BIM, structural simulation application adds smart features
What comes to mind when you think of 2030? If you’re in the architecture, design and engineering (AEC) industry, perhaps you thought of Ed Mazria’s Architecture 2030 Challenge and the Architecture 2030 initiative that aims to reduce the energy consumption and CO2 emissions of the built environment by the year 2030 by designing more sustainable buildings, communities and cities.
With buildings being the largest contributor to the world’s carbon emissions, accounting for approximately 40% of total emissions, the AEC industry has an opportunity and a responsibility to design and build greener to address this.
AEC software companies, such as Trimble, are taking note and empowering AEC professionals with the tools to make smarter, more sustainable designs.
This March Trimble announced, “Trimble’s Tekla 2022 Software Solutions Enable More Sustainable Construction” and released the latest version of Tekla 2022, their solution for building information modeling (BIM).
Sustainable Innovation in Tekla 2022
Tekla 2022 offers more options for users to make more sustainable design choices. For instance, Tekla Structures includes the Embodied Carbon Calculator, previously only available in Tekla Structural Designer 2021. This calculation tool allows users to quickly assess the environmental implications of their design choices from within the Tekla software. Structural engineers can use the tool to compare different design options and carbon loads.
Since the 2021 release the Embodied Carbon Calculator functionality has been further enhanced for viewing, reporting and sharing of carbon data.
In the 2022 release both Tekla Structures and Tekla Structural Designer users can get a certified report of the embodied carbon using One Click LCA’s lifecycle assessment solution, which is accessible as a plug-in through an existing integration and partnership with Trimble. One Click LCA calculates the environmental impacts of your building and provides an Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) report. For example, One Click LCA’s extensive EPD database can calculate the embodied carbon emissions of materials in a design such as nuts, bolts, or rebars to assess their entire lifecycle.
Tekla Structures
Tekla Structures 2022 structural BIM software has become more intelligent this year. Here are some of the updates that we thought were fitting for smarter, more sustainable design.
Fabrication Drawing Creation
Users can expect a more efficient and straightforward way of creating fabrication assembly drawings. Tekla referred to this as “more intelligent fabrication drawing creation with Tekla Structure’s in-product intelligence.”
Fabrication drawings is a new, and more simple method for creating single-part, assembly and cast unit drawings. It is a combination of the existing tools for creating single-part, assembly and cast unit drawings and the new functionality that reduces the amount of repetitive work in the drawing creation process.
Similarly, to the current functionality, users can create drawings by using saved settings predefined for different model objects, or by using existing drawings in your model as templates. What is new in the fabrication drawings functionality is that it provides better management capabilities over the creation process, allowing users to select settings for every individual model object or select the best matching drawing template automatically detected in the current model.
The Embodied Carbon Calculator in Tekla Structural Designer 2022 has new features for viewing, reporting, and sharing carbon data. Also, a new eLearning course is now available on the Embodied Carbon Calculator.
Faster Rendering and New Rendering Options for Reference Models
New functions for rendering aim to make distinguishing between reference models, components, and parts more straightforward.
In Tekla Structures 2022, users can now control the reference model and overlay model visualization separately from parts and components.
With the new rendering options, it is easier to achieve the desired visualization of the model. By separating the reference model rendering from the component rendering, users can now clearly identify which objects are in a reference model and which objects in a component.
Users will notice there are new ribbon commands for reference model visualization on the View tab. Plus, rendering is now faster featuring CAD-like drawing speeds with increased panning and zooming performance.
New Leg Surface Feature
Tekla Structures now creates leg surfaces in concrete parts. With the new Leg Surface feature, users can automatically create rebar sets across the concrete face, no matter the complexity of the shape. This process automatically creates horizontal and vertical layers, which can be edited with standard editing commands.
Leg surfaces can be curved, or flat, and they make it easy and efficient to reinforce curved or complex concrete structures.
Grasshopper Component
The Grasshopper Component in Tekla Structures looks and behaves like a traditional Tekla component but can trigger any Grasshopper definition in the background to generate objects in Tekla. Run your Grasshopper definition as a traditional Tekla component or develop your own Tekla custom components using visual scripting.
Tekla Structural Designer
In addition to the new sustainable design features mentioned above other highlights of this release include:
New Quick Access Feature for Productivity and Usability
New in Tekla Structural Designer 2022, the Quick Access Window which can be used to quickly search for and access/activate settings, file menu and ribbon commands, view actions, and entity properties.
With the Quick Access Window users can speed up common operations by reducing input sequences and repeating recently used actions. Beneficial for both new users, so they can navigate the software intuitively, and power users so they can reach their design solutions faster.
Enhanced Remoting API
The remote API has been updated to help users avoid rework, reduce errors, and streamline engineering office workflows by automating manual processes.
The enhancements make a number of workflows easier, such as:
- Extraction of model data to report externally.
- Extraction of model data and analysis results for external design, such as end forces for connection design.
- Analysis workflow allowing model creation and editing, apply loading, running analysis and extracting analysis results through the API.
In previous API releases, it was possible to read most aspects of the model geometry and analysis results, but not to create models. With the 2022 version, the API now allows for the creation of: levels/planes, grids, points, supports, loading, etc.
Fully Automated Minimum Wind Loads for ASCE
Previously, when working with ASCE7 minimum wind loads users had to manually add the average loads for windward and leeward and compare to the minimum for every load case. This process is now entirely automated, and minimum wind loads are automatically considered.
Tekla PowerFab
Tekla PowerFab steel fabrication management software includes some of the following notable enhancements:
Improved User Interface Accessibility
There are several new options supporting better accessibility of the software, including high contrast settings for color-blindness and disabling of audible cues. Set User Preferences to enable or disable sounds, and to change the way the highlight colors are displayed in grid views such as Production Status.
Materials
The new intelligent nesting option allows users to create inventory items from other materials in the nesting process to help optimize material usage and purchasing,
Tekla Tedds
Tekla Tedds calculation software capabilities have been updated to include the following:
- Canadian design code calculations updated to latest code standards for loading, reinforced concrete, steel, design and timber.
- Australian wind loading and concrete design calculations have been updated under the latest design code standards as of November 2021.
- Eurocode calculations for cross-laminated timber. Large volume wood panel construction is the natural solution where low-embodied-carbon materials are required, or the aesthetic requirement for a dimensionally stable exposed timber finish is needed.
