SOFTWARE
The software we deliver in.
Your project already has a toolchain. We work inside it rather than converting you to ours, and we care more about what the model exports than about which logo is on the splash screen.
Why the tool matters, and where it stops mattering
Software choice decides real things: how connections are modelled, what the fabrication output looks like, how drawings are produced and how much of the package can be automated. It is worth choosing deliberately, and it is worth knowing what the alternatives actually do rather than what their comparison tables claim.
What it does not decide is quality. A model produced in an excellent tool by a process with no checking is still an unchecked model. The value sits in what happens between the model and the issue: the automated verification, the review, and the signature. That layer is tool-agnostic on purpose, which is also why we can work in whichever environment your fabricator or design team already uses.
Steel detailing tools
Structural steel detailing is dominated by a small number of environments, each with a genuine argument behind it. Tekla Structures is the general-purpose choice with the widest reach across fabrication and the strongest interoperability story. SDS/2 automates connection design further than its competitors, which changes who does what between engineer and detailer. Advance Steel sits naturally with teams already inside the Autodesk toolchain.
Our comparison page sets out where each is strong, what the practical differences are in the shop output, and which questions to ask before committing a programme to one of them.
Architecture, design and BIM tools
On the design side the choice is between authoring platforms with different centres of gravity — parametric building modelling, documentation strength, computational geometry, and how each behaves in a federated ISO 19650 workflow. What usually matters more than the tool is the template, the naming discipline and whether the model was built with its downstream use agreed in advance.
We model in the environment your project runs on, using your template and families, and deliver native files with IFC alongside so that parties outside your platform receive the same geometry and data.
Interoperability, exchange and handover
The exchange is where projects lose information. We treat it as a deliverable rather than a button: IFC exports validated rather than assumed, native and open formats checked against each other before issue, fabrication data produced from the model rather than re-entered, and asset data mapped to the client's structure rather than dumped raw.
Whichever tools a project uses, the package that arrives is the same shape: the model, the drawings, the data the next process consumes, the register, and the check record that says what was verified.
FAQ
Common questions
Do we have to use the software you prefer?
No. The work is set up in the environment your project already runs on, using your templates and conventions. Where we have a view it is about what the downstream process needs — the fabrication output, the exchange format, the drawing production route — not about which platform we would rather open.
Can you move a project between tools mid-programme?
It is possible and sometimes justified, but it is a project in itself rather than an export. The honest answer depends on what has already been issued, what the fabricator consumes and how much of the intelligence in the model is tool-specific. We would rather scope that properly than promise a clean conversion.
Which formats do you deliver?
Native model files for the authoring tool in use, IFC for open exchange, DWG and PDF drawing sets, and the machine data the next process needs — NC1/DSTV and DXF for steel fabrication, bending data for reinforcement, and structured element data for precast production systems.
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