Monday 10 May 2010

SFB Beams Have Not Been Updated!

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In August last year just after Service Patch 1, I found problems with CSC Fastrack software and Revit., We were designing a structure in CSC Fasttrack using SFB Beams and when the CSC to REVIT program was run it was reported that:-

Warning Type `305SFB197’ needs to be created in Family SFB-Beams’
Warning Type `305SFB259’ needs to be created in Family SFB-Beams’
Warning Type `305SFB218’ needs to be created in Family SFB-Beams’

Slimflor Beams SFB
Serial Size SFB Mass per metre of compound section found under:-
Metric Library \ Structural \ Framing \ Steel ~ SFB-Beams include the sizes:-



356SFB732, 648, 563, 488, 435, 381, 328, 292, 267, 220, 196
305SFB365, 321, 279, 238, 217, 178, 156
254SFB258, 204, 161, 143, 127
203SFB134, 119, 108, 100, 94
152SFB79, 72, 64

Metric Library \ Structural \ Framing \ Steel \ Corus Advance ~ SFB-Beams
Included in Upgrade 1 to RST 2010 include the sizes:~

356SFB707, 624, 539, 464, 411, 358, 305, 270, 244, 220, 196,
305SFB344, 301, 259, 218, 197, 178, 156
254SFB222, 186, 161, 143, 127
203SFB176, 162, 148, 134, 119, 108, 100, 94
152SFB93, 86, 79, 72, 64


I posted this problem on the AUGI thread

A couple of points:-

1) The CSC Fastrack conversion utility looks in the Metric Library \ Structural \ Framing \ Steel and NOT in the Corus Advance folder.

Quote last August from CSC on the AUGI Thread “Yes it is frustrating that Autodesk seem to prefer putting new files in different locations rather than just correcting the original one, and that causes problems for the Fastrak import in Revit - we just look for the family in the Steel folder, not the Corus one.”

2) Quote last August from CSC on the AUGI Thread

“Autodesk seem to have been confused by the use of 20mm and 15mm thick plates - we have allowed for both in Fastrak for historical reasons, but I think Corus only have the 15mm range on their web site now.”

So I set about solving the problem and posted these files on the AUGI Thread, sent them to CSC and Autodesk

SFB-Beams Corus Advance.txt ~ backup of SFB-Beams from the Corus Advance folder
SFB-Beams Steel.txt ~ backup of SFB-Beams from the Steel folder
SFB-Beams.txt ~ A Combination of the two SFB-Beams.txt files.

Note: as the Corus Advance beams are only based on a 15mm plate and there has been some minor modifications to the basic section sizes between these two files, where the same serial size existed in both files the properties of the Corus Advance has been used in my merged file.

However I have not checked the properties of the ~ SFB-Beams under Steel folder with 20 and 25mm plates which needs updating, I have just merged the two files provided by Autodesk together.

CSC Fastrak looks for the family in the Steel folder, so that is where I've placed my new merged SFB-Beams.txt file.

I finished that post with the comment “I'm hoping that next upgrade or version that the Factory will correct the sections above 15mm plate and place a combined file in one location where Analytical Software looks for it.” How wrong I was. Nothing has happened; I notified Autodesk and CSC who are Resellers who informed me they passed the problem up the line.

Come on Autodesk, get your butt in gear and sort these kinds of things out. I have campaigned for a long time for a simple TXT file in each folder in the Revit Library structure that informs the end user:~

What files have just been migrated to the new version
What files are new (with some background info)
What files have been deleted and why
What files have been upgraded and why

Again this is not Rocket Science, very easy to do, and would be very useful to the end user.

What are the chances that I shall be reporting this again next year?
.

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