August 15, 2023 • 53 mins
VHB Hosts Dave Mulholland and Kyle Rosenmeyer are joined by Francois Valois, Vice President Civil Infrastructure at Bentley Systems, for a conversation about the impacts and adoption of model-based design technology across the AEC industry and our communities.
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(00:04):
(Mike Carragher)Viewpoints is VHB’s thought leadership platform, where we share
insights on critical issues and emergingtechnologies in the AEC industry.
I’m Mike Carragher,President and CEO of VHB.
I’m excited to introduce VHB’sthought leaders
and our client and partner podcastparticipants—all future-focused thinkers
who want to reimaginethe built environment.
(00:24):
I hope you’ll tune in oftenand leave inspired
(Dave Mulholland)This is Dave Mulholland, VHB Chief Technology Officer,
and I’m your host for ViewpointsPodcast Episode Four—Modeling Change:
How Model-based Designis Transforming the AEC Industry.
Today I’m joined by two guests—my
colleague Kyle Rosenmeyer,VHB Model-Based Design Lead,
(00:47):
and Francois Valois, Bentley SystemsVice President of Civil Infrastructure.
Today we are going to have a conversation about the impactsand adoption of model-based
design technology across the AEC industry,our clients, and our communities.
Before we dig in to the
how the technology is changing the waywe understand and build infrastructure,
Francois, can you let the listeners know
(01:09):
how you are involvedwith model-based design at Bentley.
(Francois Valois)Yeah, I'm Francois Valois. I'm VP of civil engineering at Bentley.
I'm part of a groupthat's called the engineering application.
We essentially are enabling engineeringtechnology across Bentley, right.
And the civil engineering teamis responsible for the product development
(01:32):
of products like Open Roads, OpenBridge, Open Tunnel, Open Site.
And we also enable our digital twin
technology to be civil friendlyand civil ready, right.
This is something that we are focused onat the moment and really advancing
(01:52):
that idea of model-based digital deliveryand digital twin for infrastructure
in general and road andand specifically as well in that context.
My background is I'm a surveyorby training.
I've studied surveying,geomatic engineering to be precise,
and I've never actually beena surveyor in the world,
(02:17):
but always been in technology.
I worked for Esri before,
in California, and then been at Bentleyfor 18 years plus in various roles
and product managementand different type of product engineering.
And now as a VP,I'm leading that R&D team.
(02:37):
I think I have the best team in the world
to really advance these productsand we're trying to really change
the world in our own waysevery day, right.
Wake up in the morningand to really delight our users
to really advancethe world of infrastructure
through our little lensand through our humble contribution.
(02:57):
(Dave Mulholland)That's awesome.
So excited to actually really havethis conversation on model-based design.
As we've talked about,
there's an extreme buzz in the industry
around the future of digital designservices.
It's great, Francois,I appreciate you and Kyle joining today
(03:18):
to talk through
what model-based design is, to talk aboutwhat it means for the future of really
our digital design services and wherethe industry in general is going.
(Kyle Rosenmeyer)But just a little bit of background on me.
I joined the industry, my first internship
at the Idaho Transportation Department,way back in 2007.
(03:40):
And ever since I started that internshipand I worked on
my first real engineering project,it was using Bentley Inroads at that time.
That was the first time
I saw templates and 3D modelsand I just thought, oh this is amazing!
And fast forward to now,
I got a chance to do the Bentley PremierScholar program in 2021 and then now I'm
(04:06):
working over at VHB as a Model-bBasedDesign Leader and helping bring
that knowledge and help the companymove forward
with models as the center of our projectsand it's just so much fun.
Literally I am having the most funevery day that I'm working.
It's just fantastic.
I really appreciateyou guys over at Bentley.
(04:26):
I really believe You were partof the first cohort, right?
Maybe second cohort or something.
That's right. Yeah,I was in the second cohort.
That's right.
(Dave Mulholland)Francois, wanted to give you the opportunity to tell
the audience a little bit about
Bentley,the vision, where you guys are going and
where you see model-based designed going
(04:49):
under the services.
(Francois Valois)Right.
Bentley is a software company obviously
we're right around a billion dollarin revenue.
We're U.S.
based,but we have colleagues globally and we are
we think the infrastructure company,software infrastructure company.
So we serve, you know, our users.
We don't call our customers customers.
(05:11):
We call them usersbecause we want to work with them
and in the long term relationshipsand advance the world of infrastructure.
And and we do that among different domainsright every civil
being probably, and transportationbeing probably one of our largest segment.
But we also serve energy, water,you know, planned, you know, building
(05:33):
and different other industries as welland been around for a long time.
35 plus years, you know, started in thebasement of our founders, Keith Bentley.
And here we are. Right.
And we are transforming ourselves,which I think like the market
to become the digital twin company
(05:56):
for infrastructure
and whywe think we're uniquely positioned to do
that is our route in the design aspectand this understanding of 3D
and what it takes to have engineeringready digital twin right.
It's one thing to have pretty pictures,
but what does it mean to do thiswhen you are in civil right
(06:16):
and you are building
some of the world'smost important infrastructure,
the bridges, the roads that basicallyallows us to move our goods and people
around, you know, so it's really,really fun and fundamental in the society.
Right, and there.
To me, model-baseddigital delivery is all about
designing our infrastructure using smart3D models.
(06:39):
3D is one aspect, right, the Z dimension,but make those models semantically rich,
right.Make those models semantically rich.
There's also this idea of using the modelfor simulation, right.
Whether you're using these models
to really sort of make decisionsand drive your design decisions.
(07:00):
So that's a key key element in there.
It's not only about the geometryand these things, it's like, OK,
can I use these models for various,you know, 4D analysis and 5D analysis
when it comes to timeand cost elements in there,
but also things like safety,flash detections
and these thingsthat makes it makes these models useful.
So that's one aspect is the model itselfhas to be able to do all of this.
(07:23):
But as I mentioned earlier, Bentleywants to be the digital twin company
for infrastructure, right?
So a digital twin as we all know,is this this,
you know, digital representationin the computer. Right.
Of a physical asset.But where does it start?
It start by the workof our civil designers right there.
These people are creating models.
And a good model to me is a modelthat will be useful beyond design.
(07:49):
So this model will basically be able to be
used for the designitself, will improve the design phase
to make the right decisionsand so on, but will also survive
in the construction phaseand even in the operational phase.
Right.
Because all of this isit would have been thought through
that we want to be operating that bridgein the future.
50 years down the line,
(08:10):
I have been thinkingabout the sort of attributes
and the sort of thingsI have to consider on that bridge,
or that road so that it can be operatingforever. Right.
And that's the sort of idea, right?
So having all that informationattached to the model and the deliver
in an open way as well,
I think the notion of openness is so,so key in this and this thing, right?
(08:31):
Be able to deliver eitherwith our iTwin platform, for example,
that is open source and open, but also inthings like IFC is becoming, you know,
fundamental to the civil market on thisthis notion of industry foundation class.
Right where that was adopted
(08:51):
by ASHTO in 2019 as the delivery mechanismfor for civil right.
So I think this is fundamental there.
So this notion of
you know the model being the basefor digital twin of the future right
you know that's to me that'sreally really key and what model-based
you know design has to be.
(09:11):
(Dave Mulholland)Kyle, I want to turn to you.
And you're leading VHB's digitalor you're leading VHB's model-based design
for the Bentley side.
And what really got you into it,and then maybe also if you, Francois,
can maybe define very simplisticallywhat is model-based design.
(09:32):
(Kyle Rosenmeyer)Yeah. Thanks, Dave.
And Francois, I
really like what you said about
the digital twin living beyond design.
This is somethingI think that is very fundamental
for people to understand, but also verydisruptive to the current processes and
policies even of how infrastructureworks around the world.
(09:54):
The idea that a model could actually bethe center of everything
with infrastructure.
And I've heard this referred to
as the common data environmentby FHWA and DOTs like Florida.
And this is really, really impactful,I think.
And to me, model-based design, this is thefocus of all of the engineering intent.
(10:19):
And actually this is really helpful for meto put into perspective
with how engineers have been workingsince there's been engineers.
Right?
We've always focused all of our design,all of our decisions and analysis
and the products that we produce to goget built
(10:39):
has always been based aroundsome kind of plan, right?
That's been the mediumthat engineers have conveyed
engineering services forever,and the plans have gotten smarter.
Right?
We've moved from paperbased plans to CAD generated plans.
And then we went from,you know, CAD generated plans to PDFs.
(11:01):
So even though those things have beengetting smarter, it's never changed
from plans until now having model-baseddesign for digital delivery.
This means that that focus of the intentfrom the engineering is going from plans
to a model, rightfrom which other things can be rendered
(11:23):
like you can obviously render plansfrom a model,
but the plans are not the focusof the entire engineering team.
And this is a very big changeto how people work today.
I think this is going to be
one of the most challenging aspectsof the next era of infrastructure,
(11:45):
is taking an entire workforceof engineers, designers, project managers,
clients, contractors, everyonethat it takes to build infrastructure
and move them thereand the way they think, right,
from a planfocused thing to a model focused thing.
So I think that is going to be great.
(12:07):
I mean, I can't wait for it.And I'm really excited to
to be in a positionwhere I can make a meaningful impact
at VHB
around our our plans and evolutiontowards that goal.
But that's that's what I think ofwhen I think of model-based design.
(Francois Valois)Yeah, you're right, it's all about data.
It's all about the need.
And that's a that's a mindset shiftin our engineering workforce.
(12:31):
As you said,that is really, really key. Right?
(Dave Mulholland)So, you know, Kyle, I hear you talking and it brings me back to a memo
that was found by one of our colleaguesback in, you know, in the early 90s.
So in 1987, there was a memo drafted
that basicallywas this digital transformation from going
from the drafting board to CAD designand it seems like we're full lifecycle
(12:54):
back to that same stage,right? It's imminent.
It is coming, guys,in terms of model-based design,
you know, it's,
it's one of those that in this memo,just to highlight some of the context
for the
listeners, it said notevery project would be suited for CAD.
Just replace a wordwith model-based design, right?
So not every project would be suitedfor model-based design,
(13:16):
not a magic boxthat will solve every problem.
Right?
CAD is entirely a new skill for engineersand formal training cannot be ignored.
Just replace the wordwith model-based design.
Model-based design is an entirely newskill for engineers
and formal training cannot be ignored.
I mean, what a great story to sit hereand say, you know, we're here, we're here,
(13:38):
you know, nearly two decades laterand we're basically doing and living this
digital transformationthat's happening today.
If you had to tell the CEOsitting somewhere
that is not using it today, here'sthe top benefits that you're seeing.
You know, Kyle as a practitionerand Francois is somebody
that's actually pushing this outacross the globe.
What is the top benefits?
(13:59):
(Francois Valois)Every single
company on the planet right nowis facing one fundamental problem.
It's labor shortage.
There's not enough people to do the work,plain and simple.
There's so much demandand that and that's basically what drives
you know, when we we're talkingabout the infrastructure plans in the U.S.
and that's around the worldas well, right.
(14:21):
There's so much demand for this
and then every single business is facedby, how am I going to meet that demand?
How am I going to surviveand try for the future?
So the number one thingthat I would say to tell a CEO is that
it's needed for your survivalbecause you need to be able to do things
more things
with less, right, and that's what digitaldelivery and model-base will help you do.
(14:44):
Things like reduction of the amountof plans being produced, just that.
Our engineers todayspend so much time producing these plans.
Other things will be augmenting
their level of communicationand understanding between those people.
So they work on the same thingsand have this common
data environment we've been talking about.
And things like spotting issuesearly, producing higher level of quality
(15:05):
in these designs because the time you save
in that producing plan,you can focus on the design you know,
and that's really fundamentallywhat what we should be spending.
And I noticeI said reduce the number of plans.
I didn't say eliminate thosebecause we need
a plan is a useful representation
of the world, right,but it's built from the model
and it's not only createdas a plan itself.
So and then and then this is this isone thing for the engineering contractor
(15:30):
but I think for the industry in general,there's a bigger benefit.
I call that a systemic improvement.
Think about this.
It's making the life of an engineerand AECs more productive and so on.
We just established that.Let's hope that's the case.
And I have a number of examplesI'll talk about later.
But then think about what we can doif we take this and then,
(15:52):
you know, shovel this into a machineand eventually robots
and these sort of thingsthat really will automate our construction
like this is going to be,you know, pushing the envelope.
And this same datais used in operations as well.
So you're basically creatinga systemic gain.
And that's why we should all embracethat model-based digital delivery
notion, right?
Because it helps our firm, right?
(16:15):
Easy firms and giant contractor firmbecome more effective producing more work
and so on, but also help the industryin general becoming more effective.
And, you know, I encourage all the ownerslistening out there.
Please demand that. Right.
And this is this is you know, this isthis is where it needs to start, right.
From thethe owners of the infrastructure itself.
(16:36):
That's great.
But Kyle,from your perspective, as a user, what's
what are yourthoughts on the top benefits?
(Kyle Rosenmeyer)Yeah, I love that response.
Francois,the idea that we would have a automated
construction environment that could run24 seven with minimal human input.
(16:56):
This is a futurethat would be hard to believe right now.
But this is possiblewhen you have really accurate model data
that you can deliver to a contractorwith the right equipment.
And I think that just like back to Dave's1987 memo
the the conversations that werehad at that time about incorporating
(17:18):
personal computers, thingsseemed really hard to believe back then,
you know, so a lot of a lot of harddiscussions had to happen around
what this was,what PCs were going to mean to the world
and how things were going to change.
And not a lot of peoplewere able to see that fully.
But you look back now at the eightiesand you say, yeah, of course
(17:38):
we're not decidingwe're going to do any plans by hand.
Of course we're using the computer.
Right,and I think that some of these things
that seem hard to believe now will feellike this in another ten to 20 years.
Now, Ijust want to add on to what Francois,
because I believe everything that he hadto answer that question but I think that
(17:59):
there's an analogy I like to share aroundthe value of model-based design.
And this is a very simple thing,a meeting.
If you just think about a meeting wherepeople have to come together and decide
something, there is this skillthat engineers are usually very proud
of called spatial thinking,being able to look at a set of plans
(18:21):
and assemble the thing in their mind's eyeso they know in 3D what the project is.
Right.
So if you think about any meetingthat happens where multiple people
have to come together and work outa problem and agree on a solution,
they are having to look at the same inputdata, write plan
sheets, profile sheets,cross-sections, details, plan notes.
(18:44):
They're looking at all this information.
Everyone at that tablehas to assemble in their mind's eye
the 3D thingthat they're trying to decide about.
Then they have to agree on what to doand then walk away from the meeting.
Now, how many meetingshave you guys been to where you felt like
everyone was in unanimous agreementon what we're going to do,
but then you start hearing from peoplean hour or two later and you realize
(19:08):
everyone walked away with a differentunderstanding of what we just agreed on.
This happens all the time, right?
And that simple
point, a meeting, this happens, right?
Millions of times,
maybe millions of times a day.
I don't know how many times it happens,but this is happening all the time, right?
(19:30):
All project teams, all engineering
teams, all constructionteams have to have meetings
and when you can bring a fully 3D modelwith all of the engineering intent
applied and extractablefrom that model to a meeting,
you don't have to play the gameof telephone anymore
because the source of truthis obvious to everyone.
(19:53):
People who have mastered spatialthinking and people
who have not mastered spatial thinking,the ability to communicate difficult
things between parties is going to bemonumentally better than it is with plans.
And I think that's just going to change
so much about what we can accomplishwith any given scope, schedule and budget.
(20:14):
(Francois Valois)Yeah, I mean, maybe adding an example to what you said I have in front of me
here a use case right at UDOT righton the I-80 westbound widening project.
Not a huge project, right?
I mean,those people are essentially reporting
the fact that they use digital deliveryand digital twins
to improve their communicationamong the team
members, right, and the contractorin resolving the issues ahead of things,
(20:38):
save one month on the project. Right?I mean, how much saving is this?
And take that. That's one small projectthey get across the industry.
That's billions and billions of dollarssaving. Right.
And that our team here on I-10 in Floridais basically saying they say they save
$2.15 million. Right.
On not also that large project.
And another one is basically saying,
(20:59):
you know, 20 to 30%, you know, savingson the design review time.
I mean, this is real money, right?So it's wonderful.
(Dave Mulholland)It's just making everybody more productive in that context.
You know, something you said earlieractually really resonated.
And Kyle, it also goes to your point aboutyou know, the conversations around it.
You know, when you mentionedthe augmented common data environment,
(21:21):
if you think about thatand really for the listeners
to basically think about howand what that means,
again, simplistically,
you think about all the different servicesthat get put into a digital delivery,
right?
And having them all sit and insidea digital plan set and doing review.
Kyle, we've spent time talking about this.
Maybe you can elaborate on some ofthe services that would be pulled into it,
(21:45):
you know, and talk about the different,you know, fundamental engineering services
that can be pulled ininto one digital design services.
(Kyle Rosenmeyer)Yeah, I mean, this is something that is
really all inclusive, right?
We can pull in
everyone from plannersto one of my favorites is actually
(22:09):
business, or let's say is
client focused staff and companies
where you're actually just doing businessdevelopment and proposals.
There's a lot of tools out there,like Bentley's Concept Station
that I like to pitch to all folksat that level as the napkin.
Right?
If you have an ideaand you want to sketch it down
(22:30):
to share with someone, usea tool like Concept Station
and you'll have the most compelling napkinout of anyone else, right?
Your ability to quickly communicate thingsthrough a 3-D model
is so easy and fast with a productlike Concept Station.
So I love sharing that example,and we have got some great stories
(22:51):
at VHB of people who have beenusing conceptual tools like this
just to have those initial conversationswith their clients around what problems
they're trying to solve,
what are some ideas onwhat we might be able to do about it?
You know, being ableto provide something through,
you know, through amodel is just so compelling.
(23:11):
You know, I guess that kind ofgets back to the point
about it being a communication tool.
But this is something that,
you know, maybe a lot of peoplemight not think about
when they think about model-based design,but it does include things like that.
And then obviously
all all different disciplines across,
you know, the design servicesall have a place,
(23:34):
you know, when you think about like,say, traffic, you know,
actually let's take traffic controlor maintenance of traffic.
Maybe another way to say it,
this is honestly one of the mostcomplicated parts of a highway project.
It's not the final design. It's actually
how do you go about building itwithout turning the traffic off?
(23:56):
Right.
Where do you put those carswhile you're trying to build the project
and the ability to visualizethat through 3D models, it makes it
so much easierto work through the problems,
but also it makes the solutionso much more compelling.
Because when you have the solutionfor each phase of the traffic control,
it's much more likelythat you didn't overlook some fatal flaw
(24:19):
that's going to cause a
you know, a rework of the planonce you get out to the site.
And then obviously all of the
complementary disciplinesto take roadway and highway, you know,
drainage and signing and pavementmarkings, signalization,
all of these things can easilybe represented in a 3D model.
(24:40):
And seeing those elements in a modelnot only again
helps that visualization of the projectbe much more compelling
but when you have all disciplinesparticipating in a model,
this allows for the reviewand analysis of safety
of like subsurface conflicts
(25:04):
I mentioned safety sort of like verticalclearances, lateral offsets to hazards.
All of these thingsnow can be not only easily seen but
measured in a 3D model,things like sight lines.
If you use the site line tool and openroad designers, you get 3D sightlines.
If all of the hazards,you know, posts and buildings,
(25:29):
sign structures, all of these things,if they're all on your model,
you're going to have a really complete
picture of what the driver is going to seewhen they're driving on your project.
This makes for for better analysisand better design, right?
And if we're doing those designsin less time
where we have more abilityto iterate those designs,
(25:50):
so this means betterthings are going to be built in the world
the more we incorporateall of the different disciplines.
(Dave Mulholland)So, Francois, the perception of a lot of folks
is that model-baseddesign is for roadways, right?
That's what we started to hearthis years ago and certainly not the case.
If you think about where you knowthe trends are going from your perspective
(26:13):
and what you're seeing in the industry,
what other
areas do you see itgoing outside of just pure roadway?
You know, out in the market today.
(Francois Valois)Yeah, the road is a big driver.
On the road of course,you can include the bridges, right?
Often bridges are the complex structure.
(26:34):
And they,
I think, will will definitely benefitfrom this sort of model-base
digital delivery concept just as much,if not more than the roadway itself.
Right.
But because they're complex,because they're they're hard to build,
because they are so massive and expensive
but then we also see thison the tunneling side.
(26:57):
We just built a new productcalled Open Tunnel that allow us to design
you know, a tunnelpretty simply and easily.
Right.
And is very,very powerful in that context. Right.
We reported from our early adoptersup to 80%,
you know, design timesaving right on with this 80%, right, 8-0.
(27:19):
Overhead line design,
electrification of the transportationsystem is definitely a huge part of this.
Right.
And and the interactionwith the rest of the world as well.
You know, this
this whole notion of multimodaland all this has to play a role in this.
Right. Not only about the cars right.
We want to sort of likego with with transit with bicycle
(27:40):
and all these thingsand include those in our designs as well.
Model-base digital delivery helpsthat as well in that context
especially when it comes to convinceyou know our citizens right
that in that context it's very,very important, right? Yeah.
So those are all sort of thingsthat we've seen happening out there.
Definitely rail and transitbeing also a big driver for this.
(Dave Mulholland)Yeah. Now, I'm glad I'm glad you brought up the transit.
(28:03):
I was actually one of thethe areas I would think
is going to be one of
those next mainstream,especially because they have
so many different piecesmoving within the track design and the,
you know, the power and how it all comestogether.
You know, it's one of thosethat we we've also seen an early adoption
within the planning side.
Kyle, you mentioned this
(28:23):
our even our conceptual designenvironmental impact statements,
the early planning conceptdevelopment is now going to required,
you know, model-based design services,
which I think is a great foundationfor where we're moving towards.
So we've talked about the pluses and thepositive parts about model-based design.
(28:44):
You know, let's
help out,you know, from the lessons learned,
there are some challenges with thethe adoption of model-based design here.
There are some companies out therethat are still
not really 100%committed to do this, you know.
What are some of the top challengesand how you know, how would we advise
(29:04):
them, based off of some of the lessonslearned that you guys have seen?
You know, to me this for Francois,I'll start with you.
You know you know, Bentley,I'm sure, is getting some some feedback
across the country about,you know, the pushback from,
you know, agencies AEC industry,
you know, what are the biggest challengesyou're hearing?
What are the lessons learned to say,here's how you guys get around that?
(29:26):
(Francois Valois)Yeah. Yeah, definitely.
You know,
we see a lot of adoption of model-baseddigital delivery right now, obviously.
But it's not everybody that is thatis there yet.
And it's completely normalwith any sort of change
processthat needs to happen in the market.
We just want to make surewe're not leaving anyone behind and goes
back to educationto providing software to schools,
(29:51):
to providing, you know, all the elements.
Essentially, like anything, it's
three elements have to come into play: people, process, and technology. (29:57):
undefined
Technology is last is lastbecause is probably the least important
of all of that.
And why?
Because without processes like, OK,making the model a legal
document, right is needed for that.
You also need to train the people.
(30:17):
So model
you know, people, process and technology,you have to all come together for it.
And frankly,the technology is probably ahead
of the other elements in this is alwaysthe case in the world, right?
Same with with the first VHS or Beta,you know,
you know, they werethey were ahead of their time
and then people saying,what is this thing? And so on.
(30:39):
So this there's a lot of that.
You know, everyone, as Kylementioned earlier, have to adapt to this.
And that's not only the designer, it'sthe constructor, the operators,
you know, the teachers.
You know, I think our workforce,our civil engineers have to become more
data savvy, more data centric,
(30:59):
understanding what data is, understandingwhat models are, what data models are.
And this is a big change.
So this is what contributes to the,you know, the adoption pace that we're at.
To me, it starts with the ownersasking for these models
to be created asking forintelligent models to be created,
(31:21):
and also understanding that, you know,it comes probably at a cost, right?
Because you're goingto rip the benefit downstream.
We want to be sure that it's not
you know,only the designer footing the bill, right?
We got to sort of allwork together as a society to
provide that the contractorhave to play their part as well.
(31:43):
And that's why we created,for example, technologies like Syncro,
which are heavy civilcentric and 3D centric.
Right.
To make it possible for people that workin the construction industry to have tools
to work with these models.
Right.
It's great that we're sitting thereand with open roads and these open bridge
and these tools
producing these models, was anybody ableto consume those things downstream?
(32:05):
And there's a large disparity right
and if you are a small contractorand in your own state,
you know, it's like it's it's
you know, you may not have the same meansas as the big guy in the big city.
So we have to sort ofmake sure everybody is is trained, retrain
and bring everybody together in this.
It's a big change managementthrough people process and technology.
(32:28):
Right.
(Dave Mulholland)I love the change management side of that.
I agree. 100%.
And it is certainly somethingthat change management
within organizations and change managementas an industry in general.
Right. It's not just one organization.
The entire industry is having to actually
have a little bit more foresight to saywe're going to actually be doing this
(32:48):
and we're 100% committed to it.
I agree.
So Kyle, from your perspective, you know,what are some of the biggest challenges
I mean, you're starting to implement thisin an organization
and do this digital transformationthat change management,
Francois talked about, you know, it'snot always the positive side.
There's there's some lessons learnedthat I'm sure
(33:09):
that you can actually givethe CEOs out there in the world.
What are those lessons learnedyou're seeing?
(Kyle Rosenmeyer)Yeah, absolutely.
In terms of the challenges I've seen that
if you take any individual who is at some
in some level of a project team, right,they might be fresh out of school work
(33:32):
in their first job, learning the CADsoftware you know, for the first time
or maybe a 20, 30 yearveteran of the industry
who is who has grown up with
software tools wheremaybe they've graduated out of day to day
software use and now they're morein a management role or a reviewer role.
(33:53):
And across the whole spectrum, in between,
I found thatthe most difficult thing for me
and I've been doing
a lot of training recentlysince joining the VHB, I've been across
our offices up and down the East Coastdoing training on model-based design
and that mindset to shift from the plan
(34:14):
is the product to the model is the productfrom which plans can be produced.
This is a really hard thing to get around
not just the idea of it,but applying it day to day.
So I walked awayfrom a lot of recent projects
(34:34):
I've worked on and going through a lotof training courses with the feeling that
and actually just to put this in context,you know,
I think most teams have some expectation,
like if you hire someonebrand new to the industry, they're not
fully useful right away. Right.
(34:54):
There is a learning curvebefore they become
fully useful to the team andand they're fully autonomous
that they can work autonomously.
And I think that no matterwhere you are in the industry right now,
if you need to pivot from a froma focus on plans to a focus on modeling,
(35:16):
there is going to be a learning curvefor you.
And getting people to recognize that
and understandthat it's not going to happen overnight.
This is a hard thingto a hard thing to solve.
This is a rough number,but I think most daily users
that have been trainedusing any legacy software tools,
(35:40):
they probably have a learning curveof somewhere north of 150 hours
before they are just as usefulas they used to be in those legacy tools.
And that could be a hard thingto overcome.
You know, if you're a very large firm
with 50,000 employees,you might have many, many CAD users right.
(36:01):
That are facingthat kind of learning curve.
Even if you're a small firmand you have ten day CAD users,
it's still a proportionately difficultproblem for them to solve.
And another thing that I think I just
coincidentally am a product of is that I,you know, I graduated college in 2010
(36:21):
and the United States was in a majorfinancial crisis during those years.
And many peoplewho graduated with engineering degrees
either did not join the workforce
as engineersor they joined at a very delayed time,
which I say hats off to you Bentley,this is amazing how things have progressed
(36:42):
with all the Connect software.
But this is also a challenge that I seea lot.
Is this gap I guess that'swhat I'm trying to get to here,
is that the gap between the junior
folks in the industryand the senior folks in the industry,
this is something that traditionallywould have been solved
by that mid-level engineer
(37:03):
that knows just enough of the engineeringand just enough of the software
to be a good conduit between
you know, everyone in the in the teamand everyone in the workforce.
Yeah.
So I'm just curious on your guys'sthoughts of
how you know, maybe perceiveor differently or the same,
(37:23):
you know, this gapin the transfer of knowledge, both
how we use technology and tools to build
infrastructure projects, but the transferof the engineering knowledge
and how it relates to that softwarebetween, you know, senior
folks in the industryand junior folks in the industry.
(37:44):
This is a this in my opinion,is maybe the hardest thing to solve
and where most of the riskactually lies for a lot of design firms.
(Francois Valois)That's a great question, Kyle.
From my perspective.
I think as I said,
I don't
think we should leave anybody behind,whether that's junior
or more experienced peoplejust bring everybody to the to the fold.
(38:05):
To give you an example of the sort of
technology and innovation
that we're trying to bring to the marketthrough our iTwin technology stack,
we just recently announcedan early adopter on our civil design
model, validation
advance of all design validations as partof our project wise iTwin technology.
What does it do? Right.
(38:26):
It's making it accessible for anyone
to validate a model.
It's wanting to have your modelin a complex, you know,
sort of modeling software like open roads.
It's great for the expert,
but as you mentioned,but what about our project manager, our
business leaders, our clients and so on.
(38:48):
So we just made it our designreview tools and civil model validation
tools are essentially,you know, civil engineering enabled.
So you can cut a cross section,
you can view a profileyou can validate the super elevation now.
And that's a paththat we have pending on this.
And it's independent of the designsoftware. Right?
And you mentioned thingslike the line of sight analysis.
(39:11):
We've also put that in a webbased environment, right?
That you just click a link and bang,you know, you can do that validation
and the tools are super simple to useand so on and so on.
So we pay attention to thisbecause we do understand, Kyle,
what you're saying, right?
We have our expertthat create these models,
but the QA/QC process used to be planbased.
(39:35):
Now we have to reinvent that too. Right?
How do we know if that model is great,is right or not?
And do we have to check everythingby hand?
Well,you know, based on input from the market,
then having the chance to workwith so many leaders in the world,
we're able to sort of say, OK,this is a great need
and we're forming a niche around this.
And to us that,
you know, is the part that we can helpthe most is on the technology side
(39:58):
because people process and technology,right?
That's the part thatwe get involved the most.
But butobviously we cannot leave anybody behind.
And we've got to make surethat we make our tools accessible, easy
to use, powerful and inand then accessible to the schools.
Right.
And, you know, I think also this notion of
(40:21):
being able to bring the entire workforcedon't leave anybody behind.
You know,nobody should be disadvantaged by this.
The change in technology actually bringsan opportunity for a lot of people.
You know, if you
if you haven't been exposed to that, yousort of come fresh in.
It's a nice way of looking at thisas well.
To bring,you know, equity in this industry as well.
(40:41):
In that context, though,there's a lot of hope in this. Right.
And and I want to carrythat message as well.
Let's not leave any engineers behind.
(Dave Mulholland)Kyle, it's a great it's a great question. Right.
You know, we've been challengedwith that gap. Right.
And this goes back to the same scenariowe talked about with the 87 transition
to CAD. Right. It's going to take time.
(41:04):
Francois is 100% correct.
And starting out with the people. Right.It takes time to do that.
Change management,making this, making the package available
and the software availableto all engineers out there.
Eventually,
when you start to do the training,
those trainers will start to bethe teachers
and the teachers will essentially start toclose that gap that you're referring to.
(41:27):
So it is going to take time to getthat educational platform out there.
I know
Bentley has a significant training programout there for actually advancing it.
And, you know, Mike gearsa little bit from Francois on that.
Kyle, I know that, you know,as part of the integration and transition
(41:48):
that VHB is making, we're likewiselooking at how do we close that gap
and make sure that we.
Yeah, Francoisas you say, don't leave anybody behind
but we also have to recognize
that it is going to take a period of timeto essentially deliver this transition.
Francois, from your perspective,
maybe you know, some of those educational
(42:08):
training platformsthat are out there for folks
that would be listening to say,how would you do this?
And Kyle, maybe some of the you know, thetraining programs that you're working on.
(Francois Valois)Yeah, maybe take the opportunity to
maybe increase the scope of your question.
I'm going to I'mgoing to talk about education in general.
Right, so at Bentley, every colleague,
we're very fortunate to have the abilityto provide a small amount of money
(42:33):
to students and schoolsin our communities around the world.
So every single colleagues at Bentleyhas a little bit of money that they can,
you know, give to the schools.
And what we do is we gang up as well.
We say ok, ten of us are going to support
this, you know, elementary schoolor that high school.
And for science, technology,engineering and mathematics, right.
(42:56):
Is really, really keythat we started this young age as well.
Then you go up a little bit in ageand we support things
that the track and ride programthat is supported by ASHTO and 2025 DOTs
and a whole bunchof engineering contractor
so that's also key let's get the kidsexcited about engineering and technology
(43:19):
and then as I mentioned earlierin the podcast
we now offer our softwarefor free to all students and all teachers
everywhere around the world
and that includes our OpenRoads technology and so on.
And then you like in and of coursewe have our training programs
offer that, you know, for anyonethat wants to learn our technology
(43:42):
and then the cream of the cream,the top of the crop
essentially would be our Open RoadsPremier Scholar program.
So this Open Roads Premier Scholarprogram is a tool that we've created,
and it's using this case study methodologyinspired from some of the Ivy League
university schools.
(44:03):
And this idea of creatinga learning environment
by doing right and togetherworking on case studies.
So not only we sowe train with this premier scholar people
that are already sort of very,very familiar with the tools,
if not expert, and want to help them sortof see the next phase of that and form
(44:25):
a community of leaders in the industrythat will help make a difference.
Right. Make an impact in the world.
And every one of these premier scholar,I think at the moment
there's about 80 of these being trainedthey are just amazing contributor to
design based
model delivery because essentiallythey are expert in the tools
(44:46):
and they also have learned to thinkcritically in that context right
augmenting their engineering skillsand and stimulating these by not providing
easy answers but providing, you know,the ability to ask the right question.
Right.
And to be able to question thingsand to push forward in that direction.
So really that is allwe intend to do to help the world
(45:08):
advance on the model-basedigital delivery concept.
(Kyle Rosenmeyer)That's fantastic and I really relate to the the no person left behind idea.
There is no other way to be
if you if a person
wants to participate in an industrythere should be a path for them.
I think that's something that I've triedreally hard to communicate
(45:31):
in all my conversations and trainingcourses is to make sure that's clear that
it doesn't matter
what your existing experience or skill setis as long as you want it.
Let's do this together let's moveinto the next area of the industry and
the value that you have taken
a long time to accumulate and, and developand in your career.
(45:55):
This is going to be valuable as wellin the next era of the industry.
Is this going to looka little bit different right
so I actually try to leadwith a lot of the
the training that I do thatthis is actually a philosophy training.
Yeah.
We're going to push buttons and we'regoing to create things in the software.
But the most important thingthat people can get out of
(46:17):
training is really how to think.
And I take that inspiration from collegecourses.
You know, one of the most important things
you get out of a collegeeducation is not the memorization of
formulas and equationsbut it is how to think, right?
So you can apply conceptsto the real world after you leave college.
(46:39):
You know, that classic What do you wantto be when you grow up question?
For me, that was engineering, right?
That's what I knew I wanted to bewhen I was 12, 13 years old.
And I think that when you can capturea little bit of that spark in people
and channel it into somethingreally useful, like the design
(46:59):
tools that we use to to put
projects together,that this can actually help people
achieve their maximum potential,you know, in their jobs, in their careers.
So I like to make sure people seethat things can be fun, right?
(Dave Mulholland)VHB is focused on communities.
(47:19):
You know, we focus onbuilding the foundation around addressing
sustainability, resiliency and the socialequitable impacts on a community.
How can model-baseddesign influence those?
(Kyle Rosenmeyer)So I think that one thing that is very
(47:43):
obvious to meis that when we have more time,
right, time is the most valuable resourceso when you can work faster, iterate
faster, respond to changes faster,share ideas faster,
right, model-basedesign is a great accelerant
of all these things,and the outcome of all those things
(48:05):
together is the more time.
And I've been on many projects
where there was something maybe not greatthat wasn't a fatal flaw,
but we knew
if we could just get one more crack
at that problem,we could probably do it a little better.
Right?And we ran out of time to do that thing.
And if you have more timeto think through your projects,
(48:30):
all of the other values, right?
I mean, think about whatthe core value of, of, of engineering is.
It is the safety of the public, right?
So beyond that, though,there's many other values that are
that are worth fighting forand designing around.
And we have more time to incorporatethose things into our projects.
(48:51):
When the technology speeds everything up.
And that's that time accelerate is the,
I think , the best way to incorporate
all kinds of other values into designs.
(Francois Valois)Oh, absolutely.
And to build on what you said,
not only you gain time,but also we can make more resilient
(49:11):
and sustainable infrastructure. Right.
And also greener infrastructure.
We have this this major climate changechallenge in front of us.
We have to adapt as human beingsor essentially disappear.
Right.
And that's the whole fundamental issueof that century.
And engineeringis at the core of this, right?
(49:32):
We got to adapt to the change.
And this whole idea there
that we have to create
these resilient infrastructureand to create greener
infrastructure is also really importantright.
We just announced a partnershipon that front at the Cup 27 where
where our iTwin technology is helping,you know, creating these
these carbon less less carbonintensive infrastructure.
(49:53):
Right.
And so that's very,very key on the equity as well,
because we're retooling,because we're going digital
it provides an ability
to bring new people to the fold, peoplethat we've never thought about.
And we can bring those peoplein the community with us.
And, and all these,these disadvantaged communities as well,
(50:14):
and rethink our contractand rethink our offerings around this.
So that we can bring everybody togetherand have everyone contribute to this.
So, I mean, what you said,Kyle, is very, very inspiring.
And I'm just so excited to go back to workand continue to advance the world
on my little part of the technologyto to help people like you guys to
(50:34):
to make a huge difference in the world,you know? So it's very cool. Yeah.
(Dave Mulholland)Francois, certainly on behalf of Kyle, myself, we appreciate
you being here today, sharingthe great things that Bentley is doing.
And one other questionI did want to leave with,
where do you seemodel based design in ten years from now?
You know,if you had to really shoot over the bow
(50:55):
and people are actually stressedand challenged with it today,
where do you actually see it going in ten,15 years,
we can actually reallylook over the horizon, say,
you know, if you had foresight,that's where you need to go.
(Francois Valois)Great.
I was at a conference at the BuildingSmart Conference in Montreal
two weeks ago, and I asked a questionto some of our Department
(51:19):
of Transportation customers,and I said, you know, and users.
And I said,
you know, when can I delete my plannedproduction capability for my product?
Right.And the answer was five to ten years.
And I think they're right on the moneythere.
And I think that's what's going to happen,right?
This ability of saying, OK,
I don't need to produce my plans anymore
(51:40):
or I producethose magically out of my models
is going to be essentially standardfor everyone.
It won't be even a questiondo I do it? Do I not that?
They'll be like, Yeah, we don't need to.
That's all thatsaving goes back into the design itself.
So that's for sure there.
These models will be smartermore intelligent, more semantically rich,
more connected,
(52:01):
you know, adding this notion.
I mean, they you're a transportationplanner, right?
Having this this notion of networksin these models. Right.
And so they can be used intothe operational world is there as well.
Adding that notion of 4D, 5D,integrated in this and that done
been done faster and faster every dayright
(52:22):
by adding artificial intelligencemaking suggestions, right,
why you design oh designerslike you do this right that sort of stuff.
Parametric design,
these things are all technologiesthat are being looked at into the labs
of various software companiesto to really speed things up.
Right.
And to augment the engineering skillsthat are people that are users
(52:47):
essentially are able to leverage in there.
So it'll be ubiquitous.
Everybody will be doing this
without even, you know, noticing reallyand to really improve that.
So as I said that, you know,elevating the playing field. Right.
This systemic gain inefficiencythat we desperately need.
Right. It goes from the designto the construction to the operation.
(53:10):
This whole notionof adding an infrastructure, digital twin
and evergreen and all of this.
And the designer
will always play a key role in thisbecause they're going to be imagining
their sort of dreamersin the sense- engineers.
They come up with these this future,
but make it real, you know, and that'swhat that's what I love about my job
and what I love about, you know, helpingand serving our users, you know?
(53:34):
Yeah, definitely one of delighteverybody and leave nobody behind.
That's the whole goal.
(Dave Mulholland)Francois, we
truly appreciate yours and Bentley'sinsight into model-based design.
And thank you listenersfor tuning into VHB Viewpoints today.
(Mike Carragher)Viewpoints is VHB’s thought leadership platform, where we share
insights on critical issues and emergingtechnologies in the AEC industry.
I’m Mike Carragher,President and CEO of VHB.
I’m excited to introduce VHB’sthought leaders
and our client and partner podcastparticipants—all future-focused thinkers
who want to reimaginethe built environment.
(00:24):
I hope you’ll tune in oftenand leave inspired
(Dave Mulholland)This is Dave Mulholland, VHB Chief Technology Officer,
and I’m your host for ViewpointsPodcast Episode Four—Modeling Change:
How Model-based Designis Transforming the AEC Industry.
Today I’m joined by two guests—my
colleague Kyle Rosenmeyer,VHB Model-Based Design Lead,
(00:47):
and Francois Valois, Bentley SystemsVice President of Civil Infrastructure.
Today we are going to have a conversation about the impactsand adoption of model-based
design technology across the AEC industry,our clients, and our communities.
Before we dig in to the
how the technology is changing the waywe understand and build infrastructure,
Francois, can you let the listeners know
(01:09):
how you are involvedwith model-based design at Bentley.
(Francois Valois)Yeah, I'm Francois Valois. I'm VP of civil engineering at Bentley.
I'm part of a groupthat's called the engineering application.
We essentially are enabling engineeringtechnology across Bentley, right.
And the civil engineering teamis responsible for the product development
(01:32):
of products like Open Roads, OpenBridge, Open Tunnel, Open Site.
And we also enable our digital twin
technology to be civil friendlyand civil ready, right.
This is something that we are focused onat the moment and really advancing
(01:52):
that idea of model-based digital deliveryand digital twin for infrastructure
in general and road andand specifically as well in that context.
My background is I'm a surveyorby training.
I've studied surveying,geomatic engineering to be precise,
and I've never actually beena surveyor in the world,
(02:17):
but always been in technology.
I worked for Esri before,
in California, and then been at Bentleyfor 18 years plus in various roles
and product managementand different type of product engineering.
And now as a VP,I'm leading that R&D team.
(02:37):
I think I have the best team in the world
to really advance these productsand we're trying to really change
the world in our own waysevery day, right.
Wake up in the morningand to really delight our users
to really advancethe world of infrastructure
through our little lensand through our humble contribution.
(02:57):
(Dave Mulholland)That's awesome.
So excited to actually really havethis conversation on model-based design.
As we've talked about,
there's an extreme buzz in the industry
around the future of digital designservices.
It's great, Francois,I appreciate you and Kyle joining today
(03:18):
to talk through
what model-based design is, to talk aboutwhat it means for the future of really
our digital design services and wherethe industry in general is going.
(Kyle Rosenmeyer)But just a little bit of background on me.
I joined the industry, my first internship
at the Idaho Transportation Department,way back in 2007.
(03:40):
And ever since I started that internshipand I worked on
my first real engineering project,it was using Bentley Inroads at that time.
That was the first time
I saw templates and 3D modelsand I just thought, oh this is amazing!
And fast forward to now,
I got a chance to do the Bentley PremierScholar program in 2021 and then now I'm
(04:06):
working over at VHB as a Model-bBasedDesign Leader and helping bring
that knowledge and help the companymove forward
with models as the center of our projectsand it's just so much fun.
Literally I am having the most funevery day that I'm working.
It's just fantastic.
I really appreciateyou guys over at Bentley.
(04:26):
I really believe You were partof the first cohort, right?
Maybe second cohort or something.
That's right. Yeah,I was in the second cohort.
That's right.
(Dave Mulholland)Francois, wanted to give you the opportunity to tell
the audience a little bit about
Bentley,the vision, where you guys are going and
where you see model-based designed going
(04:49):
under the services.
(Francois Valois)Right.
Bentley is a software company obviously
we're right around a billion dollarin revenue.
We're U.S.
based,but we have colleagues globally and we are
we think the infrastructure company,software infrastructure company.
So we serve, you know, our users.
We don't call our customers customers.
(05:11):
We call them usersbecause we want to work with them
and in the long term relationshipsand advance the world of infrastructure.
And and we do that among different domainsright every civil
being probably, and transportationbeing probably one of our largest segment.
But we also serve energy, water,you know, planned, you know, building
(05:33):
and different other industries as welland been around for a long time.
35 plus years, you know, started in thebasement of our founders, Keith Bentley.
And here we are. Right.
And we are transforming ourselves,which I think like the market
to become the digital twin company
(05:56):
for infrastructure
and whywe think we're uniquely positioned to do
that is our route in the design aspectand this understanding of 3D
and what it takes to have engineeringready digital twin right.
It's one thing to have pretty pictures,
but what does it mean to do thiswhen you are in civil right
(06:16):
and you are building
some of the world'smost important infrastructure,
the bridges, the roads that basicallyallows us to move our goods and people
around, you know, so it's really,really fun and fundamental in the society.
Right, and there.
To me, model-baseddigital delivery is all about
designing our infrastructure using smart3D models.
(06:39):
3D is one aspect, right, the Z dimension,but make those models semantically rich,
right.Make those models semantically rich.
There's also this idea of using the modelfor simulation, right.
Whether you're using these models
to really sort of make decisionsand drive your design decisions.
(07:00):
So that's a key key element in there.
It's not only about the geometryand these things, it's like, OK,
can I use these models for various,you know, 4D analysis and 5D analysis
when it comes to timeand cost elements in there,
but also things like safety,flash detections
and these thingsthat makes it makes these models useful.
So that's one aspect is the model itselfhas to be able to do all of this.
(07:23):
But as I mentioned earlier, Bentleywants to be the digital twin company
for infrastructure, right?
So a digital twin as we all know,is this this,
you know, digital representationin the computer. Right.
Of a physical asset.But where does it start?
It start by the workof our civil designers right there.
These people are creating models.
And a good model to me is a modelthat will be useful beyond design.
(07:49):
So this model will basically be able to be
used for the designitself, will improve the design phase
to make the right decisionsand so on, but will also survive
in the construction phaseand even in the operational phase.
Right.
Because all of this isit would have been thought through
that we want to be operating that bridgein the future.
50 years down the line,
(08:10):
I have been thinkingabout the sort of attributes
and the sort of thingsI have to consider on that bridge,
or that road so that it can be operatingforever. Right.
And that's the sort of idea, right?
So having all that informationattached to the model and the deliver
in an open way as well,
I think the notion of openness is so,so key in this and this thing, right?
(08:31):
Be able to deliver eitherwith our iTwin platform, for example,
that is open source and open, but also inthings like IFC is becoming, you know,
fundamental to the civil market on thisthis notion of industry foundation class.
Right where that was adopted
(08:51):
by ASHTO in 2019 as the delivery mechanismfor for civil right.
So I think this is fundamental there.
So this notion of
you know the model being the basefor digital twin of the future right
you know that's to me that'sreally really key and what model-based
you know design has to be.
(09:11):
(Dave Mulholland)Kyle, I want to turn to you.
And you're leading VHB's digitalor you're leading VHB's model-based design
for the Bentley side.
And what really got you into it,and then maybe also if you, Francois,
can maybe define very simplisticallywhat is model-based design.
(09:32):
(Kyle Rosenmeyer)Yeah. Thanks, Dave.
And Francois, I
really like what you said about
the digital twin living beyond design.
This is somethingI think that is very fundamental
for people to understand, but also verydisruptive to the current processes and
policies even of how infrastructureworks around the world.
(09:54):
The idea that a model could actually bethe center of everything
with infrastructure.
And I've heard this referred to
as the common data environmentby FHWA and DOTs like Florida.
And this is really, really impactful,I think.
And to me, model-based design, this is thefocus of all of the engineering intent.
(10:19):
And actually this is really helpful for meto put into perspective
with how engineers have been workingsince there's been engineers.
Right?
We've always focused all of our design,all of our decisions and analysis
and the products that we produce to goget built
(10:39):
has always been based aroundsome kind of plan, right?
That's been the mediumthat engineers have conveyed
engineering services forever,and the plans have gotten smarter.
Right?
We've moved from paperbased plans to CAD generated plans.
And then we went from,you know, CAD generated plans to PDFs.
(11:01):
So even though those things have beengetting smarter, it's never changed
from plans until now having model-baseddesign for digital delivery.
This means that that focus of the intentfrom the engineering is going from plans
to a model, rightfrom which other things can be rendered
(11:23):
like you can obviously render plansfrom a model,
but the plans are not the focusof the entire engineering team.
And this is a very big changeto how people work today.
I think this is going to be
one of the most challenging aspectsof the next era of infrastructure,
(11:45):
is taking an entire workforceof engineers, designers, project managers,
clients, contractors, everyonethat it takes to build infrastructure
and move them thereand the way they think, right,
from a planfocused thing to a model focused thing.
So I think that is going to be great.
(12:07):
I mean, I can't wait for it.And I'm really excited to
to be in a positionwhere I can make a meaningful impact
at VHB
around our our plans and evolutiontowards that goal.
But that's that's what I think ofwhen I think of model-based design.
(Francois Valois)Yeah, you're right, it's all about data.
It's all about the need.
And that's a that's a mindset shiftin our engineering workforce.
(12:31):
As you said,that is really, really key. Right?
(Dave Mulholland)So, you know, Kyle, I hear you talking and it brings me back to a memo
that was found by one of our colleaguesback in, you know, in the early 90s.
So in 1987, there was a memo drafted
that basicallywas this digital transformation from going
from the drafting board to CAD designand it seems like we're full lifecycle
(12:54):
back to that same stage,right? It's imminent.
It is coming, guys,in terms of model-based design,
you know, it's,
it's one of those that in this memo,just to highlight some of the context
for the
listeners, it said notevery project would be suited for CAD.
Just replace a wordwith model-based design, right?
So not every project would be suitedfor model-based design,
(13:16):
not a magic boxthat will solve every problem.
Right?
CAD is entirely a new skill for engineersand formal training cannot be ignored.
Just replace the wordwith model-based design.
Model-based design is an entirely newskill for engineers
and formal training cannot be ignored.
I mean, what a great story to sit hereand say, you know, we're here, we're here,
(13:38):
you know, nearly two decades laterand we're basically doing and living this
digital transformationthat's happening today.
If you had to tell the CEOsitting somewhere
that is not using it today, here'sthe top benefits that you're seeing.
You know, Kyle as a practitionerand Francois is somebody
that's actually pushing this outacross the globe.
What is the top benefits?
(13:59):
(Francois Valois)Every single
company on the planet right nowis facing one fundamental problem.
It's labor shortage.
There's not enough people to do the work,plain and simple.
There's so much demandand that and that's basically what drives
you know, when we we're talkingabout the infrastructure plans in the U.S.
and that's around the worldas well, right.
(14:21):
There's so much demand for this
and then every single business is facedby, how am I going to meet that demand?
How am I going to surviveand try for the future?
So the number one thingthat I would say to tell a CEO is that
it's needed for your survivalbecause you need to be able to do things
more things
with less, right, and that's what digitaldelivery and model-base will help you do.
(14:44):
Things like reduction of the amountof plans being produced, just that.
Our engineers todayspend so much time producing these plans.
Other things will be augmenting
their level of communicationand understanding between those people.
So they work on the same thingsand have this common
data environment we've been talking about.
And things like spotting issuesearly, producing higher level of quality
(15:05):
in these designs because the time you save
in that producing plan,you can focus on the design you know,
and that's really fundamentallywhat what we should be spending.
And I noticeI said reduce the number of plans.
I didn't say eliminate thosebecause we need
a plan is a useful representation
of the world, right,but it's built from the model
and it's not only createdas a plan itself.
So and then and then this is this isone thing for the engineering contractor
(15:30):
but I think for the industry in general,there's a bigger benefit.
I call that a systemic improvement.
Think about this.
It's making the life of an engineerand AECs more productive and so on.
We just established that.Let's hope that's the case.
And I have a number of examplesI'll talk about later.
But then think about what we can doif we take this and then,
(15:52):
you know, shovel this into a machineand eventually robots
and these sort of thingsthat really will automate our construction
like this is going to be,you know, pushing the envelope.
And this same datais used in operations as well.
So you're basically creatinga systemic gain.
And that's why we should all embracethat model-based digital delivery
notion, right?
Because it helps our firm, right?
(16:15):
Easy firms and giant contractor firmbecome more effective producing more work
and so on, but also help the industryin general becoming more effective.
And, you know, I encourage all the ownerslistening out there.
Please demand that. Right.
And this is this is you know, this isthis is where it needs to start, right.
From thethe owners of the infrastructure itself.
(16:36):
That's great.
But Kyle,from your perspective, as a user, what's
what are yourthoughts on the top benefits?
(Kyle Rosenmeyer)Yeah, I love that response.
Francois,the idea that we would have a automated
construction environment that could run24 seven with minimal human input.
(16:56):
This is a futurethat would be hard to believe right now.
But this is possiblewhen you have really accurate model data
that you can deliver to a contractorwith the right equipment.
And I think that just like back to Dave's1987 memo
the the conversations that werehad at that time about incorporating
(17:18):
personal computers, thingsseemed really hard to believe back then,
you know, so a lot of a lot of harddiscussions had to happen around
what this was,what PCs were going to mean to the world
and how things were going to change.
And not a lot of peoplewere able to see that fully.
But you look back now at the eightiesand you say, yeah, of course
(17:38):
we're not decidingwe're going to do any plans by hand.
Of course we're using the computer.
Right,and I think that some of these things
that seem hard to believe now will feellike this in another ten to 20 years.
Now, Ijust want to add on to what Francois,
because I believe everything that he hadto answer that question but I think that
(17:59):
there's an analogy I like to share aroundthe value of model-based design.
And this is a very simple thing,a meeting.
If you just think about a meeting wherepeople have to come together and decide
something, there is this skillthat engineers are usually very proud
of called spatial thinking,being able to look at a set of plans
(18:21):
and assemble the thing in their mind's eyeso they know in 3D what the project is.
Right.
So if you think about any meetingthat happens where multiple people
have to come together and work outa problem and agree on a solution,
they are having to look at the same inputdata, write plan
sheets, profile sheets,cross-sections, details, plan notes.
(18:44):
They're looking at all this information.
Everyone at that tablehas to assemble in their mind's eye
the 3D thingthat they're trying to decide about.
Then they have to agree on what to doand then walk away from the meeting.
Now, how many meetingshave you guys been to where you felt like
everyone was in unanimous agreementon what we're going to do,
but then you start hearing from peoplean hour or two later and you realize
(19:08):
everyone walked away with a differentunderstanding of what we just agreed on.
This happens all the time, right?
And that simple
point, a meeting, this happens, right?
Millions of times,
maybe millions of times a day.
I don't know how many times it happens,but this is happening all the time, right?
(19:30):
All project teams, all engineering
teams, all constructionteams have to have meetings
and when you can bring a fully 3D modelwith all of the engineering intent
applied and extractablefrom that model to a meeting,
you don't have to play the gameof telephone anymore
because the source of truthis obvious to everyone.
(19:53):
People who have mastered spatialthinking and people
who have not mastered spatial thinking,the ability to communicate difficult
things between parties is going to bemonumentally better than it is with plans.
And I think that's just going to change
so much about what we can accomplishwith any given scope, schedule and budget.
(20:14):
(Francois Valois)Yeah, I mean, maybe adding an example to what you said I have in front of me
here a use case right at UDOT righton the I-80 westbound widening project.
Not a huge project, right?
I mean,those people are essentially reporting
the fact that they use digital deliveryand digital twins
to improve their communicationamong the team
members, right, and the contractorin resolving the issues ahead of things,
(20:38):
save one month on the project. Right?I mean, how much saving is this?
And take that. That's one small projectthey get across the industry.
That's billions and billions of dollarssaving. Right.
And that our team here on I-10 in Floridais basically saying they say they save
$2.15 million. Right.
On not also that large project.
And another one is basically saying,
(20:59):
you know, 20 to 30%, you know, savingson the design review time.
I mean, this is real money, right?So it's wonderful.
(Dave Mulholland)It's just making everybody more productive in that context.
You know, something you said earlieractually really resonated.
And Kyle, it also goes to your point aboutyou know, the conversations around it.
You know, when you mentionedthe augmented common data environment,
(21:21):
if you think about thatand really for the listeners
to basically think about howand what that means,
again, simplistically,
you think about all the different servicesthat get put into a digital delivery,
right?
And having them all sit and insidea digital plan set and doing review.
Kyle, we've spent time talking about this.
Maybe you can elaborate on some ofthe services that would be pulled into it,
(21:45):
you know, and talk about the different,you know, fundamental engineering services
that can be pulled ininto one digital design services.
(Kyle Rosenmeyer)Yeah, I mean, this is something that is
really all inclusive, right?
We can pull in
everyone from plannersto one of my favorites is actually
(22:09):
business, or let's say is
client focused staff and companies
where you're actually just doing businessdevelopment and proposals.
There's a lot of tools out there,like Bentley's Concept Station
that I like to pitch to all folksat that level as the napkin.
Right?
If you have an ideaand you want to sketch it down
(22:30):
to share with someone, usea tool like Concept Station
and you'll have the most compelling napkinout of anyone else, right?
Your ability to quickly communicate thingsthrough a 3-D model
is so easy and fast with a productlike Concept Station.
So I love sharing that example,and we have got some great stories
(22:51):
at VHB of people who have beenusing conceptual tools like this
just to have those initial conversationswith their clients around what problems
they're trying to solve,
what are some ideas onwhat we might be able to do about it?
You know, being ableto provide something through,
you know, through amodel is just so compelling.
(23:11):
You know, I guess that kind ofgets back to the point
about it being a communication tool.
But this is something that,
you know, maybe a lot of peoplemight not think about
when they think about model-based design,but it does include things like that.
And then obviously
all all different disciplines across,
you know, the design servicesall have a place,
(23:34):
you know, when you think about like,say, traffic, you know,
actually let's take traffic controlor maintenance of traffic.
Maybe another way to say it,
this is honestly one of the mostcomplicated parts of a highway project.
It's not the final design. It's actually
how do you go about building itwithout turning the traffic off?
(23:56):
Right.
Where do you put those carswhile you're trying to build the project
and the ability to visualizethat through 3D models, it makes it
so much easierto work through the problems,
but also it makes the solutionso much more compelling.
Because when you have the solutionfor each phase of the traffic control,
it's much more likelythat you didn't overlook some fatal flaw
(24:19):
that's going to cause a
you know, a rework of the planonce you get out to the site.
And then obviously all of the
complementary disciplinesto take roadway and highway, you know,
drainage and signing and pavementmarkings, signalization,
all of these things can easilybe represented in a 3D model.
(24:40):
And seeing those elements in a modelnot only again
helps that visualization of the projectbe much more compelling
but when you have all disciplinesparticipating in a model,
this allows for the reviewand analysis of safety
of like subsurface conflicts
(25:04):
I mentioned safety sort of like verticalclearances, lateral offsets to hazards.
All of these thingsnow can be not only easily seen but
measured in a 3D model,things like sight lines.
If you use the site line tool and openroad designers, you get 3D sightlines.
If all of the hazards,you know, posts and buildings,
(25:29):
sign structures, all of these things,if they're all on your model,
you're going to have a really complete
picture of what the driver is going to seewhen they're driving on your project.
This makes for for better analysisand better design, right?
And if we're doing those designsin less time
where we have more abilityto iterate those designs,
(25:50):
so this means betterthings are going to be built in the world
the more we incorporateall of the different disciplines.
(Dave Mulholland)So, Francois, the perception of a lot of folks
is that model-baseddesign is for roadways, right?
That's what we started to hearthis years ago and certainly not the case.
If you think about where you knowthe trends are going from your perspective
(26:13):
and what you're seeing in the industry,
what other
areas do you see itgoing outside of just pure roadway?
You know, out in the market today.
(Francois Valois)Yeah, the road is a big driver.
On the road of course,you can include the bridges, right?
Often bridges are the complex structure.
(26:34):
And they,
I think, will will definitely benefitfrom this sort of model-base
digital delivery concept just as much,if not more than the roadway itself.
Right.
But because they're complex,because they're they're hard to build,
because they are so massive and expensive
but then we also see thison the tunneling side.
(26:57):
We just built a new productcalled Open Tunnel that allow us to design
you know, a tunnelpretty simply and easily.
Right.
And is very,very powerful in that context. Right.
We reported from our early adoptersup to 80%,
you know, design timesaving right on with this 80%, right, 8-0.
(27:19):
Overhead line design,
electrification of the transportationsystem is definitely a huge part of this.
Right.
And and the interactionwith the rest of the world as well.
You know, this
this whole notion of multimodaland all this has to play a role in this.
Right. Not only about the cars right.
We want to sort of likego with with transit with bicycle
(27:40):
and all these thingsand include those in our designs as well.
Model-base digital delivery helpsthat as well in that context
especially when it comes to convinceyou know our citizens right
that in that context it's very,very important, right? Yeah.
So those are all sort of thingsthat we've seen happening out there.
Definitely rail and transitbeing also a big driver for this.
(Dave Mulholland)Yeah. Now, I'm glad I'm glad you brought up the transit.
(28:03):
I was actually one of thethe areas I would think
is going to be one of
those next mainstream,especially because they have
so many different piecesmoving within the track design and the,
you know, the power and how it all comestogether.
You know, it's one of thosethat we we've also seen an early adoption
within the planning side.
Kyle, you mentioned this
(28:23):
our even our conceptual designenvironmental impact statements,
the early planning conceptdevelopment is now going to required,
you know, model-based design services,
which I think is a great foundationfor where we're moving towards.
So we've talked about the pluses and thepositive parts about model-based design.
(28:44):
You know, let's
help out,you know, from the lessons learned,
there are some challenges with thethe adoption of model-based design here.
There are some companies out therethat are still
not really 100%committed to do this, you know.
What are some of the top challengesand how you know, how would we advise
(29:04):
them, based off of some of the lessonslearned that you guys have seen?
You know, to me this for Francois,I'll start with you.
You know you know, Bentley,I'm sure, is getting some some feedback
across the country about,you know, the pushback from,
you know, agencies AEC industry,
you know, what are the biggest challengesyou're hearing?
What are the lessons learned to say,here's how you guys get around that?
(29:26):
(Francois Valois)Yeah. Yeah, definitely.
You know,
we see a lot of adoption of model-baseddigital delivery right now, obviously.
But it's not everybody that is thatis there yet.
And it's completely normalwith any sort of change
processthat needs to happen in the market.
We just want to make surewe're not leaving anyone behind and goes
back to educationto providing software to schools,
(29:51):
to providing, you know, all the elements.
Essentially, like anything, it's
three elements have to come into play: people, process, and technology. (29:57):
undefined
Technology is last is lastbecause is probably the least important
of all of that.
And why?
Because without processes like, OK,making the model a legal
document, right is needed for that.
You also need to train the people.
(30:17):
So model
you know, people, process and technology,you have to all come together for it.
And frankly,the technology is probably ahead
of the other elements in this is alwaysthe case in the world, right?
Same with with the first VHS or Beta,you know,
you know, they werethey were ahead of their time
and then people saying,what is this thing? And so on.
(30:39):
So this there's a lot of that.
You know, everyone, as Kylementioned earlier, have to adapt to this.
And that's not only the designer, it'sthe constructor, the operators,
you know, the teachers.
You know, I think our workforce,our civil engineers have to become more
data savvy, more data centric,
(30:59):
understanding what data is, understandingwhat models are, what data models are.
And this is a big change.
So this is what contributes to the,you know, the adoption pace that we're at.
To me, it starts with the ownersasking for these models
to be created asking forintelligent models to be created,
(31:21):
and also understanding that, you know,it comes probably at a cost, right?
Because you're goingto rip the benefit downstream.
We want to be sure that it's not
you know,only the designer footing the bill, right?
We got to sort of allwork together as a society to
provide that the contractorhave to play their part as well.
(31:43):
And that's why we created,for example, technologies like Syncro,
which are heavy civilcentric and 3D centric.
Right.
To make it possible for people that workin the construction industry to have tools
to work with these models.
Right.
It's great that we're sitting thereand with open roads and these open bridge
and these tools
producing these models, was anybody ableto consume those things downstream?
(32:05):
And there's a large disparity right
and if you are a small contractorand in your own state,
you know, it's like it's it's
you know, you may not have the same meansas as the big guy in the big city.
So we have to sort ofmake sure everybody is is trained, retrain
and bring everybody together in this.
It's a big change managementthrough people process and technology.
(32:28):
Right.
(Dave Mulholland)I love the change management side of that.
I agree. 100%.
And it is certainly somethingthat change management
within organizations and change managementas an industry in general.
Right. It's not just one organization.
The entire industry is having to actually
have a little bit more foresight to saywe're going to actually be doing this
(32:48):
and we're 100% committed to it.
I agree.
So Kyle, from your perspective, you know,what are some of the biggest challenges
I mean, you're starting to implement thisin an organization
and do this digital transformationthat change management,
Francois talked about, you know, it'snot always the positive side.
There's there's some lessons learnedthat I'm sure
(33:09):
that you can actually givethe CEOs out there in the world.
What are those lessons learnedyou're seeing?
(Kyle Rosenmeyer)Yeah, absolutely.
In terms of the challenges I've seen that
if you take any individual who is at some
in some level of a project team, right,they might be fresh out of school work
(33:32):
in their first job, learning the CADsoftware you know, for the first time
or maybe a 20, 30 yearveteran of the industry
who is who has grown up with
software tools wheremaybe they've graduated out of day to day
software use and now they're morein a management role or a reviewer role.
(33:53):
And across the whole spectrum, in between,
I found thatthe most difficult thing for me
and I've been doing
a lot of training recentlysince joining the VHB, I've been across
our offices up and down the East Coastdoing training on model-based design
and that mindset to shift from the plan
(34:14):
is the product to the model is the productfrom which plans can be produced.
This is a really hard thing to get around
not just the idea of it,but applying it day to day.
So I walked awayfrom a lot of recent projects
(34:34):
I've worked on and going through a lotof training courses with the feeling that
and actually just to put this in context,you know,
I think most teams have some expectation,
like if you hire someonebrand new to the industry, they're not
fully useful right away. Right.
(34:54):
There is a learning curvebefore they become
fully useful to the team andand they're fully autonomous
that they can work autonomously.
And I think that no matterwhere you are in the industry right now,
if you need to pivot from a froma focus on plans to a focus on modeling,
(35:16):
there is going to be a learning curvefor you.
And getting people to recognize that
and understandthat it's not going to happen overnight.
This is a hard thingto a hard thing to solve.
This is a rough number,but I think most daily users
that have been trainedusing any legacy software tools,
(35:40):
they probably have a learning curveof somewhere north of 150 hours
before they are just as usefulas they used to be in those legacy tools.
And that could be a hard thingto overcome.
You know, if you're a very large firm
with 50,000 employees,you might have many, many CAD users right.
(36:01):
That are facingthat kind of learning curve.
Even if you're a small firmand you have ten day CAD users,
it's still a proportionately difficultproblem for them to solve.
And another thing that I think I just
coincidentally am a product of is that I,you know, I graduated college in 2010
(36:21):
and the United States was in a majorfinancial crisis during those years.
And many peoplewho graduated with engineering degrees
either did not join the workforce
as engineersor they joined at a very delayed time,
which I say hats off to you Bentley,this is amazing how things have progressed
(36:42):
with all the Connect software.
But this is also a challenge that I seea lot.
Is this gap I guess that'swhat I'm trying to get to here,
is that the gap between the junior
folks in the industryand the senior folks in the industry,
this is something that traditionallywould have been solved
by that mid-level engineer
(37:03):
that knows just enough of the engineeringand just enough of the software
to be a good conduit between
you know, everyone in the in the teamand everyone in the workforce.
Yeah.
So I'm just curious on your guys'sthoughts of
how you know, maybe perceiveor differently or the same,
(37:23):
you know, this gapin the transfer of knowledge, both
how we use technology and tools to build
infrastructure projects, but the transferof the engineering knowledge
and how it relates to that softwarebetween, you know, senior
folks in the industryand junior folks in the industry.
(37:44):
This is a this in my opinion,is maybe the hardest thing to solve
and where most of the riskactually lies for a lot of design firms.
(Francois Valois)That's a great question, Kyle.
From my perspective.
I think as I said,
I don't
think we should leave anybody behind,whether that's junior
or more experienced peoplejust bring everybody to the to the fold.
(38:05):
To give you an example of the sort of
technology and innovation
that we're trying to bring to the marketthrough our iTwin technology stack,
we just recently announcedan early adopter on our civil design
model, validation
advance of all design validations as partof our project wise iTwin technology.
What does it do? Right.
(38:26):
It's making it accessible for anyone
to validate a model.
It's wanting to have your modelin a complex, you know,
sort of modeling software like open roads.
It's great for the expert,
but as you mentioned,but what about our project manager, our
business leaders, our clients and so on.
(38:48):
So we just made it our designreview tools and civil model validation
tools are essentially,you know, civil engineering enabled.
So you can cut a cross section,
you can view a profileyou can validate the super elevation now.
And that's a paththat we have pending on this.
And it's independent of the designsoftware. Right?
And you mentioned thingslike the line of sight analysis.
(39:11):
We've also put that in a webbased environment, right?
That you just click a link and bang,you know, you can do that validation
and the tools are super simple to useand so on and so on.
So we pay attention to thisbecause we do understand, Kyle,
what you're saying, right?
We have our expertthat create these models,
but the QA/QC process used to be planbased.
(39:35):
Now we have to reinvent that too. Right?
How do we know if that model is great,is right or not?
And do we have to check everythingby hand?
Well,you know, based on input from the market,
then having the chance to workwith so many leaders in the world,
we're able to sort of say, OK,this is a great need
and we're forming a niche around this.
And to us that,
you know, is the part that we can helpthe most is on the technology side
(39:58):
because people process and technology,right?
That's the part thatwe get involved the most.
But butobviously we cannot leave anybody behind.
And we've got to make surethat we make our tools accessible, easy
to use, powerful and inand then accessible to the schools.
Right.
And, you know, I think also this notion of
(40:21):
being able to bring the entire workforcedon't leave anybody behind.
You know,nobody should be disadvantaged by this.
The change in technology actually bringsan opportunity for a lot of people.
You know, if you
if you haven't been exposed to that, yousort of come fresh in.
It's a nice way of looking at thisas well.
To bring,you know, equity in this industry as well.
(40:41):
In that context, though,there's a lot of hope in this. Right.
And and I want to carrythat message as well.
Let's not leave any engineers behind.
(Dave Mulholland)Kyle, it's a great it's a great question. Right.
You know, we've been challengedwith that gap. Right.
And this goes back to the same scenariowe talked about with the 87 transition
to CAD. Right. It's going to take time.
(41:04):
Francois is 100% correct.
And starting out with the people. Right.It takes time to do that.
Change management,making this, making the package available
and the software availableto all engineers out there.
Eventually,
when you start to do the training,
those trainers will start to bethe teachers
and the teachers will essentially start toclose that gap that you're referring to.
(41:27):
So it is going to take time to getthat educational platform out there.
I know
Bentley has a significant training programout there for actually advancing it.
And, you know, Mike gearsa little bit from Francois on that.
Kyle, I know that, you know,as part of the integration and transition
(41:48):
that VHB is making, we're likewiselooking at how do we close that gap
and make sure that we.
Yeah, Francoisas you say, don't leave anybody behind
but we also have to recognize
that it is going to take a period of timeto essentially deliver this transition.
Francois, from your perspective,
maybe you know, some of those educational
(42:08):
training platformsthat are out there for folks
that would be listening to say,how would you do this?
And Kyle, maybe some of the you know, thetraining programs that you're working on.
(Francois Valois)Yeah, maybe take the opportunity to
maybe increase the scope of your question.
I'm going to I'mgoing to talk about education in general.
Right, so at Bentley, every colleague,
we're very fortunate to have the abilityto provide a small amount of money
(42:33):
to students and schoolsin our communities around the world.
So every single colleagues at Bentleyhas a little bit of money that they can,
you know, give to the schools.
And what we do is we gang up as well.
We say ok, ten of us are going to support
this, you know, elementary schoolor that high school.
And for science, technology,engineering and mathematics, right.
(42:56):
Is really, really keythat we started this young age as well.
Then you go up a little bit in ageand we support things
that the track and ride programthat is supported by ASHTO and 2025 DOTs
and a whole bunchof engineering contractor
so that's also key let's get the kidsexcited about engineering and technology
(43:19):
and then as I mentioned earlierin the podcast
we now offer our softwarefor free to all students and all teachers
everywhere around the world
and that includes our OpenRoads technology and so on.
And then you like in and of coursewe have our training programs
offer that, you know, for anyonethat wants to learn our technology
(43:42):
and then the cream of the cream,the top of the crop
essentially would be our Open RoadsPremier Scholar program.
So this Open Roads Premier Scholarprogram is a tool that we've created,
and it's using this case study methodologyinspired from some of the Ivy League
university schools.
(44:03):
And this idea of creatinga learning environment
by doing right and togetherworking on case studies.
So not only we sowe train with this premier scholar people
that are already sort of very,very familiar with the tools,
if not expert, and want to help them sortof see the next phase of that and form
(44:25):
a community of leaders in the industrythat will help make a difference.
Right. Make an impact in the world.
And every one of these premier scholar,I think at the moment
there's about 80 of these being trainedthey are just amazing contributor to
design based
model delivery because essentiallythey are expert in the tools
(44:46):
and they also have learned to thinkcritically in that context right
augmenting their engineering skillsand and stimulating these by not providing
easy answers but providing, you know,the ability to ask the right question.
Right.
And to be able to question thingsand to push forward in that direction.
So really that is allwe intend to do to help the world
(45:08):
advance on the model-basedigital delivery concept.
(Kyle Rosenmeyer)That's fantastic and I really relate to the the no person left behind idea.
There is no other way to be
if you if a person
wants to participate in an industrythere should be a path for them.
I think that's something that I've triedreally hard to communicate
(45:31):
in all my conversations and trainingcourses is to make sure that's clear that
it doesn't matter
what your existing experience or skill setis as long as you want it.
Let's do this together let's moveinto the next area of the industry and
the value that you have taken
a long time to accumulate and, and developand in your career.
(45:55):
This is going to be valuable as wellin the next era of the industry.
Is this going to looka little bit different right
so I actually try to leadwith a lot of the
the training that I do thatthis is actually a philosophy training.
Yeah.
We're going to push buttons and we'regoing to create things in the software.
But the most important thingthat people can get out of
(46:17):
training is really how to think.
And I take that inspiration from collegecourses.
You know, one of the most important things
you get out of a collegeeducation is not the memorization of
formulas and equationsbut it is how to think, right?
So you can apply conceptsto the real world after you leave college.
(46:39):
You know, that classic What do you wantto be when you grow up question?
For me, that was engineering, right?
That's what I knew I wanted to bewhen I was 12, 13 years old.
And I think that when you can capturea little bit of that spark in people
and channel it into somethingreally useful, like the design
(46:59):
tools that we use to to put
projects together,that this can actually help people
achieve their maximum potential,you know, in their jobs, in their careers.
So I like to make sure people seethat things can be fun, right?
(Dave Mulholland)VHB is focused on communities.
(47:19):
You know, we focus onbuilding the foundation around addressing
sustainability, resiliency and the socialequitable impacts on a community.
How can model-baseddesign influence those?
(Kyle Rosenmeyer)So I think that one thing that is very
(47:43):
obvious to meis that when we have more time,
right, time is the most valuable resourceso when you can work faster, iterate
faster, respond to changes faster,share ideas faster,
right, model-basedesign is a great accelerant
of all these things,and the outcome of all those things
(48:05):
together is the more time.
And I've been on many projects
where there was something maybe not greatthat wasn't a fatal flaw,
but we knew
if we could just get one more crack
at that problem,we could probably do it a little better.
Right?And we ran out of time to do that thing.
And if you have more timeto think through your projects,
(48:30):
all of the other values, right?
I mean, think about whatthe core value of, of, of engineering is.
It is the safety of the public, right?
So beyond that, though,there's many other values that are
that are worth fighting forand designing around.
And we have more time to incorporatethose things into our projects.
(48:51):
When the technology speeds everything up.
And that's that time accelerate is the,
I think , the best way to incorporate
all kinds of other values into designs.
(Francois Valois)Oh, absolutely.
And to build on what you said,
not only you gain time,but also we can make more resilient
(49:11):
and sustainable infrastructure. Right.
And also greener infrastructure.
We have this this major climate changechallenge in front of us.
We have to adapt as human beingsor essentially disappear.
Right.
And that's the whole fundamental issueof that century.
And engineeringis at the core of this, right?
(49:32):
We got to adapt to the change.
And this whole idea there
that we have to create
these resilient infrastructureand to create greener
infrastructure is also really importantright.
We just announced a partnershipon that front at the Cup 27 where
where our iTwin technology is helping,you know, creating these
these carbon less less carbonintensive infrastructure.
(49:53):
Right.
And so that's very,very key on the equity as well,
because we're retooling,because we're going digital
it provides an ability
to bring new people to the fold, peoplethat we've never thought about.
And we can bring those peoplein the community with us.
And, and all these,these disadvantaged communities as well,
(50:14):
and rethink our contractand rethink our offerings around this.
So that we can bring everybody togetherand have everyone contribute to this.
So, I mean, what you said,Kyle, is very, very inspiring.
And I'm just so excited to go back to workand continue to advance the world
on my little part of the technologyto to help people like you guys to
(50:34):
to make a huge difference in the world,you know? So it's very cool. Yeah.
(Dave Mulholland)Francois, certainly on behalf of Kyle, myself, we appreciate
you being here today, sharingthe great things that Bentley is doing.
And one other questionI did want to leave with,
where do you seemodel based design in ten years from now?
You know,if you had to really shoot over the bow
(50:55):
and people are actually stressedand challenged with it today,
where do you actually see it going in ten,15 years,
we can actually reallylook over the horizon, say,
you know, if you had foresight,that's where you need to go.
(Francois Valois)Great.
I was at a conference at the BuildingSmart Conference in Montreal
two weeks ago, and I asked a questionto some of our Department
(51:19):
of Transportation customers,and I said, you know, and users.
And I said,
you know, when can I delete my plannedproduction capability for my product?
Right.And the answer was five to ten years.
And I think they're right on the moneythere.
And I think that's what's going to happen,right?
This ability of saying, OK,
I don't need to produce my plans anymore
(51:40):
or I producethose magically out of my models
is going to be essentially standardfor everyone.
It won't be even a questiondo I do it? Do I not that?
They'll be like, Yeah, we don't need to.
That's all thatsaving goes back into the design itself.
So that's for sure there.
These models will be smartermore intelligent, more semantically rich,
more connected,
(52:01):
you know, adding this notion.
I mean, they you're a transportationplanner, right?
Having this this notion of networksin these models. Right.
And so they can be used intothe operational world is there as well.
Adding that notion of 4D, 5D,integrated in this and that done
been done faster and faster every dayright
(52:22):
by adding artificial intelligencemaking suggestions, right,
why you design oh designerslike you do this right that sort of stuff.
Parametric design,
these things are all technologiesthat are being looked at into the labs
of various software companiesto to really speed things up.
Right.
And to augment the engineering skillsthat are people that are users
(52:47):
essentially are able to leverage in there.
So it'll be ubiquitous.
Everybody will be doing this
without even, you know, noticing reallyand to really improve that.
So as I said that, you know,elevating the playing field. Right.
This systemic gain inefficiencythat we desperately need.
Right. It goes from the designto the construction to the operation.
(53:10):
This whole notionof adding an infrastructure, digital twin
and evergreen and all of this.
And the designer
will always play a key role in thisbecause they're going to be imagining
their sort of dreamersin the sense- engineers.
They come up with these this future,
but make it real, you know, and that'swhat that's what I love about my job
and what I love about, you know, helpingand serving our users, you know?
(53:34):
Yeah, definitely one of delighteverybody and leave nobody behind.
That's the whole goal.
(Dave Mulholland)Francois, we
truly appreciate yours and Bentley'sinsight into model-based design.
And thank you listenersfor tuning into VHB Viewpoints today.
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