Education

Bentley / Autodesk: Roll Up Sleeves and Look to Future Work

Matt earlier reported on the recent press announcement regarding Bentley and Autodesk coming together to enhance interoperability through their agreement. The agreement makes sense for a number of very practical and important reasons.

• Both companies have been pointing to the NIST report of a few years ago which identifies the cost of interoperability issues in the AEC industry.
• The reality is that many businesses and organisations use both company's products - and both Bentley and Autodesk already know this.
• The future will increasingly involve modeling of integrated processes which will draw upon integrated resources and multi-disciplinary knowledge, collaboration and wider participation.
• Like many of the geospatial tools and processes; AEC will expand beyond the domain of professionals to include non-professionals, become more deployed through model processing servers requiring more computation, and require complexity  to become embedded into simpler interfaces - with higher interoperability.
• Both Autodesk and Bentley have talked about and supported interoperability for a long time. I have lots of notes where Autodesk has spoken about accelerating the design process. They have been integral to OSGEO from the beginning and released FDO openly. Bentley Systems has spoken about interoperability throughout their organisation for as long as I can remember. The latest example extending from their new GenerativeComponents software to their participation and in meeting IFC, ISO and OGC initiatives.  Keep in mind that Bentley is backward compatible to Version 1 - something to think about for DWG users.
• This deal is not unlike a deal Autodesk made with PTC back in 2006.

There is not much that is mysterious about this agreement. It makes perfect, practical sense.

Look around - internationally. There is a shortage of skilled labour in this field (do you really want to waste the existing talent on format fighting and difficulties?). Every day we are posting about new infrastructure work. There is so much of it - enough for many people.

Major governance issues and eGovernment efforts are now coming forward in terms of AEC / LEED as Autodesk indicates and Bentley has written about  sustainabile infrastructure . It is important to understand that cities are going to be transformed in major ways shortly, transportation systems updated and expanded due to high oil costs, new forms of energy efficiency will be regulated, and that existing infrastructure is falling apart rapidly - sometimes dangerously - and in need of replacement.

A view of financial trends shows that infrastructure funds are gaining momentum, suggesting investments are on the near horizon. It is also important, I think, to realise that AEC will become impacted by consumer participation and move from a professional only base.

Times are changing. For the better. This is a positive step toward the future, for technology, for design and for people to live in higher quality standards.

Better to move ahead then stand around scratching one's head.

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2. Autodesk University Goes Virtual
3. OGC Interoperability Day 2008: Ongoing Work
4. Original TopoBase ‘Father’ and ‘Visionary’ Leaves Autodesk
5. Autodesk Sustainability Center
6. Autodesk Whitepaper: Government Geospatial Solutions
7. Solar Roll: Charge Your GPS, Computer or iPod in the Field
8. New HP TouchSmart: Changing the Way Geospatial Pro’s Work?
9. Autodesk Seizes 1 Million AED Worth of Pirated Software
10. Interview: Mark Paraskeva — Vice-President for Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMIA) for Autodesk

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