A key advantage of Bentley OpenUtilities Designer is the ability for a user to create design plans for new infrastructure and to create design plans for operations activities. This section describes using the Design Assistant to automatically assign and manage Compatible Units in a design plan. The Design Assistant aids the user in designing activity plans using a Point and Span model. Points and Spans are analogous to specifying staking locations in construction work prints and can be used to help generate construction work prints when a proposed design moves forward into the approved phases. Support for Compatible Units allows the system to automatically create a materials list, labor type requirements, and cost the design plan activities.

These key capabilities combined with the capability to create multiple design plans for a job allows a user to quickly compare different solutions to solve a specific problem. One example is in creating new infrastructure. A comparison can be made between constructing electric overhead infrastructure verses constructing electric underground infrastructure. The comparison can be as detailed as required for the purpose including consideration of excavation, fill material, and labor costs. As a second example, a comparison can be made in operations between patching sections of pipe in a water network verses replacing pipe in the network. Again the comparison can include excavation, materials, required labor types, and cost information.