CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
7 November 2005
Product News
Bentley Releases Bentley Building Electrical Systems
Bentley Systems, Incorporated announced the release of Bentley Building Electrical Systems. The new software, which provides electrical system design and engineering, documentation, and management, addresses the needs of consulting engineers, contractors, owners, and facility managers in the building industry.
Based on proven elcoSystems UK technology, the standard in the industry, Bentley Building Electrical Systems can be applied to a variety of subsystems. Examples include electrical power, lighting, fire detection, security, and communications.
"Bentley Building Electrical Systems is all about saving time, improving project quality, and increasing profits for everyone faced with meeting the demands of ever more complex electrical installations for commercial, institutional, and industrial buildings," said Brad Workman, vice president of Bentley Building. "Its application goes beyond the project design phase to also include assessing and resolving coordination issues during construction and operations."
"Moreover," continued Workman, "this MicroStation-based software integrates with Bentley's other products to provide the first multidisciplinary building information modeling (BIM) electrical design solution for the building industry. As a result, it enables architects and engineers to build as one."
Completing Bentley's mechanical/electrical/piping (M/E/P) solution, Bentley Building Electrical Systems complements Bentley Architecture, Bentley Structural, and Bentley Building Mechanical Systems. It offers a comprehensive range of dedicated tools for automated symbol placement, circuiting and labeling, raceway design, cable/circuit routing and management, and automated generation of riser diagrams and drawing legends.
The new software provides the following features:
• Integrated schedules and reporting-Electrical properties and user-definable attributes associated with electrical components can be used to query the information model, to make selective or global changes to the electrical systems and nongraphical information, and to generate accurate schedules and reports, such as cable and device schedules, cost estimates, panel schedules, and so on. Bentley's BIM data systems and a configurable Microsoft Excel interface are both supported.
• Automated drawing production and coordination-Design and construction deliverables are an output of the design workflow instead of driving the process. Design data is entered once and used multiple times. Features such as automated generation of schematic diagrams and drawing legends facilitate the rapid creation of construction drawings. Plans, sections, and elevations comply with user-definable drawing standards and rules. Coordination and consistency are thereby ensured across all documentation.
• Integration with analysis-Bidirectional interfaces to a variety of industry-standard power engineering and lighting design analysis programs, such as EDSA, ProDesign, Lumen Designer, DIALux, and Relux, are provided. These interfaces are localized for maximum benefit to users with country-specific codes and standards requirements. Interactive design and analytical interfaces in the design process ensure good design practices and eliminate errors associated with manual data input.
• Stepwise refinement of the design process-Electrical design is typically an incremental process that must also deal with significant design changes. Bentley Building Electrical Systems supports "stepwise refinement," a strategic philosophy that allows design professionals to add more detailed information at different stages in the project lifecycle. Also, changes can be rapidly incorporated into the design.
• Design and modeling of electrical subsystems-This software streamlines the design and modeling process for a variety of electrical subsystems and supports a number of international standards.
• Choice of 2D, 3D, or both-The building information model can be created and manipulated in a traditional 2D view or an advanced 3D model environment, using the same tools and interface.
Bentley Building Electrical Systems is offered as either a single-user license or as a part of the Bentley SELECT and Enterprise License Subscription (ELS) program. To learn more, visit http://www.bentley.com/electrical .
BIM provides business-critical benefits over traditional computer-aided drafting (CAD), eliminates waste, significantly reduces errors and omissions, provides greater predictability of costs and performance, allows exploration of more design options, and ultimately results in better buildings. To learn more, visit http://www.bentley.com/bim .
elcoSystems UK Ltd is a subsidiary of Hannappel SOFTWARE gmbH, which was established as Hannappel Consulting Engineers in 1961. Today, Hannappel SOFTWARE gmbH is a software provider for professional computer-aided engineering and computer-aided design for electrical installation engineering. Its expertise has been built on the experience of more than 400 projects as consulting engineers, combined with 20 years of hands-on experience in the software market. The company is the technology and market leader in German-speaking Europe (DACH). Its software is successfully used by over 700 consulting engineering companies, more than 150 electrical contractors, and some of the largest firms and projects in the area of electrical installation.
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