CAD User - "Let's Generate!"
GenerativeComponents is the latest “Innovation by MicroStation," and is described as a parametric design system that empowers creative architects and engineers to accelerate their search for the most innovative and efficient designs.
"GenerativeComponents is helping creative architects and engineers to iterate more rapidly on their journey to find the most innovative, most efficient designs possible."
"...the resulting projects that I have seen – the Bishopsgate tower by KPF, the Dostyk Towers by NBBJ, and of course the new Cutty Sark Pavilion by Youmeheshe, which is the first building to be completed using GenerativeComponents – clearly illustrate tremendous creativity based on a highly developed sense of intuitive design, while being expressed with a clarity that comes from an equally developed sense of design logic."
CAD User AEC Magazine, Vol 20 No 07 - July/August 2007
Cadalyst - "The Best and Brightest"
Cadalyst All-Star awards honor the best of the best -- the most outstanding among all software and hardware products that earned Highly Recommended ratings from Cadalyst Labs.
"MicroStation is no longer a CAD program; it is the foundation of an AEC design ecosystem," notes Randall S. Newton, author of the Cadalyst review and editor-in-chief of both AECnews and CADCAMNet.
"The improvements in MicroStation V8 XM position Bentley as the technology leader in enterprise-class AEC."
Randall Newton, editor-in-chief, AECNews
Building Design - Welcome arrival at the station
The MicroStation community has been talking about it for ages, and the XM version has finally been released. Marc Thomas, IT director of Architects Design Partnership, says it’s been worth waiting for.
"Colour is now 32 bit, enabling gradient fills and colour books — Pantone and RAL are both included. These will all have an immediate benefit, as Photoshop can be taken out of the workflow for much presentation work."
"...3D benefits enormously from Direct X."
"Design history has come of age. Major revision points can be set and it can now be configured to display revision letters that correspond to current practice."
"...“tasks” are a major feature of the XM interface."
"System managers will welcome the automation made possible by Windows-compliant installation tools. MicroStation's already excellent network configuration facilities are extended."
Marc Thomas, IT director, Architects Design Partnership
AEC Magazine - MicroStation V8 XM Overview
While MicroStation was almost totally re-architected in the V8 release, with Bentley adding considerable new functionality and a powerful new file format, the graphics engine had yet to be replaced and the interface was "tired" by modern standards. XM is the completion of this work, with some new features to boot.
"When looking at V8 in the context of the whole re-architecting project, it’s a pretty amazing software engineering feat to have so thoroughly reworked a product to expand and modernize, while maintaining links back to past releases."
"The new interface has brought MicroStation into the 21st Century."
"[MicroStation V8 XM Edition] …has plenty of new innovations and keeps Bentley with the leaders in the 3D field."
"MicroStation is a better product for the work and a platform upon which the company can continue to develop its very specialized vertical 3D applications."
Martyn Day, group editor, EDA Ltd.
Cadalyst Labs Review - MicroStation V8 XM
Bentley has worked hard over the years to position itself as the enterprise-class provider of design software in the AEC and geospatial fields. More than a dozen acquisitions in recent years have expanded the Bentley portfolio to more than 150 products, allowing it to be a one-stop shop for its customers. The foundation for all these products is MicroStation, Bentley's 2D/3D CAD platform.
"This upgrade carries a big upside in immediate productivity improvements. Highly Recommended."
"2006 seems to have become the Year of Google in AEC and GIS... Bentley wasted no time supporting Google Earth with a KML file exporter that allows project models be viewed in their intended settings."
"Bentley also broke ground by being the first major CAD platform to embrace Adobe PDF as a key publishing format."
"Bentley drops OpenGL in favor of DirectX, the gaming industry's preferred display technology. The immediate benefit to users is a significant speed increase in 2D and 3D redraw, navigation and geometry creation."
Randall Newton, editor-in-chief, AECNews