Session 2.2
Structural walls for transport projects using Civil 3D – A journey from frustration and banging your head against a wall to an automated, optimised process
Synopsis:
How to plan and develop automated solutions using Visual and Code programming methods
Learning Objectives:
1. Understand the automation development process via visual and code programming
2. Explain the process used in Automating processes
3. Explain the benefits of Automation for repetitive tasks
Body:
Undertaking labour intensive repetitive tasks typically does not represent good value for money in relation to information being delivered and can often lead to cost and time overruns. During the design development phase, late design changes results in frustration and stress for the person undertaking the task.
On a recent project, we were tasked with producing plan and profile for 6km noise walls (Approximately 1500 steel posts and precast panels) and 5km retaining walls (Concrete and Limestone). Traditional methods would have taken around 160 hours to setup the plans and profiles alone.
How do we increase efficiency, quality, and accuracy? We automate the process.
See how automation using Visual Programming (Dynamo/Grasshopper) or API (C#, VB.NET/Python/VBA) can change the way we approach delivering projects.
From identifying the initial problem through to the current product, the presentation will explore the workflows that were developed and adopted including planning, programming, executing, and refining, highlight pain points and successes, and provide valuable tips and tricks.
We’ll cover the advantages, disadvantages of using Visual Programming vs API, the level of experience required, and tips and tricks to make your automated solutions more effective and agile.
Yielding significant performance improvements from our manual process, coupled with increased accuracy and available data, we have been able to better connect our contracting partners and design teams. Through this, we have been able to effectively utilize the tailored level of information at concept, tender, and detail design stages to collaborate, cost, plan, and construct the walls, allowing more time to be spent on value engineering and quality processes.
The automated walls tool has been rolled out nationally and has changed our workflows, improved our productivity, quality, and reduced frustration.