Structural work

Check the connection with the prefab before you pour: the model right there, on site.

An opening that shifts twenty centimetres, or an anchor that is no longer in the right place: on site itself that is hard to spot on a setting-out drawing. Field-Viewer places the foundation model next to the prefab element that will go on top of it later, so levels, anchors and openings are correct before the concrete truck arrives.

The Field-Viewer screen in split view. On the left the 3D model of gridline 3 from Janssens New Build: a foundation slab of 4 800 by 3 000 millimetres and 250 thick, with on top of it the prefab wall element of 3 640 by 2 700, a timber frame wall with a window opening and cladding, standing 400 millimetres from the slab edge. Further along the slab a square opening for the drainage. A finger taps two points, the joint between the slab and the wall and the centre of that opening, and the measured distance 1 800 millimetres sits on the dimension line between them. On the right the same junction as a section: the concrete slab with concrete hatching, edge insulation against the slab edge, an anchor bolt running from the concrete through the bottom plate, the wall as a double line above it with a break line, the level mark of plus 0.15 on the top of the slab and the dimensions 250 for the slab thickness and 2 700 for the wall height. At the top the version chip V7, at the bottom the buttons select, measure, layers and report.JANSSENS NEW BUILD · GRIDLINE 3V73D MODELSECTION1 8002502 700+0,15SELECTMEASURELAYERSREPORT

Anchors that do not quite fit

An opening for the drainage pipe sits twenty centimetres further along on the rebar drawing than on the prefab drawing for the wall that will go on top of it later. Anyone who only discovers that after the concrete truck has already been and gone breaks out a chunk of fresh concrete a day later.

Overlay the foundation model and the timber frame model in Field-Viewer, and those twenty centimetres jump out straight away, before the formwork is even up. You adjust the opening at the drawing table, not with a breaker on site.

What you check before the pour

Three things determine whether the prefab element will connect properly later, and you see all three in the same model.

Level

The level of the foundation slab determines whether the bottom rail of the wall starts at the right height later. Read the level straight off the model instead of relying on a figure that has been retyped three times.

Anchors and anchoring

The position of every anchor bolt in the starter bars has to match the bottom rail of the prefab element that goes on top. If an anchor is wrong, you see it on the model before the concrete has set.

Openings for pipework

A sleeve for drainage or rainwater that is drawn in too late costs a core drilling in reinforced concrete afterwards. The model shows the opening already at the rebar stage, not only once the installation goes in.

Checking dimensions without a loose A3 sheet

A setting-out drawing on a damp A3 sheet quickly becomes unreadable on a busy site, especially with a few signatures and revision clouds on it. Field-Viewer does not replace that sheet with a screen showing the same drawing, but with the full model, in which you can measure a wall thickness or a centre distance yourself.

If you are not sure whether a basement wall has been set out according to plan, you simply check it in the model instead of guessing from an old setting-out drawing. On a concrete structure, where a wrong dimension cannot be milled away afterwards, that difference matters.

If something changes, you see it

A rebar drawing sometimes still changes after the first pour, for instance because an opening gets moved. On site the old version can then still be lying around the site office for days.

Field-Viewer pulls in the published version as soon as it is ready, even on a tablet without its own BIM licence. You pour the concrete to today's drawing, not last week's.

The Field-Viewer screen with the reinforcement plan of slab F2: a slab bay of 5 400 by 2 400 millimetres with the reinforcement mesh at 200 centres and the level mark plus 0.15. The opening is tapped in its new position, with the old position dotted beside it and the dimension 600 between the two; around the opening lie the trimming bars.JANSSENS NEW BUILD · SLAB F2V7REBARCHANGED IN V7600LEVEL +0.15OPENING MOVED · TRIM 2 Ø 12SELECTMEASUREREPORT

Frequently asked questions about structural work

Does our structural work crew need to be able to read a BIM model to work with this?

No, Field-Viewer does not replace experience, only the paper drawing. You rotate, zoom and measure in the model the way you would on a drawing, without training in a BIM package.

Does this also work if the model comes from a package other than Vertex BD?

Yes. You open an IFC export of a rebar or shell model the same way, whether it comes from Revit, Tekla or another package.

What about a change to the rebar drawing after the first pour?

As soon as the drawing office publishes the new version, it is ready on every screen on site. Nobody pours concrete based on a drawing that has since been superseded.

See it on your own project

Request a demo with your own project, no obligation. We will look together at whether Field-Viewer suits your team in Flanders, in your workshop or on your site.

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