PM for Structural Steel Introduction + Steel Detailing Roadmap

[piotr_pysz]

Hello Everyone!  

I would like to use the opportunity to introduce myself and drop some important notes and announcements. 

My name is Piotr Pysz and I recently joined Autodesk as a Product Manager for Steel Structures.  

I graduated as a Structural Engineer from Cracow University of Technology. For the first 4 years of my career, I worked in a small Structural Engineering office. Then I moved to a big Steel Detailing company based in the US where I spent the last 9 years. I went through all the steps starting as a draftsman editing shop and part drawings, then moved to the modeling and connecting department, became a checker after a few years, and finally a team leader responsible for the international team of Steel Detailers. 

During my Steel Detailing career, I had the opportunity to work on some major development projects like Mercedes Benz Stadium, Orange County Museum of Arts, or Norwegian Cruise Terminal. 

You can find me on LinkedIn if you want to connect!  

As you know In March last year, we announced that we are investing in BIM-centric steel detailing workflow in Revit with the intention to connect design and detailing. To accelerate this plan, we have decided to transition Advance Steel into Maintenance mode (blog post).  

We’ve promised to be transparent about our plans and to come back with an updated roadmap for Steel Detailing.  

I know that some of you have already seen the new version >> Revit – Structure Roadmap, however, I felt like communicating this directly here is the right thing to do. 

Some of you already gave us very constructive feedback – thank you very much for that!  
 
We have heard a lot of misconceptions about what’s going to happen next to Advance Steel due to the above investments in Revit. I wanted to address some of the main concerns here and give you more insights into the Development process. 

What does it mean that Advance Steel is in maintenance mode? 

It means that we are providing customer support for the product, porting it to the new versions of AutoCAD, fixing major bugs, and providing all the functionalities that it has today. It also means that we are not developing new features or functionalities for Advance Steel. 

What is the future of Advance Steel? 
We understand the critical role that Advance Steel plays in your workflow and business. Advance Steel continues to be available in our portfolio with its existing value bringing its specialization in Steel Detailing and Fabrication to the collection. 

What is the timeframe for developing Revit as a fully functional steel detailing software? 
Developing Revit as a fully functional steel detailing software is a multi-year endeavor. There are fundamental capabilities that any Steel Detailing software should possess, such as the automated creation of assemblies when you weld or bolt elements together, the automatic numbering of identical parts, and the ability to automatically generate fabrication drawings or NC files. These are some of the foundational functionalities that Revit is currently missing. 

Your input as a community has been invaluable in helping us identify which tools and capabilities are most important to you as we continue to develop and improve our solutions. We understand the importance of having tools that are reliable, intuitive, easy to use, and customizable. Tools that enhance productivity, streamline collaboration, and automate repetitive tasks.   

We appreciate your patience and understanding as we look to enhance solutions with this in mind and work towards a BIM-centric Steel Detailing tool. 

I am a Steel Detailer, and I do not care about BIM. All I need is reliable and robust Steel Detailing software 

As a Steel Detailer myself, I completely understand where this is coming from. The priority is always to have robust and reliable software that enables us to carry out work efficiently. Discussions about BIM and data exchange with Engineers can seem academic without the right tools in place. 

That said, our strategy is two-pronged. Our primary focus is on incorporating the Steel Detailing capabilities from Advance Steel into Revit. Simultaneously, we're dedicated to addressing the challenges and limitations that you've so effectively communicated to us via the Ideas Station. 

This approach helps ensure that we're not just bringing in new features, but also making necessary improvements to the existing system. Our goal is to offer you a comprehensive tool that meets your Steel Detailing needs while also providing the added benefits of BIM integration. 

----- 

Finally, we have decided to make some changes to the configuration of the Advance Steel category on the Community Forums. We have made the decision to archive both the Advance Steel Ideas and Advance Steel Customization boards.   

Why: 

Advance Steel Ideas: We do not want to set false expectations around the development of Advance Steel.  

Advance Steel Customization: Following an audit of the board, it does not meet the criteria for success, and coupled with the community also using the Advance Steel Forum for customization relation topics, we have decided to move the content from this board to the Advance Steel Forum.  

How: 

The Advance Steel Ideas & Advance Steel Customization board will change to read-only on March 29, 2024, and then it will be archived.

Will archiving delete the thread? 

No, Archiving moves the thread from the affected board to a forum archive. 

Will this content be linked to the thread once archived? 

As new community content is created, archived content will be cross-linked to ensure the validity and consistency of the archived content. E.g., If an old link to an archived forum topic is selected, this link will redirect to the new piece of community-generated content. 

[Julio_Soto]

I've worked with Revit at a structural engineering firm. That was years ago. I remember working almost exclusively in 2D planes.  Now I do steel detailing with very complex geometry where working in any single 2D plane is not useful at all. Hopefully, I can freely model in 3D using Revit.

Also, I've never known Revit to be accurate software. For example, in my entire career using Revit, I have never seen an architect create a radial grid where all the grid lines come to a single point. It is typically off between 0.5" to 1". But apparently 1" is close enough for architects.

Lastly, I hope there is a serious rework to whatever Advance Steel IP is being incorporated into Revit because daily I find i'm "face palming" myself asking what they were thinking. 

Lastly (part 2) for the love of all things pure and holy, can you please get AS to implement actual Round Plates? I'm not talking about a square plate with 4 rounded corners. I mean an actual round plate that I can apply a beveled edge to. Honestly, if you did this I might just forget all my other gripes for this software.

[Flies-Eyes]

My workaround for round plates without corners cut off, is a round beam, where the length of the beam is the plate thickness. Not ideal but another daily hack to add to the kit bag.

[acbsdesign]

@Julio_Soto 

I am wearing my Advance Steel armor today, and I must say, I can live with the round plates the way they are forever. 

😀😀😀

There are millions and millions of things that are basic and that are missing in other software too.

About using round shape and thickness to be length-today I had a few-they look funny in BOM

D3x3/8

D3, not plate, but D3.

So I will gladly prefer having a real plate listed with plates, and I will delete the 4 dimensions that are created and place one diameter symbol.

Half a day Tekla, half a day Advance.

If I only could combine them both in one package-I only managed to combine the toolbars/icons 😁

Will wait for Revit. 

They say-it will be state of art software with modern NC export-this is what is leading because others are paying for it-this is what is important-in one package, with one single sign-in.

The way Tekla has it.

[anthonyBMQL6]

I would also like to see round plates and pipes without all the weird
segments that look absolutely good in a drawing, I would like to see more
options in shapes that can be used as concrete elements, but mostly I'd
just like to see ADS still being maintained. That would be a start.

@anthonyBMQL6 - this post has been edited due to Community Rules & Etiquette violation.

[EricOlson1973]

Yes, truly round plates and edge processing for concrete would be a godsend.

[Julio_Soto]

@Flies-Eyes 

Are you able to produce NC/DXF files for those "Round Plates"?

[anthonyBMQL6]

no

[Flies-Eyes]

Good question.... I have not tried that.  I suspect not but I will do some testing to find out.

[bigcarl5000kg]

Hi @egidijus_drafting ,

I understand you very well, it's like buying a Kinder Surprise .... you know that there will be another surprise in the future

[Sebastian_Eiche]

Hi @Julio_Soto 

NC files for those "pltes" which are done by beams --> not working.

One "not good" solution is the command: Polygon

• command polygon
• quantity of edges
• insert point
• which radius should be defined
• insert radius

Now you have a polygon plate 🙂 and you could create weld preps (based on your quantity of edges a lot of preps)

You will need a special detailstyle for it..because the automatic dimension for this is just deleteable, the cut view for weld prepartion--> every prep is a new automatic cut view, so I would delete this from my style.

DXF -will be created...but many weld preps

NC - will be created.. but many contour lines

I know this is not a good solution but sometimes a useable workaround

[MetallPlanMerkinger]

@piotr_pysz 

Thank you for the Statement,  i have only a few questions:

- major Bugs: where can we post them, and what does it mean? for example today i tried again to import an small ifc file, and it is simply not possible to do this since i use advance Steel - i`m using it since 2017.

- what about costs? i am a one man show company,  and i do not have worked with revit since yet. If i whould change in the near Future to revit, i would have to change to the AEC collection (because also ACAD is needed), so my Software costs climbing about 70%, but thats the less problem. it took me hundreds of hours in the last years to set the drawingstyles and advance Steel database to make it more efficient. In my opinion, the pricing of advancesteel must not be higher than Autocad from now on, and revit should be free (for education) for Advancesteel users, since there is a new "Revit solution"

- what does "multi-year endeavor" mean? 2, 5, 10 or 20 years? If it is under 5 years, i would say, i can wait. Does it take longer, i have to look for another Software - I also get older than any other one here 😉, and i dont want to start learning a new software in my 60s

looking forward to your reply, Roland

[acbsdesign]

@MetallPlanMerkinger 

Looked at Revit again last night, and it seems it is very far from doing the job for us.

It is great design software though.

Great erection plans etc. too.

I thought the same about age etc when planning, and moved to a safer path.

We have to support families after all no matter what tool we are using.

Cost of other software is a killer. 

The moment Revit can produce nc files that are equal to Tekla and modeling is done so we can be fast with grids, model views, GA drawings, SP and MP drawings I will look at Revit again.

Also-you will be amazed at how sharp a detailer's brain is when it comes to learning new software.

BR.

[acbsdesign]

As a matter of fact I feel much younger, energetic, and challenged for the last 7-8 months learning another software.

First I hit the concrete wall of "everything is different", and "why this and that is missing". And about the missing things-they are missing, no kidding.

Not as organized and upfront the way Advance is. 

Just a different approach by creators I think.

But Graitec+AD overall did a great job putting Advance together.

[MetallPlanMerkinger]

@piotr_pysz: i´m still waiting for an answer...

and for example, here is a video, in my opinion a major Bug, will this be fixed?

3D Orbit with fast Shaded mode and Point cloud. Crash without any comment...

This is since AS 2023

[Julio_Soto]

Well, AS will be in an entirely new environment, so I suspect the bugs you currently have will not be an issue. We'll just have to worry about a new set of bugs that will make themselves known.  That's not a criticism of AS, it's just the reality of moving to a new system.

[Ignus.E]

This is quite interesting.

I dont have any issues with point clouds in Advance Steel at all.

[Sebastian_Eiche]

@MetallPlanMerkinger 

Could have many issues.
In the most cases by handling with pointclouds we have issues with the video drivers.

Could you please have a look if you maybe could use another driver. (the newest one is not always the best working).

https://www.autodesk.com/support/system-requirements/certified-graphics-hardware

[piotr_pysz]

Hi Roland,

sorry I missed your initial message.

- bugs > You can report them through the customer support. When they are logged into the system the Development Team looks into them and assigns a priority based on many different factors. 

- costs > Thank you for your feedback. I agree that this will be a challenging time for many users considering the amount of time spent for customization and optimisation of the tool. We have this in mind while working on the Revit solution. We want to re-use as much technology from AS as we can without reinventing the wheel. 

- time > As I said before we can't commit to a hard deadline here. With that said it's definitely not 2 nor 20 years. 

[egidijus_drafting]

Talking about major bugs - we cannot even re-use the drawings already detailed in a new project, once assembly moved away from its original position job done, pretty much start from the scratch, in a mean time we wait for some Revit miracle, amazing Autodesk!

[bigcarl5000kg]

Hi @egidijus_drafting ,

in a real 3D world, it would have to be a different type of subassembly (and their derived variants) with drawings that could be reused anywhere. This  is possible in true 3D CAD, which Advance Steel and Revit are not. Any tricks used for "cloning" have nothing to do with 3D. If you are not working with real objects, then you are not working at all. Therefore, in principle, not only Advance Steel is full of magic, which does not work quite often.