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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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PCSC and Tekla Sign Development Contract

Atlanta, Georgia June 27, 2003

The PCSC (Precast Software Consortium) and Tekla today signed the development contract. Under the terms of the agreement, Tekla will develop advanced 3D modeling software for the North American precast concrete industry.

See Tekla¡¯s Press release.

Tekla¡¯s Xengineer 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.

Xengineer 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. Xengineer 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 Xengineer 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.

Tekla Achieve First Technical Milestone Ahead of Schedule

At the PCSC Technical Committee meeting in Atlanta, Tekla demonstrated its initial software development upgrades. These are the first enhancements as part of their collaborative effort to develop advanced 3D modeling software for the precast concrete construction industry. PCSC members and the Georgia Tech and Technion advisory team were highly impressed both by the new capabilities that were demonstrated and by the fact that they were achieved six weeks ahead of schedule.
These developments extend Xengineer¡¯s strength in terms of modeling entire buildings, with tens of thousands of parts, with excellent performance, while supporting detailing of pieces and connections.
The developments included significant enhancements to the base platform in the following aspects:
Cross-section sketching: this feature allows a user to define a new cross section by sketching it freely, and then later adding constraints (such as parallel, perpendicular, vertical, etc.) and dimensions, which can also include formulae based on other parameters of the cross-section geometry. The interface is versatile and is a significant enhancement to all aspects of creation of new parametric shapes.
Parametric Connections: connections, which were already a powerful feature in existing Xengineer versions, can now be fully parametric. This includes imposition of constraints between the faces and features of different parts of a connection and the precast pieces it connects.
Parametric Piece Features: it is now possible to relate any feature on a precast piece to any face or point on the piece. This is particularly significant for architectural precast, where the dimensional relationships between different fa?de features must be maintained in prescribed ways even when the gross geometry of the pieces change. Here too, the parametric constraints may be dimensional relationships between faces or formulaic calculations.
Warping of Precast Pieces: Tekla demonstrated how a layout of floor pieces, such as a field of double tees, can now be raised or lowered along their edges, inducing warping in the pieces. The pieces appears warped in the assembly model exactly as it would in reality ?even the resulting apparent ¡®shortening?of the opposite corners is clear in the model when one zooms in close enough.
Associative Dimensioning: dimensions added to piece drawings by the user are now maintained and updated automatically by the software even when the piece itself is changed in the assembly model. The lack of this capability was considered a drawback in the PCSC¡¯s evaluation of Xengineer; it has now been provided fully.
Welded-wire mesh reinforcing: Tekla have added the mesh reinforcing software objects required by the PCSC. The functionality includes all of the symbols used for displaying meshes on drawings, quantifying meshes for BOM reports, etc.
Reinforcing layout: Tekla demonstrated parametric reinforcing layout for linear pieces. It responds to changes in cross-section, variable spacing along its length, and adaptation to placement of other embeds.

The above items were contained in a list provided to Tekla in February 2003, and were expected to be delivered by the end of the requirements specification phase in mid-August 2003. By demonstrating them as early as the end of June, Tekla have succeeded in strengthening the confidence of the PCSC member companies in its commitment and ability to provide long-term solutions.

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.