Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for the computer-aided planning of a plant in the basic materials industry, in particular a metallurgical plant and/or facility, with provision of component and/or plant data in a data structure and input of user-specific data and/or specifications via a user interface (6) by an authorized user (1) and configuration of the plant by linking user-specific data and/or specifications together with component and/or plant data present in the data structure by means of models describing plants in the basic materials industry and/or the processes used in the basic materials industry, and output of the configured product in the form of a structured configuration proposal. The present invention also relates to a configurator.

Abstract: In a process for continuously casting a metal strand by casting metal into a straight, vertically oriented mold and subsequently drawing off the strand formed in the mold, the straight strand at first is bent into a circular arc shape in a bending zone along a transition curve, is guided along a circular arc guide and finally is straightened in a final straightening zone along a transition curve and, after this, is extracted via an approximately horizontal straight guide.