As engineers we get it! Designing rail electrification infrastructure is complex. With inputs needed from multiple technical disciplines, working across distributed teams, differing national and international standards, construction specifications and infrastructure operator requirements, it presents challenges for even the most experienced design teams.
The traditional design process is labor intensive; requiring multiple draftsmen to do manual CAD work to create cross-section drawings. Automation is limited, and is often driven by spreadsheets, and custom macros which are prone to human error. Workflows are usually 2D centric, resulting in a lack of 3D modelling for design checks, clash detection and BIM requirements. Change management is also difficult, any change to the track for example requires significant rework.
These daily obstacles not only affect your workflow but also your organization's bottom line. In this blog, we'll review 4 of your main challenges (data and design integration, design standardization, design automation, and future proofing your deliverables), and illustrate how OpenRail Overhead Line Designer can help you overcome them to deliver better projects and ultimately, improve ROI for your organization.
What is OpenRail Overhead Line Designer?
OpenRail Overhead Line Designer is the first comprehensive solution for rail electrification design and engineering with BIM. Combining Bentley’s proven rail design tools, with Siemens Sicat Master’s advanced analytics, it enables designers and engineers to plan, design and manage rail electrification assets from concept into operations. Save time and money on rail overhead line infrastructure projects of all sizes, with open collaborative design workflows for conceptual through detailed design and into construction, powerful design automation and standardization capabilities and automated plan production in one easy to use application.
Data & Design Integration with OpenRail Overhead Line Designer
Often the hardest part of a rail electrification project is how to gather accurate information on existing conditions. Acquiring this information can sometimes take longer than creating the design itself. OpenRail Overhead Line Designer’s open modeling environment makes this process quicker and more efficient than ever. You can easily access contextual information to help optimize your design, and with direct access to track and turnout geometry including horizontal, vertical, and cant information, the need to import or export data is gone, saving valuable design time and accelerating project delivery.
Overhead Rail Power Line Design Standardization
When designing safety critical infrastructure using traditional 2D design workflows, the time taken to ensure designs conform to contract requirements is significant and easily subject to human error. Reduce design time, cost and risk while adhering to contract requirements on time every time with user definable design rules that allow engineers to focus on the design process. OpenRail Overhead Line Designer’s user defined design rules ensure projects follow the local requirements leaving you free to focus on the design process. As every project is different standards are user customizable and not specific to any one system or country.
Design Automation for Overhead Rail Power Line
To meet the growing industry need, to do more with less, engineers and designers need to work smarter. Don’t spend your valuable time on manual, repetitive tasks. Increase productivity with OpenRail Overhead Line Designer’s user-friendly design automation tools. Create a detailed overhead line design for one section as a catenary block and apply it to different segments of the track. User-friendly design automation tools, and digital workflows ensure changes to masts, wires, structures, and assemblies are all updated in real time. This process saves time while providing easy repeatability even for complex designs.
Future Proof Deliverables with Rail Design
Every contract is different, and you need the flexibility to efficiently produce a range of accurate deliverables. Whether it is traditional 2D plans and reports, 3D models, digital twins, or all of the above, OpenRail Overhead Line Designer does it all. Build on BIM enabled 3D models with 4D scheduling and 5D cost estimation for a holistic view of your design ensuring projects remain on schedule and within budget.
If you want to learn more about what OpenRail Overhead Line Designer can do for you check out our Webinar Series | Smarter Rail Design with Automated, Dynamic, and Digital Workflows
Got questions? Click the on the button below to book a meeting with a product sales engineer.
