From Drawing to Reality: a Primer on Steel Structure Design
Looking at a typical Chinese city, you will see scores, perhaps 100s, of cranes raising skyscrapers. The essential constituent in the construction of such buildings is steel. Steel structures are the backbone of each city.
Prior to the cranes showing up, the building must be drafted. This is where steel structure detailing comes into play. Structural detailing design is vital to the safety of everyone involved – those working on the building site, and those eventually living in the building. A huge amount of preparation is mandatory in order to fulfill safety regulations while satisfying all the specs the client and architect have defined.
A steel drafter needs to know all about pressure and force – when to get the building to yield to outer forces, and when to resist such pressures, to maximise the integrity of the structure. A structure must also resist great weights, and so this must also be taken into account. From the weight of snow to wind speed, a steel structure detailer must think about all kinds of outside forces.
These days, there’s a greater need for creative building designs, which means the detailer can often be pushed to accept challenging designs and attempt to render them into a secure working space for thousands of people.
Yet, it’s not all bad for the detailer – software packages like AutoCad, Asteel and Tekla Steel have helped hurry up the procedure of detailing and drafting buildings.
