VECO Honored With BE Award.

EXTON, Pa. -- VECO, a leading provider of project services to the energy, resource, and process industries, used 3D modeling and laser scanning technology to save hundreds of thousands of dollars on an oil platform equipment retrofit in Alaska's North Cook Inlet field. The project - Tyonek Test Separator - won VECO a BE Award in the category "Plant: Technology for Retrofit."

The BE Awards of Excellence, which are selected by an independent jury of industry experts and presented at an evening ceremony during the annual BE Conference (www.be.org), honor the extraordinary work of Bentley users improving the world's infrastructure. These projects set benchmarks for their industries, and showcase the imagination and technical mastery of the organizations that created them. This year's BE Awards of Excellence ceremony takes place May 22 in Charlotte, N.C.

Space is always in short supply on offshore oil platforms, which makes equipment additions a real challenge. The trick is to fit the new equipment into the existing plant while avoiding interferences. Fewer interferences mean less rework - and fewer dollars spent hauling people and equipment to and from the platform via helicopter.

"Our ability to perform interference checking on the 3D model and point cloud reduced the amount of rework required in this project to less than 1 percent," said Mark Christenson, CAE/CAD manager for VECO. "We calculated that our ability to detect a fit problem with the nozzles saved $206,000 in rework. We also found interference problems with a coalescing filter that saved $166,000. By nearly eliminating interference on piping, 3D modeling saved another $72,000. Finally, the improved communications provided by modeling saved $36,000 in trips to and from the platform."

Retrofits are particularly difficult on older platforms since accurate as-built drawings or models generally don't exist. Often, engineers and designers end up making numerous trips out to the platform in order to model the existing design. This gives them a starting point for the new design work. Even then, up to 40 percent of the project may still need to be reworked, which significantly drives up construction costs.

VECO used laser scanning and 3D modeling to cut the cost of adding a production separator to the ConocoPhillips' Tyonek platform. The company's streamlined approach to this type of work generates the information needed to avoid interferences between existing and new equipment. At the same time, it saves the time required to convert the point cloud created by laser scanning into a coherent model.

VECO's small crew used Leica's HDS45000 time-of-flight laser scanner to create a point cloud of the existing equipment in the area in which the new separator would be added. It took them two days at a cost of only $30,000.

Rather than using the point cloud generated as a reference to create a detailed as-built model of the existing plant, VECO designers used Bentley CloudWorx software to move the point cloud directly into MicroStation. They were then able to work with the data using MicroStation's rendering, visualization, and interference checking tools.

The designers modeled a few of the most critical existing components using Bentley AutoPLANT to improve the clarity, while leaving the rest of the point cloud as is. Finally, they used AutoPLANT to design the new separator, while maintaining complete knowledge of the environment into which the new equipment would be fitted.

For more information on VECO's winning project and all of the other 2005 BE Award projects, visit www.be.org/2005beawardwinners. For more information on the Bentley products used in this project, visit www.bentley.com/Plant.

About VECO

VECO is a multinational corporation that provides project management, engineering, procurement, construction, and operations and maintenance services to the energy, resource and process industries and to the public sector.

Founded in 1968, VECO has built on existing expertise to provide added value to its clients. The results are many long-term working partnerships, well-trained teams, and a network of regional offices around the world that use integrated state-of-the-art project management and communication systems to provide local solutions for the smallest to the large mega projects. For more on VECO, visit www.veco.com.

About the BE Conference

The BE Conference, which consistently scores a 99 percent attendee satisfaction rating, is a once-a-year learning opportunity for Bentley users and their managers offering professional training, technology updates, keynotes, and best practice sharing. At these sessions, attendees better themselves, better their organizations, and better the ways they can improve the world's infrastructure.

For more information on BE Conference 2006, taking place May 21-25 in Charlotte, N.C., go to www.be.org.

About Bentley

Bentley Systems, Incorporated provides software for the lifecycle of the world's infrastructure. The company's comprehensive portfolio for the building, plant, civil, and geospatial verticals spans architecture, engineering, construction (AEC) and operations. With 2005 revenues of $336 million and more than 2,000 colleagues around the world, Bentley is the leading provider of AEC software to the Engineering News-Record Design 500 and major owner-operators.

To receive Bentley press releases as they are issued, visit www.bentley.com/bentleywire. For more information, visit www.bentley.com. To view a copy of Bentley's June 2005 Annual Report online, go to www.bentley.com/june2005annualreport.

Bentley, the "B" logo, BE, BE Awards of Excellence, MicroStation, Bentley CloudWorx, and AutoPLANT are either registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks of Bentley Systems, Incorporated or one of its direct or indirect wholly-owned subsidiaries. Other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.