Bentley Releases V8i (SELECTseries 2) Versions of Software for Design and Operation of Utility Infrastructure

New Software Provides More Accurate Views of Assets Within Conduits, Reduces Layout Time, Enhances Information Exchange Between Applications, and Lowers Costs.

EXTON, Pa. – Bentley Systems, Incorporated today announced the immediate availability of the V8i (SELECTseries 2) versions of Bentley Electric, Bentley Gas, Bentley Water, Bentley Expert Designer Electric, Bentley Expert Designer Gas, and Bentley Expert Designer Water. These powerful but easy-to-use products simplify workflows and provide utility engineers and owner-operators with a comprehensive suite of network design and management applications for the construction and refurbishment of utility infrastructure. Bentley Electric and Bentley Gas each combine the best of geographical information system (GIS) and CAD functionality to provide streamlined layout and documentation processes, painless edits, and intelligent data validation. Bentley Water provides an integrated GIS and design environment, coupled with an intelligent and customizable network model, to allow municipalities and utilities to address all operations of a typical water supply network. Bentley Expert Designer software merges network design and work management to improve the efficiency and throughput of distribution system design. The newest versions of these products:

* provide more accurate and detailed views of assets within conduits,
* reduce the time needed to lay out utility networks,
* better support information exchange between applications,
* streamline workflow configurations and data loading,
* lower start-up and administration costs.

“We are very excited about this new software from Bentley,” said Robert Mendoza, CAD manager, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. “With these enhancements we anticipate numerous productivity gains for designers, engineers, and field crews. The ability to accurately model and easily visualize the network and, in particular, conduits will allow us to make decisions faster, compressing our design, review, and locate time.”

Vonnie Smith, Bentley director of Utility Product Development, said, “With the V8i (SELECTseries 2) versions of our electric, gas, and water utility products, users can simplify their workflows as they create, manage, and maintain their underground network data – data that’s critical to every utility’s day-to-day business processes. At the same time, the new software will help them optimize their network design processes, accelerating project completions and improving design quality.”

New features of the V8i (SELECTseries 2) versions of Bentley’s utility products include improved conduit capabilities for documentation and management, a simplified multidiscipline designer environment, and better versioning support for Smallworld GIS data in import and export workflows. In addition, support for Bentley Map and Oracle schemas simplifies configuration and setup while improved administration tools help speed deployment.

Enhanced conduit capabilities in Bentley Electric and Bentley Expert Designer Electric include:

* specialized conduit network tracing, facilitating decision-making processes and analysis;
* conduit layout using a manual, inference-assisted mode or trace results, reducing the time required to document new conduits;
* Feature Editor for the management of all nongraphical data and relationships, simplifying the design experience with a single user interface;
* Diagram Editor for the management of cross-section, wall, and sequence diagram details, providing an easy-to-use depiction of conduit components;
* compatible unit assignments, leveraging existing asset management data within the design environment;
* on-the-fly cost estimation, enabling rapid cost comparisons of alternative designs;
* automatic report generation to reduce errors and time-consuming manual processes.

Finally, enhanced security settings and an improved graphical interface in the V8i (SELECTseries 2) versions of Bentley’s utility products empower each user to manage multi-utility work requests and create drawings for any combination of gas, water, and electric network within the same user interface. This powerful capability results in a simpler and more productive environment, further speeding the execution of designs.