OpenBuildings™ Designer 2024.2 (v24.00.02.45)

 

The OpenBuildings product team is pleased to announce the availability of OpenBuildings Designer 2024.2 (v24.00.02.45) through the Bentley CONNECT Center, Software Downloads portal, or the desktop CONNECTION Client.

This release includes support for seven (7) languages: Czech, Chinese (Simplified), English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

This release includes support for sixteen (16) regional datasets: Australia, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, ISO19650, Neutral Metric, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Swedish, United Kingdom, and United States (Imperial and Metric).

This update does not include a Russian build and/or dataset.  See this article for more information.

This version incorporates several new productivity enhancements and user-requested fixes. It also includes updates from MicroStation 2024.2. Please refer to the "What's New Highlights" section below for some of the product updates and enhancements..

GenerativeComponents 2024.2 (v24.00.02.10) is available as a companion feature. This computational design platform can easily be included as part of any deployment of OpenBuildings Designer. For an introduction to GenerativeComponents (click here) or a full list of resources (click here).   

 

What's New Highlights for OpenBuildings Designer 2024.2 (v24.00.02.45)

 

General Updates:

 

OpenBuildings Designer 2024.2 (24.00.02.45) will update any version of OpenBuildings 2024 installed.  

Integrated MicroStation 2024

It includes updates from MicroStation 2024.2

Security Improvements

This release also includes the latest OpenBuildings Designer and MicroStation security improvements. The details will be found in our advisory page website located in our Trust Center here https://www.bentley.com/trust-center

 

Feature Updates:

 

Enhanced Pipe System Sizing Tool

The OpenBuildings Designer’s Pipe System Sizing tool offers industry professionals a revolutionary approach to designing efficient piping systems across a broad range of applications. Built to accommodate the needs of modern building and infrastructure projects, this tool now comes fully integrated with advanced functionalities that bring precision, ease, and flexibility to every project phase. 

The Pipe System Sizing tool is specifically designed to meet the demands of five essential piping systems: 

• Cold Water System 
• Hot Water System 
• Heating System 
• Cooling System 
• Gas System 

Each discipline has been crafted with a unique set of sizing algorithms based on the highly respected CIBSE standards, ensuring that every calculation aligns with best practices and technical guidelines. With these predefined capabilities, OpenBuildings Designer’s solution simplifies the complexity of pipe sizing across multiple building services, allowing professionals to focus on design quality rather than manual calculations. 

Single Line and 3D Pipe Placement 

OpenBuildings Designer’s Pipe System Sizing tool builds on the robust foundation of the Hevacomp application, a trusted solution among professionals for years. Now, with OpenBuildings Designer’s innovative enhancements, the tool offers single-line and 3D pipe placement capabilities, transforming it into a complete solution for modern design environments. 

1. Single Line Pipe Placement: Ideal for preliminary designs and conceptual planning, the single-line functionality enables quick, precise pipe placement for faster, more efficient layout work. Post calculation single line model can be converted to 3D pipes and fittings by just one click 'Promote to 3D' functionality. 

2. 3D Pipe Placement: Take advantage of an immersive design experience with 3D pipe placement, providing a more realistic representation of the piping layout. This feature allows engineers to visualize spatial relationships, detect potential clashes, and optimize system layouts with accuracy. 

With these added functionalities, OpenBuildings Designer ensures that every design, from preliminary layouts to finalized models, is accessible and modifiable within the same tool, offering an unmatched level of flexibility and control. 

Key Benefits

Efficiency and Speed: Reduce design time significantly by performing all system sizing calculations within a single application. No need for external tools – OpenBuildings Designer’s all-in-one solution keeps your workflow streamlined. 

Accuracy and Compliance: All calculations are conducted in alignment with CIBSE standards, ensuring that designs meet industry best practices and regulatory requirements. 

Integrated Design Capabilities: Seamlessly transition between single-line and 3D representations, helping teams to spot potential issues early and improve the efficiency of collaborative projects. 

Cost and Resource Optimization: Minimize costly design errors and material waste with precise sizing, allowing your projects to stay on budget and on schedule. 

 

Electrical as an Optional Feature

As a continuous effort in improving security, an optional Feature is added to leverage Electrical tools and features back again.

This optional feature can be enabled while installation of OpenBuildings.

Once enabled, the same electrical tools and capabilities will be available as they were in previous versions of OpenBuildings Designer.

 

Enhanced Usability and Productivity Enhancements:

 

Usability and the overall user experience in OpenBuildings is a key focus for our team. The following usability improvements were implemented in

Drawing Production:

• Improved Print Organizer results for Structural Element re-symbolization in dynamic and cached drawings.
• Improved Print to PDF results using Pen Tables.
• Improvements to annotation positioning and fidelity.
• Consistency in Visible Edge, level visibility for saved views and drawings

General Improvements

• Improvements to Family and Parts when changing or modifying solids, smart solids, and parametric cells.
• Better integration of Parametric cells with the DataGroup system.
• Support for Office 64 & 32 bit versions with Structural quantity spreadsheet report generation.
• Offshore structures can be imported in OpenBuildings Designer using ISM import/export.
• Improvements to exporting Geometry to DWG.

 

Install via CONNECTION Client:

If you have OpenBuildings Designer 2024 already installed on your computer, then OpenBuildings Designer 2024.2 will be advertised as an update in the CONNECTION Client. You can incrementally download and install OpenBuildings Designer 2024.2 from the CONNECTION Client. It will update and replace OpenBuildings Designer 2024.

If you have any earlier version of AECOsim Building Designer or OpenBuildings Designer CONNECT Edition or 2023 already installed on your computer, you can download and install OpenBuildings Designer 2024 from the CONNECTION Client. It will install as a separate instance of OpenBuildings with the root directories ..\Program Files\Bentley\OpenBuildings 2024 and ..\ProgramData\Bentley\OpenBuildings 2024.

Sign into the CONNECTION Client to view and apply your application updates. If needed, please refer to the CONNECTION Client help for more information on installing the update.

 

Get OpenBuildings Designer 2024.2: 

1. Browse to and sign into Software Downloads at  https://softwaredownloads.bentley.com/ProductDetails/1934
2. Select Download to download OpenBuildings Designer 2024 version 24.00.02.45

Important installation requirements and notices are found in the ReadMe. 

Additional Resources:  

You can also find What's New in OpenBuildings 2024 in our latest video on YouTube.

For onboarding new users refer OpenBuildings - Onboarding and Adoption Wiki - User Success Onboarding and Adoption - Bentley Communities