3D has been a matter of course for Precast Engineering for many years

Precast Engineering is a consulting firm specializing in precast concrete engineering. Thus, they provide engineering for large and small projects in residential, commercial, architectural concrete and civil engineering. Since its founding in 2006, they have been working in 3D. A conscious choice of Wim de Beer and Marijke Snelder, owners of the engineering firm. With Tekla Structures, they place all relevant building components, precast concrete, reinforcement and pouring facilities in a visually insightful 3D model. "This gives insight into the construction and a grip on costs and planning," said De Beer.

"I think of all the engineering firms and concrete plants that work with Tekla Structures, maybe 80% still reinforces in 2D," indicates De Beer. "We never did this, even when the customer asked for it," Snelder adds. "We only work in 3D, because we think this is the future. The biggest advantage of Tekla Structures is that the 3D work can achieve a very high level of detail and you can work out parts that fit into the construction without any problems. If it is correct in the model, it is normally correct on construction."

"Normally when you get a drawing from an engineering firm, the bending states are not on it," De Beer says. "The braider has to make this list himself based on the concrete dimensions and the bar shape. This takes him an average of three quarters of an hour to an hour per drawing and much longer for a complicated element. With us, he gets the bending statements with it, because with Tekla Structures you can just put this on it. You can also digitally export these bending states to the machines they use to cut and bend the steel. With Tekla Structures, this can all be done very easily."

De Beer continues his story: "In the old days, when I worked at a concrete plant, I had to get all the bolts, pins, washers, nuts and plugs needed for assembly myself from a 2D drawing, order them and hope it was all there. Nowadays you press the button in Tekla Structures and everything rolls right out. It doesn't actually go wrong. What used to take a week of time can now be done in just a few seconds. We want to make it as easy as possible for the concrete plants."

Precast has completed many great projects with Tekla Structures in recent years. Anything involving precast concrete, the engineering firm tackles. While De Beer mentions the city bridge in Nijmegen, among others, for Snelder another project is by far their finest work: Culture and conference center Amare in The Hague. De Beer concurs with Snelder's words: "This was indeed a wonderful project on which we enjoyed working. All the concrete elements were modeled entirely in Tekla Structures and reinforced one-to-one. It was quite a challenge, because they are all unusual shapes. Most of them are not straight. Even the corner elements were delivered to the construction site three-dimensionally and in one piece. A real piece of art." Haasje Over, a renovation project at the Philips site in Eindhoven, was special in another way. "We had everything prepared and worked out in Tekla Structures and everything matched and connected seamlessly and without problems."

Precast deploys various programs to collaborate as optimally as possible with colleagues and project partners. De Beer explains, "We easily overlay the various models of project partners on top of each other via the collaboration platform Trimble Connect, so that we can see exactly where things are going wrong and we can solve this together with the party concerned. Meanwhile, we also have all the models in Tekla Model Sharing. This started in the corona period, when all colleagues worked from home. With Model Sharing, we can work on one project with several people at the same time. It's just a matter of sending an invitation and a colleague or project partner can join in. That works really well."

"I think I will live to see the day when we can get it done without drawings, but we are not that far yet," De Beer points out. "We do notice a lot that contractors only check the model and don't look at the drawing anymore. So in that respect it could be done. As long as the model is good, and with Tekla Structures it can be, because the drawing comes right out of your model. The drawings are one-to-one with the model. This is not the case with all packages, but with Tekla Structures it is."

Tekla Structures modeling software can be used in all phases of the construction process, from design to assembly. Wondering how this fits within your company? Visit here for more info on options.

Curious about Precast Engineering? Take a look at their website: precast.co.uk.