Memories like this motivated me to believe so much on how this new workflow, that we are enabling with Revit 2023, will help structural engineers working with typical steel buildings work faster and more precise, so that they could invest more in delivering more creative designs. Imagine the tools that were out there about a decade ago: disconnected across design and modelling phases, worksharing was in its early days, and there was no proper BIM solution that could have embedded all the details that engineers must handle in their minds.
Still, we needed to win tenders, so I was trying to impose myself some rules, to standardize how I design and which connections should I propose across similar scenarios. And to make my story sound even more classical, I was often under time pressure, as many of my designs were needed for submitting bids, my colleagues from the architecture team kept tweaking their designs and the fabricators we were collaborating with were suddenly realizing that for that project they could offer better prices if we were to use fewer high-strength bolts, instead of more standard grade ones, which meant I needed to quickly react again and again. I admit finding the optimal sizes for the structural elements is not trivial either, but it was so time consuming to come up with good connections for every new design. Guess which stage took me the most? If you are a structural engineer, probably your answer would lean towards the last step from my enumeration. These were one-person jobs, which meant I was responsible for all stages, taking over the sketches from the architect, proposing a structural layout, analyzing it and fine-tuning the sizes of the main steel elements, so that eventually I could propose accurate steel connections. They were either medium-size office buildings or typical low-rise commercial or industrial structures. I used to design all types of structures, made of reinforced concrete, masonry, timber, but many of them made of steel. Unlike any of my previous articles, I will start this one based on a personal story, from when I was working as a structural engineer.
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