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Industry News
Be Inspired – Thought Leadership in Amsterdam - Conference Update
By Susan Smith

Sixty journalists were invited to attend the Be Inspired Conference at the Hotel Okura in Amsterdam the week of October 16-21.


The focus of this and all Bentley conferences is on infrastructure; the company got their start in engineering and product groups, including geospatial, fall into the category of improving the world’s infrastructure.

The Netherlands is known for its infrastructure – the country has depended on windmills and dykes that keep land and sea separate for centuries. COO Malcolm Walter said in Tuesday's keynote that without infrastructure to pump water and keep it at bay, everything would be under water.

Other facts pertaining to geospatial:

• Bentley is ranked #2 in the geospatial market according to Daratech.

• Over 50% of Dutch municipalities use Bentley technology for urban planning, road design, GIS and mapping workflows.

The way the Be Inspired Conference is set up is as follows: unlike the basic user conference, this is a conference celebrating the achievements of the finalists for the Be Inspired Awards of the current year. A maximum of three finalists in each category were chosen and invited to present their project in breakout sessions called “Thought Leadership Presentations.”



Winner - UtilityTransmission & Distribution Networks
Jiangxia 500 kV Transformer Substation
Central Southern China Electric Power Design Institute
Wuhan, China
The projects demonstrate how different Bentley products are integrated together to solve big infrastructure problems. The emphasis is on how disparate data – from other software programs as well as imagery, spreadsheet data, and geospatial -- is pulled together into project management using Bentley products such as ProjectWise, Navigator, and AssetWise.

In a press briefing on Wednesday (see at GISCafe Today) CEO Greg Bentley introduced the launch of the Bentley Infrastructure 500 – modeled after Fortune 500 – which would identify Bentley customers who are especially successful. Bentley said their business represents $13 trillion in revenue.

This determination is made based on reported net tangible fixed assets – “the balance sheet view of the infrastructure. “ 

Most top candidates are private companies, coming from geographically diverse locations - all over the world. 

Bentley went on to say that “flat” pretty much describes Bentley’s financial growth right now.



Winner - Connecting Project Teams
Crossrail
Crossrail Limited
London, United Kingdom
Revenues went down almost 10% in 2009. In 2010 to date, revenues have been reported to be “within sight of 2008 revenues. By the end of the year  Bentley predicts their run rate will be back to what it was before 2009. “Maybe our organic growth is the new growth,” he said.

Some of the future products Bentley talked about which may be of interest to geospatial professionals:

- The V8i portfolio extends through various disciplines and operations.

- 3D cities requires the ability to relate information together in a BIM model, including geospatial data.

- Civil Engineer for Geotechnical Analysis passport subscription – geotechnical professionals will get to pick from a variety of modules from a dashboard - cantilever wall, spread footing, slope stability, etc.

For Geospatial, the breakout sessions were entitled Innovation in Government, Innovation in Utilities and Innovation in Water, Wastewater, and Stormwater Networks, and Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering. In the category “Connecting Project Teams,” winner Crossrail Limited talked about the integration of geospatial into the ambitious project of creating a new Crossrail system for the city of London.


The utility customers presented more information on plant software than on geospatial information, but the scope of those projects is indicative of the potential for future technologies, particularly in emerging economies such as Asia, where Greg Bentley said there is no recession.

Below are descriptions of some of the presentations:

Innovation in Government

There were three finalists in this category, GIS4Mobile, and Tvilum Landsinpektorfirma AS and Odense Commune, all of them Danish companies.

It was interesting to see how many of these finalists were early adopters of Bentley technology, helping to shape the products into final release.

GIS4Mobile, demonstrated by Ove Lindholt Hansen and Nikolaj Moller Nielsen of Denmark, focuses on the concept of connecting mobile device to office.

With this application “the very minute you have information in the field it is available in office,” said Hansen, emphasizing how important it is to have an online connection.

Coupled with that is the need to have, which GIS4Mobile provides:

• Data capture with smartphone or GPS
• Online with a background map
• Synchronizing with GIS
• Caching when offline
• Publish data to mobiles
• Capture position plus attributes plus image and voice
• System has three parts – mobile (cellphone, handheld GPS), server (webservice)
• GIS: synchronizing service/www.gis4mobile.com

GIS4Mobile is also designed for tablets. Hansen said that there is a need for a background map because the GPS in the handheld device is very inaccurate, “some times you have a 5-10 meter discrepancy,” he pointed out. “With the background map you can verify position. Google aerial maps verify your position also for adjustment of position. You may use this for registering different kinds of vegetation by GPS or by user defined point.”

Depending on theme, you can register different sets of attributes, collect images and use voice commands. Online registration is sent to the GeoDropBox server.

Server part of system – “GeoDropBox”
- web server running spatial GIS database
- Webservices for input/out
- Usernames/password (login)
- Configure using webpages
- Webpage for easy viewing registrations

The MicroStation application “GeoSync” is used for:
- import from GIS4Mobile spatial server
- export to GIS4Mobile spatial server
- position + attributes + images
- Synchronize deletes
- timestamps
- maintains a link-file locally (shadowfile)
- Detects modified elements automatically using checksum (every element in MicroStation has its own ID and is very useful for synchronizing data)

GIS4Mobile use cases include:
- field inspections (environmental)
- basic registration (fire hydrants, sculptures, monuments, road signs, bus stops, utility data, protected plants, illegal vegetation)
- farm/field data (obstructors, etc)
- Maintenance plan (wastewater)
- Rat hole inspection
- archeological site registration

Prices are based on a yearly subscription fee, starting from 1500 euros. The company is looking for resellers all over the world.

Rune Tvilum, IT developer, spoke on behalf of his company, Tvilum Landinspektofirmat A/S also of Denmark, a chartered surveyimg company, on the topic, “Mapping Using Web Feature Services (WFS).”

Different map providers and different distribution formats create challenges in the creation of maps and the need to translate and customize layout. Tvilum said MicroStation was a “great tool” for combining different map sources.

The company uses national vector base maps with attributes from different map providers, which can be cadastral, topographical, nature and environmental maps, municipality plans and location area plans.

Before Tvilum Landinspektofirma began to use WFS, they downloaded a map only once a year, which meant the user didn’t know if any map they were using was up to date. Then they began to download and translate a map every day, which the operator didn’t like. Now they download and translate data on the fly, as needed.

“In Denmark, all national map providers deliver maps through Web Feature Services – published in GML format, and they get attributes and geometries,” said Tvilum. “I developed an application WFS booster to use in MicroStation.”

The booster works very quickly for small areas, and contains polygons and attributes.  This way, users can keep all information in one workflow and combine all different features need in a map.

Users can download parcels from an area, create a signature list, export data into Excel and generate Word documents to send out to owners.

The benefits of using WFS maps include the fact that they are current, have good quality assurance, users can download maps from different map providers simultaneously within a few seconds, they are user friendly, and users get vector maps with attributes, which allow them to make better decisions.

Result – 10 users making 500 maps per month. Without WFS it takes 20 minutes per map, with WFS it takes only 5 minutes per map.

15 x 500 = 7500 minutes =125 hours per month.

Tvilum said that users can get data into their design file in the WFS. In Denmark, environmental data is free but other types of data require a fee.

The winner in this category was a Danish company that did not present, Odense Commune, for their “On-the-Fly 3D City and Urban Modeling.”

Innovation in Utilities

Of the three finalists in this category, two were from China.

Central Southern China Electric Power Design Institute (CSEPDI)'s project manager Bailu Quan, spoke about the Jiangxia 500 kV Transformer Substation located in the Wuhan city center, where they use the relatively new Bentley Substation v8i. The $59 million project was the winner in this category.

Originally, Quan said they introduced a test project with a total investment RMB 400 million, and the project investment return rate was 7.71%.

CSEPDI’s strategy employed a combination of MicroStation J, v8i and Substation v8i to measure the minimum distance of bodies, by doing a collision check of a spheres’ electric distance. Quan said it was much easier to do an air clearance check using 3D, and they saved on land and materials by using this technology.

They have used the same technology at the Qingdao Converter Station. The converter station with the greatest capacity is Ylong Converter Station, at 7200 MW. There CSEPDI used Bentley Substation, MicroStation, Bentley Architecture, Bentley Structural, STAADPro, GEOPAK, Inroads, Navigator, and ProjectWise.

Before CSEPDI used Bentley products, they used AVEVA and Intergraph. “China is fast developing,” said Quan. “The scale of these projects is mind boggling – new technology from Bentley is in full scale production. Substation was only launched a year ago.”

Imp GmbH of Germany’s Carsten Lipinski spoke on “Reliable Point Cloud Modeling of Substations.” He said they use 3D laser scanning for asset data capture, design and management as well as for electronic towers.

“Europe is building up windpower at the North Sea, and no one lives there so they have to transport materials and build parts there,” said Lipinski. “We use Bentley Substation, MicroStation and ProjectWise.”

Lipinski made a case for how point cloud modeling can be used very effectively for retrofit projects. After the Berlin Wall came down, people found most of the building plans were Russian or East German. Lipinski said they don’t touch the old plans, it is cheaper and more accurate to go with the point cloud.

It’s a dream to have point cloud and the 3D model together, he said. 

Costs involved for 1 crew 2 people doing a point cloud capture for one substation equals approximately 8,000 euros. Laser equipment is cheap right now at less than 40,000 euros, “but you need people who know what they’re doing and the right software,” said Lipinski.

In terms of using photogrammetry to complement the inside of the building, Lipinski said there is no algorithm so far to generate the vectors outside.

State Nuclear Electric Power Planning Design and Research Institute (SNPDRI)

Located in Beijing, China, SNPDRI business focuses on developing nuclear power projects and thermal power projects, and on nuclear power and R&D. “Our goal is to develop intellectual property rights to promote reform of the energy structure in China,” said Zhu Li, director of the Engineering Center for SNPDRI.

Four design institutes participated in this project. The company has signed cooperation agreements with companies in other countries and entered into a strategic partnership with two Chinese companies. In addition, SNPDRI has participated in national major science and technology special programs research which span from the year 2006 to 2020.

SNPDRI has developed a technology platform for a large capacity thermal power project and for the trans-regional interconnected power grid. SNPDRI has adopted an advanced 3D design platform to address a number of technological obstacles.

The Ningdong – Shandong 660kV HVDC transmission project -+ 660kV level is the first power HVDC transmission project in the world, according to Li. The total investment in this project is $400 million.

For digital engineering in the first trial application in the transformer substation design project, they used MicroStation, Substation, Bentley Architecture, Bentley Structural, Bentley Building Mechanical Systems (BBMS), and GEOPAK.

The new technology encompasses the following requirements:

• Digital engineering
• Database is core of system
• 3D model is core
• Precision
• Shortening the engineering cycle
• Whole life memory

The Substation v8i design platform allowed omission/error checkout, soft/collision checkout and increased engineering efficiency, according to Li. They used GEOPAK for the triangle generation network. “Using Bentley software we only needed nine days to design the substation,” said Li. 

This was the first time SNPDRI had used Bentley software and wanted to see what it could do. The owners demanded the visualization and details provided by the infrastructure 3D model and now it is a requirement for all transformer substations.

Li said the used some specifications from manufacturers, and saved all the information for the 660V project, as there are “a lot of different components used in this type of project.”

Crossrail Limited

Malcolm Taylor, head of technical support services for Crossrail Limited, gave a guest keynote address on their work building a “world class building information management system.” Crossrail ended up winning the “Connecting Project Teams” category, with the other finalists also Crossrail projects.

“Data is the blood that runs through Crossrail veins,” said Taylor.  With construction starting next year, the Crossrail project will take eight years to complete.

To tackle a project of this size, Taylor said they had to create an integrated design facilitating multidisciplinary collaboration through the life of the project, which becomes the base for an asset management system, namely, in this case, Bentley AssetWise.

Mapping is a big part of crossrail – Taylor said they didn’t know that the Olympics was to be in London when they started the project, but they have to make sure that the event doesn’t impact the continuity of the Crossrail.

“The way we use data is going to change all the way through these different processes,” said Taylor. Crossrail will put 3D mapping and aerial photography on the London survey grid primary control with the inclusion of building surveys, topographical, below and above the ground data, point clouds and laser scan surveys, radar surveys, hand trace and tag surveys (rail), graphics plus associated database), environmental statement/plans, FLAB (property that Crossrail is going around, through or near – taking into account impact on land acquisitions and define boundaries in terms of what’s below and above ground and around).

Crossrail Maps will be instrumental in pulling all this information together and seeing how it fits. They will use CAD standards BS 1192:2007 to ensure consistency.

30 design teams are currently at work on Crossrail, with an expected 85 construction teams to be added once construction begins, said Taylor. They are using to date ProjectWise, Enterprise Bridge (eB), MicroStation and CloudWorx.

“Configuration management is how business requirements are driving asset information,” Taylor said. Change of design can have change effect, and for this they use eB.

The environmental impact of this project is huge. Ultimately 20,000 people will be using public transportation, and will take about 30,000 car journeys off the street. The amount of carbon saved is estimated at 100,000-200,000 tons a year. Over 200k meter per month at peak of excavated material must be taken out of Crossrail. “We take about 2/3 of excavated material from stations and tunnels to Essex to Wallasea Island where we are creating a 1500 acre wetland preserve, the largest in the last 50 years,” said Taylor.

Crossrail is taking into account the need for getting information to the public, as the project will impact 700 schools, heritage buildings, existing wildlife, the biggest archeological dig in London taking place right now, and will increase transit and rail use in London by 10%. It will generate approximately 200,000 passengers a year and create new jobs in the future.

2010 Be Award Winners and Finalists

Top News of the Week

As facilities owners and operators look to create buildings that are safe, secure, energy efficient, and optimally operated, they are embracing geographic information system (GIS) technology. This is leading many who have invested in building information modeling (BIM) to question whether BIM and GIS can be used together. Shelli Stockton, facilities management industry manager for Esri, addresses this question at the online Spatial Roundtable.

RapidEye announced  that GEOSYS has been chosen by Cemagref to provide the complete coverage of the French territory with RapidEye orthorectified satellite imagery at 5 m pixel resolution, taken over the period from May to September 2010. The ability to acquire several million square kilometers of images daily with the RapidEye satellite constellation allows GEOSYS to seamlessly meet their needs in just a few months, after the image acquisition, processing and delivery of the data.

Acquisitions, Agreements, Alliances

DigitalGlobe announced a WorldView-2 joint research initiative with India's TERI University. As part of the initiative, DigitalGlobe will contribute ideas, expertise and high-resolution 8-Band multi-spectral satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe's WorldView-2 satellite to TERI University's current research projects. The initiative's aim is to help researchers develop new environmental applications that address critical climate issues.

GeoEye, Inc. announced that GeoEye Imagery Collection Systems Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of GeoEye, Inc., has signed a procurement contract with Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, an operating unit of Lockheed Martin Corporation, to complete the development and construction of the GeoEye-2 satellite and the associated command and control system. Prior to entering this procurement contract, GeoEye and Lockheed Martin have been performing long-lead development and procurement activities for the GeoEye-2 satellite under an interim purchase agreement.

Teradata Corporation announced that it has joined forces with CoreLogic, to provide insurance companies with intelligent geospatial solutions that bring together the key business components necessary for underwriting processing, risk management, marketing and distribution management for optimal decision making.

Interdisciplinary Research Consultants (IdRC) and ESRI Canada  announced that the companies have been selected to provide consulting services on the design of a spatial data infrastructure (SDI) for the Kingdom of Jordan.  This will help Jordan develop a national strategic plan that will enable broad sharing of geographic information to monitor and support the country's development.  The project is being undertaken through funds from the Korean Trust Fund on ICT4D, administered by infoDev as part of a World Bank initiative.

OpenGeo  announced that Ordnance Survey, Great Britain's national mapping agency, has agreed to an OpenGeo Suite Enterprise Edition contract to support its ongoing spatial data infrastructure initiatives.  The OS OnDemand service from Ordnance Survey has recently adopted GeoServer as its primary Web Map Service to customers, and the OpenGeo Suite contract will fund core development work for all GeoServer deployments to meet INSPIRE View Service requirements, including WMS 1.3

Adobe Systems Incorporated and TerraGo Technologies, have announced an initiative to support geospatial capabilities for customers of Acrobat X solutions.

Announcements

On 6 July 2010, Hexagon AB entered into an agreement to acquire the US-based software provider Intergraph Corporation. Completion of the transaction was subject to certain conditions, including clearance from the relevant competent competition authorities and CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States). All approvals have now been obtained, other conditions reviewed and the acquisition is expected to be completed on Thursday 28 October 2010. Hexagon will pay a cash purchase price of 2 125 MUSD for Intergraph on a cash and debt free basis.

PCI Geomatics plans to undertake a business development mission to Africa and the Middle East to meet, train, and interact with local partners and customers and to participate in a key industry event.

PCI Geomatics will begin its mission at the 8th International Conference African Association of Remote Sensing of the Environment (AARSE) in Addis Ababa on October 25-29. PCI will take part in the conference alongside their new reseller, GEOMARK, to raise awareness of PCI products and technology and how they can assist in solving some of the region’s geospatial challenges. This is one of the largest African geo-intelligence events and brings together over 600 participants from over 40 countries.

Farallon Geographics designed, developed and deployed a web-based GIS asset tracking application to monitor Union Sanitary District’s water treatment plant assets. The Rich Internet application monitors wastewater treatment plant infrastructure and manages mission critical workflows.  The application will enable tight integration with a number of other business systems including its SharePoint document management system, Hansen asset management system, wastewater asset management database and ArcGIS Server GIS infrastructure. The application acts as a centralized resource for accessing data, and will speed information retrieval as well as enable information sharing and project collaboration. 

Financials

Trimble will hold a conference call on Nov. 2, 2010 at 1:30 p.m. PDT to review its third quarter 2010 results. The call will be broadcast live on the Web at http://investor.trimble.com. Investors without Internet access may dial into the call at (800) 528-9198 (U.S.) or (702) 928-6633 (international).

TomTom announces third quarter 2010 results.

New Products

Digital mapping and geographic information systems (GIS) software developer Cadcorp has announced the availability of an application to assist its users in the management of NLPG (National Land and Property Gazetteer) data.

IDV Solutions  released Visual Fusion 5.0, innovative business intelligence software that unites data sources in a web-based, visual context for better insight and understanding. The new visualization, interaction, and application-building capabilities in this 5.0 release highlight the main value points Visual Fusion brings to the enterprise: enhanced insight, increased productivity, and business agility.

Avenza Systems Inc. announced the release of Geographic Imager 3.2 for Adobe Photoshop. Along with support for Adobe CS5 and Mac OS 64-bit, it includes the ability to create and export geospatial PDF documents and terrain shading functionality.

Munsys, Inc.  announced the release of Munsys 10.3 64bit, providing support for the latest 64bit hardware, operating systems and applications that have become an important improvement of today’s technology. Munsys 10.3 64bit brings the powerful Munsys application family in line with 64bit technology and its ability to support more RAM, which can greatly improve memory-intensive applications. The move to 64-bit computing is becoming the next step for many GIS departments upgrading their systems to allow for better performance of their CAD applications and management of their large databases.

NAVTEQ announced NN4D Classified Ads, a new way to more efficiently connect developers and partners. The free listing service is a unified developer network and business ecosystem enabling idea exchange, requests for service and solutions, developer support, job postings and other topics.  NN4D Classified Ads enables any NAVTEQ customer or member of the NAVTEQ Network for Developers™ (NN4D) the opportunity to list the services they provide or the needs they have on a dedicated area of the NAVTEQ developer site, www.NN4D.com.

StreetMapper GIS, a new version of the mobile laser mapping system with an integrated panoramic camera, has been launched by 3D Laser Mapping and IGI mbH. StreetMapper GIS is easy to mount on any type of vehicle and offers a cost effective solution for collection of street level asset information for use in geographical information systems (GIS) or other desktop software solutions.

Teradata Corporation announced the availability of the APOS Location Intelligence Solution: Teradata Edition. The APOS solution opens new doors for businesses to integrate Esri geospatial maps into SAP BusinessObjects reports, which are powered by the Teradata Database.  Business users can seamlessly view and analyze reporting data, geospatial data, maps and spatial analytics within a single powerful visual analytical environment.

Getmapping has launched an Integrated Solution to enable Local Authorities to save money, improve efficiency, maintain staff and protect services. Getmapping’s Integrated Solution for Districts consists of four distinct parts which can be purchased individually or as a combined package. These are: Getmapping Data, Data Hosting Services, Web GIS Services and a Spatial Data Warehouse.

Envitia has released a new addition to the product family allowing the automated ingest and update of large geospatial datasets, removing the need for manual data update and management.  Automation of data update ensures accuracy, currency and reproducibility which are key to maintaining best user experience and value from geospatial solutions.  Fully integrated with both our MapLink Pro product and the new Envitia GI Web Services the Envitia SDMS provides support for over 200 data formats specialized for the defense and security domain.

Sokkia Corporation announces the release of four new SRX total stations -- SRX1X, SRX2X, SRX3X and SRX5X.

Around the Web

GISCafe Today Blog

Geographic info system for Tiruchi October, 24, 2010, The Hindu

Laku lowers cost and raise efficiency October 23, 2010, Borneo Post Online

GIS Matters: Something for Nothing October 22, 2010, Amerisurv

China's Mapping Bureau Launches Online Map Service October 22, 2010, Marbridge Consulting

Supervisors vote to spend funds to complete pilot project Fremont Tribune

GeoGraphix® Unveils Online Satellite Map Streaming for Discovery™ Suite at 2010 SEG Exposition PR-USA Net


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-- Susan Smith, GISCafe.com Managing Editor.