Students of Karadeniz Technical University in Turkey won the student category of the Tekla Global BIM Awards 2018 with the concept design of BlackSea-TORM Expo fair building. The structure is in the shape of a windmill as a nod to the need to increase sensitivity towards sustainability and alternative energy sources. The curved surfaces covered with transparent panels add spaciousness and modernity. The design, which includes parking, exhibition and respite areas, consists of two floors in total.

The total area of the fair center is 19,000 m² and the height is 15.5 m. Structural stabilization is achieved by reinforced concrete circular columns with specific intervals along the curved roof form, with three steel elephant feet in each. The ground floor with reinforced concrete beam slab is placed on the reinforced concrete circular columns in the basement floor. The basement columns are arranged to allow parking and maneuvering of vehicles.

Students tackled the challenges of manual modeling
The project aimed to model a structure that is challenging to create manually in Tekla Structures. To overcome this, students used Tekla Structures with other programs.

For example, students created the challenging freeform structure with parametric modeling software. The team created a plugin called “GrTekla” in the .NET environment using Tekla Open API to transfer the parametric model to Tekla Structures. Thanks to this plugin, they could make a link to share the updated model data, making it easy to transfer the desired freeform model to Tekla Structures.

The element connections on the roof and side surfaces were designed as a Mero System. Although there are many types of connection elements in Tekla Structures, Mero System is not available. To solve this, they created a spherical form in a different program and imported it as an item in IGES format, and created a "RUFER" – a semi-parametric connection detail in Tekla Structures. With the use of RUFER, the team could easily create the connection elements for a number of different bars in the project.

The students handled the modeling of the structure’s complex geometry with the flexibility offered by Tekla Structures. The team solved the challenges by interaction between Tekla Structures and various programs and using the Tekla Open API library to access the models. What’s more, the team easily created connection elements with the Custom Component feature. This allowed them to use the time more efficiently and ensure interdisciplinary work throughout the project.

“I think what educational establishments should be doing, is pushing the boundaries of the software and challenging Tekla to see what they can and cannot do and that is obviously been done here with the SCIA Tekla plugin.”
Craig Garret, Project Technology LeaderTekla Global BIM Awards 2018 jury memberBuroHappold Engineering (Middle East)

“I think we are so driven now by what is going to be achievable from the computational point of view that this idea of being able to provide parametric data transfer is going to be critical to all software. If this plugin is now going to be part of what we can do in Tekla, then it is absolutely excellent”
Craig GarretTekla Global BIM Awards 2018 jury member