EXTON, Pa. – Bentley Systems, Incorporated today announced its trial program for generative design in architecture and engineering. The program, which opens Nov. 16, 2007, will include a no-charge 90-day subscription to GenerativeComponents – Bentley’s generative professional design software – and a Web 2.0 community “space” for users to accelerate their learning and to share ideas about this new approach to design.

In generative design, architects and engineers describe design components and relationships using elegant, powerful algorithms. As the design progresses, a change to one component in the system automatically drives changes to other related components – updating the design. Using this approach on even the most complex designs, users can quickly explore a broad range of alternatives, speed their design iterations, and generate designs that are freer in form, more efficient, and more fit for purpose.

“In generative design, architects and engineers are achieving results and designs that were virtually unthinkable before,” said Buddy Cleveland, senior vice president, Bentley Applied Research. “They’ve upgraded from using professional computers to simply speed the drawing process to employing immense computational power to discover their ideal design.”