As the construction industry is moving more and more to-wards model based projects, Tekla and Dowco are also putting the pedal to the metal on 2011 to help you excel in the rapidly changing world of construction.

1) Tekla Structures 17.0 was released February 14th and is designed to help you to be more efficient in BIM proj-ects with several improvements on the interoperability side.

2) Dowco Technology Services released a new set of modeling components (ProPack M1 and M2 Macro sets) to help you build and check your models accurately and more easily than before3) Continuous Tekla Structures extension development by both Tekla and Dowco will continue to fill the possible voids in the main product offering. Keep your eyes on dowcotech.com and updated Tekla Extranet Extensions page to see more of the helpful tools getting released all the time.4) Tekla BIMsight, a new revolutionary product for project collaboration, was released the same day as version 17.0. It overpowers many of the currently used project communication tools…while being totally free for everyone!

Below is just some of the items improved in the latest Tekla Structures version:

a) IFC import, export and conversion tools have all been made more ver-satile.The extended functionality allows you to control the IFC file content and format more accurately than before and the conversion from IFC refer-ence objects to native Tekla objects has been made much easier and more intelligentb) Moving and rotating the model views was much improved in 16.1, where the centre point location seems to be practically reading your mind. Now you can also directly create surface views by picking the object faces or edges. If all this leaves anyone wanting more for model view handling.

Now Tekla Structures also has a certificate for 3Dconnexion mouse and now you can use any number of colours you wish to visualize the project through the model.

c) In order to further improve the best CNC export in the market, you can now write scribing infor-mation into DSTV file. This means the positions of secondary parts welded to main part can clearly be marked on the beam face with special tool. It is also made easier to model weld preparations manu-ally and get those exported also to DSTV files by using the easy edge chamfering tools to make weld preparations.

d) The Tekla system admin lifesaver “Directory browser” has been up-dated and is now installed in all environments by default, so you can start to manage your Tekla folders without having to do any extra downloads. Another possible lifesaver is the ability to disable saving any settings as “standard” which was released previously in 16.1.

e) Basic Model Organizer, Task Manager and Clash functionality has been added into all configurations, opening more of the Tekla model information to everyone

f) Cast unit functionality has been added to Tekla Structures RCD, the typical. Cast in Place concrete configuration. This makes it much easier to man age the concrete pours and make all the required drawings and schedules

The process of starting from initial project information, making the model and producing the intelligent output, completing a project, all the way to com-municating your part of the project to your clients has been made easier and faster. We at Dowco are excited to see the direction Tekla has taken and will support all our clients in embracing the change rather than fighting it. It’s time to realize your full potential.

Read more about Tekla BIMsight and Dowco ProPack on the following pages.

ConneXion - March 2011Editor: Ron CuthbertContributors: Ron Cuthbert, Tero Laine, Arvin Eugenio, Mike Samilski, Mohit Jindel.Art & Design: Thomas Cetnarowski - thomas@dowco.com: Tel. 604.629.6085Dowco Technology Services Support Team:TeklaSupport@Dowco.com Tel 1.866.77.DOWCO (1.866.773.6926) ext 2Tero Laine – tlaine@dowco.com,, Rey Ople – r_ople@dowco.com, Dave Berryman - dberryman@dowco.com, Abdelmalik El Ouahabi - abouahab@dowco.comDowco Technology Services Sales Team:TeklaSales@Dowco.com Tel 1.866.77.DOWCO (1.866.773.6926) ext 1Quebec and Ontario: Christine Boutet – christineboutet@dowco.com; 514.910.9046 Rest of Canada: Arvin Eugenio – aeugenio@dowco.com; Tel 604.629.6087 Engineering: Mike Samilski – msamilski@dowco.com; Tel 604.629.6093Fabtrol: Christine Boutet – christineboutet@dowco.com; 514.910.9046 Administrative Assistant: Dorothy Smith – dsmith@dowco.com; Tel. 604.606.5800 ext 5512 Accounting: Judy Beckett – judyb@dowco.com; Tel. 604.606.5810

Dowco Technology Services Ltd. is a member of Dowco Group of Companies and is located at : 103-5668 192 Street, Surrey, BC V3S 2V7Visit us at www.dowcotech.com Copyright 2011, Dowco Technology Services Ltd.

TEKLA and GRAPHISOFT demonstrate Global Collaboration between Architects, Engineers and Consultants

For more than 20 years, GRAPHISOFT and Tekla have offered best-in-class BIM (Building Informa-tion Modeling) solutions to their respective fields of architecture and structural engineering. The BIM collaborative workflow has been adapted by more and more practices of the AEC (Architecture, Engi-neering, and Construction) disciplines in the recent years. GRAPHISOFT and Tekla have also been working

together for years to develop a smooth exchange of building informa-tion across the AEC disciplines by enabling open communication be-tween their respective software systems. The companies continuously collaborate to introduce new features that allow Tekla Structures and ArchiCAD software users to communicate more efficiently and seam-lessly between each other in order to improve the open BIM process.

Last November 23, 2010, eleven experts around the world from GRA-PHISOFT, Tekla, DDS-CAD and Arktec demonstrated the power of open collaboration without borders through a webinar presentation. While based in different locations (Birmingham, Boston, Budapest, Helsinki, Madrid, Munich, Oslo, and Sydney) and using the GRAPHI-SOFT BIM Server, they demonstrated how the Delta Server™ technol-ogy reduces network traffic to a minimum for instant and reliable data-exchange both within the office and over the Internet.

“The real issue with the integration is not file compatibility but workflow compatibility,” says Viktor Várkonyi, Chief Executive Officer at GRA-PHISOFT. “Opening each other’s files is by far not enough - handling each other’s model in an intelligent way is what makes a real BIM col-laboration workflow productive.” “Tekla Structures and ArchiCAD cover the entire design and documen-tation workflow till the end of a construction project,” says Risto Räty, Executive Vice President of Tekla Corporation. “Together they support the BIM process in a unique way and are thus the preferred partners that ensure the highest-quality end result in any project. The benefit of using these tools is above all the downstream constructability they offer from conceptual design to erection and site management.”

If you work in a design team as an architect, engineer or consultant and need to coordinate your design with other disciplines or if you are simply interested in seeing the evolution of BIM collaboration that is emerging in the construction industry, please do send us an email at dtsinfo@dowco.com.

Realize your full potential with Tekla Structures

1st DOWCO ArchiCAD User Meetingby Mo Jindel

New technology has the ability to transform the modern construction industry to make it stronger, resilient and increasingly agile. To share the latest BIM (Building Information & Modeling) technology and its advantages, we recently organized our first ArchiCAD User Group Meeting at our Burnaby office last February 24th. The meeting was well attended by leading architects and designers not only from the Metro Vancouver Area but also from Vancouver Island and the interior.

The idea behind hosting such an event was to highlight how architectural offic-es are implementing the leading Architectural BIM software, ArchiCAD into their workflow to become more productive and to achieve maximum efficiency through-out the projects. The meeting provided a stage for the participating architects and designers to share their ideas about the traditional and modern construction meth-odology and how BIM tools like ArchiCAD can bring a streamlined approach to the workflow.

The session had a number thought provoking discussions, including the collabora-tion between Architects and Engineers towards drawing exchange, virtual model exchange and model tracking and management.

The demonstration of Graphisoft BIM server for deployment of larger projects over a team of Architects and designers shed light on the way larger projects are being coordinated and delivered globally. I was fortunate to have Monte Chapin, Busi-ness Process Leader for GRAPHISOFT North America, to log onto the project live which I had on screen, while he was at his home base in Idaho.

We also demonstrated GRAPHISOFT’s Virtual Building Explorer, which allows users to send their design, view and navigate through the entire virtual building model in a 3D mode without being bound by defined camera angles and views. Project stakeholders can virtually ‘walkthrough’ the design as if they were actually in it in real life.

The ArchiCAD user meeting was a huge success, and more importantly allowed our BC local users to connect with other architects and share their thoughts and ideas on improving their practice using ArchiCAD. Dowco Technology Services will be hosting more of these events within the year so stay tuned.

by Tero Laine, Technical Manager

by Arvin Eugenio

For years people involved in construction projects have been scratch-ing their heads trying to find ways to eliminate miscommunication and remove bottlenecks in project workflow. These problems can be caused by:

Lack of high-level project documentation leaving room for interpretation

Incomplete or otherwise difficult interoperability between the software used by different parties

Cost of software & training

BIM (Building Information Modeling) is supposed to solve these issues and nowadays more and more companies are trying to address this by moving to tools with at least some capability to publish their part in the project in 3D environment.

To overcome these difficulties and finally make BIM a practical and affordable tool for every company and every project, Tekla has launched a new BIM applica-tion for model-based collaboration. Now contractors, designers, architects, MEP detailers, fabricators and anyone else who is interested can combine models

into one project in multiple file formats. Users can check for clashes, perform spatial coordination and collaborate using Tekla BIMsight.

Tekla BIMsight allows contributors to combine and review building infor-mation models from all project team members independent of software

With the new Fabtrol ModelView, it’s easy for any fabricator to visualize project status. FabTrol ModelView is a free plugin that seamlessly dis-plays project data from FabTrol MRP fabrication software to a Tekla Structures model. Once installed, FabTrol ModelView is accessible within the Tekla application. Any configuration of Tekla Structures works with ModelView, even Tekla Structures Viewer! Simply export a file from FabTrol MRP, click the ModelView icon in Tekla Structures, then view a list of assemblies in the Fabtrol ModelView window. In the ModelView window you can sort the assemblies by either assembly status or division and each will be represented in the model by a different colour.

One click on any assembly from a list in ModelView high-lights the assembly in Tekla model. Click again and the model zooms in to display a close-up view of the highlighted assembly. This makes it easy to quickly identify and view any critical assemblies in the structure, even in the most compli-cated model. Owners, project managers, erectors and oth-ers in the project team will benefit from the ability to navigate to any assembly in the project.

Download the plugin and view example videos atwww.FabTrol.com/ModelView

In June of last year Dowco Technology Services ini-tiated a research project involving Tekla Structures Building Information Modeling Software and Cast-in-Place Concrete. Looking for a practical applica-tion we were able to connect with the BC Ministry of Transportation and a local engineering firm that had just recently constructed a concrete bridge for a project in British Columbia.

Using this bridge gave us a real-world situation to put Tekla through its paces. The aim of our research was to develop various tools to facilitate the creation of a 3D model and Engineering Drawings for many kinds of Cast-in-Place projects, not only bridges. Throughout

format. For example, project participants can check these models to prevent conflicting design by using advanced clash management routines to manage and assign design changes caused by conflicts. By using the standard industry standard formats such as IFC, Tekla BIMsight provides a 3D communication platform that makes sharing models and information clear and easy. And the best news, it’s free for everyone, there is no catch. No 30-day free trial. Completely free.

Anyone can download Tekla BIMsight at http://www.teklabimsight.com/. Video tutorials and an online user community make it easy for anyone to get started visualizing and communicating with building information models. The interface is very clean and intuitive. It’s fast and even more importantly, it’s so easy to use.

New Fabtrol ModelView for Visualizing Your Project Status

BIM Cast-In-Place Bridge Project the project we came up with several innovations in Tekla such as:

Automated Point Layout Tool, using Tekla Structures .NET APIAnimation Tool that links with Tekla’s Task Manager and Project Status Visualizer, using Tekla Structures .NET APIVarious customizable components to facilitate rebar modelingTraining material which includes videos and documentationCast-in-Place basic modeling guide for beginner usersEstablished standards for modeling and filteringAutomated a column scheduleAutomated a rebar scheduleSet up symbol libraries

While several technical challenges were presented we were able to resolve each one through various innovations. The development project was completed on time and now we have a good set of tools and processes to be implemented at any Tekla user. If you are interested in these tools and documentation, they are part of our training course for doing cast in place projects with Tekla Structures. To get more information about using Tekla Structures for Cast-In-Place projects, contact your account manager or our support department.

Last November Tekla and Autodesk collaborated to create free tools to fa-cilitate the interoperability between Tekla Structures and Autodesk Revit. The target of the first phase of the development was to create an easy-to-use and a reliable way to transfer data between Revit and Tekla and provide these tools to the users of Revit and Tekla. Utilizing and hiding the software specific settings, the simplified user-interface makes it possible to have an easy and successful export. With these tools all physical elements are reliably trans-ferred in both directions. A rich set of attribute data goes along with the trans-ferred data. Both of these applications can be downloaded from our website (http://www.dowcotech.com/tekla_revit_interoperability).

The Export to Tekla application exports objects from a selected view or the whole project of Revit. The file is created in a compressed .ifcZIP format to ensure easy delivery.

This exported model can be read in to Tekla as a reference model. In Tekla, the reference model objects can be used in a way similar to the native objects for clash detection, reporting and scheduling etc. Reference model objects can be shown in drawings and they can be listed in reports beside the data of native objects and so forth. It is also possible to monitor the changes between different versions of the reference models exported from Revit using the Tekla IFC change management tools. The design work can be focused to the parts of the model that have been changed.

The enhanced Tekla IFC Object Converter can be used to clone the selected elements of the architectural/structural model. The clones of the architectural/structural elements start to exist independently as native Tekla objects, which can be detailed further to include all the data needed to specify the end prod-uct for enabling the possible automated (pre)manufacturing. The very same model is also usable in the building and construction process to support the production, thereby helping to manage the complexity of the structure and the logistics of the pieces.

Revit to Tekla to Revit Collaboration

Export to Revit applica-tion is already part of new Tekla Structures 17.0 installation. The tool can be started from Tools -> Macros. The Export to Revit – application uses the boundary representa-tion (b-rep) format of the Industry Foundation Classes (IFCs) and cre-ates an in-place-family-type of object into Revit. The geometry is trans-ferred correctly and the users have a means to include a set of at-tribute data he or she wants to be transferred to Revit. The exported model from Tekla can be read in and saved as a separate project that can be linked to the main project.

Advance BIM tools created for CIP

www.dowcotech.com/productivity_package

Tekla BIMsight - the Big Bang in BIM

by Mike Samilski,