Skip to main content

Bentley and Trimble announce modelling cooperation

In London and Las Vegas, the message was the same. Trimble, a surveying systems and software developer, and Bentley jointly announced they will pool their resources for product development. The announcement by Bentley in London was made at the same time as Trimble who gave details of the collaboration to attendees at its annual conference in Las Vegas, in the US. Trimble, based in Sunnyvale, California, develops positioning technologies, such as GPS, lasers and optics as well as software content specifi
January 6, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
In London and Las Vegas, the message was the same. 2122 Trimble, a surveying systems and software developer, and 6197 Bentley jointly announced they will pool their resources for product development. The announcement by Bentley in London was made at the same time as Trimble who gave details of the collaboration to attendees at its annual conference in Las Vegas, in the US.

Trimble, based in Sunnyvale, California, develops positioning technologies, such as GPS, lasers and optics as well as software content specific to the hardware. Trimble’s products focus on applications requiring position or location - including surveying, construction, agriculture, fleet and asset management, public safety and mapping.

Their goal, they said, is to make building information modelling (BIM) more useful beyond the design stage. Contractors too often must create their own 3D models for construction visualisation. At the same time project owners do not expect their designers’ BIM work to survive the construction process and provide visibility into the engineering and analytics that are essential for more efficient operation of the asset.

Bentley and Trimble said they will work jointly to ensure architects' and engineers' construction modelling work is preserved and referenced for use through the project’s life cycle. The aim is to allow the sharing of schemata across design and construction applications to ensure that constructible models maintain semantic fidelity. Contractors already have greater flexibility in performing field layout tasks as they now accept Bentley’s i-models in Trimble Field Link.

The companies are also cooperating on developing industry standards, such as the Open Geospatial Consortium’s intrinsic geo-context down to construction levels of detail.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • GPS machine control technology aids productivity
    February 21, 2012
    GPS technology offers contractors many benefits and product offerings are growing more diverse, Mike Woof reports. The benefit of GPS technology for the construction industry cannot be overstated.
  • Modelling software aids highway widening
    February 22, 2012
    The Skanska Balfour Beatty Joint Venture has been selected by Autodesk to receive an Autodesk BIM Experience Award.
  • LiDAR surveying is making inroads into asset management
    December 18, 2017
    In the coming age of the autonomous vehicle, fast and accurate LiDAR surveying will be increasingly important, explains Valdis Vanags. The game-changing introduction of autonomous vehicles relies not only on intelligent traffic systems but well maintained roads to help computer-guided systems navigate using road markings. Laser scanning technology, too, is a game changer when it comes to planning and executing many civil engineering projects, including transport network upgrades and smart city initiatives.
  • Machine control advances boosting quality
    June 12, 2017
    The latest developments in machine control technology will deliver major gains in quality and productivity. Machine control technology plays an increasingly important role in construction. The pace of development has been fast, with new systems offering major gains in both productivity and quality across a range of applications. At the recent CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2017 exhibition in Las Vegas, key advances were unveiled in machine control technologies suited to markets such as earthmoving, concrete paving and pil