Bentley Systems hosted a three-city seminar series in September highlighting Bentley's structural building and plant solutions including RAM, Microstran, and STAAD. AECOsim Building Designer, Bentley Navigator, ProjectWise, and i-Model technology also played central roles in the design processes demonstrated. Held in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne, these events gave us the opportunity to introduce our new ANZ Bentley Structural Analysis and Design team, who addressed a wide range of both technical and business-themed questions from our audience. Live technical demonstrations were conducted simulating real world design problems. As always, product to product integration through ISM was the centerpiece of the workflow. We also previewed Bentley CONNECT, a cloud services platform, and how structural designers will soon utilise and benefit from it.
A summary of the content presented at both the building and plant sessions is now provided.
Seminar Introduction
The seminar began with two ten-minute introductory segments. The slides presented for this session are available at the following page:
The first segment was a year in review of some exciting initiatives completed or in progress during 2014 within Bentley's Structural Design Group. The integration of the Microstran product line into the larger Bentley portfolio, and the newly formed Bentley ANZ Structural Team were of particular importance.
The second segment was entitled Improving Information Mobility and Lifespan in the A.E.C. Profession. This segment sought to identify how the work structural designers routinely produce can be captured and utilised in more ways during the course of not only the design phase, but also during the lifetime of the facility.
The information modeling process extends beyond what a structural designer produces. With proper tools, the structural team's work can become part of a larger ecosystem of information. In the seminar demonstrations, i-model and ISM technologies are leveraged to achieve this.
Building Session Overview
The building session allowed us to show the structural products in action and the role each played in the evaluation of a concrete-framed building for new loads. A summary of the building-themed session can be found at the link below:
The building session in Sydney was particularly exciting as the audience heard from Francis Toledo Silva of Wood & Grieve Engineers. Mr. Silva presented on Wood & Grieve's application of RAM Concept and RAM Structural System to the analysis and design of multi-storey concrete-framed buildings. Specific projects that utilised the system were presented as well as the benefits over other software packages and analysis methods.
Francis Toledo Silva, Structural Engineer at Wood & Grieve Engineers in Sydney, presents on their use of the RAM product suite (RAM Concept and RAM Structural System) and specific projects on which it has played key roles.
Plant Session Overview
The plant session allowed us to show the structural products in action and the role each played in the design and cross-discipline coordination of a refinery facility. The upcoming Microstran to ISM link was the centerpiece of this workflow, allowing the information created in a 3D model to be read into Microstran, and the Microstran results to be read into STAAD Foundation Advanced for the design of the foundations. A summary of the plant-themed session can be found at the link below:
Wentao Zhang, Structural Product Engineer at Bentley Systems, demonstrates how a Microstran model can be transferred into STAAD Foundation Advanced for the design of pad footings, with supporting calculations and drawings.
Event Dates
Event Name: Seminar on Excellence in Structural Building Technology
Locations: Brisbane (18/9/2014), Sydney (23/9/2014), Melbourne (25/9/2014)
Event Name: Seminar on Excellence in Structural Plant Technology
Locations: Brisbane (18/9/2014)
Presenters
Raoul Karp, S.E., P.E., Vice President Structural and BrIM, Bentley Systems
Josh Taylor, P.E., Senior Product Manager, Bentley Systems
Wentao Zhang, Structural Product Engineer, Bentley Systems
Richard Collins, Senior Consultant, Bentley Systems
Francis Toledo Silva, Structural Engineer, Wood & Grieve Engineers