Discover Naviate Rebar #3 - Reinforcement Connections

Reinforcement Connections

As many of you will be aware, our new breed of reinforcement solutions, Naviate Rebar, launched into the industry late last year. Naviate Rebar replaces the original Naviate Rebar Extension which brings many technology and workflow updates that align with the core Revit 2023 product.

In this series I will go through everything that Rebar can help you with. This is the third post in the series.

• The first post gives an overview of Rebar
• The second post goes into Rebar Openings

Don't have Rebar? Download a free trial today, or buy access to a full year subscription here.

In this release we will take a look at our innovative reinforcement connection feature which gives ultimate flexibility and simplicity when connecting elements or placing starter bars. Before we look at the connection feature let’s take a step back and understand the challenge.

When designing and detailing concrete connections we may think of the following basic scenarios:

• Foundation to Column
• Column to Beam
• Column to Slab
• Footing to Wall
• Wall to Wall
• Wall to Slab

Even with simple concrete elements used in many building structures we would soon have 100s of connection configurations and design solutions. If we then consider civil structures such as bridges, tunnels, and complex precast elements we would reach 100s or 1000s of types!

Our approach has been to modularise connections and break them down into the basic connection elements that you can use to build up your final connection assembly.

In the Connection Reinforcement dialog shown below, the connection types are shown in the left-hand pane. Each of these tools can be used in combination to produce your final connection. Following the format of all our other reinforcement features, the dialog is modeless which is useful when rotating or changing views which help understand the connection geometry. 

In the example below a wall-to-wall corner has been reinforced with two U-bars and the 4 vertical bars. This is done by picking a face and the host for the reinforcement.

Another example is shown below where a column-to-column connection is established using dowel bars. Of course, this can be used on differing elements such as beams, walls, floors etc. This gives maximum flexibility as you can use any number of tools on any valid element that can host reinforcement.

Like all of our Naviate Rebar features, the connection tool will continue to develop, and we will add more connection types to increase the usability and functionality further!

I look forward to seeing you in Discovery Session 4. Don't have Rebar? Download a free trial today, or buy access to a full year subscription here.