According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, engineers are inefficient; they waste around 25% of their time searching for information and another 20% on data conversion, thanks to differing formats and still existing communication barriers between departments. In his keynote address CEO Greg Bentley graphically demonstrated how over the last couple of decades productivity increase among engineers had fallen way behind that of business and architects. Earning potential was commensurately lower in engineering than in the former two sectors. Nevertheless, there had been a slight upward inflection, and this needed to be sustained. One of the means of doing so, said Bentley, was by prioritising learning: ‘It's time for learning.'

Passport

Today technology enables sharing of knowledge irrespective of where one is on the globe. To improve productivity, collaboration among engineers should also be extended. Another contribution to solving the inertia problem in the sector is by encouraging engineers to be innovative. Having named the problems, Greg Bentley presented BE initiatives to resolve them. To stimulate collaboration the company had introduced the ProjectWise passport: a versatile, portable and global licence for collaboration among users. And for this, as Bhupinder Singh, senior vice-president, Bentley Software, would joke during his own keynote, there was no visa required! Major cities such as Toronto, Montreal, Helsinki, Calgary and Edmonton have joined Bentley's Municipal License Subscription programme in which municipalities pay a fee based on number of inhabitants.

2006 Statistics

Greg Bentley also disclosed BE revenues for 2006 were US$398 million, a 15% growth over 2005; revenues would surpass US$400 million in 2007. Average growth rate since 1995 was 12.5%. Over half these revenues were generated outside the Americas. The number of employees was now over 2,400, five hundred in Asia. According to Styli Camateros, vice-president Civil and Geospatial Products, Bentley was in worldwide second place in terms of generating revenue in the GIS/Geospatial software arena. The company has also become principal member of Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). The applied research division received 20% of revenues for research and development studies. During the plenary session, Buddy Cleveland, head of the division, asked the rhetorical question, 'Why invest in research?' Because, he stated, it was a prerequisite for success. Although the benefits could not be easily quantified and were often not visible, a separate research division within a company enabled it 'to look beyond the next version of software'.

Google Earth

At any GIS/CAD conference the software and its functionality predictably lie at the core of most presentations. It would be strange were that not the case. New software features are proudly demonstrated and new tool modifications used to help (geo-)data gallop across the screen at breathtaking speed. It is easy to be impressed, dazzled even, by all the brightness assembled in the prototype of a forthcoming new release. To date, the (geo-)data used in demonstrations has often consisted of sophisticated 3D-models of plants, buildings, bridges and infrastructure, either under design, construction or as-built. But, coming from a surveying background, one wonders why no word is said about how the data has been collected and put into the system, and why no indicative measures of its accuracy are given. The existence of data is obviously taken for granted. Except when it comes to that of Google Earth; then the presenter acknowledges that the model of the plant or bridge is superimposed on Google Earth images and maps so that it can be viewed in its spatial context. GIS/CAD vendors increasingly consider Google Earth a de facto standard, and it is one to which Bentley too has committed itself. The company is also committed to Oracle Spatial, Adobe PDF and Microsoft Vista, as confirmed by Greg Bentley at last year's conference.

Man in the Field

During the Geospatial keynote on Tuesday several demonstrations were given on a successful infrastructure project in Toronto using ProjectWise. The demonstrations concerned fast extension of infrastructure networks: how design and checking extension of an electric-power network in a newly built-up area could be designed by the office worker and managed by the team leader, reports on the necessary materials and costs being produced. Again the surveyor in one asks, 'But what about the man in the field?' For him Bentley has released an Electronic Field Book for stakeout and inspection purposes: Bentley OnSite. The solution is composed of a stakeout and an inspector module and can be used by field crews to perform calculations, produce reports and capture as-built information. This may include geometric information when the modules are connected to GPS or other survey devices from industry-standard manufacturers such as Trimble and Leica.

Athens

The main users of Bentley software are office workers streamlining the management of construction, inspection and maintenance of the built environment: roads, power lines, water pipelines and sewerage systems. MicroStation and ProjectWise users are usually office workers highly skilled in the use of the software and keeping up to date through continuing professional development. But the world is bigger than just the office, and the way people co-operate is changing, mainly as a result of broadband internet. To keep up with a changing world Bentley is working on "Athens", a platform that will enable conceptual design, dynamic views, distributed projects and geo-coordination. Many architects and other front-end professionals are not interested in using present platforms from BE because they are powerful but too complicated for many applications, such as making a multitude of sketch designs. The simpler and more intuitive tools presently in use by designers result in time-consuming data conversions and transfer delays at later stages when designs have to be converted into detailed drawings. Athens will allow easier use of MicroStation for conceptual-design applications. Another important feature will be geo-coordination, an answer to increasing interest in the integration of CAD and GIS. According to Keith Bentley, the platform will be ready for release in 2008.

Hardware

We are now facing the limits of the hardware revolution. The validity of Moore's law (the number of transistors on an integrated circuit for minimum component cost doubles every 24 months, sometimes quoted as every eighteen months) has largely stood the test of time for forty years. However, the law appears not to be time-invariant; the CPU progress curve is flattening out and the time is past when software engineers could anticipate seemingly ever faster and stronger computing power. Gone with the same wind is the possibility of saving time by being satisfied with sub-optimal software design. In terms of processing speed CPU performance is 'topping out' and thus GPU (Graphical Processing Unit) was 'a big win,' according to Keith Bentley, chief technology officer and director, speaking during his keynote address. The solution was not only clever algorithm design but also to move from 32-bit computers to 64-bit ones, and Bentley is making ready its software for this. So it was Keith Bentley's advice to buy no more 32-bit computers but to make the move to 64-bit. He also considered Windows Vista a huge improvement and recommended its use.

Awards

Awards of Excellence were handed to winners during a four-and-a-half-hour ceremony hosted by Peter Sagal, a US celebrity known for his plays, screenplays and a radio quiz programme. These awards reward innovative and successful projects for improving the world's infrastructure using BE platforms. The literally hundreds of companies and organisations nominated are listed in a booklet. To mention a few: winner in the Geospatial Government category was Amsterdam Municipality. In the Geospatial 3D GIS category, AAMHatch won an award for creating true orthophotography and 3D-model of the city of Melbourne. The Geospatial Innovation category winner was the Dutch Ministry of Finance. The work of some winners, among which the latter, had already been highlighted earlier during the plenary session by Malcom Walter, chief operating officer and senior vice-president.

In addition to plenary, technical and training sessions, an exhibition was open to participants. Data acquisition firms such as Leica were present, but also providers of back-end tools such as 3D printers. A major part of the exhibition floor was occupied by posters of BE award nominees. Since 2006 Bentley has been hosting a user conference in Europe. The 2007 event will take place at the Hilton London Metropole, London, UK, from 10th to 14th June. The 2006 conference took place in Prague and attracted over a thousand people. For more details visit;