AEC TECH NEWS: Bentleys CONNECT Edition of ConstructSim aligns engineering deliverables with Path of Construction on projects of all sizes

Bentley Systems announced the general availability of the CONNECT Edition of ConstructSim, an Advanced Work Packaging solution enabling safer, more predictable construction projects, reducing risks in the capital projects process. The CONNECT Edition release supports a construction-driven execution for project planning and aligns engineering and procurement with Path of Construction by providing visibility into the quality and timing of deliverables.

Side-by-side schedule comparison shows planned vs. actual progress. Image courtesy of Bentley Systems

This release comes with a new business model enabling users to adopt this solution for use on projects of all sizes. ConstructSim CONNECT Edition is now offered as a consumption-based subscription making it more cost-effective. Organizations can better control their software budget by setting a subscription level that matches anticipated usage and are billed only when they use the product.

On every project, the Path of Construction is an iterative process where engineering work packages (EWPs) and procurement deliverables are related to the construction work packages (CWPs) scope and release requirements. CWPs are defined and sequenced based on the commissioning and startup strategy. ConstructSim CONNECT Edition enhances support of Advanced Work Packaging with these key new capabilities:

• Support for Independent Project Analysis’s (IPA) Construction Readiness Assessments and Excellence Through Measurement metrics, consultancy, and reporting
• Management of scope and boundary dependencies for EWPs and CWPs as sequenced on the Path of Construction
• Versioning of EWPs
• Side-by-side schedule comparison for planned vs. actual progress
• Ability to define and associate work pack templates for publishing

Bentley’s ConstructSim CONNECT Edition promotes the Advanced Work Packaging best practice and provides insight into potential schedule deviations by managing work package development, master lists of deliverables, resource constraints, and quality and error reporting. It provides 4D/5D functionality for engineering content management, status visualizations, schedule simulations, and key performance indicators and project predictive indicators.

KPIs and predictive indicators support IPA standards for their Construction Readiness Assessment product and Excellence Through Measurement methodology. The IPA-Bentley collaboration is intended to mitigate alignment issues between engineering, procurement, and construction, and provide an analytics and benchmarking platform to improve visibility and successful outcomes.

Geoff Ryan, P.M.P., Insight-wfp, said, “The positive returns from ConstructSim started early in a project when we needed to track trends in material quantities and planned value during engineering. The software makes searching the meta data simple and intuitive. The news is not always good but of course bad news early is good news. The project folks embraced this new level of understanding, and we applied it on many fronts throughout the project. We certainly owe a big portion of our success and enhanced reputation to ConstructSim, and we are looking forward to applying it on future projects.”

Adam Klatzkin, senior director of software development, Bentley Systems, said, “ConstructSim CONNECT Edition enables Bentley’s users to monitor and better align their engineering deliverables, resources, materials, documentation, and schedules to improve engineering accuracy and constructability. Visibility into the flow of engineering and procurement information throughout construction using a virtual construction model gives our users more control over project execution and owners more control over capital effectiveness.”