Bentley will release its Athens upgrades in the fourth quarter of this year. Yesterday we received a peak at a few of the advancements, and some demos of the possible workflows. One compelling fact about the release is that there are more than 100 products that are being updated simultaneously by an international development team in more than 17 countries. This release is being called the most aggressive in the company’s history.
Key features of the Athens platform upgrade are:
- drawings across all products will be geospatially coordinated automatically
- visualization can seamlessly shift between 2D and 3D
- analysis will be integrated into physical models, enabling analytically guided designs
The audience was treated to a workflow scenario with plant design and roadway design solutions that illustrated several of the above advancements. The road design tools integrated safety standards as a rules base, and cross section analysis of many different design scenarios put great power into the designer’s hands. With the plant design tools, there is new 4-D design that is integrated with construction-specific software for workface simulation and building assembly tools.
Overall, the audience reaction was appreciative, and I look forward to seeing project advancements when the toolsets become available.
