May 2004  

 

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SCIA Group closed 2003 with a 13% increase in turnover <more>







SCIA.ESA PT
 


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Welcome to the First Edition ...

... of SCIA's electronic newsletter. With this 'eNews' we wish to inform you regularly on topics that are interesting to you. 
We have selected five recurring items for you: news about SCIA and our software tools, information and analysis of activities in the construction world, design and calculation projcts realised with SCIA software and finally, 'tips & tricks' and other info from our SCIA Support Team. We welcome all comments, suggestions and feedback you may have to improve this eNews, so that we can even serve you better with our next editions. We wish you a lot of enjoyment of reading.

In this first edition of May 2004, we would like to review the following items:

    SCIA Company News: SCIA Group celebrates 30 Years of Success...
    New Powerful Tool in SCIA.ESA PT:  Parametric Modeling
   
The Market: Considerable Rise in Steel Prices
   
SCIA's Customer Project: Sazka Arena in Prague
   
Support Team Tip: Configuration of a Header in SCIA.ESA PT
 

 
 

Company News: SCIA celebrates 30th anniversary


This year, SCIA celebrates its 30th anniversary. It is a nice occasion to remind the “key-dates” of the company and to give the actual status.

SCIA (SCIentific Applications) was founded in February 1974 as a technical software house for the CAE market, strongly related with the WANG operating system. When the IBM PC was introduced in 1981, the company began concentrating on portable software. Its flagship product was called ESA (Engineering Structural Analysis).

In 1993 SCIA merged with W+B Software, a former daughter of Witteveen + Bos Engineering Consultants (the Netherlands). This helped SCIA become market leader in the Benelux for structural engineering software. The company started its internationalisation with branches in Germany and France.  The international expansion continued with the acquisition of 2 Czech companies in 1999: IDA (from Brno) and Smartsoft (from Prague), who were renamed SCIA Cz. At the start of 2003 SCIA took a 80% share participation in a Swiss company MAPS S.A., that was converted into SCIA-MAPS S.A.

Today, the 90 employees and agents are distributed over 9 international offices (the 3 largest offices are located in Belgium, the Netherlands, and in the Czech Republic). SCIA’s products are adapted for local use in approximately 15 countries i.e. Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, France, Austria, Czech and Slovak Republic, Romania, Switzerland, UK, Spain, South Korea, China, Poland, U.S.A. and Sweden. SCIA’s products have been translated into more than 8 different languages and are sold in over 20 countries. Many engineering offices and construction companies are using SCIA’s software solutions. It has sold over 7,000 licences worldwide to more than 3,400 clients.

In February 2004, in order to offer the complete CAD/CAE/CAM software SCIA has signed a new cooperative agreement with Nemetschek AG (editor of CAD system Allplan) to strengthen the partnership on development, marketing and sales issues. The SCIA software is currently distributed by Nemetschek in the countries: Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Croatia.

Moreover, the German Machine fabricator Kaltenbach is adding the SCIA – Steel Management & Fabrication software to its integrated offer of production software. The Kaltenbach sales organisation covers a large part of Europe and beyond.

After 30 years of existence, SCIA is now proud to be in the top 3 worldwide companies in its field and is currently consolidating its position in Europe and preparing activities in America and Asia.

SCIA Group closed the year 2003 with a 13% increase in turnover (6,25 million €) compared to the previous year. Excellent results were achieved in the D.A.CH area, Czech & Slovak Republics and Belgium, while Netherlands suffered a serious economical slowdown.
 

Powerful Tool in SCIA.ESA PT: 'Parametric modeling'

 
 


In our new program SCIA.ESA PT is added a very new module: parametric modelling. Here an explanation of the contents of this module and what it can bring to you.


In SCIA.ESA PT it is possible to introduce a structure. You can choose from : a structure in 2D or 3D, composed of standard profiles or profiles with arbitrary sections (graphic definition), profiles with variable heights. One can define various loads and compose a document: graphic tables and illustrations in the desired sequence. Once a project created, you have the possibility of parameterising it. Why parameterise? Because almost identical projects often occur in your company, they often have only small changes in measurements, profiles or loads or because you wish to optimise an existing project and you want to make a quick study of the parameters.

In both cases you proceed as follows: Initially it is necessary to define the needed parameters. For example: measures of sections and lengths, types of profiles, loads and also of Booleans in order to start or switch off a table in the document. Besides that, it is possible to define parameters via formulas. For example, you have the possibility of calculating a linear load on a member starting from a homogeneous load multiplied by the distance of the member, which can also be defined as a parameter.

After having defined the parameters, they have to be attributed to the structure. This is done by means of the ‘property’ dialogue of the various objects. After having attributed all parameters, the structure is parameterised. Now you have the possibility to define a template with a clear overview of all parameters, if desired, also with an illustration in which all parameters are visualised.

The project can be saved with the parameterisation. When loaded afterwards, the template appears automatically and the user has the possibility to modify to define the variables. Than the project is created in SCIA.ESA PT. Basically, one can go directly to the document and have it recalculated.

You can judge for yourself that is it a very user-friendly tool and it brings you a lot of very interesting possibilities. Please contact our sales department for more information and price of this tool.
 

      

The Market: Considerable Rise in Steel Prices

 


Resulting mainly from a significant increase of the Chinese steel consumption, a shortage on the steel market appears.  Together with other grounds, it causes a fast rise of the prices and could, in the medium term, involve a shortage of finished steel products if the customers at the end of the chain do not accept the need for this rise. 

The Chinese effect
The demand for steel in China amounts currently up to 30% of the world demand.  This represents a doubling of their consumption over hardly 4 years.  In 2003, the growth of the demand was about 22% and the forecasts indicate the continuation of this tendency in 2004.  Though China is traditionally an importing country, it has also largely developed its internal production capacity.  With 23% of the world production, it is on its way to become one of the most significant producers.  Owing to the fact that the Chinese iron ore is not very rich in iron, the demand for foreign ore has exceeded the growth of the world production.  Moreover, although the Chinese demand for scrap is not very high, their internal production is yet insufficient and so they still have to import about 20% of their needs.  Lastly, the rise involves also the fall of the offer of coal and a rise of the transportation prices of ore and coal. 

Other factors
The increasing use of electric production furnaces causes an increase in the use of scrap as basic material and countries on the high-way to industrialization, like e.g. China, India, Spain and Turkey, have an insufficient internal provisioning of this material. The shortage of scrap is so bad that in the United States, American producers wish to prohibit exporting it.  A similar problem arises for coal, the most significant American coal producer (US Steel' S Clairton Plant) has already broken its export contracts by calling upon "cause beyond control".  Finally the prices of alloys as nickel for example are in rise and very volatile at the same time. 

Consequences 
The cost of the iron ore increases.  As a consequence, Arcelor and Japanese steel producers recently conceded to a rise of about 20%.  The price of coal increased by 217% in two years.  The price of scrap has undergone a rise of almost 40% for the last six months.  The raw material freight also increased about 75% since September 2003.  Finally the cost of electricity increased overall by 15% in 2003.  In short, the fast and substantial increase in prices is without precedent and the steel industry, working already with weak margins, could not absorb it.  Certain producers like LME or Duferdofin announced a temporary stop for the prices of orders because of the uncertainty on the price market. 

Conclusion 
The prices are rising and will continue to do so, except in the case of a brutal deceleration of the Chinese economy.  Production capacity is not a limit, particularly not in Europe.  However, unless the steel producers and the downstream implied companies absorb this rise, the shortage will have an impact on the whole consumption chain.

 

SCIA's Customer Project: Sazka Arena in Prague

 

This section is dedicated to presentation of SCIA's customer projects. We begin with an impressive one in Czech Republic: the multi-purpose SAZKA ARENA.

SCIA Customer: EXCON a. s., Prague, Czech Republic
Project: SAZKA ARENA in Prague, Czech Republic
Construction: Start September 2002 - Ended April 2004
Structure: ARENA and Convention Hall
Number of floors: 6
Area: 35.000 m2
Capacity: max. 18.000 People


The opening of the multi-purpose Sazka arena was planned with the start of the world ice hockey championship in Prague in April 2004. Besides sports activities in a lot of branches, many cultural, social and commercial activities will be organised there. The arena is equipped with modern technology such as movable down stands and circular and movable bridges in the roof space which enable quick changes in the use of the Arena.
Many partners were involved in this project. The investing company is Sazka and the construction coordinator: BESTSPORT. The designers are ATIP, EXCON and the Faculty of Civil Engineering CVUT in Prague. The calculations were performed with the help of SCIA software ESA.PRIMA WIN. As in any big project, many other players were involved: Damovo CZ, Metrostav, EXCON STEEL ,Vítkovice Strojírenství, Macalloy, Ltd. Great Britain and HM Moravský Krumlov, Hutní Montáze Ostrava.


The built-up area is 35 000 m2 and encloses 990 000 m3. The capacity of the arena ranges from 11 000 to 18 000 spectators according to the purpose and is spread over 6 floors. The roof above the Arena has a spherical cap spanning of 135 m. with a rise of 9 m. The sphere is intersected with the oval shape of the arena itself. The bearing structure consists of 36 radial lattice girders with tie rods connected to the central tube, which has the shape of a hollow cylinder. 32 columns pinned to the concrete structure, consisting of six dilatation sections, support the girders. Four columns are fixed to the concrete structure. Four bridge bearings between girders and columns enable only radial movement and stabilize the structure in space. The tangential bracing situated at concentric circles consists of beams and portal frames stabilizing the structure against buckling and partially acting as an arch. Together with the bracing in the roof plane, it ensures the overall stability of the structure. The bearing structure is made of steel grade S355, the bars of diameter 98 mm of steel grade S460. The roof panels are tangentially mounted to the upper bars of the lattice girders.


The SCIA Support Team: always ready to help !

 
 


Within the framework of this first eNews, we refer to our online website to remind you on certain basic SCIA support service elements. For downloads, extra product information or details on our training sessions, please visit our 'Online Support Center'.

In the following editions we inform you about ‘tips & tricks’ and the latest evolutions of our tools. Hereafter we teach you how to adjust a header in SCIA.ESA PT This can be done in a few steps according to your wishes:

Step 1 : open the document

Step 2 : open the editor with the right mouse button.

Step 3
: The texts of header and footer are tables in which you can show information. This table is saved automatically in the table named ‘NormalHeader’. Adaptions are automatically saved in the active table. Alternatively, a new table can be created. Choose another name for the table. E.g. My_Header. Then click the button , so this table can be used.

Step 4
: Apply modifications: The text of the footer ‘My_Header’ is a table and has certain properties. At the bottom left in the composer of the table, this is represented. For now it contains: Picture, a continuous line and Head1

In order to adapt a picture, the picture will be activated by selecting the property and under the tab ‘Property’, the file of your choice can be indicated. You can use your company logo. The size of the picture can also be modified.

Head1 is a table with predefined content placed in the header. The continuous line makes it possible that the properties in the table stay on one line, e.g. the picture and Head1 will remain on 1 line.

To have a look at the table “Head1” and to change something in it, select the table “Head1”. The content can also be adapted.

From the available properties, properties can be dragged into the table.

In the tab “Layout” the settings for adapting the colour, outlines, frames, of a table can be chosen and adapted.


     

About this SCIA eNews

 


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