TrimBIM import enhancements

TrimBIM Import allows you to automatically generate a connected, solvable model in Tekla Structural Designer directly from a Tekla Structures model.

Summary of the latest TrimBIM enhancements

'Publish to Tekla Structural Designer' is now automatically available in Tekla Structures 2026 (as a Preview feature).
You can now publish to the cloud from Tekla Structures and receive the model from the cloud in Tekla Structural Designer (as a Preview feature).
Utilize expanded material support to import concrete members, walls with openings, and slabs with openings, moving beyond the initial steel-only capability.
Streamline workflows by simultaneously importing the semantic model overlaid by a reference model.
New functionality in Plan and Frame views allows you to snap to the reference model shadow layer when inserting Tekla Structural Designer objects, modeling grid lines, or construction lines. The shadow layer can also be snapped to when using measure commands and dimension commands.

The new streamlined workflow (in this case illustrating cloud publishing for a concrete model) is as follows:

In Tekla Structures: run File > Export > Publish to Tekla Structural Designer (Preview) in order to export the model.
In Tekla Structural Designer: import the published model from the Import Models window. (Note that this window has been renamed - it used to be called "Reference Models" in previous releases.)
After clicking Import, the following dialogs are displayed:
- Import Model - use this to select the model to be imported
- Edit Model - use this to specify the location of the imported semantic model and reference model overlay, and configure the overlay layers to be imported
- Import Semantic Model - use this to map the Tekla Structures part names, materials and profiles to Tekla Structural Designer equivalents, and to confirm the specific planes to be imported.
Note: If you click Cancel on the Import Semantic Model dialog, the reference model will still be displayed, but the semantic model (i.e. the connected, solvable model) will not be created.