Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the infrastructure engineering software company, has announced new generative AI capabilities for civil site design, including a design copilot, site layout optimisations, and automated drawing production that will drive new levels of productivity and accuracy.
Building on its success in applying AI-powered digital twins to asset maintenance—to detect and assess problems before failures occur—Bentley is bringing AI to the design phase of the infrastructure lifecycle to automate repetitive tasks, such as drawing production, so that engineers can focus on higher-value activities.
Putting AI into Action—Introducing OpenSite+
Bentley’s OpenSite+ is the first engineering application leveraging generative AI for civil site design. It helps engineers swiftly design residential, commercial, and industrial sites with AI tools, significantly boosting productivity and accuracy.
A digital twin-native product, built with Bentley’s iTwin platform, OpenSite+ delivers AI-powered efficiencies and better-quality designs with:
- Enhanced Design Experience with Copilot: Users can quickly create, revise, and interact with requirements documentation and 3D site models through natural language interactions to automatically make real-time design changes with precision and ease.
- Layout Optimisation: Users can enhance efficiency, reduce errors, and rework site designs in minutes with one-click earthwork optimisation. Bentley’s AI-powered design layout agent can evaluate thousands of layout options and suggest alternative designs in real-time, helping users make better design decisions sooner, saving time and money.
- Automated Drawing Production: Users can reduce time spent on mundane drawing tasks, accelerating drawing production by up to 10 times, and improve drawing accuracy using AI-powered annotation, labelling, and sheeting that automatically places labels and dimensions according to organisational standards that are optimised for legibility and aesthetics.
- Smart Design Tools: Users can create and revise designs using intelligent, editable objects such as building pads, parking layouts, driveways, sidewalks, and ponds to complete projects in a fraction of time compared to traditional CAD software.
With OpenSite+, users also maintain control over their proprietary data during AI training, which creates a solid foundation to responsibly guide the development of AI models.
“By leveraging their past data to optimise future work, generative AI will revolutionise infrastructure design, improving engineers’ productivity and accuracy without sacrificing on quality,” said Mike Campbell, chief product officer at Bentley Systems.
“OpenSite+ is just the first example of how Bentley is applying generative AI to benefit infrastructure design and project delivery.”
OpenSite+ early adopter, Joe Viscuso, senior vice president and director of Strategic Growth at Pennoni, commented, “OpenSite+ is a game-changer.”
“By combining design and routine tasks into one powerful platform, it eliminates the need to switch between multiple programs. It streamlines our workflow, automates repetitive tasks, and ensures accuracy as we make changes in real-time. This means faster project completion with superior results, helping Pennoni stay ahead of the curve in both technology and innovation.”
OpenSite+ is the first of a new generation of Bentley Open Applications which run on desktops for optimal responsiveness, while offering the benefits of cloud-based applications, such as automatic updates and cross-operating system availability. The iTwin-native architecture enables seamless collaboration and data-centric workflows. Data is saved directly in a digital twin, which in turn can include data from other sources to provide full context for design work.
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