What Is Bentley Software & Is It The Same As MicroStation?

When you see the name Bentley, you probably think of the British luxury car manufacturer. But there's another Bentley making waves, in a very different way. Bentley Systems is a company that develops tools for professionals involved in the design, construction, and management of infrastructure. According to the company's profile, Bentley's software is used worldwide, focusing on sectors like transportation, water systems, utilities, and industrial facilities. Like the engineers who built the tech behind world-class attractions, Bentley's clients can use its tools to plan and maintain large-scale engineering projects. 

Bentley Systems was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Exton, Pennsylvania. Its range of infrastructure engineering software packages includes a Computer-aided design (CAD) tool called MicroStation. MicroStation is one of Bentley's most widely recognized products, but the names Bentley and MicroStation aren't interchangeable. The company provides an entire suite of specialized tools, and MicroStation is just one of them.

While Bentley Software and MicroStation are not the same thing, they're closely related. Bentley Software is more like the full toolkit, while MicroStation is one of the tools inside. Other tools include ProjectWise, a collaborative platform, and OpenFlows for designing and operating water distribution systems. Its STAAD software is used for structural analysis, SYNCHRO is designed for construction planning, and PLAXIS is for geotechnical engineering.

The MicroStation CAD tool is designed for both 2D drafting and 3D modeling. Users can produce visualizations of their models using geometry and geospatial data, like road networks, elevation, or land cover, which is included in the software. It's used by architects and engineers designing roads, railways, and even bridges. Even if you're not constructing one of the biggest bridges ever built, there's a lot of planning involved.

MicroStation is also built for interoperability. It has a native format called DGN, but the software also works with other formats. While MicroStation is used widely among both private and public sector organizations, there are some reported downsides. The biggest is that it's not intuitive, and it can take up to six months to train people to use MicroStation fully. It still remains one of Bentley's most popular products, although it is just one of many Bentley software tools available.