Advance Steel

Custom Connections: Ready to harness the full power of Advance Steel?

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Custom Connections: Ready to harness the full power of Autodesk Advance Steel?Advance Steel already comes with a comprehensive library of parametric connections that can be readily adapted to suit a wide variety of standard situations. But where you have a more specific or complex need or want to combine several connections together to create a bespoke connection, the power of creating you very own intelligent Custom Connections library in Advance Steel delivers a whole new level of performance. Why not create your very own intelligent Customer Connection libraries and learn how to:

  • Convert standard elements, such as beams, plates, special parts, folded plates, bolts, welds, features, weld preparations, etc. to intelligent Customer Connections.
  • Combine several parametric joints together to create unique multi-joint situation saving the result to your Custom Connection library for reuse.
  • Build your own bespoke connections from scratch, defining and controlling the parameters of each element, using Advance Steel intelligent ‘bricks’

Learn how to get more performance from your Advance Steel by downloading your free copy of GRAITEC ‘Custom Connections’ tutorial from GRAITEC Advantage customer portal now!

Autodesk White Paper: Exploit your AutoCAD investment with dedicated tools for structural steel detailing

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Steel detailing organizations face a difficult business environment with tight schedules, slim margins, and intense competition, more so with Building Information Modeling (BIM)

becoming an expected practice and sometimes a prerequisite for new business!

Autodesk White Paper: Exploit your AutoCAD investment with dedicated tools for structural steel detailing

This Autodesk White Paper explores how Autodesk® Advance Steel enables a more seamless BIM workflow and gives you that competitive edge!

Download Autodesk Advance Steel White Paper    Download your Autodesk Advance Steel free trial

 

Agricultural Buildings Show – 3rd April 2014

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Discover the ‘best kept secret’ within the construction industry by meeting the Graitec UK team at the Agricultural Buildings Show 2014

Just 20 minutes of your time now will save you countless time and money in the future!

Graitec UK are excited to be exhibiting at this year’s Agricultural Buildings Show at The Epic Centre, Lincolnshire Showground, Lincolnshire, UK, on Thursday 3rd April. You’ll find us on Stand number 15.

Meet James Flatt and Aleck Giles and see how our easy to use, affordable, steel detailing system can add value to your business whilst meeting necessary new legislation plus saving you time and money in the process.

You have nothing to lose and everything to gain!

If you are unable to attend the show, send an email to sales@graitec.co.uk and we can arrange a telephone call and/or meeting at your offices.

Agricultural Buildings Show Venue 
Thursday 3rd April 2014
The Epic Centre,
Lincolnshire Showground,
Lincolnshire, UK

Are you ready for BrIM?

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Join our free online Bridge Information Modelling webinar on Thursday 6th March from 12:00-12:30

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.

Steel-Glass façade for the most inclined Tower of the world

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Steel-Glass façade for the most inclined Tower of the worldThe façade of the Capital Gate in Abu Dhabi was constructed by Waagner-Biro Stahlbau AG with Advance Steel, the 3D-Software for steel constructions.

The spectacular skyscraper “Capital Gate” was created directly to the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center, the biggest area for trade shows and events in the Middle-East. The Capital Gate is 160m high and has an impressive inclination up to 18 degrees. Therefore it is more inclined than the leaning tower of Pisa that has only an inclination of 4 degrees. In the Guinness Book of Records the Capital Gate is already listed as the most leaning tower of the world. The building was erected between 2007 and 2010. It consists of 40 levels and is used as an office complex. In the 16th upper floors a five-star-Hyatt Hotel is located.

Waagner-Biro AG from Vienna was responsible for the modeling, construction, detailing and assembly of this extraordinary and organic formed steel-glass-facade of the Capital Gate. The tower has a polygonal foundation and the facade is one degree per level sloped and twisted. At the most inclined part the facade leans out more than 24m over the ground floor. The main-load bearing structure consists of a diamond structure.

Waagner-Biro Stahlbau AG

More than 720 diamond elements were field-assembled by triangle sections with the glass and finally mount complete to the main structure. Each of those large-sized elements called “Diamonds” covers two levels and consists of 18 triangular areas and 33 single rods. For the entire facade 23.760 single bars and 12.960 glass panels were used. Because of the complex free formed surface each triangular glass panels and each single bar is unique. All in all more than 1.200 tons of steel and 24.000m2 glass was used for this extraordinary facade.

In order to realize the complex and challenging project in cost and on schedule, the 3D-CAD Software Advance Steel was used for planning. Thanks to its extensive 3D-tools it was easy to model the sculptured surface with nodes, rods and joints between them. Advance Steel processes the entire 3D model data, accelerates all document creation and insures all-around drawing consistency. An in-house programming on top of Advance Steel created all workshop documents (assembly drawings, GA-drawings, BOMs, NC-files) automatically from the 3D model.

Steel-Glass façade for the most inclined Tower of the world

Mr. Gert Weimann, head of engineering and construction department at Waagner-Biro AG, explains: “The project Capital Gate was a big challenge for us especially concerning the geometry, construction, detailing and assembly. Advance Steel increased the productivity in engineering and in the participated departments by more than 50% due to its 3D abilities and its possibilities of a comprehensive programming“.

About Waagner-Biro Stahlbau AG
Waagner-Biro is an international company for steel constructions and has its headquarters in Vienne, Austria. The company was founded in 1854. More than 1.000 employees work for Waagner-Biro in 16 offices in Europe, in South-East Asia and in the Arabic countries. Waagner-Biro is specialized in steel-glass-technology, bridge constructions, stage constructions and special mechanic engineering. Some of their main references are the cupola of the Reichstag in Berlin, the YAS-Marina Project in Abu Dhabi, the new airport terminal in Baku (Azerbaijan) and the Sony-Center in Berlin.

Autodesk acquires Advance Steel and Advance Concrete

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GRAITEC Advance Steel, Advance Concrete, AutodeskGraitec SA and Autodesk, Inc. have signed a definitive share purchase agreement allowing Autodesk to acquire Advance Steel and Advance Concrete product lines. This acquisition is expanding Autodesk’s BIM portfolio for structural engineering. The transaction is expected to close during the 4th 2013 quarter.

Until the completion of the transaction and importantly thereafter, GRAITEC will continue to sell Advance Steel and Advance Concrete, as before, as well as all the related services (maintenance, training, hotline) with its subsidiaries and resellers. Moreover, GRAITEC continues its development process, sales and technical support for the entire range of existing products.

See also:

  Advance Steel and Advance Concrete customers letter

  Customer Letter

  Customer FAQs

 GRAITEC press release

 Autodesk Press Release

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

Advance Steel Project: ARS Electronica Center

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Project location: Linz, Austria
Software used Advance Steel
Design Office: Grömer Stahl GmbH
Contracting Authority: Immobilien Linz GmbH & Co. KG
Architecture Office: Treusch Architecture ZT GmbH

Advance Steel Project: ARS Electronica Center

Project description:

The Ars Electronica Center (AEC) is a center for electronic arts, situated in Linz, Austria, at the northern side of the Danube. The new Center, opened in 2009 – the year Linz served as European Capital of Culture, is an enhanced and updated version of the 1996 original. It is also known as the “Museum of the Future” and is one of the most important sights in Linz. The Ars Electronica Center is the architectural expression of what Ars Electronica is all about: a place of inquiry and discovery, experimentation and exploration, a place that has taken the world of tomorrow as its stage, and that assembles and presents influences from many different ways of thinking and of seeing things. The most modern techniques from the technology sector are presented to the museum’s many visitors.

The project with a high degree of complexity was designed using Advance Steel by Architecture Office – Treusch Architecture ZT GmbH, contracted by Immobilien Linz GmbH & Co. KG. The entire structure is covered with a 5000 square meter steel-glass facade, consisting of 200 tons of steel and 1100 square meters of grating. The steel-glass facade is the highlight of the project, because of the LED (liquid emitting diode) technology installed in the space between the two layers of the facade, which allow the building to be illuminated in various colors. Partly matte and partly transparent, the glass panels combine into one continuous glass surface on each side of the building.

The Ars Electronica Center is extraordinary, and not only because of its distinctive architecture. “Innovation” is also always present in the themes of its exhibitions, the structure of its offerings and its communication concept. It emphasizes discovery, experimentation and creativity.

The Ars Electronica Center was nominated at the World Architecture Festival, in 2009, for the cultural building category.

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

Video: Direct link between Advance Steel and BIM – Review from AceCAD

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GRAITEC and AceCAD offer a direct link so that a 3D model done in Advance Steel can be successfully imported in BIMReview and then StruMIS.
This movie demonstrates how users may take advantage of this link by exporting the Advance Steel model to a *.gtcx file format and how this fully detailed model is imported and can be viewed & manipulated like any other BIMReview model.
As you can see with this movie, GRAITEC Advance Steel is fully BIM compliant allowing easy and seamless data sharing with BIMReview for easy project collaboration.

Advance Steel – Stairs and Railings review by CAD Digest Magazine

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Advance Steel offers an extensive library of smart objects, automatic joints and specific tools for creating not only standard structures, but also stairs, railing and miscellaneous steel work. CAD Digest, one of the most popular online sources for CAD, CAM & CAE articles and testimonials, reviews the ADVANCE Steel – Stairs and Railings feature set.

For this review, the author created two sets of stairs, one straight andone spiral, describing each step of the process – drawing, editing stairs properties, adding, removing or modifying landings or handrails – highlighting the efficiency and ease-of-use of the software: “I was impressed with how easily Advance Steel creates stairs to my specification, and the ease with which I could modify their properties, along with associated components.”

With Advance Steel, it is easy to create, modify and customize all types of stairs, landingsand railings. Using the software’s advanced tools, with a few clicks defining the height, the tread width and the direction, the entire stair can be created.

Other benefits of the stairs and railing feature of Advance Steel include the large library of predefined objects and the automatic creation of all necessary documents (including NC files). “GRAITEC includes a large library of stair tread types, and I had the option to define my own types and save them as templates for future use. I recommend anyone looking for an efficient way to design and document miscellaneous steel projects to consider GRAITEC’s Advance Steel Software.”

Read the full article here

Advance Steel Project: Ondrej Nepela winter stadium

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Ondrej Nepela Winter stadium is the oldest hockey hall in Slovakia. It was first build in 1940 and was recently renovated for the 2011 World Ice Hockey Championship. During the competition its name was temporarily changed to Orange Arena.

According to A. Bezák, the director of the supplier company Ingsteel, 80% of the building had to be demolished for the reconstruction. The new stadium has an increased capacity of 10,055 seats.

The arena is also home to Slovan Bratislava, one of the best hockey clubs in the region (founded in 1921).Matches of Slovan are said to have the best atmosphere in all KHL so if you ever wanted to experience top-tier hockey in Europe, here is probably the best place.

The stadium has three ice surfaces and serves not only as a hockey arena, but also as multi-purpose arena, so from time to time events such as concerts or performances take place in here.

Design office: INGSTEEL Ltd

Location: Bratislava, Slovakia
Software used: Advance Steel

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.

User testimonial: using Advance Steel on its own platform

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Testimonial from Maxime Delforge (SAS BOULET BATIMENT, France), daily using Advance Steel on its own CAD platform

SAS BOULET BATIMENT is a 50-employee company located in the city of Azincourt (north of France) and which is specialized in steel construction. Maxime Delforge, in charge of the 3D modeling at SAS BOULET, explains why Advance Steel – after only few months of use – handled projects of any type and allowed for sub-contracting more efficiently the fabrication of these steel structures thanks to the high-quality drawings and NC-DSTV created automatically.

Testimonial from Maxime Delforge Testimonial from Maxime Delforge

After a demonstration which proved that the software answered positively to all company’s requests, SAS BOULET BATIMENT acquired Advance Steel in the spring of 2012. More than 6 months later, we can say that several dozens of projects have been modeled in 3D and successfully erected at site. It includes structures of all types going from renovations (like an outside roof in a school made of curved rafters connected on the top of concrete columns already in place) to the conception of industrial buildings (such as food plants) or commercial buildings (different supermarkets and warehouse supporting cold rolled Zed purlins).

Testimonial from Maxime Delforge

In addition to the possibility to model all the main steel structure (portal frames, floors, side rails), Advance Steel provides different functionalities to represent the environment (existing concrete walls, machinery, piping,etc.) and therefore to handle a global multi-material project which can also sometimes contain timber elements such as the purlins. This is very important as this is taken into consideration by the integrated clash check which prevents issues at site. It is also possible to create in 3D the gutters or other types of complex folded elements (e.g. stringer made of a folded plate for stairs) and to get their workshop drawings with the part displayed both folded and unfolded, which is highly appreciated by the workshop as it facilitates their understanding.

Testimonial from Maxime Delforge

SAS BOULET BATIMENTdoes not have an integrated workshop and therefore the fabrication is sub-contracted; this is also where Advance Steel finds its right place as it automatically creates all NC-DSTV files which can then be read by the CNC machines of the workshop.

Maxime Delforge adds: « We do not have any AutoCAD licenses at SAS BOULET BATIMENT therefore I am using Advance Steel on its own platform since my first training day, and I am very happy with it.The software allows navigation with speed in my 3D model displayed in realistic mode, the automatically created drawings correspond to the expectations of our teams at site, and the sub-contractors which fabricate our steel structures can successfully import NC files created with Advance Steel. »

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

ADVANCE Steel 2013 reviewed by AEC Magazine

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AEC Magazine

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

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

Advance Steel 2013 reviewed by AEC Magazine

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

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

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

Click here to read the full review 

Successful Advance Steel User Day in UK

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

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

Successful Advance Steel User Day in UK

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

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

 Successful Advance Steel User Day in UKSuccessful Advance Steel User Day in UK

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

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