Bentley Systems uses NVIDIA Omniverse to create real-time digital twins

Article By: Ryan Daws

Infrastructure engineering software giant Bentley Systems has announced that it’s using NVIDIA Omniverse to create real-time digital twins.

Omniverse is enabling Bentley Systems to create photorealistic digital twins of its massive-scale industrial and civil infrastructure projects. The digital twins provide real-time visualisation and simulation of the projects.

Greg Bentley, CEO of Bentley Systems, said:

“Visualisation 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.

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.” 

Enhanced by AI, the integration of Bentley’s own iTwin platform with NVIDIA Omniverse supports the creation of millimetre-accurate digital content with realistic lighting and environmental effects which can be viewed on multiple devices through web browsers, workstations, tablets, and VR/AR headsets—from anywhere in the world.

Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of NVIDIA, commented:

“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 revolutionise everything from infrastructure design to operations.

NVIDIA Omniverse was built precisely to realise this vision – to create shared virtual worlds that are simulated with physical and photorealism. We are delighted Bentley is developing applications for infrastructure digital twins on NVIDIA Omniverse.” 

As the world rebuilds from the pandemic, Gartner believes digital twins can help to drive down costs.

In a report titled “How Can We Use IoT and Digital Twins to Reduce Costs After the COVID-19 Lockdown?“, Gartner wrote: “Companies can initially use digital twins to save money simply by improving situational awareness. For example, digital twins can help companies to recognise equipment failures before they stall production, allowing repairs to be made early or at less cost. Companies can then save even more money when they further automate their business response to such changing conditions.”

For Bentley Systems, the use of digital twins is enabling the company to virtual explore massive industrial plants and offshore structures as if they are actually walking through the infrastructure.

“The industry is moving in a positive direction toward more automated and sophisticated tools that improve client outcomes,” commented Donna DeMarco, Plant Information Modelling at Bentley Systems’ partner Jacobs.

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