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In this issue, we cover:
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| Service Pack 1 of Advance Steel 2011 is released! |
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Service Pack 1 of Advance Steel 2011 provides the following to end-users:
• Compliancy of Advance Steel 2011 with AutoCAD® 2012
• Various enhancements
SP1 makes Advance Steel 2011 compliant with AutoCAD® 2012 and AutoCAD Architecture® 2012.
AutoCAD® 2012 enables the quick creation of documents from a variety of modeling formats, helping to reduce manual documentation workarounds. Capture and import as-built information to jump-start your design process. Plus, you'll find a wide range of timesaving enhancements to the features you use most. AutoCAD® 2012 delivers the powerful tools you need to participate in smooth 3D design workflows, helping drive your projects to completion more quickly than ever before.
With new and expanded workflows for 3D conceptual design, model documentation, and reality capture, AutoCAD® 2012 helps design professionals maximize productivity.
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To get AutoCAD® 2012 compliancy, Advance Steel users can download Service Pack 1 from the GRAITEC website: www.graitec.com/advantage
Advance is a trademark of GRAITEC. Autodesk® logo and AutoCAD® are registered trademarks of Autodesk Inc. Products supporting this logo are not necessarily Autodesk products and therefore Autodesk does not guarantee them. All other trademarks belong to their respective owner. |
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Service Pack 1 has different enhancements such as:
Shim plates in base plate joints can be created with or without a leveling plate.
New option to define the front/view of profiles such as RHS in NC-DSTV files.
Scribing within NC-DSTV files can be created as a partial line (e.g. each line longer than 20mm will be split into several lines with a length of 10mm).
The functionality to connect railing handrails works between straight and curved railings.
The libraries have been extended with some additional sections and bolts.
To benefit from these improvements, Advance Steel users can download the relevant service pack from the GRAITEC website: www.graitec.com/advantage
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| Projects of the Month |
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NEW STADIUM IN VALENCIENNES - ETI, Echirolles, France |
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The Valenciennes football club just opened its new stadium a few weeks ago with a friendly game between the local team of Valenciennes and Borussia Dordmund (the new crowned German champions).
The design office ETI (International Studies and Techniques) was in charge of providing all documents for fabrication and erection of the steel structures of this stadium.
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Description of the project:
The new stadium has a seating capacity of 25000. Its steel structure consists of columns made of Y-shaped tapered boxes which are supporting a complete curved roof structure. An access footbridge located under the steel roof enables technical access to the stadium's perimeter.
The main challenges of the project:
The stadium is a very geometrically complex structure and only a 3D Steel detailing software application like Advance Steel could help to do the job on time and with high-quality documents provided for fabrication and erection.
In addition, one of the main requirements from the architect was to see no bolts once the structure was erected.
This is why all bolted assemblies had to be designed in a way that cover plates welded at site hid all the bolts.
The Advance Steel solution:
It was necessary to model many weld preparation chamfers on the edge of the plates for them to appear on the fabrication drawings. The site welds had to be grinded and painted to get a perfect final aspect.
The roof itself was created using sections from the libraries available in Advance Steel and also using automatic connections between the different beams. For the columns and the curved rafters made of welded plates, the users at ETI used the Advance Steel function to convert AutoCAD® elements such as complex polylines to polygonal plates, which helped to save a lot of time and to get the desired shape of the steel members.
In order to have no bolts visible on the structure, different welds were required at site. This is why ETI had to create weld preparations on many plates of the structure. To achieve this, ETI used the automatic "weld preparation" function in Advance Steel to obtain the chamfers automatically created as required.
A huge number of sections and views were needed for the drawings of the members of this structure, and the automatic detailing tools available in Advance Steel helped ETI to provide high-quality drawings containing all the necessary information.
Mr. Stéphane Dottori, Construction Engineer for ETI Design Office: "We didn't get a single phone call from the site reporting an error!"
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COMMERCIAL AND LEISURE CENTRE OF LYON CONFLUENCE - BEMMA, Bourg-en-Bresse, France |
Description of the project:
Located in the south of the city of Lyon, where the rivers Rhône and Saône meet, Lyon Confluence is a major commercial and leisure center that allows the city to double the surface of its hyper-center area. It consists of a new Commercial and Leisure Center with a surface area of 63000m², with 12 different restaurants and a cinema of 14 rooms.
The BEMMA design office was in charge of designing all outside stairs accessing the 3-story building.
The main challenges of the project:
Due to its dimensions, the project required 15 access and fire escape staircases to the building.
All the staircases are different, meaning it required to create a different 3D model for each of the stairs.
The environment such as a masonry or MEP had to be taken into consideration to avoid any clashes at site.
One of the key issues for the BEMMA design office was to have a good interoperability with other disciplines as they had to exchange information frequently with the architect on one side and with the company in charge of the fabrication on the other side.
The Advance Steel solution:
The BEMMA design office, which was using AutoCAD LT® for years decided to switch to Advance Steel as it appeared that it was the best solution to design these different stairs and to provide all the requested drawings on time and with high-quality drawings.
Each stairs was modeled in 3D using the efficient Advance Steel tools including the environment with the concrete and the plumbing pipe. The automatic clash check was frequently used by the user to check in real time if they were any interferences between the elements, in order to avoid any calls from the site.
Using the various options to exchange the data (through the 3D model, the general arrangement drawings and also all electronic files for the CNC machines at workshop), Advance Steel was the perfect solution to provide and share DWG files with the architect, and NC-DSTV (or NC-DXF files) with the company in charge of the fabrication of the stairs.
Mr. Weil, co-owner of the BEMMA design office: "We could easily collaborate with the other companies linked to the project and facilitate their work. Advance Steel was very satisfying regarding everything that deals with metalwork details and fabrication. We took the decision to change from a 2D solution to a 3D solution and we found that Advance Steel is now the ideal tool for the type of structure that we have to take do daily."
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CURVED PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE – PKD, Dačice, Czech Republic - Winner of the 2010 AS user contest (CZ) |
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PKD design office was in charge of this project for the Road and Motorway Directorate of the region of Plzen. With this project, PKD won the 2010 Advance Steel Czech user contest organized by AB Studio, member of the GRAITEC Group.
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Description of the project:
The pedestrian bridge crosses over the 25-meter large 4-lane highway I/26 in the region of Plzen, Czech Republic.
The structure features a single-story deck with two arched suspension beams. Perpendicular retaining beams supporting the deck are welded onto the arched beams, as well as two smaller arched beams that distribute the weight. The bridge ends with two circular access ramps rotating down to the ground.
The structure of the bridge is 138m long, 6m high with a weight of 168 tons. The walkway itself is 3m wide.
The main challenges of the project:
Different specific types of plates and beams must be detailed for the workshop.
The main suspension beams are made of welded hollow profiles with inside welded stiffeners.
The Advance Steel solution:
All parts were modeled in 3D with Advance Steel using automatic tools to convert AutoCAD® polylines and splines to Advance Steel polygonal plates and twisted folded plates. All railings along the helicoidal access ramps at both ends of the bridge were easily created because Advance Steel offers all the flexible tools to create any type of steel structure.
For each welded assembly, the center of gravity was located in the 3D model by Advance Steel, and was displayed and dimensioned on the assembly drawings so that it helped workers at site.
All folded elements were displayed unfolded and dimensioned on workshop drawings for easier fabrication. The NC-DSTV files for the CNC machines at workshop were created with one click from the 3D model.
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| Tip of the Month: BIM transfer between Advance Steel and Advance Design |
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| GRAITEC Advance BIM suite enables users to transfer 3D models between Advance Steel and Advance Design, whether it is standard sections from the software's library or user sections. |
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Choosing elements to transfer from Advance Steel to Advance Design |
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Among all their different properties (size, material, length, weight, part mark number, etc.), Advance Steel elements are defined by the "Structural member" property. When importing these elements to Advance Design using the GRAITEC BIM center, elements for which this property is not activated will be ignored (e.g. kickrail of a railing, etc.).
If an element has its "Structural member" property selected, it will be imported in Advance Design.
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Creating a user section in Advance Steel and get it also in Advance Design |
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In addition to the standard sections (e.g. I beams, angles, tubes, etc.) that are provided when installing the software, Advance Steel end-users can define (and store in the library) any user sections.
Easily create a new user section in Advance Steel and save it so that it can be available in the drop-down list. This will allow the use of this section in the Advance Steel 3D model.
To have this user section available in Advance Design, start Advance Design and go to Edit > Used cross sections. In the dialog box which appears, click the "Add" button to add a new section. In the Advance Steel category, choose the user section called "Usersection". Select the section that is previewed in the table.
Your user section is now available: create a beam in the Advance Design model and choose the user section that you have just imported.
You now just have to apply the different loads on your structure (snow, wind, loads, etc.) and to start the optimization of your structure!
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| International Events |
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BATIMAT international construction trade show - Paris, France
The GRAITEC Team is attending the BATIMAT show from November 7th to 12th in Paris.
BATIMAT is an international and major show dedicated to construction professionals, bringing them together every 2nd year at Porte de Versailles, Paris. It is a special meeting place for professionals looking for technical and novel solutions.
BATIMAT is also an opportunity to discover the major trends in the construction trade as well as innovations, all in a friendly atmosphere.
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Visit GRAITEC Team at BATIMAT 2011 show November 7th-12th !
Hall 5.1 - Booth C 11
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For further information please visit: www.batimat.com |
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| Web Demo: Next Advance Steel webinars planned for October 25th, 2011 |
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Discover Advance Steel, the high-end steel detailing software during one of our coming English web demos, which will take place on October 25th, 2011:
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| Support? Comments? |
GRAITEC Advantage is available to all GRAITEC customers along with a brand new online forum!
We would encourage all our users to make the most of the GRAITEC online services to network with other users.
Contact the GRAITEC technical team to send us your ideas for future development and feedback on our software!
GRAITEC Advantage includes a FAQ section where end-users can find many tips to increase their productivity with Advance Steel!
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GRAITEC Advantage Online
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| Delivered any great projects lately? |
Take advantage of our free marketing services and get your Advance Steel projects published online in our reference section or included in our worldwide corporate and product brochures for free. Or contact us to create a detailed "case study" for a more focused marketing opportunity - this is also free!
Click here to discover several Advance Steel projects
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| BIM software for structural steel engineering, detailing and fabrication |
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BIM software for structural concrete engineering, detailing and fabrication |
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BIM software for FEM structural analysis including international design codes |
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