Trimble to acquire StruCad business to extend Tekla's structural steel industry presence

Trimble has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the StruCad and StruEngineer business from AceCad Software to expand its construction solutions. The addition of the software products is expected to extend Tekla's industry leading Building Information Modeling (BIM) solutions for structural steel contractors to automate project estimating and management, modeling and detailing. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2012. Financial terms were not disclosed.

StruCad is a complete 3D structural detailing system for steel detailers and fabricators. StruCad provides an environment for rapid detailing automation, automatic fabrication shop drawings and computer numeric control (CNC) machinery production deliverables. The software allows effective collaboration between engineers, detailers and fabricators; enabling them to derive more value when executing structural steel projects—through reduced steelwork design, fabrication, construction schedules and costs.

StruEngineer is an engineering software enabling 3D steelwork modeling and construction management for engineering companies. Fully compatible with the StruCad steel detailing system, StruEngineer compresses the structural engineering layout and connection design in the conceptual phase to also support more rapid and accurate estimating.

"We are excited to bring together market leading BIM solutions for the structural steel space," said Risto Räty, vice president of Tekla Corporation, a Trimble company. "At Tekla and Trimble, we are focused on delivering constructible solutions to the AEC industry to help our clients improve project delivery. Together with the StruCad and StruEngineer business teams, we can provide deeper, richer solutions that enable improved productivity for our structural steel clients and offer them the opportunity to take advantage of our portfolio of tools."

In addition, Tekla will be partnering with AceCad Software to integrate its BIM structures solution with AceCad's StruM.I.S. enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. StruM.I.S is a steel fabrication management information system that connects the information flow and work processes through the steelwork contract between departments, suppliers and clients; from estimate tendering, through procurement and production and into construction. The software is used by engineering and fabrication companies to implement a dedicated fabrication management information system to manage across all departments including multiple sites or even across supply chains.

"We are pleased to be partnering with Tekla to create a seamless workflow for our customers," said Richard Brotherton, executive director of AceCad Software. "Integration with Tekla's BIM solution will further enable model and fabrication data to be processed through production."

The StruCad and StruEngineering business will be reported as part of the Trimble's Engineering and Construction segment.