SENER

Revit BIM Experience Award Winner

Profile
SENER is an international engineering and technology group founded in Bilbao, Spain in 1956. It is currently located in 12 offices worldwide, including Spain, Poland, Mexico, Portugal, and most recently in San Francisco and Abu Dhabi. With a workforce of more than 4,500 professionals, SENER provides engineering and consultancy services for a broad range of industries, including space, aeronautics and vehicles, power and process, control and actuation, marine, architecture, and civil engineering.

The group’s multidisciplinary, versatile project teams have undertaken complex building and infrastructure projects throughout Europe, including modern subway networks and stations, airport terminals, transport terminuses, train stations and buildings. Its award-winning projects include the recent Port of Alicante (Spain) construction project and the terminal at the new Zaragoza Airport in Zaragoza, Spain. In support of its growth in the architecture and civil engineering fields, SENER began implementing building information modeling (BIM) at the end of 2006. It currently uses a wide range of Autodesk BIM solutions, including Revit® Architecture, Revit® Structure, Autodesk® 3ds Max®, Autodesk® Inventor®, AutoCAD® Civil 3D®, and Autodesk’s recently acquired ROBOT Millennium. To date, SENER has completed or has under way 8 major projects and design competitions employing the BIM approach with Revit or Civil 3D.

Honored for

Extending the power of BIM to civil engineering, digital fabrication of 3D prototypes, and design of building components
Advanced use of the Revit platform in conjunction with other Autodesk BIM solutions, including AutoCAD Civil 3D and Autodesk Inventor
Integrated use of Revit Structure and ROBOT Millennium

Reseller: Demo Arquitectura (Madrid, Spain)

Notable Revit BIM Projects

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Cracovia Soccer Stadium, Krakow, Poland
25,000 square meters

Project
In preparation for the 2012 European Cup soccer tournament (known as “Euro 2012”), the City Council of Krakow announced a design competition for the remodeling and expansion of the Cracovia soccer stadium. In May 2008, the project, which includes demolition and reconstruction of the existing facility, was awarded to the Spanish consortium formed by Estudio Lamela and SENER. In order for the new stadium to be ready for Euro 2012, the project has a very tight schedule, with construction documentation to be completed by the end of 2008 and construction slated to begin in the spring of 2009. The existing stadium has a capacity of only 6,500 spectators, whereas the new stadium will provide seating for 15,000 spectators on the same site—while adding an adjoined indoor sports center for 2,500 spectators.

SENER’s design includes an innovative retractable lighting system—preserving Krakow’s city skyline and views of its old city and Royal Palace. In order to cast enough illumination for night time play, the lights had to be a height of 20 meters, which would extend more than 9 meters above the rest of the structure. During the day, the lighting towers will be kept in the lowered position, level with the top of the stadium, and will only be raised during evening matches.

BIM Experience
The use of Revit Architecture made it possible for SENER to deliver a comprehensive conceptual design under very tight time constraints—a task that would have been difficult using traditional CAD-based tools. It also allowed the designers to quickly explore various design options that maximize stadium capacity, while still adhering to the local building codes that govern seating design.

The combined use of Revit Architecture (for the stadium) and Autodesk Inventor for the lighting system) allowed SENER to not only coordinate the stadium’s complex geometry, but also gave it the ability to digitally fabricate 3D prototypes of the facility (using a stereolithography printer) and create photorealistic design renderings (using Autodesk 3ds Max). These visualization techniques provided the design team vital feedback both for making anesthetic design decisions and for understanding potential interferences. In addition, the prototypes and renderings were used to communicate the overall design to the competition jury and for the final bid presentations.

The project has now moved into the construction documentation phase. Revit Structure is being used in combination with ROBOT Millennium to test various parameters of the structural design. In addition, SENER is using AutoCAD Civil 3D to aid in the site planning stage and to inform site design decisions regarding how to optimize the use of the limited available land. The existing site topography and the earthen seating slopes of the existing stadium are being modeled using AutoCAD Civil 3D. The resulting 3D model will be used to calculate the amount of excess earth that will have to be hauled offsite during the demolition of the current stadium. In parallel, AutoCAD Civil 3D is being used to design exterior site features of the new stadium, such as access roads and parking lots.

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La Segrera Train Station, Barcelona, Spain
300,000 square meters

Project
The Sagrera Train Station, slated for completion in 2012, will replace the current central station in Barcelona. In addition to the underground level construction of the train tunnels, tracks and platforms both for local lines as well as the high-speed AVE trains, the station will include over 180,000 square meters of space dedicated to hotels, offices, and commercial establishments. Barcelona’s urban planning commission projects that more than 95 million passengers will pass through the station each year. As a key high-speed transportation hub, this new train station is a very high-profile, strategic project in Barcelona—and thus has a very aggressive construction schedule.

SENER is designing the structures and coordinating the architecture of the station. The building is partially underground, requiring careful coordination with other underground services, such as the adjacent subway stations already under construction. Due to the limits of the tracks in elevation, all the slabs need to be precisely positioned. The station accommodates a regional train station in the basement level and a high-speed station elevated over two parking decks. A green roof will cover the station, integrating the project with the surrounding parks and offering potential future opportunities for sustainable design.

BIM Experience
The project’s fast-track schedule requires quick and accurate design and documentation and offers no room for mistakes to be discovered during construction. To meet this challenge, SENER has employed Revit Structure in combination with ROBOT Millennium software for the station’s structural design, analysis, and construction documentation. The bidirectional integration of Revit Structure and Robot Structural Analysis software is keeping the project design in sync and eliminates a redundant modeling effort for design and analysis.

The combined use of Revit Architecture and Revit Structure enables SENER to precisely coordinate this massive project, made more complex by the inclined floors that match the tracks of the trains. The use of a central, parametric model—where all the plans and sections, the quantity takeoffs, and other related documentation are “live” model views that are automatically coordinated—is an enormous benefit, and is helping SENER meet the city’s aggressive deadlines.