Use Consteel for your next project and realise a different level of work
Consteel is a unique structural analysis and design software for steel, composite and RC structures. Its main strength is the possibility to perform an automated stability design for steel structures based on a precise 3D structural model complete with all eccentricities and connection rigidities. Consteel has an integrated joint design module that covers the most commonly used connection types.
Features
- Global modelling
- Analysis
- Steel design
- RC and composite
- Connections
- Joint interaction
- BIM links
- Documentation
Global modelling
Enjoy the freedom of realistic structural modelling!
Realistic modelling: put the members, supports and loads to their exact position, connect them realistically considering any kind of eccentricities.
Select your cross-sections from a wide range of predefined standard libraries, create any steel, concrete or composite sections easily by the parametric wizards or draw your own unique thin-walled profile.
Easily insert special objects such as haunches, tapered members or shear fields and apply automatically crane, meteorological, earthquake or imperfection loads.
Create model portions for the primary and secondary bearing system, or for the bracing elements in order to govern different design scenarios.
Analysis
Understand the real behavior of your model!
You model – we calculate: the precise structural model is transformed automatically into beam or shell finite elements and with link elements for member eccentricities. Consteel provides a wide range and versatile calculation possibility for the mechanical analysis of your structural model.
Uniquely, Consteel is the only structural design software that uses the special 7 DOF beam element for all the global structural analysis types. That makes Consteel incomparably applicable for the analysis and design of steel structures. Beyond the usual analysis options, several additional specific calculations are available. These are elastic first- and second-order analysis, linear buckling analysis, plastic hinge analysis, dynamic modal analysis.
Special and unique analysis types like automatic imperfection analysis, buckling sensitivity analysis or dominant seismic analysis complete the range of available options. The obtained analysis results are directly linked to the design module responsible for completing the design process, without any need to transfer results between software modules manually.
Steel design
Check the performance of your steel structural model automatically!
Using the analysis results extended with warping deformations precise stress distribution is calculated for any kind of cross-section, including also thin-walled cold-formed sections. Section resistances can be calculated using Eurocode 3 or AISC 360 standards. Buckling verification can be performed either by using imperfections or by reduction factors.
To use buckling shapes as global imperfections, a unique automatic scaling is built into Consteel. Out-of-plane buckling is performed using the most advanced and most general approach of Eurocode called General Method, supported with the results of the integrated stability analysis. Besides the advanced global stability verification, a more traditional approach on member level is also available.
Design can be performed also in fire condition. All the results with references to the applied standard chapters and formulas are clearly shown and documented.
Reinforced concrete and composite design
Verify the RC and composite members of your model!
Concrete and composite elements included in the 3D analysis model can also be designed in Consteel, using the analysis results consistent with the main steel structure.
This includes the determination of required reinforcement for beams, column and plates and the calculation of number of distribution of shear studs for composite beams, based on the Eurocode.
Stability verification of RC or composite columns can be done using imperfections and second order analysis.
Connection design
Complete your design with the comprehensive check of the structural connections!
A structural connection design module is integrated into Consteel which makes possible to have all the connections checked and keep up-to-date while the structural model evolves.
Connections are designed with analytical formulas in accordance with Eurocode 3. Link to IDEA Statica is also available, for finite elements based results. Calculated connection stiffness values can be automatically incorporated into the Consteel main analysis model.
The connection design module can also be used as a stand-alone software called Consteel Joint.
Structure-joint interaction
Integrate connections with the global model in the design process!
The most up-to-date structural design procedures take into account the mechanical interaction between the global structural model and its connections (rigid, semi-rigid or pinned) which generally makes the results more economic and realistic.
In Consteel, using the optional connection design module, all the connection types can be defined freely or based on the global model geometry using the automatic identification tool, which examines the position of the connected members, the proper cross-sections and offers the possible connections.
After the definition, they can be placed back to the global model and the appropriate connection stiffness can be automatically used in the global analysis, while the joints are always rechecked based on the current analysis results.
BIM links
Exchange models with other software!
Smooth data transition between different kinds of software is a key for productivity and efficiency, and Consteel can give you that through its BIM links.
It supports data exchange through reading and writing IFC (2×3) files. It also has an advanced link with Tekla Structures, which not only provides import and export functionality, but change management too. The high-level integration with the parametric models created in Rhino-Grasshopper is provided by the unique plugin called Pangolin.
Documentation
Secure your work with an extensive documentation!
In Consteel there is a powerful and easy-to-use documentation engine to create precise, easily editable static documents that meet the requirements of structural engineers and all the other members of the project.
There is separate documentation for the main model and its overall analysis and design results and for the detailed results of the structural members, cross-sections and connections. The different documents can be compiled into one comprehensive and complete documentation of your work.
All the documents can be automatically created with a higher or lower level of details. Images and tables can be inserted from any part of the model and its results. Chapters and texts can be added to the automatically generated contents, and the final document can be exported to MS Word for further customisation.
What’s new in Consteel 14?
Overall Imperfection Method
A level-up in general stability verification of steel structures.
The most advanced, the most realistic and unlimited stability design approach offered by Eurocode is a method based on the use of appropriately scaled buckling shapes as imperfections. Eurocode offers a scaling formula to verify flexural buckling of compressed elements.
Consteel has developed this method further and provides a generalized scaling algorithm to consider any other possible type of buckling phenomenon as well such as flexural-torsional or lateral-torsional buckling. The method can be applied to a single isolated member but also on model portions or on the global structure. The scaling algorithm automatically finds the critical point of the analyzed member or members and sets the scaling factor accordingly. This method eliminates the need to construct imperfections manually with tabulated scaling factors and provides very accurate utilization results of the structure.
Smart link
Smart link elements provide dynamically adopting connectivity between the elements to ensure a consistent structural model at every step during structural optimization.
The strength of Consteel is the possibility to model structures realistically and to use this precise model directly for analysis and design. Such realistic models reflect the real locations of the structural elements with all their eccentricities. The extra work spent in the creation of such a model is well compensated by the provided automatic stability verifications. In order to facilitate the often time-consuming work of creating such models, Consteel has added smart links which allow not only to position the elements correctly in the 3D space but also to adjust their position should any of the involved elements change their profiles or locations. The smart links, additionally to keep the correct geometrical eccentricity between the members, define also the continuity between the members in any of the 7 degrees of freedom offered by Consteel.
Smart links are indispensable tools for example to accurately and efficiently model roof constructions with primary supporting beams and overlapped secondary purlin elements running above these beams, completed with flange braces.
Critical temperature
The well-known global stability design method of Consteel has been extended to provide the critical temperatures needed for the specification of the amount and type of applied paint.
There are several ways to protect structural steel elements from fire. There are the traditional passive protection materials like gypsum boards which can be considered by Consteel for longer, in the complete analysis and design process, both at room and elevated temperatures, for strength and stability verifications, both for isolated members and for a group of members. More recently the use of intumescent paints has gained much interest in the steel construction practice. The consideration of such reactive protection materials requires a different design approach, as the approval based procedure to select the appropriate paint solution is based on the critical temperature of the steel member to be protected.
Consteel is now able to calculate this information for any kind of steel member, subject to general loading, by the application of the same user-friendly automatic strength and stability verification tools known by Consteel users.
Grasshopper connection
Pangolin is a Consteel plugin to integrate structural modelling and analysis into your parametric Grasshopper definitions.
In the intuitive and revolutionary parametric geometric modelling environment of Grasshopper, it has already been possible to create any spatial model that can be described by mathematical functions.
The new plugin we have developed for this environment allows us to develop the geometric model directly into the Consteel model right in the Grasshopper, endowing it with gauges, supports, loads, and all the elements and features available in the Consteel. This model can then be uploaded to Steelspace or even directly to Consteel. The model thus adopted only needs to be run in Consteel, because the modelling can be carried out in a parametric way in Grasshopper. If you need to change somewhere in the geometry or loads, you can do so by changing a few parameters, and then passing the model that has changed in this way to Consteel, you can run the analysis again immediately.
The live connection between Grasshopper and Consteel also makes it possible to supplement the model built in Consteel with additional elements and loads in Grasshopper, of course also in a parametric way.
Interested in Pangolin? Download from here, it’s free!
System requirements
| Minimum | Recommended | |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Intel i5 or equivalent | Intel i7 or equivalent |
| Memory | 4 GB | 16 GB |
| HDD space | 300 MB | 300 MB |
| Graphic card | 512 MB non-integrated | 2 GB non-integrated |
| Operating system | Windows 10 | Windows 10 |