Raising the Rebar: Design Tools for Reinforced Concrete

January 26, 2016 | Comments

Modern structures rely on reinforced concrete, but showing and modeling reinforced concrete in building information modeling (BIM) software has not been easy.

One option to model these types of structures is the PowerPack for Revit, which incorporates a range of tools for precisely this purpose. It recently received an update to its toolkit for the popular BIM platform, giving it a few new goodies for civil and structural engineering.

The new release from GRAITEC features updates to many existing features of PowerPack for Revit and introduces a few new tools specially designed for reinforced concrete design, documentation and construction.

graitec 1
New features for PowerPack for Revit include showing or hiding rebar, renumbering reinforcement and 3D viewing. (Image courtesy of GRAITEC.)

 

Tools for Reinforcement

So what can users expect to see in the new release?

  • 3D View creates customizable 3D views when the user selects specific model sections or displaces building levels.
graitec displacement view 2
A 3D expanded view of a structure. (Image courtesy of GRAITEC.)

 

  • Exclude or Include in Schedules lets the user select which elements are included or excluded in schedules.
  • Geometry Parameters generates and changes custom parameters for various elements, including beam elevation, column height, lintel and sill elevation, slab elevation and wall height and thickness.
  • Ribbon Customization lets the user manage and organize PowerPack ribbons as desired in order to provide quick access to tools.
  • Delete by Rebar Number automatically deletes all instances of a given reinforcement bar number.
  • Renumber Reinforcement changes the numbers of reinforcement elements in order to eliminate gaps.
  • Shared Parameters for Foundations lets the user specify top- and bottom-level parameters for building foundations.

There’s a full list of new and updated features available on the PowerPack for Revit website. Tools have been sorted into categories (namely Modeling, Connectivity, Reinforcement and Annotation) both on the site and in the plug-in.

“Revit is widely recognized as the go-to product for BIM modeling and is fast becoming a robust multi-industry BIM platform,” said Carl Spalding, product strategy director for GRAITEC. “These latest additions to the PowerPack for Revit will bring speed and efficiency to modeling rebar in Revit and make the world of BIM for reinforcement considerably more accessible to the market and Revit community.”

Like previous versions, this update for PowerPack for Revit works with Revit, Revit Architecture, Revit Structure and Revit MEP.

A free trial version is available for download both on the GRAITEC PowerPack website and on the Autodesk Exchange App Store. The full version is available from the App Store.

Follow

Subscribe to CADdigest Weekly