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Boost your knowledge and skills with ADVANCE Design Connection free webinars!

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If you’re a structural engineer looking for powerful steel connection design software, then make sure you tune into our free Advance Design Connection week.

Boost your knowledge and skills with Advance Design Connection free webinars! Advance Design Connection Week is a series of webinars dedicated to BIM Workflow based on Graitec products!

About Advance Design Connection

Advance Design Connection is a powerful analysis solution for 3D Steel connection, fully integrated with Advance Design which is a global structural analysis software including a powerful 3D climatic generator, advanced stability checks and steel members design and optimization. Advance Design Connection can design all types of 3D connections using internal forces on members coming from Advance Design. It provides precise checks, results of strength, stiffness and buckling analysis of a steel joint. Joints are checked according to Eurocodes and North American codes (EC & AISC). Templates for most-used connections are available as well as wide range of predefined hot rolled and sheet welded members.

Join Advance Design Connection Week – free webinars which will be held in English and French.

During the webinars we will cover the following areas:

  • The workflow from Advance Design to Advance Design Connection –

In this webinar we will demonstrate how to export several connections of a steel structure which is modelled and analyzed in Graitec Advance Design (AD), to Graitec Advance Design Connection (ADC) software. You will see the automatic mapping procedure of sections and as well imported internal forces from AD. In the next step, we will create the connection geometry in ADC and run the analysis and code check process. Finally, we will go through the results of the analysis and status of the connection in ADC.

  • The workflow from Melody to Advance Design Connection – 

We will show the export of a real building attachment calculated with Advance Design to Advance Design Connection (ADC). Then the export of tubular structures from Melody portal to Advance Design Connection. In Advance Design Connection where we will automatically retrieve the profiles and the efforts of Advance Design or Melody, we will build the fasteners in a few minutes and exploit the results.

  • The workflow Advance Design +Advance Steel to Advance Design Connection – 

This webinar will cover the full workflow of steel connection design using Graitec Advance Design (AD), Autodesk Advance Steel (AS) and Graitec Advance Design Connection (ADC). First, we will export the structural node from AD to AS to transfer the sections, the geometry of the connection will be modelled in AS and exported to ADC. Then we will demonstrate how to import internal forces directly from AD into ADC.

  • The new version of Graitec Advance Design connection (ADC 20.1) – 

The new version of Graitec Advance Design connection (ADC 20.1) will be released soon. In this presentation we will focus on new features and functionalities of the new version. Some of the highlights are: Cost estimation  /   Pre-design tool   /   Check of missing welds

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Why is it worth participating in Advance Design Connection Week?

  • No marketing – 100 % practice 
  • Knowledge provided by professionals
  • Examples of effective usage of software
  • Priceless knowledge gained for free

Advance Design Connection Workflows:

  • ANY TOPOLOGY

No limits in how many connections there are in the joint and how they are put together. Shape is defined by project requirements, not by software capabilities

  • ANY LOADING

All forces are analyzed. The overall check of the joint takes into account interactions between all the beams and connections. Engineers stay on the safe side all the time.

  • IN MINUTES

The whole design and check process is kept short enough to be a part of everyday work of structural engineers and fabricators all around the world.

Save the date and register to Advance Design Connection Week!

REGISTER HERE

Watch the video – Analyse and Design Complex Steel Connections using Graitec Advance Design Connection

Presizing reinforced concrete footings directly in Advance Design

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An important advantage of the innovating multi-platform Advance BIM Designers collection of apps that allow automatic generation of 3D reinforcement for reinforced concrete elements is the possibility of direct integration into the interface of the Advance Design calculation software.

One of the many benefits of this integration is a more efficient footing presizing process, after the structure is modelled and a FEM analysis is performed directly in Advance Design.

Presizing reinforced concrete footings directly in Advance Design

Advance BIM Designers reuses all information related to material, size or forces in a support and automatically generates reinforcement cages, drawings and reports, based on user-defined reinforcement assumptions.

Presizing reinforced concrete footings directly in Advance Design

Clic HERE if you would like to know more about the Advance BIM Designers or the 30 days free software trial period!

Advance Design Performance Benchmark

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The Advance Design finite element analysis engine is evaluated in this study.

The Advance Design FEM (Finite Element Method) analysis engine is a powerful tool that allows users to study complex structures, by dividing them into mesh units, where for each of the deformations, efforts and stresses can be solved by using known equations of elasticity.

Considering different sized models (real projects from customers), a timing comparison of mesh operations and the FEM engine is made between:

  • Advance Design 2010 version (with Service Pack 3) and
  • Advance Design 2012 version (with Service Pack 2).

As it can be seen from the following table, Advance Design 2012 (with Service Pack 2) has better times for mesh operations, but also for the total duration of the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) than Advance Design 2010 (with Service Pack 3) – see the “Deviation” columns which show the decrease of times.

Between the chosen Advance Design versions, differences in the analysis model may appear (especially regarding the number of loadings) due to revisions made in the windwalls rupture algorithm.

Note: Tests were realised on a desktop computer with the following configuration: Intel Core i5 3.2 GHz, 16 GB RAM, Win 7 x64

On larger models, notice the improvements with the meshing operation, as the necessary time for it was decreased by 86.2 %. Also, the total time necessary for running the FEA analysis has been reduced by 22.9%.

In conclusion, Advance Design has succeeded to manage large models with over 214 000 mesh nodes and over 1 285 000 degrees of freedom (DOF), and its possibilities are extended.

SuperSTRESS gets Advance Design Cross Section module

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SuperSTRESS continues to be a favorite among UK engineers offering simplicity to complex problems. With the release of SuperSTRESS 8.0C, as well as speed and performance improvements, SuperSTRESS gets a major update and now includes a new Cross Section Module expanding the functionality of the already ‘feature rich’ program. The new Cross Section module is already in use since several years in Advance Design (the structural analysis and design GRAITEC solution) and was proven and acknowledged by the market.

The new Cross Section Module calculates the section properties of any shape you wish to create, this can be done from an arbitrary contour, using standard circular, square, rectangular and polygonal shapes or even using any section from the Steel Section library. The lx torsional calculation can be done using an analytical or numerical method so any section’s torsional property can be calculated. These sections can then be independently saved and brought back into SuperSTRESS for inclusion in the analysis.
The Cross Section module is able to calculate the section’s characteristics for any composed section (multiple contours), having an option to consider the relative rigidity in case of heterogeneous cross sections (multiple materials), ex. standard reinforced concrete or mixed steel – concrete sections.

For reinforced concrete sections, the module is going further, providing the option to define manually / automatically the reinforcement for any concrete shape, including user defined polygonal shapes. The sections defined in this way can then be verified with interaction curves, or simply used in FEM analysis on linear elements with corrected rigidity. For steel sections, the user is able to define calculations points for normal stress (Sigma XX) in a simple and intuitive interface.

If you would like to find out more about SuperSTRESS 8.0c or upgrade your license speak to a member of the Graitec UK team on 0844 543 8888.

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Are you ready for the Eurocodes?

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Are you ready for the Eurcodes? GRAITEC’s  Advance Design 2012 is!  The latest version includes all of the UK National Annexes for EC0, EC1 (climatic), EC2 (concrete), EC3 (steel) and EC5 (timber).


 Many top UK engineering consultancies have already decided to move over from British Standards to the Eurocodes and Advance Design is making this transition very easy.A very intuitive and easy to use CAD interface takes the stress out of model creation and this is made even easier with intelligent BIM connections to many industry standard file types including IFC, SDNF, PSS, CIS2 and DXF.  Fast finite element analysis and design with automatic mesh generation and member optimisation allow for many different iterations of you model in quick succession.  Easy to create result reports and documentation in many formats including DOC, PDF and EXCEL. Advance Design is the complete package for Eurocode Design.

How to modify the mesh on linear elements

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Advance Design provides the option to define a manual mesh on linear elements in order to save time both in modeling and computation.

Linear elements mesh: by selecting one or more linear elements and accessing the properties window, all the available options that can be modified are in the Mesh category.

i. Automatic – when this option is active, all the imposed/intersected structural elements will be connected and share common nodes.

 

How is the mesh on linear elements modified?

Automatic mesh option inactive                                   Automatic mesh option active

How is the mesh on linear elements modified?

ii. Number – by entering a value in this field, the element will be meshed in that number of elements, without considering the value of the general mesh (global mesh options).

iii. Size – in this field a maximum dimension of the mesh is defined (length units); by applying a uniform spacing with a maximum dimension of “m”, the mesh will look as the following figure:

iv. Spacing – this option is directly connected to Size and Secondary Size; when any of the other available options, besides uniform spacing, is used then this field must be completed.

v. Secondary size – this field is the minimum dimension which will take into account the type of the spacing selected.

How is the mesh on linear elements modified

Sxx stresses on linear element at extremity “i”

How is the mesh on linear elements modified

vi. Extend into the wall – when a beam is supported by a wall (in the longitudinal direction), activating this option will create a rigid connection between the wall and the beam.

 

Read full article here