GRAITEC launches GRAITEC BIM Connect 2013

February 28, 2013May 7, 2013 / graitecgroup / 5 Comments

GRAITEC BIM Connect is a software add-on for Autodesk REVIT and part of the GRAITEC BIM solution. With GRAITEC BIM Connect, Autodesk REVIT users can quickly connect their REVIT models to the GRAITEC Advance suite and then optimize the design of their structures in accordance with U.S. and EUROCODE standards, produce effective and error-free general arrangement drawings, fabrication drawings, BOMs, and NC files both for steel and concrete structures.

With version 2013, important features have been added:

Automatic installation from ADVANCE Setup;

GRAITEC launches GRAITEC BIM Connect 2013

New GTCX file format;
Export of the folded plates and poly-beams;
6000 profile mapping lines, including profile rotations added for North America and UK;
New specific ribbon tab added in Autodesk REVIT, to include all commands (Export, Import, Synchronization, Settings and About).

GRAITEC launches GRAITEC BIM Connect 2013

Many new improvements have been included to speed up performances and allow more response for handling big projects:

Time decrease for model import into Autodesk REVIT, regardless of the number of plates;

GRAITEC launches GRAITEC BIM Connect 2013

Correct import and rotation for curved beams and curved foundations;
Import of bent or curved walls, regardless of the format;
Automatic recognition of concrete sections, regardless of the file format and with no mapping required.

Using GRAITEC BIM Connect 2013, you can also import/export to other BIM file formats such as IFC, SDNF, CIS2 (already certified), PSS and KISS.

You can read here the full documents of new features and improvements for GRAITEC BIM Connect 2013. Please feel free to give us your feedback to help us improve other functionalities of the software.

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Automatic-recognition-of-concrete-sections

Ease of use, Power and BIM… the key words of the Graitec Advance 2013 release

February 26, 2013 / graitecgroup / Leave a comment

GRAITEC, European software developer for modeling and drawing creation for the construction industry, announces the release of the GRAITEC Advance 2013 suite.

Driven by sustainable development challenges, the increasing complexity of projects, time constraints and smaller budgets, construction professionals have no other choice than to make the leap to innovation. GRAITEC, a player in dynamic innovation, dedicates a signifi cant portion of its Research & Development investments in Digital Modeling or BIM (Building Information Modeling), in particular in its GRAITEC Advance suite.

This technology associates each real object to its virtual equivalent in the digital model and offers users the ability to simulate the behavior of the real structure, to automate the creation of technical documentation of their projects, to maintain consistency through the changes to the project and facilitate technical collaboration with all project stakeholders.

GRAITEC Advance has more than 15,000 users and 7 new users join the community every day. The uniqueness of GRAITEC Advance is to offer a solution that is very effi cient because it is dedicated to building professionals: design, calculation and creation of fabrication drawings, easy training, and provides a rapid return on investment, usually from the fi rst project.

The GRAITEC Advance suite consists of software products dedicated to the BIM structure: Advance Design, Advance Concrete and Advance Steel and Advance CAD, a new drawing tool that completes the suite.

Version 2013 has many improvements and strengthens its position: simplicity and power.

Simplicity because Advance Steel and Advance Concrete work as well as standalone as they do on AutoCAD, the choice is the user’s. In addition to the economic advantage, this innovation allows the release of AutoCAD licenses for other uses within the design office. Simplified installation, getting started faster, optimized interface, in short simplicity.
Power because of features such as custom connections in Advance Steel, advanced management of bar marks in Advance Concrete or “Capacity Design” calculation in Advance Design bring greater efficiency to users.

For Francis Guillemard, CEO of the GRAITEC Group: “In 2012, the GRAITEC Advance suite saw sustained growth of 35% in a market where the average growth rate was 8%.
The user community has almost doubled in 3 years. It is truly a sign that the profession is looking for solutions that offer the best compromise of Power/Simplicity and obviously at a low cost. This positioning ensures the growth of GRAITEC Advance. We contribute to the democratization of BIM in construction and make it very practical for our users.“

Advance Steel 2013: The best ease of use / power compromise

Independent of the AutoCAD® platform since Version 2012, Advance Steel 2013 improves its ergonomics and ease of use by providing a new user interface element, the “palette”, which contains animated buttons and tooltips.

It has many new innovations: first, the ability to create custom connections allowing users to define, store and reuse custom connections in their projects and thus easily adapt to all types of situations.

The new release also adds new connections for cold rolled profiles. Many other features are also available such as the option to create welding lines in drawing and a new recognition technology of “notable points” that applies to manual dimensions that are updated automatically by Advance Steel 2013.

Advance Concrete 2013: CAD platform freedom

Advance Concrete 2013 main focus is to offer users the freedom to use Advance Concrete with or without AutoCAD. Advance Concrete 2013 includes its own graphics engine allowing the user to select the desired CAD platform.

Advance Concrete 2013 provides greater control and better coordination with the “External drawing technology” allowing the user to place each new view and each new layout in a separate DWG. This results in smaller DWG files and better performance.

A new bar mark management functionalities is also available.
Version 2013 also improves user efficiency and productivity thanks to the new, redesigned Ribbon arrangements and the new Graitec tool palettes.

Advance Design 2013: High simulation exigency and Eurocode expertise

Advance Design 2013: High simulationexigency and Eurocodeexpertise

Advance Design 2013 goes further than ever in helping engineers to optimize the design of concrete, steel and timber structures according to the Eurocodes and North American codes.

Among the many new functionalities in regards to Eurocodes: major 3D climatic generator improvements for EC1 (more accurate wind parameters definition, better management for isolated roofs, additional fields for CsCd calculation), several improvements on the EC2 engine (possibility to place real reinforcement on linear and planar elements, new slab punching verification, availability of a detailed design report including a reinforcement sketch for concrete beams, etc.), EC3 engine improvements (accurate lateral torsional buckling calculation considering intermediate restraints and load application point,buckling check for circular hollow sections of class 4, new joints and improved user interface for the steel connection module, etc.), EC5 improvements (residual area in case of fire verification, improvement of deflection check in the detailed report, etc.).

One main new functionality is dealing with the “Capacity design” implementation helping users to optimize members design according to seismical requirements (especially for EC8).

Advance CAD 2013: NEW!!

Advance CAD is a new comer in the Graitec Advance suite. It is a fully compatible DWG® CAD software. It provides its users a simple, natural and economical solution to the frequent requirements of drawing creation and modification. With a modern easy-to-use interface, Advance CAD creates all 2D entities (lines, polylines, arcs, circles, polygons, etc.) and associates all desired colors, line styles and shading. Concepts such as “layers”, “snap points”, “windows” are available as well as all navigation features (zoom, pan, orbit, etc.). Advance CAD can also create and handle 3D solids (cubes, spheres, cylinders, etc.) and perform Boolean operations.

Graitec BIM Connect 2013: A smooth BIM connector to Revit

With GRAITEC BIM Connect, Autodesk Revit Architecture 2013 and Autodesk Revit Structure 2013 users quickly connect their Revit models to the GRAITEC Advance suite and then optimize the design of their structures in accordance with U.S. and Eurocode standards, produce effective and error-free general arrangement drawings, fabrication drawings, BOMs, and NC files both for steel and concrete structures. Release 2013 provides key improvements such as extended profile mapping and ACIS solids transfer.

ADVANCE Steel 2013 reviewed by AEC Magazine

February 25, 2013 / graitecgroup / Leave a comment

AEC Mag.com is the online presence of AEC Magazine, UK’s number 1 journal for decision makers in Architecture, Engineering and Construction. AEC Magazine has a bold agenda that reflects the evolutionary nature of this fast-moving sector with its proliferation of software and hardware technologies and the collaborative working practices that are integral to today’s design and engineering workflow.

Greg Corke, Managing Editor for AEC Magazine, offers a first look at GRAITECs first release for this year: ADVANCE Steel 2013. For version 2013, the software remains focused on quality and enhanced efficiency: “Having done a major re-write last year, the 2013 release is about improving user productivity. GRAITEC has focused on four main areas — user interface, raw performance, modeling enhancements and drawing issue and re-issue.”

The start page is new, offering users a quick look at recent projects, videos, tutorials, FAQs and others. For the interface however, the biggest change is found in the tool palette, from which many of the model manipulation commands are found. In terms of performance, the graphic engine has been optimized, new viewing modes are available and the general speed has been improved. “GRAITEC has placed a big emphasis on performance and 64-bit support means there are now no limitations on model size, providing the workstation has enough system memory.”

The modeling process has been improved thanks to new intelligent tools made available to users. This reflects directly to the production and quality of the drawings, which are now “less manual”on the way these are updated or referenced.

“While the performance improvements will no doubt be welcomed with open arms, it is the workflow enhancements that will arguably have the biggest impact — particularly when it comes to minimizing the amount of manual re-work required on re-issued drawings”, Greg Corke concluded.

Click here to read the full review

FREE webinar organised by GRAITEC Asia-Pacific, Mumbai Office

February 22, 2013 / graitecgroup / 4 Comments

GRAITEC Asia-Pacific is organising a free webinar on 28^th of February.

Advance Steel

Advance Steel® is specifically designed for steel professionals who require easy-to-use BIM structural steel software for automating drawing creation, documentation and fabrication.

Topic: General overview – discover the software in 30 minutes

Short presentation of Advance Steel showing the advantages and the main features

Thursday, February 28^th, 2013

⇒ 15:00 PM – 15.45 PM (Indian Standard Time)

GRAITEC Group reports +20.3% organic growth for 2012 and +125% profitability

February 20, 2013 / graitecgroup / Leave a comment

GRAITEC, an international developer of 3D BIM Design-Build and Structural Design software for the construction industry, reports a turnover of 30.8 million Euros for the fiscal year ended December 31^st, 2012. GRAITEC revenue organically increased by +20.3% compared to 2011. The Advance BIM suite had a +30% increase in turnover and Advance Steel had a +54% in turnover compared to 2011.

Key 2012 figures:

GRAITEC over performed the initial forecast of 29M€ for 2012:

Turnover of 30.8 M€, an increase of 20.3% compared to 2011.
The consolidated EBITDA increased +125% compared to 2011 reaching 5.4 M€.
74% of the turnover international

GRAITEC Advance software results:

Advance Steel increased +54%
Advance Suite increased +30%
BIM Structural CAD Solutions +45%
Advance Suite represents more than 50% of Graitec Revenue

GRAITEC Advance is the complete BIM software solution, from design to detailing, intended for the international market.

Region Focus

Western Europe, in a difficult context for construction, GRAITEC grew in 2012 by 24% in Western Europe.

GRAITEC Germany led the Western European growth at Graitec with 21% increase in turnover. Each and every solution sold by GRAITEC Germany performed in 2012, from Advance Steel that registered a +26% growth, to the special performance of Advance Bridge 175% growth, and adopted by the key regulation organization in the industry. The Structural Analysis business, after a difficult 2011, is back on track and showed in 2012 a strong dynamism with 84% increase in turnover.
GRAITEC France, in a context of leadership and high maturity, delivered expectations, a solid 2012 with a turnover growth of 13%. GRAITEC France continues to reinforce its strong market leadership in the Structural Analysis solutions market. However, the 3D Structural BIM CAD became more and more strategic and represented 50% of Graitec France Growth.
GRAITEC Italy (B&B), exceptional performance of the Italian subsidiary based in Noale and acquired in 2011. In less than a year, GRAITEC Italy B&B has positioned Advance Steel as the standard solution for the steel market, with 245% growth in revenue and almost 150 licenses delivered to exclusively new customers.
GRAITEC UK had a great 2012 with an increase of 42% of the Advance Steel turnover, and the creation of a new sales office in the Midlands. The business indicators are showing an over 70% new business ratio and an initial attached rate of 97%.
Adris, as a dedicated Autodesk reseller, has over performed the industry standards with 32% growth in turnover and an improvement of its margin rate. Adris not only got certified in several fields, but reached the Autodesk UK Top 3 ranking and is leading the European VAR community in growth.

Eastern Europe, in a difficult context for construction, GRAITEC had some fantastic performances particularly in Russia with 64% growth.

GRAITEC Czech Republic (AB Studio) has shown a great capacity to sustain its level of activity and business, as leader of the AEC industry in Czech Republic. AB Studio continues to reinforce the presence of GRAITEC solutions in the Eastern Europe region and delivered +39% growth with the Advance BIM suite.
GRAITEC Romania delivered a solid performance in 2012 growing the business by 24%. The complete Advance BIM suite is offered to the Romanian market and every solution performed in 2012.
GRAITEC Russia continues to gain market share on the market and establish year after year Advance Steel as the standard solution for the Steel construction industry. The growth achievement is impressive (+64%) and the contribution of GRAITEC Russia is more significant year after year.

GRAITEC North America, 2012 shows an increasing contribution of the North American operations, the sales and technical organization controls the business and delivers over expectations. GRAITEC North American operations grew by 54% in 2012 with an impressive +108% for Advance Steel. The growth, market share and customer acquisition has been massive in 2012 but it is only the beginning for GRAITEC and we have great prospects for the future.

GRAITEC ASIA Pacific is definitely ramping up with 87% growth in 2012. Australia, Singapore, Indonesia and India are leading the GRAITEC growth in this region. GRAITEC reinforces its investment in the region, creating GRAITEC India to drive the Indian operations and offer proximity and local support to our customers.

2013 Outlook

GRAITEC wants to continue its market share acquisition as a global player of the BIM and Design-Build industry. GRAITEC will reinforce its international development, with new offices in USA and probably Brazil and the consolidation of the Asia Pacific operation through GRAITEC offices in India and Singapore supporting our resellers. The GRAITEC strategy remains to acquire customers and market share proposing the full 3D BIM GRAITEC Advance suite. Advance Steel will continue to drive the growth of our 3D BIM Design-Build solutions and consolidate its market leadership in growth and new business. The European Construction forecast is concerning and taking this factor into consideration we will target 15% turnover growth in 2013 and an operational profit up 40%. To support this growth, GRAITEC will recruit approximately 20 new employees who will contribute to the expansion of the company. A new release of the 3D BIM Advance suite is planned during Q3 2013 to better address some key markets and the requests of our customers.

Francis GUILLEMARD, CEO of GRAITEC, comments:
“2012 was a fantastic achievement for GRAITEC. In a very difficult economic environment, GRAITEC has delivered very solid growth month after month. In 2012 we focused on our organic growth and decided to make a pause in our process of acquisition. This makes our performance even more remarkable. Our BIM Structural CAD solutions are clearly driving both the internationalization and the growth of GRAITEC. They benefit from a very unique positioning on the market and give the expected answer to the new challenges of the construction industry, such as Design-Build or BIM processes. In this field GRAITEC is definitely acquiring new market shares faster than any competitor.
The GRAITEC solution Advance Steel grew by more than 54% in 2012, this is an amazing success considering the Advance Steel growth rate in 2011 was 40%. This exciting growth in a traditionally slow growing market is positioning Advance Steel as the leading solution in growth, on the market. In 2012 we sold close to 1200 commercial licenses to more than 700 customers, 6 new users join the Advance Steel community every day. It’s important to notice that the vast majority of those users are new users we migrate from 2D solutions to the benefits of 3D, BIM and Design-Build.
In 2013 GRAITEC will continue its growth, and continue its international expansion driven by Asia Pacific and North America. GRAITEC is also actively working on potential new strategic acquisitions to reinforce its technical leadership or support new markets penetration. I rely on our strategy, teams and solutions to make of 2013 a great milestone in the GRAITEC history.“

Graitec Group people

Advance Steel UK Drawing Styles update notes

February 18, 2013 / graitecgroup / Leave a comment

As part of an ongoing project Graitec UK have been working hard to improve the drawing styles in Advance Steel to give better results in more situations. It is a fact that different users desire different things and would draw the same things in different ways. Therefore, some degree of compromise is always required when delivering a set of style for universal use. However, we believe we have now been able to produce a set of styles and related drawing processes that will give clearer drawings in the vast majority of cases meaning far less manual editing is required. Furthermore the process of creating the drawings can be streamlined.

Key Benefits / changes of these styles (in no particular order):-

Tried to reduce unnecessary views, including section views
Tried to remove duplicate dimensions
Tried to reduce unnecessary dimensions
Where possible added dimensions that were missing
Where possible, improved layout of dimensions to align with parts and not go across views
2 Special styles for Rafters – By default the processes use the style without the top view but there is one with a top view that can easily be selected or set in the process instead
3 Special FRAME styles – One dimensions the edges of beams and plates, one dimensions the system line for beams instead, one allows selection of extra cross-section views. The Assembly processes will use this style for any assembly where the main part has the model role FRAME. Thus things like whole balconies, plant rooms etc. can have a better automatic drawing
Special style for Eaves Beam Brackets – Used automatically by Assembly processes
Turned off Grid Reference in assemblies
Improved clipping and scaling rules to produce better results for parts and assemblies
New “All Assemblies A3-A1 Single – BOM” process to draw all assemblies without the need to preselect. (Don’t forget to set UCS for stair assembly views)
New “All Parts A4-A1 Single – BOM” process to draw all parts without the need to preselect
New Cameras processes – Versions for Anchor type, Overview type and All. Versions for each paper size. Can be used for any type of camera if you simply select the right type in the dialog that comes up after clicking USE in Quick Doc’s
New Process Suite for “Everything” that uses “All Cameras Anchor A1”, followed by “All Cameras Overview A1” then “All Assemblies A3-A1 Single – BOM, and finally “All Parts A4-A1 Single – BOM”. Thus with this one process and suitably prepared cameras in your model you get the entire set of GA’s, Assemblies and part drawings in one step without preselecting anything (Don’t forget to set the UCS for Stair assembly views)
New previews and descriptions in Quick Docs for the above items
Adjusted Cladding style to include end view

Click here to read the full article

Successful Advance Steel User Day in UK

February 15, 2013 / graitecgroup / Leave a comment

GRAITEC announces another successful Advance Steel User Day organised by its UK office. The event took place at one of the most prestigious locations in the Midlands – the Branston Golf and Country Club, Burton on Trent in Staffordshire.

Carl Spalding, Managing Director of Graitec UK, opened the event by presenting an overview of the global business and concentrating on the expansion and growth locally in the United Kingdom.

Successful Advance Steel User Day in UK

With GRAITEC UK and GRAITEC HQ staff in attendance, the day provided an excellent opportunity to go through detailed demonstrations of the major enhancements the new Advance Steel 2013 release has to offer, all the while re-covering some of the enhancements of previous versions.

The project winners of the Advance Steel 2012 UK User Competition were also announced and presented with their awards whilst other impressive projects completed by number of other clients using Advance Steel were also reviewed.

Successful Advance Steel User Day in UK

The day provided an opportunity to talk about the continued expansion of Graitec UK with the opening of their new office and training facility in Staffordshire, and also Graitec UK’s exciting plans for the future.

The User Day was a big success, with more than 30 attendees battling with snowy conditions to be there! Feedback from the event was extremely positive with everyone looking forward to attending the next UK User Day.

Advance Steel Project: Manchester Road Bridge

February 11, 2013 / graitecgroup / 1 Comment

Advance Steel project: Manchester Road Bridge Manchester Road Bridge in part of the Living Street Project, a lottery-funded project focused on the development of a suitable, convenient and safe route across Manchester Road, which will have the potential to visually enhance this important gateway into the city. This new walkway is a people-orientated, street environment that links up people with places using broad, high-quality, avenue-like routes for pedestrians and cyclists linking up residential areas, schools, shops, health care, parks and town center.

The steel structure of unique design was detailed in ADVANCE Steel by Briton Fabricators Lt. The building process started in November 2011 and over 10,000 components have been put together to compile the structure. It forms an elevated section of the Living Street and will be a gateway feature for Manchester Road. The bridge is close to a surface level signalized crossing which serves a bus stop on the guided bus route. All bridge ramps are 1:20 gradient, and the bridge 3.7 m in width. Access through the public park is 1:15 gradient.

Advance Steel project: Manchester Road Bridge It is made of over 350 tonnes of steel, 210 meters long in total with two main spans over Manchester Road of 22 meters and 24 meters. It is supported by almost 100 piles buried into the ground carefully engineered to avoid underground services and Bradford Beck. At the central reservation dividing Manchester Road a 17m high rectilinear extension to the column forms a towering central feature which marks the visual centre of the bridge crossing.

The fantastic new bridge links up local communities on either side of the bridge, providing a pleasant route for cyclists and pedestrians, and enabling quick and easy access to the town centre and other essential links, which were missing before. It also offers a more gentle approach to the old footbridge, which was nearly 40 years old and in need of serious maintenance to address time related deterioration. Manchester Road Bridge was built approximately in the same position as the old footbridge and was completed in September 2012. Hundreds of people turned out to see the bridge officially being opened. Although, during an average weekday, 621 people use the surface crossing of Manchester Road, and only 340 the footbridge, for reasons of safety the public authorities encourages everybody to use the new bridge to cross this busy junction.