Advance Design

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!

Service Pack 1 for Advance Design 2016 is released!

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We are pleased to announce the release of Service Pack 1 for GRAITEC Advance Design 2016!

ADVANCE Design 2016 SP1 offers more than 140 improvements and corrections. The main new features in this release are the the moving loads generator (that enables the user to create traffic loads on road bridges according to EN1991-2 – Section 4) and a new cross section library for Precast Concrete Bridge Beams, please see the relevant videos on these below:

Service Pack 1 of Advance Design 2016 is released!

Advance Design 2016 SP1 is now also available with a new user interface language: Bulgarian.

The What’s New document can be viewed here

Any customer under maintenance contract can download Service Pack 1 from the GRAITEC Advantage website: graitec.com/advantage.

If you don’t currently have access to Advance Design:

TEST IT FOR FREE                      CONTACT US

Goodwood Festival of Speed 2015 – Success story

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Customer Project: Goodwood Festival of Speed 2015 – Mazda

Goodwood Festival of Speed 2015, Chichester, UK

Software used: Advance Design
Project location: Goodwood House, Chichester, UK
Artist: Gerry Judah
Architects and Engineering: CAPITA P & I
Client: Goodwood Festival of Speed 2015

Project description:
Each year, the centrepiece lawn in front of the main Goodwood House showcases a breath-taking sculpture for the annual Goodwood car show, designed by Gerry Judah, Architecture and Engineering by CAPITA P&I and Fabrication by Littlehampton Welding Ltd.

Hooman Baghi, Principal Structure Engineer: “Using Advance Design enabled us to import the model geometry using BIM swiftly and smoothly. Loads and combinations were assessed making easy dynamic analysis of this complex model. “

GRAITEC Advance User meeting in Czech Republic

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GRAITEC announces the User Meeting organized by its Czech subsidiary on December 11th, for the Advance users from Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. The meeting will take place at hotel VIVALDI, Jihlava, Czech Republic.

GRAITEC Advance User meeting in Czech Republic

The purpose of this meeting is to present customers with the new functionalities and improvements of Advance Steel, Advance Concrete, Advance Design and other Graitec products. And most importantly, to demonstrate the concept of BIM data exchange between architecture, steel and concrete structures and MEP.

Throughout the meeting, customers will be able to consult with our experts regarding the future of all products, and even find out about our current special offers.

More than 500 Advance customers were invited to this event and an online version of the meeting will be available, for anyone that cannot attend.

Prior registration is not required.

The itinerary for the meeting will be as followed:

  • 09:30 : Advance – Present and Future
  • 10:30 : Advance Steel
  • 11:30 : Advance Design and ISV
  • 12:45 : Advance Concrete
  • 13:30 : Advance BIM

For more information contact Graitec CZ.

Graitec announces Advance Design 2015

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Advance Design: BIM software for FEM structural analysis including international EurocodesGRAITEC, European BIM software developer for the construction industry, announces the release of Advance Design 2015 dedicated to structural engineering.

Advance Design® is specifically dedicated to structural engineers who require a professional and easy-to-use BIM solution for structural FEM simulation and optimization according to specific design standards (Concrete, Steel or Wood).

Advance Design 2015 is articulated around 3 main subjects:

  • Concrete deflection calculation: new options for the reinforced concrete design according EC2
  • New starting screen for easier use
  • The implementation of the new NTC2008 Italian codes
  • And also: numerous improvements and adjustments

ADVANCE DESIGN 2015: concrete deflection calculation

Graitec announces Advance Design 2015

When designing a reinforced concrete structure, engineers must check limit deflections, especially on beams and floors. This is achieved by taking into account the cracked inertia of the reinforced concrete section. However, in FEM calculation, this leads to specific modelling and iterative processes which are tedious and time-consuming tasks for engineers.
Advance Design 2015 now automatically performs concrete deflection calculation based on theoretical or real reinforcement computed by the software.

Process: Successive design steps are performed, with concrete inertia being automatically calculated at each iteration. Concrete inertia is actually given by interpolation between a fully cracked state and a non-cracked state, in accordance with article 7.4.3 from EN1992-1-1.
Graphical results and reports allow for a quick and easy post-processing of all intermediate values: cracked inertia, non-cracked inertia, interpolated value, deflection for each mesh…

ADVANCE DESIGN 2015: New starting screen for easier use

Graitec announces Advance Design 2015

In order to simplify (for the new users) the first steps with Advance Design, the 2015 release comes with a brand-new starting wizard from where the user can access many types of information:
Several project samples for each type of structure: the user can open the models he is interested in to see how to model, define the main assumption, assign design templates…

Several other help tools are available: online videos, Graitec Web pages, quick access to the documentation, software configuration… All those tools are specific to each country, depending on the configuration settings.

 

ADVANCE DESIGN 2015: entering the Italian market

Graitec announces Advance Design 2015Advance Design 2015 now features the NTC 2008 Italian codes for:

  • Actions combinations automatic generation
  • Seismic loads
  • Climatic loads (Wind & Snow)
  • Reinforced concrete design
  • Steel members design.

ADVANCE DESIGN 2015: and also…

The 2015 version brings a number of new features and adjustments based on feedback from thousands of users:

  • New solver option for improved torsor calculation on walls using T6-Q9 elements
  • Uniform diagrams for linear support actions for easier post-processing
  • Improved export of a meshed model through a .TXT file format
  • Update of the SRSS modal summation method for faster seismical analysis on simple models.

Advance Design 2015 is part of the GRAITEC Advance 2015 Suite that also consists of GRAITEC Advance BIM Connect 2015 and Advance CAD 2015.

  • GRAITEC BIM Connect 2015 allows sharing and synchronization with Autodesk Revit® 2015 models.
  • Advance CAD 2015 is a 2D / 3D CAD software that enables engineers and detailers to modify or create DWG drawings. The 2015 version brings many functional enhancements such as new toolboxes, angular dimensions on dynamic blocks, new dimension styles… as well as improved performance.

 

Graitec Bridge Information Modelling

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Bridge engineering is moving towards BrIM (Bridge Information Modelling) and looking to capitalise on the potential time and monetary savings already being realised through use of BIM in Construction. This brief overview shows how models can be transferred between disciplines (Design and Analysis in Advance Design through to Situational representation in Autodesk Revit to a Detailed version in Advance Steel) – using a single model from Analysis to Build.

GRAITEC announces the release of the new BIM Structural version: GRAITEC Advance 2014

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GRAITEC, European software developer and vendor for modeling and drawing creation for the construction industry, announces the release of the GRAITEC Advance 2014 suite.

GRAITEC Advance 2014

Designed for structural engineers and professionals in the construction industry, GRAITEC Advance Structural BIM solution provides a complete environment for the development, design and production of all drawing and materials for steel, concrete, and wood structures.

GRAITEC Advance is a unique solution provider in the BIM field since it allows users to complete the entire structural process in a consistent environment, from finite elements analysis, to design according with the latest norms (Eurocodes, ACI, AISC…) and automated documentation production required for the fabrication: drawings, bills of materials and NC files.

GRAITEC Advance consists of three main structural software solutions: Advance Design, Advance Steel, Advance Concrete, completed with Advance CAD.
The “BIM GRAITEC” main characteristic feature is related to its capability to perform structural analysis and fabrication documents under the same concept. More than 10000 users, working daily with GRAITEC Advance, are involved in the design process of various structures such as towers, stadiums, civil engineering works, industrial buildings, stairs, etc.

For Francis Guillemard, CEO of the GRAITEC Group: “An accelerated growth of over 30% in the last two years and more than 10000 new users who joined our community means that GRAITEC Advance is the reference of the BIM Structural field. An innovative, technology, that helps engineers and construction professionals, to design and build their projects within time constraints and increasingly stringent quality.“

 

Advance Steel Release 2014

ADVANCE STEEL 2014: TAPERED BEAMS & IMPROVED ERGONOMICS

Advance Steel® is specifically designed for steel professionals who require an easy-to-use 3D, powerful structural steel detailing software for automating drawing production, BOMs and NC files.

Among all new functionalities of version 2014, two major developments stand out: significant enhancement of tapered beams in Advance Steel and the continuous investment in the ergonomics and ease of use refinements of Advance Steel.

ADVANCE STEEL 2014: WELDED TAPERED PLATE BEAMS

ADVANCE STEEL 2014: WELDED TAPERED PLATE BEAMSOn a continuous growing market in the emerging countries that invest more and more in their infrastructure, the use of tapered elements for steel structures increased, especially for portal frames having large spans. However, without dedicated tools to complete large and complex steel projects, the design process can take longer. Advance Steel 2014 provides valuable assistance to all designers with a very comprehensive set of features: a new object, “tapered beam”, which allows the user to define elements having a variable cross section, including the possibility to combine different constraints on each segment (fixed or variable lengths, parallel flanges or not, etc.).

Moreover, the user has the possibility to define tapered elements having a hollowed cross section with many options: continuous web or flanges, automatic welding features, etc.

All automatic connections work together with this new object – tapered beam. Thus, with Advance Steel 2014 users will obtain quickly all required drawings, BOMs and NC files for these steel members.

ADVANCE STEEL 2014: FOCUS ON ERGONOMICS

ADVANCE STEEL 2014: FOCUS ON ERGONOMICS

GRAITEC continues its efforts to improve the ergonomics and ease of use of its software solutions. The Tool Palette has now a variable design: its content can be changed interactively, and a “Favorites” category can contain the frequently used commands. The same principle is used for the management of assemblies and collision checks commands which are still accessible even when the user performs other operations.

More simplification: the fusion of all features (holes, notches, cuts etc.) which can be applied on profiles, plates or concrete elements. Likewise, all functionalities used to define structural elements (portal frames, purlins, bracings, connections etc.) were grouped into a new dedicated page in the Tool Palette.

ADVANCE STEEL 2014: MORE ENHANCEMENTS…

Advance Steel 2014 also provides many other features designed to extend the possibilities for design and improve user efficiency:

  • Improved BIM Interface (IFC, Revit)
  • Improved performance and functionality of integrated CAD platform
  • New automatic connections (Overlapping bolted purlin joint)
  • New special features used in the custom connections
  • Enhancements to the weld preparations
  • Possibility to define the detailing direction
  • New options for the camera presentation
  • Creation of XML DStV files for controlling welding robots, etc.

For Dennis BAK, VP-Engineering at Steelway Building Systems (Canada): “Specializing in the design, detailing and fabrication of Pre-Engineering Buildings, which extensively utilizes many types of welded tapered plate beams, we participated in the discussions and checking of the enhanced features in Advance Steel 2014. We were impressed by the number of useful plate features and true parametric connections achieved and we now believe we have the best 3D CAD software for modeling, detailing and manufacturing of welded tapered plate beams“.

 

Advance Concrete Release 2014

ADVANCE CONCRETE 2014: PERFORMANCE & ENHANCED PROFESSIONAL EXPERTISE

Advance Concrete® is specifically designed for structural engineers and reinforced concrete detailers who require professional and easy-to-use 3D BIM software for automating drawings creation.

With increased performance, Advance Concrete 2014 improves the user efficiency experience, especially when it is used on its integrated CAD platform. It also provides several functional changes in response to user requests.

ADVANCE CONCRETE 2014: IMPROVED PERFORMANCE

ADVANCE CONCRETE 2014: IMPROVED PERFORMANCETwo of the key features of Advance Concrete (Multi File data storage and multi CAD platform) have been at the heart of version 2014. Performance and robustness have been brought in these two areas: the time to create new views and updating of existing views, has been largely optimized. More improvements in performance, which are very significant, are available: faster reinforcement elements renumbering in complex cases faster “3D Copy” feature which allows the users to copy the 3D reinforcement of an element in all corresponding views with its identification, symbols and associated dimension lines. Lastly, required corrections were made in Advance Concrete, with the target to deliver more stability and significantly higher robustness for Advance Concrete 2014.

 

ADVANCE CONCRETE 2014: MORE ENHANCEMENTS

Advance Concrete 2014 has many improvements in response to the feedback and different requests Graitec collected from Advance Concrete users:

  • Improved BIM exchange with Revit: all objects are now imported in Advance Concrete, without limitation in terms of geometry. Steel elements are also imported.
  • Improved modeling capabilities: evolution of the “Adjust” command for circular elements, adding new functionalities to handle the control surfaces (roofs and ramps), etc.
  • Improved functionality for reinforcement: changes in pattern recognition algorithm for the renumbering of reinforcement bars and meshes, new options for submitting bending details for bars and meshes, etc.
  • Improved localization for the Czech market (grades, symbols, labels, representation styles, etc.).

 

Advance Design Release 2014

ADVANCE DESIGN 2014: BIM AND EXTENDED DESIGN

Advance Design® is specifically dedicated to structural engineers who require a professional and easy-to-use BIM solution for structural FEM simulation and optimization according with specific design standards (Concrete, Steel or Wood).

Advance Design 2014 has many new features and improvements, mainly focused in two directions: BIM and the enrichment of design capabilities.

ADVANCE DESIGN 2014: BIM SIMPLIFIED EXCHANGES

ADVANCE DESIGN 2014: BIM SIMPLIFIED EXCHANGESIn a context where all structural designers are increasingly receptive to the BIM concept and its associated gains in terms of productivity and safety, Advance Design 2014 provides a set of new features designed to facilitate the BIM exchange in the design offices structure or between the architects and the design offices. The model which is used for structural simulation by the engineer can be a variation of the geometrical model produced by the architect which, in the end, can be significantly different: the elements are coplanar, intersecting axes, the elements extremities which are to closed are merged, small details of the facade are not modeled, etc.

Advance Design 2014 offers a range of tools that allows the engineer to greatly simplify the processing of geometrical models into analytical models.

The principle: a first audit function identifies non-intersecting axes or nodes which are too close and presents an interactive list of errors. The software then provides automatic adjustment features (magnetic modes, quick projection onto a plane, axis adjustment, etc.) which facilitate the correct geometrical conversion of the models provided from different partners.

After the calculation of the structure, when the elements are optimized, Advance Steel and Advance Concrete can retrieve all changes which took place in Advance Design (synchronization mechanism) and update the assembly plans or fabrications drawings. With Advance Design 2014, the aim is to enable the engineer to save a significant amount of modeling time by reusing the information through BIM expertise, while keeping in control the necessary adjustments to achieve the analytical model.

 

ADVANCE DESIGN 2014: ENRICHMENT OF ENGINEERING EXPERTISE

ADVANCE DESIGN 2014: ENRICHMENT OF ENGINEERING EXPERTISE

Another development for Advance Design 2014,the enhancement and enrichment of the design engines: automatic calculation of the support rigidity based on the properties of the soil layers, considering of real transverse reinforcement for columns (Eurocode), many changes regarding the steel connection design, 2D climatic generator for a quick design study (New !), possibility to post-process results on a pre-defined grid for planar elements allowing designers to achieve full gantry and quick study, able to post-process the results of an independent grid mesh element.

 

ADVANCE DESIGN 2014: MORE ENHANCEMENTS

Advance Design 2014 has many changes and other adjustments:

  • Extensions in the time history analysis option
  • New options for post-processing results
  • New options for reports
  • New options for the element’s display
  • Ability to export just the support reactions and reuse in another calculation

GRAITEC BIM CONNECT – From Advance Design to REVIT

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Graitec BIM Connect is the latest BIM technology available from Graitec enabling structural models created in GRAITEC BIM software to be exported to Autodesk REVIT applications.

In this example a Reinforced Concrete structure with several steel members, was created in  ADVANCE Design. The structural elements are organized into different groups, each one representing a different level. This model also contains a number of different load cases which are also grouped by their load type.

Notice that all the frames, slabs and walls are concrete while the vertical bracings are defined with steel cross sections.

Using the standard transfer functions available in all Graitec Software, this structural model will be exported using our unique Graitec BIM *.gtcx format; a light-weight file  which can be shared with other systems using our free GRAITEC BIM Connect technology.

With Graitec BIM Connect installed in Autodesk Revit Suite and available under in the Add-Ins Tab you can see that the same file can be quickly transferred to Revit.

After the transfer is complete the structural model is imported preserving all its original geometry. Especially important to notice is that all the sections have been automatically converted to their corresponding Revit families defined in the Autodesk Revit Suite, creating a true Revit model. The loads & load cases have also been fully transferred.

Graitec BIM Connect allows model data to be shared in both directions so an Autodesk REVIT model can also be imported into any GRAITEC Advance Software.

Even more powerful is the unique ability to synchronize these models across different applications – only possible with Graitec BIM Connect.

GRAITEC BIM Connect available on Autodesk Exchange for Autodesk Revit

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GRAITEC BIM ConnectGRAITEC, the fastest growing global structural analysis and detailing software vendor, announces the availability of the new GRAITEC BIM Connect 2014 release as well as its availability in the Autodesk Exchange for Autodesk Revit.

With GRAITEC BIM Connect, Autodesk Revit Architecture and Autodesk Revit Structure users quickly connect their Revit models to the GRAITEC Advance suite and then optimize the design of their structures in accordance with North American and Eurocode standards and produce effective and error-free general arrangement drawings, fabrication drawings, BOMs, NC files for both steel and concrete structures.

GRAITEC BIM Connect available on Autodesk Exchange for Autodesk Revit

  From Revit Structure to Advance Design for structural analysis

Essentially based on customer experience feedback, the new GRAITEC BIM Connect 2014 release focuses on details and performance. The new release provides full bidirectional transfer to GRAITEC Advance of any kind of building, regardless of the geometry complexity, starting from the simplest geometries to the most complex ones. This is achieved even if the structure contains custom profile shapes or random solid bodies, with no shape limitation. From common element sections to curved walls with various openings, curved foundations, any hole shape in structural members, stairs, curved ramps and roofs or sloped slabs, all these are perfectly transferred and allow a smooth data transfer between Revit and GRAITEC Advance, with an immediate effect on the time spent on the projects.

GRAITEC BIM Connect available on Autodesk Exchange for Autodesk Revit

From Revit Structure to Advance Steel for Steel detailing

More than that, the entire library of the Revit families was mapped to their correspondent profiles in the Advance Steel and Concrete library, leading to an accurate profile exchange.

GRAITEC BIM Connect was also reviewed by Autodesk and is now available for free in the Autodesk Exchange for Autodesk Revit for all Revit users.
The release is also available on www.graitec.com/revit.

For Manuel Liedot, Chief Product Officer at Graitec: “The partnership with Autodesk is key in the Graitec strategy to deliver BIM to structural engineers and detailers. Construction professionals now have powerful tools for going from structural engineering with Revit to structural analyses, design and detailing with Advance Design, Advance Steel and Advance Concrete.“

GRAITEC BIM Connect available on Autodesk Exchange for Autodesk Revit

From Revit Structure to Advance Concrete for concrete detailing

GRAITEC at NASCC Conferences in St-Louis, USA

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From April- 17th 2013 GRAITEC presented its Structural BIM Solutions “Advance Steel” and “Advance Design” at the NASCC Conferences in St-Louis, USA. The highlight was the presentation of the new 2013 versions of Advance Steel.

The NASCC takes place every year and it is the most important fair for the steel construction industries in the USA and one of the biggest fairs The Americas.

The GRAITEC team is very satisfied with the result. They had interesting discussions with GRAITEC customers and established contact with many new qualified prospects.

GRAITEC is proud to announce International User Projects Contest!

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Are you using one or more GRAITEC Advance software in designing your projects? Now it’s the time to show us, and others, how you used Advance Steel, Advance Concrete orAdvance Design in your projects!

 

Why? 
Beside the attractive awards that we have for you, all projects will be presented on the GRAITEC website and all our social media networks. This will lead to anincreased visibility of your projects and your business.

 

About the contest
The contest is open to all GRAITEC customers that have completed a project using one or more GRAITEC Advance software, version 2012 or 2013. Participating projects will be evaluated based on specific criteria, such as project size and type, technical sophistication, social importance, originality, testimonial used metrics, etc.

GRAITEC is proud to announce International User Projects Contest!

Contest rules

The project submitted must have been created with at least one of the GRAITEC software products: Advance Steel, Advance Concrete or Advance Design.

For each participating project the following documents must be submitted:

Incomplete applications will not be considered.

Each participant can submit more than one project. Each submitted project will be evaluated separately and has its chances of winning.

 

You can send us your projects to info.contest@graitec.net. If the package intended for submitting is too big, you might consider using a free internet file transfer website, such as https://www.transferbigfiles.com/ or http://www.dropsend.com/ to the same email address.

Deadline for submission is September 15th, 2013.

 

Take part and win!

Advance Steel: BIM software for structural steel engineering, detailing and fabrication1 year free maintenance or 1 free upgrade

 

Advance Concrete: BIM software for structural concrete engineering, detailing and fabrication1 year free maintenance or 1 free upgrade

 

Advance Design: BIM software for FEM structural analysis including international Eurocodes1 year free maintenance or 1 free upgrade

 

BONUS: Top 12 artistic photos will be part of the annual GRAITEC 2014 calendar. You can see here the projects presented in the 2013 annual calendar.

GRAITEC is proud to announce International User Projects Contest! GRAITEC is proud to announce International User Projects Contest! GRAITEC is proud to announce International User Projects Contest! GRAITEC is proud to announce International User Projects Contest! GRAITEC is proud to announce International User Projects Contest! GRAITEC is proud to announce International User Projects Contest!

For more information or questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at info.contest@graitec.net.

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.

Free Webinars by GRAITEC US

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Free webinars by GRAITEC US

Complete a Set of Drawings for Stairs and Railings under 20 minutes March 4
12:00 EDT
Advance Steel Quick Learning Curve for AutoCad® Users March 7
12:00 EDT
Graitec Structural BIM Vision – Synchronize Revit® – Advance Design – Advance Steel March 11
12:00 EDT
Complete a Set of Drawings
for Complex Plate Work
under 20 minutes		 March 14
12:00 EDT
Create a Complete Set of Drawings for Curved Stairs and Railings under 20 minutes March 18
12:00 EDT
Master Structural Steel Design with Advance Design March 21
12:00 EDT
Create a Custom Connections Template in Advance Steel March 25
12:00 EDT

>> Register online here
Register online

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

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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

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: 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 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.

GRAITEC: Download the GRAITEC Advance Trial Version

December free webinars

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Structural Engineers, Steel and Concrete Detailers…

…Discover our Structural BIM suite!

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

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.

1/ General overview: discover the software in 30 minutes

Thursday, December 6th, 2012

Register now!

⇒ 9:00 AM CET to 9:30 AM CET – Metric

⇒ 6:00 PM CET to 6:30 PM CET – Imperial

2/ StruCad® switchover to Advance Steel

Discover a number of the features and enhancements in Advance Steel that StruCad® customers require

Thursday, December 13th, 2012

⇒ 9:00 AM CET to 9:30 AM CET

⇒ 6:00 PM CET to 6:30 PM CET

Thursday, December 27th, 2012

⇒ 9:00 AM CET to 9:30 AM CET

⇒ 6:00 PM CET to 6:30 PM CET

3/ Multi user mode

We will show how the Advance Steel multi-user mode can speed up the modeling of your projects of steel structures and how several users can work at the same time on the same project with security.

Thursday, December 20th, 2012

⇒ 9:00 AM CET to 9:30 AM CET

⇒ 6:00 PM CET to 6:30 PM CET

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

Advance Design: BIM software for FEM structural analysis including international eurocodesAdvance Design

Advance Design® is specifically dedicated to structural engineers who require professional and easy-to-use BIM solution for simulating and optimizing all their projects according to international design codes (latest European standards, American standards ACI and AISC).

1/ General overview: discover the software in 30 minutes

Tuesday, December 4th, 2012

⇒ 9:00 AM CET to 9:30 AM CET

⇒ 6:00 PM CET to 6:30 PM CET

2/ Dynamic and non-linear analysis in Advance Design

During this ½ hour presentation, you will discover all the possibilities of Advance Design to run advanced analysis on real projects, from the assumptions definition to the results postprocessing step: time history analysis, modal buckling, non-linear analysis, 2nd order effects…

Tuesday, December 18th, 2012

⇒ 9:00 AM CET to 9:30 AM CET

⇒ 6:00 PM CET to 6:30 PM CET

Advance Design free webinar                 Advance Design free webinar

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

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 drawings quality, while reducing the risk of errors.

1/ Advance Concrete customization for your office standards

We will show you the ways to change the defaults of Advance Concrete according to your company standards: user preferences, project settings, representation styles for model elements, drawings and reinforcement objects (colors, hatches, line styles, …), fabrics and bars library, modify / create rebar and formwork symbols, modify rebar list templates, modify dimension styles, re-use the settings in new projects.

Wednesday, December 5th, 2012

⇒ 9:00 AM CET to 9:30 AM CET

⇒ 6:00 PM CET to 6:30 PM CET

2/ General overview: discover the software in 30 minutes

Wednesday, December 12th, 2012

⇒ 9:00 AM CET to 9:30 AM CET

⇒ 6:00 PM CET to 6:30 PM CET

Advance Design free webinar                 Advance Design free webinar

GRAITEC Group reports + 22% revenue growth End of Q3 2012 compared with 2011 and +511% growth in Profitability

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 GRAITEC reports a turnover of 21.27 million Euros for the first three quarters of 2012. GRAITEC turnover increased 22% compared to the same period in 2011, exclusively due to organic growth. The profitability has also soared by more than 6-fold compared to the same period in 2011. The main reason for this performance is due to a massive adoption of the solutions developed and sold by GRAITEC.

Highlighted performances:

Advance Steel, the Structural BIM solution for the steel industry, has grown year to date by +54% in revenue and over 45% in number of seats. Advance Design, the Structural BIM analysis and design solution, has achieved a remarkable +20% growth in turnover. Advance suite, the complete international Structural BIM suite of Graitec, reports a year to year growth of +35%.

Advance Steel: BIM software for structural steel engineering, detailing and fabrication Advance Concrete: BIM software for structural concrete engineering, detailing and fabrication Advance Design: BIM software for FEM structural analysis including international eurocodes

Mentioning only some of the Geographical best performers:

• North America has done an amazing job in the steel construction industry, increasing the Advance Steel turnover by +121%.

• GRAITEC Asia/Pacific, over performed with a +86% growth.

• GRAITEC Russia, in the same range of performance, increased its revenue by +73%.

• Europe has also delivered some great performances, in all countries where Graitec operates, a few highlights are:

  • An amazing over 80% growth for B&B, the Italian subsidiary of Graitec, acquired in 2011
  • +37% turnover in GRAITEC Germany (covering DACH region).
  • UK +16% including the 2 Graitec entities performances, Adris and Graitec UK.
  • GRAITEC France gaining market share with 28% growth in the CAD solutions (Advance Steel and Concrete) and reinforcing its BIM Structural Analysis leadership with +11% Growth.

Alexandre Tartas, COO of GRAITEC, comments: “We are very proud to report another solid performance at the end of Q3 2012. Graitec not only grows but does it in a very profitable business model, which is a very remarkable performance. It is difficult to talk about every unique performance, when every subsidiary, every sales office over performs. Graitec continues to reinforce its Structural BIM Specialist position in the market, providing and implementing best-in-class solutions to contribute to the daily challenges of our customers. Of course Q3 is only a stage in 2012 and everyone is actively working on maintaining this level of performance until the end of the year. This year to date 2012 accelerated growth gives Graitec high ambitions and expectations for Q4 and we can expect to over achieve the initial targets in turnover, operating margin and profit.”

November free webinars

/ Graitec Group / Leave a comment

Structural Engineers, Steel and Concrete Detailers…

…Discover our Structural BIM suite!

Advance Design: BIM software for FEM structural analysis including international eurocodesAdvance Design

Advance Design® is specifically dedicated to structural engineers who require professional and easy-to-use BIM solution for simulating and optimizing all their projects. It includes a user-friendly structural modeler, an automatic load generator, a powerful FEM engine, comprehensive wizards for designing concrete and steel members, and efficient post-processing and report generators. Advance Design® implements the latest European standards, American standards ACI and AISC.

1/ General overview: discover the software in 30 minutes

Tuesday, November 6th, 2012

⇒ 9:00 AM CET to 9:30 AM CET

⇒ 6:00 PM CET to 6:30 PM CET

2/ The advanced post processing tools in Advance Design

We will show you the available post processing tools in Advance Design to make your project’s results post processing step more easy and efficient: isoregions, diagrams, result curves, stresses on sections… You will also see how you can update all the created documents in one click when changing the model using the “result memory” technology.

Tuesday, November 20th, 2012

⇒ 9:00 AM CET to 9:30 AM CET

⇒ 6:00 PM CET to 6:30 PM CET

Advance Design free webinar

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

Advance Steel

Advance Steel® is specifically designed for structural engineers and steel detailers who require professional and easy-to-use BIM structural steel detailing software that automates the production of drawings, BOMs and NC files. Advance Steel® drastically increases productivity and drawing quality, while reducing the risk of errors. Advance Steel® can be used with or without AutoCAD®.

1/ General overview: discover the software in 30 minutes

Thursday, November 8th, 2012

Register now!

⇒ 9:00 AM CET to 9:30 AM CET – Metric

⇒ 6:00 PM CET to 6:30 PM CET – Imperial

2/ Advanced tools for miscellaneous steel

We will show different techniques when using Advance Steel for miscellaneous steel, from the 3D modeling to the automatic creation of all necessary documents for fabrication and erection.

Thursday, November 15th, 2012

⇒ 9:00 AM CET to 9:30 AM CET

⇒ 6:00 PM CET to 6:30 PM CET

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

3/ Drawing customization

Advance Steel allows users to get high-quality drawings by using presentations delivered by default. We will show in this webinar how block titles and drawing styles can easily be customized to fit the company’s way of providing workshop and general arrangement drawings.

Thursday, November 22th, 2012

⇒ 9:00 AM CET to 9:30 AM CET

⇒ 6:00 PM CET to 6:30 PM CET

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

4/ StruCad® switchover to Advance Steel

Discover a number of the features and enhancements in Advance Steel that StruCad® customers require.

Thursday, November 29th, 2012

⇒ 9:00 AM CET to 9:30 AM CET

⇒ 6:00 PM CET to 6:30 PM CET

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

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 drawings quality, while reducing the risk of errors.

1/ General overview: discover the software in 30 minutes

Wednesday, November 14th, 2012

⇒ 9:00 AM CET to 9:30 AM CET

⇒ 6:00 PM CET to 6:30 PM CET

See all the webinars organized for the rest of the year

October free webinars

/ Graitec Group / Leave a comment

Structural Engineers, Steel and Concrete Detailers…

Discover GRAITEC Structural BIM Suite

…Attend our free upcoming webinars!

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

Advance Steel

Advance Steel® is specifically designed for structural engineers and steel detailers who require professional and easy-to-use BIM structural steel detailing software that automates the production of drawings, BOMs and NC files. Advance Steel® drastically increases productivity and drawing quality, while reducing the risk of errors. Advance Steel® can be used with or without AutoCAD®.

1/ General overview: discover the software in 30 minutes

Thursday, October 4th, 2012

Register now!

⇒ 9:00 AM CEST to 9:30 AM CEST – Metric

⇒ 6:00 PM CEST to 6:30 PM CEST – Imperial

2/ StruCad® switchover to Advance Steel

Discover a number of the features and enhancements in Advance Steel that StruCad® customers require.

Thursday, October 11th, 2012

⇒ 9:00 AM CEST to 9:30 AM CEST

⇒ 6:00 PM CEST to 6:30 PM CEST

Thursday, October 25th, 2012

⇒ 9:00 AM CEST to 9:30 AM CEST

⇒ 6:00 PM CEST to 6:30 PM CEST

3/ Advanced tools for miscellaneous steel

We will show different techniques when using Advance Steel for miscellaneous steel, from the 3D modeling to the automatic creation of all necessary documents for fabrication and erection.

Thursday, October 18th, 2012

⇒ 9:00 AM CEST to 9:30 AM CEST

⇒ 6:00 PM CEST to 6:30 PM CEST

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

Advance Design: BIM software for FEM structural analysis including international eurocodesAdvance Design

Advance Design® is specifically dedicated to structural engineers who require professional and easy-to-use BIM solution for simulating and optimizing all their projects. It includes a user-friendly structural modeler, an automatic load generator, a powerful FEM engine, comprehensive wizards for designing concrete and steel members, and efficient post-processing and report generators. Advance Design® implements the latest European standards, American standards ACI and AISC.

1/ General overview: discover the software in 30 minutes

Tuesday October 9th, 2012

⇒ 9:00 AM CEST to 9:30 AM CEST

⇒ 6:00 PM CEST to 6:30 PM CEST

2/ Seismical analysis EC8

Discover how you can handle a seismical analysis according to EC8 with Advance Design: spectrum generation and modal analysis. During this ½ hour presentation, you will discover how you can benefit from dedicated tools in Advance Design to handle multi-material projects in seismical areas: automatic generation of seismical spectrum, behaviour coefficient definition, additional torsional eccentricity effects, results postprocessing per mode…

Tuesday, October 23th, 2012

⇒ 9:00 AM CEST to 9:30 AM CEST

⇒ 6:00 PM CEST to 6:30 PM CEST

Advance Design free webinar      Advance Design free webinar

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

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 drawings quality, while reducing the risk of errors.

1/ General overview: discover the software in 30 minutes

Wednesday, October 10th, 2012

⇒ 9:00 AM CEST to 9:30 AM CEST

⇒ 6:00 PM CEST to 6:30 PM CEST

2/ Several ways to create reinforcement drawings

Thanks to Advance Concrete, discover different ways to create reinforcement drawings:

• Based on the 3D model elements with reinforcement styles
• Based on the 3D model without using reinforcement styles
• Create the rebar drawings based on a pure 2D drawing
• Rebar symbols, bending details and reinforcement lists

Finally we will create a 3D view of the reinforcement, run a clash check detection and place the reinforcement drawings on a layout.

Wednesday, October 17th, 2012

⇒ 9:00 AM CEST to 9:30 AM CEST

⇒ 6:00 PM CEST to 6:30 PM CEST

Concrete Design according to Eurocode 2 – Video

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Discover in few minutes the EC2 implementation in Advance Design 2012.
This video demonstrates the EC2 design capabilities in Advance Design: real reinforcement definition on beams-columns and plates and cracking detailed analysis. See also how you can get a detailed report with all intermediate values and formulas.

CAD Digest – review of GRAITEC Advance’s BIM Capabilities for Structural Design

/ Graitec Group / 1 Comment

CAD Digest, one of the most popular online sources for CAD, CAM & CAE articles, reviews the capabilities of the GRAITEC ADVANCE suite as a complete solution for structural design.

The author of the review, Protim Banerjee  (with 15 years of experience in construction management, structural engineering and AEC software development) provides an overview of the GRAITEC ADVANCE suite, highlighting the pros as well as the cons for compatibility and data exchange with Revit Structures 2012.

GRAITEC ADVANCE and Revit Structures have been compatible since 2006, up to the present time. This integration has allowed engineers and design offices using software solutions from both suites to run their structure calculation and drawing creation quickly, without recreating the model and with a minimal risk of errors. As an Autodesk partner for over 10 years, GRAITEC offers an application for Revit Structures – GRAITEC BIM Connect – that ensures the compatibility of Revit models with the GRAITEC Advance suite and with industry standards, such as IFC and SDNF. With GRAITEC BIM Connect, data is imported and exported between applications, using GRAITEC’s own transfer file format – GTC files. The free Revit add-on is available for download here. This add-on generates GTC files for import into GRAITEC applications, and also works as a two-way transfer.

CAD Digest – review of GRAITEC Advance's BIM Capabilities for Structural Design

“The Revit add-on allows model synchronization, a tool very useful for comparing the original model with updated ones. The changes that are alerted include member additions (appended), member modifications (modified), and member deletions (deleted); the alerts are made by color coding and by tabulating them in the synchronization dialog. You can review the changes, and then decide whether to accept them” Protim Banerjee states.

CAD Digest – review of GRAITEC Advance's BIM Capabilities for Structural Design

GRAITEC BIM Connectt is, in fact, a concept which has constantly improved since 2009. Its key features include data synchronization with the GRAITEC ADVANCE Suite, IFC Interface (Import / Export), CIS/2 Interface (Import / Export), SDNF Interface (Import / Export), PSS Interface (Import / Export). The 3D model is imported from Autodesk Revit Structure (or Autodesk Revit Architecture) to the desired GRAITEC Structural Analysis or Detailing product. To complete the model, a structural analysis and design process is run to optimize the structure, and then synchronized with the Revit Structure model to include any modifications. The implemented elements are structural elements (columns, beams, wall, slabs), custom families containing an analytical model, supports and loads.

CAD Digest – review of GRAITEC Advance's BIM Capabilities for Structural Design

“GRAITEC has carefully conceived the overall BIM process with the use of its GTC file format. The concept of cross section mapping and synchronization of changes is certainly very innovative. GRAITEC scores good points when it comes to the software design”, Protim Banerjee concludes, stating also that the GRAITEC ADVANCE suite covers all aspects of structural BIM workflow.

CAD Digest – review of GRAITEC Advance's BIM Capabilities for Structural Design

You can read the full review here.