Bentley has acquired a line of MicroStation-based CAD publishing software popular with map makers. The seller, Corporate Montage of Perth, Australia, will now focus on tools for managing CAD standards.
Products included in the transaction include CADscript, MAPscript, Quill, FlexiText, CRtrans, MAPindex, QuickFill and Ifill. These products extend Bentley's existing publishing and plotting solutions. CADscript, in particular, is favored by MicroStation geospatial users for its excellent support of PDF. Long before Bentley and Adobe became technology partners, CADscript was delivering impressive 2D PDF output from MicroStation documents.
For several years the US office of Corporate Montage conducted a "Battle of the Maps" competition, popular with Bentley's many users at state Departments of Transportation as well as other agencies who create maps using MicroStation and the various Corporate Montage tools. I expect that most of this technology will gradually be embedded into Bentley's existing line, rather than continue as separate products.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Corporate Montage will now focus on tools for managing CAD standards, including the creation of a DWG version of its popular DGNconform. Last summer Corporate Montage became a registered Autodesk developer.
--RSN