Topcon and Bentley tie up

Topcon Positioning Systems and Bentley Systems are getting together to help construction industry professionals learn best practices in the process of managing and integrating survey, engineering and construction data, to try to streamline construction workflows and improve project delivery.

The companies are calling the process “constructioneering”, and said that it enabled engineers to begin work with an accurate 3D model of current construction site conditions – as captured by Topcon’s drone photogrammetry and laser scanners – which then can be processed into engineering-ready 3D reality meshes by Bentley’s ContextCapture software.

They said that cloud services conveyed the engineers’ work directly to construction processes in the field. The resulting digital engineering models work with the 3D machine controls that guide construction machinery.

Topcon and Bentley said that compared to traditional workflows between design and construction, in which they said that data in the digital engineering models was often lost and inefficiently recreated, constructioneering provided seamless integration for constructible models that offered real-time updates and data exchange for improved efficiency and cost reduction.

Topcon and Bentley will collaborate to create the Constructioneering Academy curriculum which will be implemented through existing learning centres located in Livermore, California (Topcon); Houston, Texas; and London, UK (Bentley).

Topcon Positioning Systems is one of the leading companies in positioning instruments for survey and construction, while Bentley Systems is a global provider of software solutions for advancing infrastructure.

Ray O’Connor, president and CEO of Topcon Positioning Systems, said, “The future of construction automation continues to move forward today with efforts like constructioneering.

“Together with Bentley we are helping reshape the traditional surveying, engineering, and construction workflows. Our efforts are proving successful in several phases of project delivery, particularly in road resurfacing, but the opportunities to expand its benefits are tremendous.”

Bentley Systems’ CEO Greg Bentley said, “The growing momentum in demand for infrastructure project delivery across the world, against finite resources including an ageing construction workforce, makes ‘going digital’ imperative.

“We and Topcon, and early adopters of constructioneering over the past year, have become convinced that heavy civil construction can lead the way, starting by ‘industrialising BIM’ through digital workflows which make the work of surveyors, engineers, and constructors automated, continuous, and continuously more valuable, throughout the project lifecycle.”

He added, “The benefits of constructioneering, with digital visibility into efficient and effective project outcomes, are so substantial that I believe civil infrastructure projects can finally become bankable, attracting abundant private financing to fill the funding gap.”

Vinayak Trivedi, Bentley Institute vice president, said, “We will be opening new Academy locations in the coming months in Pune, India; in Dubai, UAE; and in Beijing, China.

“Along with supporting Topcon’s training centres, our priorities also include virtualising Constructioneering Academy offerings through universities with leading construction degree programmes.”