Bentley ProjectWise, the first thing to know

Bentley's best known product is Microstation, and its vertical versions for different branches of geo-engineering with an emphasis on design for both civil, industrial, architecture and transportation engineering. ProjectWise is the second Bentley product that integrates information management and work team integration; and recently AssetWise has been launched, which is for the historical management of infrastructures as I explained in an article about what it is BIM from Bentley Optics.

ProjectWise is little known in the Hispanic environment, so much so that I would dare to think that this is the first article in Spanish about this tool. But it exists from 1995, and in large companies it has been adopted for several years as a solution for the management of information in workflows that include Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Infrastructure Operation (AECO). So here's some quick reference to the timeline for this tool.

The Beginnings of ProjectWise

The product was initially called TeamMate, built by Opti Inter-Consult, a Finnish company in which Bentley invested and participated as a strategic ally thanks to the proximity through the offices they had in the Netherlands. Remember that before going to Ireland, Bentley's headquarters and biggest smokers were in Holland.

It was the year 95, under an agreement in which Bentley would be the exclusive distributor of TeamMate and the guys from Opti would work on the development of a collaborative environment that was initially called Microstation OfficeMate, which ran on Windows 3.1 and NT. Then in 96 they released a version 2 called Microstation TeamMate that on the cover included the basic flow to which the product arrived but which is essentially what the tool does today:

• Security
• Controlled flow
• Multiuser access
• Project management
• Document management
• File Versioning
• Information system

Bentley realizes the potential it has in its hands and after negotiations it acquires Opti in that same year 1996. The team is integrated as a department of Bentley Systems and creates an investment capital called WorkPlace Systems Inc. in conjunction with Primavera (the software that was purchased By Oracle in 2008). Finally Bentley acquires all the capital and works on two products: ActiveAsset Planner and ActiveAsset Inquirer that are renamed as ProjectWise whose first version (2.01) was released in December 1998.

ProjectWise in V7 Times

• In 2000 ProjectWise 3.01 was released, which was just a document manager with access based on users and roles: basically the first premise of the cycle: Security.
• In 2001 appears ProjectWise 3.02 with capabilities to do redline on dgn and dwg files, wizards for the creation of documents and could visualize the files in Internet Explorer in a called functionality WEL (Web Explorer Lite)

So far, Bentley maintained the format dgn V7 that had the great limit of being still of 16 bits; In times of Microstation 95, SE and J.

ProjectWise in V8 Times

I remember knowing this 8.01 version in 2003, in a project of Cadastre that took advantage of the process as follows:

• The cadastral maps were worked in Microstation using topological cleaning tools and attribute mapping Through Geographics.
• Then the dgn were registered and linked with applications developed on VBA, linking them via node / boundary to an Oracle base.
• The dgn files then entered a repository controlled with ProjectWise, which identified the date that had been registered and controlled the versioned -Although some of that was handmade because of the poor version; I remember that some of the uses that we were giving were well seen in a demo made in Czechoslovakia, who said that we were using the platform for what was not ... but it was nice-
• Then, to make maintenance parcel, a request was created on the web management system, which identified the parcel based on its cadastral key and from the map could be done the management that checked out the file dgn, raising the specific property With the geolocate, to do maintenance; Meanwhile the file could not be touched by being downloaded by a user.
• After maintenance, the dgn checked in and released the version.

Additionally, a script every 20 minutes would go through all the files that had been modified, copying the new version and replacing it on the GeoWeb Publisher server, since at that time it could not read ProjectWise directories, so it had to be replaced in this way so that the Publisher could still call the same discrete file registered in the index. Go way, but it is what there was. After Bentley fought with Java for Publisher's web viewer, they built the viewer on ActiveX: VPR (View Print Redline) which was a very bad patch because it only ran with Internet Explorer and the installation the first time the user loaded it was a disaster; but it was the only thing that allowed to request graphical maintenance on a viewer, which created a dgn file with a redline extension (.rdl) nested in the transaction.

I have to admit that the energy of the guys who were in the development area was extreme, because although they now seem humble achievements, at the time they required a good joint of marijuana to achieve it with the technology of those days. The limitations of backup servers and web services forced a routine at midnight to raise a mirror server so that the other would make a backup on magnetic tape until 6 in the morning when the application server would wake up again.

Also, ProjectWise allowed tabs to carry flow control to the map before registration; Who outlined it, with what method, on what date, who digitized it ... etc. In short, old-fashioned metadata.

This was done thanks to the features that this version had in 2003: Audit Trail, Workspace Profiles and Distribution System. Additionally, with the Web Explorer Lite improvements, documents were associated with the registered geometry, such as pdf files or other maps with the Preview Pane.

Version 2004 arrived in 8.05, with the potential for indexing dgn, Thumbnails and improving textual search. A pity that this was not so easy to implement, since the space cartridge promoted by Bentley was not so simple and it was already difficult to go against the current of the standards promoted with the spatial support databases and WMS / WFS services; what Bentley insisted to do with ProjectWise and not with GeoWeb Publisher that only made it accessible with the ProjectServer and the arrival of the idpr file.

I have it as fresh as it had been yesterday, although it was frustrating to want to explain it to a doctor who came to replace me with political change ... although his specialty was dentistry and he had a master's degree in dental surgery.

Perhaps this disappointment is the reason why in years of writing this is the first time that I talk about ProjectWise. Surely that only Freud knows.

ProjectWise XM

It was two years before ProjectWise released anything new, which happened in 2006 when XM 8.09 came out. In this, Microstation had been totally re-developed with the face that we see until now; While ProjectWise integrated Project management instead of repositories, it was integrated into SharePoint and then the controlled Workspaces could be managed via the XFM structure, thus forgetting the old Geographics project structure. It was valuable that from now on the dwg and dxf could be read natively.

Recall that XM was a Bentley experiment to the next step; But that allowed them to reconstruct to the taste almost the total of applications that until then were developed in Clipper; Robust but with a user interface limited to the reaches of C ++, C # and the .NET environment.

ProjectWise V8i

With the smoking V8i Bentley sets its next perspective, with BIM in mind, in smart infrastructure. With that comes the idea of I-Model (digital twin), where ProjectWise plays a very important role with the management of data contained in the dgn files, which had been stored in xml nodes for a long time but were not promoted as data containers. This is how the following steps are evident after the integration of AEC + Operation visualized in the medium term in AssetWise:

• ProjectWise V8i (8.11). This was launched in 2008, and here the data transfer via web services at the visualization level begins, also the data viewer, instead of showing a rendered view, shows objects with the Web View Server and Spatial Navigation. The search becomes efficient because it operates only on xml data and access is no longer with the old login window that stored properties in a client .dll, but can be accessed with customized applications that were even hidden in a hyperlink. Of course, at this point the i-model (digital twin) can be contained in a pdf, dgn, dwg or a file that is accessed from Microsoft Excel or Outlook mail.
• Select Series 1 is released in 2009, recognizing dwg from the latest version of AutoCAD 2010 and xml node structuring properties are standardized with the i-model (digital twin) data composer. Also the old Redline happens to be enhanced in Navigator markups.
• Select Series 2 was launched in 2011, with support to interact with AutoCAD and Revit files for both 32 and 64 bits. In this version the transfer of discrete files goes down in history and everything is via web services, using the properties that this version 8.11.07 brings (Navigator WebPart, Granular Administration) with which it becomes a marvel even in slow connections.
• The latest version, Select Series 3 released in May 2012, has native support for 64-bit servers, and it is when they begin to show applications for Android tablets, iPad and Windows. The transfer via streaming includes point clouds, dynamic composition from the server and support for Citrix.

And then, what is ProjectWise for?

In the end, Bentley managed to convince large customers who use its products, and others it attracted by purchasing applications that solved similar problems but had strategic customers, to build a system in which collaborative work is achieved in the Architecture, Engineering, cycle. Construction and Operations (AECO). Unlike other document management systems, this one is specialized in the design and construction of infrastructure projects that are integrated as one works in an almost traditional way:

• A project is designed, using software that stores the data in the i-Model (digital twin) even though only sketches and georeferenced simulation are made,
• Topography is worked and geotechnical analysis is included
• Everything, the structural design, electro-mechanical ... everything goes through a flow in which many people interact.
• There are no plans from table to table or files by mail or Dropbox, only collaborative work on apparent dgn files. But the magic is in the standardized xml in the i-Model (digital twin).

And ProjectWise does the work of integrating teams to their roles and pertinent information. With the same concept of when we did it archaically, in the conformation of files that did not end in the bidding of the work, but later execution and now operation; with division of labor by specialties, content reuse and dynamic feedback.

That is why ProjectWise is not so well known by the common user, because large companies are interested in these types of applications: It is considered that 40% of an engineer's workday can be spent searching and validating specific information, files for use and you are still wondering if you made a mistake with the original data. For engineering works where a valve costs $ 25,000 and its damage represents millionaire losses ... or a building where finding an aquifer means changing the design of isolated footings for a foundation slab with a curtain wall ... then ProjectWise represents a valuable investment.

Who uses ProjectWise

I was able to see how this tool was integrated into a national cadastre project, in a country where programmers with their nails managed to get more out of it than it had in their time; then I did not hear from another project. However when it goes beyond local borders, it is surprising to see that ProjectWise is used in 92 countries by:

• 72 of the main 100 engineering companies identified in the  Engineering News Record Top 100.
• 234 of the 500 global companies with greater infrastructure operation, including public and private.
• 25 of the 50 transport departments of the United States.

So ... who knows if over time we'll talk more about ProjectWise.

For more information:

http://www.bentley.com/en-US/Products/projectwise+project+team+collaboration/