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Beams Title Blocks and Borders Connectors Flex Joists Isometric Drawings Misc Drawing Labels Scaffold Bases Scaffold Braces Scaffold Brackets Scaffold Frames Scaffold Ladders Scaffold Putlogs Cuplok Systems Scaffold Etobicoke Systems Scaffold QES Systems Scaffold Safway Systems Scaffold Uniscaff Systems Scaffold Wedgelok Systems Scaffold Shoring Drawings Aluma Shoring Drawings Shoring Braces Hiload Shoring Frame Drawings Ischbek Shoring Drawings Ledger Bearing Shoring Frame Drawings ShorX Shoring Frame Drawings Staging Drawings Tube and Clamp Drawings

 

The Need For Drawings

Every construction site has in place a universal medium used for communication between all trades. Drawings. Drawings are vital to designing and building a structure properly and are the only item at a construction site that includes all aspects of the final structure. A drawing reflects a designers specification on what materials are to be used. An engineer will sometimes review drawings to validate structural integrity. Ultimately, the final cost of a structure is reflected in a drawing. The results of incomplete or inaccurate drawings can be catastrophic.

If the scaffold you build needs
to comply with regulations,
why don't your drawings?

To protect the public and workers, some codes and regulations legally require that drawings be located at the project site. Some of these drawings require certification by a Professional Engineer (PE). You can receive an OSHA citation for not having the required drawings at a job site.

OSHA requires drawings at the job site for the following:

  • Any project that involves Shoring - 1926.703
  • Any project that involves Reshoring - 1926.703
  • Any project that involves Formwork - 1926.703
  • Whenever a PE is required (in various codes below and from PE organizations)

OSHA requires a Professional Engineer be involved for:

  • Tube and coupler scaffolds over 125 feet in height - 1926.452(b)(10)
  • Frame scaffolds over 125 feet in height - 1926.452(c)(6)
  • Pole scaffolds over 60 feet in height - 1926.452(a)(10)
  • Outrigger Scaffolds - 1926.452(i)(8)
  • Rolling scaffolds over 50' in height - 1910.29(b)(5)
  • Scaffolds that will be moved horizontally while employees are on them - 1926.451(f)(5)
  • Powered Platforms and Equipment for Building Maintenance - 1910.66
  • Certain Fall Arrest systems
  • Lift Slab Operations - 1926.705
  • Tiered post shores - 1926.703(b)(8)(i)

California OSHA additionally requires PE involvement for:

  • Wood pole scaffolds over 60' height - Sub 4 Art 22 1643
  • Certain Tube and coupler scaffolds - Sub 4 Art 22 1644(b)(4) & (5)
  • Frame scaffolds over 125 feet in height - Sub 4 Art 22 1644(c)(7)
  • Outrigger Scaffolds - Sub 4 Art 22 16452(a)(3)
  • Trusses and beams over 25' long - Sub 4 Art 29 1710(b)
  • Powered Platforms and Equipment for Building Maintenance - Subchapter 7, Article 6
  • All shoring, reshoring, or formwork that meets the following criteria (PE inspections are also required)
    • Height is greater than 14 feet - Sub 4 Art 29 1717(b)(1)(A)
    • Individual horizontal span lengths exceed 16 feet - Sub 4 Art 29 1717(b)(1)(B)
    • Vehicular or railroad traffic through the falsework or vertical shoring - Sub 4 Art 29 1717(b)(1)(C)

But what good are all the codes and regulations behind these requirements if you can't or don't effectively communicate their importance to the people responsible for completing the project? Most employees are more concerned with cost and time constraints than with regulation compliance. If the drafting process takes into account full consideration of the regulations then it should, in turn, produce a drawing that mirrors the regulations. Does your design staff have instant and quick access to all regulations? If the scaffold you build needs to comply with regulations, why don't your drawings?

What Is CAD?

CAD is a well known acronym that has many different industry buzz words. In the early days it meant Computer Aided Drafting. Now it seems to be short for Computer Aided Design . "Computer Aided" is the key component of the acronym, which simply means that the computer has replaced the drawing board; the tools have changed. Instead of a T-square and drafting table, now all you need is CAD software. But do you still need a draftsman? Yes. If you want CAD Drawings, you need a draftsman that knows how to use CAD.

WHAT IS CAD SOFTWARE?

With CAD software you do the exact same thing that you would do on a manual drawing board; draw lines, circles, ellipses, text, etc. When you're done drawing on the computer it gets printed out to a large format printer (called a plotter) on a vellum or mylar that is ready for blueprinting. Many different companies develop CAD software for varying prices. Each has different features and different claims on how productive they can be. Roughly 80% of the construction industry uses a CAD product called AutoCAD (the current version is AutoCAD 2000 and AutoCAD LT 2000). Since most of the draftsmen in the labor pool are already trained in AutoCAD, you will find it easier to hire people if you use AutoCAD in your company.

WHAT CAD CAN'T DO

CAD can't magically draw and count falswork at the press of a button. There is software out there that claims to be able to do this but frankly, barring a major leap forward in artificial intelligence, scaffold is too complex. How many different ways do you know of to build a tube and clamp scaffold in any given portion of a refinery? To duplicate what a competent scaffold builder knows how to build, the computer would have to duplicate all of the decisions that a scaffold builder would go through. This includes current regulations. CAD is a tool. To use any tool effectively you need people who know how to use it. Sure, these custom scaffolding software packs provide the basic tools, but no matter what you have, it's only as effective as the people that use it. There are some incredibly expensive scaffold-specific CAD packages on the market today that will draw a scaffold without any notes to protect you from liability, let alone any dimensions to show your builders how to build it!

Does Your Business Need CAD?

If you have a need to provide scaffold or shoring drawings for field personnel or clients, then yes, you will benefit from CAD.

It has been estimated that CAD users today spend 60% of their time modifying existing drawings instead of creating new ones. Drawing re-use, which results in production of drawings for a fraction of the cost, is THE primary reason to use CAD.

As an example, say you are awarded a scaffold project that needs drawings. The job has a 60' run of frame scaffolding that is four frames high. Your output would be a title page with notes, a Plan view, a Section and an Elevation. This job would take a good draftsman (manual or CAD) 2 hours or less to complete. Now, next month you have a job that is four frames high, and 50' long. If you compare the two jobs, the title page and section should be exactly the same. For the Plan and Elevation, 5/6 of the job is the same.

All the draftsman needs to do is open up the old drawings, save them with new names, and take out a row of frames for the elevation and plan. Done. This would take less than a 1/2 hour (not including printing, blueprints, etc). Compare the same two projects completed with manual drafting. For the manual way (assuming you don't want to destroy the vellums for the original job), you need to create everything for both projects from scratch. This brings the total drafting time for both projects to 4 hours. For CAD, the total time is 2-1/2 hours. You can easily see how re-use will benefit your CAD department. Depending on how much re-use your department is organized to handle, you should have a big enough library to choose from in no time. If you happen to be in an industry where you have to supply drawings for the exact same project over and over again (such as a power plant boiler), then your benefit from CAD is tremendous.
The biggest time savings in CAD comes from the ability to re-use a component of a drawing. A scaffold or shoring frame is a good example of a component. If you draw this once, why draw it over and over again? AutoCAD helps out by providing a feature called a "drawing block". A drawing block can be thought of as clipart. Once you draw a frame, you'll never need to draw it again; just re-use it.

How Do I Tie All Of This Together?

Whether you're new to CAD or looking to upgrade your current processes, you'll need help. You'll either end up hiring a professional to come in and analyze your business, or end up getting help from someone that knows your business. At BidMaker, we've been through the ropes. We've completed thousands of falsework projects, and we have the high quality standards and processes to prove it.

CAD for Falsework Drawing Blocks

BidMaker CAD for Falsework
We've provided a drawing block library of over 600 pre-drawn components that are common to the shoring and scaffolding industry. Frames, systems scaffold, braces, beams; it's all there. These will save you over 300 hours of drafting time alone.
Next, we've put all our knowledge of CAD drafting processes and AutoCAD standards in a single document. CAD for Falsework also comes with a users guide that includes drafting standards for you to review and use. These CAD standards have been accumulated from years of experience.
Included in the standards are checklists based on the regulations and good practice. Your entire staff can use these to review drawings and ensure that your drawings are regulation compliant.

If you need CAD, CAD for Falsework is your solution!
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