Q4 2012


In this issue:

From the Editor

From everyone at Bentley Systems, we would like to thank you for the past year and wish you and yours a safe and joyful holiday season and a prosperous new year. We look forward to engaging with you in 2013.

We recognize that Q4 is one of the busiest times of the year for everyone, but it is also as good a time as any to reflect on what was accomplished during the year. In 2012, we have been very busy with the introduction of the "New BDN" -- not only talking about it, but also putting into effect a number of new and improved things. In case you missed some of them, here is a summary of what we did during the year:

Things we are working on for 2013 (and beyond) include:

Among other things. We are planning to host at least one BDN Conference in 2013 (most likely colocated with Be Together 2013) and we will be presenting the most current and planned developments related to BDN. So please "stay tuned to this channel".

As always, should you have any comments, questions, or suggestions about what is included (or is missing) in this newsletter, please let us know by sending an email message to bdn@bentley.com.

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BDN Conference EMEA 2012 Follow-up

This past October, we hosted a BDN Conference for two days at our new office in Hoofddorp. An enthusiastic crowd of developers from across Europe attended and saw and heard about developing with Bentley APIs and SDKs, including:

There were a variety of hands-on sessions and Bentley developer experts were on hand to answer questions. There was also plenty of opportunity to network with other developers.

In addition to general sessions and keynotes, there were three different tracks: one for MicroStation, one for Geospatial products, and one for EIMS offerings (e.g. ProjectWise, Web Services, etc.)

Jon Summers, one of the frequent contributors to programming-related inquiries Be Communities, had this to say about the conference:

“I’m wary of conferences, especially technical conferences, that don’t first publish an agenda. The absence of an agenda sometimes means that we’ll hear only marketing presentations with little real content.

I’m pleased to write that not only did the Bentley Developer Conference 2012 (DevCon 2012) have an agenda that looked interesting, but the conference delivered content to match. The agenda promised overviews of several SDKs. As developers know, it’s often hard to find a path through the tangled undergrowth of a new SDK. Developers from many countries watched presentations commented by experts in their field to help us find a path.

For example, the Point Cloud technology is very new, yet we heard Faraz Ravi, Director of Product Management for Point Clouds at Bentley Systems, discuss its API. He went further: in response to questions he stepped where few presenters dare to tread — into unscheduled demonstrations. He was bold enough to rewrite and rebuild a Point Cloud demo application as we watched.

Other APIs received coverage, including some that have receive no publicity and languish in your MicroStation folders unnoticed. For example, have you noticed the help files ecsdk.chm, ecservices.chm, and ecobjects.chm?  They’re to do with i-models and manipulating or extracting information using .NET.

Where would a DevCon be without Mark Anderson? For most of us he is the first point of contact for technical matters at Bentley Systems. Mark’s presentations and demonstrations of real code are given with depth of knowledge and wry humour, making an otherwise dry topic more easily digestible."

And he was not the only one. Chris Zakrewsky posted the BDN Conference EMEA, 2012 - impressions blog article about the event. And Jan Slegr wrote an article about the conference that was published in InGIS 2/2012 magazine. In all, it was a great event.

Presentations and materials used during BDN Conference EMEA 2012 can be downloaded from the BDN Conference EMEA 2012 Files area.

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Bentley Solutions Focus: Cyndi Smith and Andy Smith

In the Q2 2012 BDNnews, there was an article Introducing Bentley Solutions for Developers. This quarter, we focus on two: the Bentley Utilities Solution and the Bentley Buildings and Campuses Solution.

Bentley Utilities Solution

The Bentley Utilities Solution addresses the challenges faced by energy utilities in the planning, design, construction, and operation of electric and gas transmission and distribution infrastructure.  Bentley’s portfolio of products is ideal for addressing the breadth of disciplines needed for sustaining utilities infrastructure.  Utilities take advantage of Bentley’s platform technologies, utilities specific offerings from Bentley, discipline specific design and simulation products, and complementary offerings from third parties.  Bentley’s information management products lines, ProjectWise and AssetWise, play a key role in the solution.

Highlighted applications in the solution are:

The Bentley Solutions Executive for Utilities is Cyndi Smith.

I started my career in the oil and gas industry in the late seventies as a software developer in reservoir simulation at the Amoco Research Center in Tulsa.  I continued working in the oil and gas industry in Conoco’s exploration research division until 1984 when I joined Intergraph as manager of their petroleum mapping software department.  Over the course of 12 years with Intergraph in North America and Europe, I also worked in the utilities, communications, and defense industries in roles that included software development, professional services, consulting, project management, and product marketing.

I joined Bentley in 1996 for two years as Marketing Director for Utilities and Communications and rejoined Bentley in 2003 as the Industry Director for Utilities and Communications. From 2004-2005, I was the Global Geospatial Marketing Director.  From 2006 to 2008, I was a Geospatial Product Director and subsequently joined Bentley Software’s Solutions Group.

I earned a Mathematics degree from Oklahoma State University and attended graduate school at Oklahoma State University and the University of Tulsa in Electrical and Petroleum Engineering.

Please feel free to contact me at cyndi.smith@bentley.com -- I will be happy to engage in conversation with you regarding any aspect of Bentley’s Utilities Solution.

Buildings and Campuses Solution

Bentley provides interdisciplinary software and services for use in the design, construction, and operation of buildings and campuses.

The discipline specific applications enable Building Information Modeling (BIM) project delivery processes. The integrated applications and servers empower architects and engineers to explore creative design alternatives and perform engineering analysis to best achieve project objectives.

Bentley Buildings and Campuses Solution helps to speed construction delivery, while minimizing errors and omissions. Design content can be gathered from multiple sources for design review, building systems clash resolution, and construction schedule simulation. The applications provide for creating discipline specialized documentation, drawings, component schedules, and material quantity take-off reports.

The solution enables owners to leverage the information collected during design and construction for building operations providing tools to manage civil infrastructure and building space, furniture, fixture and equipment assets.

The Bentley Solutions Executive for Building and Campuses is Andy Smith, AIA


I am an architect and technologist. I joined Bentley Professional Services in 1998 as a Project Manager. In 2001, I was promoted to Director of Professional Services North America and in 2005, I joined Bentley Software's Solutions Group.

Prior to joining Bentley, I worked in Atlanta with the firms Heery International and Lord, Aeck & Sargent on corporate architecture, sports complexes, and medical laboratories.

I am a member of the buildingSMART alliance Board of Direction, Design-Build Institute of America BIM Committee, and American Institute of Architects Technology in Architectural Practice Advisory Group.

I earned a Bachelor of Science and Master of Architecture degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

I will be happy to discuss how we can work together in Bentley's Building and Campuses Solution -- I can be reached at Andy.Smith@Bentley.com.

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BDN Blog Articles

A blog (or Web log) is a simple but powerful publishing tool that enables anyone to easily share thoughts by providing information on a particular subject that no one else but the poster can change. A typical blog combines text, images, and sometimes links related to its topic. Blog articles can cover a wide range of topics, including anything that peers and colleagues would find relevant or enlightening.

The BDN Blog exists for the purpose of communicating helpful information on topics that pertain to BDN subscribers. The articles posted in this blog are timely and can be read in a fairly short timeframe. They complement other resources, such as developer documentation, by including use cases that demonstrate how something could be used instead of just what it is.

The following articles have been or will be posted in the private Bentley Developer Network community blog. If you encounter problems getting to any blog articles that have links, you may not be a member of the community where the content is posted -- please refer to this article for more information regarding this.

Should you have any suggestions or would like to see specific topics covered in blog articles, please let us know.

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SDK Downloads

Published APIs and SDKs are available for various Bentley products. Previously, we identified APIs and SDKs that primarily "stood on their own" via SELECTservices Online. In reality, we have quite a number of APIs and SDKs available for various Bentley product offerings. The most current of these are identified in the following table:

Product Line                              API or SDK                                                        Version #     Posted     
Common ServicesBentley Web Services API*1.224-May-12
Communications Network DesignTBD**TBDTBD
FieldBentley i-model SDK**ETA 12/12
Geospatial DesktopBentley Map V8i SDK***08.11.09.9131-May-12
Geospatial ServicesBentley Geo Web Publisher SDK08.11.11.5815-Oct-12
Bentley ProjectWise Geospatial Management V8i - SDK08.11.11.3511-Sep-12
GeotechnicalgINT SDK***08.30.03.7715-Dec-11
Hydraulics and HydrologyWaterObjects.NET SDK08.11.00.0622-Dec-11
MicroStationMicroStation V8i SDK****08.11.09.35718-Sep-12
ProjectWiseProjectWise Integration Server V8i SDK08.11.11.11111-May-12
Bentley ProjectWise Geospatial Management V8i - SDK08.11.11.3511-Sep-12
ProjectWise InterPlot SDK08.11.05.1518-Feb-09
Bentley Publishing SDK08.09.04.032-Jul-10
Rail DesignBentley Rail Track***08.11.07.53612-Sep-11
Road and Site DesignBentley InRoads Suite V8i Update 1***08.11.07.56626-Mar-12
StructuralIntegrated Structural Modeling (ISM)**08.11.09.12531-Aug-12
Utility Network Access and DesignETA 2013

* Currently in the private BDN community files area on Be Communities 
** Please contact bdn@bentley.com for more information
*** Delivered with product 
**** Web Downloads SELECT Release Download Category 

In some instances, previous releases of the APIs and SDKs listed may be available – please check with bdn@bentley.com for specific requests.

To download programming-related deliverables or create a custom DVD from SELECTservices Online:

Note: If you do not see check boxes, you most likely do not have SELECTservices Online Web Download privileges. Please contact your Bentley SELECT site administrator to obtain access.

An alternative to Software Downloads is the Fulfillment Center:

Note: At this time, you can only download from the Fulfillment Center. The ability to create a custom DVD will be implemented at a later date.

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i-model Development

Fundamental to the success of any infrastructure project is information. Another fundamental is how that information is created, shared, distributed, delivered, and applied. Project teams execute on infrastructure projects with information-technology environments that typically include a host of software applications from different vendors, each with differing information models and file formats. As a result, a significant amount of manual effort is often involved maintaining the fluidity and accuracy of information exchange. This can be particularly problematic as that infrastructure information must be continuous across functional, organizational, and lifecycle phases.

Systems often attempt to address interoperability using one of two approaches: a monolithic, centralized approach and point-to-point information sharing between applications. The former is incompatible with the dynamic and inherent uniqueness of each project. The latter seldom goes beyond importing and exporting file formats, which does not scale. Neither of these two approaches provides the flexibility demanded by the dynamics of infrastructure projects, nor allows project teams to opportunistically leverage project information to their strategic advantage.

Bentley’s solution to this problem is based on a federated strategy and supports information exchange using an application-neutral container. This container, call an i-model, is designed specifically for exchanging information between any software applications used on infrastructure projects. i-models are not limited to a single domain or application area and can be produced and consumed by both Bentley and non-Bentley applications.

i-models contain semantically rich project content (e.g. graphics, business properties, and relationships), which can be tailored to support workflows throughout project lifecycles. Information is stored in a normalized, self-describing format, which allows applications to access the data without requiring specialized application logic or software. This eliminates the need to develop point-to-point interfaces.

i-models also contain information about their origin and history, so consumers of an i-model know exactly where the information came from. This information can be used to associate comments and markups with the original source content and to notify the owners of that content, as well as support other workflows.

Finally, i-models are immutable and support access control, which ensures the information is reliable and is accessible to only those who should have access to it.  This is a basic requirement for most project workflows and essential to ensuring they are executed successfully.

Many of Bentley’s design applications support the publishing of i-models. Bentley also provides a growing number of i-model publishing capabilities for non-Bentley applications (e.g. ADT, Revit, PDS, etc.) and is working with our partners to update their applications to support the publishing and/or consumption of i-models. 
i-models provide a single point of entry into the Bentley ecosystem.  By supporting them, applications can greater leverage this infrastructure.  This in turn, can help lower development cost and also allow you to focus more on your value proposition, rather than “the plumbing”.

Starting with MicroStation V8i (SELECTseries 3), the MicroStation SDK includes APIs, documentation, and examples that enable both MicroStation and non-MicroStation application to publish and read i-models. Bentley Development Network commercial and SELECT developers can use these APIs to develop new or update existing applications to support i-models. The “i-model Development” section in the Programmer Guide is a great way to get started.  Should you have any questions about i-model development, please feel free to post those in the MicroStation Programming - Forum.

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New Developer Support Options

One of the many benefits that Bentley Technology Partners can take advantage of is technical support. Over the years, there have been various ways we have provided support for developers -- sometimes it worked fine, sometimes it did not scale well, sometimes it did not achieve the level of service anyone, including ourselves, desired. We thought through various ways to improve developer support and are confident we can provide the best support services to Bentley Developer Network subscribers through the following:

  1. For Bentley product API, SDK, or toolkit-related inquiries:
  2. For Bentley product-related inquiries:
  3. For inquiries related to the Bentley Developer Network program:
  4. For mission-critical and extremely urgent issues:
    • The Service Ticket Manager, which includes:
      • Add New Service Ticket – Submit a new Service Ticket online.
      • My Service Tickets – View all Service Tickets logged by you, including date opened, status and analyst assigned to the Service Ticket.
      • Site Service Tickets – View all Service Tickets logged by anyone at your company site, including date opened, status and analyst assigned to the ST.
      • Service Ticket Stats – View a statistical breakdown of all Service Tickets by status (Open, Closed, Escalated, etc.)
  5. For all other non-technical issues directly related to BDN or the Bentley Technology Partner Program (e.g. missing or incorrect invoices, updates to contact and company information, license usages and activation key updates and issues, etc.):
    • Use this form. If you encounter any issues with the form, or do not hear back from us within 24 hours after submitting your issue, please contact us at bdn@bentley.com.

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Programming Learning Path Update

As initially mentioned in the Q3 2012 BDN newsletter, we are creating short videos that are focused on a specific programming topic. These videos are chapters of broader topics, becoming “programming learning paths” hosted on Bentley LEARN. Programming Learning Paths:

Programming Learning Paths, similar to product-oriented Learning Paths are On-Demand only for BDN commercial developers and ELS/SELECT developers who have a training subscription. Face-to-face training is available to any developer, but as an “at cost” option.

Currently online in the “MicroStation Programming Learning Path” is:

Newly available in Q4 is the "eB Programming Learning Path", which includes the following exercises:

We are working on adding to those offerings, and will be providing Programming Learning Paths for other products. Should you have any suggestions or would like to see videos for specific topics, please let us know.

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MicroStation V8i SDK C++ Self-Assessment

We will be starting developer self-assessment very shortly -- the first BDN Developer Self-Assessment is for MicroStation V8i SDK C++. Self-assessment is available only to current Bentley Developer Network subscribers -- commercial or SELECT -- and consists of correctly answering a number of questions online within a certain time period. The questions are random and cover the following topics:

The MicroStation V8i SDK C++ Self-Assessment is specific to MicroStation V8i generation and successful self-assessment will be good for as long as we sell MicroStation V8i -- this includes any SELECTseries and Updates. When another MicroStation generation is commercially available, another self-assessment would need to be taken for that product generation. Successful self-assessments will be noted with a "Certificate of Self-Assessment".

Self-assessments are done by request only -- if you are interested in the MicroStation V8i SDK C++ Self-Assessment, please let us know so we can provide specific details for you.

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Updates to BDN Materials

The following materials are either new or have been updated recently:

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