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What is the PCSC?

The PCSC is a limited liability non-profit company registered in Colorado. Member companies each have equal shares and voting rights. Some precast engineering consultants and software providers are Associate Members. more...

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What is the timeline?

April to August 2003 - Tekla provides Tekla Structures licenses to all PCSC member companies - Tekla and the PCSC conclude the Final Software Specification; Tekla provides the first upgrade with generic modeling enhancements.

August 31, 2003 – Last date for p recast companies to join the PCSC and benefit from the significant commercial advantages negotiated by the PCSC.

October 16, 2003 – Last date for PCSC members to pre-purchase specially priced seats at the group volume discount price.

October 2003 to September 2004 – Tekla releases four quarterly major upgrades of the software as development progresses.

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Contact

Hans Klohn (506) 632-2600
Chuck Eastman (404) 894-3477

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The 4 years and 5 months of PCSC's journey has ended

September 1, 2005

On September 1st, 2005, the 4 years and 5 months and thousands of hours of effort by a large number of precast producer companies, PCSC's journey to develop a knowledge-rich 3D CAD system for the North American precast concrete industry ended. A majority of the 15 PCSC Company executives voted to accept the precast concrete extensions to Tekla Structures and to close out the activities of the PCSC LCC. For more information on the product, visit Tekla's webiste at http://www.tekla.com

Officially, this was stated in contract terms:

1. "Pursuant to Article 2.5 of the Software Development Agreement, it is agreed Tekla Corporation has successfully met all the criteria necessary under the Agreement to establish a software development completion date and it is hereby agreed that the formal Software Development Completion Date shall be September 1st, 2005."

2. "It is hereby agreed pursuant to Article 19 of the Operating Agreement of the Precast Concrete Software Consortium, LLC that the company's business is concluded and accordingly that the company should be terminated and dissolved in accordance with the Agreement."

Tekla has responded to the initial technical specification developed by industry experts, and largely fulfilled its requirements, The new Tekla Structure Precast Concrete package can create and maintain various types of predefined and user-defined precast components, connections, reinforcement and pretensioning strands automatically, depending on the modeling context using the parametric modeling technology. The new module includes other features that are specific to precast concrete structures such as shortening, cambering, and warping of double tees, hollowcore, stairwells, and architectural panels. Drawings and reports can be automatically generated based on customizable drawing and report templates. Changes made to the model are automatically updated on the drawings and reports with consequent reduction in human errors. The PCSC expects to increase productivity and quality using this tool and significantly increase market share.

This is not the end of the collaboration between Tekla and PCSC. The effort will be continued as the Tekla Precast User Groug (TPUG).

10/6/2005: The 4 years and 5 months of PCSC's journey has ended
2/7/2005: The final countdown
8/17/2004: The August 2004 PCSC Meeting
5/3/2004: The April 2004 PCSC Meeting
2/10/2004: Tekla Structures, the New Name for Xengineer
1/26/2004: 2004 January PCSC Meeting
10/24/2003: f=ma: New members and accelerated Xengineer development add momentum to the PCSC effort
8/18/2003: Finalization of Requirements Specifications and Review of Tekla Precast Product Specifications
6/27/2003: PCSC and Tekla Sign Development Contract
6/20/2003: The Upcoming June 2003 PCSC Meeting
6/16/2003: 3rd Basic Training of Xengineer
4/30/2003: PCSC Presentation and Demo During PCI Committee Days
4/16/2003: Join us for committee days!
3/28/2003: Green Light for Go at Full Speed
1/18/2003: The PCSC web has a new face and enhanced functions.
10/10/2002: The PCSC Progress Report at the 2002 PCI Convention
9/18/2002: The PCSC Executive Meeting
6/16/2002: The 2nd Evaluation on Tekla
6/28/2002: The Solidworks-LEAP's Hands-on Training
6/16/2002: The Tekla's Hands-on Training
5/6/2002: The 7th Precast Concrete Software Consortium Meeting
3/6/2002: The 6th Precast Concrete Software Consortium Meeting
1/16/2002: The 5th Precast Concrete Software Consortium Meeting
12/5/2001: The 4th Precast Concrete Software Consortium Meeting
11/8/2001: The 3rd Precast Concrete Software Consortium Meeting
8/22/2001: The 2nd Precast Concrete Software Consortium Meeting
6/13/2001: The 1st Precast Concrete Software Consortium Meeting

Why Tekla Structures?

Tekla's Tekla Structures is unique in its ability to model a precast concrete building as a whole, and not simply as a collection of different - and potentially non-matching - individual parts.

Tekla Structures allows integrated modeling of hundreds of thousands of parts: pieces, rebar, embeds, bolts, all defined parametrically, allowing design changes to be propagated to pieces, reinforcing and connections.

The first full commercial version of the software will be available in October 2004. Four quarterly releases will be delivered during the development period. The first commercial release will include the following functions.

Support for the top-down modeling and automation of piece, connection, joint, and rebar generation: A building is usually designed from the whole down to its components, not from the components up to the whole. The overall building assembly is designed first, with detailing of the assembly to deal with connection locations, coordinated surface treatments and finish layouts, assembly level definition of reveals, bull noses, and other architectural shapes.

Libraries for Parametric Piece, Connection, Joint and Others: By allowing users to define and save pieces, connections, and joints parametrically, a new piece, connection, or joint can be designed and engineered simply by changing the dimensions of parametrically defined pieces and connections. Special shapes, such as architectural elements, can be defined from scratch.

Efficient drawing and report generation: Drawings and reports (including BOM) can be automatically created from a 3D model. Users can customize their own drawing and report styles and keep them or exchange them between collaborators.

Automated piece-mark and embed numbering tools: Each company has different piece and embed number schemes. Also, any one piece can have more than one identifier (e.g., piece mark, erection sequence number) depending on project phases. The PCSC and Tekla have defined a solution to support each company’s existing numbering scheme.

Dual representation of warping, cambering, and elastic shortening of pieces: A piece is represented as a warped shape in a 3D model and erection drawings, but is usually manufactured as a flat piece. Tekla Structures will support dual representation of warping, cambering and elastic shortening of pieces.

The PCSC and Tekla are currently finalizing detailed requirement specifications for the first Release of the product. They have also begun pilot tests of Tekla Structures to better understand the needs in a real context. The current version has already been delivered to the PCSC member companies. The first beta version will be released internally in October, 2003.