Get started with bridge design

00:04

Welcome to this series of videos on our Infraworks Centric Bridge Design workflow.

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Infraworks is at the center of this workflow, but there are a number of other tools that we will be using

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to support the workflow and will facilitate a speedier and more cohesive bridge design process.

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This will not only provide for the design of the bridge itself but also connect team members or different disciplines working on the project.

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At the early stages of the project, optioneering is typically carried out within Infraworks and as the design crystallizes,

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this data can be passed to Civil 3D for the benefit of the road team,

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who then create their own documentation and feedback any changes to the bridge team in Infraworks.

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As the bridge design progresses, the same published bridge data can also be passed to Revit for early-stage documentation.

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At the later stages, more complex nonstandard bridge components may be required and they can be authored with Inventor

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and added to the Infraworks model.

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Verification of the bridge design may also be required at this stage,

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and these calculations can be performed within Autodesk Structural Bridge design,

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where the bridge can be analyzed, designed, and calculation documentation completed.

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This series of videos will use this workflow to show this process and develop a design for a bridge similar to that which we are seeing now.

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In this first video, we will go through the process of setting up the project and connecting the various tools

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using Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro as the means of connecting the data and the various teams.

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The first stage in the process is to set up the Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro project in the cloud.

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Once we have logged in, we can start a new project and complete the project information fields.

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Optional fields can be completed now or at a later stage.

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Once the project has been created, we can add the required products to the project administrator

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and add the other members of the project team.

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In our example, we will assume that the team members are in a trusted environment.

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Where teams need to be separated or where we are working with external teams,

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it will be recommended to use Design collaboration to manage data

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and there is a separate series of videos available describing that process.

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Once the team members have been added to the project, we can then proceed to the docs module to set up the project folder structure.

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This structure can be created manually as we see here.

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All the structure can be based on a template of previously defined folder structures.

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When the folder structure has been created, we can then proceed to add the members of the team to the appropriate folders

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and specify the permission level for each member.

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Now that the Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro project is set up,

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we can move on to creating and connecting the initial Infraworks model that will contain the main bridge design.

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In this example, we will use the model builder to create the initial model of the bridge site.

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All that is required is to specify the area of interest and provide a name for the model and an appropriate coordinate system.

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Infraworks will then create the model and then prompt us to specify the desired location of the model.

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In this case, we will choose Autodesk Docs and then browse to the Infraworks model folder that we created earlier.

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The model will be placed in this folder and then opened, ready for us to start work on the bridge design.

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If we quickly move over to Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro,

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we can see that the Infraworks model has been placed in the correct folder and can also be explored visually in the viewer.

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The next tool to set up is Revit.

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This can be done at the front end of the project or later as the need for documentation arises.

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All that is required is to start a new Revit project,

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save the project locally and then use the Collaborate tools

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to browse to the correct location within the Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro folder structure.

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And again, if we quickly move over to Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro, we can see the Revit project appear in the correct folder.

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The last tool to connect is Civil 3D.

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This is easily done by either using drag and drop with an existing Civil 3D drawing into the Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro window,

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or as we see here, by saving from within Civil 3D using the Autodesk Desktop Connector.

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We can then see the Civil 3D drawing populate the Autodesk BIM Collaborate RO folder.