Bentley Systems Incorporated has announced MicroStation V8 2004 Edition, the latest release of the company's flagship product. Driven by 10 core technologies, the new release boasts support for Adobe PDF, enhanced DWG interoperability and digital security. Overall, MicroStation V8 offers AEC organisations new ways to standardise a wide range of processes, such as change management, drafting and drawing, electronic delivery, proposal preparation and more.

"Senior managers in our accounts tell me that they are on a quest for standardisation. It is a strategic priority for them to squeeze out uncertainty and insert predictability into their business processes," says Bhupinder Singh, Bentley vice president of platform products. "Our V8 generation of products, underscored by our commitment to open standards such as PDF, provides core technologies to help them do exactly that. We want to be their partner in increasing the value and efficiencies of their businesses."

Standardising with MicroStation V8 creates efficiencies by making processes more uniform and repeatable - allowing higher productivity, faster delivery and fewer errors. Also, standard ways of doing things let organisations establish common metrics to better measure and further improve performance. Finally, standardisation leads to increased agility, re-use of AEC content and opportunities for new business.

10 core technologies

Enhanced Print core technology now includes support for Adobe PDF, the dominant standard for electronic deliverables in AEC. Users can publish composite, secure, compact PDF deliverables sourced from DGN or DWG drawings (with raster and vector data), specifications, schedules, bills of material and other project information. The PDF document preserves the level and reference structures of MicroStation files and can include hyperlinks, digital signatures and bookmarks. MicroStation support for PDF makes it easy for organisations to establish a PDF-based electronic delivery and sharing process.

Digital Security allows for electronic signatures on drawings, as well as multilevel access privileges for projects. Managers are assured of reliable approval processes and secure workflows.

Change Tracking adds revision control to MicroStation. Users can isolate and view any change or set of changes to a design. Users can record, review, and restore a complete history of modifications, including all data and references, dates and authors. They can undo any change, even after closing a file. Managers now have a standard way to audit design history.

DWG core technology means that MicroStation users can work natively with DWG files, DGN files, or any mix of the two. Only in MicroStation can users fully participate in and deliver projects in either popular format - a clear competitive advantage for them and their organisations.

Standards Management offers tools to create and enforce standards and best practices across a project or enterprise. For example, the configurable, XML-based Standards Checker enforces detailed requirements for deliverables by identifying inconsistencies such as non-compliant drafting styles or elements on incorrect levels.

Customisation core technology lets programmers and administrators extend and configure MicroStation. In an enhancement for V8, they can now use Microsoft Visual Basic for applications for customisation. A new layer of domain-specific functionality has been added with V8. MicroStation can now be configured to include building, civil, geospatial and plant extensions. These popular extensions - TriForma, CivilPak, GeoGraphics and Schematics - were previously available only as add-on applications for MicroStation.

3D core technology provides a comprehensive set of surface, solid and mesh modelling and manipulation tools, as well as a broad range of rendering choices. New to MicroStation V8 are feature modelling, parametric cells, and particle trace rendering. These additions allow organisations to standardise on a single product for a full spectrum of 3D support integrated with 2D design.

"The first part of this year has been very successful for Bentley with record first quarter sales. And this was before the release of V8 2004 edition. We are confident that the strong DWG core technology would continue to persuade engineers that MicroStation is the tool of choice," says Tex van Deventer, Managing Director of Bentley South Africa. "More and more users are insisting on open standards, an area where Bentley's commitment is a shining example in this industry."

For more information contact Bentley Systems, 011 462 5811, www.bentley.com