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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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Finalization of Requirements Specifications and Review of Tekla Precast Product Specifications

The Moore Success Center, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, G August 13-15, 2003

In mid-August, the PCSC and Tekla finalized their specification of Release 1.0 of Tekla's precast concrete product for North America. The PCSC prepared a detailed support document and Tekla produced a responding set of specifications. Tekla also developed a quarterly release schedule for the roll out of the product, which will include 5 beta releases, starting in October, 2003, with Version 1.0 being released in October 2004.

Tekla prepared over 30 detailed requirements specifications in response to the PCSC Support Documents. The PCSC technical members and the Georgia Tech team reviewed each of the specifications before the meeting and summarized outstanding issues during the meeting. Overall, they approved Tekla's detailed requirements specifications. A detailed set of revisions were outlined at the meeting and will be revised by Tekla by September 1, 2003. In addition, Tekla has already begun implementing some of the earlier identified enhancements to their Xengineer product. These were demonstrated and included: sketch entry of piece profiles, automatic reinforcing layout, parametric piece definition, parametric connection definition, piece cambering and architectural wall assemblies, among others. Tekla will unveil some of the new functions to the public during the 2003 PCI convention.

To accomplish all this, the PCSC Technical Committee collected and categorized information describing industry practices. Cases from companies were analyzed, common elements extracted and logically defined to provide clear requirements that can support the range of US precast practices. The technical committee was supported in this effort by the Georgia Tech and Technion team. The committee was divided into eight distinct task groups, each of which focused on one or more major areas of interest.

The information falls into three main types, which are related to the three levels of complexity in the work of informing Tekla's preparation of detailed requirements specifications:

a) Simple Data Collection and Compilation For some items, the task groups provided a broad array of samples, such as drawing samples. This required soliciting and collecting of full representative sets from each company, collation of the material according to building/piece/component type and/or drawing type, selection of representative examples from within the full collection, and ¢®¢çorganizing¢®? of the resulting sets.

b) Complex Data Categorization and Behavior Specification For more complex items, such as definition of a basic set of parametric connections and their behavior, the task groups not only had to collect samples as described above, but also analyze and prepare a commentary on each set or item to explain the intent or the method of derivation (again using connections for example how is the width of a particular plate set? Does it depend on the type of piece it is embedded in? If so, on what parameter of the piece? etc.). The technical support team prepared a standard set of symbols, figures and forms for rigorously describing building object behavior this is called the 'BOB (Builind Object Behavior)' notation.

c) Functional Specification For a number of items, where 3D modeling will enable new practices, the task groups developed content from scratch such as rules for assigning assembly control numbers, or building assembly objects such as stairwell layouts.

The technical committee members, who represented the thirteen precast producer companies, and the academic team, collaborated from fifteen geographically dispersed locations. The Georgia Tech maintained website included discussion forums for each task group, repositories of drawings and reports, e-mail distribution and other functions. The volume of information accumulated on the website at this time extends to 379 MB, including 1,655 files (drawings, documents, reports, tables, figures) and 447 distinct discussion entries. In addition, weekly conference calls were held to discuss issues that arose in each of the task groups, and to ensure that consensus was maintained on the content and scope of the committee's activities. Tekla staff members participated in these meetings. Three physical meetings were held at Georgia Tech in Atlanta to the same end.

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.