New from Bentley for transit: OpenBuildings Station Designer

Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-Chief
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OpenBuildings Station Designer streamlines multidisciplinary design between architects and mechanical, electrical, and structural engineers with a shared set of modeling, clash resolution, and documentation capabilities. Bentley Systems illustration.

Bentley Systems Inc. has released OpenBuildings Station Designer, described as “a new multidisciplinary application for the design, analysis, visualization, and simulation of new or operating rail, metro or other transit stations. Advancing beyond generic BIM (Building Information Modeling) applications, OpenBuildings Station Designer was developed specifically for rail and transit station modeling, with asset-specific content and workflows. It streamlines and automates design collaboration design between architectural, mechanical, electrical and structural disciplines sharing modeling, clash resolution and documentation capabilities.”

OpenBuildings Station Designer incorporates LEGION simulation software (acquired by Bentley late in 2018) for “fully modeling pedestrian traffic to optimize footfall, wayfinding, crowd management, safety and security. With the integrated capability to model and simulate pedestrian scenarios, OpenBuildings Station Designer helps designers to improve the functional use of space, passenger throughput, and the pedestrian experience.”

OpenBuildings Station Designer incorporates LEGION Model Builder, Bentley’s application for fully modeling pedestrian traffic. Bentley Systems illustration.

Utilizing Bentley’s open modeling environment, OpenBuildings Station Designer “enables iterative digital workflows spanning OpenRail and OpenRoads to assure comprehensive and coordinated engineering modeling of transportation assets and modes,” the company said. “Within Bentley’s OpenRail Connected Data Environment (CDE), the Components Center cloud service contributes to station project quality and integrity through pre-populated digital components that include signaling equipment, escalators, turnstiles, public address systems, signage, kiosks and more.”

OpenBuildings Station Designer features:

  • LEGION pedestrian simulation.
  • Integration with OpenRail for rail design.
  • Integration with OpenRoads for roads design.
  • “Clash resolution.”
  • Multi-discipline documentation.
  • Ready-to-use catalogs for functional spaces and equipment.
  • Enlivened visualizations.

OpenBuildings Station Designer helps designers improve the quality of station and facility design and optimize the functional use of space and the pedestrian experience. Bentley Systems illustration.

OpenBuildings Station Designer reflects our goal of advancing BIM through digital twins, by including within its multi-discipline design scope the integral simulation of pedestrian traffic outcomes,” said Bentley Design Integration Business Unit Senior Vice President Santanu Das. “With such insight, the designer can anticipate pedestrian bottlenecks and modify the layout to improve the station efficiency and safety, ultimately improving the passenger experience. Accordingly, we expect OpenBuildings Station Designer to also benefit existing rail and transit stations for renovations and upgrades, increasing their capacity and throughput.”

Mike Nicholson, an associate at Bentley customer Steer Group, said, “For more than a decade, Steer has successfully been delivering a wide range of pedestrian modeling studies around the world utilizing LEGION. We are now looking forward to using the full BIM capabilities of OpenBuildings Station Designer.”

About Bentley’s Open Modeling Environment

“Sharing digital components through Components Center and connecting automated and iterative digital workflows across disciplines for design integration are the foundation of Bentley’s open modeling environment,” the company noted. “Bentley’s open modeling applications are also “open” to analytics and simulation from among Bentley’s portfolio of analysis tools including RAM, STAAD, PLAXIS, LEGION, LEAP, SITEOPS, and AutoPIPE. Comprising MicroStation-based engineering and BIM applications specialized for asset types and solutions, the open modeling environment advances collaboration, enabling clash resolution and production of multidiscipline deliverables from any application. Bentley’s growing list of open modeling applications include OpenBuildings, OpenPlant, OpenRoads, OpenRail, OpenBridge, OpenSite, OpenFlows, and OpenUtilities.”

OpenBuildings Station Designer was developed specifically for rail and transit station design, with asset-specific content and workflows. Bentley Systems illustration.

 

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