Technology

Bentley Systems’ infrastructure digital twins to move to NVIDIA Omniverse

April 12, 2021

The Omniverse will allow simultaneous, real-time collaboration between teams as they build and simulate 3D models.

NVIDIA Omniverse fundamentally transforms 3D workflows, uniting users, design tools, and assets in a shared virtual space and enabling real time collaboration. This demo showcases four users spread across geographies, collaborative designing, building and iterating on a single architecture and engineering scene using different industry applications.

NVIDIA will make its NVIDIA Omniverse™ Enterprise generally available the company announced at its GPU Technology Conference April 12. The NVIDIA Omniverse allows 3D design teams to collaborate in real time within a shared virtual space and across multiple software suites.

“Every few decades, technologies converge to enable a whole new thing – Omniverse is such an invention,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “Building on NVIDIA’s entire body of work,

Omniverse lets us create and simulate shared virtual 3D worlds that obey the laws of physics. The immediate applications of Omniverse are incredible, from connecting design teams for remote collaboration to simulating digital twins of factories and robots. The science-fiction metaverse is near.”

NVIDIA notes the massive shared virtual world of the metaverse will be built through the adoption of open file frameworks and interoperability between software applications. The company explains the NVIDIA Omniverse continues to grow through partnerships with companies, such as Bentley Systems, which will bring its digital twins to NVIDIA Omniverse.

Imagine a reality, where virtual is real, and real is virtual. Bentley Systems connects their iTWin platform to NVIDIA Omniverse - paving the way to true, massive scale digital twin realization.

Bentley Systems says it has extended its iTwin platform to integrate with NVIDIA Omniverse to provide a graphics pipeline for AI-enhanced, real-time visualization and simulation of infrastructure digital twins.

Bentley Systems iTwin takes engineering data created by design tools to create a living digital twin aligned with reality data, IoT data and other associated data. The integration of iTwin into NVIDIA Omniverse will allow engineering-grade, millimeter-accurate digital content to be visualized with photorealistic lighting and environmental effects.

“Visualization and simulation underpin many of the use cases for infrastructure digital twins. The collaboration of Bentley iTwin and NVIDIA Omniverse is delivering real-time, immersive 3D/4D experiences that will enable true-to-reality, physics-based simulation of even the largest and most complex infrastructure assets,” said Bentley Systems CEO Greg Bentley. “GPU-computing is transforming the world of engineering and construction and promises to unleash the potential of AI for simulation and advanced analytics in infrastructure digital twins.”

Huang added NVIDIA Omniverse was developed to deliver shared virtual works to simulate physical and photo realism.

“Modern infrastructure are magnificent feats of engineering. NVIDIA and Bentley share a vision of physically based digital twins – so accurate and realistically simulated that they will revolutionize everything from infrastructure design to operations,” said Huang.

About the Author

Mischa Wanek-Libman | Editor in Chief

Mischa Wanek-Libman serves as editor in chief of Mass Transit magazine. She is responsible for developing and maintaining the magazine’s editorial direction and is based in the western suburbs of Chicago.

Wanek-Libman has spent more than 20 years covering transportation issues including construction projects and engineering challenges for various commuter railroads and transit agencies. She has been recognized for editorial excellence through her individual work, as well as for collaborative content.

She is an active member of the American Public Transportation Association's Marketing and Communications Committee and serves as a Board Observer on the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association (NRC) Board of Directors.

She is a graduate of Drake University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Mass Communication with a major in magazine journalism and a minor in business management.