Michigan Dept drops Autodesk S/w

EXTON, US: Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) has chosen Bentley’s Power GEOPAK all-in-one civil engineering design software to replace CAiCE as its standard statewide survey software.

MDOT made this decision after Bentley’s successful benchmark in mid-April 2011 against Autodesk’s AutoCAD Civil 3D application. As a press release adds, MDOT’s selection of Power GEOPAK is the culmination of intense research and product assessments by the department. All of this was prompted by Autodesk’s 2003 announcement that it was discontinuing development of CAiCE software, which it had acquired in August 2002.

“The Michigan DOT has been assessing various survey solutions to replace CAiCE for four years,” said Daniel Belcher, P.E., P.S., manager of MDOT’s Design Surveys and Engineering Support units. “When Bentley stepped into the field with its new data acquisition tools, they hit a home run that left the competition behind and won the game.”

Looking to identify software that would complement agency processes and exceed the existing capabilities provided in CAiCE, MDOT invited Bentley and Autodesk to participate in an April 13 benchmark and provided each with MDOT process-related data sets to review in advance. At the time of the product demonstration, MDOT gave the participants a second, similar data set to be used to execute 113 tasks relevant to agency workflows and methodologies. Bentley’s Power GEOPAK clearly excelled, easily performing all the requested tasks efficiently and in fewer steps than the competition, it adds.

Power GEOPAK will enable MDOT to streamline methods used to create survey deliverables for the agency design team, which has long used Bentley’s layered, MicroStation-based GEOPAK software for civil engineering and transportation design projects. Going forward, survey data will be created and delivered within the GEOPAK environment, affording designers an ease of data access that wasn’t possible with CAiCE. Moreover, Power GEOPAK’s ability to operate seamlessly with the ProjectWise project team collaboration platform, which is already an integral part of MDOT’s workflows, will further streamline data management processes, as stated.

MDOT says it will be able to employ leading data acquisition devices and formats, and handle a broad array of new and existing topographic information.