's vision, he said,
is that wherever you use Bentley products
to design, build, operate and maintain an
asset or infrastructure, digital twins can be
automatically and transparently generated.
Hence the next stage of Bentley's iTwin
strategy, allowing designers and engineers
using iTwin capabilities to automatically
create digital twins during the design
process, referencing the context in which
designs are created. The first Bentley
application to deliver this functionality is, of
course, MicroStation.
To lay out what MicroStation will deliver
from next year, Suzanne Trierscheid, VP,
Modelling and Facilities Engineering at
Bentley Systems, explained how a
dramatically improved workflow will
automatically create a digital twin during
the process, enabling users to interact
more effectively with real time data.
Instead of project team members having
to exchange large data files and so on, they
can work together to solve complex
problems and develop solutions, using the
new MicroStation workflow generated
digital twin. They won’t have to sift through
long lists of reference files either. Instead
they can use the 'compare version' feature
for pending design changes, using an
intelligent assistant to navigate design
changes. The iTwin powered workflow
facilitates peer-to-peer interactions and real
November/December 2023 29