sen.10 - BIM toolbox

SCIA Engineer supports interoperability and BIM workflows. BIM toolbox increases your BIM-productivity especially during the exchange of data between CAD and CAE applications and/or between two CAE products. The toolbox offers automatic conversion of general solids to 1D and 2D members, automatic conversion of a structural model to an analysis model, and update of projects. One part of the toolbox is also the Allplan Bimplus connection that connects your project to the Allplan Bimplus portal and allows you to use portal’s powerful tools like task management, BCF etc.

Member Recognizer

The member recognizer allows you to convert general solids imported using the IFC solid representation into native SCIA Engineer entities. You can convert

• A solid into a beam/column (1D member)
• A solid into a plate/wall (2D member)
• A part of a general solid into a member
• A beam/slab into general solid

The conversion algorithm can be fully automatic or it can be set to only detect straight prismatic beams.

Conversion of a structural model to an analytical model

The BIM toolbox converts a structural model to an analytical one. In the first step centroidal planes and centroidal axes of structural elements are determined. These planes are then used for alignment. You as a user has the possibility to select what is called master planes. They serve as entities to which other entities are aligned. The process is semi-automated while you still have full control over it. Individual alignment steps are highlighted in a preview before they are really performed. This way you can see the effect of the alignment steps.

Another powerful part of the toolbox is a function connecting members and nodes. Disconnected analytical model leads to singularities during the finite element calculation. The problem of disconnected model is solved by automatic linking of nodes. SCIA Engineer generates linked nodes, intersections and internal nodes automatically, so you do not need to define anything. A beam can be automatically connected to a slab as a rib. 1D members can be connected with rigid arms. This is useful when you are modelling e.g. a roof structure with purlins and rafters.

Check Structure Data

Checking the structure helps to verify whether all entities in the project are valid and have the required properties. It performs checks for free or redundant nodes and proposes their removal. If doubled members are found, you are notified as well.

Clash check

Clash check is a tool detecting colliding objects in the model. It finds intersecting volumes and highlights all founded conflicts.

Update

The update functionality in SCIA Engineer allows you to update model in SCIA Engineer by data from another SCIA Engineer project, which means you can easily compare two versions of a model.

Once differences are detected it is up to you to update or reject the new, changed and deleted objects.

Main features are:

• Automatic recognition of changes in the shape of structural members
• Visualization of the differences in the model (highlighting)
• Update of all or selected differences
• Update of graphical structural shape and/or geometry of the analysis model
• Storing of several variants of the model and compare them visually

 

Allplan Bimplus link

The Allplan Bimplus portal is a powerful tool for cross-system and interdisciplinary cooperation and it is open to all software in the construction sector collaborating via standard formats such as IFC and BCF. The advantage of such system is an easy collaboration and sharing of models including all the related information. You can easily upload your model from SCIA Engineer to this portal with the help of IFC file on the background. After the upload, you can use a variety of powerful tools like task board management. This can be used for effective communication with other involved parties like BIM manager, MEP designers, architects and draftsmen. The task board includes an option to import / export all issues and tasks into a BCF file and send this to external partners outside Allplan Bimplus. Moreover, you can use the integrated revision system to back up the progress of your work.

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Required modules:

• sen.00