Pushing the Limits of Design Automation for Railway Infrastructure

LOUIS-MARIE BORIONE: Hello, and welcome everyone to this Autodesk University 2022 class about Design Automation for Railway infrastructure. I am Louis-Marie Borione, BIM innovation program manager working at Systra in France. So first, I'll try to answer a question-- what is design automation? And how do we apply that to our current work at Systra when we are doing project designs?

So we can differentiate two ways of making a design using BIM and BIM softwares. The first one, which we call the traditional design, is where we record the decision and the result of the decision-making process. And this comes from the parametric modeling, or visual programming with Dynamo. And the other one is the generative design where you ask the computer to generate a bunch of options based on some criteria, and you sort out which options generated by the computer is the best.

Design automation-- really, the purpose is to let you capture and you'll reuse your engineering knowledge. And by doing so, each time you face a similar problem, there are some part of your traditional design works that you can rerun. If you want to know more about generative design, I gave another lecture at Autodesk University in 2020, and you can find the link here. But first, maybe some of you haven't heard of Systra, and we'll try to present what is the company, the current state of BIM usage at Systra, and what is our innovation program regarding BIM.

So just very quickly, Systra in a few figures, it's 60 years of existence with around 700 employees. We have been involved in one out of two metal projects in the world and a presence in 80 countries. We have our services in BIM, from the early design with client consulting to build a BIM strategy to build an information management strategy. Later on the process, we also do a BIM design, and we produce a BIM execution plan and BIM deliverables.

We also work on the part of what we call creating an asset information model-- is to extract from the team, the project information model, what will be required for the owner and the operators to maintain [INAUDIBLE]. The other service that we offer in BIM is to optimize and evaluate the design for contractors. And then our last one is to work on the digital twin, and to work with our clients to help them designing and making the digital twin of the infrastructure.

We have a large expanse in BIM project and BIM modeling with-- yeah, you can see a small world map of a number of projects that we have made in different level of BIM and different BIM implementation strategy, but we aim each time to at least achieve what we could call the level 2 BIM implementation. On top of that, we also have a BIM Innovation program, which I'm part of, who developed a range of digital solution to create, manage, and use your BIM data through the whole lifecycle of your project.

And we have this, five different brands, that we sell, or use internally, to do different things along the process. We have BIM in One Click to automate the creation of BIM data, which is the purpose of the current presentation. We have another tool, which is called eLODy, which is to control the quality of BIM data. We have another one, PABLO, which purpose is to enrich the data and build an asset information model from your design information BIM models.

We also have a tool called CARBONTRACKER, which is used to assess the carbon footprint of an infrastructure, and to monitor that assessment along the project, and to evaluate each time you have a new design what is the impact it has on the carbon footprint assessment. And we also have the last one, SAFEbyBIM, which is a tool that help us improve and control our technical risk and to link that information with the BIM models.

If you want to find out more about Systra Innovation Strategy, we also give another lecture at AU 2022, and you have here the link in the slide. So what if we want to, let's say, push to the limit of the design automation? What have we done, we think, internally at Systra to really push the BIM softwares and to push the design automation to its limit? We call it BIM in One Click.

The solution is a result of innovation contests that was organized internally at Systra, and we won the prize with this proposal-- is to build a tool that help us doing a fast and more reliable modeling of linear infrastructure. Very often when you use BIM software, you-- for linear infrastructure, you face some challenges, especially in the railway industry, where you don't have fit-all needs tools that are available that can also do your catenary, your signaling, your tracks, your [? civils. ?]

There is no one software tool that can do everything. So we want to have something more robust and to help us [? having ?] this, really, toolbox where we can find everything we need to design our railway infrastructure project. So that was the base concept of BIM in One Click. The purpose was to do very fast modeling of infrastructure and systems, objects along an alignment. To connect the BIM object, and what we have [? was-- ?]

We have a BIM object register at Systra, and we want to use the knowledge to allow our design team to build their project on top of this BIM object register, and to improve this BIM object register every time there is a new project. We want also to record better what was the choice and why we decided to model this way. We want also to have an intuitive interface so that we can go and see the design information for our infrastructure.

But not only to see it, but also to be able to modify it. If, for example, we change the elevation of your alignment, we do not want to redesign every piece of catenary because the level is not the same. We want to facilitate the collaboration within project SIEM because we will have a person from the signaling team, from the catenary team, from the track team all working on the same model using the same information, using the same alignment.

For example, we don't have a different version of an alignment used by different teams which could result in discrepancies. We also wanted to-- enforce the capability to incorporate other design data coming from other BIM models, coming from the architects, from the stations, from other sources, from the client also. And we also wanted to adapt the level of modeling so that we can use the same tool, BIM in One Click, at early stage or a later stage with different--

And this is linked to the BIM object register. If our BIM object [? is ?] organized by face and we want this tool also to be able to work the same way, if you're on [? all the ?] design or in detail design, just by having new objects. And we want also to standardize the [INAUDIBLE] process. So that was our goal initially, and we developed this BIM in One Click to achieve all of this. So we developed this 10--

We got 10 solution that's the same solution, but we specialize in 10 different disciplines. So we have BIM in One Click for viaducts, for tunnel, for track, for running stock, for catenary, for MEP, for signaling, for culvert, for geology, and for retaining wall. All of those are working. It could be working based on Autodesk Civil 3D as a core 3D modeling tool, or Autodesk Revit. And we use the interavailability offered by Autodesk between those two tools to enable the possibility to federate all of that information into a single model.

So we want the BIM model to be at the core of the process of designing. And to do that, we really think that automation is essential. So like I said, this automation, we use it so that we can improve the team collaboration because, for example, each time there is a new alignment produced by the alignment team, we don't need to wait for this alignment to end a validation process before sending it to the person in charge of the slab-- or the track-- slab track or the tracks.

Based on BIM in One Click, you can link directly to a work-in-progress alignment, and to evaluate and assess the impact that this modification has on other disciplines. We also built an exhaustive model of the infrastructure, which is quite difficult at this time to build. Say a BIM signaling model, it's not very often that you find that in projects. You have some disciplines that arrive late in the BIM environment. I start thinking about signaling, but also geology to be able to model in 3D your geology.

It's really something we wanted to incorporate and have the most exhaustive model possible. We estimate that BIM in One Click reduced by 40% the time required to produce a digital model of our linear infrastructure. So trying to go through all of those BIM in One Click discipline tools. So the first one is BIM for viaduct, which help us design our bridge. So here, you can see some examples of detail design stage where we have all the elements of rebar on the reinforcement.

But we can also use this tool at a very early stage and just modeling the concrete. This is based on parametric modeling with a database that is listing the positioning, the sizing, and the metadata for each element, and the BIM Object Library based on Autodesk Revit. And we use that on a lot of our project worldwide. You also have BIM for tunnels. The principle is the same. Also working this time on Civil 3D.

We have, again, this database that help us list every object there is in the-- on the project. We define on each ring what is the standard positioning, the sizing, et cetera. And you have also, on top of that, dedicated workflow to allow, for example, the volume calculation for excavation per geological layers, and we use that also on different projects.

BIM for track, so the same principle. There is much more based on the alignment. We want to have in a single tool the possibility to model both the horizontal and vertical geometry of the rail, the sleeper, the ballast, and the trackside equipment. And we are able, with this tool, to do ballasteds, slab track, and stand out [? right ?] away.

The BIM for rolling stock to model the rolling stock gauge. So this is based on the standard, the EN 15273, with an automated calculation gauge. So we have all the different gauge model. And you can display them in 3D, which is very useful for the class detection. And we often also use that to associate the gauge modeling with a LiDAR 3D scan of the existing environment to really make sure that you will have the vegetation and environment that would not crash into the rolling stock. The BIM for catenary, which, again, both based on a dedicated object library.

And a very complex one because we have a lot of objects in this library from the foundation, the mass, suspension, the fittings, the wires, every electrical insulation equipment. And, again, the same-- the database that helps us lists the position, the sizing, and the information that we need. And we set-- we write in this database the record, the result of our design process. And with BIM In One Click, we model these kind of elements.

We also have BIM for linear MEP components. So this was used mainly, for example, in internal to model all the excavation fans, also the electrical cable that go through in your tunnel. The cable trays, the pipework, the ventilation, et cetera. We also have BIM for signaling. So again, a very large BIM object library with beacons, markers, lights, gantries, masts, detectors, protection device, et cetera, that we model in our BIM object register, and that we position along the way based on the parametric modeling.

And we link those objects to the design and the design result that comes from our signaling team. We also have BIM for culvert, so to model our elec-- hydraulic structures. So this is Autodesk Rivet, and we have this BIM object. And we can see below an Excel spreadsheet with all of our inputs where you can set up the design information and you record your design information, and you generate new version of your model.

And I think it's the last BIM for geology to model boreholes and geological layers. This is, for us, very interesting when we have the ability with that to connect [INAUDIBLE] information with BIM information. We model based on the boreholes, the different layers, the different volumes of geological layers. And when we add the model of the tunnel on all the rings, we are able to generate quantities of excavation per geological layer, per ring along the tunnel, and it is very interesting for our contractors.

We have also BIM for retaining wall. So this is more like classic. So again, the BIM object library, this time on [INAUDIBLE], to have the different shape of retaining walls, diaphragm walls, noise-canceling walls. And again, the database help us position all of that information.

So BIM in One Click is a tried and test solution that we use in France but not only on a number of major projects from the Grand Paris Express in Paris, High Sped 2 Line in UK between London and Birmingham. We use it also on the Bogotá Metro project. A solution that was developed internally with our discipline teams, it's not something that we pull out from the innovation department. It's something that really builds end-to-end with bridge designers, with system designers, catenary designers, signaling, et cetera. Every time they face an issue about modeling, an object along a railway that is very repetitive, we add this functionality to our BIM in One Click solution.

With this tool, we win several awards, including the France Infrastructure award in 2017 and 2018. And we also win a Hyperloop Design Competition to model the vacuum tube of Hyperloop. And at the end, what we achieve is to have a unique solution for modeling a linear infrastructure.

So Systra, like we say, very expert-- BIM experts that are not only experts in BIM, but really experts in mobility and highway transportation, with this R&D team that help the designers to achieve really high level of design automation on their project. So the solution of-- [? modeled ?] around 1,000 kilometers of line on different projects, and here, you have some references on, each time, different phases of a project from preliminary design to detail design.

I'll try to focus more on one Systra project. It will be the use case on the Etihad Rail Package 2D. So Systra has now been awarded in a joint venture the package A and Package D, and we'll try--

We implemented this BIM in One Click solution on different subject on the package D to help the design, and this project is very interesting. It's a mix of freight and passenger railway with very different topological environments. We have some desert. We go through the Hajar Mountains. And based on the environment, we face a different problematic that we'll see how we achieve to solve this using BIM in One Click.

So the first one was to be able to design all of those culverts. So culverts are the hydraulic structure that is very commonly used along a highway project. It's very repetitive, and its approach is very adapted to design automation. So we have those different elements. The headwall, the wingwall, the main section, and the upstand. And we define in our Revit object library a list of few typical different culverts, and we implement this on a part of the alignment.

Here is an example on a 24-kilometer alignment with different culverts. We have a culvert every 200 meters along the alignment. And all of those are also in 3D, so you include the elevation value.

To generate this model, we have only two inputs. So the 3D alignment in DWG. That is-- come from the alignment team. And the Excel spreadsheet that defines, at each chainage, the type of culverts that it needs and some parameters to define the main dimensions. And with those information, in 12 minutes, we are able to model 100 culverts of a size of 32 megabytes. So a job that has very consequence work if we have to do this manually.

The second example that we have is for fences. And because of the environment, like I said, we have in our BIM model the different types of fences. We have camel fences, chain-link fences-- so this is the standard one-- and sand mitigation fence.

And based on some criteria, we have to put those fence on different part of the project. So we have to-- we draw the fences in a layout in 2D, and we model one block, one element of a fence in 3D. And then with BIM in One Click, we use those two information to design-- to produce a 3D model of all the fences on the project. Another one is the cable duct.

So the challenge was to muddle all of this information along the railway of the cable duct and all the manhole that are very repetitive along the project because you need to put duct [? manhole ?] at a repetitive stage, but you also need to set up an interface manhole every time your duct comes in interface with the different systems that [INAUDIBLE] it. So we have this view of the results of the 3D models that we have [? built, ?] like I say, with BIM in One Click, to model all of this cable duct and also manhole, and link that information to the worksite.

Thank you very much for your attention. I hope you enjoyed this presentation on pushing the design automation to its limit on highway infrastructure.