In this session, you will hear about Autodesk’s vision and strategy for the structural engineering sector. You will learn about what type of industry trends are shaping their strategy and where we focusing our investments to empower engineers to create more resilient and constructible designs. You will also hear how ARUP’s structural engineering group is using BIM and other technologies and how that is positively impacting their business.

Over the past few releases of Revit software, the API around Revit software structural elements and workflows has been significantly extended and augmented with additional capabilities such as structural code checking. These extensions enable developers and Building Information Modeling (BIM) experts to connect distinct tools (including loads and boundary condition preparation; structural analysis calculations; results analysis; code checking; and the creation, modification, and numbering of rebars) into a more interconnected workflow for structural engineers. This course will cover the use of Revit software structural tools and their corresponding APIs as a part of an overall BIM Solution for structural engineering calculations. It will include example workflows that developers may learn from and extend. We will illustrate simple concepts with code examples, and we will demonstrate live advanced techniques.

Building on last year’s class "Taking BIM to the Limits for Structural Engineers and Technicians," we will present new workflows to increase productivity and minimize the waste caused in the design and documentation of structural engineering software. The class will focus on interoperability between analysis software and Building Information Modeling (BIM) tools, with a focus on Revit building design software as the primary documentation model. Making the most of parametric modeling tools—such as Dynamo software, Rhino software, and Grasshopper software—and optimization techniques using a wide range of tools, "Open BIM" can provide the foundation to successful collaboration. We will use real-world examples of complex and simple structures to demonstrate techniques and processes that will increase your efficiency and make the most of your team’s skill set, and examine what future skills your team might need to develop. This session features Revit Structure, Dynamo Studio, and Robot Structural Analysis. AIA Approved

In the structural engineering industry, one of the challenges is to reduce manual and tedious design tasks. Computational design tools such as Dynamo give structural designers, engineers, and detailers the possibility to automate the creation of their deliverables to build structures with minimal energy. That way, they spend less time on the repetitive tasks and more energy on the important parts of the design. In this class, you’ll learn how Dynamo can support design automation and computational modeling workflows for structural analysis and design of concrete and steel structures. You’ll learn about the appropriate packages to perform automation in your own daily workflows, and you’ll receive a set of teaching examples.

Released in 2018, BHoM (Buildings and Habitats object Model) is an open-source platform that enables open workflows between many software packages within the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. Created by Buro Happold, this tool is especially relevant to structural engineers. With this tool, users can develop structural analysis models using Dynamo, Grasshopper, or Microsoft Excel, and then generate structural analysis models to most commercial software packages. Users can then generate Revit models for documentation. In this class, you’ll get an overview of the current state of structural analysis workflows and how BHoM can add value to your structural workflows. We'll also demo several analyses to documentation workflows to show the capabilities of the tool. Lastly, we'll show how users can run lifecycle analysis using BHoM to evaluate the embodied carbon of buildings.

Have questions about the product roadmap for Revit, Robot Structural Analysis or Advance Steel? Join Autodesk product managers at Autodesk University and get them answered live.

There are so many new technologies out there in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. Which ones should your structural firm know? Which ones should you adopt into your office workflow? Which ones should you share with your clients? Join us as we go through a sample structural workflow using the latest technologies to solve issues along the way. We will take you from conceptual design, through documentation, through collaboration, and finally through CA—while taking advantage of Dynamo software, adaptive components, and advanced Revit software structural modeling and analysis. We will also show you how to use some of the latest game engine technology for presentations, quality control, and immersive design collaboration. Hold on tight—this is going to be a fast ride through the workflow of the structural engineer of the future. This session features Revit Structure. AIA Approved

This class will demonstrate a workflow where the 3D intelligent model in Revit software serves as a central hub for setting up the analysis and design of buildings in construction engineering. The analytical model in Revit is enhanced with additional properties beyond the already existing analytical properties; the analysis and the design of members is controlled and organized directly within Revit. We are also going to demonstrate how different analysis variants can be set up within different views, like setting up a 3D model for dynamic analysis, separated 2D slab models for calculating the vertical load transfer, or local models for detailed analysis. As all this information is stored within the Revit database, consistency is ensured, structural information can be combined with other data in the intelligent model, and all information can be shared with others via Collaboration for Revit and BIM 360 software.

Structural engineers are quite familiar with the disconnect between design and documentation tools. Construction documents have our engineering analysis in their DNA. Despite this connection, we create these documents using tools that don't share information. The impact of this disconnect ranges from mild inconvenience to profit-crushing time sinks. What if our tools could "talk" to one another? Imagine structural modeling, interdisciplinary coordination, engineering analysis, design, and final documentation creation on a unified platform. Given today's powerful BIM (Building Information Modeling) environments, this workflow isn't a dream. This class will examine real-world collaborative tools for a BIM-driven structural-engineering design process inside the Revit environment. What should structural design look like without the burden of parallel workflows? Case study: Revit-driven design of steel structures with real-time model updating using ENERCALC Structural Engineering Library design calculations.

This class presents several custom families that incorporate structural engineering within the families themselves. By integrating engineering into custom families, a structural engineer can capitalize on more features of Revit Structure to aid in the engineering design process. The families demonstrate several tools within the Family Editor, including nesting, formulas, conditional statements, reporting parameters, and visibility settings. In a companion class, SE1592: Incorporating Engineering into Revit® Structure: Project Procedures, these families and all of their features are demonstrated within the project environment.

New tools are making fully integrated concrete design in Revit software a possibility today. Learn about some of the new tools and technologies available to bring structural engineering directly into the world of Building Information Modeling (BIM). We will discuss key aspects of Structural Analysis in Autodesk 360 software, we will cover fundamentals of analytical modeling in Revit software, and we will look at an example of how analysis data can be harnessed inside of Revit software to drive reinforced concrete design.

Ensuring that data stays at the center of the design-to-construction process, as well as connecting that information across architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) disciplines, can lead to significant efficiency gains for the industry. In this class, we’ll explore how to seamlessly integrate and transfer data across a building retrofit process—from on-site survey to structural retrofit design to project visualization and construction documentation. Learn how a team of Autodeskers and engineers from Build Change—a nonprofit organization that helps communities design and construct more-disaster-resistant buildings—used Dynamo to: connect survey data from a third-party application to Revit software; automate the creation of 3D as-builts, retrofit designs, and construction sheets; streamline structural engineering analysis; and provide project owners with an interactive visualization of the final design—and how these concepts and skills can be applied beyond the building retrofit process.

This class shares a project that was completed for investigative engineering purposes—not for building design. The original goal of this project was to generate a visual aid of an engineering failure to be used as part of an expert witness report; however, the project evolved into much more. The families and corresponding model that were created incorporated structural engineering such that the model not only provided a visual aid to show deflection of roof members due to ponding water, but actually calculated the amount of deflection that could be expected due to a given amount of rain. We cover how these families (1 structural framing family and 1 adaptive component) and the model were created, as well as the lessons learned after completing such a project.

Structural engineers manage design changes and updates on a daily basis. Coordinating models and drawings while maintaining quality is always a challenge—not to mention working remotely or from home. The DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) principle is an effective approach to managing change during design and construction processes. Linking Revit models with structural analysis tools is one of the biggest benefits and challenges structural engineering teams still encounter. In this class, we will look at best practices for keeping structural models and workflows DRY, including linking models between Revit, Robot Structural Analysis software, and Advance Steel software; managing, coordinating, and sharing models using BIM 360 software; and reviewing construction and fabrication drawings for quality control with BIM 360. Incorporating some of these approaches into your workflows will help you keep up with the pace of change.

Keeping employees educated and up to date on the latest technologies is a full-time endeavor. This discussion will enable its participants to gather and discuss both the hiccups and the successes in their attempts to educate their audiences. We will use the success story from the curriculum that I've developed and implemented at Thornton Tomasetti, a structural engineering firm that employs over 800 people.

Everyday structural engineering workflows have repetitive tasks and data interoperability issues that can be resolved with a more parametric approach. Structural engineers and BIM designers can benefit by using Dynamo to develop custom tools to assist them to exchange data between internal and external software platforms, perform engineering calculations, optimize, and generate drawings. But then the question is how can engineers trust the calculations done by a custom Dynamo tool developed by another engineer? This class will demonstrate and discuss how we can make Dynamo assist engineers by presenting both basic and complex workflow examples. Further, the class will discuss some good practices and suggestions to convince your boss and your team to use Dynamo, and cover how to get past the “black box” problem.

In today's rapidly changing technology environment, digital design no longer means just CAD. It's also BIM, IT, analysis/design, and visualization...with a little bit of training, accounting, R&D, and diplomacy thrown in for good measure. One structural engineering firm has decided to recognize this growing overlap of disciplines with a role created specifically to address it: Digital Design Manager. Join Kate for a discussion of what digital design management (DDM) means to Robert Silman Associates, and how having this position in the company has improved communication, collaboration, and adoption of new technologies. A followup roundtable session, CM2155-R Digital Design Management: A Roundtable Discussion offers the opportunity to continue the conversation.

It is time to move on from using Autodesk Revit Structure software as a drafting tool and to begin using it as a design aid by accessing and manipulating the information in the model. This class will show how additional functionality can be added to Revit Structure in two ways. First, we will show how to incorporate structural engineering calculations into families that can be used to drive the geometry of modeled elements. Second, we will demonstrate a link between Revit and Microsoft® Excel® that allows use of system, type, and instance parameters in one formula and creates new parameters that report information contained in the model that is typically inaccessible through Revit reporting tools. We hope these examples will inspire you to find innovative and creative solutions using Revit tools.

How do Structural Engineering firms use BIM as a comprehensive tool to provide different stages of drawings submission through BIM? Through the expertise of the BIM team and Pinnacle in-house add-in, the Structure Engineering team has achieved 90% efficiency in the design project handover with 50%-time savings on design, coordination & drafting work. • It helps the AEC industry optimize resources, cost, and quality through the innovative use of technology for the entire project lifecycle. • Enables accurate and automated manufacturing of structural connecting parts (connecting plates, bolts, etc.) • Bar bending schedule and automated rebar cutting and bending help reduce wastage and increase efficiency on site