CATIA V5 in the service of architecture

The Sagrada Familia Foundation, given the task of completing the temple’s construction, put its confidence in Dassault Systèmes’ solutions to carry out the project of mechanising the granite directly from 3D models.

Dassault Systèmes and their partner, IT consulting and service provider T-Systems Iberia, have worked with the La Sagrada Familia’s Boar of Construction since 2001 to develop a mathematical algorithm that will permit stone-machining tools to overcome obstacles to the construction of the apse capital. The general architect, Jordi Bonet i Armengol, said his team, thanks to the mathematical rules, can now continue Gaudí’s project, started in 1882. It was in 1989 that architect Mark Burry first turned to IT solutions for the project’s design. “We are saving a great deal of time because we can now design a piece in ten minutes where six months were previously needed to design

OUTSTANDING, INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY
With CATIA V5, mechanics and architecture come together and make it possible to reproduce any shape in 3D and control the movement of the machining tools, particularly milling machines. The stone-drilling machines use digital design archives to generate the paths that programme their movement and enable successive cavities to be made in the capital.

As Juan José Blasco, Director of Operations, T-Systems Iberia, explained: “It's a question of mathematics applied to numerical control to correct the movement limitations of the machining tools against the hardness of the type of granite used in this construction due to its crystallographic nature.”

The machine reproduction of the tools ellipsoidal movement is a pioneering technique that will give greater precision to the completion of the capital in the way Antoni Gaudí intended. This reworked capital will be complemented by another nine capitals, the apse supporting the superior structure, and eighteen columns along the cathedral's Passion façade.

The sponsors of the project also emphasised that the application of this technology will speed up the preparation of the stone to create the capitals. The result is an extraordinary reduction in the time needed to complete the stonework. the same piece manually,” emphasised Mr Burry.

THE FUTURE
“There are still many challenges to overcome and we still do not have answers for all of Gaudí's ideas, such as the cross atop the cathedral,” said Jordi Bonet i Armengol. “We probably still have twenty years beforewe reach that stage, but the technology we are using with Dassault Systèmes' PLM solutions is definitely helping us achieve a much more efficient pace towards the project’s completion”