Bentley Systems Acquires Plaxis, and Complementary SoilVision, to Integrate Geotechnical Engineering within Digital Workflows for Infrastructure Projects
07 May 2018
Bentley: Bentley
Systems, Incorporated, a leading global provider of comprehensive
software solutions for advancing infrastructure, today announced the
acquisition of
Plaxis, the leading provider of geotechnical software,
based in Delft, Netherlands, and the agreement to acquire soil
engineering software provider
SoilVision, based in Saskatchewan, Canada.
The acquisitions, with Bentley’s market-leading borehole reporting and
data management software gINT, serve to make Bentley a complete source
for geotechnical professionals “going digital.” Finally,
BIM
advancements can be extended to the essential subsurface engineering of
every infrastructure project.
Projects necessarily begin with geotechnical surveys and sampling,
captured with gINT for versatile documentation and reporting. Next,
professionals perform engineering related to soil properties, soil
behavior, and groundwater flow using SoilVision’s SVOFFICE applications,
supplemented by Plaxis’ offerings. Then soil-structure interaction is
analyzed through Plaxis’ design, simulation, and engineering software
(e.g. PLAXIS 2D, PLAXIS 3D).
The new opportunity, by way of digital workflows enabled through
Bentley’s comprehensive modeling
environment, is for geotechnical applications to be integrated with
Bentley’s structural applications (such as STAAD, RAM, and SACS) for
unprecedented geo-structural engineering performance. As changes may
occur in owner requirements, structural strategies, or site conditions
(continuously surveyed through UAVs and Bentley’s ContextCapture for
reality modeling), geotechnical analysis could be continuously applied
for improved outcomes, as managed through ProjectWise collaboration
services.
For today’s infrastructure demands, geotechnical considerations are
coming to the fore. Urbanization, for instance, drives growth both
vertically and underground, with emphasis on the capacity of foundations
and
tunnels. And new infrastructure projects of every type depend upon
constructed dams, embankments, dikes, levees, and reservoirs to improve
their resilience. Moreover, new asset types such as offshore wind
turbine structures require new geotechnical analysis capabilities, in
this case to be accomplished with Plaxis’ forthcoming MoDeTo software.
Because infrastructure assets are crucially linked to subsurface
environs, they are vulnerable to geo-environmental risks including
seismic activity, subsidence, and weather impacts. Leveraging new
digital workflows which incorporate real-time monitoring and analytics
during infrastructure operations, geotechnical professionals can play
the increasingly valuable role they deserve in achieving
geo-environmental resilience.
Bentley Systems CEO, Greg Bentley said, “My colleagues and I welcome our
new teams from Plaxis and SoilVision, which have in common a zeal for
applying science for better engineering practice. Dr. Ronald Brinkgreve
from Plaxis and Dr. Murray Fredlund, founder of SoilVision, exemplify
this. I believe that every geotechnical engineer has benefitted from
Plaxis’ continuous advancement, in scope and quality, of tools for their
discipline to add value. With a professional and dedicated management
team led by Jan-Willem Koutstaal, Plaxis has become one of the most
successful software businesses I have ever seen.”
Bentley added, “While most infrastructure engineering disciplines
converged around intuitive 3D models, geotechnical applications seem to
have followed a less graphically intensive development path, and so have
remained isolated from cross-discipline workflows. This ‘disconnected’
mindset prevailed even while Plaxis, SoilVision, and gINT mainstreamed
3D innovations. Our BIM platform’s comprehensive modeling environment
will finally embrace the geotechnical profession in digital workflows
for every infrastructure project and asset.”
Tony O’Brien, global practice leader for geotechnics for Mott MacDonald,
said, “PLAXIS is one of our core analysis tools being used across our
global geotechnics practice. When used by experienced specialists,
PLAXIS can analyze many of our most complex ground-structure interaction
problems. In Bentley’s hands, we have high expectations that we can
accomplish more through digital workflows made possible through
integration of PLAXIS technology with Bentley’s comprehensive modeling
environment—workflows that are compatible with Mott MacDonald’s
commitment to connected thinking and solving complex infrastructure
challenges.”
About Plaxis
Plaxis is a global market leader in geotechnical engineering software
based on the finite element method, offering its applications to users
in more than 100 countries worldwide. With a well-established reputation
as the industry standard for geotechnical design, Plaxis software serves
project owners, contractors, and consultants in civil engineering,
oil and gas, offshore industries, and governmental organizations.
www.plaxis.com
About SoilVision
Founded in 1997, SoilVision has championed 3D conceptual design and
analysis of slope stability, groundwater flow, stress/deformation,
contaminant transport, thermal flows in saturated/unsaturated soils, and
coupled processes for geotechnical engineers and hydrogeologists. The
software solves complex problems by performing numerical modeling and
analysis of earth structures in the areas of soil and rock slope
stability of earth dams, open pits, levees, embankments, and retaining
walls. The software has been utilized for basic designs as well as
advanced unsaturated analysis. The software is utilized extensively in
the mining industry for the design and evaluation of large engineered
earth structures. www.soilvision.com
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Source: Bentley - www.bentley.com
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