Category: Steel Detailing Blog
This page show cases some of the Steel Detailing projectgs completed in Melbourne, Sydney, WA, Brisbane Tek1 has completed
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Always Check Beam Stock Lengths Before Detailing
When detailing steel, one important factor that’s often overlooked is the stock length of the beams. Confirming this early can prevent major rework later in the project.
Recently, we worked on a façade support steel project that involved several CHS beams. Normally, CHS sections are available up to 12 meters in length. However, in this case, the client informed us that for smaller CHS sizes, the maximum available length was only 6.5 meters.
Please see the below email from the client.
“Hi Ganesh
Have just noticed some of your Member lengths for the 101 CHS are longer than 6.5m stock lengths.”
Then we have raised RFIs for the stock lengths. See the below replies from the client.
Always confirm the available stock lengths with the client or fabricator before starting the detailing. Early coordination like this saves time, reduces rework, and ensures a smoother fabrication process.
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TEK1’s Steel Detailing for Sydney Metro – Resolving Design Challenges – 6
In this blog, I’d like to share an issue we faced related to hanger locations.
In this job, the floor steel was supported from the slab soffit. Initially, we placed the hangers as per the design drawings. However, during coordination with the concrete model, we discovered a slab void exactly at one of the hanger locations — meaning there was no concrete support available for that hanger.
Fortunately, we identified the issue before fabrication and raised it with the respective manager for correction.
When detailing steel, especially hangers or supports connected to concrete, it’s crucial to check the concrete model. Focusing only on the steel scope can lead to such clashes. Always verify slab and concrete details at the steel connection points to avoid costly rework later.
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IRON_ARENA_SPORTS_CENTRE
Our detailing team worked closely with architects to ensure tolerances and offsets were met without compromising design intent With a limited fabrication and erection window, our detailing team adopted a fast-track workflow using Tekla Structures for 3D modeling.
We are proud to be a part of the team in IRON_ARENA_SPORTS_CENTER project.
This allowed us to provide early shop drawings for procurement and parallel review of sections still under coordination.
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Steel Detailing Tips – How to fix “path” too long errors
In the construction business – you will often find yourself zipping / unzipping large sets of documents, and copying them from A to B etc. Often when dealing with deeply nested folder structures, you will get an error – regarding long path names. Like this:
This is especially annoying if you are copying large sets of documents.
Ordinarily I would suggest that clients avoid deeply nested folder structures – but then I thought: who am I to presume to how anyone should structure their affairs?
Why not allow for long file paths in the first place? This is how you can do it?
- In the Administrator terminal, run the following command
Set-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem' -Name 'LongPathsEnabled' -Value 1Here’s how to open the terminal in admin mode:
- So to the Windows search bar.
- Type in “CMD”
- Then click on “Run as administrator”
How you can unzip deeply nested folder structures, in your own deeply nested folder.
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TEK1’s Steel Detailing for Sydney Metro – Resolving Design Challenges – 5
We hope you found our previous blogs on the Sydney Metro project insightful. If you missed them, check them out.
In this blog, I’d like to share an important lesson about concrete encasement for conduits that every steel detailer should keep in mind.Normally, conduit encasement falls under electrical scope, so detailers don’t focus much on it. However, the encasement’s location and size can directly affect the steel layout — as we discovered in one of our projects.
We detailed the steel as per design drawings, but on-site, the encasement dimensions varied. Some conduits were larger, others smaller, which caused clashes between the steel and the encasement, and in some areas, created unwanted gaps. This required on-site modifications to our steel.
When detailing steel near conduit encasements, always verify the actual encasement size and location before releasing fabrication drawings. Small checks early in the process can prevent major issues and rework on-site.
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QR Code on Drawings
We are now placing smart QR codes on drawings. Why? What benefit is accrued by doing so?
- You can see a 3d view of an assembly.
- You can conduct spot measurements of the assembly.
- You can check whether your drawing is the latest revision.
- You can add markups directly to a document number – and see it’s revisions over time
Instructions on how to make it work
- Set up a project on prolox.io
- Get the project’s public access token.
- Log into the Prolox’s Tekla’s client application. Use your prolox login email and password and the project’s public access token.
- Using Tekla 2023 and with the relevant model open (please open only 1 model) – run the client code.
- All the values will be updated.
Rules – To prevent obsolete data from being used or shown
- If you update the model, you must re-upload the IFC file in prolox.
- If you update the revision number, you must re-do the prolox Tekla client program. This will update the revision numbers in prolox.
- If you delete a drawing you must update the revision number for the deleted drawing and re-run the TeklaQRCode program. (so that all revision numbers are updated on the cloud, and so that if anyone scans an old drawing, they will be immediately notified.)
Updating the Drawings:
- When you update the drawing PLEASE USE THE SAME REPOSITORY. This is so that we can have old revisions.
Setting up the template
- You must set up the drawing template to that the QR Code program works and puts the QR code in the right location. If you don’t set it up properly it will fail.
- Assume each page has an origin point of (0,0) at the bottom left hand side of the page.
- The drawing template’s borders start at (5,5).
- There must be a good amount of white space between the QR code and borders, otherwise the QR code may fail to be read. Which means the entire thing fails.
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Mezzanine floor & stair handrails
TEK1 recently completed a Mezzanine steel & stair for a prominent organization in Australia. The goal was to provide detailed support steelwork for mezzanine floor & stair including handrails.
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Do not stick your neck out
While detailing a project for a leading organization in Australia, the client asked us to calculate material quantities for production and procurement.
However, this involves high risk.As detailers, we don’t control the nesting process — which depends on factors like sheet size, scrap management, and fabrication methods. Each fabricator uses different nesting techniques. If we provide material calculations without knowing their exact process, the numbers could be inaccurate.Any miscalculation could lead to over- or under-procurement, and the blame may fall on the detailer.
Even if the client is willing to pay for it, detailers should avoid taking on such high-risk tasks. Stick to your scope and let the fabricator handle material estimation based on their own nesting and production methods.
