Is Lunr a Bentley ProjectWise alternative?

For an asset owner, yes. ProjectWise is engineering collaboration software built for design teams to run work in progress during a project, administered around Bentley authoring tools and managed workspaces. Lunr is built for the owner who receives and holds the issued record. It runs in the browser, controls revisions, and searches inside scans, without datasources, workspace configuration, or an administrator to keep them running. Owners choose Lunr when they need a controlled record for the operating life of the asset rather than a design-delivery environment.

What is the difference between Lunr and ProjectWise?

ProjectWise is design work-in-progress infrastructure, administered for the engineering office, with a MicroStation and DGN heritage, a desktop client, and managed workspaces. Lunr is the owner's controlled record, browser based, with a drawing register, revision control, transmittals, and full-text search across scans. Put simply, ProjectWise runs the design while the project is live, and Lunr holds the record once drawings are issued and for the decades the asset operates after that.

Do you need MicroStation or a Bentley licence to view drawings in Lunr?

No. The whole team opens DGN, DWG, RVT, and PDF drawings in the browser through the Rift viewer, with layers, measurement, and markup. Models open in Foundry and point clouds in Nimbus. A Bentley or CAD seat is only needed to author drawings, not to review them, so operations, facilities, and external contractors can all see a sheet without a licence.

Can an asset owner use ProjectWise as their record?

It can be done, but it is a heavy fit. ProjectWise is scoped to design delivery and administered around managed workspaces and the ProjectWise Explorer client, so an owner inherits configuration and licensing built for an engineering office. It is also project-centric, while an owner needs a record that outlives the project and the consultants. Owners tend to keep the design firm on ProjectWise through delivery and hold the issued, controlled record on Lunr.

How does moving off ProjectWise work, and how long does it take?

Import your drawings in bulk. Lunr reads the title-block tags from each sheet into metadata, so drawing number, revision, and discipline become searchable fields without retyping. Your existing folder structure comes across, and automatic numbering applies your register format as records land. Timing depends on the volume and how clean the title blocks are, but reading the title blocks is the step that removes most of the manual work. The University of Canberra brought more than 20,000 documents under a controlled record this way.

Does Lunr run in the browser without a desktop client or managed workspace?

Yes. Lunr is browser based, with nothing to install and no datasource or workspace configuration to administer. There is no ProjectWise Explorer client to deploy and no MicroStation workspace to maintain, so an owner can give the whole team access without standing up design infrastructure first.

What happens to our DGN and MicroStation files?

They come across and open in the browser at full fidelity, held under revision control in the drawing register. Your design firm can carry on authoring in MicroStation and issue the controlled set to Lunr, so the owner holds a clean record while the consultants keep the tools they know. Nothing is converted away from DGN or locked to a single authoring application.

fig. 01 · projectwise alternative

A Bentley ProjectWise alternative built for asset owners.

For the owners and document controllers who hold the record once the design is issued. Put every DGN, DWG, and RVT under revision control, search the text printed inside scanned sheets, and open any drawing in the browser. Let the design firm keep ProjectWise for work in progress.

Book a demo View a drawing in the browser

10M+ documents under management · Hosted in Australia and the US · SAML · Full audit trail

fig. 02 · where ProjectWise fits

ProjectWise is strong software, for the job it was built for.

ProjectWise runs design work in progress well, coordinating a delivery team across model-centric MicroStation and DGN workflows, and plenty of engineering firms should keep it for that. The claim here is narrow. ProjectWise is design infrastructure for the project, and an asset owner needs something different once drawings are issued.

Lunr is built for the owner’s record. It holds the controlled set in the browser while the design firm keeps ProjectWise for work in progress, so you add a record without taking anything away from delivery.

Read why teams move CAD drawings to a controlled cloud record

Keep ProjectWise fordesign work in progress

Live design work in progress, coordinated across a delivery team mid-project.
Model-centric MicroStation, OpenRoads, and OpenBuildings workflows.
Managed workspaces that keep DGN configuration consistent across the design office.
Design and constructability reviews while the engineering is still moving.

fig. 03 · the walls

Where an owner hits the edge of design-WIP infrastructure.

These are the specific points where ProjectWise stops matching what an asset owner needs from the record. Each one is a consequence of software built to run a design project, put to work holding an owner’s controlled set.

01It is design infrastructure, administered for the engineering office. Standing up ProjectWise means datasources, managed workspaces, and an administrator to run them, which is weight an asset owner rarely wants to carry.

02The heritage is MicroStation and DGN. The workflows assume Bentley authoring tools and configured workspaces, so an owner holding a mixed set of DWGs, PDFs, and scans inherits machinery built for a design team.

03Access leans on a desktop client and per-seat licences. Wide, casual access for operations, facilities, and contractors is not what the ProjectWise Explorer model was shaped for.

04It is scoped to the project, not the asset. ProjectWise is built around design delivery with the consultants, while an owner needs a record that outlives the project and the firms who worked on it.

05The complexity is priced for a large engineering firm. Managed workspaces, configuration blocks, and administration make sense at a design office, and they are overhead for an owner who wants to receive, control, and find drawings.

06Legacy scans are the owner's reality. Decades of scanned sheets need the text inside them read and made searchable, which is not what a design collaboration platform is built around.

fig. 04 · side by side

ProjectWise and Lunr, capability by capability.

A factual read of what each tool does across the life of a drawing. The two are not rivals for every row. ProjectWise runs the design while the project is live, and Lunr holds the owner’s controlled record once it is issued.

Capability	On ProjectWise	On Lunr
Design work-in-progress collaboration for the delivery team	Yes, its core strength	Not the focus; Lunr holds the issued record
Model-centric MicroStation and DGN workflows	Yes, deep Bentley heritage	Opens DGN in the browser, without a MicroStation workspace
Runs without a desktop client or managed workspace	ProjectWise Explorer client and managed workspaces	Browser based, nothing to install
Owner-side access for operations and facilities	Per-seat, licensed around the design team	Wide access for the whole team, no CAD licence
Open DGN, DWG, and RVT in the browser	Yes, through ProjectWise 365 and Bentley viewers	Yes, in the Rift and Foundry viewers, no CAD licence
Full-text search inside scanned legacy drawings	Indexes attributes and documents	Yes, XRAY OCR reads the text on the sheet
A controlled record for the operating life of the asset	Scoped to project delivery	Yes, a record that outlives the project
Administration overhead to run it	Datasources, managed workspaces, an administrator	Configured for owners, minimal administration

fig. 05 · the drawing register

A register the owner holds, not a workspace the project runs.

Book a drawing in and Lunr numbers it, keeps its full revision history, and marks the previous revision as superseded. The title-block fields come across as searchable metadata, so drawing number, revision, and discipline are things you filter on, without a managed workspace to configure or an administrator to run it.

A controlled register per set, showing the current revision and status of every sheet at a glance.
Automatic document and version numbering, applied in your register format as drawings are booked in.
Superseded revisions kept and marked, never deleted and never mistaken for the current sheet.
Title-block tags read into metadata, so the drawing number, revision, and discipline become filters.

controlled register · automatic numbering · superseded marking · title-block metadata

See document control

A drawing's metadata and workflow panel in Lunr, showing title-block fields such as drawing number, revision, and discipline held as searchable metadata.

fig. 06 · viewing

Open a DGN, DWG, or RVT in the browser, no client to install.

With ProjectWise, access leans on the ProjectWise Explorer client and a licensed seat, so wide owner-side viewing is a deployment in its own right. In Lunr the Rift viewer renders DGN, DWG, and PDF at full fidelity, with layers, measurement, and markup, all in the browser. Models open in Foundry, point clouds in Nimbus.

View DGN, DWG, RVT, and PDF in the browser, with no CAD licence and nothing to install.
Toggle layers, measure, and mark up the drawing straight in the viewer.
Open BIM models in Foundry and point clouds in Nimbus from the same record.
Give operations, facilities, and contractors access without a client deployment.

browser viewers · layers · measurement · markup · no client install

Try the viewers

A DGN drawing open in Lunr's Rift viewer in the browser, showing the sheet with its layers panel and viewer toolbar, with no client install required.

fig. 07 · search

Search the words printed inside a scanned drawing.

An owner inherits decades of scanned sheets, and their content is invisible to attribute and document indexing. XRAY runs OCR and full-text search across every drawing, scans included. Search a valve tag, a title-block reference, or a note, and Lunr returns the sheet whether it was issued this morning or scanned from a 1994 archive.

OCR and AI full-text search across every DGN, DWG, RVT, PDF, and scanned image.
Find a tag, a reference, or a note printed inside the drawing, not just the file name.
Deep XRAY re-scans a dense sheet tile by tile, so nothing on the drawing is missed.
Filter results by metadata, tags, and revision to narrow a large set fast.

OCR · AI full-text search · deep XRAY tile re-scan · metadata and tag filters

See how XRAY search works Read about drawing OCR

Lunr's XRAY search returning a list of drawings matched on text found inside the sheets, scanned drawings included, with metadata and revision shown for each result.

fig. 08 · transmittals and audit

Receive the handover on the record, with an audit trail behind it.

The moment that matters for an owner is handover, when the design firm issues the set and the owner has to know it is complete. Lunr issues and receives transmittals that track themselves, validates each handover package against a manifest so a missing as-constructed drawing is caught on upload, and keeps a full audit trail behind every approval, revision, and change.

Receive tracked transmittals from your consultants, and run change requests that hold, forward, and close.
Validate each handover package against a manifest, and read title-block tags into metadata.
Move drawings through configurable review and approval workflows.
Keep a full audit trail on every controlled drawing, ready for compliance.

transmittals · manifest validation · change requests · configurable workflows · full audit trail

See handover and transmittals

Lunr's document activity view, showing an audit trail of transmittals, workflow transitions, and metadata changes on a controlled drawing.

fig. 09 · moving across

Move the record across, let the design firm keep ProjectWise.

You do not have to rip out ProjectWise or interrupt a live project. Import the drawings, keep the folders your team knows, and bring every format so it opens in the browser. The owner’s record moves to Lunr, and the consultants carry on with the tools they run.

01
Import in bulk
Point Lunr at your ProjectWise export, and it reads the title-block tags from each sheet into metadata, so drawing number, revision, and discipline become fields you can filter on.
02
Keep your folders
Your existing folder structure comes across, so people find drawings where they expect, while the register gives the controlled view on top.
03
Bring every format
DGN, DWG, RVT, and PDF all open in the browser through the Rift and Foundry viewers, so nobody needs MicroStation or a CAD seat to read a sheet.
04
Let the design firm keep ProjectWise
Your consultants can run ProjectWise for live design work in progress through delivery, and issue the controlled set to Lunr as the owner's record. Nothing forces an all-or-nothing move.

Lunr's repository folder view, showing an imported folder structure on the left beside the controlled drawing documents on the right.

See the CAD, GIS, and facilities connectors that bring drawings and models in on the connectors page.

fig. 10 · proof

Owners already run their record on Lunr.

Universities, utilities, energy companies, and government departments run their drawing record on Lunr, from project delivery through the operating life of the asset.

over10,000,000

documents under management on Lunr. Proof the drawing record holds up at owner-and-portfolio scale.

Case study · University of Canberra

20,000+drawings and documents brought under a controlled owner record.

“Lunr is a simple solution that provides the flexibility to develop the system to our needs. Lunr is simple to use, and minimal training is required.”
Daniel Byrnes, Digital Systems Coordinator, Campus Estate, University of Canberra

Read the University of Canberra case study Engineering document management for universities

fig. 11 · questions

Questions owners ask about Lunr and Bentley ProjectWise.

What ProjectWise is built for, where an owner is better served by a controlled record, and what it takes to move the record across while the design firm keeps working.

Is Lunr a Bentley ProjectWise alternative?: For an asset owner, yes. ProjectWise is engineering collaboration software built for design teams to run work in progress during a project, administered around Bentley authoring tools and managed workspaces. Lunr is built for the owner who receives and holds the issued record. It runs in the browser, controls revisions, and searches inside scans, without datasources, workspace configuration, or an administrator to keep them running. Owners choose Lunr when they need a controlled record for the operating life of the asset rather than a design-delivery environment.
What is the difference between Lunr and ProjectWise?: ProjectWise is design work-in-progress infrastructure, administered for the engineering office, with a MicroStation and DGN heritage, a desktop client, and managed workspaces. Lunr is the owner's controlled record, browser based, with a drawing register, revision control, transmittals, and full-text search across scans. Put simply, ProjectWise runs the design while the project is live, and Lunr holds the record once drawings are issued and for the decades the asset operates after that.
Do you need MicroStation or a Bentley licence to view drawings in Lunr?: No. The whole team opens DGN, DWG, RVT, and PDF drawings in the browser through the Rift viewer, with layers, measurement, and markup. Models open in Foundry and point clouds in Nimbus. A Bentley or CAD seat is only needed to author drawings, not to review them, so operations, facilities, and external contractors can all see a sheet without a licence.
Can an asset owner use ProjectWise as their record?: It can be done, but it is a heavy fit. ProjectWise is scoped to design delivery and administered around managed workspaces and the ProjectWise Explorer client, so an owner inherits configuration and licensing built for an engineering office. It is also project-centric, while an owner needs a record that outlives the project and the consultants. Owners tend to keep the design firm on ProjectWise through delivery and hold the issued, controlled record on Lunr.
How does moving off ProjectWise work, and how long does it take?: Import your drawings in bulk. Lunr reads the title-block tags from each sheet into metadata, so drawing number, revision, and discipline become searchable fields without retyping. Your existing folder structure comes across, and automatic numbering applies your register format as records land. Timing depends on the volume and how clean the title blocks are, but reading the title blocks is the step that removes most of the manual work. The University of Canberra brought more than 20,000 documents under a controlled record this way.
Does Lunr run in the browser without a desktop client or managed workspace?: Yes. Lunr is browser based, with nothing to install and no datasource or workspace configuration to administer. There is no ProjectWise Explorer client to deploy and no MicroStation workspace to maintain, so an owner can give the whole team access without standing up design infrastructure first.
What happens to our DGN and MicroStation files?: They come across and open in the browser at full fidelity, held under revision control in the drawing register. Your design firm can carry on authoring in MicroStation and issue the controlled set to Lunr, so the owner holds a clean record while the consultants keep the tools they know. Nothing is converted away from DGN or locked to a single authoring application.

fig. 12 · get started

Let the project run ProjectWise. Give the owner the record.

Book a walkthrough with someone who knows what a transmittal and an as-constructed drawing are, and watch Lunr run against a set of your own.

Book a demo Explore features

10M+ documents under management · Hosted in Australia and the US · SAML · Full audit trail · Export anytime

entity: Lunr Labs Pty Ltd
location: Melbourne AU
workspace: documents.lunr.app
rev: 2026