Projects

GRAITEC supports ‘Virtual Design World Cup’

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GRAITEC is supporting FORUM 8, its Value Added Reseller operating in Japan, by providing free Advance Steel and Advance Concrete licenses to the participants of FORUM 8’s 2nd Student BIM and VR Contest open to students worldwide.

GRAITEC supports 'Virtual Design World Cup'

The theme of this year’s contest is “The Sustainable Design of a Marine City. The objective is to design a sustainable and self-sufficient Marine City on the sea with innovative designs to overcome the problems all modern cities face in the 21st century.

Work by each and every contestant will be uploaded on FORUM 8’s cloud server, VR-Cloud(R) server, to be judged on its logistics, technical and design aspect, as well as its creativity and how innovative it is. Participants are required to use FORUM 8’s award-winning software UC-win/Road, and at least one other software of their choice from a lineup of BIM and VR software available for free rental during the contest.

GRAITEC Products: CAD and Design Software for the Construction IndustryAdvance Steel and Advance Concrete are among the software the participants can rely on to design and model innovative structure. For this purpose GRAITEC have conceded 50 free short term licenses of both Advance Steel licenses and Advance Concrete for the students. In July 17, Advance Steel and Advance Concrete experience seminars will be organized through 5 cities in Japan (Live-Tokyo TV Conference system- Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka. Sendai).

The Award for the winner is a grand prix worth approximately US$3,600 including scholarship, certificate, World cup Trophy and mementos. Among the rest of the participants, 5 lucky ones will also receive a laptop and every contestants will of course win a participation reward for their work. Applicants have until September 30th to register online. Once they have registered and created their VR model, they will need to submit their work including scripts during the period from October 1st to October 23rd, and once they have submitted their work, they will be notified of the webpage on FORUM 8’s VR-Cloud(R) server to which they can access to browse and test their submitted model, along with their login ID and password. FORUM 8 and special guest judges will come to a decision and determine the winners on November 20th, and they will be awarded in the awards ceremony the following day.

If you are a student due to graduate after November 2012, click on this
FORUM8’s Virtual Design World Cup contest website to register today!

GRAITEC supports 'Virtual Design World Cup'



For more information, please contact:
Europe, The Middle East, Americas & Africa: office@forum8.com
Australia, New Zealand & Oceania: anita@forum8.co.jp
Asia and for all other general inquiries: yokoyama@forum8.co.jp

Check out last year’s winners: http://www.forum8.co.jp/english/studentBIM1-Award-e.htm

About FORUM 8 
FORUM8, the Japanese 3D software specialist, produces state-of-the-art 3D VR and engineering software. Founded in 1987, FORUM8 is at the forefront of 3D Visual Interactive Simulation (3D VIS) technology and provides 3D VIS capabilities to specialists from various professions, including transportation, engineering, planning, emergency training, architecture, road safety and many more.
For more information, please visit www.forum8.com

How Advance Steel can help your business profitability

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In 2010, an article written on www.submityourarticle.com stated that the ultimate aim of specialized steel detailing software is to increase a company’s bottom line profit. But in 2012 what was a concern for steel fabrication businesses, steel engineering companies and even self-employed steel detailers has now become a fact. Those who have the most competitive steel detailing software solution are the ones that are the most profitable on such a dynamic market.

In short, investing in a steel detailing software helps you save time, optimizes your resources and reduces costs with materials and labor. A good example is given by one of our customers, Nial BALL from Westbury Park Engineering which worked with ADVANCE Steel for a boat mold structure (35-40 m long steel structure for fiberglass bouts). He states: “With three days to go before ‘D Day’ our TWO men arrived on site with the pre-fabricated assemblies and in TWO days the structure was erected and we were home in time for tea with a day to spare. Thanks to ADVANCE Steel, we knew the structure would fit long before we arrived on site.”

Stairs and platforms for Arcelor Mittal Steel Plant, Galati, RomaniaOff course, not all projects can be finalized in two days using just two men, but reducing the time spent on a very complex project from maybe three months to three weeks is not that bad either. Gheorghe CEPRAGA, engineer at UZINSIDER ENGINEERING, has been working with ADVANCE Steel at his most recent project – assembly of new elements (stairs, railings and platforms) on an existing structure in the ArcelorMittal steel plant. For him,the decision was clear: “I have been working with AutoCAD, especially in 3D view, for a very long time now. I think it is safe to say that it would have been very difficult for us to model the entire structure in AutoCAD. Without ADVANCE steel, the execution would have taken too long”.

Can it be that simple? Sometimes, time saving leaves room for errors. Not a problem because ADVANCE Steel drastically increases productivity and drawing quality even for the most complex and unusual projects, while reducing the risk of errors.

Bregenzer Festival Stage, Bregenz, Austria

For the Bregenz festival in Austria, Bregenzer Festspiele fascinated with a spectacular stage engineering, resulting in the biggest sea stage in the world (17m long, 15m wide and 15m high),portraying Jean Paul Marat, one of the leaders of the French Revolution. The construction of the head was connected to a steel construction which was already located at the sea stage.

Although, ultimately, the best steel detailing software is the one that addresses the business’ needs and issues, ADVANCE Steel can efficiently accelerates the design phase (either single or multi-user mode) by offering an extensive library of smart and efficient objects, automatic joints and specific tools for creating standard structures, stairs, railing and miscellaneous steelwork. For the renovation and extension of  TIGNESPACE Center, a sports complex equipped with modern multipurpose structures, Thierry Depollier, Eng, at Ets BOUCHET states: “The ability of ADVANCE Steel to work in realistic mode together with 3D navigation have greatly facilitated our work and have improved the efficiency of our weekly meetings with the other disciplines. It is worth mentioning that the fabrication of the welded beams at workshop was simplified with the high-quality drawings automatically created “.

Renovation and extension of the TIGNESPACE center

Functionality-wise Advance Steel detailing software has everything you would expect from a specialist structural steel detailing package. Ultimately, what makes ADVANCE Steel special is its accessibility to any type of company which is interested in investing in steel detailing software.

Jean BOUIN Rugby Stadium, done with ADVANCE Design

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Jean BOUIN Rugby Stadium, done with ADVANCE DesignThe Jean BOUIN Stadium is a 20000 seater stadium, home to the Stade Français rugby team. More specifically, it hosts the Stade Français office, various sports facilities, reception halls, boxes and shops.

Main challenges of the project:

  • The control of the strain bracing is complex, with strain ground pressure in the infrastructure (5 blocks separated by expansion joints), and wind strain in the superstructure (3 blocks separated by expansion joints). The tilted north side also produces strains in the bracing system. Finally, the bracing is provided by shear walls in the basement and by shear walls and the portal frames in the superstructure bearing in mind the necessity to manage the interface between steel framework and concrete stand.
  • Stands are organized on several levels and are covered by an ultra high performance fiber concrete net (BFUHP).
  • The roofing is supported by a steel framework canopy.
  • The North stand, to a large extent, is based on an infrastructure, with 3 levels of basement (up to 10m of depth) which goes well beyond the stand area.
  • The structure is based on piles, peripheral walls in the infrastructure are “Parisian walls” (piles + thrown concrete) and the last basement is tanked.

Jean BOUIN Rugby Stadium, done with ADVANCE Design

Jean BOUIN Rugby Stadium, done with ADVANCE DesignAdvance Design solution:

  • The conception of a 3D finite element model makes it possible to tacklesome of the project difficulties. In addition to the “traditional” calculation method, it allows the taking into consideration of the strain of bracing in the calculations, which remains difficult to integrate by other methods, given the complexity of the project.
  • The relative stiffness between hanging frames and walls make allowances for the strain spreading of these elements.
  • Simplification of the interface steel framework/stand concrete due to a more complete modeling from the beginning of the project. The structure has been modeled with precision and speed thanks to imported dxf files. Wind loads have been analyzed in a wind tunnel study and the lists of values from the study have been imported as text files from Excel

Jean BOUIN Rugby Stadium, done with ADVANCE Design

Jean BOUIN Rugby Stadium, done with ADVANCE Design“For a project as big and complex as the Jean Bouin Stadium, with interfaces between different materials and numerous loadcases, a global 3D finite element model becomes virtually essential for facingtime constraints and optimization. Advance Design places itself as an ergonomic and reliable tool from the modeling to the results post-processing step.” Mr Laurent Mahé, Civil engineer – CTE Strasbourg

Another winning performance at the Allianz Arena!

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Congratulations Chelsea!

The magnificent Allianz Arena, opened in 2005, is home to both major Munich clubs, Bayern and TSV 1860. GRAITEC’ software was used in the design of the arena.

Allianz Arena Munchen

After a construction period of 951 days, the modern Allianz Arena was officially opened to the public.

This was a challenging construction, and another demonstration that GRAITEC continues to provide cutting edge software solutions that allow our customers to be efficient and competitive in the market.

Some facts on the Allianz Arena:

  • The Allianz Arena opened in 2005
  • Graitec software was used in the design
  • A total of 66,000 seats
  • A total base of 120m x 83m
  • A roof area of 38,000m²
  • A facade of 26,000m²
  • 120,000m³ of concrete
  • 22,000 tonnes of Steel

Other stadium projects completed using Graitec’s Advance Steel: 

Boat Mould Structure – Customer project

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Nial Ball, Westbury Park Engineering: “This contract was something a bit unusual and was carried out for a prestigious UK based boat building company. I say boat, but I suppose technically they were ships being 35 – 40 metres long! The problem was turning a mould following manufacture in order to release the boat from the mould. Being fiberglass it isn’t such a good idea to have the mould flex and crack the finished boat deck.

The steelwork for the project was designed and built around a 3D surface model supplied by our client and converted for AutoCAD by Graitec. The strange thing about surface models is that the surface isn’t actually there, well not in a solid drawing sense, but I was able to draw a series AutoCAD construction lines from key points on the surface model using XEDGES etc. Once the construction lines were in place the remaining structure was a breeze using Advance Steel. There were no major issues and the model was completed in three days and all drawings were created within the week.”

“The client was showing some concern with less than a week before the first mould had to be turned and released that we were not on site to install the steelwork. It seems that formerly the installation took seven men and two to three weeks as the structure was fabricated on site and in situ. With three days to go before ‘D Day’ our TWO men arrived on site with the pre-fabricated assemblies and in TWO days the structure was erected and we were home in time for tea with a day to spare. Thanks to Advance Steel we knew the structure would fit long before we arrived on site, the structure could be built in manageable sub-assemblies and with bolted joints there was no need for any welding on site.”

Great feedback from one of our clients in UK

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Will Rudd Davidson Edinburgh & Glasgow is one of Scotland’s leading Structural and Civil Engineering Consultancies. The Company has 25 skilled Engineering staff working with the latest technology and within a Quality Management framework, providing a high standard of service, professionalism and flexible response to requirements. With Associates based in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London, the Company can call on approximately 35 technical staff to address the challenges of larger scale commissions throughout the whole of the UK.

Will Rudd Davidson Edinburgh & Glasgow has been working with GRAITEC software for several years now and their response for the support and consulting services they received was rated: EXCELLENT.

Alistair Crawford, Will Rudd Davidson Edinburgh & Glasgow spokesperson, declares: “GRAITEC support is the standard by which I judge other companies. Whilst many have improved over the years I still consider GRAITEC to be the level they should aspire to. Having a dedicated UK call and support centre is also a good ace to have up your sleeve.”

GRAITEC offers its users a wide range of servicesto optimize productivity: complete service maintenance, phone, fax and E-mail based technical support, interactive live web support, general and custom training, special project assistanceand consulting services, CAD/design projects, custom software development and many others.

You can visit our Support  page for more information, or take a look at GRAITEC Advantage to see all the services included in our maintenance contract.

Here are some of the projects done by Will Rudd Davidson Edinburgh & Glasgow:

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The versatility of Advance Steel can help you realize projects out of the ordinary!

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With Advance Steel, our users can create amazing projects.  Our American users understand this and have created incredible structures with it.  Tuckerman Steel Fabricators Inc. were able to harness the power of Advance Steel to create their latest project, something special that was launched on 11/11/2011 and captured on video.  Check it out at Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum-Launching 11 11 2011!

The project shown is a steel barge supporting a 3 story building consisting of shops, a museum, and restaurants, including ballast compartments, stair wells, elevator compartments, watertight doors, gangway support platforms and pile guides. The barge had to be pre-fabricated in panels – deck panels, bottom panels, bulkheads, side panels, and very often panels that included over 150 parts. Accordingly to Ilko Dimitrov, Project Manager at Tuckerman Steel Fabricators Inc., Advance Steel increased the productivity and the accuracy of the drawings: “The software was very helpful in detailing the panel drawings and all the interior framing and stairs as well”.

Also, the designers of the barge noticed that Advance Steel is very well designed to optimize drawing layout by eliminating empty spaces between members, and has the option to create running dimensions from left to right and vice versa, and the option to switch between absolute and relative or both types of dimensions. The scaling of objects is very easy. Placing labels, part marks, material type and basically all necessary information is very handy. Creating and updating BOM is fast and accurate.

Tuckerman Steel Fabricators, Inc. based in Boston, MA is incredibly proud of the results obtained with Advance Steel.  The week after they were trained on Advance Steel they were able to model and detail the entire barge.  They were able to meet their fabrication and shipping deadlines without any errors!

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Another success story: customer in Canada thrilled to work with Advance Steel

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A recognized and expanding company in the manufacturing of steel structures and wrought metals situated in Quebec (Canada), Pro-Mec Elite Inc., has chosen GRAITEC Advance Steel 2012 as its steel detailing software.

Pro-Mec Elite Inc. was using AutoCAD and Inventor so far to do all their studies. They recently decided to move to a 3D BIM solution in order to gain productivity with their drill-line from Ficep and analyzed all software available on the market.

After an extensive review of several software packages such as TEKLA Structures, SDS/2, and StruCAD, they found that Advance Steel is much easier to use and with the advantage to be based on AutoCAD.

GRAITEC Inc. had different meetings with Pro-Mec Elite Inc to answer their expectation and demonstrate that Advance Steel is the right solution for the type of structures they are daily doing.

Therefore Pro-Mec Elite Inc. decided to purchase 2 seats of Advance Steel (with the potential to acquire 4 additional licenses as 6 detailers are working the company) and followed the training 2 weeks ago in the office of GRAITEC Inc (Montreal).

Already, after only 1 week using Advance Steel, they noticed a significant time gain in the realization of drawings and are very satisfied with the software and customer service at GRAITEC.

More information on Pro-Mec Elite Inc. website: http://www.promecelite.com/news/purchase-of-graitec-advance-steel_12

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Movable overland tripper detailed with Advance Steel

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Clinton Dantu, the CEO of Dantu Drafting cc. (South Africa), explains why Advance Steel was the right tool to handle this complex project and for creating all detailed drawings.

“Dantu Drafting cc. is a registered company formed five years ago to meet the high demand for an independent drawing office not affiliated to any particular Consulting or Engineering firm. We entered the market with many years of experience in Materials Handling, Process plants and Heap Leach layouts. We added detailing to our résumé as we found managing the drawing work from layout to fabrication gives us the edge over any of our competitors and speeds up the completion time of the job as a whole. We have been using Advance Steel for the past four years and we are really impressed with its 3D modelling capabilities and the speed with which one can complete any project.”

Movable overland tripper successfully detailed with Advance Steel

“The Movable overland tripper (mot) is a hydraulic driven and steered machine. We used wheel mounted Bonfiglioli 713 c3b with brake and disengagement planetary 142:1 gearboxes. The mot will be used in Zambia at Luanshya copper mine, to feed a heap leach system. The total mass of the machine is 45 tons with a total length of 38 meters and a total height of 9 meters. The mot is needed to be an all-wheel drive machine, as it runs above a 900 wide overland conveyor over uneven terrain.“

Movable overland tripper successfully detailed with Advance Steel

“We used Advance Steel for this project so we could do all our layout work in 3D and still easily supply the client and designers with 2D AutoCAD® drawings from which we could all sit around a table to discuss the concept. After our meetings we could update our 3D model to suit any comments and so update our 2D AutoCAD® drawings in time for the next meeting. Having the model proved to be a great tool in getting any new parties involved up to speed with the project, just by showing them the model they would get an immediate insight in to the project. Once the mot’s concept was approved and the design was complete we could continue with creating the connections and then the shop detail drawings. With a certain amount of input we could update our shop drawings to suit our fabricators requirements.“

Movable overland tripper successfully detailed with Advance Steel

“Using Advance Steel for this project helped us speed up the design time for the mot as we had a constantly updated model to keep all involved with the project informed of our progress and ideas. By using Advance Steel as the 3D steel detailing application, productivity gains of over 25% were realized, compared to using regular AutoCAD®.“

Movable overland tripper successfully detailed with Advance Steel

Engineering office: Dantu Drafting cc (South Africa) – http://dantudrafting.com/
Project: Heap leach project
Client: Luanshya copper mine
Location: Muliashi Copper Mine (Zambia)

Advance Steel Project: Mugam Evi Concert Hall

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Here is a great example of GRAITEC’s versatile modeling BIM software ADVANCE Steel : Mugam Evi Concert Hall

Project location: Baku, Azerbaijan

Design Office: NCA Container- und Anlagebau GmbH

Project description:
The concert hall consists of 500 tons of steel. A specific feature of the project was the creation of the whole steel construction. The construction mainly consists of three-dimensional rolled pipes. Additionally each single pipe had elliptical-shaped radii on two levels. The parts of the steel construction had to be connected in an elegant way, to give the building a perfect façade. First, the steel parts were prefabricated in the workshop of NCA Container- und Anlagenbau GmbH. The Steel parts were finally welded together, to have a smooth connection between the main bars.

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The High End Steel Detailing Solution used in the construction industry in Turkey

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In October 2011, ÇEKA Ltd, a market leader in steel formworks, has chosen to use GRAITEC Advance Steel. By using GRAITEC solution for modeling and detailing the steel structures since version 7.1, ÇEKA decided to speed up the time allocated to its projects with the new integrated intelligent functionalities. Thus, the engineers feature the Multi-User solution, which allows them to work simultaneously on the same project by assuring a secure data transfer between all 10 working stations. 

GRAITEC Advance Steel - The High End Detailing Solution used in the formwork construction industry by ÇEKA Ltd. in Turkey

Zerrin Kutay, Vice President of ÇEKA Ltd.: “The market demands more and more complex formworks and faster than before. Engineering design is a critical step in our production process and Advance Steel has been an integral part of our success since we first started using 5 years ago on a limited scale. We have now decided to extend the Advance Steel to all levels of engineering design and we are confident in Advance Steel’s continuing contribution to our success in capturing market growth.”

Ionel DRAGU, General Manager of GRAITEC Romania : “We are strongly confident about this cooperation with ÇEKA, which certainly will be the first step to our extension in the Turkish market. Moreover, we will be glad to share the success stories of ÇEKA, due to the use of Advance Steel.”

GRAITEC Advance Steel - The High End Detailing Solution used in the formwork construction industry by ÇEKA Ltd. in Turkey

About ÇEKA: 
In Turkey, the year 1976 in which ÇEKA has been established, the construction industry was not acquainted with the industrial formworks. In those years, limited number of companies which were in search of new technologies had worked with ÇEKA. 
Since then, ÇEKA is serving the growing demand by increasing the production capacity and introducing newer technologies in design & productions as well as complementary services like the sub-contracting, steel formwork rental services, along with offering products of the firms that ÇEKA represents. Within the range of limited firms, which use their own patent, technology and design, ÇEKA dwells on the design and production of more practical and more economical formworks. ÇEKA formworks, the result of 30 years of construction site experience, are designed within TS, DIN and ACI norms and been used by the constructors in Turkey and abroad. 
For more information, visit: www.ce-ka.com.tr 

Advance Steel Project: Steam Cracking Furnaces

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HEURTEY Group is the World largest independent group with a presence in 34 countries. Heurtey is an expert in design & fabrication of Process Fired Heaters Refining, Petrochemical and Hydrogen Industries.

In September 2009, the HEURTEY Group won a major contract in the Petrochemicals sector on behalf of Total Petrochemicals. This contract covers the supply of two ethylene cracking furnaces for the Gonfreville plant in Normandy and is part of a modernization project of the steam cracker during next turnaround scheduled in September 2011. Heurtey Petrochem has used technology from Shaw Energy and Chemicals (Stone & Webster) to complete this turnkey contract, which includes on-site assembly work.

Advance Steel Heurtey Steam Cracking Furnaces Advance Steel Heurtey Steam Cracking Furnaces

Heurtey Petrochem Romania is the main detailing design office of the HEURTEY Group, fully involved in this project, with 30 engineers and technicians specialised in the mechanical design of furnaces and trained in the use of GRAITEC Advance Steel 3D design software.

The two furnaces, pipe rack and steel structures are prefabricated and manufactured by Beta-Heurtey, the Group’s Romanian fabrication workshop.
Delivery of the furnaces is planned for July 2011.

Location: Gonfreville Refinery, France
Design office: Heurtey Petrochem SRL Romania
Beneficiary: Total Petrochemicals
Technology: Shaw Stone & Webster

Advance Steel: 2 Steam Cracking Furnaces

Cluj Arena Stadium

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Cluj Arena stadium aims to be one of the most modern stadiums in Romania. The project must be completed this autumn.
The construction is at the location of the old Ion Moina stadium. With a capacity of over 30.200 seats, the developers say this is more than a stadium: it is the biggest sports and leisure center in Romania, with a shopping and dining area as well.
The initial project underwent several changes: the total capacity of the arena has reached 44.000 m2 (from 22.000 m2) and the running track will have eight lanes, not six, as initially expected.

“It is more than a stadium; it is the new landmark of the city, in which we managed to capture the passion, the emotions and most of all spirit of fair-play” Mr. Florin Dico

Construction company: Dico and Tiganas Office Design Cluj-Napoca
Design office:
Cluj-Napoca Technical University,
Dico and Tiganas Office Design Cluj-Napoca,
Bogart Construct Cluj-Napoca,
DAS Engineering Group

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New Valenciennes Stadium modeled with Advance Steel

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The new stadium in Valenciennes, France, is located near the original one, and has a 25000-person capacity. It is meant to host the Valenciennes Anzin Football Club’s games. ETI Design Office, which has experience in designing several stadiums, is in charge of this project. In addition to the project’s size, the expectations of the Architecture’s Office – with the major constraint of not letting any bolts appear on the steel structure – have called for the use of Advance Steel for easy fabrication and erection at site without errors.

The conception of the new Valenciennes Stadium has required the expertise of ETI Design Office, which managed the complete study of the Alps stadium of Grenoble (France) in 2006 and worked on the extension of Marcel Picot stadium in Nancy in anticipation of the Euro 2016 football cup that will take place in France. The size of the project required four people working full-time on it: one Project Manager, Mr Fabrice Grisot, one Construction Engineer, Mr Stéphane Dottori, and two draftsmen.

  About the use of Advance Steel  

ETI started using AutoCAD® to draw the first lines of the project in 2D and submit it to the contracting owners. The project owner and architect’s need to view more precise details in 3D about the most complex assemblies required the use of Advance Steel, which has a Building Information Modeling (BIM) approach.

With the flexibility of its numerous tools, Advance Steel enabled fast modeling of all steel structural elements, whether by using integrated libraries of standard sections or by using the automatic conversion tool that allows converting AutoCAD® elements into polygonal plates.

  A steel structure without any visible bolts  

In order to follow the architect’s wish to have no visible bolts on the structure once the construction is erected, ETI had to design assemblies early from the study phase. Thus, bolted assemblies were designed to ease the transport of parts (that can reach a weight of 10 tons each) and the parts were welded together at site with fastening plates. The welds were then painted and grinded to get a perfect aspect. Therefore, it was necessary to model many weld preparation chamfers on the edges of the plates and the profiles to get a realistic result and, most of all, for these elements to appear clearly on the fabrication drawings.

From the 3D model that is automatically numbered, Advance Steel allowed the automatic creation of all fabrication and assembly drawings, with all the necessary labels and dimensions for the workshop. In addition to the drawings generated as DWG files that can be easily read by the architect, the steel parts could be directly transferred as DSTV and DXF files to the CNC machines located in the workshop of a subcontractor in charge of the fabrication of the structure.

  Assembling the steel structure without errors  

The assembly drawings generated from the 3D model included all the necessary 2D and 3D views for the assembly teams to perfectly understand everything at site. Since all verifications of clash detection were applied on the Advance Steel digital 3D model, no adaptations at site were needed during the erection of the structure.

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Musée des Confluences – designed with Advance Design

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Lyon Confluences is a major urban project including residential buildings, offices, a leisure centre, the Regional Hall and the Confluences Museum. POLYBATIC Design Office, in charge of the computing of the Museum’s concrete structure, chose Advance Design to carry out this ambitious and complex project. The software enabled the Design Office to solve cooperation issues with other Offices which were using different software solutions.

The architecture contest that took place in 2001 was won by the Viennese Office Coop_Himmelbau with a complex and ambitious project called “Crystal-cloud”, a building supported by stilts featuring a combination of a steel sphere and a sharp glass roof. For POLYBATIC, this meant designing 14 monumental variable columns, 15 to 20 meters each, and 3 bracing hollow-piles holding the steel structure of the “cloud”. The technical part is located in the base which features two floors with its upper part being the public forecourt. Moreover, each column supports between 2000 and 6000 tons, 670 tons of horizontal loads are distributed on the beams and 1260 tons on the piles. POLYBATIC used Advance to model the concrete elements of the Museum, integrating other elements from the general design model of the project.

The number of Design Offices involved brings more complexity to the project, with, among others, JAILLET-ROUBY in charge of the general model and the steel frame, and the POLYBATIC/PLANTIER group designing the concrete elements.

The use of Advance Design allowed fast computing of the final vertical load distribution from the existing planting, it enabled the 3D modeling of this complex project and the integration of elements designed by other Offices.

M. Gérard DELLA DORA, Managing director of POLYBATIC Design Office and Representative for the Concrete Design Offices group working on the Musée des Confluences: “Each Design Office work with different software solutions and this can be problematic. (…) We were expecting collisions between our “source” model and other Offices’ “clone” models, with regards to the impossibility of making direct exports. Therefore we have proceeded to make some tests for a preliminary validation, and we were pleasantly surprised to see that the differences were minor. Advance Design (…) is a modern program that is perfectly suitable for this type of project. Its main benefit is to be able to model a project as a whole. GRAITEC solutions are high-performance tools that allow us to save precious time, be more competitive and dedicate our energy to the conception and the optimization of the projects.” 

 

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Advance Steel Project: Industrial Plant

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Location: East Coast, USA
Design office: Rouleau-Desaulniers

Project description:
Additional equipment supports access platforms for a new engineered wood factory. Total weight: ~340 tons. More than 1350 shop drawings prepared

“The fact that Advance Steel is based on AutoCAD® made the 3D modeling of the mechanical equipment and ducting easy. This is necessary to avoid any interference between the mechanical equipment and the structural and miscellaneous elements.”
Marc DESAULNIERS, Project Manager, Rouleau-Desaulniers

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