Generate Documentations and BOMs

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DEEPAK MAINI: Our objective in this part of the course

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is to generate 2D documentation and various bill of materials.

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This is the most exciting part of this course, where

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we are going to look at some really powerful tools

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to generate documentations.

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However, before we start generating documentation,

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we have to first make sure that we number single

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parts and assemblies.

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And then we are going to generate various assembly

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drawings, various single part drawings, and also

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various bill of materials.

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For this, let's get straight into Advance Steel.

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The first thing I want to do is modify

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some of the properties of the concrete elements.

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I'll first select the concrete slabs,

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and then I'm going to modify their behavior properties.

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And I'll make sure that these are not used for numbering,

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lists, or collision check.

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I'll repeat the same thing for concrete walls as well.

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Now, because most of the elements of this model

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were imported from Revit, if I double-click on the column,

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if I go into naming, I can see that this element is defined

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a model roll called column.

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However, if I double-click on any of the beams,

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we will notice that there are not defined any model role.

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And the reason is because in Revit, beams

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are modelled as framing.

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For Advanced Steel numbering to work properly,

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we need to make sure that all the elements are

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defined proper model roles.

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And to do that, I'm going to go into the Project Explorer file,

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and I'll go into this tool called Model Browser.

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This is how Model Browser is displayed by default.

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So let me first turn on the model role column

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by right-clicking on this column here.

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Insert column, naming, model role.

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And I can sort this by model role column now.

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If I scroll down, I will see all these elements

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that do not have their model roles assigned.

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If I sort them by object name.

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So now, I can easily select all these different objects

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that do not have model role assigned.

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But by default, I cannot modify the properties.

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That's because the Edit Properties checkbox is not

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selected.

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I'm going to select the checkbox first.

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Now, I'll show you a little tip here.

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To be able to modify the model role of multiple elements,

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select the first element, which, in this case, we already have.

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Now, scroll down.

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Hold down the Shift key and click on the model role

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field of the last element.

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And now you can modify them together.

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I'll type in B for beam, and it assigns beam as the model role

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to all of these elements.

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We can see there are some more elements that

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have model role set to none.

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These elements are concrete elements,

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so we won't worry about these.

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To start numbering, I'll first press Escape to make sure

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that nothing is selected.

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And now, I will go to the numbering

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tool available on the home ribbon tab

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under the Documents panel.

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We will make sure that we are numbering the single part

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and the assemblies together.

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Our single part will start with number 1,000,

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and the method that we are going to use is this one here.

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We want our assemblies to be numbered from 100.

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And again, the method that I'm going to use is this one here.

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As soon as I click OK, it now starts

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numbering the entire model.

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In the numbering main part window,

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I can see all the main parts numbered.

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Similarly, if I go into my single part numbering,

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you will notice the same thing.

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Now, before we start generating our drawings,

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there are some settings that we've

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got to configure in Advance Steel,

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and those settings are available on the home ribbon tab.

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Under the Settings panel, I've got this tool

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called Management Tools.

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I'll go to defaults.

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And because there are a number of different default options,

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I'm going to use this option called Use Filter.

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I'll type in drawing.

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Now, I'm going to expand drawing general and then click General.

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If you're using the United States settings, then

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by default, the single part drawings

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of elements like beams and columns are not generated.

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They're only displayed in the main part drawings because

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of these options selected here.

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So in my case, I'm going to modify these options.

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I'll make sure that we can generate both single part

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and main part details.

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For this, I'm going to close this window,

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and I'm going to update the defaults by clicking

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on this update default button.

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All right.

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Let's start with generating some single part drawings.

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I want to generate the single part drawings

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of all the beams and columns.

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And for that, I'll go to the Project Explorer flyout,

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and I'm going to use this option called Model Browser.

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I can now go and select all the beams and columns.

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Please note that I'm showing you everything out of the box,

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but everything that I'm showing can

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be customized to use your own title block, your own logo,

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and that kind of stuff.

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To use the drawing processes, I'll

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go to the Drawing Processes tool,

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which is available on the documents ribbon panel.

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This is my Drawing Processes palette.

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It has got five categories.

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We are going to use category number

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parts.

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The process I'm going to use is this one here

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that lets me generate details of each of these selected sections

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on separate NCB drawings.

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We normally say on a big job, you can actually

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press this button, go have your cup of tea, and by the time

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you come back, all your single part drawings are done.

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Now, before we start looking at the drawings

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that we have generated, I'm first

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going to generate some assembly drawings as well.

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I'll start with picking this beam and this column.

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And I'll go to the fifth category in my Drawing

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Processes palette.

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And the process I'm going to use is selected assembly each, NCD.

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Now, I'm going to show you a really cool new feature

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in release 2021 of Advanced Steel.

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So let's say in my case, I want to select

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all the structural steel elements that

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do not have their assembly drawings created.

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For that, I'll go into the objects category,

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and I'll say steel beam.

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And then I'm going to go into behavior.

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And I've got these two new options under created drawings

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area.

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I want to say has assembly drawings not created.

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As soon as I click OK, it now highlights

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all these elements that do not have their assembly drawings

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created.

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I'm now going to select them, and that

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can be done using this option here

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that lets me select all the marked objects.

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Once I've selected the marked objects,

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I can now generate their assembly drawings.

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Now, in Advance Steel, to look at all the generated documents,

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we've got one single stop shop called Document Manager.

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It's available on the documents panel.

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Let me just regenerate the model first.

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And now, if I go into the Document Manager tool,

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as I said, it's our one stop shop

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to look at all the generated drawings.

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If I extend the details category,

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I can see all my assembly and single part drawings

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generated here.

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There's also a category called unknown.

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That's because the assembly drawings

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used a prototype, which is like a template, that

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also want you to display the bolts list in the assembly.

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But because we do not display bolts list in the assembly,

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we do not need this.

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I'm going to right-click on the unknown category,

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and I'm going to delete.

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Once we click OK in the dialogue box, this will disappear.

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But let's look at the generated drawings now.

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If I go and pick any of these assembly drawings-- let's say,

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B112--

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going into the Preview tab, I can now preview this drawing.

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I can also double-click on any of these drawings

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to open it separately.

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So this is assembly B121, which we can see here.

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Similarly, we can look at the single part drawings as well.

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Again, if you want, you can go to the Document Manager

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dialogue box.

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Alternatively, you can select any element in the model,

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right-click, and then you can display the part the detail

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or the assembly detail.

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If I click on Show part detail, it'll

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open the part drawing of that selected beam.

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So that's our single part and assembly drawings generated.

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Lastly, we are going to generate some bill of materials.

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And again, we are going to use the out of the box tool,

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but all these tools that I'm going to use can be customized.

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To generate various bill of materials,

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I'm going to go to the BOM templates palette.

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We've got all these different categories.

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So we can generate various assembly lists.

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We can generate various parts lists and so on.

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I'm going to start with generating assembly

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list with exploded bolts, so it gives me

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the nuts and washers as well.

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Make sure you press Escape to deselect everything.

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And now I'm going to click on Assembly list,

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exploded bolts tool.

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And that's my bill of material generated.

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You can see here that there are 12 pages.

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I can go through these pages one by one.

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But these pages are showing me the number

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of assemblies required, the nuts, bolts,

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plates, and washers.

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To save this BOM, I can click on the Save button.

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These BOMs are saved in the RDF format,

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and they are saved automatically in the subfolder inside where

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our 3D model role was sitting.

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This RDF file can only be read by somebody

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who's got Advance Steel on their machine.

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If this needs to be sent to the procurement department,

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you can use the export tool, and you

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can export this in a number of different formats.

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I'm going to use the PDF format.

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It automatically saves it in the subfolder inside the folder

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where the 3D model was sitting.

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Similarly, I can generate a number of other assembly lists,

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but the next one I'm going to show you is the beam list.

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These are all the different beams and their cut lengths.

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Again, I'm going to save this and export.