Bentley Building Electrical Systems

Focus on Electrical Design

Bentley Building Electrical Systems is a professional electrical design solution focused on design, engineering, modeling, analysis and documentation of facility electrical systems, including power distribution, lighting, fire detection, security, and communications.  Moving beyond traditional electrical drafting, Bentley Building Electrical Systems is a revolutionary step forward with object oriented design software, building information modeling of “intelligent” electrical objects, data transparency, workflow flexibility, and interoperability with industry-standard power engineering and lighting analysis programs to seamlessly link design and analysis.

Power distribution equipment, loads, feeder and branch circuiting, and raceways can quickly be placed in 2D and 3D with automated symbol placement, labeling and circuit routing as well as online load calculations for immediate design checks. Clearance envelopes for code compliance and for working space requirements can be defined for equipment and raceway systems.  The physical design of raceways is accomplished with tools to place cable trays, busways, conduits, trunking systems, cable baskets, and hangers, with calculation of length, raceway fill, and weight.  The Cable Manager makes circuiting and cable routing both transparent and efficient. Labeling, cable lists, board schedules and schematics are produced automatically from the cable management database.

Lighting systems can rapidly laid out with automated symbol insertion from manufacturers’ specified libraries with bi-directional interfaces to lighting CAE applications, such as DIALux, Relux, and LTI Lumen Designer. 

The fire detection module includes libraries of standard fire detection symbols and allows the automated generation of schematic block diagrams, labeling and schedules, as well as online calculations of lengths, and maximum device calculations. Interfaces are provided to CAE modules, such as NFPA 72 (US), BS 5839 (UK), and VDS 2095/VDE 0833 (Germany). The design of building subsystems, such as telecommunications, emergency lighting, European Installation Bus (EIB), LON Field Bus, IT, public address systems, video, nurse call, intruder detection, access control, lighting protection, as well as user defined systems, is also supported.

Bentley Building Electrical Systems supports design functions with comprehensive symbol libraries, e.g. for ANSI/IEEE/NFPA (US), BS (UK), DIN/VDE (Germany), and others. Adaptable to CAD standards, the 2D symbols can be linked to 3D graphics.

Benefits:

• Focus on design with construction documentation an output of the design process
• Rapidly design and model a variety of electrical systems
• Design automation tools for arrangement of equipment and devices
• Integration with industry standard analysis programs eliminating need to re-enter data
• Support “real world” electrical design workflows
• “Intelligent” design data adds value to the supply chain

Integrate Design, Analysis, and Documentation

Bi-directional interfaces from Bentley Building Electrical Systems to industry standard third party programs for lighting and power analysis eliminate the need to re-enter data and the transcription errors associated with manual data input. Design and analysis data round tripping between the BIM model and the analytical models results in significant savings in design time, optimized designs and accurate design documentation.

Power engineering analysis and content is provided via bi-directional links to power analysis software, like EDSA (US NEC/ANSI/IEEE), AMTECH ProDesign (UK BS7671), and elcoPower (Germany DIN/VDE).  Electrical load data, circuit lengths, and other design data are extracted from the BIM model to ensure accurate design and analysis calculations. Design data is imported to Bentley Building Electrical Systems from the analytical model to complete to complete the information loop.

Luminaire arrangements can be created in Bentley Building Electrical Systems and exported to lighting analysis programs including Relux, DIALux and Lumen Desiger for lighting calculations. Lighting design can be done in the lighting analysis programs and imported to the BIM model. Luminaire information including physical dimensions for parametric symbol definitions, electrical load, and manufacturers’ data is imported from the analysis programs. The electrical load information can also be used for power analysis.

Benefits:

• Seamless integrate design with industry standard analysis programs
• Gain more time to evaluate more design options
• Avoid re-entering of data and eliminate errors associated with manual data input
• Achieve significant time savings in the design development phase
• Create multiple outputs from a single input
• Synchronize schedules with a single project datasource

Stepwise Refinement of Design

An estimated 80 percent of the electrical design process in the building industry involves altering completed work. By creating a true building information model, attributes and properties are linked automatically with electrical components. Stepwise refinement of the design allows users to add design detail as it becomes available in the design process.  Also, design changes can be managed and quickly incorporated.

Benefit:

• Add design detail as the information becomes available with minimal effort
• Incorporate design changes quickly and accurately
• Automatically update labels and other design data for construction documentation

Reduce Construction Documentation Time

Instead of driving the process, design and construction deliverables are virtually a by-product of the design workflow. Design data is entered only once and re-used for other downstream tasks. Powerful features facilitate the rapid creation of construction and design drawings, as well as panel schedules, circuit schedules, bills of material, and more.

For instance, circuit lines are automatically created between components and labeled according to standards; rule-based annotation is automatically added and updated with design changes; and drawing legends are automatically created from information in design files. Plans, sections, and elevations comply with user-definable drawing standards and rules for resymbolization and annotation. Coordination and consistency is thereby ensured across all documentation.

Benefit:

• Create accurate and coordinated 2D drawings from 3D models
• Control every aspect of representation
• Achieve significant time savings in the construction drawings phase

Predict Performance, Quantities, and Costs

Electrical properties and user-definable attributes associated with electrical components are used to query the building information model and to make selective or global changes to electrical systems and non-graphical information. They are also used to generate accurate schedules and reports, such as cable and device schedules, bills of material, cost estimates, panel schedules, drawing legends, etc., with a bi-directional interface to Microsoft Excel for further formatting.

Benefit:

• Query any aspect of the building information model
• Make geometry changes through associated attributes
• Generate accurate schedule and reports

Avoid Errors and Omissions

Bentley Building Electrical Systems automatically coordinates electrical design and construction documentation through all project phases and manages inherent component attributes and properties significant for design, documentation, analysis, construction, commissioning and operations. Integrated analysis interfaces eliminate manual data entry errors when creating analytical models.

Because all information is tightly linked to a single datasource, changes made to the model are reflected in drawings, schedules, and reports. Electrical components can be pre-defined and stored with settings for material, level, 2D and 3D symbology, etc., thus enforcing corporate and project standards as well as capturing knowledge for reuse on subsequent projects.

Benefits:

• Seamlessly integrate with industry standard analysis programs and share design data
• Assure consistency across all forms of project documentation
• Enforce compliance with corporate and project standards
• Capture knowledge for reuse on subsequent projects

Get Immediate Visual Feedback

Bentley Building Electrical Systems provides immediate visual feedback in the model for electrical system arrangements, raceway systems, alarm devices such as fire detectors, clearance envelopes, light sources, and more. Bentley Building Electrical Systems also streamlines the creation of convincing presentations without the need to export data to an external visualization application, because powerful design visualization tools, which include ray and particle tracing, radiosity, animation, lighting, and camera controls, and more, are seamlessly integrated.

In addition, Bentley Building Electrical Systems not only supports Adobe PDF, the standard for electronic deliverables in AEC, including embedded 3D models, but also connects to the Google Earth service. 2D and 3D models in DGN and DWG can be published directly to the Google Earth environment, so you can zoom from space onto a site, view the facility in the context of rich geography imagery, fly around the building, and then view associated content, like floor plans with power distribution and lighting systems, raceways, schedules, rendered images, Web pages and so on, via embedded links.

Benefits:

• Rapidly design, model, and visualize complex electrical systems
• Visualize clearance requirements and eliminate clashes
• Forget the need to export models to external visualization applications
• Streamline the creation of convincing client presentations
• Better communicate the design intent and project information to stakeholders

Multidisciplinary Coordination and Interoperability

Bentley Building Electrical Systems is integrated with other Bentley applications including Bentley Architecture, Bentley Structural, Bentley Building Mechanical Systems, Bentley Facilities, and Bentley Navigator, providing a truly multi-disciplinary collaboration environment within a shared model.

For instance, Bentley Building Electrical Systems can leverage models created with Bentley Architecture by reading room space data for equipment arrangement, as well as recoginizing architectural objects such as doors for placing electrical devices. Also, Interference Manager ensures that coordination with mechanical systems, structural design, and other building features during the design phase translates into seamless fabrication and installation, thus saving tremendous amounts of time and expense.

For interoperability with CAD-based applications, all major industry standards, such as DGN, DWG, DXF, PDF, STEP, and IGES, are supported, too. In addition, Bentley Building Electrical Systems includes support for the IFC 2x2 coordination view, the emerging standard for information exchange between object-based BIM applications in the building industry.

Benefits:

• True collaboration and integration in shared multi-disciplinary models
• Interoperate across different file formats
• Save time and costs for fabrication and installation through clash-free design
• Build as one

Empower Your Organization

Unlike applications that impose a particular way of working, Bentley Building Electrical Systems provides complete workflow flexibility. Using the same tools and an identical interface, you can work in a traditional 2D view or advanced 3D model environment, associate attributes and properties with electrical components and objects at the time of placement or add them as the project progresses. In any case, changes made in either environment are tracked and synchronized.

The user interface of Bentley Building Electrical Systems is easy to use, intuitive, and self-explanatory, making 3D modeling as simple as 2D drafting, thus shortening the learning curve and allowing full exploitation of the many powerful tools and features. Tools are provided to tailor the user interface for particulare tasks, workflows, or preferences. In addition to extensive user manuals and documentation, online help is always available. And the focus is always on electrical design with construction documentation as an output of the design process.

Available in major languages, Bentley Building Electrical Systems is delivered with localized content supporting a variety of country-specific CAD standards and electrical codes. Customizable with corporate and project standards, datasets include common parametric and non-parametric building objects and components with default settings for symbology, level, quantity takeoff, and rendering, annotation symbols, and more.

Designed to increase the productivity and profitability of AEC professionals, Bentley offers professional training programs at Bentley Institute training facilities, on-site, and in virtual classrooms. To minimize training costs even further, Bentley’s Enterprise Training Subscription (ETS) offers convenient multi-user training for a fixed annual fee, which not only facilitates budgeting, but also delivers comprehensive training to the entire organization. In addition, this unique program provides access to the ETS Resource Center. With hundreds of hours of feature clips and self-paced lectures and labs, it is a rich source for online on-demand eLearning.

Benefits:

• Work the way that best suits your projects and workflows, not the application
• Use  Bentley Building Electrical Systems right out of the box with localized content
• Shorten the learning curve
• Empower electrical engineers and designers with computer aided electrical design
• Streamline budgeting for training
• Achieve significant savings in training costs and greater return on software investment