In an interview to EPC World, Kevin Lea, Product Manager, Engineering,
Trimble Solutions Corporation and Nirmalya Chatterjee, Executive Director & COO, Trimble Solutions India Pvt Ltd elaborate on the features and advantages of Tekla Structural Designer, the most advanced BIM software, to design accurate and constructible modelling of any steel or concrete structure possible.
Is the India launch a standalone event or a part of a larger game plan to take Tekla Structural Designer to other markets globally?
Kevin Lea: The launch in India is definitely a part of the larger game plan. India is a very important market for us, we are very excited about the opportunity here and to bring a brand new product to the market, is integral to our longer term plans. The technology of Tekla Structural Designer is based on over 30 years of knowledge gained within the CSC business, which was acquired by Trimble in 2013. This year, Tekla Structural Designer has already been launched in South Korea, Philippines, Indonesia and also, we’ve expanded scope in the South East Asia region. It is really exciting for us to bring this new technology to the Indian market. We’ve been spending a lot of time supporting our Indian colleagues and will continue to invest our time to successfully establish the new product in this market.
Nirmalya: One more addition to our strategic viewpoint. Tekla has been relevant to the construction industry for quite a long time and our solutions are used from conceptual stage to actual construction and finally, maintenance of structures. While we have been supporting the cause of open BIM concept since the beginning, customer feedback told us that even as Tekla provides the entire suite of solutions for the structural engineering community, for the structural analysis and design part, they have to switch to another software. Tekla Structural Designer fits the market need and is potentially a game changer in the days ahead.
What are the industries or verticals that you are targeting for this new product?
Kevin Lea: We’re really focused on the structural design and engineering industry. Engineers are used to analysis software and they are doing that for many years and know exactly what analysis software is capable of doing. But what engineers have to do when designing is to make sure that they are code compliant. Traditional software follows a manual process but with Tekla Structural Designer, we make this an automated process, which is a huge differentiator. If you’re designing a steel frame building or concrete frame building, the new software certainly enhances the productivity when compared to traditional software approaches.
Nirmalya:Tekla has been a popular software for the EPC industry for a long time now and with Tekla Structural Designer, we are targeting the AEC segment. Having said that, this solution is not restricted to AEC segment alone but it is also capable of addressing the needs of engineering community in the EPC segment, whether it is a steel structure or a concrete one.
What are the key differentiators that have been built into the Indian version so as to be competitive in a crowded marketplace?
Kevin Lea: If you look at it market wise, this point is relevant from a global perspective too. You have very traditional software, where if an engineer is designing, let’s say a concrete structure, there’s a lot of work an engineer has to do using traditional software to actually come up with a right solution. Topics such as establishing a widget arms on analysis frame, looking at how load is distributed on to the beams correctly are things engineers have to often manually work out. It very often involves multiple analysis solutions or analysis multiple to actually converge on an answer. We basically take those problems, everyday problems really and have brought a software solution to do that for you. So if I have to do multiple analysis of a building say for each floor level, or have to look up seismic effects, then I have to manually combine them correctly to collate all information as one. There’s a risk of error, you’ve constantly got changes that you have to cope with, but this software can actually manage all the changes for an efficient design solution. Its code compliant software and a lot of things that one needs to do manually with traditional software, is automated in Tekla Structural Designer. We start with a physical model, analyse and it is code based, so the philosophy is totally different.
Nirmalya: Adding to that, what has happened traditionally is that the structural engineering community to some extent works in isolation, but at the end of the day they are a part of the entire construction activity. Our main differentiator is that we serve the construction industry across the entire lifecycle. Our solution allows the structural community to be aligned with mainstream construction and not just engineer an analytical model. Tekla Structural Designer allows the engineers to work in an analytical and physical model, which is a huge plus for engineers hitherto used to working only in an analytical model.
Whom do you consider competition here in India?
Nirmalya: If one looks at our relevance across the construction lifecycle, the technology that we offer for the construction industry, doesn’t have any competition in a real sense as no single company offers a similar suite that addresses the needs of each stage of lifecycle. But if you look at specifically structural analysis and design domain, there are a lot of traditional as well as local software providers who are offering analysis and design solutions.
Has Interoperability been taken care of completely for the new product? If required, can a user have this as an add-on with existing solutions?
Nirmalya: We believe in open platforms and all our applications are based on open API system, so any of the competitor products can be integrated with Trimble products and vice-a-versa too.
Please explain us how the BIM and Structural designer are integrated together seamlessly for the information flow?
Kevin Lea: We have enabled technology to synchronize the models of these applications together. If one has to create a change, let’s say the engineer has to add some bracings because the building is not stiff enough for a certain area, he can add the bracings into the Tekla structural designer and can synchronize the update of that model into Tekla structures or into other BIM structures and one can see new members added in. One can have constant changes at various stages, it is actually not the ability to take a model from A to B, and most solutions in the market can do that in some form or the other. Analysis is difficult because one impels from wire frame model to physical model, but with TSD one does not start with wire frame but instead with a physical model, and as required is the true length & not the analytical length of the member. The important thing at this stage is that one can understand and manage the changes easily.
What is the unique proposition that will allow engineers to use the software to its maximum potential?
Kevin Lea: Very often when engineers use traditional software, what they do is that they analyse the building, predict the sections in that building and do what we call post process, where they go out, do design and come back again and very often that process is time consuming and error-prone. TSD offers one button approach, you can optimize multi-material buildings, in steel or reinforced concrete, in a fraction of the time. Tekla Structural Designer includes all the critical information needed to provide a fully automated design to your chosen building code. Regardless of complexity, you can design all members and consider the overall 3D building design in one seamless process.
Nirmalya: What is the structural engineer’s main deliverable? When structural engineers get a project, they have to deliver a constructible drawing, which is a GA drawing. As the physical and analytical model works in tandem, the GA drawing comes out as perfect as it’s required for the construction industry. Structural design engineers in India are getting the additional benefits of all the international codes together along with the Indian codes as a part of the package, so that’s adds a lot of value for them in their project execution.
BIM has been the buzz word for some time now, but the adoption is lacking. What are the impediments to its broader acceptance?
Nirmalya: BIM is not software. BIM is a process. This process should allow you to integrate the data as the project progresses. We believe in promoting open BIM and TSD fits in nicely into that philosophy, which is also going to play a significant role in making structural designers an integral part of the BIM process. Structural design engineers till now have been working only for their respective mandates of engineering, analysis and design and were less concerned about the problems on the construction site. But now, they have an opportunity to take pro-active role in entire project lifecycle.
