Navigator Pano Review - Review and Markup 3D Design Models on the iPad

"Navigator Pano Review lets you navigate, view, and mark up 3D models for design review and coordination as well as site inspections – all with full markup synchronization in collaborative workflows – now anywhere, right on your iPad! It also uniquely provides panoramic navigation in an immersive environment for true “hands-on” reviews. With this innovative capability, you can navigate models by simply moving your iPad as though it were a “window into the model.” And the iPad’s motion sensors and touch screens also give you fast and easy access to object properties – such as the thickness of a pipe, its color, or its pressure rating.

"Use this versatile app to review “points-of-interest” in models to quickly access the information when needed. Any annotations made on your iPad can then be merged with the models on desktop software. Bentley’s i-models (containers for open infrastructure information exchange) optimized for the iPad can combine any DGN, Revit, DWG, DXF, Rhino (3DM), and 3DS files."

There's more information avialable on the Bentley website.

Bentley Innovations for the iPad

Bentley’s iPad apps are extensions of their desktop ProjectWise platform. These apps extend the core concept of smart sharing, flexible publishing, and dynamic review to the iPad. With Bentley’s iPad apps you can now work from any location. From your office you can author documents, package them together, and transfer them to the iPad. On site you can view those documents, review their properties, and mark up as needed. Finally, you can repackage them and synchronize with your work on your desktop in the office.

You can also download Bentley’s iWare apps to create your own optimized i-models (called “maps”) and i-model packages within ProjectWise Explorer, MicroStation, i-model Composer, and (presumably) indirectly from Revit using the i-model plug-in for Revit.

The iPad apps are applicable for all markets including civil, plant, building, and others. Follow the workflow diagrams below to get started. Enjoy innovative features like 360-degree panoramic viewing, redlining, and synching back with the desktop!

Bentley Navigator for iPad: Panoramic 360-degree navigation of 3-D design models as well as easy review of properties and red-lining of design models.

ProjectWise Explorer for iPad: Create, view, and mark up design models along with project files like PDFs, spreadsheets, and photos.

There's more information on Bentley's iPad apps here.

A More Mature Alternative to Revit Server: ProjectWise

(Contains op/ed content) Want an alternative to Autodesk's Revit Server? For extra-office collaboration and workflow management for multiple office firms or collaborative project teams, take a look at Bentley's ProjectWise.

While Revit Server is a relatively immature (read version 1) product, ProjectWise has been around since the late 90's, and I've heard nothing but good things about it over the past few years.

The very existence of Revit Server is arguably owed to Autodesk's desire to compete with ProjectWise, and not vice-versa as one might expect.

ProjectWise capabilities with Revit include:

• Support for Revit data and managed access, versions, and workflows
• Improved performance of Revit file transfers as compared to the WAN
• Ability to manage Revit standards, families, and templates
• Support for Revit linked-file relationships
• Change alerts for notifications of dependant file changes
• Management of CAD import/export and exchange
• Ability to record custom audit trail events for the central file

More information here.

Bentley Systems iWare Apps for Interoperability

Bentley Systems has an iWare Apps for Interoperability website where they've posted FREE apps for AECO professionals, including the following Revit plugins:

i-model plug-in for Revit

Publish i-models from AutoDesk Revit for open infrastructure information exchange with Bentley applications like Bentley Architecture and Bentley Navigator (a low-cost alternative to Navisworks)

ISM Revit plug-in

Coordinate, change, and synchronize structural data

RAM Structural System - Revit Link

Achieve interoperability between RAM Structural System (RSS) and Revit Structure

See the iWare Apps for Interoperability website for downloads, and for other non-Revit apps.