White Papers

Bentley's white papers include technology roadmaps and perspectives – helping you successfully plan and implement. 

Building | Civil | Geospatial | Plant 
 MicroStation | ProjectWise | Bentley SELECT | Training

Building

Build as One: A Practice Methodology for the Building Industry
What if there were a better way to build? Less time wasted, increased quality of work, and enhanced project profitability and competitiveness?

Introduction to GenerativeComponents
A parametric and associative design system for architecture, building engineering, and digital fabrication.

Does the Building Industry Really Need to Start Over?
A response from Bentley to Autodesk’s BIM/Revit proposal for the future.

Civil 

Rail Whitepapers:

Seeing the Light
This paper gives details of new techniques recently deployed in signal sighting and layout for driver route familiarization. The methods and techniques for developing and managing the 3D data models required for this activity are discussed as are the software tools required at each stage of the process. 

Overhead Line - Data Lifecycle
This paper reviews the lifecycle for overhead line data, how it is captured, created, analyzed and deployed for the construction and long term maintenance of the railway.

Prioritized Rail Corridor Asset Management
Prioritized Rail Corridor Asset Management not only results in steady-state asset performance under constrained resources, but can even improve the asset condition and provide a positive return on investment. This paper describes an information system developed to facilitate a Prioritized Rail Corridor Asset Management strategy. 

A Visual Track Maintenance Management System
The objectives of the Optram Railway Infrastructure Management System is to improve maintenance efficiency, provide improved reliability and increase safety. This paper examines how Optram was applied on a project to demonstrate that improved information availability: improves understanding and control of track infrastructure, plans more effective maintenance, reduce operational time delays, and uses work-windows more productively.

Track Maintenance Management
A look at new and innovative approaches to Maintenance-of-Way management of rail corridor assets, in an environment in which railroads and transit authorities are experiencing escalating maintenance budgets that consistently lag behind the increase in traffic. Challenging issues such as safety and maximal use of existing capacities are addressed.

Bridge Whitepapers:

Integration of Information and Automation Technologies in Bridge Engineering and Management: Extending State of the Art
This paper surveys the shortcomings of current piecemeal applications of information and automation technologies. It then explores the promise of parametric 3D bridge information modeling (BIM) as an enabling technology for accelerating the design and delivery of bridges and more.

Structural Analysis of the Sutong Bridge
The Sutong Bridge in China’s Jiangsu Province can claim the world’s longest cable-stayed span and the longest cables. China’s Highway Planning and Design Institute (HPDI) designed the bridge in cooperation with a consortium of local and international consultants, all while relying on Bentley Bridge RM software and the Bentley TDV team. They faced extraordinary challenges due to environmental factors and operational demands. Sutong underwent sophisticated 4D analyses of the structure’s dynamic behavior under many configurations and conditions, over time, in the construction stages as well as the final stage.

Other Civil Whitepapers:

Electronic Document Management Systems (EDMS): The Hub of Design-Build Practices
Complex Design-Build projects are excellent scenarios for studying the ins and outs of implementing EDMS and information technology. This article explores the issues of management and interoperability of engineering data and CAD files – key issues in achieving a managed environment.

Bentley MX Evolution - MX V8 XM Edition Product Roadmap
Look at how development ventures have already influenced MX and will continue to do so as MX fulfills its mission to evolve and integrate with Bentley Civil. Gain a clear understanding of where MX is heading within the Bentley Civil context.

Geospatial

Case for a Spatially Enabled Managed Environment
This article describes Bentley’s vision for the management of the drawings, models, images, and other varied document types that we characterize as AEC content. 

Extreme Mapping: What Makes Mapping Great
This white paper explores the five facets of great mapping -- speed, precision, freedom, control and expression.

Plant

Making PDS Interoperable
This paper is intended to fill the information gap.  It sets out options for PDS users to continue gaining value from their PDS systems and to take an evolutionary approach towards a transition by using the components of Bentley's DigitalPlant solution. It also provides information about future developments that will help users work out the timing of investments.

Managing PDS Documents Effectively
Today’s large projects are becoming increasingly complex and multidisciplined, spanning civil engineering, structural engineering, piping and building design, and chemical engineering. As these disciplines become more geographically distributed, collaborating and sharing work while avoiding duplication becomes a growing challenge. Failing to keep track of issued documents and their changes makes the synchronization between distributed teams virtually impossible and can have disastrous consequences for the project. This white paper will investigate the processes involved in managing PDS projects and will make recommendations for process improvements.

Workflow Challenges During Front-End Engineering
This white paper presents Bentley's approach to addressing the workflow challenges faced by process engineers during Front-End Engineering.

Bentley Pipeline Solution Reduces Lifecycle Costs
This white paper discusses Geospatially indexed engineering information as delivered by Bentley’s
engineering information system.

Bentley Plant Managed Environment
This white paper defines the need for information management throughout all phases of the plant facility lifecycle, and examines the business drivers behind the development of a managed environment.

DigitalPlant
This white paper outlines how silos of information on the enterprise side and the engineering side of a business can connect to each other.

Owner Operator
Modeling the true nature of operations for the enterprise. 

MicroStation 

Improving Teamwork and Collaboration in Design Environments
Ziff Davis Market Experts-authored white paper examines the impact of capabilities in MicroStation V8 that materially impact efficiency in the design process. 

ProjectWise 

Working Together to Improve Collaboration: The Bentley-Microsoft Partnership
The new integration of ProjectWise and Microsoft Office SharePoint lets users "drill down" inside DGN and DWG CAD files to find the mission-critical information necessary for efficient and effective project management.

Bentley SELECT 

Software licensing, made simple
A number of compelling new developments mark SELECT Server XM Edition, including disconnected use, a new reporting infrastructure, the ability to manage multiple sites from a single SELECT Server, and the option of a Bentley-hosted license management service.

Training