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.

 Choosing elements to transfer from Advance Steel to Advance Design 

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.

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!