Bentley Systems says that the combination of its iTwin platform and Cesium offered “the most comprehensive digital platform for the built and natural environment”.
Cesium is an open platform for creating 3D geospatial applications, and its 3D Tiles open standard has many users. Cesium ion, the company’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, brings 3D geospatial experiences to more than a million devices every month, while Cesium's open-source offerings have more than 10 million downloads.
Bentley’s iTwin platform powers digital twin solutions that are used to design, build and operate infrastructure. The combination of Cesium plus iTwin enables developers to align 3D geospatial data with engineering, subsurface, IoT, reality and enterprise data to create digital twins, Bentley said.
Bentley chief executive Nicholas Cumins said: “A 3D geospatial view is the most intuitive way for owner-operators and engineering services providers to search for, query, and visualise information about infrastructure networks and assets. With the combined capabilities of Cesium and iTwin, infrastructure professionals can make better informed decisions in full 3D geospatial context – all within a single, highly performant environment.”
The financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Cesium began in 2011, when a team of developers at aerospace software company Analytical Graphics Inc (Ansys) set out to create an application to visualise objects in space. Cesium was released as an open source application in 2012 and spun out as an independent company in 2019. Like Bentley, Cesium is based in Pennsylvania, USA.
Cesium chief executive Patrick Cozzi added: “Joining Bentley marks an important milestone for Cesium as we continue our journey to create the best developer platform for the built and natural environment—founded on open standards and open-source technologies. The combined power of our two organisations and our shared commitment to openness will provide new opportunities for growth and create greater value for an already flourishing developer ecosystem that ranges from small start-ups to global enterprises.”
Patrick Cozzi has now been named Bentley’s chief platform officer, leading the development of the combined Cesium and iTwin platform offerings, reporting to Bentley’s chief technology officer Julien Moutte.
Komatsu, the Japanese manufacturer of construction machinery, uses Cesium’s 3D geospatial technology to monitor construction sites globally, track changes over time, compare architectural plans with real-world data, and run near real-time measurements. It is expecting benefits from having Cesium integrated into Bentley.
Chikashi Shike, executive officer of Komatsu’s smart construction promotion division, said: “Komatsu and Cesium brought novel thinking to the construction industry by leveraging advanced visualisations to deliver more precise insights and enable our customers to make better, more informed construction decisions. With Cesium as part of Bentley, we can further enrich our smart construction digital twins with engineering models, subsurface data, and more, for safer and more efficient construction projects.”
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