Tim Nickle
DokaCAD Formwork
Throughout the development of the concrete trades model our team encountered several unique insights as the how a building of this scale is typically sequenced. In particular, the first 3 stories of Johnson Cobbe is supported via concrete superstructure split into two zones to be scheduled separately. This allows multiple trade crews to simultaneously coordinate their construction activities, saving the General Contractor time and money.
To reflect these coordinated efforts I developed an additional Formwork Model using the Revit plug-in DokaCAD, designed by the construction consulting firm Doka, based in Germany. Through this software, I was able to generate high fidelity formwork to represent our concrete construction knowledge in a comprehensive 4D simulation.
The tools provided in the plug-in were straight forward. The software came with an extensive library containing all of the various Doka products loaded as generic models. Formwork for concrete columns or walls are simply generated be selecting the element, selecting each of it's vertical edges, and simply clicking "generate". Unique components such as ladders and platforms are considered too and are automatically adjusted according to the concrete elements shape and proximity to neighboring elements.
Slab tables however, proved to be much more challenging and requires the use of a confusing proprietary user-interface. On top of this, the complexity of Johnson Cobbe's concrete slab design possessed to much variation across beam types and curved geometries on a floor-to-floor basis.
I was able to successfully integrate and schedule the Formwork for all concrete pile caps, walls, and columns alongside our existing Navisworks Timeliner for our Final Project Presentation, and as a result, have accurately simulated the construction of Johnson Cobbe's concrete superstructure.
If I was to have conducted this process again, I would have recreated less sophisticated versions of these concrete forms. As realistic as Doka's family library is, the completed Revit File contained over 100,000 separate components, substantially slowing down my computer and subsequent progression.
I had done this in other instances; designing my own modifiable formwork families for pile caps and cylindrical concrete columns. The families have instance properties linked to arrays to maintain the spacing of supporting prop members after the dimensions of the family have been adjusted to suit the concrete form.
In hindsight, I would have associated the formwork to levels rather than worksets to make the assignment of selection sets within Navisworks more efficient. Grouping the generic models would have been a smart idea too, as it would have made the task of copying similar concrete forms across the entire building easier to manage.
