Hello,
There will be an increase in demand for civil Infrastructure projects.
Bridge detailing is probably a billion dollar market, and so little is done to be automated in Advance Steel.
Highway, Railroad and Pedestrian bridges can be divided in 3 main categories-rolled beam, plate girders without horizontal sweep and plate girders with horizontal sweep.
1. Rolled beam bridges:
1.1. Stringers are modeled cambered, but represented straight with bearing points being on one horizontal line. We need an improved drawing style for stringers - if possible-a separate macro to generate stringers as straight members and place stiffeners along them, sole plates and drip bars and possibility to dimension them automatically-this is may be too much to ask-but once it is done-this software will be on top.
1.2. Diaphragms-these are either skewed at abutments with bent plates connected to bearing stiffeners or square (intermediate diaphragms). Advance steel does not have a macro for the skewed diaphragms. These add up to appr. 2-3-4 hours per span with 6-7 stringers.
1.3. Utility supports-these are either channels, double angles or W-beams and may have bracing on both ends. Similar to diaphragms, these can be square or at skewed abutments.
2. Plate girders without horizontal sweep:
2.1. Similar to rolled beam stringers, modeled cambered, represented straight. We need a powerful macro to show them straight with stiffeners, top and bottom flanges splices locations, sole plates shown, and drip bars shown. Again-if this is done, this software will get on board majority of bridge detailers.
A separate macro for drip bars and sole plates attached to bottom flanges will be great.
2.2. Diaphragms and utility supports-there is a need of powerful macro for creating them between 4 points in the model (top and bottom of WEB plates for the two adjacent girders)
3. Bridges with horizontal sweep-similar to the girders above, these need an additional top view to show relation between web plate and stiffener.
Bridge detailing is a completely different category in steel detailing, it is much more complicated than structural steel for buildings and miscellaneous metals, it requires extensive investigation of geometry for load and non-load conditions, and improving the modeling part by having ready macro for diaphragms, utility supports, sole plates (with bevel included), and drip bars will bring this software at a higher level.
Having main members represented straight on shop drawings will require a different engine than AutoCad (probably), but once it is done-it will speed up detailing and bring more and more users to this software.
Being NISD certified, Category Bridge, Senior Class I detailer and having done more than 200-250 bridges so far, I can say there will be market for Advance steel that is currently very little covered.
Regards,
Ilko Dimitrov
ACBS
