Designed with GRAITEC software, Centre Pompidou was awarded at RIBA 2012


Designed with GRAITEC software, Centre Pompidou was awarded at RIBA 2012

RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Awards have been running continuously since 1966 and are judged and presented locally. No matter the shape, size, budget or location, RIBA Award winning-schemes set the standard for great architecture all across the country. Although more than 50 buildings in the UK won the RIBA Award, only 9 in the EU have won, including Centre Pompidou, calculated with GRAITEC Advance Design.

The Centre Pompidou Metz is a museum of modern and contemporary arts designed by architects Shigeru Ban and Jean de Gastines and located in Metz, France. The Centre Pompidou-Metz is a branch of Pompidou arts center of Paris, and features temporary exhibitions from the large collection of the French National Museum of Modern Art, the largest European collection of 20th and 21st century arts. The museum is one of the largest temporary exhibition spaces in France with 5,000 m2 divided between 3 galleries, a circular shaped restaurant, a theatre, and an auditorium.

Designed with GRAITEC software, Centre Pompidou was awarded at RIBA 2012The Centre Pompidou-Metz is a large hexagon structured round a central spire reaching 77 meters high, with three rectangular galleries weaving through the building at different levels. The great nave covers 1,200 m² and provides flexibility for the exhibition of large artworks, with the ceiling rising progressively from a height of 5.70 to 18 meters.

The roof is a 90 meters wide hexagon with a surface area of 8,000 m². The roof structure is composed of sixteen kilometers of glued laminated timber, which intersect to form hexagonal wooden units resembling the cane-work pattern of a Chinese hat. The roof’s geometry is irregular, featuring curves and counter-curves over the entire building, and in particular the three exhibition galleries. The entire wooden structure is covered with a white fiber-glass membrane and a coating of Teflon, which has the distinction of being self-cleaning, protects from direct sunlight and also is transparent at night, thus offering viewers a spectacular and unique overview.

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GRAITEC is partner with PEDDINGHAUS


Established in 1903, Peddinghaus Corporation is the acknowledged global leader providing innovative machine tool technology for structural steel and plate fabrication. From Anvils and Bench Vises to Technologically Advanced Structural and Plate Fabrication Systems, Peddinghaus has served the Steel Construction, Heavy Plate Fabrication, and related Metal Working Industries for more than 100 years.

Being committed to the industry for such a long time, Peddinghaus turned to GRAITEC’s ADVANCE Steel, because of its ability to automatically generate bills of materials and NC files. With ADVANCE Steel, there is a direct link from the model to the Peddinghaus machine tool. Basically, CNC machines can be programmed by advanced design software, enabling the manufacture of products that cannot be made by manual machines, even those used by skilled designers or engineers. Modern design software allows designers to simulate the manufacture of their ideas. There is no need to make a prototype or a model. This saves both time and money, while providing the most accurate, productive, and profitable parts or products.

ADVANCE Steel creates all fabrication drawings and offers a large selection of tools for automatic detail creation, dimensions, annotations, and accelerates the creation of general arrangement drawingsfabrication drawingslist of materials and NC files: complete library of structural elements, parametric and customizable connections, wizards for miscellaneous steel (stairs, railing), materials library, sections, bolts, and others.

Needless to say, the advantages of combining computer aided manufacturing (CAM) and computer aided designing (CAD) are many: reduced cycle time and non-production time, jobs can be set up more quickly, improved accuracy, reduction of scrap and lower scrap rates.

GRAITEC supports ‘Virtual Design World Cup’


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


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


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 DesignFor 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

AEC Magazine reviews GRAITEC Advance Steel 2012®….


….the BIM software for structural steel engineering, detailing and fabrication

AEC Magazine is the UK’s number 1 journal for the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industries. 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.

The June edition features an extensive review of GRAITEC’s Advance Steel 2012® software. GRAITEC is a leading developer of CAE and CAD software technology, fully BIM enabled for the construction industry.

Advance Steel® BIM system is specifically designed for structural engineers, steel detailers and fabricators who require a comprehensive yet user friendly 3D structural steel detailing software that automates the production of drawings, BOMs and NC files. Advance Steel 2012 is in a league of its own offering users the freedom to run with or without AutoCAD.

AEC Magazine reviews GRAITEC Advance Steel 2012

Click here to download the pdf version of the AEC Magazine – May/June edition

Do you need to use Eurocodes and reduce project time?


Webinar Advance Design: Discover the new features of version 2012

on Wednesday, June 13th, 2012 from 09:00 to 09:30 CET or 17:00 to 17:30 CET

Register online for Advance Design webinarAdvance Design®  is specifically dedicated to structural engineers who require a professional and easy-to-use solution for simulating and optimizing all their projects. Advance Design® includes a user-friendly structural modeler, automatic load and combination generators, a powerful FEM analysis engine (static, dynamic, time history, non linear, buckling, large displacement analysis, etc.), comprehensive wizards for designing concrete and steel members, and efficient result post-processing and automatic report generators. It automatically updates all reports, including graphical results when modifications are made to the model.

Advance Design top 5 benefits:

1 – Powerful modeling system dedicated to engineers: realistic rendering, floors managements for buildings, complete library of user-definable structural elements, load generator, etc.

2 – Advanced analysis features: automatic mesher, time history analysis, static, dynamic, non linear analysis, etc.

3 – Latest versions of Eurocodes implemented: automatic design of concrete, steel and timber elements according to EC1, EC2,EC3, EC8, with 3D interaction curves, deflections checking, buckling and lateral buckling checking, connections design, etc.

4 – “Result Memory” technology: avoid repetitive tasks by updating automatically all the post-processing documents (views and reports) when changing the 3D model.

5 – BIM and Collaborative work: DXF / DWG / Revit imports, multi-user technology, BIM approach for data synchronization, interoperability with industry standards (SDNF, CIS/2, IFC), etc.

GRAITEC Advance 2012 Service Pack 1 is here!


Service Pack 1 of the GRAITEC Advance 2012 suite comes with a set of enhancements and provides a series of advantages to end-users. Any customer under a maintenance contract can now download Service Pack 1 for Advance Design, Advance Steel or Advance Concrete from the GRAITEC Advantage web site.

The first Service Pack for Advance Design 2012 offers more than 150 improvements and corrections. The main features of this service pack are for:

  • General corrections: exporting to Melody Attaches and Effel Structure;
  • Corrections and improvements to finite elements results post-processing;
  • Corrections and improvements to Eurocodes 1, 2, 3 and 5.

You can now download SP1 for Advance Design 2012 Here, according to your operating system (32 bits or 64 bits).

Advance Steel: BIM software for structural steel engineering, detailing and fabricationService Pack 1 of Advance Steel 2012 comes with a set of enhancements, regardless of the CAD platform you are using, and provides the following advantages to end-users:

  • Improvements and updates for BOM and NC files;
  • Several corrections for joints and joint design;
  • Powerful set of enhancements for fast and efficient modeling.

You can now download SP1 for Advance Steel 2012 Here.

Advance Concrete: BIM software for structural concrete engineering, detailing and fabricationFor Advance Concrete 2012, more than 370 corrections and issues were analyzed and fixed with Service Pack 1, some of them sent by users. The main features of this service pack are:

  • Correction for modeling and drawings/layouts issues;
  • Several corrections for reinforcement options: representation style manager, reinforcement bars, bending details, etc;
  • Improvements to the Materials quantity Manager.

You can now download SP1 for Advance Concrete 2012 Here

Webinar Advance Steel 2012


Steel detailers, Structural Engineers:
Discover the Powerful and Affordable Steel Detailing Software

Thursday, June 7, 2012 9:00 AM – 9:30 AM or 5:00 PM – 5:30 PM CEST

Register online to Advance Steel webinar

Advance Steel® is specifically designed for professionals who require an easy-to-use 3D structural steel detailing software that automates the production of drawings, BOMs and NC files.

Advance Steel® is part of the GRAITEC structural BIM solution, automating the entire structural design process, from engineering design to detailing and fabrication.

Advance Steel TOP 5 benefits:

1 – More Productivity with the flexible and efficient 3D modeling automatic tools: complete international catalogs, library of parametric joints, single or multi-user mode, etc.

2 – Short learning curve: reduces new employee ramp up time

3 – Specific features for miscellaneous steel and sheet metal: automatic functions for all type of stairs and railings, automatic tools for sheet metal creation, folded and twisted plates, etc.

4 – Precise and automatic creation and updating of construction documents: BOMs automatically created from the 3D model, revision control, revision clouds, drawing presentation template, automatic drawing scaling, paper formats and views, etc.

5 – BIM and collaborative work: DXF / DWG / Revit imports, multi-user technology, interoperability with major industry leading detailing / fabrication / engineering / MRP packages (CIS/2, SDNF, DSTV, KISS, etc.), etc.

Download GRAITEC wallpaper for June


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SSMB Magazine Anniversary Issue: GRAITEC – Providing advanced technological platforms for steel structure detailing


“Steel Structures & Metal Buildings” is an Indian journal designed to promote and encourage companies from the steel building field and to showcase the latest projects and innovations in the industry. May’s edition is a special anniversary issue, which includes industry viewpoints concerning Indian building and construction, international and Indian case studies and best structures of 2010-2012.

One of the main focuses of this issue is answering one important question: How do specialists perceive the growth of the structural steel industry in India from a technological point of view? Being one of the magazine’s “Brand to watch out for”, GRAITEC was also asked to make a statement on this matter. And who better to do so than Pascal Bergougnou, Managing Director at GRAITEC Pte, in Singapore, managing the Asia-Pacific area.

Despite its rapid growth, India, the 7th largest country in the world and one of the oldest civilizations, still has a developing economy. However, presently, India is one of the largest exporters of computer software products. It exports software solutions to over 90 countries worldwide, and “has established a good reputation as a structural steel detailing partner with many companies because of its executive support and willingness to be flexible as business needs change”, Pascal Bergougnou declares.

The Asia-Pacific region has major business opportunities as it continues to mature in BIM technologies. With the ADVANCE portfolio, GRAITEC has the opportunity and challenge to target these markets and contribute to the international development of the group in the BIM market. GRAITEC is committed to meeting clients’ needs in the growing construction-engineering sector, always promoting performance and efficiency.

Online presentation: ADVANCE Concrete – the high-end concrete detailing software !


Reinforcement Concrete Detailers, Structural Engineers:
Discover the high-end concrete detailing software !
Thursday, May 31st, 2012,
from 9:00 to 9:30 CEST or 17:00 to 17:30 CEST
Register online for this webinar
Advance Concrete: BIM software for structural concrete engineering, detailing and fabrication

 

Advance Concrete: BIM software for structural concrete engineering, detailing and fabrication

 


Advance Concrete: BIM software for structural concrete engineering, detailing and fabrication
Advance Concrete® is specifically designed for structural engineers and reinforced concrete detailers who require professional and easy-to-use BIM software that automates the production of drawings, BOMs and NC files. Advance Concrete® drastically increases productivity and drawing quality, while reducing the risk of errors. Perfectly integrated in AutoCAD®, Advance Concrete® accelerates the design phase (single or multi-user mode) by offering an extensive library of structural and reinforcement elements. It generates all construction drawings using intelligent drawing tools automatically controlling dimensions, symbols and drawing layout.Advance Concrete® is part of the GRAITEC structural BIM solution, automating the entire structural design process, from engineering design to detailing and fabrication.

Advance Concrete: BIM software for structural concrete engineering, detailing and fabrication

With Version 2012, significant work was done reworking the software architecture and optimizing performance. This results in a significantly higher ease of use and increased efficiency for users.

Version 2012 also improves rebar detailers efficiency with improved tools for placing rebars and fabrics in identical elements, new options for visual representation and better control of elements as well as new Bill Of Material options.

Advance Concrete 2102 also has much better interoperability thanks to several new features such as DWG export in batch and improved DWF export.

Discover the version 2012 new features on Thursday, May 31st, 2012

Register online for this webinar

Another winning performance at the Allianz Arena!


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: 

GRAITEC becomes an Intel® Software Registered Partner


May 4th 2012, GRAITEC joins the Intel® partnership and becomes an Intel® Software Registered Partner.

GRAITEC becomes an Intel® Software Registered Partner

The key activity of GRAITEC is to design, develop and sell software products allowing construction engineers and draftsmen to optimize their productivity, minimize design mistakes and improve collaboration. The flag ship product suite, called GRAITEC Advance is a Building Information Modeling (BIM) system that automates the entire structural design and construction documentation process from engineering design and structural analysis to member optimization, detailing and fabrication.

The product suite deals with 3D modeling, Finite Element calculation, real time rendering, automatic creation and management of thousands of documents.
It therefore requires high performance from the computer it is running on, in terms of CPU and graphic usage.

The Intel® partnership will help GRAITEC build optimized software that provides better performance and better value to GRAITEC customers.

For Manuel LIEDOT, Chief Product Officer for GRAITEC: “GRAITEC is really pleased and excited to join the Intel® partnership. It will facilitate GRAITEC’s access to the right tools, techniques and support from Intel® for providing always more efficient and effective software to our customers.

Advance Design webinar


Structural Engineers:
Do you need to use Eurocodes and reduce project time?

on Thursday, May 15th, 2012 from 09:00 to 09:30 CET or 17:00 to 17:30 CET

Register online for this webinar

Advance Design : Professional Finite Element Analysis Software with Concrete / Steel structures presizing and automatic reports generation

Advance Design®  is specifically dedicated to structural engineers who require a professional and easy-to-use solution for simulating and optimizing all their projects. Advance Design® includes a user-friendly structural modeler, automatic load and combination generators, a powerful FEM analysis engine (static, dynamic, time history, non linear, buckling, large displacement analysis, etc.), comprehensive wizards for designing concrete and steel members, and efficient result post-processing and automatic report generators. It automatically updates all reports, including graphical results when modifications are made to the model.

Advance Design TOP 5 benefits:

1 – Powerful modeling system dedicated to engineers: realistic rendering, floors managements for buildings, complete library of user-definable structural elements, load generator, etc.

2 – Advanced analysis features: automatic mesher, time history analysis, static, dynamic, non linear analysis, etc.

3 – Latest versions of Eurocodes implemented: automatic design of concrete and steel elements according to EC1, EC2, EC3, EC8, with 3D interaction curves, deflections checking, buckling and lateral buckling checking, connections design, etc.

4 – “Result Memory” technology: avoid repetitive tasks by updating automatically all the post-processing documents (views and reports) when changing the 3D model.

5 – BIM and Collaborative work: DXF / DWG / Revit imports, multi-user technology, BIM approach for data synchronization, interoperability with industry standards (SDNF, CIS/2, IFC), etc.

Advance Design: Professional Finite Element Analysis Software according to European standardsInternationalization is a major theme of version 2012 of Advance Design® with the implementation of several new National Appendices to the Eurocodes 0, 1, 2, 3, 5 and 8.

This version also allows users to go further in the application of the Eurocodes with its many additional features: management of buildings open to the wind, design of timber structures to EC5 or calculation of cracks as a function of applied reinforcement to EC2.

Advance Design® is the indispensable tool for the design of large scale projects.

Boat Mould Structure – Customer project


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.”

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Webinar “Discover Advance Steel 2012” planned for May 3rd 2012


Steel detailers, Structural Engineers: 
Discover Advance Steel 2012: The Powerful and Affordable Steel Detailing Software

on Wendsday, May 3rd, 2012 from 9:00 to 9:30 am CET or 5:00 to 5:30 pm CET

Register online to this webinar

Advance Steel® is specifically designed for professionals who require an easy-to-use 3D structural steel detailing software that automates the production of drawings, BOMs and NC files.

Advance Steel® is part of the GRAITEC structural BIM solution, automating the entire structural design process, from engineering design to detailing and fabrication.

Advance Steel TOP 5 benefits:

Advance Steel: BIM software for structural steel engineering, detailing and fabrication

1 – More Productivity with the flexible and efficient 3D modeling automatic tools: complete international catalogs, library of parametric joints, single or multi-user mode, etc.

2 – Short learning curve: reduces new employee ramp up time

3 – Specific features for miscellaneous steel and sheet metal: automatic functions for all type of stairs and railings, automatic tools for sheet metal creation, folded and twisted plates, etc.

4 – Precise and automatic creation and updating of construction documents: BOMs automatically created from the 3D model, revision control, revision clouds, drawing presentation template, automatic drawing scaling, paper formats and views, etc.

5 – BIM and collaborative work: DXF / DWG / Revit imports, multi-user technology, interoperability with major industry leading detailing / fabrication / engineering / MRP packages (CIS/2, SDNF, DSTV, KISS, etc.), etc.

Advance Steel: Professional Steel Detailing Software Solution for AutoCAD

Historically based on the AutoCAD® platform, Advance Steel® 2012 allows users to use their software with or without AutoCAD®. In fact, the product includes its own graphics engine, and the user can select the desired CAD platform. Regardless of the selected platform, all the essential functionality of the software is retained, as well as DWG® compatibility.
This major change has also allowed GRAITEC to simplify the user interface by focusing on and organizing the industry specific functionality of the software.
Another major impact for users: the overall cost of the solution and the ease of installation and deployment. The return on investment for the current version is improved by 30%.

GRAITEC Group announces + 19.9% turnover growth for first Quarter 2012


 GRAITEC announces 19.9% turnover growth for the first Quarter of 2012, compared to 2011.

After a very intensive 2011, the first quarter of 2012 exceeds expectations from a turnover and margin perspective for GRAITEC.

Going more into the details, the performance of GRAITEC France, USA, Russia and Germany are absolutely remarkable. The new subsidiary in Italy has also realized a superb performance with a turnover that exceeds the objectives by +34%.

The GRAITEC Advance suite has achieved during Q1 2012 an amazing growth of +43% compared to 2011: “This is a great performance that demonstrates the growth capacity of GRAITEC solutions but also their fit to the market, customer needs and BIM environment” comments Alexandre Tartas, GRAITEC COO.

GRAITEC announces +52% growth of Advance Steel for 2011Advance Steel continues on a very positive tendency growing by almost 40% during Q1, both mature markets and new markets have contributed to this success. Alexandre Tartas comments: “The impact of the Advance Steel standalone application has not been significant during Q1, due to a pretty late delivery during the quarter. We expect a real effect during Q2 and feel very optimistic since the customer feedback is absolutely amazing. GRAITEC has also registered significant sales to Strucad customers during Q1 and many contacts have been established with companies that are using this solution and are very happy to consider Advance Steel“.

GRAITEC announces +52% growth of Advance Steel for 2011 Advance Design continues to benefit from a high adoption rate especially on the French market that recognizes that GRAITEC provides the very best structural analysis solution on this market. “The quality of the solution provided such as the comprehensive international codes and the service provided by GRAITEC have highly contributed to the great Q1 result for Advance Design with 45% growth“, says Alexandre Tartas.

GRAITEC announces +52% growth of Advance Steel for 2011 Last but not least, Advance Concrete growth has been a strong contributor to the Advance suite performance, showing a 61% growth year to year. Alexandre Tartas comments: “We have spent a lot of time with our customers to deeper understand their expectations and have translated them in features to improve their Advance Concrete experience, we are proud to say the result of this work.

Alexandre Tartas concludes: “Q1 2012 has been a great success but is just a step in the GRAITEC 2012 road to 29 million Euros and it shows the Group capacity to grow. We expect to continue to enjoy such performance in 2012.