Bridge Engineering Workflows Transformed Through Tekla Integration

Bridge engineering workflows are highly specialized and often involve maintaining both an analytical and a bridge information model. Find out how the Grasshopper-Tekla Live Link plug-in can help your project teams reduce duplication of effort and eliminate costly errors.

Travellers often take bridges for granted, but they play a vital role in transportation infrastructure. They’re also a specialized civil engineering field, presenting unique workflows and challenges.

Bridge information modeling (BrIM) can enhance collaboration, prevent clashes and other costly errors, and streamline work processes. BrIM enables project stakeholders to visualize designs more clearly, improving communication and joint decision-making.

BrIM can also integrate your project team’s data resources in a single model as a single source of truth. This keeps all project stakeholders working from the same information, ensuring sound decisions based on timely access to accurate data.

 Teams Working with Two Separate Models 

On many projects, teams are working with two separate models during a bridge project’s design phase. There’s often an analytical model and a bridge information model (BrIM).

This can cause frustration because it undermines the key collaborative advantage of 3D structural models. That frustration is also no longer necessary because Tekla software, available through BuildingPoint, can give your teams a single point of control to manage bridge engineering workflows.

Whether the bridge your team is planning is simple or complex, or built of steel, concrete or timber, Tekla offers a solution that eliminates duplication of effort. Instead of continually updating both models with the same data, there’s finally a practical way to connect finite element method (FEM) applications with your BrIM model.

 Integrate Data Flows from Analytical and Bridge Information Models 

Using the Grasshopper-Tekla Live Link plug-in, your team can integrate the data flows from analytical and BrIM applications, establishing a single point of control. Grasshopper is an algorithmic scripting app for Rhino modeling software.

Many BuildingPoint and other Trimble customers already work with both Grasshopper and Tekla for Bridge Design. Now, SOFiSTiK’s analytical and design software also includes a Grasshopper component.

Using Grasshopper, design teams can integrate their analytical models with the Tekla Structures 3D BrIM model. Grasshopper automatically identities common design attributes and, as required, routes them into two branches – one for the analytical model and one for the BrIM.

That enables designers to extract drawings, bar bending schedules or bills of quantities from the up-to-date Tekla model, which accurately represents the 3D structure. Teams can achieve levels of detail up to LOD 350-400 using this method.

 Model Every Bolt, Weld, and Rebar in Detail 

That means Tekla Structures can model every bolt, weld, and rebar in detail. This provides design teams with a genuine constructible model to support on-site crews, fabricators, and asset managers.

This advanced bridge engineering workflow can help bridge design teams take simultaneous control of both bridge models. This improves efficiency by eliminating the need to constantly model and update the same structure twice.

It also prevents the confusion, delay, rework, and costs that design errors can cause. When the system automatically updates both models at once, it eliminates omissions and duplications.

Your designers can view the BrIM model while running the FEM analysis in real-time. Then, they can make adjustments while quickly referring to a draft version of the bridge model to check for clashes.

You can also run preliminary quantity takeoff reports. You can even use the model to present your intended design to your clients.

 BuildingPoint Can Help 

By integrating analytical and bridge information models, Tekla has revolutionized bridge engineering workflows. BuildingPoint Canada is your source for Tekla for Bridge Design, Tekla Structures, and all of Trimble’s advanced technology solutions.

Why not reach out to our BuildingPoint Team today to discuss how we can help you transform your data into actionable insights and design truly constructible design models?