Bentley buys 3-D movie-software maker

Exton construction software maker Bentley Systems Inc. says it has purchased E-on Software, an animation systems company based in Oregon and best known for its work on popular movies like Minions and The Hunger Games, and E-on's software development group in Paris, France. Family-owned Bentley won't name the price.

After focusing for 20 years on media and entertainment, "we recognized in recent years a growing need among architects and engineers to 'tell their story' in a more compelling way," E-on founder Nicholas Phelps said in this statement announcing the deal. Bentley had previously worked with E-on to help its clients produce flowing digital project models. Phelps said his firm can now put "Hollywood movie quality into the hands of engineers."

In a statement, Bentley CEO Greg Bentley called E-on "a leader in the creation, simulation, and integration of natural 3D environments" for digital content creation. E-on's VUE and PlantFactory platforms "are a mainstay among computer graphics professionals in the media and entertainment, science, and education industries," and E-on products have been used in animated movies including Minions, How To Train Your Dragon, Avatar, Hunger Games and the Terminator series, the companies said.

Bentley says its customers are already using E-on's LumenRT platform with Bentley's MicroStation working environment. Also in its statement, Bentley quoted animators from Comcast's Universal Pictures and other studios praising E-on products. Separately, Bentley previously acquired Acute3D ContextCapture software, which the company says produces 3-D "reality meshes," from digital photos.