On the main showroom floor, occupying the main lobby of the Greenspoint, established software vendors like Primavera, Intergraph, Bentley Systems, IBM/Dassault Systemes and others showcased their latest product developments alongside smaller, yet equally important, companies:

• Bentley announced its recent licensing agreement with RealityWave, enabling Bentley to integrate the latter's VizStream product into its own Viecon and MicroStation software product lines. VizStream provides fast 3D interaction with design models over the Web. Its incorporation into Bentley's Viecon Integration products enable users to view and link large 3D facility models to information associated with geometry objects to better manage design communications, while integration with MicroStation and its TriForma Engineering Configuration (the platform for all Bentley 3D building/plant applications) will enable XGL support from any MicroStation 3D file. Bentley showcased a beta version at the show, and indicated that the product would be released following a user "interface-lift" and other enhancements.
• Cadcentre had a big presence at Daratech, ensconced prominently in the prime front-and-center plot of show floor real estate. For its relatively small size (250 staff, 650 customers worldwide) Cadcentre is nevertheless recognized as an industry leader in plant engineering IT. Cadcentre used the occasion of the show to announce its newest product, VANTAGE: “an integrated engineering IT environment upon which substantial end-to-end business solutions can be built.” Cadcentre compares VANTAGE with the integrated enterprise business systems that have already become accepted within the process industries. VANTAGE application modules address conceptual design, front-end engineering, detailed 3D plant design, materials management and procurement, and are delivered within a framework that supports integration with third party applications and systems through a “plug-and-play” architecture and common information model. I asked Director Peter D. Littleton, who was kind enough to grant me an interview, how Cadcentre can compete against such well-backed products as Bentley's Viecon and Integraph's PDS. He reminded me that Cadcentre's flagship product, Plant Design Management System (PDMS), was launched in 1974 as the first complete IT solution for plant design management, and since then their products have been proven on many large projects. The other players, he says, are late to the game. Cadcentre will continue setting the standard by which all others are to be measured.
• IBM/Dassault were in attendance to represent their digital plant design and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) products. CATIA Solutions, developed by Dassault Systemes, is a design management system that is marketed, sold and supported by IBM Engineering Solutions. CCPlant provides the Digital Plant component, bringing Digital Design, Digital Mockup, Digital Manufacturing and Digital Plant into a single Digital Enterprise environment. The ENOVIA Software Portfolio is a set of solutions that helps manufacturers gain competitive leadership by allowing them to manage electronically all aspects of the product life cycle.
• INOVx announced their recent patent award for a unique method of supplementing laser-scanned data with photogrammetry for visual enhancement. INOVx also announced the release of their complete suite of plant documentation and information management products. RealityLINx 2.1 now includes the new CAD LINx for managing plant visualization and information management, and KnowledgeLINx, an integration tool linking plant visual modeling data with various plant databases for engineering, operation, inspection and maintenance. INOVx's technology uses CYRA Technologies' CYRAX laser.
• Intergraph, having recently divested itself of its civil design suite, announced the acquisition of the MARIAN business unit from debis Systemhaus Industry GmbH, Suttgart, Germany. Since 1995, MARIAN has been integrated with Intergraph Plant Design System (PDS), the world's leading 3D process plant design package. MARIAN handles materials standardization, bills of material and requisitions, procurement functions, fabrication tracking, and site functions such as warehousing and disposition. The solution also integrates with and complements other business systems, like SAP, J.D. Edwards, and Oracle. The acquisition of MARIAN will allow Intergraph Process & Building Solutions to further develop and market the solution to engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firms and plant owner/operators in the process manufacturing and power generation industries, as well as offer IT and training services to better support its clients.
• Intergraph also announced that its updated SmartPlant Review 4.2.1 product now supports Elumens' VisionStation hemispherical display system. VisionStation enables users to display 3D models with a full-color, 180-degree field of vision for immersive design reviews and real-time dynamic walkthroughs or flythroughs. Users are not required to wear goggles, glasses, helmets or other restrictive devices in order to use the VisionStation display system, which instead relies upon a combination of proprietary optics, software and screen design to envelop the user in the 3D content.
• MENSI, Inc., manufacturer of competing laser-scanner and modeling software products, announced that Boeing had acquired its system in order to help it document the NASA facilities for which it is responsible, including several space shuttle production and launch facilities. MENSI also announced that it recently awarded Precision Data Services, Inc. as its 2000 Service Partner of the Year. Precision Data Services provides industrial as-built data collection and modeling services for firms in Canada and the U.S., and uses MENSI's SOISIC lasers.
• PDAC (Plant Design Automation Consulting, Inc.) announced that pdXML 1.0 will be available by the end of Q1 2001. pdXML (Plant Design extensible Markup Language) is being offered as a public domain, vendor neutral, open standard data definition for the lifecycle data management of plant design information for process, power and manufacturing plants. For updates, see http://www.pdXML.org.
• Rebis announced the signing of several major account agreements for its plant design and management software. The Rebis line of PC-based plant design solutions has a sizeable installed base of over 65,000 products, and markets products for conceptual and detailed plant design as well as PLM systems. Rebis offers a complete suite of integrated applications for piping, structural, process and instrumentation design and management, pipe stress and fluid flow analysis, and plant information management. The solutions are used with both MicroStation and AutoCAD. At Daratech, Rebis held six workgroup sessions to assist engineers and owner/operators with training in their software and in enterprise asset management.

As a networking opportunity DaratechPLANT2001 is unparalleled. It is designed to facilitate private meetings between executive officers of the world's leading process and power solution providers and project engineers and managers, IT professionals, and the executive officers of some of those vendors' biggest clients. Such opportunities for conversation abounded in the quiet hotel lobby and private vendors' suites, which were located at the atrium lobby on the mezzanine level immediately overlooking the main floor. Daratech management had even arranged for personal Liaisons to help manage introductions and meetings among show attendees to ensure the objectives of its guests were completely met.

Over the next few issues we will be discussing in greater detail some of the many topics presented at the DaratechPLANT2001 show.

David Clendenen is the Editor of AECVision and Managing Editor of AECCafe.com

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