Electrical Substations and Transmission Towers
Virtual Tower Structures® (VTS) is a cutting-edge digital solution offering a powerful new approach to the way electrical substations and transmission towers are designed, engineered, and built. VTS modernizes the entire workflow, from concept to fabrication, through an integrated, model-based environment that replaces traditional, fragmented processes.
Virtual Tower Structures® (VTS) delivers a next-generation digital environment that streamlines the modeling, engineering, and fabrication of electrical substations and transmission towers. It provides a seamless integration of analysis, design, connection design, fabrication, and NC file generation within one unified software environment.
Parametric modeling of substations and transmission towers with automated geometry, bracing, joints, and connection details.
Structural analysis and design of substations and transmission towers in compliance with applicable codes and standards.
Smart fabrication models with customizable connections, machining operations, and clash detection to ensure accurate, build-ready structures.
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We had a great time connecting with the transmission and substation community at the ETS Conference in Dallas last September – and we’re not slowing down.
We’ll be at the 2026 IEEE PES T&D Conference & Exposition in Chicago, May 4–7 at McCormick Place. Come find us at Booth #4852.
Come see SAFI’s VTS Virtual Tower Structures® software in action, an end-to-end integrated solution for the modeling, analysis, design, fabrication, and detailing of electrical substations and transmission towers, all within a single software environment.
We look forward to connecting with engineers, utility professionals, and industry leaders shaping the future of electrical infrastructure.
📍 Chicago, IL | May 4–7, 2026 | IEEE PES T&D 2026 | Booth #4852
Parametric modeling of substations and transmission towers with automated geometry, bracing, joints, and connection details.
Structural analysis and design of substations and transmission towers in compliance with applicable codes and standards.
Smart fabrication models with customizable connections, machining operations, and clash detection to ensure accurate, build-ready structures.
The detailing phase involves extracting manufacturing 3D and 2D drawings, engineering drawings, and detail drawings necessary for fabricating components, including those required for CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machine tools.
Parametric Tower Modeling
Users can model structures using an intuitive graphical user interface powered by DirectX 11 and OpenGL 2.0 for increased speed and capabilities and generate executive and customizable formatted reports in Microsoft Word and Excel worksheets.
The VTS® software is a technology built on a ribbon-based interface, offering a streamlined design element where tools, commands, and options are conveniently organized into tabs and groups for effortless access and navigation.
The ribbon-based graphical user interface of the VTS® software allows to create, analyze and design large and complex models quickly and easily. Models can be shown as lines, wire frames, or can be rendered as 3D solids. Functionalities of the VTS® program allow to generate automatically detail elements in an automatically generated mesh perimeter. An object transparency option is available for various components such as current selection, solid members, plates, surfaces, spatial objects, panels.
Structural Analysis & Design
Engineering of transmission lattice towers and electrical substations is performed seamlessly within VTS®, aligning with the ASCE standard. The software offers comprehensive structural analysis capabilities, including P-Delta, nonlinear, buckling, frequency, seismic, and dynamic analyses, with fully integrated design verification.
VTS® accelerates structure creation using an expansive library of panel types and parametric tools. Automatic generation of wind and ice loads is supported per the selected design code, while a rich repository of panel, rigid connection, and diaphragm prototypes streamlines the modeling process.
Results can be reviewed numerically or graphically, with color-coded charts that clearly visualize limit states across the entire structure or targeted members. All geometric and design parameters — including slenderness ratios and force coefficients — are computed automatically, but remain user-editable through intuitive graphical or tabular interfaces. Member grouping by shared properties further simplifies both modeling and interpretation.
Smart, customizable fabrication model
The fabrication phase involves performing fabrication operations on structural components such as cuts, notches, holes, bolting plates, connection design, and welding.
The Fabrication phase uses the structural model directly from Engineering Mode to generate a complete, production-ready fabrication model. VTS® automates detailing for direct bolt connections, splices, base plates, cap plates, gussets, step bolts, and more, minimizing manual work and ensuring accuracy.
Fabrication operations such as cuts, notches, holes, bolting plates, and welds are intelligently applied, with connection designs optimized for real-world manufacturing. Users retain full control to modify details via intuitive graphical or tabular tools.
The result is a fully detailed structure, ready for fabrication output, reducing errors, accelerating delivery, and maintaining full design integrity.
including direct bolt connections, splices, overlaps, diaphragms, rigid connections and other structural connections.
including cap plates, base plates, gussets, blocks, clash detection and other fabrication tools.
Bill of Materials & Drawings
The Detailing phase focuses on generating all required drawings for fabrication, including 2D and 3D manufacturing drawings, engineering drawings, and detail drawings. VTS® extracts these directly from the fabrication model, ensuring consistency and precision across every component.
Editable DWG files and NC (Numerical Control) outputs are created automatically and can be exported directly, ready for CNC machine tools and shop-floor production.
Want full access to our VTS training content? If you’ve purchased a license, simply fill out the form below with your registered email and product license key. Once verified, we’ll send you access to the full video tutorials.