Making Residential Design Easy

Changes often have to be made to architectural and structural drawings, and this project was no exception. However, every change meant that the reinforcement had to be adjusted and the architectural characteristics of the elements re-assigned, as the updated models from the client were sent in the IFC format. This format, when imported, does not have the necessary information assigned to architectural elements, such as surface properties. This is important as it defines how elements are shown in the documentation, such as reinforcement plans and details. With each change, the right materials and visual information (such as patterns, fills, or hatches) had to be re-assigned. Fortunately, Allplan has tools to help with the quick and easy assigning of attributes.

Another useful function in Allplan was the ability to filter elements by a large number of properties. This meant that the right elements could be found easily, and was useful when a change needed to be executed quickly and precisely.

Allplan’s wide variety of possible rebar modifications also made the work much more manageable when working on similar elements. The ability to copy the rebar position, assign a new number to it, and then modify it made the process much faster than just drawing the bar repeatedly and placing it in the model. If there were any changes to the element shape, updating the reinforcement model was also very easy and fast, and in some cases even automatic. Other tools – such as rearranging positions, reinforcement reports, and isolating bars for checking – were also useful and saved valuable design and checking time.