Over the last 27 years of trading, Nova have successfully undertaken the site survey, layout, structural design and structural detailing for many structural steelwork design projects. Previous engineering design projects have included staircases, platform design and detailing through to access ways and bridge detailing for road and rail access.
To aid in the 3D design and production of 2D detailed manufacture drawings Nova have invested in dedicated CAD packages designed for specific industries.
For the structural steel industry we have selected Advance Steel from Autodesk as a structural design, automated detailing and scheduling package.
Autodesk Advance Steel structural design and detailing software is built to help structural design engineers and steelwork detailers easily create information rich building models/ these 3D CAD models are then used to assist in the fabrication of structural steelwork components. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a process-based workflow that helps businesses work more efficiently and helps teams complete projects on time and on budget.
Advance Steel helps steelwork designers, structural detailers and fabricators model with intelligence and helps designers and engineers extend their BIM workflows through to detailed modelling.
Advance Steel Steelwork Connection Design Engine
In-built to Advance Steel is a connection design engine, giving access to simple and complex structural connections. These connections are parametrically driven meaning that as structural members change during the design process, the connections are automatically updated.
This connection design engine checks compliance against both EC3 (EuroCode 3) and AISC (American Institute of Steel Construction) standards to validate structural design models. Steelwork design members and connections can be checked and validated against industry standards at any time with a report generated containing relevant formulas and standards for reference.
Intelligent Design Wizards
The structural modelling process is greatly simplified in the latest releases of Advance Steel through the use of several intelligent features. Advance Steel contains an extensive library of objects and powerful tools to help designers create structural elements including trusses, bracings, purlins, and portal frames.
As an example, Advance Steel allows the creation of more accurate stairs and railings with the use of special wizards. These dedicated wizards save time by assisting engineering teams to quickly generate straight and spiral stairs, straight and curved railings, and cage ladders. Once created, engineers can easily modify the properties using a large selection of customisable parameters to suit the project requirements.
Complex sheet metal designs can be modelled by using specific commands. These miscellaneous elements can be automatically unfolded during the creation of the detailed manufacture drawings. The unfolded pattern is then fully represented within the exported CNC data to assist in streamlining the fabrication process.
Users of Advance Steel can also import other non-standard components for detailing and the production of detailed manufacture drawings, helping them create a full as-built model. For example, detailed design engineers can import components such as engines and tanks and add welds and bolts to them for better coordination, clash detection, and more accurate bills of material.
Autodesk Advance Steel software helps to improve the steel detailing process by providing ready to use drawing templates that aid the creation of detailed manufacture drawings. Detailed design engineers can also produce general arrangement drawings for use during erection at the jobsite.
These clear drawings can be quickly created in isometric, top (plan), front and side elevation views, and automatically dimensioned and labelled by using the customisable drawing styles. The detailed manufacture drawing templates are easily customisable so that they can be refined to fit in with the current business needs.
Bills of Materials / Parts Lists
Bills of material (BOMs) can be easily created using ready-to-use templates. Quantities are defined by the parts used in the underlying model, helping to eliminate waste with more accurate BOMs. Information can also be exported to different file formats so that it can be used in third party systems, such as procurement solutions.
The latest releases of Advance Steel offer bidirectional links to design, analysis, and coordination tools to help the various design teams work better with different disciplines and help provide a validated end-result to your client.
Data Transfer and Interoperability
To assist with the smooth BIM workflow, the Advance Steel Extension for Revit® enables detail designers to import a Revit design model and not only the structural member but also the steel connections into Advance Steel so that they can continue to work where the designer left off. Once detailing is complete, the model can be taken back into Revit and resaved as a native Revit software file.
Finally, models created using Advance Steel can be taken into Autodesk Navisworks software for multidiscipline collaboration, construction simulation, and whole project analysis, enabling engineering team to work closer and more efficiently with other project stakeholders reducing the risk of unexpected issues when the different project disciplines reach the construction site.
