FORT WAYNE, IND. — New Millennium Building Systems has announced the release of the construction industry’s first building information modeling (BIM) component for the development and exchange of digital, three-dimensional steel joist plans.

Soon to be available as a free download, the initial 3-D component is a Tekla software add-on. Additional digital software brand add-ons are to come, the company said.

Engineers and IT developers at New Millennium said the new modeling component will give architects, engineers and fabricators the ability to produce an accurate and cost-saving joist object for estimating, detailing, design and fabrication.

“The steel joist has been the missing link in BIM-based structural design and detailing,” said Carl Pugh, an engineering manager at New Millennium. “Until now, the objects that represent steel joists in the building model were modified beam shapes or non representative trusses that were difficult to model and had few joist similarities.”

The new digital joist design component will contain joist configurations, specifications, material components and design requirements that can be used from the planning room to the jobsite. The component is expected to improve the process by increasing design clarity and communication, resulting in more cost-effective steel joist designs, shorter supply schedules and increased clash prevention.

According to Ricky Gillenwater, information technology director at New Millennium, the company’s digital joist design component is used to handle three phases within the flow of a project.

“The component provides a generic joist object for use in the preliminary project stage, so users can model joists in their building models for required length, joist specifications and load requirements,” said Gillenwater. “A second function is our ability to import the generic joist information into our detailing-design process. Third is a transformation of the joist component into an as-built component containing the actual joist configuration, end conditions and member sizes. This provides the ‘construction model’ a more exact representation of the joists in the building.”

For more information about New Millennium Building Systems, please visit http://www.newmill.com/.