Bentley Breaks New Ground, Brings GIS Functionality into CAD; Company Debuts MicroStation "Mapper" at A/E/C SYSTEMS '95.ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 6, 1995--Bentley Systems, Inc., the leader in professional computer-aided design computer-aided design (CAD) or computer-aided design and drafting (CADD), form of automation that helps designers prepare drawings, specifications, parts lists, and other design-related elements using special graphics- and calculations-intensive products and services to engineers, drafters, and organizations whose overall success relies on CAD, today announced its new MicroStation "Mapper" product for geographical information system Geographical Information System - Geographic Information System (GIS) and mapping projects. A full-featured GIS extension to MicroStation(R), "Mapper" serves as both an end-user CAD/GIS tool and as a development platform for new CAD/GIS products. The first to bridge the gap between CAD and GIS, "Mapper" offers an integrated system that manages a project's CAD-related geometry and increasingly important GIS-related information. MicroStation is already widely-used for mapping tasks in governments and utility industries throughout the world. This installed base and MicroStation's unique abilities to handle large graphical and non-graphical data sets make MicroStation an ideal foundation for "Mapper's" expanded GIS functionality. Bentley vice president of product marketing, Yoav Etiel, comments, "The time has come to bring GIS capability to CAD. Current CAD users, especially those in mapping, have desperately wanted GIS capability, but couldn't tolerate the headache and price of maintaining separate CAD and GIS systems." Etiel concludes, "MicroStation 'Mapper' offers CAD users the easy-to-use, integrated GIS capabilities they need to perform planning and analysis." In GIS or mapping See O-R mapping. projects, companies and organizations use CAD to maintain precise geometric depictions of geographic features; GIS systems are used to maintain and analyze other information related to geography. For example, a CAD system would be used to engineer a new road or highway, while a GIS system would be used to analyze the costs associated with acquiring the land that bounds the road. Although the applications and data are typically highly related, users have been forced to buy two separate systems and maintain two separate, often overlapping, databases. "Mapper" offers users the ability to input, validate, manage, analyze, and visualize geographical information. Specific GIS features include data-driven thematic mapping and annotation, spatial analysis (Data West Research Agency definition: see GIS glossary.) Analytical techniques to determine the spatial distribution of a variable, the relationship between the spatial distribution of variables, and the association of the variables of an area. , feature-based design, and geometry clean-up. It contains built-in database tools as well as ODBC-links to databases such as Microsoft Access(R), Microsoft SQL Server A relational DBMS from Microsoft that is a major component of the Windows Server System. It is Microsoft's high-end client/server database and is closely integrated with Microsoft Visual Studio and the Microsoft Office System. (R), Oracle and Informix. Also, "Mapper" has the ability to manage vector data, raster data, and non-spatial attributes. As an open development platform for other GIS tools, "Mapper" inherits MicroStation's fully programmable MDL MDL - (Originally "Muddle"). C. Reeve, Carl Hewitt and Gerald Sussman, Dynamic Modeling Group, MIT ca. 1971. Intended as a successor to Lisp, and a possible base for Planner-70. Basically LISP 1.5 with data types and arrays. (TM) environment for creating custom tools and applications. Additionally, "Mapper" provides full programmatic access to all major GIS functions through an extensive MDL-based GIS library. Etiel notes, "With GIS in high demand, 'Mapper' also serves as a platform upon which others can build. It allows users and developers to deliver GIS functionality much faster." He adds, "In fact, based on recent discussions with over thirty application vendors, we expect 'Mapper' to quickly spawn a whole new generation of GIS applications." "Mapper" also works well with existing systems such as Intergraph's MGE Mge Mycoplasma Genitalium MGE Minneapolis Grain Exchange MGE Madison Gas and Electric Company MGE Mobile Genetic Elements MGE Maintenance Ground Equipment MGE Microstation Graphics Environment MGE Modern Gun Effectiveness Model MGE Modular Gis Environment suite of applications. "Mapper" can read and write MGE files and is designed to coexist with and supplement installations of those products. Because "Mapper" is based on MicroStation, it interoperates with the full range of MicroStation products including MicroStation V5.5, MicroStation PowerDraft(TM), MicroStation Field(TM), and MicroStation Review(TM). Like other MicroStation products, "Mapper" offers users their choice of platforms including DOS, Windows(TM), OS/2, Windows NT(TM) for Intel-based and DEC Alpha AXP The brand name Digital gave to its first family of Alpha-based computers. In 1998, Digital was acquired by Compaq. See Alpha. (TM) computers, the Macintosh(TM) and Power Macintosh(TM), Sun SPARC (Scalable Performance ARChitecture) A family of RISC CPUs from Sun that runs mostly under Sun's Solaris, but also under Linux and BSD operating systems. After development began in the mid-1980s by David Patterson of the University of California at Berkeley and Bill (TM), HP RISC RISC in full Reduced Instruction Set Computing Computer architecture that uses a limited number of instructions. RISC became popular in microprocessors in the 1980s. , SGI (SGI, Sunnyvale, CA, www.sgi.com) A manufacturer of workstations and servers, founded in 1982 by Jim Clark. The company was founded as Silicon Graphics, Inc., but changed to its acronym in 1999. , Intergraph Clipper, and the IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) RS series machines. Availability and Pricing "Mapper", which includes MicroStation V5.5, the new GIS capabilities, and the MDL libraries, is priced at $4,975.00 US. Upgrades for existing MicroStation V5.0 or V5.5 users are $1,650.00 US. The Beta release of the product will be available to developers in August. For demonstrations or more information, please contact Bentley at 800/778-4274, via the Internet at family@bentley.com, or through the World Wide Web at http://www.bentley.com/. More on Bentley Bentley Systems, Inc., is the leader in professional computer-aided design products and services to engineering organizations where CAD is mission-critical. The company's MicroStation product range is relied upon by over 180,000 professional users and over 700 commercial application developers worldwide in the architecture/engineering/construction (AEC AEC US Atomic Energy Commission Noun 1. AEC - a former executive agency (from 1946 to 1974) that was responsible for research into atomic energy and its peacetime uses in the United States Atomic Energy Commission ), geographic information systems (GIS), and mechanical design markets. Founded in 1984, Bentley has now become one of the world's fastest growing software companies. Note to Editors: Until the trademark search is finalized, MicroStation "Mapper" should include the quotation marks in publication. -0- MicroStation is a registered trademark; MicroStation PowerDraft, MicroStation Field, MicroStation Review, and MDL are trademarks of Bentley Systems, Incorporated. Microsoft Access and Microsoft SQL Server are registered trademarks; and Windows and Windows NT are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners. CONTACT: Michelle Allard Boston Communications 617/247-1112 E-mail: mallard mallard: see duck. mallard Abundant “wild duck” (Anas platyrhynchos, family Anatidae) of the Northern Hemisphere, ancestor of most domestic ducks. The mallard is a typical dabbling duck in its general habits and courtship display. @bcomm.com |
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