(GRAITEC indicated that a new, light setup will become available during the summer.) Documentation and Software Demos Once I had everything together, the installation process was straightforward. For the install to work, I had to make sure all files were in the same folder. Programs like 7zip or WinRar unpack RAR and other compressed files. After trying a few times to download the ISO file but getting interrupted time and again, I settled for the RAR files. When I visited GRAITEC’s website to download the software for this article, it presented me with two choices: download a single ISO file of about 4.3 GB, or ten compressed RAR files. I tested Advance Steel 2012, the most recent release. GRAITEC’s Advance Steel plays both angles, offering users the option to execute the software from within AutoCAD or as a standalone application.Īdvance Steel (AS) is part of a BIM (building information modeling) suite called “GRAITEC Advance,” which claims to ”automate the entire structural design and construction documentation process from engineering design and structural analysis to member optimization, detailing and fabrication.” The other two members of the suite are Advance Concrete for modeling and detailing concrete structures and Advance Design for FEM analysis with automatic steel and concrete design. Since those early days, steel detailing software followed two paths, integrating itself fully with AutoCAD or running stand-alone. Back then, AutoLISP was not yet added to AutoCAD, and so BASIC was pretty much the only game in town. This allowed steel members to be cut to size, copped, and beveled as needed. A handful of visionary entrepreneurs developed software for the steel industry by piggybacking it on AutoCAD, and so were able to produce complete sets of steel detailing drawings and then upload code to NC machines. AutoCAD had launched just a couple years earlier and it was rather quickly becoming the CAD software for the masses. I first saw steel detailing software in action in the mid 1980s at the AISC Steel Conference. A two week test of GRAITEC’s Advance Steel shows its power and proves its capability for structural steel detailing.
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