Introduction
Nemetschek subsidiaries and Tekla are both part of buildingSMART alliance and actively promote IFC as the preferable format for data exchange of 3D building data.
With the new Open BIM collaboration we commit ourselves to improving the level of our IFC support.
The Tekla Model
The following Tekla model was sent to Scia Engineer via IFC for structural analysis purposes.
This model is an extension of an existing sports centre. The bearing structure is composed of glue-laminated girders and columns. The roof and facades are a traditional steelwork.
Quality Assurance in Solibri
We can export this model to an IFC file and check it in Solibri. Quality Assurance is one of the most powerful aspects for using Solibri. In this case we are, however, only interested in verifying whether the exported geometry is really the same as the original model. Solibri's free viewer is very useful for that . This model checking can eventually also be done by means of Tekla BIMsight..
Importing the IFC into Scia Engineer
The next step it importing this IFC file into Scia Engineer. The procedure is pretty straightforward. Click import, optionally specify a mapping table for materials and you are set to go.
Part of the geometry can be converted into analysis objects right away. Entities which are exported as BRep (Boundary Representations) can be converted interactively in Scia Engineer into 1D or 2D members.
You might notice that we did not convert everything. The engineer needs to make a wise decision on which entities are required for the structural analysis and which can be kept as a reference model. All the small bits and pieces are redundant for the calculation, but we keep them anyway, in a separate layer (auxiliary pieces).
Converted model with auxiliary pieces
Converted model without auxiliary pieces
Preparing the model for analysis
Preparing the model for the analysis is basically about linking all the nodes together. As we are importing the physical model, we need to make sure all members are connected. Scia Engineer offers you a nice and user friendly tool - the BIM Toolbox - to assist you with this inevitable task.
Once the analysis model is ready, you can start adding supports, load cases and loads, combinations etc. For the loading of the structure Scia Engineer is equipped with powerful generators for wind and snow loads, just to name some of them.
Generating wind loads
By means of load panels we can use Scia Engineer's 3D Wind generator to determine 16 additional load cases.
Calculation results
Once the model is prepared, you can launch the calculation and interpret the results, e.g. the internal forces in the glue-lam girders.
Design Changes
Design changes are likely to occur. The final concept can then be compared with the original model in Solibri (or Tekla BIMsight).
The required modifications or issues can be communicated in a clear way to the Tekla modeller by means of a presentation view in Solibri or as a PDF with slides representing the issue and comment.
Or you can directly import this Scia Engineer model as an IFC into Tekla - as a reference model - and do the comparison in Tekla Structures.