With RC 2024.2, making 3D graphics appear with annotations has become lightning fast. 3D glyphs (letters, digits, punctuation etc) are now fetched from a predefined set whenever you need to annotate your objects. With the new command RC-Create3DTextStyle you can convert any text style (font) on your computer into a 3D text style that RC may use for 3D annotations. The 3D text style creation command also computes the kerning for all two-letter combinations.
Other highlights for 2024.2:
Reduced size for 3D exported files (DWG or IFC)
Better contrast in Pset Definitions Manager menus
Better tooltips in the Pset Definitions Manager
Better sorting options in the Pset Definitions Manager
Moving the main object’s display point will now move also all attached objects’ display points accordingly.
Innotrans 2024 takes place from 23. To 27. September in Berlin. We are looking forward to meeting new and existing customers at our stand #100 in hall 6.1.
The waiting time is over! Let us introduce RailCOMPLETE Property Sets!
IFC and Property Sets
BIM users tend to work in collaboration projects where the common presentation format is IFC – Industry Foundation Classes, a rich text format devised by the Building Smart organisation and being read by a multitude of free or commercially available IFC viewers. The latest IFC version 4.3 supports not only graphics and how objects are connected, but also the mathematical definition of alignments such as tracks, roads and wires.
IFC comes with a range of standardised Property Sets, usually identified with a prefix ‘Pset_’, defining standardised information items for traditional entities such as walls, windows, doors etc for buildings. Users are invited to fill in values for these properties, which will be universally understood since their documentation and allowed values are part of the IFC standard. With IFC 4.3 the list of standardised entities has been extended to tunnel, bridge, road and rail.
Custom Property Sets are needed
It turns out that most organisations need more specific information items than those found in the IFC standard Psets. Luckily, the IFC standard allows users to define their own property sets.
A Property Set has a recognizable Property Set Name and an associated collection of Properties. Each property has a Property Name and a Property Value field that will hold a value consistent with a specified Data Type. Here is an example from the railway realm:
RailCOMPLETE version 2024.1 offers a Property Set Definition Manager, making it easy to enter a property set’s definition and its default values.
As part of his studies in BIM at Oslo Fagskole, Åge Rasmussen has used RailCOMPLETE to model a fictional train station on the island of Smøla. The model was exported to IFC along with property sets containing information about the project and the objects for facilitating operations and maintenance. To add property sets to his RailCOMPLETE project, Åge used an early version of our new Property Set Definitions Manager, to be released soon as part of RailCOMPLETE 2024.1.
“In RailCOMPLETE this can be created quite easily by using the Property Set Definitions manager. I created one Pset for general project information and one for MMI (Model Maturity Index). I also needed to classify which objects these property sets should apply to. Both apply to all, so I selected all available RC object types in the “Applies To”-menu.”
We congratulate Åge on finishing his project. At Railcomplete AS we are always excited to see students make use of our software and eager to assist when we can.
Railcomplete AS has signed frame contracts with two Finnish railway planning companies.
After an extended period of demo sessions and fruitful contractual discussions, in February 2024 we signed a frame agreement with the Finnish consulting company Proxion. Proxion aims at using RailCOMPLETE as a planning tool for both railway signaling and electrification.
From April 2024, we also have a frame agreement with Planmax, a smaller Finnish railway planning company. Planmax is targeting electrification.
We are proud of being trusted in Finland, and we are looking forward to solving Finnish railway planning challenges with competent Finnish customers.
Have you missed a public channel to discuss RailCOMPLETE matters with your peers? Now you can, with the new RailCOMPLETE forum.
Isn’t support@railcomplete.com enough?
So far, the only standard way of reaching RC developers has been to send an email to support@railcomplete.com. This tends to work well for questions that are clearly defined and whose resolution can wait for a few days. Problems that are less clear often require a back and forth, which can be cumbersome over email. In addition, some questions are easy and could be resolved within a couple of minutes but might still take a day or two to be answered by email.
Discord
We have created a RailCOMPLETE forum, while keeping our support email as is. We’re using Discord as our solution for this. It’s forum-like platform that is popular in gaming communities. For now, our Discord forum server looks like this:
Since our replies are publicly available other users could get value from them.
We want you to share your knowledge.
Using Discord as a support channel also has a couple of limitations. In such cases you may want to contact support@railcomplete.com:
Your question contains sensitive information that you don’t want to be public.
You want our answer to be an actual email so that you can forward it to your colleagues.
We believe that this can be a very useful tool, so we encourage you to investigate our Discord forum server and to ask questions there.
Hang on – FAQ will come
Discord forum servers are not indexed by search engines, so answers will not appear on Google, etc. Therefore, we will later publish an FAQ containing answers to questions about RailCOMPLETE.
– “A lot of exciting things are happening on many fronts in building and construction at the moment, and several of these were presented at this year’s international Building Smart trade fair, which this time took place in Lillestrøm north of Oslo,” says Eirik Hovind, developer of IFC at Lysaker-based Railcomplete AS. “We at Railcomplete are particularly interested in how we can utilize IFC in our work and we are exploring what opportunities the new file format can provide for railways. Therefore, it was extra nice that IFC Tunnel contacted us in advance, but let’s start at the beginning…”
What exactly is IFC?
IFC stands for “Industry Foundation Classes,” and is a file format used in the construction industry to store and exchange data about buildings, infrastructure and facilities. The format is designed to improve collaboration between different software tools and platforms used throughout the construction process, including architecture, engineering, construction, facilities management – and of course, rail development.
Rail development involves engineers, architects, contractors, rail companies and governments, and the IFC standard helps them to easily share and collaborate on project information, regardless of the software they use. This increases collaboration and coordination between different parties. Since the data exchange between the different software applications is standardized, the risk of data errors and inconsistencies is reduced.
Due to the rail networks’ high demands for accurate maintenance and management, IFC is highly suitable for creating digital twins of the rail infrastructure. This is useful for asset management, maintenance planning and infrastructure optimization.
In combination with BIM, IFC and BIM technologies can help improve the efficiency, quality and sustainability of rail development projects by enabling better collaboration, data exchange and documentation management throughout the entire lifecycle of rail infrastructure.
IFC takes shape for Tunnel and Rail
IFC as a file format has historically been used in the construction industry, but now the standard is being extended to rail and tunnel, bridge and road.
– “The nice thing about trade fairs like BuildingSMART is that those of us who usually sit in the office and code get to see how different forms of software are used, such as in the modeling software for the road tunnel excavations for the E18 West Corridor,” says Eirik.
The IFC Tunnel committee held a lecture series where Eirik had prepared a video about his contribution to IFC Rail. Since the use of IFC is relatively new in railways, work is still ongoing to reach a consensus on how best to communicate different concepts via IFC files.
– “We at Railcomplete have for several years participated and contributed to the committee for “Alignment With Cant” within IFC Rail”, says Eirik – “We have helped with the design of requirements for the format, created sample files and contributed with domain knowledge. In this work, we have contributed to create elegant formulations of complex and heavy data models with IFC Rail 4×3. Being able to make smart use of IFC Rail is important for keeping file sizes to a minimum – 3D files for railway facilities quickly become very large.”
– “Where we end up in the use of IFC and how we at Railcomplete will approach this is too early decide, but we are sure that IFC will play a bigger role for railways in the future,” Eirik concludes.
3D export of signals, post-processed using the Unreal gaming engine and shown in context for verification of sighting issues [with permission from Norconsult Norge AS and Bane NOR]
RC 2023.2 now exports your models to IFC. The most used IFC export formats are available: IFC2x3, IFC4 and IFC4.3.
Match Lua formulas between objects
Matching Lua formulas between objects is now made easy:
(1) Select the objects that don’t contain the updated formulas… (2) You may check in the Object Manager what the current formulas’ results are (for instance – different ‘name’ formulas). (3) …Run the new RC-MatchFormulas command… (4) …Then select an object that has the right Lua formulas in it. (5) You may check again that all objects now possess the correct Lua formulas.
Interlocking control tables
Create interlockings for your signalling designs, with full control over train routes and shunting routes interlocking parameters and table presentation.
Objects in dead zones
Have you been annoyed by objects that get “NaN” (Not a Number) as a kilometer value because the track or overhead contact line it belongs to zigzags exactly where the object is located? RailCOMPLETE 2023.2 calculates the linear address of objects also in such dead zones, as specified in ISO 19148:2012. The kilometer value is taken from the kink point of the line, and then RailCOMPLETE calculates a longitudinal and lateral offset based on the direction of the line as it approaches the kink point.
Debugger
The new debugger in RailCOMPLETE version 2023.2 makes programming and debugging Lua code a breeze! Set breakpoints, view variable values and see how your Lua code executes – step by step.
Adding texts to 3D
The release of RailCOMPLETE 2023.2 is approaching rapidly! It’s now super easy to add explanatory texts to the 3D model. You choose the font, text height and thickness, and RailCOMPLETE does the rest.
We live in a time of rapid digital development on all fronts. In some industries, this has resulted in an urgent need for new expertise, and now also in infrastructure. After 14 years as a qualified electrician, Kristine Jensen Wendt decided to pursue a further education programme at a professional education institution, Oslo Fagskole, which would give her an edge in the workplace. As she has worked with railways for a long time, she chose us at RailCOMPLETE as her partner for one of her school assignments.
Close co-operation
“Working closely with the business community in my industry is important and useful. That’s how we learn the most about what’s going on out there. Fortunately, I got a tip from Bane NOR to talk to Claus Feyling at RailCOMPLETE, and that was simply worth its weight in gold. Not only did I get to work with a very good player in the market – I got a private tutor in the bargain!”
Kristin says that she not only learned about modelling in her collaboration with Claus, but also about requirements and rules. “A lot of what he knows is engineering food in railway design, so that was an exciting bonus to bring into both the learning and the assignment.”
A school for the industry
One of the most important aspects of the structure of the school, Oslo Fagskole, is to learn more and, not least, to experience more of what you will actually encounter out there. “When we started this programme in 2008, there was full focus on BIM construction for buildings and small facilities,” says Steffen Øpstad Hamborg, BIM subject teacher at Oslo Fagskole. “Over time, industry has given clear signals of the need for other specialisations, and it’s clear that it’s important for us to look at this.” Steffen has a long history with the school and talks about a development and demand that is only growing. “Strictly speaking, you could say that the programme first focused mostly on the building itself through BIM Construction, then everything that was inside it through BIM Installation – and now we have focused on the outside through BIM Infrastructure. There are ever-increasing demands for expertise from clients, and we want the students to be able to help respond to this expertise.”
Steffen and the others at Oslo Fagskole are trying to meet this demand. “The school will always work to meet the needs of business and industry, so we do our utmost to introduce new solutions and software that students will acquire during the school year.
We focus on teaching students to deliver good quality, high accuracy and control over data, regardless of their future role in the labour market.”
RailCOMPLETE is a solution that can contribute to this in teaching and is highly relevant to the business world. “The fact that software suppliers go to great lengths to offer free student versions and training for their BIM software is very positive for both us and the students,” says Steffen.
Licensed software as part of the programme
Kristine and the other students recognise the importance of being up to date on the software front. “I would recommend that you learn about a lot of programmes to be prepared for what you encounter out there,” says Kristine. “There are so many plug-ins and different ways of doing things, so getting a broad experience of many programmes is probably a key to being able to adapt to the working life we’ll be entering.”
Claus Feyling is the general manager of RailCOMPLETE and is clear that the collaboration with Oslo Fagskole and Kristine Wendt has been important for the company behind the software, Railcomplete AS. “We want to get in touch with schools and students so that they are familiar with our software, can use it and request it when they enter the professional market. When different roles and disciplines within railway BIM use RailCOMPLETE, the work will have a much better coordination and workflow, which in turn provides a more efficient working day.”
Railcomplete AS wants to reach out beyond the Oslo Fagskole “That’s why we now offer affordable student licences to schools all over the country – send us an email if this sounds interesting.” says Claus Feyling.
RailCOMPLETE has been developed since 2014 in collaboration with leading Norwegian consulting companies and is now a complete toolbox for the needs of the electrical disciplines within BIM.
