MAKE THE FUTURE OF RAIL

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Ayman SALEH

BMI R&D Manager | @Colas Rail

RAILWAY DESIGN AUTOMATION WITH DYNAMO (C3D,RVT)

Agenda

1 Introduction

2 Catenary Design Automation

3 Dynamo Workflow in Civil3D & Revit

4 Convert Dynamo Scripts to plugins

5 Complex Parametric Family & MTO

6 Other Railway Design Automation Examples

RA IL SUMMI T 20 24

Speaker

Ayman has more than 16 years of experience in design,

construction, automation, development, BIM Management and training across various global companies in different countries with a Bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering.

He is currently serving as the BIM R&D Manager at Colas Rail

France, where he is responsible for design automation & creating dynamo scripts and plugins to support different projects and defining BIM workflows and processes for different

departments within Colas Rail on an international scale.

Email: Ayman.saleh@colasrail.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayman-okail/

BIM Research & Development Manager

Ayman SALEH

RA IL SUMMI T 20 24

Agenda

1 Introduction

2 Catenary Design Automation

3 Dynamo Workflow in Civil3D & Revit

4 Convert Dynamo Scripts to plugins

5 Complex Parametric Family & MTO

6 Other Railway Design Automation Examples

4 000+

70 000 KM OF TRACKS

IN MORE THAN

24 COUNTRIES

6 000 EMPLOYEES

IN THE WORLD

A WORLD LEADER IN RAILWAY

INFRASTRUCTURES

AN EXPERT IN CONSTRUCTION

AND MAINTENANCE

& A MULTI-PROFILE INTEGRATOR

STRONG GROUPS WITH

SITES/ YEAR

12 AREAS OF EXPERTISE

SYSTEM INTEGRATOR DESIGN I CONSTRUCTION I MAINTENANCE

An integrator able to deliver turnkey projects.

Recognized Skills in BIM / Digital Twins.

INFRASTR UCTURE

MANAGEM ENT

LOW VOLTAGE AND

TELECOMS

HEAVY VEHICLE

RAILWAY SAFETY

ELEC TRO-MECHANIC AL

AND SAFETY EQUIPMENT

ROLLING STOCK

MAINTENANCE

TRAINING

TRACKS

DISTRIB UTION SUB-

STATIONS

CATENARY CIVIL ENGINEERING

12 AREAS OF EXPERTISE

RAILWAY

SIGNALING

1846 Ernest Gouin creates the Société de construction des Batignolles (SCB)

Creation of the Société Parisienne pour l’Industrie des chemins de fers et des

Tramways Électriques (SPIE)

1900

1931 Foundation of the Société d’Études et de Construction

d’Outillage (SECO)

Creation of Seco/DG following the acquirement of Seco and

Verstraeten, Desquenne and Giral.

1978

2000 In October 2000, the group Colas acquires all the railway activities of Desquenne and Giral and created Seco-Rail.

2008 PURCHASE OF SPIE RAIL AND MERGER WITH SECO RAIL TO GIVE RISE TO COLAS RAIL

1968 Merger of SCB and SPIE

which becomes SPIE Batignolles.

OVER A CENTURY OF RAILWAY TECHNOLOGY EXPERIENCE

THE GROUPS BOUYGUES AND COLAS

€55

196 154 IN

50 COUNTRIES 50 000 SITES

IN

81 COUNTRIES

B ILL ION

€16 B ILL ION

2022 TURNOVER

EMPLOYEES

65 000 Civil Engineering

Safety

Railway

Construction

Roads

TELECOMS MEDIA

CONSTRUCTION

E&S

1952 1929

28% FRANCE

38% UNITED KINGDOM

18% CONTINENTAL

EUROPE

7% MIDDLE EAST

NORTH AFRICA

4% ASIA 5%

AMERICA

€1.3Bn TURNOVER

OVER 6 GEOGRAPHICAL AREAS

12 AREAS OF EXPERTISE

45% TRACKS

42% CATENA RY, POWER SUPPLY, S IGNAL ING, TELECOM, E&M, DEPOT EQUIPM ENT

6% FREIGHT

7% CIVIL ENGINEERING

BREAKDOWN OF OUR 2023 TURNOVER

France

United-Kingdom

Canada

Panama

Chile

Malaysia Indonesia

Vietnam

Philippines

Morocco

Algeria

Tunisia

Egypt

Finland

Poland

Romania

Serbia Italy

Germany

Switzerland

Croatia

Czech Republic

SingaporeESTABLISHED IN

24 COUNTRIES ON 4 CONTINENTS

Ivory Coast

A WORLWIDE PRESENCE FOR MORE THAN 40 YEARS

INNOVATION is in Colas Rail’s DNA

DIGITAL

PLATFORM

dedicated to

innovation

ANNUAL INNOVATION

COMPETITION

INNOBOOST

A project incubator

INNOWEEK

A week dedicated to

innovation for all our

employees

INTER-SCHOOLS CHALLENGES

Promote a culture of innovation in schools

with the help of our employees

GOVERNANCE

• An innovation board which

define the strategy.

• An innovation department

with a network of ambassadors in each of our

entities to deploy the

strategy

OUR INNOVATION CULTURE

THEY TRUST US

Major project clients

Recurrent clients

Agenda

1 Introduction

2 Catenary Design Automation

3 Dynamo Workflow in Civil3D & Revit

4 Convert Dynamo Scripts to plugins

5 Complex Parametric Family & MTO

6 Other Railway Design Automation Examples

RA IL SUMMI T 20 24

4 Steps for the BIM Catenary workflow

1st Dynamo | C3D

Insert Points

 Insert Cogo Points at the location of Masts based on

the track alignment

 Catenary Engineer can move the points manually

for any modification

required per mast

2nd Dynamo | C3D

Export Excel

 Export Excel sheet with coordinates and other data

for each mast point

 Additional data in the Excel remaining to be filled by the

Catenary Engineer like type

of mast…etc.

3rd Dynamo | C3D

Additional Data

 Insert additional data from database to the same Excel

file based on the previous

information given by the

catenary engineer

 Create solid objects with

data in its property sets

4th Dynamo | RVT

3D+Section+MTO

 Import the IFC exported from Civil 3D & run the dynamo

 3D parametric mast & wire

insertion

 Section creation with

dimensions per mast

 Detailed List of materials

→ IFC 4.3 →

RA IL SUMMI T 20 24

 Dynamo is a visual programming tool.

 Dynamo Library is located on the left side

o Search for nodes by typing the function name

o Browsing through nodes filters

o Add nodes to workspace by clicking on it

 Building Blocks in Dynamo

o Connect wire from node output to another node

input to do another function

o Preview node output results

 Analytical thinking

Dynamo Brief

Agenda

1 Introduction

2 Catenary Design Automation

3 Dynamo Workflow in Civil3D & Revit

4 Convert Dynamo Scripts to plugins

5 Complex Parametric Family & MTO

6 Other Railway Design Automation Examples

Civil3D

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 Fill Dynamo inputs

 Run Dynamo Script

 Cogo points inserted for each

Catenary Mast location

1st Step – Dynamo 1 for Civil 3D

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1st Step – Dynamo 1 for Civil 3D Insert Cogo Points

Before running Dynamo After running Dynamo

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2nd Step – Dynamo 2 for Civil 3D Export Excel Sheet with cogo points data

Exported Excel Filled by Catenary Engineer

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3rd Step – Dynamo 3 for Civil 3D Compare filled data with database to put additional information

Filled data Database for Mast beams & foundation Adding Mast & Foundation data

+ =

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 Create solid objects for the

top of foundation

 Store data from Excel inside

these dummy foundation's

solid objects Property sets

3rd Step – Dynamo 3 for Civil 3D

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 Set Project Basepoint

 Export IFC 4.3 from Civil 3D

 IFC 4.3 include all the metadata in

the solid objects for foundations &

masts

 Set the Project Basepoint inside

Revit with the same basepoint

coordinates in C3D

 Import IFC in Revit

IFC 4.3 between Civil-3D & Revit

RA IL SUMMI T 20 24

Final Output

 Create 3D Parametric Masts & Foundations.

 Create Contact, Messenger & Dropper Wires.

 Create Section views with dimensions per each mast.

 Create Parametric annotations in layout plan view.

 Create detailed List of materials for components.

 Create detailed List of materials for SUB-components.

4th Step – Dynamo 4 for REVIT

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Insert 3D Parametric Masts – Wires

4th Step – Dynamo 4 for REVIT

Output Wires

Revit Plugin UI 3D Parametric Mast

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Layout & Sections

4th Step – Dynamo 4 for REVIT

Layout with

Parametric Annotations

Sections with

Dimensions

Sheets

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Dropper wires

 Script Check the Actual Span distance between

each mast in the Revit project.

 Compare actual span with Database to obtain

the Vertical & Horizontal Spacings.

 Create the dropper's wires based on each span

case.

4th Step – Dynamo 4 for REVIT V

H

V H

Span

V H

Project

Database

RA IL SUMMI T 20 24

4th Step – Dynamo 4 for REVIT

 Detailed List of Materials for components per

mast and for the total project.

 Detailed Cable Schedule per mast & all project.

List Of Materials for Components

MTO Per MAST

MTO Total

RA IL SUMMI T 20 24

4th Step – Dynamo 4 for REVIT

 Detailed List of Materials for components per

mast and for the total project.

 Detailed Cable Schedule per mast & all project.

List Of Materials for Components

MTO Per MAST

MTO Total

RA IL SUMMI T 20 24

4th Step – Dynamo 4 for REVIT

 Detailed List of Materials for SUB-components

per mast and for the total project.

List Of Materials for SUB-Components

MTO Per MAST

MTO Total

RA IL SUMMI T 20 24

4th Step – Dynamo 4 for REVIT

 Detailed List of Materials for wires between

each mast + total quantities per project.

o Contact wires (down wires)

o Messenger wires (upper wires)

o Dropper wires (vertical wires)

List Of Materials for Cables/Wires

MTO Per MAST

MTO Total

Contact

Messenger

Droppers

RA IL SUMMI T 20 24

4th Step – Dynamo 4 for REVIT

 Dropper's pieces quantities to be cut &

prepared on construction site.

 Dropper pieces length arrangement

between each mast for installation on site.

List Of Materials for Cables/Wires

Droppers Arrangement

Dropper Pieces

RA IL SUMMI T 20 24

Agenda

1 Introduction

2 Catenary Design Automation

3 Dynamo Workflow in Civil3D & Revit

4 Convert Dynamo Scripts to plugins

5 Complex Parametric Family & MTO

6 Other Railway Design Automation Examples

Convert Dynamo Scripts to Plugins with PyRevit

3- Plugin UI

1-Colas Rail Revit Plugin Tab

2- Choose Type

RA IL SUMMI T 20 24

 Install PyRevit plugin from Github

 Rename your *.dyn files with certain

names & put them in a certain folder

structure as shown in this example

 Create some simple files in YAML

programming language format for the

arrangement of buttons in the Revit

Panel/Ribbon and put them with dyn

files in the same folders

 Thanks to the PyRevit creator:

Ehsan Iran-Nejad

Convert Dynamo Scripts to Plugins with PyRevit

Agenda

1 Introduction

2 Catenary Design Automation

3 Dynamo Workflow in Civil3D & Revit

4 Convert Dynamo Scripts to plugins

5 Complex Parametric Family & MTO

6 Other Railway Design Automation Examples

RA IL SUMMI T 20 24

 Study the behavior & mechanism of your object movements.

 Create reference lines for each moving part

 Create dimensions between lines and connect it to parameters, then create formula to control the value of this parameter to change the shape according to the required rules

 Start hosting each component (nested family with 3D DWG inside) to each corresponding Reference line

 Add data in the nested family for the MTO

Complex Revit Families

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Saving Months of work with this workflow VS normal manual workflow + more output accuracy

 Parametric families with Catenary Rules/formulas saves a lot of time VS manual modifications for Mast Arm (cantilever).

 Dynamo Script for insertion of 3D masts, foundations, wires saves a huge amount of time and effort with more accuracy, and in case of track alignment modifications, the design update will be much easier and more accurate.

 Sections with dimensions for each mast created automatically, Imagin 1000 mast in a project and the need to create 1000 section views and add their dimensions manually….

 Detailed List of Materiel automatically created and updated in case of any modification.

Advantage of BIM CAT Process

RA IL SUMMI T 20 24

 This workflow is not final, a development planned to

include the technical calculations of the catenary in the

plugin, which is now added manually in script no. 2 by the

catenary expert.

 Adding Tensioning devices and anchoring accessories in

the workflow.

 Adding Traction switches to the Catenary Masts.

 It is already implemented in 5 countries within Colas Rail

(Morocco, Philippines, Egypt, Italy & France), and it is

foreseen to be implemented in more other entities.

Future Planned Features

Agenda

1 Introduction

2 Catenary Design Automation

3 Dynamo Workflow in Civil3D & Revit

4 Convert Dynamo Scripts to plugins

5 Complex Parametric Family & MTO

6 Other Railway Design Automation Examples

RA IL SUMMI T 20 24

 Create Camera Parametric family & Insert it in the required locations

 Change camera field of vision angle parameters (Tilt, Pan & Yaw Angles)

 Run the Plugin

 Output:

o 3D views created for each Camera field of vision

o Excel sheet exported with all the settings & angles for each camera

o JPG photos exported for each Camera field of vision

CCTV Revit Plugin

RA IL SUMMI T 20 24

 Create adaptive families for the sleepers

 Create rail profile family

 Dynamo to automatically insert sleepers

and rails based on data from excel sheet

coming from Civil 3D by another script.

 Created by:

Colas Rail Philippines Team

Trackwork Design Automation

RA IL SUMMI T 20 24

 Create adaptive families for:

o Forbidden segment area to drill.

o Allowed segment area to drill.

o Supports.

o Fixations.

 Plugin to automatically create tunnel

concrete segments by inserting families

according to data from excel sheets with

the coordinates coming from Civil 3D

 Created by:

Salwa ARGUEZ - Colas Rail France

Tunnels Ring Segments Design Automation

Learned Objectives

 The Power of Dynamo in design automation with Revit & Civil 3D.

 Railway systems Design automation workflows using Dynamo scripts like Catenary, CCTV, Trackwork and Tunnel Ring Segments systems and where to start.

 Using IFC 4.3 interpretability between Civil 3D & Revit and storing information inside objects, and geolocation issues.

 How to convert dynamo scripts to Revit Plugins buttons using PyRevit.

 How to start creating complex Revit parametric families, and how to add information inside it, to have automatic detailed list of materials / Material Take Off “MTO”.

Thank you!

BIM R&D Manager

Ayman.saleh@colasrail.com

www.ColasRail.com

Ayman SALEH

Q&A

Rail Summit 2024 Presentation Folie 1: RAILWAY DESIGN AUTOMATION WITH DYNAMO (C3D,RVT) Folie 2: Agenda Folie 3: Speaker Folie 4: Agenda Folie 5 Folie 6 Folie 7 Folie 8 Folie 9 Folie 10 Folie 11 Folie 12 Folie 13 Folie 14: Agenda Folie 15 Folie 16 Folie 17: 4 Steps for the BIM Catenary workflow Folie 18: Dynamo Brief Folie 19: Agenda Folie 20: Civil3D Folie 21: 1st Step – Dynamo 1 for Civil 3D Folie 22: 1st Step – Dynamo 1 for Civil 3D Folie 23: 2nd Step – Dynamo 2 for Civil 3D Folie 24: 3rd Step – Dynamo 3 for Civil 3D Folie 25: 3rd Step – Dynamo 3 for Civil 3D Folie 26 Folie 27: IFC 4.3 between Civil-3D & Revit Folie 28: REVIT Folie 29: 4th Step – Dynamo 4 for REVIT Folie 30: 4th Step – Dynamo 4 for REVIT Folie 31: 4th Step – Dynamo 4 for REVIT Folie 32: 4th Step – Dynamo 4 for REVIT Folie 33: 4th Step – Dynamo 4 for REVIT Folie 34: 4th Step – Dynamo 4 for REVIT Folie 35: 4th Step – Dynamo 4 for REVIT Folie 36: 4th Step – Dynamo 4 for REVIT Folie 37: 4th Step – Dynamo 4 for REVIT Folie 38 Folie 39: Agenda Folie 40: Convert Dynamo Scripts to Plugins with PyRevit Folie 41: Convert Dynamo Scripts to Plugins with PyRevit Folie 42: Agenda Folie 43: Complex Revit Families Folie 44 Folie 45: Advantage of BIM CAT Process Folie 46: Future Planned Features Folie 47: Agenda Folie 48 Folie 49 Folie 50: CCTV Revit Plugin Folie 51 Folie 52 Folie 53: Trackwork Design Automation Folie 54 Folie 55 Folie 56: Tunnels Ring Segments Design Automation Folie 57 Folie 58 Folie 59: Learned Objectives Folie 60: Thank you!