PR Announcement at NASCC

Preparing the Steel Industry for a Connected Future

Updated Autodesk Structural Fabrication Suite helps advance connected BIM-based steel design and construction workflows

The steel industry is transforming in ways not seen since the industrial revolution. Macroeconomic trends such as globalization, labor shortages, and changing client expectations are contributing to rising business pressures. In addition, advances in technology are revolutionizing how the built environment is designed and constructed. The convergence of these trends is redefining how firms in the structural steel industry will stay competitive in a new, cloud-enabled, connected landscape. To help engineers, detailers, fabricators and erectors work and thrive in this new era of connection, Autodesk is evolving Building Information Modeling (BIM) technologies to help them more seamlessly connect steel design and construction.

Integrated tools for steel design and construction
The updated Autodesk Structural Fabrication Suite has been enhanced to support better connected BIM-based steel design and construction workflows. The suite provides structural engineers, steel detailers and fabricators with tools to help streamline the process from design to fabrication with model-based deliverables. The suite, which includes Autodesk Advance Steel, Autodesk AutoCAD, Autodesk Revit and Autodesk Navisworks Simulate software offers tools to better connect structural design to detailing by allowing you to work more collaboratively within a BIM environment. Revit, AutoCAD, and Advance Steel together can help you streamline the detailing process by integrating steel detailing expertise alongside the design.  Advance Steel’s model-based environment allows you to produce more accurate detailed shop drawings faster, helping to speed time to fabrication. Navisworks Simulate helps extend fabrication to the field by supporting estimation, coordination, and 4D (project timeline) simulation of steel projects. Models can be easily shared and viewed with contractors, improving coordination and minimizing waste.

Streamline fabrication with more precise model detailing
As BIM has become the de facto standard work process for structural engineers, designers, and contractors, many have adopted technology that allows modeling at increasingly higher levels of detail, earlier in the design process. To that end, Autodesk’s new Steel Connections for Revit extension provides access to a variety of parametric steel connections in Autodesk Revit software, enabling connections to be modeled with a higher level of detail. The application also includes a built-in steel connection design engine based on US and European codes. This functionality helps to bridge the gap between design and fabrication as both members and connections can be better synchronized between Revit and Advance Steel for detailing. This extension is now available to current Revit subscription customers globally in English, French, German and Polish.

The new Autodesk^® Steel connections for Revit extension enables connections to be modeled with a higher level of detail in Revit.

In addition, Autodesk is announcing the release of Advance Steel 2017*. Built on the familiar AutoCAD platform, Advance Steel supports engineering and detailing professionals with the tools needed to model the details necessary for your structures. The latest release includes extended capabilities that allow you to move even more quickly from design to fabrication while remaining nimble enough to generate design alternatives and respond to changes more dynamically. A few key enhancements include:

1. Synchronize steel connections between models created in Revit and/or Advance Steel.

You can synchronize steel connections while still keeping them as intelligent parametric connections. 

2. Use the new user-defined formulas for Bills-of-Materials (BOMs).

Take advantage of new flexibility in your bill of materials templates with user defined formulas including addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. This helps you add, for example, an extra 5% to your bolt quantity to be shipped at site.

3. Get connection location information on single part drawings.

New templates are available to get a list of information about shop connection on fabrication drawings.

Check back on BIM and BEAM tomorrow for a second post providing an in-depth look at the many new and enhanced features we’ve made to Advance Steel 2017. 

More Dynamic, Connected Design and Detailing
We believe these investments in BIM-centric design, detailing and fabrication can help steel professionals better connect fabrication to design and construction to enable superior collaboration on projects. Autodesk Structural Fabrication Suite and Advance Steel help streamline the detailing process by integrating steel detailing expertise alongside the design. Our goal is to help your team reduce waste and improve productivity as you work to deliver projects to clients faster and respond to changes more dynamically.

Learn more about connecting design to fabrication, and keep up with the latest in steel design, detailing and fabrication here.

Availability and More Information
Find a comprehensive list of new features and enhancements in Advance Steel 2017 here. Advance Steel is available globally in English, Deutsch, Español, Français, Italiano, Русский, Czech, Polish, Romanian, and Portuguese (Brazilian). Subscribe to Advance Steel alone, with AutoCAD, or as part of the Autodesk Structural Fabrication Suite. Availability, pricing, and related cloud services vary by country. Visit our website for a full overview of Advance Steel.

* Use of a license to Advance Steel 2017 requires a license to AutoCAD 2017.