Norconsult: “The Precast Concrete suite brought efficiency and flexibility”
Automated custom shop drawings were the main reason this international engineering firm got AGACAD’s software for modelling precast concrete elements in Revit. But it now says the benefits are much bigger, and have been welcomed both by the members of its team and its customers.
Client Profile
Norconsult AS is a top engineering consulting firm based in Norway which has worked on projects in more than 150 countries over the past 50 years. The company is steadily growing thanks to its focus on quality and bringing creativity and innovation to every project stage.
Business Need
Norconsult aims to boost both productivity and quality through the use of innovative BIM technologies. In that context, it needed an efficient way to design precast concrete elements in a Revit® environment.
“For the sake of collaboration within the company, we wanted to use Revit for precast projects. But we were struggling with a great deal of manual work, especially for creating shop drawings from the models,” notes Henrik Thingbø, a structural engineer at Norconsult.
The solution had to automate the creation of shop drawings that were in line with Norconsult’s own preferences and standards. It also had to be user-friendly enough for use by any team member without need for special training.
Solution
Norconsult chose AGACAD’s Precast Concrete software. It was powerful, flexible and easy to use – unlike other very complex solutions they examined, which were hard to use but still lacked some functionality, Mr Thingbø says.
AGACAD’s Precast Suite does in fact enable the instant creation of both element views and shop drawings with automatic dimensions. But it also does much more. This is comprehensive BIM software for modelling prefabricated concrete walls, floors, and columns, with real-time project updates in Revit.
That includes easy split, update and modify options for precast walls and floors, as well as rules-based batch insertion of connection details, plates, grout tubes, anchors, etc. And easy renumbering/marking of elements.
Results
After starting work with AGACAD’s software, “we immediately reduced the time spent on making shop drawings,” Mr Thingbø notes.
Norconsult also quickly began noticing other benefits for its precast concrete work. For one thing, there were fewer mistakes in BIM models. At the same time, communication with customers about projects improved. And within the firm, collaboration and the distribution of work became easier as the team discovered new flexibility in handling assignments.
All these things “increased our ability to deliver on time and with the right quality,” according to Mr Thingbø. He said AGACAD has provided strong support and even added some functionality to the software at Norconsult’s request. “That has been very valuable for us,” the engineer says.
This client relationship exemplifies “Building BIM Together!” – the slogan at the heart of everything AGACAD does. The focus is on accelerating Building Information Modelling for everyone in AEC based on the insights and experience of advanced BIM practitioners.
AGACAD is the developer of the world’s widest range of true BIM software for Revit® professionals, with 11,000+ users in 130 countries. The company is now celebrating 25 YEARS DELIVERING TOMORROW’S AEC.
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