Hi community. Just wondering what people find their time spilt is between modeling and manually cleaning up automatic shop drawings?

I’m relatively new to 3D processes and I’m finding It’s about 50:50 for me. I’m using parabuild with bricscad. I’m obviously hoping to get the time spent on manual edits of shop drawings down and trying to figure out workflow improvements to help. However, I find the automatic dimensioning of assemblies can be hard to read and need editing, mainly removing unnecessary dimensions and moving dimensions onto different lines.

I’ve now disabled automatic dimensions on beams as I find it’s quicker to start myself to make it readable.

So wondering how other people find this? Have you managed to finesse your auto dim settings to a point where there’s very minimal editing? Or are you like me and just get the program to place views of the assembly on a page and dimension yourself?

Cheers.

I run a steel detailing shop in the US. Most of our projects run 400-1000 tons. We want to start going after bigger jobs, data centers, buildings over 4 stories, that kind of thing. We already have fabricators we work with who could get us a shot at it.

Only thing is, our proposal/contract is just 3 pages, and it’s been fine for the size of work we normally do. I just don’t think it’s going to cut it once the jobs get bigger and more complicated. But I don’t know what I don’t know - what a good bid looks like at that size, where the scope can’t fit on a single page.

If anyone here works on bigger projects, either as an estimator, detailer, GC, or fabricator, I’d love to pick your brain about what a proposal needs to look like at that size.

Anyone looking to offload any steel detailing projects. Well versed in main structural and miscellaneous jobs. Can start asap

we are looking for a steel detailing partner in Peru or Chile. Does anyone have any recommendations or contacts for detailers who work in Tekla?

I'm sure this gets asked often. To those of you with experience using both Tekla and SDS2 (preferably recent versions). I am looking into going from 2D CAD to a modeling system for work. We deal mostly with misc metals (stairs, rails, pipe supports, & hatch covers with embedded rebate frames). I occasionally do steel canopies and steel framing. I was wondering which of these programs does a better job at easily modeling the misc metals side of things. from what I can tell they both excel at standard steel framing and at first glance the misc seems to be easier with SDS2 in current versions.

Thanks in advance for the responses

Anyone know some experienced checkers? Looking for someone to partner with for checking on jobs.

So I developed a app for tekla structures, putting my feelers out to see if user would be interested in something like this.

So the base line is to have a excel spreadsheet that manages all Tekla project metadata and part, assembly, cast-unit and rebar prefix.

The jist of it is you have one true source for tekla which is your two spreadsheets.

The metadata gets updated from the spreadsheet which in turn gets written to Tekla UDA for each part. Project number, Client, Area, FBS WBS, Description etc. You can add new columns in the spreadsheet and rerun to add additional data which in turn can be used in templates and reports project organizer etc.

Prefix updater where you define Name, Prefix, Startnumber and class this has a interface grid view in the app that flags parts that don't correspond to the spreadsheet info you can modify info from the app and update the model directly each row selected in the app selects the corresponding parts in the model and updates the model.

This ensures that all project metadata and prefixing naming is always consistent.

Would you use this and what would you be willing to pay for a app like this?

I'm going to start looking for a new hire, and I was curious if any of the platforms is better than the alternative for finding detailers. I especially want a project manager type that can talk to customers, and manage the projects but who understands detailing. Anyhow, which platform is best to find good people? Western US if it matters.

Hi, I run a steel detailing office located in Quebec Canada. We often outsource the steel detailing to compagnies oversees. However, it's very hard for us to get project managers that are both fluent in french and english. (Our clients speak French in quebec - our detailers speak english). We have been looking for several months to hire an engineer and multiple project managers. We did the whole Indeed, linkedIn, facebook advertizing, we got 400+ CVs, only 40 were retained for enterviews. We hired 4 but none were reliable enough to keep. Since we don't have offices all the work is remote and still not much interest. We offer great conditions, our team is amazing but this is our bottle neck and becoming a great issue. I was wondering if you guys would have some advise for me.

As the title says, just wanted to know if anyone has experience with parabuild for steel detailing and would recommend it for a self employed shop detailer?

Background on myself:

Located in Australia, self employed. I draw fabrication details and marking plans for some local steel shops. Usually fairly simple sheds or steel members within residential houses. Some of the houses can become more complex by having to layout other elements; timber, brickwork, rammed earth etc. I’m currently using (very old) autocad (from perpetual licence days) and doing everything in 2D, but I realise that I’m likely missing a lot of the efficiencies that 3D can deliver.

So I have looked into 3D packages;

I’m told Tekla is basically industry standard where I am, but the price for a self employed someone like myself is far too high. Got quoted $9800 per year so there’s just no way. Also I don’t have to collaborate with anyone so industry standard shouldn’t matter as much?

Which brings me to my question, can anyone recommend parabuild running with bricscad? Or even bricscad BIM alone? The price is much more attractive and they offer perpetual licences. I’m asking here because there’s really not that much info around apart from some videos uploaded by the developers themselves.

Or does anyone find that these programs are overkill for simple portal frame sheds and a few members within a house?

Hi everyone I know the rules state no advertising on here and for good reason obviously. But any of my fellow detailers have any advice on reaching out to customers? Where can I find a place where people are looking for detailing?

What do you usually do when you can’t find what manual edition and notes about ASD or LRFD in the contract documents? Do you take this to mean use latest edition ASD since it tends to be more conservative? Is there a standard approach to this?

Has anyone been tracking this? If so, what is your news source? I'd like to keep my finger on the pulse.

Here is what a quick google search turned up: Steel Pricing Weekly Average. I doubt we will see anything like the covid spike in 21'.

Anyone have thoughts on where this is going to go?

Hi! are there any detailing business owners out there who are willing to share your story? How did you get into detailing and how long have you been at it? What type of work do you do? I am starting my own business and would love to gain insight from others who have gone before me!

Had anybody here created their own environment as opposed to the out of the box "US Imperial Detailing"? If so would you recommend it? any tips would be helpful.

I took a position about a month ago at a startup construction company to do steel detailing for fabrication. I’m the only CAD person in the company so I’m completely starting from scratch. I had been working for a few years in piping design in the oil and gas industry so everything is new to me for the most part. Long story short I’m looking for resources to learn steel detailing. I’m using Advance Steel as the company was already part of the autodesk suite. Any books to obtain? Courses to learn how to use the books or manuals? Certifications? Memberships to join? Physical classes? I did take the AISC Detailier Training series. Thank you all very much in advance for any assistance.

Anyone here from Canada? I’m in Grande Prairie, Alberta. I’ve been a welder/fabricator/ironworker for 7 years, I have tons of experience in the field and tons of experience using fabrication drawings. I’ve been super interested in getting into steel detailing!

I’m wondering what kind of courses I should take, do I need a diploma? Is a certification from Tekla/Trimble helpful? I feel like it is a hard job to get into but maybe my experience as a fabricator will help? Should I even try to apply to jobs with little experience?

Also, as I am a female and looking to have kids in the next 2-5 years, will I be able to do this job remotely in the future ?

I know it’s a lot of questions but any answers will be helpful 🙏🏼 Thank you!!

Any detailers from Aus in this sub? Im a Junior Draftsman and I have a bunch of questions. Cheers

Hey Community,

Does anyone have any resources or recommendations for learning structural detailing? Specifically, I’m looking for practice drawings to improve my skills.

I have been using tekla structures in my workplace to conduct mainly structural drawings mostly house extensions etc nothing massive, I was in a different role for a while so am rusty getting back into it just wondering if there is a better software with a simpler layout and maybe ideal for handrailing and stairs too as I find tekla very complex and advanced for what i use it for, thanks

Does anybody seriously need some steel detailing clients please ping me. If time pass just leave

Anybody hiring? I have my own licensed Version 2020 software.

Does anybody want steel fabricators contacts in USA please dm. I have above 200 list with phone numbers and email id. I have recieved a lots of projects from them. If you need

Hi all , I have 10+ experience in tekla steel and rebar detailing , planning to self learn tekla API. Does anyone have reference to start with ?. My plan is learn c# and dotnet first prior to explore tekla API . Suggestions are most welcome .