Tekla BIM Award Winner Foniles del Nuevo Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de Mexico Features Largest Tekla Model Ever Built

One of the winners in the Tekla BIM Awards was the

Steel Winner: Foniles del Nuevo Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de Mexico

Company: Constructora Terminal Valle de Mexico

A featured design element of the new airport is that the entire terminal building will be covered by a continuous light Space Frame that will unify walls and roof in a fluid design that represents the fluid movement of flight.

Fabio Miguel, with Constructora Terminal Valle de Mexico, responded to some questions for AECCafe Voice about the winning project.

Created by Foster+Partners, FR-EE and NACO, the original New Mexico City International airport will have a surface area of 743,000m2 (7,997,585 ft2) and will be modeled entirely in Tekla Structures and represent the largest Tekla model ever created on a global scale.

With spans as big as 100mt wide (328ft), or three times conventional airport spans, this monumental scale was inspired by Mexican architecture as well as symbolism. The largest interior span is 170mt (558ft) in length.

The sheer scope of this project created its own set of challenges for Tekla Structures for the structural design required.

What problems were you hoping to overcome with your approach to the structure of the building or project?

We tried to avoid manual-intensive methods for two reasons. First, the size of the project would demand thousands of man hours with a manual approach. Secondly, to prevent mistakes, we realized that as much automation as we could incorporate in the process, the fewer mistakes that we could potentially avoid. Geometrically, we needed a method that would allow for physical markings on the elements that could be accurately identified on the model. The surveying team required a list with these elements and their coordinates. This way they could easily verify the positioning of the bars.

How did Tekla Structures meet the needs of the project?

The project is defined by two database tables with more than 600,000 elements. Moving from a table format into a 3D model was very easy in Trimble’s Tekla Structures. Once we had a “raw” model with every bar of the funnels, we needed to assign the connections between them. There are compatible connections in Tekla with the HGG software used by the Pipe Cutting Machine. We developed a macro via the Tekla API that would read the metadata on each bar, compare it with the database and assign the proper connection. There are also Tekla components that report their coordinates integrated into custom components it was very simple to generate coordinate tables with the positioning information for surveying.

Speaking about the size of the Project, there are not many modeling tools on the market that can manage so many elements in a single model. We tried modeling the structure in other programs, but the files were too large and could not be operated without tremendous lag.

How does BIM information move between many tools?

Our BIM process involves moving information between many tools. We store parametric information in SQL Databases, we move geometric information via IFC and we check the general positioning via point clouds. The Tekla model has been incorporated into many workflows allowing as-built reviews, design of secondary components, QTOs, etc.

What types of challenges did you run across while designing and then implementing the solution?

Initially we started working with xml files where we would store the macro-generated data. These files grew very large, very quickly. We realized that we needed a more robust solution and decided to move into SQL. Once the modeling team started working on shop drawings, the model files also grew very fast. We split the models into individual funnels. This way we could send them across the country to the different teams that were working on them.

How did Tekla Structures help to address challenges?

The technical support has been exceptional. We had to develop all the tools, macros and methods in a very short time and their knowledge was more than welcome. They included components, the ease of creating custom components, and the Tekla Warehouse were also very useful. The API environment is very clean, easy to understand and use, so we were able to start developing macros rather quickly.

How did Tekla Structures integrate with other products in use on the project?

The pipe cutting machine from HGG integrated very easily, reading the model data directly. The cloud points generated by the laser scanner were processed in Trimble RealWorks and were imported and overlaid on top of the model in Tekla.

What types of ROI did you achieve with the project by using Tekla products?

 From the beginning, we realized that the process of going from a database format into a 3D model was going to be critical. Modelling each bar manually was not even considered. We estimated less than a minute per bar by hand, optimistically. With a macro, we modeled all the bars in a few hours.

Connecting over 2,000 bars per funnel was taking two weeks for the teams. It took us a day to program a macro that connected all 21 funnels in one hour.

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