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Advance Steel

Advance Steel 2011 is fully part of the Graitec BIM solution, named Graitec Advance and consisting of Advance Steel, Advance Concrete and Advance Design.

This new integrated 2011 suite has several common new features:

  • A common installation kit for all modules, delivered on one single DVD
  • New Graitec Advance Manager
  • Sections and material libraries shared between Advance Steel and Advance Design
  • Improved integration CAD / Design.

Graitec Advance is the 1st complete solution on the market which includes Design and Multi-material CAD in the same package.

Advance Steel Advance ConcreteAdvance Design

Advance Steel 2011 also has important enhancements in several areas:

  • Enhanced GUI
  • New project manager
  • New automatic joints
  • Stairs and railings automatic macro enhancements
  • Faster document creation
  • Smart user dimensions
  • Automatic revision clouds
  • Cambered beams

Advance Steel 2011 is the unmatched software solution for all your projects.

What is new in Advance Steel 2011

Improved ergonomics

The Advance Steel ergonomics have been enhanced to provide easier access to frequently used tools.

Enhanced ribbon

The Advance Steel ribbon has been redesigned to offer commands in better logical groups. It includes new large buttons for the most frequently used functionalities.

Enhanced tool palette

The Advance Steel tool palette has been redesigned to offer a compact tool palette with all the required tools, complementary to the functionalities available on the Advance Steel ribbon.

Modeling

Project explorer

A new “Project Explorer” is available. It helps users to manage their projects with more efficiency due to the different options and flexibility that the Project Explorer provides. The Project Explorer has its own button on the “AS Modeling” ribbon so that it can be started at any time.

The new Project Explorer offers several great possibilities:

  • Create (and display) levels.
  • Create (and display) model views.
  • Create (and display) groups.
  • Create (and reuse) user queries (due to the integration with the existing Search tool).

The model view creation has also been enhanced and simplified, and all created model views are automatically stored in the Project Explorer for easy reuse. With the new Project Explorer, the user can create and manage different work planes. The work plane feature provides the following options:

  • Work planes automatically created by levels.
  • Work planes can be created by the user at any time.
  • The user can attach/detach elements to/from work planes.

Real anchor shapes

Advance Steel 2011 provides real anchor shapes for a perfect display of the anchor in the 3D model and in general arrangement drawings. The main enhancements are listed below:

  • Anchors can be directly defined in the new GRAITEC Advance Manager, where the user interface allows defining all types of anchors in an easy way.
  • Several types of anchors are available like Straight, Headed, Hooked, J, and Threaded with bottom assembly.
  • All these new anchors are available in all base plate automatic joints.
  • The orientation of the anchors can be specified by the user.
  • There is a specific BOM to list all anchors available in the 3D model.

Management of cambered beams

Advance Steel 2011 provides a new option to introduce camber to a member and to get it automatically displayed cambered (or straight) in the workshop drawing. The cambered beam includes the following options:

  • A new group, “Camber properties”, is directly available in the beam properties dialog box.
  • The user gets different choices for the camber position, the camber height and the possible start and/or end offset values.
  • The search tool includes the criteria for cambered beams.
  • The beam can be displayed cambered in the workshop drawing by using an adequate drawing style.

Joints

New base plate joint for tubes

Advance Steel 2011 provides a new joint for CHS and RHS sections, with the option to select different types of base plates (circular, square, rectangular, etc.) and several shapes of welded stiffeners.

New seated connections

Advance Steel 2011 provides different automatic joints for seated connection situations. Both “Column seat beam with an angle” and the “Column seat with a T” joints are available.

New I bracing connection

Advance Steel 2011 provides several types of new automatic connections for bracing situations.
The three main new connections are:

  • Bracing connection for one secondary I beam.
  • Bracing connection for two secondary I beams.
  • Bracing connection with gusset corner plate.

New options for stiffeners in existing joints

Advance Steel 2011 automatically creates stiffeners in several existing joints. The stiffener thickness, size and shape can be easily defined by the user in the dialog box. Stiffeners are automatically shop welded to the correct main beam.

More options for automatic railings

Advance Steel 2011 offers many new options to create a railing. Here is the list of these different enhancements:

  • A curved railing is automatically created on a curved beam.
  • A railing can be created on a polybeam.
  • The created railing can be stretched by moving graphically its reference point.
  • New loop end options are available for the end of the handrail.
  • It is possible to create a connection between the hang off and the railing itself.
  • The railing height can be defined by selecting a reference point during the railing creation.
  • Several post connection enhancements are available such as the angle placement choice and the option to create a cap plate at the bottom of the posts.

Integrated Joint Design in more joints

Advance Steel 2011 provides more automatic joints with integrated joint design. Here is the list of the additional joints which integrate joint design according to EC3:

  • Apex Single Haunch joint.
  • Double Side Clip Angle joint.
  • Base Plate joint.
  • Base Plate with sloped cut joint.
  • Base Plate joint for tubes.

Here is the list of the additional joints which integrate joint design according to AISC:

  • Base Plate joint.
  • Corner Base Plate joint.
  • Base Plate joint for tubes.
  • HSS bracing simple joint.
  • HSS bracing complex joint.

Drawings

Quick documents

A new “Quick documents” functionality is available. It helps users better control their preferred drawing styles and BOM templates, as they can see a preview of the result of each of them, and they can start the automatic creation of all workshop and general arrangement drawings from this user-friendly dialog box.

Here is the list of the main features of the “Quick documents”:

  • All documents can be created from a common unique place.
  • The user has direct access to all the preferred presentations for documents.
  • It is very easy to select the preferred drawing styles …
  • … and to see them available in the Quick documents dialog box!
  • There is a preview for an easy understanding of the result.
  • The tool is user-friendly.

Automatic revision clouds

Advance Steel 2011 automatically creates revision clouds in drawings for modifications compared to the previous status of the drawing. This considerably helps users have better control on changed elements after an automatic update of the drawings with a revision number.

Here is the list of the main features of the revision clouds:

  • Revision clouds automatically created if necessary on drawings.
  • Works on workshop drawings and on general arrangement drawings.
  • There is a specific layer for the revision clouds (so that the user can activate it).
  • Different options for revision clouds (color, cloud gap, etc.) are available.
  • The user can decide to have the revision clouds around the objects or around the labels.
  • The revision index can be displayed next to the revision cloud.
  • The representation of the revision cloud can be modified afterwards directly in the drawing.

Intelligent user dimension

The user can add dimensions in workshop and general arrangement drawings and Advance Steel 2011 makes these user dimensions intelligent so that they automatically adapt to new situations in case of modifications in the 3D model.

Here are the main benefits of these intelligent user dimensions:

  • Users add their dimensions as they used to with Advance Steel dimensioning tools.
  • An automatic link is created between the geometric objects and the created dimension.
  • The dimensions change when editing the objects (in the 3D model) to which they are attached.
  • They adapt to new situations even for deleted objects in the model.
  • New intelligent user dimensions save a lot of time!

Grid reference in assembly drawings

Advance Steel 2011 provides the option to get the grid reference for each element in its assembly drawing which provides an easier location of parts at site.

Here is a short description on how the functionality works:

  • There is a new token available for customizing the drawing style.
  • The customized title refers to the grid reference.

Mixed structures

General drawings display multi-material objects

The general arrangement drawings automatically created with Advance Steel 2011 display 3D and 2D views containing all multi-material objects from the 3D model. All existing options like dimensioning and labeling can be applied to these elements.

3D Modeling of concrete objects

Advance Steel 2011 provides automatic functionalities to create concrete objects in the 3D model.

Here is the list of the main options for modeling concrete objects:

  • Several different tools are available to easily create concrete objects (e.g. slab, wall, footing, etc).
  • Various concrete section types are available.
  • A complete library of concrete material is integrated by default.
  • The units for concrete objects can be specified by the user.
  • An automatic 3D fitter tool creates the correct intersection between the different concrete walls.
  • All feature commands can be used on concrete objects.
  • The clash check tool takes into consideration the concrete objects and automatically reports the detected interference between steel and concrete elements.