SierraSoft Rails Design Studio is a comprehensive Building Information Modeling (BIM) software solution specifically engineered for the design of railway and road infrastructure. It integrates design and information modeling processes, allowing users to produce, modify, share, and analyze detailed railway and road information models simultaneously. This approach significantly optimizes activities and helps contain costs by providing all necessary tools for design, policy control, information modeling, and quantities calculation within a single product. The software incorporates all features found in SierraSoft Rails (for railway design) and SierraSoft Roads (for road and highway design), offering a unified and powerful environment. It supports parametric dynamic design, enabling real-time modification and checking of projects, where changes to a single parameter automatically update the entire design, allowing immediate verification before final project creation. All design and information modeling data are securely stored and managed within the M3 Framework Database, ensuring consistency across project data, information documents, and information models. The software also facilitates the creation of digital reproductions of existing territory, comprehensive alignment design, and automated generation of cross sections and information documents. It supports advanced information modeling, exchange, and verification, making it a robust platform for multidisciplinary design coordination and integration.

Features & Benefits

• Parametric Dynamic BIM Design
  • Combines design, geometric-informative modeling, and interoperable model definition in a single environment. Allows for rapid project generation, drawings, and information models from defined parameters.
• Real-time Modification and Check
  • Enables immediate control over design and drastically reduces time through 3D real-time cross-section on planimetry. Automatic updates ensure instant verification of changes.
• M3 Framework Database
  • Centralizes all design and information modeling data (geometries and data), ensuring consistency across project data, information documents, and information models.
• As-Found Digital Reproduction
  • Creates a digital representation of existing territory by acquiring and utilizing land information from various sources.
  • Acquire information from topographic surveys, maps, GIS data, point clouds, and BIM models (IFC and LandXML).
  • Easy handling of one or more point clouds of any size with fast loading and real-time functions.
  • Automatically generates triangular slope models (DTM) and contour lines.
  • Create new objects from acquired data, defining geometries and information content for a complete information model.
  • Supports a wide range of EPSG standards-based and localized coordinate systems.
• Comprehensive Alignment Design
  • Provides intuitive tools for creating horizontal and vertical alignments for roads and railways.
  • Defines horizontal axes with straights, circular curves, clothoid, parabolas, with automatic widenings and superelevations.
  • Automatically returns terrain profiles from different sources and allows definition of project profiles with various curve types.
  • Designs any road intersection with ease and precision, including roundabouts, at-grade intersections, or complex interchanges.
• Parametric Typical Sections and Objects
  • Allows creation and management of typical sections by assembling parametric objects, which can be customized and programmed using an included scripting language.
• Automated Cross Sections
  • Extracts all necessary data from various sources and automatically inserts/manages project typical sections, generating customizable drawings with quantities tables, dimensions, and annotations.
• Flexible Quantities Calculation
  • Extracts and calculates quantities (e.g., cut, fill, topsoil) from various sources like sections, objects, surfaces, and BIM entities, storing results within the information model.
• Policy Compliance and Verification
  • Checks project compliance with selected policies, verifies design parameters, generates visibility and speed diagrams, calculates superelevations and widenings, and provides detailed verification reports.
• Non-linear 3D Design
  • Supports designing and modeling complex three-dimensional geometries beyond traditional methods, enabling direct 3D work to create various landforms and structures like sideslopes, benches, and parking lots.
• Hydrological Analysis
  • Provides valuable information for hydrographic and hydrological analysis of the territory and new projects, including water path tracing, slope vectors, and basin volume calculation.
• Advanced Information Modeling
  • Defines BIM models in detail, including structure, elements, geometric representation, and information content, with integration of buildingSMART's IDS and bSDD standards for data consistency. Requires the SierraSoft BIM Modeling software extension.
• Information Exchange and Multi-disciplinary Integrated Design
  • Facilitates sharing project information in open formats (IFC 2x3, 4.1, 4.3, LandXML) for interoperability with other software and importing models for integrated design and federated model management. Requires the SierraSoft BIM Exchange software extension.
• Information Analysis and Verification
  • Enables simultaneous analysis, verification, and validation of information content to identify and resolve design and modeling errors early, including interference detection and checks for topographic/infrastructural models. Requires the SierraSoft BIM Checking software extension.
• Automated Information Documents
  • Automatically generates various drawings and reports from project and information model data, including geometry annotations, longitudinal profiles, cross sections, and project planimetry.
• Open Format Information Models
  • Creates customizable information models in open formats like IFC and LandXML, adhering to BIM Execution Plan (BEP) specifications.
• Positioning and Construction Support
  • Generates reports, drawings, and models for topographic positioning and use by “machine control” systems, automating design and construction processes.
• As-Built Model Creation
  • Supports creating detailed As-Built models by integrating project data with information acquired during construction, utilizing design and 3D modeling tools.
• Platform for Coordination and Integration
  • Serves as a platform for coordinating multidisciplinary design, allowing sharing and importing of various infrastructure models (railways, roads, hydraulic works, bridges, tunnels, buildings) to support design choices.