R&D Special Issue!

Dear reader,
There is no better time to emphasize the importance of constructive user feedback to the development of software. The more software providers hear from customers through different – personal or automated – channels, the better equipped they are to develop the kind of solutions that enable the quality of work and scope of business that users are aiming for. Together we can carry through the vision of a more collaborative, integrated and sustainable BIM-based process that allows coming out on top of the increasingly competitive market.



Tekla ME is voted as one of the 50 companies shaping the future of the gulf's construction industry.

Tekla is among the most admired suppliers in the Middle East.

read more Construction Week Magazine. 








Tekla’s BIM Solution Ideal for Designing and Implementing Projects Managed by Hyder Consulting, Says Jonathan Huang, Principal Structural Engineer in Hyder Consulting

Hyder Consulting, a multi-national advisory and design consultancy, credited with many of the regions iconic projects like the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, Pentominium Towers in Dubai and Education City in Doha, has now switched to Tekla’s BIM Solution to develop its existing and future projects. 

Construction firms emerging from the economic downturn can cut operation costs and reduce waste by using the right technology, according to Reza Mashayekhi, Product Manager at Tekla, the world’s leading Building Information Modeling (BIM) solutions firm.

“Hyder Consulting is involved in the creation of many iconic projects across the region and the need for a comprehensive 3D modeling software is paramount for ultimate project success,” said Jonathan Huang, Principal Structural Engineer in Hyder Consulting.

“After trying several BIM solutions, we found Tekla Structures as the most reliable and user friendly solution by which we could easily modify and manipulate our 3D models. Tekla Structures is highly compatible with Analysis and Design tools and the capability of modeling accurate details in Tekla Structures helped us to check constructability and construction sequences during the design,” added Jonathan Huang.
Hyder Consulting recently used TEKLA’s BIM Technology to model a new super high rise building which will be constructed in Saudi Arabia.

“Using Tekla’s BIM solution construction companies can streamline their project cycle, effectively cut costs, and manage waste that otherwise could jeopardize the existence of a project, and avoid potential time delays and budget overruns,” said Reza Mashayekhi.

Tekla is among the most influential construction suppliers in the Middle East.

Construction Week's Magazine  refer to page 50 for more details.



Now is the time to check out and participate in the local model competitions currently underway with Tekla area offices and resellers. Winners of the local competitions will be entered into the Tekla Global BIM Awards competition arranged at the end of this year.

Tekla believes that only people outside the company can validate all aspects of the software from the user perspective. We are constantly looking for more participants for the beta testing and automatic user feedback programs, and the data we get through those is being utilized in product development. In addition, the performance of Tekla Structures is being actively monitored with good results.

Influence future development of Tekla Structures through automatice user feedback program

During the first half of the year you have heard from us in the form of software environments and customer satisfaction surveys. Thank you all for your very valuable feedback! The customer satisfaction survey is still going on for some time so please participate through your local Tekla representative if you have not done so already.

Did you know that the most used component in Tekla Structures is a US-specific connection, Clip Angle (number 141)? Or would you have guessed that the Create Beam command is used less frequently than Copy? The king of the commands, however, is Delete, used more often than any other command in Tekla Structures.

Automatic User Feedback Program was started in March 2007 with Tekla Structures version 13. Currently the number of instances of feedback by automatic e-mailing is thousands of messages per year. The program continues version by version. Please participate as the more user data we receive, the more effect it will have on the long-term product development of Tekla Structures.

Automatic User feedback Program within Tekla Structures

As the technical tools for user statistics develop at the same time, the collected data can be analyzed all the more efficiently and profoundly to improve and prioritize software usability; for example, to make the user interface more task-oriented and fluent. The feedback program does not make the use of Tekla Structures slower and is easy to participate in by clicking through a few options in the Start dialog. All collected data is handled anonymously, indicating only the environment, configuration, and language used. You can decide to participate anytime to help us know more about how you use Tekla Structures.

This is a question that must have crossed the minds of many users. Typically, software development is believed to have a negative effect on performance as new functions and features are added to the program. There is, however, a concurrent development to improve the performance of the most important functions in Tekla Structures. The performance of its versions is continuously being tested, and speed-related development continues to not only keep productivity and usability at a high level but to improve it.

Example of Tekla Structures use case performance development by versionComputers and CPUs have become faster over the years, which is a definite benefit in using any software. In general, most of our core features do as well as they ever have. This includes features such as selection, numbering, opening rendered views, modeling, parametrics, and reports. Many features are now much faster than they were in, for example, version 12.1. The models used in testing are usually real-life projects of various kinds to enable reliable coverage.

In the future, building information models will become more complicated and contain even more detailed information than at the moment. Tekla’s ambition is to keep the models manageable in size and performance, even if you create your own extensions and add more and more information into them. Performance and manageable model size are some of the most important advantages of using Tekla compared to other software. Tekla has been ahead of the competition in handling large models for a long time and we intend to keep it that way.

We’re continuously on the lookout to find the best possible testers from all customer segments in order to keep developing the software in the right direction. There are several benefits to the testers in this, too. By beta testing you can:
  • influence the development of Tekla Structures,
  • get a head start with the new version ahead of your competitors or subcontractors,
  • stay at the forefront of technology,
  • find out more about open API,
  • understand the new features better, 
  • start using the new version in real projects with confidence,
  • foresee functions that might be useful in the future, and
  • benefit from the new version as soon as it is released to increase your business productivity.

The next beta testing program will start at the end of August. Keep an eye on the Tekla Extranet front page for more information on how to apply. Go to Tekla Extranet for more information on beta testing

Tekla Structures in Practice: Aldar Headquarters, UAEThe first spherical building in the Middle East, the Aldar Headquarters, was William Hare’s first BIM engineering project on civil structures in the Middle East. Engineering and model data were used at the earliest stages of the project to take full advantage of early procurement and optimized use of material. Read how Tekla Structures was used to model Aldar HQ in 3D
    

Tekla Structures in Practice: Cité Rotterdam, the NetherlandsAs with most ventures, the Cité within the Kop van Zuid business area in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, has had to deal with many changes during its design and construction. Modeling the thousands of parts and panels of the housing complex in 3D – including steel as well as both precast and cast-in-place concrete structures – helped engineering office Meijer & Joustra to tackle their timeline. Read how Tekla Structures was used to design and manufacture precast units for Cité Rotterdam
         

Alabniah Precast Concrete Buildings FactoryAlabniah is the new flagship factory for precast concrete in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is the most advanced and largest – 23,000 m2 covered production area built on a total of 112,000 m2 – plant of its kind in the area. Tekla Structures was used to model and build the production facilities and will be used in the future to efficiently produce and deliver a wide range of precast components and complete building systems for the growing market. Read more about Tekla’s role in creating an advanced precast system

(A summary of an article by Markus Obinger (Prilhofer Consulting) published in CPI (Concrete Plant International) 2 I 2010)

Tekla’s ambition is to dramatically improve our building and construction customers’ business. This we could not do without a close and committed cooperation with progressive BIM-minded companies, both customers and partners. Many of them presented to prove the point at the annual Tekla business forum held in Killiney near Dublin from 8 to 11 June.

In order to promote BIM as the industry standard process, building information needs to be shared, combined and distributed accurately and efficiently among construction project participants. In Dublin, several Tekla customers and partner testified to prefer Tekla as their number one BIM developer, and Tekla of course stated to aspire to continue work with the companies who see the potential of Tekla models becoming the information centers of construction processes.

Jim McCartney of Trimble, Alistair Wells of Tekla Inc, and Gino Cecchetto of Blach Construction at the TGBF in DublinOne of the most convincing Tekla BIM advocates at the event was Gino Cecchetto (on the right) of Blach Construction. “We don’t mind keeping our eggs in one basket at all if that basket is Tekla,” he said in his presentation. “Clash detection is the kindergarten of BIM - what we want is clash avoidance. We heard the buzz related to the use of Tekla in the steel industry, and we looked at it to see how we could use it in the general contracting segment. Tekla is the only package out there with the focus on construction – a huge advantage for us.” Read more about what Blach Construction has achieved by using Tekla

Other customer companies presenting their BIM processes at the forum were structural engineering office VeriCon BV from the Netherlands, steel solution provider Technyx of the Canam Group, and precast concrete provider Strängbetong from Sweden. Tekla software partners were represented by Trimble, Graphisoft, and Ficep.

In August, Tekla will host a group of customers and partners at Shanghai World Expo, where as many as 13 Tekla reference projects are well presented. This event will take place in the Finland Pavilion modeled and built with the help of Tekla Structures and is arranged in the context of the Global Summit on the Sustainable Built Environment. Companies attending will include Finnish project contractor Lemcon and Tekla’s software partner Trimble.Global Summit on the Sustainable Built Environment
The first Global Summit on the Sustainable Built Environment is co-organized by Stanford and Tongji Universities at the award-winning Pudong Shangri-La Hotel in Shanghai in conjunction with the World Expo 2010 on August 16-20. The event aims to raise the awareness of world citizens to the significant role that building operations play as one of the major contributors to climate change. This exclusive event will host over one hundred international executive leaders. An invitation is extended to sponsors and supporting organizations to participate and help make this event a success. 

The Tekla Structures environments survey received replies from more than a thousand users worldwide. Its results will help create a clearer and more flexible way to set up and maintain the software. Results analysis continues and will lead to further development; changes will be implemented step by step into upcoming software versions. Here are some preliminary findings based on the survey:

  • The most popular Tekla Structures environments are used on a global level. There will be a further investigation into how to better support this global way of working.
  • Many of you customize the catalogs in Tekla Structures. We will investigate ways to ease this customization.
  • Many of you either modify the settings included in an environment or create your own. We aim to offer clear examples of this and develop the remaining settings. 
  • The language of the Tekla Structures user interface was evaluated good or adequate. If you notice any terms in Tekla Structures that cause Lucky winner of wide-screen TVmisunderstandings, let us know.

In conclusion, the survey raised many good development suggestions which will be investigated further. In general, the standards and ways of working in the industry tend to change, and the software needs to be developed accordingly in order to offer the best available solutions for all customers. Users are recommended to move their preferred settings into a company/project folder so that the settings are not affected by updates to a newer Tekla Structures version. More information about this is available in the Tekla Structures Help menu under Project and firm folders.

The lucky winner of a wide-screen TV is Hanno Hummerich of Oltmanns & Partner GmbH in Germany – congratulations Hanno!

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