Our first attempt at simplifying our engineering efforts was to create a custom takeoff program. We were already creating our own shop drawings, what if we could use the geometric data from Autocad to drive our material takeoffs and fabrication tickets?
We started with an article out of Cadence magazine that showed how you could attach xdata to entities inside Autocad to create BOM information. We created an Access database that could hold the information and using the Open Design Alliance libraries, we were able to extract the xdata from the Autocad drawings and create a table of information inside Access.
The tag lines inside Autocad were system agnostic, allowing you to apply different systems to each elevation or change the system information without editing the data inside Autocad. Routines were created to understand where and how each part would intersect other parts so shear block clips and notching could be automatically applied. Once the data was inside Access, we could create custom reports or write code to fill out our existing material forms in Excel. The Excel forms were then customized to be able to feed directly into our accounting system so we could eliminate almost all of the data entry duplications.
The tag lines would represent a part (lets say a horizontal). One line would have a tag called “Horizontal” and would know what elevation it belonged to. In the database, you could assign your horizontal body, body stop, face stop and shear block clips to that tag line. You could then create adjustments to the line length. maybe your face stop needs to stop 1/16″ short or the shear block clips need to be a fixed length. This data could be arranged into systems and then applied to any elevation. Finish colors could be assigned at the system or elevation level. Overrides could be created inside Autocad for any individual part that needed to be adjusted. Vertical mullions in an elevation would look for horizontal intersections and automatically assign machinings at those locations.
We have been using this system for about 6 years now and have tied the data output to our machines and can create text files to feed the Emmegi software and also some of the other machines in our shop. We have increased accuracy and by creating a very specific method for takeoffs and fabrication tickets we have been able to hire entry level people and make them successful within 2 to 3 months.
But it still isn’t easy. It still requires database and Autocad skills. We have had limited success getting sales to use the program because of this. When you get a multi-million dollar project with 6 custom systems, it still takes 3 weeks to create and check the takeoffs and another 6 weeks to create and check the fabrication tickets. That is only one person which makes if really cost effective, but because we are using Access, we can not have more than one person working on one project and that also is a limitation that hampers our ability to get things done faster.
On the plus side, the shop gets really consistent tickets and paperwork no matter who does the work. The purchasing department and project management departments have very little data entry to do because most of our data is digital (shop work orders, purchase orders, etc…)
