projects

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. “

Video: GRAITEC Advance Workshop Customer Success Story

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Company: MPL s.r.l. – Italy

GRAITEC Advance Workshop: Steel fabrication production management software

Mr. Grimaldi, Production Manager:
“MPL is a steel service center where we produce beams. […] Advance Workshop allows us to control the whole workshop. The orders from us have a maximum turnaround of 3-4 hours and without this software we couldn’t handle this.It has increased our ability to action orders. We were at 5% scrap. We are now at 3%. We have saved a lot of money!“

Watch the video bellow or you can follow this link.

 

Click here for more info about Advance Workshop

Click here to Test Advance Workshop FOR FREE

Advance Steel Project: Petrom City

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Petrom City

Software used: Autodesk Advance Steel

Project location: Bucharest, Romania

Design Office: Profesional Construct Proiectare SRL

Project description:

Petrom City is a unique project in Romania due to the technical innovations used at constructing the building, the process of ecological rehabilitation of the land, as well as to its architecture and working environmental branding in line with the company values.

The construction is developed on 100,000sqm and is composed of several buildings: Oval Office, Headquarter, Parking Garage, Computer and Data Centers and technical buildings. The project was done in cooperation with an Austrian design company, and all detail drawings and statical calculations were done by Profesional Construct Proiectare company.

Facts and figures:

  • The total gross floor area of Petrom City is of 100,000 sqm
  • The total gross floor area of the offices is of 70,000 sqm
  • All the surfaces covered in glass (facades and interior walls) have 13,000 sqm

Advance Steel Project: Pedestrian foot bridge

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Pedestrian foot bridge of University Campus at Brno Bohunice

Pedestrian foot bridge of University Campus at Brno Bohunice

Software used: Advance Steel
Project location: Brno, Czech Republic

Design Office: OKF s.r.o.
Architecture Office: A PLUS BRNO a.s.
Contracting Authority: MU Brno + AIG/LINCOLN

Project description:
The footbridge serves as a connection between Masaryk University in Brno, University Campus Bohunice (UCB) and the BRNO CAMPUS SQUARE (BCS) shopping center. The main support beam consists of orthotropic steel deck plates with integrated drainage troughs. Four sloped beams made from welded tapered rectangular cross sections are fixed into the reinforced head of every pillar. The cladding of the footbridge is made from bended composite sheets called BOND, or from fiberglass in the part above the trolley wire.

Advance Steel Project: Exhibition hall

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Exhibition hall “P” in Brno Exhibition Center

Project location: Brno, Czech Republic
Software used: Advance Steel
Design office: OKF s.r.o.

 

Project description:
The biggest exhibition hall in Central Europe with a free standing area of over 20000 m2 (steel frameworks of 2400 tons) holds a modern exhibition hall and a new entrance to the exhibition center. The steel load-bearing skeleton is composed by trusses with frame installations on both of its ends. The west-facade, made of glass supported by the steel sub-structure, represents the window-case in contrast with the simple geometry of the latest generation sandwich-panel cladding.
The analysis model used for the structure design was continuously updated with Advance Steel. The Advance Steel model was used for creating the steel structure documentation and also for creating the fabrication drawings of the steel structure, which integrate a significant amount of cladding sub-structure parts.
One of the main benefits of using Advance Steel for this project is that the tube diagonals were manufactured directly from the 3D model exploded to ACIS solids.
Also, the documents created with Advance Steel dramatically contributed to the short creation time required for this project.

Technical information:
Weight of the steel structure: 2 400 tons
Bund-up area: 20 000 m2

Advance Steel Project: Skyline Plaza FFM

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Skyline Plaza FFM
Frankfurt a.M., Germany

Software used: Advance Steel
Project location: Frankfurt a.M., Germany

Design Office: MDF Stahl- und Metallbau Fischer
Contracting authority: ECE
Architect: Jourdan & Müller

Project description:
The Skyline Plaza is a shopping center. It is 290m long and 150m wide and has a total area of 38.000 square meters. The building consists of several levels with 170 shops, restaurants and a public roof terrace. The facade has a curved form and is illuminated in different colors in the night.

Mr. Mario Fischer, Managing Director and construction engineer at MDF Stahl- und Metallbau Fischer: “Advance Steel was the ideal software for this ambitious project. I especially appreciate the complete and easy modelling in 3D. I use Advance Steel for a long time. The Software increaed my productivity for 60%-100%.”

Graitec International User Contest Winners

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We are delighted to announce you the prize list of the winner of the International User Contest.

REMINDER OF THE PRINCIPLE

This competition was opened to all users who completed a project using one or more software proposed by GRAITEC. Participating projects will be evaluated based on specific criteria, such as project size and type, technical sophistication, social importance, innovation, testimonial used metrics, etc.

 

AND THE WINNERS ARE…

   Advance Design category   

Project: Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé à Paris
Design office: OMNIS Bâtiment (Neyron) for the modeling and all the reinforced concrete calculations of the hull
Architecture office: Renzo Piano Building Workshop
Projet manager & Engineering design : VP&Green

Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé à Paris         Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé à Paris


  Autodesk® Advance Steel category  

Project: Capital Gate in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) – Waagner-Biro Stahlbau AG (Vienna)
Client: ADNEC (Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre)
Architecture office: RMJM Dubai

Capital Gate in Abu Dhabi         Capital Gate in Abu Dhabi


  Autodesk® Advance Concrete category  

Project : IQ Ostrava in Ostrava, Czech Republic – ARPS (Projet, Ing. Pavel Němeček)
Architecture office : Studio acht, Ing. Václav Hlaváček
Contracting authority : CTP Invest

IQ Ostrava in Ostrava         IQ Ostrava in Ostrava



Thanks to all the participants and hope to see you in the next edition!

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.

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.

FORUM 8’s Virtual Design World Cup

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GRAITEC partnership to FORUM 8's Virtual Design World CupGRAITEC, a leading software developer for CAD and structural analysis solutions, is supporting FORUM 8, its Value Added Reseller operating in Japan, by providing free Advance Steel and Advance Concrete licenses to the participants of FORUM 8’s 3rdStudent BIM and VR Contest open to students worldwide.

The theme of this year’s contest is “Sustainable Station Front in Global Metropolis“. The 2013 VDWC challenges students to devise a proposal of a new environmentally friendly urban space, which will most likely become one of Tokyo’s significant stopping off points for people transferring from one transport mode to another, which radiates from a new train station in Tokyo’s harbor district.

This is a contest open to students worldwide in which they compete amongst each other in designing their original model using BIM and Virtual Reality (VR) software for their chance to win a grand prize.

Work by each and every contestant will be uploaded on FORUM8’s cloud server, VR-Cloud® server, to be judged on its logistics, technical and design aspect, as well as its creativity, architectural aspect, and how innovative and environmentally friendly it is. They will be using Forum 8’s in-house developed software UC-win/Road, 3D interactive visualization tool, as a mandatory software and their choice of at least one other software to help them design and model cities. GRAITEC will provide free Advance Steel/Concrete licenses to all students taking part in this competition.

GRAITEC partnership to FORUM 8's Virtual Design World Cup

UC-win/Road, also known as VR-Design Studio, is the latest Japanese 3D Visual Interactive Visualization Technology for improved urban, transport, emergency & security planning, drive simulation, public consultation and human factors research and is ideal for visualizing BIM and VR models that portray various civil works.

The Award for the winner is a grand prize worth approximately US$3,000 including World cup Trophy and award certificates. Twenty-two other lucky winners will receive other prizes and every contestant will of course win a participation reward for their work. Applicants have until September 30th to register online. Once they have registered and created their VR model, they will need to submit their work including scripts during the period from October 1st to October 10th, and once they have submitted their work, they will be notified of the webpage on FORUM8’s VR-Cloud(R) server to which they can access to browse and test their submitted model, along with their login ID and password. FORUM 8 and special guest judges will come to a decision and determine the winners on November 21st and the best works will be awarded at the Awards Ceremony.

This contest provides a great opportunity for students to get a hands-on experience with FORUM8’s UC-win/Road as well as Advance Steel/Concrete/Design to learn all the great features and technology they have to offer.

If you are a student due to graduate in 2013 or later go to this webpage and register today!

For more information on the contest please click here.

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

Check out last year’s winners here.

About FORUM 8
FORUM8, the Japanese 3D software specialist, produces state-of-the-art 3D VR and engineering software, in particular VR, FEM, Web, CAD solutions and services. Founded in 1987, FORUM8 is at the forefront of 3D Visual Interactive Simulation (3D VIS) technology and provides 3D VIS capabilities to specialists from various professions, including transportation, engineering, planning, emergency training, architecture, road safety and many more. The company’s premier product UC-win/Road is simply the best tool with the utmost 3D VIS capabilities that allows you to model your own 3D environment in which a highly accurate real-time simulation can be run quickly and easily. UC-win/Road interactive 3D environments can also be controlled remotely using FORUM8’s state-of-the-art cloud computing technology VR-Cloud® that enables the 3D environments to be broadcast over the cloud and accessed and interacted with by anyone with a PC or Android system anywhere at any time, thanks to VR-Cloud®’s underlying technology, the a3S cloud system, which allows data to be transmitted between client and server very quickly. FORUM8 obtained a patent for VR-Cloud®, defined as “Driving simulation equipment, server and program” that enables ‘driving simulation within the 3D VR environment using a computer keyboard’ from the Japanese patent office [Patent No. 5149426]. VR-Cloud(R) is by far the best solution for winning tenders or exploring alternative options in any kind of civil design project.
For more information, please visit www.FORUM8.com

Advance Steel Project: Bridge and Skylight in BULGARIA Mall

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Bridge and Skylight in BULGARIA MallSoftware used: Advance Steel

Construction Office: Beta Consult-1 LTD,  AVV Engineering

Project location: Sofia, Bulgaria

Project description:

Bulgaria Mall is a mixed-use retail and office project with approximately 130,000 m2 of total build-up area. The shopping center includes four underground (parking and a hypermarket of approx. 5,600 m2) and four above ground levels with retail and entertainment. The parking provides more than 1,100 lots with very convenient entrances to each underground parking deck. The office part, which consists of an office high-rise tower and an office building, will exceed 25,000 m2 of rentable area. The mall has one of the biggest skylights in Central and Eastern Europe.

Eng. Vasil Vasilev, AVV Engineering, talks about Bulgaria Mall’s skylight project: “At first, when I saw the architectural idea I thought I can`t do it. The shape was very complex (it is a combination of truncated cylinder with two spheres in both ends). Most important, designing the steel structure was to form a flat plain between main frames and purlins (not to twist the quadrangle, because the glass had to be also quadrangle, not to cut it to triangles).”

Using Advance Steel, the design office was able to create an easy to assemble structure, with joints bolted with minimum quantity of welds.

“All elements fitted perfectly, because we provided NC files for the fabrication of the elements. After assembling the whole structure, the contractor cheered us for the flawless drawings, which wouldn`t be possible without using Advance Steel“ continued Eng. Vasil Vasilev, AVV Engineering.

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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

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. »

Advance Steel Project: Manchester Road Bridge

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Advance Steel project: Manchester Road BridgeManchester Road Bridge in part of the Living Street Project, a lottery-funded project focused on the development of a suitable, convenient and safe route across Manchester Road, which will have the potential to visually enhance this important gateway into the city. This new walkway is a people-orientated, street environment that links up people with places using broad, high-quality, avenue-like routes for pedestrians and cyclists linking up residential areas, schools, shops, health care, parks and town center.

The steel structure of unique design was detailed in ADVANCE Steel by Briton Fabricators Lt.  The building process started in November 2011 and over 10,000 components have been put together to compile the structure. It forms an elevated section of the Living Street and will be a gateway feature for Manchester Road. The bridge is close to a surface level signalized crossing which serves a bus stop on the guided bus route. All bridge ramps are 1:20 gradient, and the bridge 3.7 m in width. Access through the public park is 1:15 gradient.

Advance Steel project: Manchester Road BridgeIt is made of over 350 tonnes of steel, 210 meters long in total with two main spans over Manchester Road of 22 meters and 24 meters.  It is supported by almost 100 piles buried into the ground carefully engineered to avoid underground services and Bradford Beck.  At the central reservation dividing Manchester Road a 17m high rectilinear extension to the column forms a towering central feature which marks the visual centre of the bridge crossing.

The fantastic new bridge links up local communities on either side of the bridge, providing a pleasant route for cyclists and pedestrians, and enabling quick and easy access to the town centre and other essential links, which were missing before. It also offers a more gentle approach to the old footbridge, which was nearly 40 years old and in need of serious maintenance to address time related deterioration. Manchester Road Bridge was built approximately in the same position as the old footbridge and was completed in September 2012. Hundreds of people turned out to see the bridge officially being opened. Although, during an average weekday, 621 people use the surface crossing of Manchester Road, and only 340 the footbridge, for reasons of safety the public authorities encourages everybody to use the new bridge to cross this busy junction.

Advance Steel 2013 User Day in UK

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Date: Wednesday 23rd January 2013
Time: 9:30-16:30 (registration from 8:45am)
Location: Branston Golf & Country Club
Theme: What’s New in Advance Steel 2013!!

Don’t forget to book your free place!

Advance Steel 2013 User Day

To celebrate our expansion, this year we are holding our 2013 Advance Steel User Day at one of the most prestigious locations in the Midlands – the Branston Golf and Country Club, Burton on Trent in Staffordshire. Don’t miss this opportunity to see what’s coming in the next version – register to attend now!

Advance Steel UK Project Competition

It’s time to show off your work again and be in with a chance of winning some fantastic prizes!  We know you have produced some excellent, interesting, every-day and some extremely complex projects of all types and sizes using Advance Steel. This is a unique opportunity to show off your work and gain fantastic worldwide PR exposure for your designs, absolutely free!

Enter your projects now! Hurry…..the deadline for submissions is Friday 18th January and winners will be announced at the User Day.

We look forward to showing you what’s in Advance Steel 2013, receiving your projects and seeing you at what promises to be a great User Day!

For further details, please call a member of the Graitec Team on 0844 543 8888 or email info@graitec.co.uk

GRAITEC annual calendar

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Every year GRAITEC creates an annual wall calendar. For each month a project designed with GRAITEC Advance software is presented.

This year is no exception! There were a lot of great projects to choose from, but unfortunately we had to pick only 12, the rest you will be able to see on our reference page, on our blog or Facebook page.

If you wish for your project, designed with a GRAITEC software solution, to appear on next year’s calendar, or for others to find out about your great projects through our media pages, do not hesitate to contact us.

The following are the projects presented in this year wall calendar:

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Click here to download the files.

Footbridge construction: Interview with LEGRAND

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Advance Steel Testimonial: Footbridge construction: Interview with LEGRANDFounded in 1956, LEGRAND is involved in the field of railway engineering, metalwork and signage industries throughout France for over 50 years.
In 1981, LEGRAND chose to diversify its client base and its business activities by creating a Steel Construction Department in the Quincieux site (Dpt 69). This department includes its own design office which is equipped with a modern and recently renewed IT infrastructure.
Currently, LEGRAND employs about 200 people.

Jean-Sébastien COURIVAUD, Design Office manager and Jean-Charles MASBOEUF, Draftsman, report their satisfaction of the Advance Steel software.

 Advance Steel Testimonial: Footbridge construction: Interview with LEGRAND

How did your drawing software equipment evolve within your Design Office?

J-S COURIVAUD: Ten years ago, we switched from the drawing board to the use of AutoCAD® in 2D, and then we realized the projects were becoming more and more complex. So we have equipped the Design Office with 3D CAD software dedicated to the steel construction industry in which 30 people are working at the Quincieux site. We initially started with Prosteel before choosing Advance Steel. After a personalized demonstration, it was clear that Advance Steel would provide us with significant productivity savings through the automatic detailing and the quality of the final drawings.
Today, we have 4 Advance Steel licenses to deal with our footbridge and highway bridge projects.

What are the advantages of Advance Steel compared to the software you were previously using?

Advance Steel Testimonial: Footbridge construction: Interview with LEGRANDJ-S COURIVAUD: The main saving concerns the drawing time creation which is extremely fast with Advance Steel. In addition, a permanent link exists between the 3D model and all the generated documents using the integrated AS document manager, which facilitates the overall project management.

J-C MASBOEUF: Our footbridges typically include curved elements such as lower arches supporting the steel structure and the bridge deck. Advance Steel knows how to manage these kinds of elements without affecting the global performances of the software.

How have you customized Advance Steel to match your work methods?

J-S COURIVAUD: Customized drawing styles have been created to produce drawings perfectly corresponding to our presentation criteria (dimension styles, line thickness, dimensions, etc.) and they can be directly launched from a dedicated toolbar that we have also created on our own.

Advance Steel Testimonial: Footbridge construction: Interview with LEGRANDJ-C MASBOEUF: We extended the Advance Steel catalogs with steel profiles used for our bridges. We also added new anchors that secure the structure on concrete abutments.
With the help of the GRAITEC technical support, we configured Advance Steel to work with our fabrication machines at the workshop so that the unfolding of folded plates can be obtained by the criteria of the machines (value of the plate elongation, folding radius, plate thickness, etc.).

Can you give us a description of the footbridge project you recently built with Advance Steel?

J-C COURIVAUD: The construction is a pedestrians/cycles footbridge (access to Anonnay between Peaugres and Davézieux on the RD820). This steel footbridge with 40.30m straight span consists of a mixed steel/wood frame and a concrete floor on HEA 200 beams spaced every 3.40m.

The supporting structure is made up of 2 tapered glue-laminated arches 48cm apart and braced with steel parts. The latter are associated to the level of the deck with 2 lateral steel beams of constant height and connected vertically by two transverse V shaped steel stays (welded plates steel profile stays). The total weight of the structure is 32 tons.

How did you collaborate with the other companies working on this project?

Advance Steel Testimonial: Footbridge construction: Interview with LEGRANDJ-C MASBOEUF: We exported the entire Advance Steel 3D model to the ACIS format and we sent the electronic file to MATHIS, the company in charge of the wooden railing of the bridge. For their part, they completed the 3D model by precisely positioning the overall handrail and other wood laths between the steel posts in inverted V, which required specific and precise cuts at the ends of the wooden elements. Then, this completed model was sent back to us and I could import all the wooden parts in my Advance Steel model to automatically produce overall drawings representing the steel structure, the concrete bridge abutment and all the wooden elements.

To conclude, what is your general impression of Advance Steel?

J-S COURIVAUD: Advance Steel allowed us to definitively move on to 3D design which gave us new opportunities and solutions to architects complex requirements. Also, the produced documents perfectly match the needs of the workshop and our clients.

J-C MASBOEUF: Once adapted to our needs, Advance Steel has proved to be very easy to use simultaneously allowing us to deal with projects even more and more complex and atypical.

Cluj Arena Stadium, designed with ADVANCE Steel, nominated for the WAN Awards 2012

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Cluj Arena Stadium, designed with ADVANCE Steel, nominated for the WAN Awards 2012

This year, Cluj Arena Stadium was nominated for the WAN Awards 2012, in the Civic Buildings category, by the International Awards for Architecture.

With a budget of over 35 mil Euros, Cluj Arena Stadium in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, managed to meet the highest norms in performance and functionality, totaling latest UEFA and FIFA standards.

The stadium built in the central part of the city, was designed to be multipurpose, accommodating numerous social events including football and sports competitions.

Cluj Arena Stadium, designed with ADVANCE Steel, nominated for the WAN Awards 2012

Some brief details:

  •  30 328 seats (approximately 1500 seats for the VIP section and 30 seats for people with disabilities);
  •  8 lane accredited athletics track;
  •  80 meters practice track for young athletes;
  •  2 electronic scoreboards (60 square meters each);
  •  Underground parking for over 300 cars;
  •  Nocturnal lights for HD transmissions;
  •  Video surveillance system, with over 100 surveillance cameras throughout the entire stadium.

Dico şi Ţigănaş Design Office was in charge of modeling and detailing this complex project, which was finished in the autumn of 2011.

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

Cluj Arena Stadium, designed with ADVANCE Steel, nominated for the WAN Awards 2012

For more details, you can visit the official web-site of Cluj Arena Stadium: http://www.clujarena.ro/

Another success story – Tesco Superstore, Woolwich, UK

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Another success story in constructions - Tesco Superstore, Woolwich, UK

-> Architecture office: Sheppard Robson Architects

-> Structural Engineer: Walsh Associates

-> Master builder: Willmott Dixon

-> Steelwork Design: TSI Structures Ltd

-> Location: London, Woolwich

-> Dimensions: 180m x 85m x 52m

-> Specification: 80,000 sq ft Tesco superstore, various other retail units and 259 homes over 17 stories.

-> Total Build Cost: Woolwich Central – Phase 1 & 2 £400m

TSI Structures undertook the challenge of modelling a 17 story, post tensioned concrete structure for connecting secondary steel to a major new supermarket complex in Woolwich, UK.
The 80,000 sq ft Tesco superstore, various other retail units and 259 homes over 17 stories was a total build cost of £400m. The store opening date was set before construction started, so they were under pressure to complete the project to a tight deadline.

Another success story in constructions - Tesco Superstore, Woolwich, UKAnother success story in constructions - Tesco Superstore, Woolwich, UK

Advance Steel allowed TSI Structures to model concrete slabs, walls and beams. They were able to model the cast in channels, and using Advance Steel meant these elements came across onto the drawings. The DWG file format aided in the approval process.

Adrian Betts, from the TSI Structures LTD design office, explains why Advance Steel was the best solution for the completion of this project: “We would not have been able to produce this building in 3D without Advance Steel’s ability to model external elements such as concrete. We were the only member of the construction team with the ability, software resources and technical knowhow, to fully model the enormous concrete structure in three dimensions. Our model and the 3D drawings were used by the Architect for client presentations. With the AutoCAD base this enabled us to add different material renders to the concrete surfaces creating a more realistic and aesthetically pleasing model”.

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Watch this video to see the story behind the project:

Brentwood School Sixth Form Centre – awarded at RIBA 2012

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Brentwood School Sixth Form Centre designed with Advance Steel was awarded at RIBA 2012

Brentwood School Sixth Form Centre designed with Advance Steel was awarded at RIBA 2012

Brentwood School’s new Sixth Form Centre has won the 2012 RIBA Award from the Royal Institute of British Architects. The new Sixth Form Centre, designed by architects Cottrell and Vermeulen, took almost two and a-half years to build and was completed in August 2011. Although, it has been used by students since the beginning of the new academic year in September, the Sixth Form Centre was officially opened in November 2011 by His Royal Highness, Prince Edward.

RIBA judges were very impressed by this project, stating that the three buildings which make up the centre (the remodeled Victorian vicarage, the classroom block and the Wessex Auditorium) “celebrate the spirit of education, unfolding as a sequence of spaces for learning, socializing, and gathering: a new sixth form block, a remodeled Victorian vicarage and a new assembly block. Drawing inspiration from the existing Victorian vicarage, the new design is expressed in a language that is both contextual and contemporary. The sculpting of the roofs creates non-standard, domestic-scaled classrooms filled with natural light, reminiscent of the gabled roofs of the Victorian vicarage, but with an added measure of playfulness.”

Brentwood School Sixth Form Centre designed with Advance Steel was awarded at RIBA 2012The project consists of the three buildings which make up the centre – the remodeled Victorian vicarage, the classroom block, made of a steel/concrete hybrid design, with a very complicated roof and the Wessex Auditorium, an assembly hall with a complex box section truss design.

Facilities include common rooms and private study areas; 16 additional classrooms equipped with up-to-date teaching aids, interactive whiteboards and the internet; a dedicated computer suite and the multi-purpose auditorium, with 400 seats. The rooms are heated by a ground source heat pump which draws water from 15 vertical pipe loops penetrating 100 meters below the ground. A sophisticated building management system allows the temperature in the building to be controlled remotely and windows opened or closed automatically.

Adrian Betts, from the TSI Structures LTD design office, explains why Advance Steel was the best solution for the completion of this project: “The ability to import AutoCAD drawings and convert these lines into Advance Steel objects was essential. Without this command many extra office hours would have been spent modeling the new concrete steel structure and the existing building.”

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