New software bundle to provide whole-building solution

IRVINE, CALIF. — Tilt-Up Design Systems LLC (TDS) and Nemetschek Scia announced at the Tilt-Up Concrete Association’s 2010 Annual Conference the availability of a new software bundle that provides design-build firms, architects, engineers and contractors with an integrated whole-building solution for site-cast precast (tilt-up) construction.

The new software bundle links Nemetschek’s Scia’s Scia Engineer 3D structural modeling and analysis program with TDS’s Tilt-Werks, a complete tilt-up wall panel design, detailing and estimating system. This interface provides an integrated workflow for tilt-up that links 3D building modeling, engineering analysis and design, with automatic wall panel design and drawings, reinforcing steel design drawings, placing drawings and cut lists, material quantity take offs and accurate cost estimates.

"Today’s tilt-up design, engineering and construction workflows are disjointed and inefficient," said Joe Steinbicker, P.E., S.E., president of TDS. "The current process requires the use of many different software packages that are separate and uncoordinated. As the project progresses, information is often recreated in each step and changes have to be coordinated manually — a time consuming and error-prone process. This software bundle offers for the first time a fully integrated structural design/detailing solution for tilt-up that saves significant time and makes changes easy during design and construction. This keeps projects on budget and ahead of schedule.”

According to Charles Reber, vice president of sales and marketing for TDS, Tilt-Werks also provides the designer and contractor with accurate quantity takeoffs and cost estimates based on the design created.

“In today’s ultra-competitive bidding environment, the ability to optimize a design and create accurate cost estimates in a fraction of the time normally required wins more projects,” said Reber.

With this software bundle, tilt-up wall panels designed in Tilt-Werks are imported into Scia Engineer for whole building modeling and analysis. The bundle extends the panel design capabilities of Tilt-Werks by incorporating Scia Engineer’s 3D modeling and finite element analysis customized for tilt-up construction.

“One of the goals of the software bundle is to make tilt-up more accessible to architects, engineers and contractors,” said Jean-Pierre Rammant, CEO, Nemetschek Scia. “This bundle improves the process for firms currently involved in tilt-up construction. It also provides a process for firms that don’t have one and allows firms to easily expand the scope of their services and add a new revenue stream."

For more information on the Tilt-Werks, Scia Engineer bundle for tilt-up, please visit www.TiltupBIM.com.