Key enhancements include enhanced drawing styles for shop drawings, new BOM templates, connection libraries with AISC values and IFC for Fabrication

By Christian Erickson, Autodesk

One of the things I’m most excited about these days is supporting Autodesk’s commitment to rapidly developing steel detailing and fabrication workflows, which is helping to accelerate the steel industry’s move to Building Information Modeling [BIM].  Our mid-year update of Autodesk Advance Steel 2016 really reflects that commitment with a set of compelling enhancements — now available to Autodesk Subscription customers — that we will highlight at a special September 22 webinar.  Be sure to check it out and register now.

One thing I want to stress up front is that user feedback and customer interactions with our product and development teams drove the productivity improvements found in the mid-year R2 update of Advance Steel 2016.  With that in mind, the R2 release of Advance Steel 2016 is designed to help users provide deliverables for fabrication more efficiently and effectively.

Key enhancements include:

• Enhanced drawing styles for shop drawings – New and enhanced out-of-the-box drawing styles for the US market will help users produce more accurate shop drawings while also improving productivity.

• Search filter queries import/export – To help reduce time-consuming repetitive query configuration, Advance Steel users can now search filter queries and share them with other users.

• Connection libraries with AISC values –Connection libraries contain saved values for the most common connections used in the US market. This helps design steel connections more easily and quickly via the available libraries.

• New BOM [Bill of Material] templates – Users now have access to more BOM templates to help create more accurate and readable documentation.

• Fabrication data available in the Object Enabler – Fabrication data available in the object enabler allows users of other dwg based programs like Plant3D to see the approval status of Advance Steel objects as well as the structural information in the Advance Steel model. This provides a clearer understanding of the fabrication status.

• IFC for Fabrication – Users can now export a 3D model to a specific new IFC format (Steel Fabrication View) which helps provide a smoother data transfer to CNC fabrication.  This fosters enhanced productivity for fabrication and assembly.

Please join us Tuesday, September 22 for a live webinar where Autodesk will demonstrate these enhancements and other improvements, such as grating length and width value calculations, more flexible base plate connection orientation and multi-line support for DSTV-NC Signature block.  Register now.

Availability and More Information

Autodesk Advance Steel 2016 R2 is available to current subscribers of Autodesk Advance Steel.  Learn more about how to purchase a license of Advance Steel.

Are you going to Autodesk University 2015?  If yes, you can experience Advance Steel in action during an all-day Autodesk MEP and Structural Fabricators Forum on November 30, at The Venetian Hotel, Las Vegas – an event associated with Autodesk University 2015.