Bentley iTwin Services

2018: Start of services iTwin Services

On October 16, 2018 the Bentley Systems Incorporated company announced release of iTwin Services, cloud service of digital doubles for infrastructure projects (digital doubles of projects) and assets (digital doubles of assets). iTwin Services is supported in a unified environment of data (CDE) of Bentley for users of ProjectWise and AssetWise.

Requirements for implementation of potential of digital doubles of infrastructure facilities

As noted in Bentley Systems, owners of infrastructure facilities and their commands recognize high potential of use of digital doubles in many ambitious projects, including application of analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning for modeling and decision support for all lifecycle of design, construction and operation. To implement this potential, data on assets, obviously, should be in a digital format. But that it is possible to rely on them surely as doubles, there have to be practical solutions for their synchronization with change of conditions in the real world. Moreover, simple collecting and representation of physical conditions, including initial data of Internet of Things, are not enough for understanding, the analysis or modeling of expected improvements; it is also necessary to understand the "digital DNA" recorded in the project or in technical characteristics of an object.

So that to be really useful tool, future digital doubles of the existing infrastructure should synchronize reliably reflection of both physical reality of an object, and its technical data. The digital double can conform to this requirement due to geospatial rapprochement of a digital context (display of physical reality) and digital components (display of virtual reality) that naturally leads to creation of the interactive environment for visualization and evident analytics.

However, according to Bentley Systems, it is too difficult to record the changing three-dimensional physical reality of the used asset in a digital format, not to mention maintenance of relevance of data. At the same time the used technical information is, as a rule, unavailable or, at best, became outdated, being in fact a set of crude data, unavailable to use, in opaque engineering files or in the nonintellectual document formats. The Bentley company overcame both of these difficulties thanks to merge of modeling of reality, iModelHub, CDE and technologies of network visualization.

Modeling of reality

Data on physical reality of any infrastructure asset can be collected and processed reliably by means of continuous shooting and the software for modeling of reality from Bentley providing a digital context in the form of reality models. The combined photos and (as required) the images received using additional laser scanning, the UAV and on the Earth's surface are processed for creation of the ready engineering models of reality classified in space with the necessary level of accuracy – a digital context of the enterprise within which each digital component can be automatically placed and/or receive a geospatial binding. The model of reality can become the effective visual double with the intuitive interface for search, viewing and information requests, belonging to digital project models of an object, consider in Bentley Systems.

Adding of iModelHub in CDE

The complexity of collecting and processing of technical data of physical entities – their digital components – is in ambiguity of their current status that besides it is aggravated with continuous changes. The iModelHub Bentley platform overcomes these obstacles thanks to automatic systematization of processes (for achievement of semantic coordination of crude data in the known formats) and synchronization on the basis of the register of the changes corresponding to workflows of the CDE (ProjectWise) project or configuration management (AssetWise).

Network visualization

After filling and synchronization by means of a digital context and digital components of service iTwin Services address library with the open code iModel.js for interactive network visualization. Project teams can easily configure applications which are connected to the digital double in specific cases, effectively using an extensive public ecosystem. Access to the geospatial environment for digital doubles in scales of the city is offered through services of Bentley OpenCities Planner, noted in Bentley Systems.

Digital doubles of projects

Users of ProjectWiseCONNECT Edition CDE Bentley can apply cloud services iTwin Services in any project without violation of already existing ProjectWise workflows. iModelHub will create and will support a complex information model (iModel) of the project: a distributed database with the built-in registration of changes which is updated at each check of the status of documentation. For each such updating of technical information processing is provided with systematization of processes of the digital iModel components.

Within available modeling of reality for a physical entity the relevant service ContextShare CDE supports the updated digital context. The digital iModel components and a digital context of ContextShare online connect in visualization of Navigator Web and iModel.js with assistance of iModelHub. Respectively, services iTwin Services provide continuous access to check of a project status, are synchronized with any requested project status, according to the magazine of registration of changes iModel and/or provide visualization and analytics of changes on different project stages. iTwin Services also integrates Bentley software for 4D-modeling of processes of construction of SYNCHRO, emphasized in Bentley Systems.

iTwin Services will be available to digital doubles of projects at the beginning of 2019 with quarterly payment for each iTwin taking into account scale, digital components and a digital context and also including providing cloud and network services.

Digital doubles of assets

The iModel.js library offers functions of creation and processing of iTwins which are intended for the specific purposes connected with performance of objects including updating of the agent of "the lake of data" for visual analytics. It allows to use the arising artificial intelligence technologies and augmented reality for all lifecycle of an asset and also in different assets and also to guarantee the accuracy of physical reality and technical data thanks to necessary systematization of processes, synchronization of changes and interactive visualization which is offered by services iTwinServices, noted in Bentley Systems.