Design Power Demonstrates Building Configurator for Tekla Structures

Design Power, Inc. a company dedicated to bringing the power of knowledge-based engineering to a larger audience, announced today that it has used its design automation software, Design ++ ®, to develop a Building Configurator demonstration for Tekla Structures. A video demonstration can be found here: Design ++ Building Configurator for Tekla Structures.

Building Configurator shows how Design++ can automate building design for Tekla Structures.

Design Power has extensive experience in automating engineering and detailing processes at metal building companies such as Robertson-Ceco Corporation, including Star, Robertson, and Ceco Building Systems. Robertson-Ceco was later acquired by NCI Building Systems and is now part of  Cornerstone Building Brands. Robertson-Ceco's Design ++ applications were credited for enabling a high level of customization in metal building design and manufacturing at the Metal Construction Hall of Fame awards in both  2019 and 2020.

Robert Carr, the former Vice President of Technical Services at Robertson-Ceco and Metal Construction Hall of Fame inductee, says that "Design ++ was a tremendous asset to our company and our automation of engineering and drafting. It allowed us to do things no other system would have allowed, and with a very small development team." Of the impressive benefits Robertson-Ceco gained from its Design ++ applications, Carr points out that "It allowed us to double sales while increasing the drafting staff only 20 percent."

The Building Configurator shows how Design ++ can automate building design for Tekla Structures. It mirrors the building model created in the Tekla eLearning Course: First Steps with Tekla Structures. The Tekla tutorial building was modeled in Design ++, allowing the Configurator to generate the design automatically. The auto-generated Tekla model is the result of Design ++  driving Tekla, just like the end-user would. All the components are native Tekla components selected, placed, and configured by Design ++.

The Configurator dialog allows the user to define various design options, such as grid coordinates, column locations, number of floors, steel & concrete profiles, and slab thickness. Changes in the Configurator options are applied to the Tekla model immediately. Since the Design ++  Tekla interface is bidirectional, users can initiate design changes also from Tekla. The Configurator will then propagate the changes automatically throughout the building model.

Furthermore, since all the model geometry is in Tekla, users can examine the native Tekla objects, like parts, connections, and details, as if they had created them manually. Users also have access to other Tekla capabilities, such as drawing and reporting tools and Organizer and Visualizer.

You can view the Building Configurator demonstration video here: Design ++ Building Configurator for Tekla Structures.

Tapio Karras, Design Power President & CEO, points out that "For this demonstration, we chose to model one of the Tekla tutorial buildings that Tekla users know in great detail. They will appreciate the level of design automation that can be achieved by modeling the building in Design ++ and let it drive Tekla. Our interactive Design ++ Development Environment makes the modeling straightforward."