The term ‘vibrations’ when applied to floors refers to the oscillatory motion experienced by the building and its occupants during the course of normal day-to-day activities.
This motion is normally vertical (up and down), but horizontal vibrations are also possible. In either case, the consequences of vibrations range from being a nuisance to the building users to causing damage to the fixtures and fittings or even (in very extreme cases) to the building structure.
The severity of the consequences will depend on the source of the motion, its duration and the design and layout of the building.Floor vibrations are generally caused by dynamic loads applied either directly to the floor by people or machinery. The most common source of vibration that can cause nuisance in building applications is human activity, usually walking.
Although small in magnitude, walking-induced vibrations can cause a nuisance to people working or living in the building, especially to the use of sensitive equipment or to those engaged in motion-sensitive activities, e.g. surgery.
Naturally, the problem is more acute for more vigorous types of human activity such as dancing and jumping and therefore designers of buildings featuring a gymnasium or dance studio should take extra care to limit the vibrations in the rest of the building.Machinery-induced vibrations are best dealt with at source through the provision of isolating mounts or motion arresting pads.
Machines installed in factories tend to produce the most severe vibrations due to their size and the nature of their operation. However, floor vibration is rarely a problem in most factories, since it is accepted by the workforce as part of the industrial environment.
Once constructed, it is very difficult to modify an existing floor to reduce its susceptibility to vibration, as only major changes to the mass, stiffness or damping of the floor system will produce any perceptible reduction in vibration amplitudes.
It is important therefore that the levels of acceptable vibration be established at the concept design stage, paying particular attention to the anticipated usage of the floors. The client must be involved in this decision, as the specified acceptance criteria may have a significant impact on the design of the floor and the cost of construction.
As the construction industry continues to evolve with the constantly growing technology, there are areas within the industry that needs to upgrade them. With that being said, it is building product manufacturers that particularly need to explore the potential of BIM for the growth of their business and gain that competitive edge.
BIM as grown significantly over the past half a decade and is still developing. It entered the industry with design tool for architects and today supports everyone involved in the construction project. Amongst all this changes, building product manufacturers need to reassess their usage of Revit Product data for Revit family creation and make the most of it. Incorporating BIM in the construction supply chain necessarily means every professional on a particular construction project should align themselves.
Why is BIM content creation is more than important for building product manufacturers?
Recently governments of several nations like UK and Singapore have mandated BIM Level 2 for every public construction project. This means that manufacturers of products such as steel stairs, MEP components, facades, furniture, shopfitting, sheet metal enclosures, ducts etc. need to align with the needs of sheet metal contractors. And these sheet metal contractors need to facilitate the general contractors and sub-contractors with the BIM content of the products that they supply for projects.
Thus, an ideal way to get the original and as-is BIM content of any product is from the original manufacturer of the product. BIM Content or Revit Families serve as an excellent project deliverables when supplied to the respective contractor along with the physical predicts. BIM-ready product data templates will ensure a seamless communication channel across the disciplines, cross-teams and during the development of LOD 500, 3D BIM models in Autodesk Revit.
Some of the apparent reasons to use BIM content for building product manufactures and product design engineers are as enlisted:
Lack of association of building designs with the manufactured products
Lacking control over design data ownership and out of date design data availability
Configured and customized products having higher design complexity
High monetary investments for to acquire skills for BIM content development
Well-structured digital information
To overcome these roadblocks, the recent focus of manufacturers has been shifted to BIM objects and data templates. These digitized models of frequently used standard components like MEP fixtures, cables, trays, switches, heaters, pumps, valves etc. helps in quick model development and coherent communication between designer, manufacturer, and the installation foremen.
Another advantage of BIM objects is that the manufactures and design engineers say that with the existing standard data, they can now quickly generate other similar objects with little customization. It has happened because of the standard data collected from manufacturers and the ones available online to establish a standardized approach.
Amongst the monetary benefits, it has been surveyed that of the total construction costs of UK about, 40% share is by the building products. This developed a natural attraction to BIM objects for building product design engineers, manufacturers as well as the project managers.
Opportunities to create Revit families/BIM objects
Creating Revit models from scratch for every object is possible but it needs rigorous training with Revit and AutoCAD both. One may have to pre-build each geometry configuration and export it for the manufacturing decisions making and finally maintain it.
Another option is getting BIM data directly from the manufacturer’s website with specifications, pictures, geometrical dimensions etc. By adding an update to native BIM models as product line evolves, helps the BIM expert to gain more specific insights about spatial occupation.
Such an approach aids the contractors to plan and schedule the site activities as per the PERT methods and lean construction techniques to achieve the ultimate aim of efficiency and economy.
Created in the 1970s and launched by Autodesk in 1982, DWG has established itself as one of the most ubiquitous file format for CAD software on the planet. Everyone who uses CAD will be familiar with it – but how much do you really know about it? Here, we’re diving into the history of the DWG file format, from its origins to its current position as the world-leading CAD file format. We’ll also be taking a look into our crystal ball, to see what’s in store for the future of DWG…
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What is DWG?
Before we dive into the story, let’s take a look at exactly what a DWG file is and does. The DWG file format allows users to store two and three-dimensional design data for use in CAD software. DWGs allow you to store vector entities, maps, geographic information, and even photos. Essentially, any information that you can enter into a CAD program can be stored in a DWG file.
The DWG file format is perhaps best known as the native format for AutoCAD, and is a proprietary file format owned by Autodesk, the creators of AutoCAD. As a proprietary format, it has been specifically designed to work with AutoCAD, rather than to function as an open standard across CAD software. Despite this, the format is supported across a range of CAD programs and DWGs can be viewed even without an AutoCAD licence. DWG also has applications across a range of industries, from architecture and engineering to virtual reality and game design – for a full rundown, visit our article exploring how different industries use DWG files.
The fast-growing game design sector uses DWG files day in, day out – this car is just one example
The Beginnings
The history of the DWG file format begins in the late 1970s. Programmer Mike Riddle found himself unsatisfied with the CAD programs available to him on the market – so instead of waiting around for someone to build something better, he built it himself. Starting in 1977, Riddle began work on a new CAD program, Interact CAD – and its native file format was to be (you guessed it) DWG, which stands for drawing. Initially released in 1979, Interact CAD was far from a runaway success: Riddle only managed to sell around 30 copies of the software.
Despite the rocky start, it was clear that the new software had potential, and in the early 1980s, Interact CAD was acquired by the newly-formed company Autodesk. Interact CAD was to form the architectural basis for a new CAD program, AutoCAD, which was launched in 1982 by Autodesk – at that time, a small company formed by John Walker and a handful of programmer friends, including Riddle. The DWG format was finally about to be introduced to the public on a much larger scale. While Interact CAD had reached only a handful of customers in its first few years of release, AutoCAD rose to become the most widely-used CAD program in the world just four years after its initial release.
One of the earliest forms of the DWG format shown in a 1982 edition of AutoCAD
DWG Dominance
Thanks to the global reach achieved by AutoCAD, the DWG file format quickly became the go-to standard for CAD designers. In fact, it was estimated that by 1998, there were more than two billion DWG files in existence – and considering that another 18 years have passed, the number has surely ballooned even further since.
Of course, DWG didn’t achieve its dominant position in the CAD world by standing still. Whilst the format exists to fulfil the same function as in 1982, it’s gone through a huge number of changes since then. The DWG format is subject to versioning. This means that every few years, major adjustments are made to the file format, as it adapts to technical advances and changes in software. New versions of AutoCAD will be able to support any DWG file, even those created for the first version of AutoCAD in 1982. Old versions of AutoCAD, however, won’t be able to open files saved to the newer versions of DWG.
All in all, there have been nineteen different versions of the DWG file format. Autodesk typically releases a new version of DWG every three years; the most recent version of the format, however, was released in 2013, and has been the native format for five consecutive editions of AutoCAD.
A DWG 2013 file open in the most recent version of AutoCAD – AutoCAD 2017
Legal Battles
Not everyone is happy with DWG’s status as a proprietary file format. In 1998, the OpenDWG Alliance was founded with the aim of making DWG an open standard for CAD software, much as the DXF format is. The organization was renamed as the Open Design Alliance in 2002. The group includes a number of competitors to Autodesk, and has aimed to reverse-engineer the DWG format, so that a method of reading and writing DWG files can be incorporated into other, non-licensed CAD programs.
Autodesk retaliated against this by introducing TrustedDWG technology, which verifies if a file was created and saved in Autodesk-licensed software. Autodesk made further efforts to defend their format by attempting to register “DWG” as a trademark with the U.S. Patent Office; this would have prevented other organizations from using the term. In support of their claim, they stated that “DWG” no longer referred solely to the file format, but also to a specific technology environment present within Autodesk software. However, the Patent Office issued a final refusal to register the trademark in 2011, with the refusal being affirmed once again in 2013.
Future of DWG
As previously mentioned, Autodesk failed to release a new version of DWG for the 2016 and 2017 versions of AutoCAD, as would normally be expected. The head of the Open Design Alliance, Neil Peterson, speculated this could be due to a lack of new features. A former head of the ODA, Arnold van der Weide, even suggested that Autodesk could be planning to do away with the DWG format altogether. Could Autodesk’s move towards cloud-based software kill DWG entirely?
Probably not. With DWG maintaining its status as the dominant CAD format, it’s unlikely to be going away any time soon. Whilst there may have been few recent developments in the desktop version of AutoCAD, DWG is still the native format for Autodesk’s new cloud-based software AutoCAD 360. Not only that, but the ubiquity of DWG means many would still use the format regardless of any abandonment by Autodesk. ODA head Neil Peterson suggests that DWG would still be safe even if it were scrapped:Even if Autodesk did away with it, our 1,250 members and millions of their customers would keep right on using DWG.Neil Peterson, President of the Open Design Alliance
Conclusion
So, DWG is not dead, but it’s definitely evolving. DWG is no longer a desktop-bound format, and while mobile apps are still currently seen as complementary to the ‘main’, desktop editions of software, all that is set to change. Smartphones and tablets are likely to be key platforms for tomorrow’s CAD designers. Far from becoming irrelevant, DWG is set to be a feature on more screens than ever before.
Traveling Europe by train is already faster than by plane right now, and Japan is testing a “Supreme” version of its popular high-speed trains, set for a 2020 debut ahead of the next Winter Olympics. You can’t ride that one just yet, but there are more than a few bullet trains available to speed up your travels. Here are the world’s fastest high-speed trains in commercial service, ranked by speed:
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1. Shanghai Maglev: 267 mph
The world’s fastest train isn’t the newest, the shiniest, or even the one with the most expensive tickets. Charging $8 per person, per ride, the Maglev runs the nearly 19 miles from Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport to the Longyang metro station on the outskirts of Shanghai. That’s right—the train, which takes just over 7 minutes to complete the journey using magnetic levitation (maglev) technology, doesn’t go to the city center. As such, the bulk of the passengers since its 2004 debut have been travelers on their way to and from the airport, cameras out and ready to snap a photo of the speed indicators when the train hits 431 km/hr (267 mph).
2. Fuxing Hao CR400AF/BF: 249 mph
China wins again, also serving as home to the world’s fastest non-maglev train currently in service. The name “Fuxing Hao” translates to mean “rejuvenation,” and each of the two trains have been branded with nicknames: CR400AF is “Dolphin Blue,” and the CR400BF is “Golden Phoenix.” The “CR” stands for China Railway. Both take just under five hours to zip up to 556 passengers each between Beijing South and Shanghai Hongqiao Station, easily halving the nearly 10-hour time it takes to ride the conventional, parallel rail line between these two megalopolises. The “Rejuvenation” also beats China’s next fastest train, the “Harmony” CRH380A; it has dazzled since 2010, with speeds of up to 236 mph on routes connecting Shanghai with Nanjing and Hangzhou, and Wuhan with Guangzhou.
3. Shinkansen H5 and E5: 224 mph
Japan is celebrating the 54th anniversary of high-speed train travel this year, since it was way back in 1964 that the Hikari high-speed train launched service between Tokyo and Osaka, cutting travel time between the country’s two largest cities from nearly seven hours to a mere four by rail. The H5 and E5 series Shinkansen, respectively running the Tohoku and Hokkaido services, are two of the newer bullet trains on Japan’s tracks, and so far the fastest in regular commercial service in the country.
4. The Italo and Frecciarossa: 220 mph
Italy’s dueling train operators, NTV and Trenitalia, each flaunt a high-speed train that tie as Europe’s fastest, capable of shuttling passengers from Milan to Florence or Rome in under three hours, with a new route to Perugia debuting this year. The Frecciarossa, or “red arrow,” was unveiled during Expo 2015, held in Milan, and the train is remarkable as much for its speed as for its construction; its components are nearly 100 percent renewable and sustainable.
5. Renfe AVE: 217 mph
Spain’s fastest train is the Velaro E by Siemens, and it is used for long-distance services to major Spanish cities and beyond: traveling from Barcelona to Paris can now be accomplished on high-speed rail in six hours.
The DeutscheBahn ICE reaches speeds of 205 mph.Courtesy Deutsche Ban
6. Haramain Western Railway: 217 mph
The Mecca-Medina high-speed link stretches the 281 miles between Saudi Arabia’s most holy cities and has been in partial operation since December 2017, with full completion set for early summer 2018. Traveling the length of the route takes two and a half hours, compared to five hours by car. Speed isn’t the entire justification for the construction of this railway, however; the Haramain is expected to carry three million passengers a year, including many Hajj and Umrah pilgrims, relieving traffic congestion.
7. DeutscheBahn ICE: 205 mph
The distinctively futuristic white and silver of the Inter-City Express, or ICE, combined with its sharp red cheatline, makes an impressive sight speeding through scenic German countryside, especially on its newest route connecting Berlin and Munich. Similar to Spain’s Renfe AVE train, Germany’s fastest train is another Siemens design, the Velaro, and was built to fit through the Channel Tunnel. That’s a serious asset for DeutscheBahn’s long-term plans to operate these trains from Frankfurt to London.
8. Korail KTX: 205 mph
South Korea’s high-speed rail network is far from the newest (the KTX debuted in 2004), but it does hold its rank among the fastest. The latest route, opened just in time for the 2018 Winter Olympics, connects Incheon International Airport in the west to the coastal town of Gangneung in the east, stopping in Seoul along the way. The KTX cuts the transport time to reach the ski slopes of PyeongChang from six hours by conventional train to under two hours.
9. Eurostar e320 and TGV: 200 mph
Both the TGV and Eurostar e320 trains are tied for next on the list, but the latter underwent a redesign in 2015. Named for its top speed of 320 km/hr (200 mph), the e320 series is the first tip-to-tail redesign of a Eurostar train in the company’s 22-year history. The speedier trains—20 km/hr faster than the earlier, e300 series—are capable of trimming another 15 minutes off the already zippy Eurostar trips of around two hours between Brussels, Paris, and London (and Amsterdam, later this year). Since Eurostar delivers its passengers right to the center of each city and fares are available with Rail Europe from $70 one-way, it’s a wonder anyone still flies between the cities.
10. Thalys: 186 mph
Connecting Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, and Cologne with multiple daily services, the Thalys is one of Europe’s most important train lines for both leisure and business travelers; in fact, its ridership is almost an even split between the two categories. In December 2015 the German route was extended as far as Dortmund, though the Brussels-to-Paris run remains critical, making up more than half the business.
An homage to the Chinese past, the new bridge makes history in its own right.
TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY
Behold, the world’s largest 3D-printed bridge. The Chinese creation spans 26.3 meters (a little over 86 feet) and has a width of 2.6 meters (almost 12 feet). Its design is a tribute to Chinese architectural history, referencing the historic Zhaozhou Bridge built in A.D. 605, the country’s oldest standing bridge.
While the ancient Zhaozhou span required a decade to build, Professor Xu Weiguo’s team at Tsinghua University needed only 450 hours of printing to finish all of their new bridge’s concrete components. That translates to a little under 19 days. In a press statement, Professor Xu’s team also says that the bridge’s cost came in at just two thirds the tally of ordinary bridge, with savings coming from cutting down on materials and engineering.
The bridge’s print structure in an earlier stage.
Construction in a later phase, printing a bridge board.
The bridge consists of 44 individual 3D-printed concrete units, each of them approximately 3 by 3 by 5 feet. The sides, influenced by the Zhaozhou, were made with 68 individual concrete slabs moved into place by robot arms.
A low angle shot of the bridge. Its design is based on China’s storied bridge history.
Embedded with a real-time monitoring system, the bridge will be able to detect vibrating wire stress and strain with high precision. The Tsinghua press release (read through Google Translate) notes that “the demand for labor in construction projects will be increasingly in short supply” in the future. If China cannot find people to build bridges, “intelligent construction will be an important channel to solve this problem.”
The press release concedes that “there are still many bottlenecks that need to be solved in the construction of 3D concrete printing,” including that while many companies are invested in building the technology, it has not often been used in “actual engineering.”
Professor Xu’s two robotic arms aim to combine these two fields, integrating digital architectural design, print path generation, and concrete material. The first robot has stirring and squeeze push functions, and the second robot is concerned with print path generation and maintaining an operating system.
Before the bridge was built, a 1:4 model was created to test its strength. When that went off without a hitch, the team felt confident enough to proceed in its next goal.
There have been other 3D-printed architectural projects over the last few years, as the technology has become more widespread. A team at MIT built a sample house in a stunning 14 hours. Not that they’re known for comfort, but the Marines recently 3D-printed a barracksin 40 hours. If there are ever houses on Mars, NASA suspects they, too, will be built by robots using 3D printing.
The overall goal of track maintenance is to deliver the track, to support the timetable. This is achieved by Rail and Transit owner-operators through four objectives. First, to deliver safety to all passengers and staff, safety for passengers who depend on the rail system. Second, to deliver a reliable rail system, to ensure that the required services are available and that all assets are fit for purpose. Third, to deliver economic prosperity for a rail organization, through optimal and sustainable maintenance activities; and lastly, to deliver a comfortable ride for the consumer, reducing noise and improving ride quality. To deliver these goals, a rail organization must understand the criticality of all their assets, and the condition, along with the quality of the track they own and operate on.
Linear Measurements
Track Geometry measurements are a key component to understanding if the track is fit for purpose and is in a state of good repair. Periodic track condition measurements are required to evaluate the track quality and maintain an effective railway track system. Today most railroads already collect track geometry measurements from recording vehicles; however, often rail operators are not utilizing the data to its full advantage and sometimes data sets are held in siloed systems; making it almost impossible to visualize different condition data at the same time. Track Geometry contains a wealth of information that can support a range of maintenance and renewal decision support.
Core Track Geometry Measurements and Calculations
Gauge; the distance between the running edge of the left and right rail. There are several gauges used globally, the standard gauge is 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) and is typically used in North America and most of Europe. As the linear asset degrades, the distance between the rails will increase. This deterioration can cause a train to derail.
Curvature; one way to survey a track alignment is to measure the offsets from a chord to the running edge of the rail at the centres of successive overlapping chords, laid out along the outer rail of the surveyed track, this offset is called a versine.
Superelevation; is a difference in height between the left and right rails. It is generally applied in curves, with the low rail being on the inside edge of the curve. It is applied to offset the lateral forces that are felt when a vehicle traverses a curve.
Vertical Track Variation; a challenge for some individuals to understand is that the underlying geometry is not important; for example, a hill or a valley was already designed into the system. However, if there is a bump or a dip in the track on a hill, that is the information that is needed for extraction. The hill is viewed as a zero, we want to pay attention to the oscillations or variations in the track geometry data. As a general rule, if it takes less than two seconds to go through the variation at line speed, then we consider the variation; and if it takes more than two seconds, then we don’t consider the variation.
Lateral Track Variation; horizontal track geometry is generally filtered in the same way as vertical track geometry. We are looking for features that can be traversed in less than two seconds at line speed. The two seconds is derived from ISO 2632 – Human Comfort.
Track Twist; the difference in cross-level between two points or the rate of change of superelevation and measured over the impact on the bogie; this should be calculated based on the smallest wheelbase used by the owner-operator. A worst-case scenario is that the front wheel would drop onto a twist causing the rear wheel to climb, resulting in a train derailment.
Core Channels from a Track Geometry System
Location; beyond recording what the track geometry is, the system needs to record where it is as well. This is often one of the main issues with geometry data, as the same feature can be recorded at slightly different locations on different recording runs. Distance measured along the track can be derived from a tachometer fitted to one of the axles. This is a reasonably effective mechanism, but errors can be introduced as the wheel wears and if the recording vehicle runs around curves at different speeds. This can be corrected by GPS where available, or by detecting known features along the network and marking them against the recording. Lastly, the location should be reported against the linear referencing system (LRS) for the track, not against the distance traveled by the recording vehicle.
Speed; the FRA defines the maximum allowable posted timetable operating speed using the Vmax formula. We can take our curve data and plot the max speeds on our track charts. Additionally, we can calculate the equilibrium speed, which is the minimum speed that should be traveled through a curve. If locomotive traverses through the curve above Vmax speed, this causes extra wear on the outside rail; and if the locomotive traverses through the curve below the equilibrium speed, then this causes extra wear on the inside rail. This can be tracked and shown in our track charts with real locomotive speed data, to ensure operators are traversing through curves at the appropriate speed.
By Robert Henderson – Rail and Transit Consultant at Bentley Systems
Considering what a hot topic BIM has become, there have been very few new software firms willing to invest in creating new BIM authoring tools. This month we report on a new product, written on a ‘familiar’ package and backed by a huge company. Could BricsCAD BIM be the one to take on the might of Revit?
The BricsCAD BIM interface
It’s been 18 months since we last saw BricsCAD, from Ghent-based developer, Bricsys. The company started out developing an AutoCAD clone called BricsCAD and did a great job at creating a low-cost alternative to AutoCAD. Since then it has gone beyond AutoCAD and developed all sorts of original functionality to its base platform application. Although the company is dedicated to maintaining compatibility with DWG and AutoCAD, it wants to be perceived as a CAD developer in its own right and from what we saw at the firm’s recent London event, there is good reason.
Bricsys is not new to AEC or BIM. It developed TriForma which Bentley Systems sold as its core BIM application in the 1990s and then its own tool called Architecturals in the 2000s. The firm recently developed a SketchUp work-alike BricsCAD Shape. The company also develops tools for the manufacturing market with powerful parametric solid modelling (based on ACIS) and sheet metal applications.
AEC Magazine saw the company’s formative new BIM tools 18 months ago. The demonstration showed rectilinear ACIS solids being used to model a building and then the user applying IFC definitions post modelling. This turns products like Revit on their heads, as instead of using a palette of predefined and customisable objects to model with, like Lego, BricsCAD BIM was model first, then define. The benefit of this approach was that the conceptual phase didn’t require the architects to worry about object definitions, just define the forms.
This was all happening on top of BricsCAD, which is a DWG drawing and modelling tool which offers LISP, ARX and all the familiar AutoCAD functions you would expect. Bricsys thinks that those who have not yet made the move to Revit, may have more 2D processes and be happier doing their BIM modelling in a familiar environment, with the added advantage of it being cheaper. As things stood 18 months ago, however, the BIM functionality seemed all rather basic and there was evidently a long way to go.
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A new owner
At last month’s Bricsys conference in London, the first big news was that the company had been acquired by Hexagon for an undisclosed sum. For those unfamiliar with Hexagon, it is a global giant of a firm, that operates in construction, engineering, mining, automotive and plant and has annual revenues in excess of £1.2 billion. It owns Leica, Intergraph, MSC Software, Z/I Imaging and many others.
While Bricsys had annual revenues of £13 million, now it is under the Hexagon umbrella it will have all the resources it could ever need, plus access to markets as a mature, trusted CAD platform. Hexagon also has a reputation of leaving the brands it buys alone to carry on developing semi-autonomously.
Hexagon previously ported its AutoCAD-based plant application, CADWorx Plant Design Suite, to Bricsys as an alternative for its customers to paying for Autodesk’s AutoCAD on subscription. Bricsys pricing is based on a perpetual licence and works on Windows, macOS and Linux. The entry-level BricsCAD is $825 forever; AutoCAD is $1,575 per year, LT is $390 per year. Bricsys also offers subscription at $312 per year, if that’s what you would prefer. Bricsys works out a lot cheaper than Autodesk Subscription for AutoCAD. Hexagon was perhaps the biggest thirdparty developer to realise that it could use the familiar APIs that AutoCAD has, to port its existing applications to BricsCAD and offer to save its customers money on their AutoCAD subscriptions.
BIM and development
What a difference 18 months makes. From seeing the initial BIM development work to what was presented on the stage in London was really quite a marked difference. While the concept is the same, the capability and ease of use really blew us away. At its core, you have a DWG compatible, and very capable, drawing platform. Bricsys has harnessed the ACIS solid modelling kernel to enable designers to create incredibly complex shapes, using booleans, workplanes, chamfers, surfaces, complex wireframe manipulation – the usual gamut of modelling tools.
Designers can create anything they can envision in geometry. So, now comes the real magic. Bricsys has utilised machine learning to start the process of turning these models into BIM. Using the ‘BIMify’ button, the software will analyse the model and turn the geometry it finds into rooms, floors, slabs, columns, walls, doors, windows – regular IFC components.
BricsCAD BIM includes poweful curtain wall tools
The user can then edit or add objects that the automation didn’t classify or omitted. This is seriously impressive and, unlike the first demo we had, it works well on some pretty crazy geometry. Zaha Hadid would have had some fun with this tool. This is a fantastic solution to the problem of linking conceptual modelling to the creation of BIM models, together with the added benefit of the backend processes such as drawing production being all in one package.
The curtain wall capability is also powerful; model your spline geometry, select face, create a grid and then dynamically manipulate to make traditional or freeform curtain walls. The software will generate all the frame elements, which of course can also be edited.
But as we all know, architecture is really only one component in the mix. Bricsys demonstrated some intelligent modelling of HVAC components within a BIM context. Automatic sizing and connections, together with some elementary auto complete capabilities gave a good indication of the way development was heading. Bricsys isn’t looking to deliver for the front end of the building process, but throughout all professions, including structural and site development (it even handles point clouds).
BricsCAD BIM is not just for architects — it covers all professions, including structural, MEP and site
Because BricsCAD BIM is built on a DWG platform, it’s at this point that you really see the benefit in workflow vs something like Revit. We have lost count of the number of firms we have visited who take their Revit drawings into AutoCAD to finish off the documentation. This breaks with the BIM process as, if there are any changes, then the additional hours of drawing in AutoCAD need to be repeated. BricsCAD BIM is already inside its DWG documentation world and this destructive phase of using other tools than Revit can be avoided.
Speed was also very impressive. During the day’s talks all product demonstrations were done live from laptops. The underlying BricsCAD platform is a modern CAD product, it is fast, uses multiple cores and benefits from fast GPU graphics card accelerators. While one would assume that modelling architectural elements in full on solids over lightweight geometry would lead to hefty and unwieldy models, that certainly does not seem to be the case.
Parametrics are also built-in systemwide and can be used in a very intuitive fashion when designing. The ability to quickly model floors and partitions was fabulous and at all times the mouse and drawing lines give real-time feedback on relative geometry. Floors can be replicated in just a few clicks. In 2011, Bricsys acquired the intellectual property rights from Russian developer Ledas, which developed very high-end 2D/3D constraints tools and set up a technology division in Russia under Dmitry Ushakov. This move also enabled considerable advances for BricsCAD Platinum for Mechanical Design, which is aimed at the DS SolidWorks and Autodesk Inventors of this world.
Bricsys demonstrated something it calls A.I propagate, which uses artificial intelligence to replicate component details throughout a model. Simply select a component, plus the elements you want it to propagate over, and the computer does the rest. It also supports the import of RVT components, live building grids and ceilings. This can drastically speed up modelling. The user interface also really gives a clear indication of where the propagation of objects will take place.
BricsCAD BIM includes a feature called A.I propagate, which uses artificial intelligence to replicate component details throughout a model
When at the documentation stage, BricsCAD has some fabulous capabilities for multi-view layout and for automating call-out details. Again, all in a DWG workflow and so common AutoCAD commands are used for drawing.
BricsCAD BIM is $2,275 a seat, for a perpetual licence with one year’s maintenance. Alternatively, it can be subscribed to for $910 a year. For comparison, Revit is currently $2,250 a year or $6,075 for a 3-year subscription.
2D CAD
BricsCAD started off life as an AutoCAD clone. The company then went on to develop functionality that you won’t find in AutoCAD. As Autodesk went off to develop or acquire other tools (Revit, Inventor, Fusion etc), the mentality that AutoCAD was the hammer that hit all nails disappeared. Bricsys is of the mentality that its DWG CAD platform can be extended to solve BIM, MCAD solid modelling and other verticals. In one respect at least, the persistence of drawings in our new 3D modelled world, would back this view up.
BricsCAD v19, the new version, will offer a range of powerful tools but we don’t have room to highlight them here. However, one feature that we did see is indicative of the kind of tools under development. We had seen BIMify; now there’s ‘Blockify’, huge models, 2D or 3D, measuring in the Gigabyte range, automatically turned into blocks, drastically reducing the file size. Again, machine learning at play; the software automatically detects equally shaped solids in a model and replaces them by block references and searches the drawing for an identical set of a 2D entities and replaces them by block references. Just look at AutoCAD 2019’s new feature set and wonder where the new features are, vs enhancements to existing ones.
24/7 collaboration
Not just content with developing products for every vertical market, Bricsys offers a cloud-based collaboration product called 24/7, which is free to customers on maintenance. It’s a global document management system for 2D drawings and 3D models, which supports multiple roles and access for defined users and has a graphical widget application development ability to automate repetitive tasks. The system has version control, activity logs and search capabilities. For BIM users it has a fast 3D data viewer, model annotation and DWG/ xref management.
24/7 is a cloud-based collaboration tool, which is free to those on maintenance
Management Q & A
Bricsys CEO, Erik de Keyser and Hexagon’s Rick Allen, PPM executive vice president answered questions on the surprise acquisition (this came as a shock to most Bricsys employers too). de Keyser explained that the driver for the acquisition was that being a great developer was not enough for success; marketing and sales required investment and as things stood, would have diverted R&D funds to enable that. Bricsys had been seeking investment and Hexagon had been interested since it ported its plant products to BricsCAD.
Allen explained that Hexagon was keen to offer customers a choice and with Autodesk’s pricing changes, subscription- only and potentially web-only products in the future, Bricsys would be there to offer an alternative. In the process of porting CADWorx to BricsCAD, Bricsys was incredibly responsive and over eight million lines of code were ported in nine months and the product is stable.
Allen, while predominantly dealing with the plant side of Hexagon’s business, sees the Bricsys acquisition as a play in all areas BIM, manufacturing, drafting, as well as plant. Allen identified that Revit, while popular in architecture, isn’t in other professions and they have picked up on a lot of end user dissatisfaction. While Hexagon will certainly focus on AutoCAD seats in its process plant customers, not just CADworx, Hexagon is looking at a much broader play.
De Keyser estimated that Revit had only hit 16% of BIM penetration of all the possible users and in certain geographies it was not the No.1 choice, with Vectorworks, Graphisoft and Allplan all occupying decent market share. de Keyser stated that with Hexagon behind them, Bricsys would aim for 20-25% of the market with the sales pitch being ‘you don’t need to leave DWG or translate to/from DWG. The workflow stays in one format as you move from application to application – at a fraction of the price. We will win one customer at a time.’
Looking forward, de Keyser stated that with IFC 4.0, it will become harder for firms, such as Autodesk, to trap customers in proprietary file formats, as substantially more of the data will be transferable.
While it’s the plant division of Hexagon that led the charge to acquire Bricsys, Allen made it clear that all divisions of Hexagon would have access to the technology and the buy-in was not simply cost justified on the benefit to the plant division. The company is taking aim at Autodesk and all players in BIM, mechanical, plant and drafting. With Autodesk dominating so many areas in the built space and with Autodesk Subscription increasing the cost of ownership, Hexagon is out to offer a lower cost alternative with enhanced functionality.
Conclusion
Many years ago, we watched Dominic Gallello, then Autodesk VP of Mechanical, launch Autodesk Inventor. This was a big deal for Autodesk as it was the first new code stream the company had delivered since AutoCAD decades before. At the time, Autodesk was trying to get into the 3D modelling market and had established players such as SolidWorks, Dassault Systèmes, Siemens, PTC etc. all with mature CAD products.
Gallello’s pitch was don’t judge us by the current feature set, judge us on the product’s ‘velocity’. Gallello was telling us the development team had new ideas to crack old problems and would be delivering on new functionality in a way the mature competition was not.
With BricsCAD BIM, we see that development velocity. In just 18 months the software has gone from being formative building modelling to offering something really different and innovative for BIM workflows. At the same time, it bashes you over the head as it’s all happening in an AutoCAD work-a-like, which is committed to supporting all the 2D processes millions of AutoCAD customers currently use.
We are in strange times. Autodesk’s move to Subscription without question increases costs to users in ownership over three years, compared to the traditional historic buy and upgrade cycles of around three years. Subscription does offer suites but that comes at a cost and not many utilise many of the products they get.
Autodesk’s channel is showing signs of rebellion, after years of deflating margins, with one or two now offering AutoCAD clones as alternatives to AutoCAD LT. This is a clear and present danger, as we estimate 40% of all Autodesk licences are AutoCAD LT. Revit’s development velocity has slowed and many are wondering when it will be re-written as the core is 20 years old. The conceptual side of BIM has never really been solved by anybody who can take that data on to be used throughout the design and documentation workflow.
Bricsys now has a giant backing it up. A giant that sees an opportunity in Autodesk’s base. Bricsys offers low-cost, AutoCAD functionality with perpetual licensing (or subscription), on multiple platforms, with unique BIM workflows, in a single environment, with machine learning cleverness, powerful MCAD part and assembly modelling, Autodesk APIs and even collaborative cloud-based management.
At the wrap up from the event, de Keyser took issue with the company being called a ‘clone developer’ by the press during that day’s tweets. He feels the development teams are now way beyond performing that work and are developing new functionality in all vertical areas. Even though the origins of the company are certainly defined by the work it has done on mimicking DWG functionality, it’s true that Bricsys is now defining a unique path. de Keyser quipped, “We are not a clone developer, we are a cyclone in the industry!”
For now, BricsCAD BIM is certainly something to watch. Revit has decades of development work put into it and I can’t see many switching like for like. However, with the velocity comes a trajectory and backed up with Hexagon, with a low price point, innovative machine learning development, this is a BIM product to watch. It’s the most promising modelling tool we have seen in BIM in the last ten years.
Next year will certainly be an interesting one in the BIM market. Hexagon has come to the table with Bricsys and a very impressive development team. We hear Dassault Systèmes has a construction BIM tool coming out. Siemens and Bentley continue to dance together and are working on many joint developments. Nemetscheck has a new Allplan and Vectorworks and Graphisoft are continuing to execute well. Things are hotting up and new and innovative solutions are still coming to the market. AEC Magazine will be here to keep you up to date.
Download a trial version of BricsCAD BIM at ■ bricsys.com/bim
New Tekla Bridge Creator extension covers the complete bridge design workflow
Trimble has launched Tekla Bridge Creator, a new extension for Tekla Structures that supports the complete bridge design workflow from design geometry to constructible modelling and detailing.
Trimble says the new software provides a solution to common problems: importing a road alignment directly from road design software; creating one or more key sections that define the bridge deck or even abutments; and then modelling and detailing the reinforcing bars.
By adding the Bridge Creator extension, Tekla Structures can create and utilise Bridge Information Models (BrIM) from early stages of design (0- Strategy, 1 – Brief, 2 – Concept) through fabrication-ready (Stage 4 – Detailed Design) to constructible models (Stage 5 – Build & Commission).
Hannu Suojanen, project engineer for Bridges, WSP Finland, who participated in testing the software, commented: “Bridge Creator is intelligent and certainly the most efficient tool for the whole bridge design workflow, which no other software provider has to offer. It automatically imports the road alignment and helps create bridge geometry easily. Even when facing complex deck geometries, the extension creates the deck with impressive accuracy.
“Tekla Structures is already a sound choice for bridge detailing. Adding the new Bridge Creator extension with the existing Concrete Bridge Reinforcement tool for complex geometries make Trimble’s Tekla solution the most advanced on the market. Trimble is creating value for the overall bridge design, construction and operations workflow, increasing the efficiency and quality in bridge design.”
The Bridge Creator extension version 1.0 can be downloaded from the Tekla Warehouse in March. The extension is available for Tekla Structures customers with a software maintenance agreement.
Stone columns are constructed using down-hole vibratory probe methods similar to those used in vibro-compaction. The main difference is that instead of using coarsegrained soil to simply fill the void created by the vibro-compaction operation, stone or other clean, coarse grained materials are placed, and compacted, to form a narrow structural element (i.e. a column) which functions as one or more of the following:
1. enhance the average shear strength and bearing capacity of a weak soil mass,
2. transfer a surface load to deeper competent materials, or
3. provide easy drainage of temporarily high pore water pressures.
Stone columns are ideally suited for improving soft silts and clays and loose silty sands. Stone columns under suitable conditions will:
• increase a soil’s bearing capacity and shear resistance
• reduce settlements,
• increase the time-rate of consolidation,
• reduce liquefaction potential, and
• stabilize existing slopes affected by low shear strength soils .
Stone columns, in general, are most economically attractive for sites requiring column lengths less than 35 ft. deep and preferably about 20 ft. deep below the surface.
Unsuitable soil conditions for stone columns include soils having thick layers of very soft or sensitive clays and organic materials. If the thickness of the unsuitable soil layer is more than the diameter of the stone column, then stone columns may not be appropriate because the very soft soils will not provide adequate lateral support of the stone column. In addition, stone column construction can be hampered by the presence of a thick, dense overburden, or soils with boulders, cobbles or other obstructions that may require pre-drilling prior to installation of the stone column.
Stone columns are constructed using either a vibro-replacement or vibro-displacement installation with the stone aggregate placed using either top or bottom feed methods.
Vibro-Replacement :
Vibro-replacement involves a wet installation method that replaces deep, narrow pockets of the in-situ soil with stone aggregate columns. In this method a high-pressure water jet, located at the tip of the probe, is used to excavate a narrow, open (uncased) hole. Once the hole is progressed to the design depth, the hole is flushed out several times by raising and dropping the probe to remove any loose silt and sand at the bottom of the hole. The vibro-probe is retracted and a limited amount of stone is placed into the hole from the top. The probe’s vibration mode is turned on and it is inserted into the hole to compact the lift of stone. The probe is retracted again and the process repeated until the stone column is formed to the ground surface. During the entire operation, water is continually pumped into the hole to prevent collapse and to keep the aggregate clean. This method is best suited for sites with soft to firm soils with undrained shear strengths of 200 to 1,000 psf and a shallow groundwater table, and where drill wash and spoil
containment and disposal can be practically handled.
Vibro-Displacement :
When a cleaner or lesser environmental impact operation is preferred, stone columns should be constructed using the vibro-displacement method. The operation is a dry installation method where the stone aggregate can be placed into the hole from the top or from aggregate ports at the bottom of the probe. Although the probe’s dead weight and vibration, in lieu of water jetting, is used to excavate the hole, air jetting and/or pre-augering may be used to prevent clogging of the aggregate ports or to assist in advancing or extracting the probe. This method is best suited for
sites where collapse of the hole during the column’s installation is unlikely.
Vibro-compaction is a ground improvement method that uses a specialized vibrating probe for in-situ subsurface compaction of loose sandy or gravelly soils at depths beyond which surface compaction efforts are effective.
The vibrating probe densifies loose granular, cohesionless soils by using mechanical vibrations and, in some applications, water saturation to minimize the effective stresses between the soil grains which then allows the oil grains to rearrange under the action of gravity into a denser state.
Vibro compaction to densify loose, silty sands for an interim spent fuel cask storage pad in Braceville, Illinois.
Generally, vibro-compaction can be used to achieve the following enhanced soil performance or
properties:
• Increased soil bearing capacity
• Reduced foundation settlements
• Increased resistance to liquefaction
• Compaction to stabilize pile foundations driven through loose granular materials
• Densification for abutments, piers and approach embankment foundations
• Increased shear strength
• Reduced permeability
• Filling of voids in treated areas
Two rigs completing vibro compaction for liquefaction mitigation and settlement at a casino.
The vibrator is hung from a crane cable or, in some instances; it is mounted to leads in a similar fashion as foundation drilling equipment. The vibrator penetrates under its self weight (or crowd of the machine if mounted in leads) and, at times, with assistance from the action of water jets. The goal is that the vibration and water imparted to the soils ransforms the loose soils to a more dense state.
The Vibro Compaction Process
Advantages, Disadvantages and Limitations
1. Advantages
As an alternative to deep foundations, vibro-compaction is usually more economical and often results in significant time savings. Loads can be spread from the footing elevation, thus minimizing problems from lower, weak layers. Densifying the soils with vibro-compaction can considerably reduce the risk of seismically induced liquefaction. Vibro-compaction can also be cost-effective alternative to removal and replacement of poor load-bearing soils. The use of vibro-compaction allows the maximum improvement of granular soils to depths of up to 165 feet. The vibro-ompaction system is effective both above and below the natural water level.
2. Disadvantages and Limitations
Vibro-compaction is effective only in granular, cohesionless soils. The realignment of the sand grains and, therefore, proper densification generally cannot be achieved when the granular soil contains more than 12 to 15 percent silt or more than 2 percent clay. The maximum depth of treatment is typically limited to 165 feet, but there are very few construction projects that will require densification to a greater depth.
Like all ground improvement techniques, a thorough soils investigation program is required. Yet, a more detailed soils analysis may be required for vibro-compaction than for a deep foundation design because the vibro-compaction process utilizes the permeability and properties of the in-situ soil to the full depth of treatment to achieve the end result. A comprehensive understanding of the total soil profile is therefore necessary which typically requires continuous sampling or in-situ testing.
Equipment access over the site must also be considered. Since the operation requires use of a large crane, a relatively flat work bench with a width of at least 25 ft must be possible near all areas to be treated.
Wet vibro-compaction requires the use of water to jet the vibrator into the ground. The effluent from the jetting process requires at least temporary containment to allow any fine soil particles to settle out and be disposed. Further, this method of ground improvement may not be acceptable if the existing subsurface environment, either soil or water is contaminated. If contamination is present, use of water jetting may cause its dispersion and therefore other ground improvement methods should be considered.
