RCAD Steel

RCAD is a new leading edge solution for the modeling and drafting of steel and concrete structures. RCAD can be used in a variety of situations and, built upon the philosophy of integrated solutions, allows the user to benefit from a truly seamless integration of drafting, analysis and design. RCAD software is a solution completely integrated with Autodesk products and may be used with both AutoCAD and Architectural Desktop. As with all RCAD products, the complete range of AutoCAD/ADT commands are available at any time.

RCAD Steel allows users to easily define steel structures inside AutoCAD/ADT. The software has a full library of steel sections from around the world and also has various "macros" built in as standard to facilitate the simple generations of standard details, such as connections, staircases and handrails. Facilities also exist to produce simple general arrangement details or even more detailed shop drawings. However, arguably the strongest part of the solution is the ability of RCAD Steel to integrate with ROBOT Millennium analysis and design software, thereby providing a single solution for drawing, analysis, design and final detailing. A typical practical example of this could be that the draftsman would set up a drawing in RCAD Steel, the engineer would then work on the integrated ROBOT file and maybe make some changes to the section sizes used and then the draftsman would benefit from a "seamless" update of the drawing file that could then be taken further to produce final drawings.
The benefits, both in terms of time saved and also accuracy, are obvious.