Geo Week News

November 3, 2016

Bentley and Topcon are Connecting Cloud Services

topcon-gls-2000
Topcon GLS 2000

At the Year in Infrastructure conference, Bentley and Topcon announced an initiative to integrate their cloud services.

In practice, this means that each company will bring to market new products that incorporate technology from the other. Bentley will integrate its ProjectWise CONNECT Edition with Topcon’s MAGNET Enterprise. Topcon will incorporate Bentley’s ContextCapture into its workflows for processing 3D data from its portfolio of UAV products and laser scanners.

Bentley is calling the newly possible workflows “constructioneering,” saying that they will help carry the original survey model through the engineering and construction steps of a project.

An example workflow presented by Bentley:

Surveyors capture a construction site using Topcon UAVs and LiDAR scanners. They process the raw data in Topcon’s software using Bentley’s ContextCapture technology. Next, engineers access the model through the cloud as they begin to work in Bentley’s engineering applications. Once the engineering model is complete, the construction personnel (or automated machinery) use the same cloud services to access data in the field.

“Unbelievably,” said Bentley CEO Greg Bentley, “until now, 3D models have been recreated—rather than reused—at each phase.” The new workflows aim to eliminate this problem by allowing users of Bentley’s engineering products easier access to the original survey model, as well as a simpler method for updating the models with reality capture.

Topcon CEO Ray O’Connor said the new workflows enable a continuous representation of reality [emphasis his]. The benefits, he said, are faster work and a much lower risk that vital data will be lost.

The two companies have indicated that more integrations could come in the future.

At the Year in Infrastructure conference, Bentley has also announced that ContextCapture will now process point clouds as well as photographs.

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