Step by step
- Open the Engineering tab. The summary at the top shows how many checks pass, warn or fail, and the plant and services area as a share of GBA. Open a discipline to see its inputs, results and checks.
- Structural: choose the system or leave it automatic, then set the column grid, transfer structure, concrete grade, wind region (AS/NZS 1170.2), earthquake hazard Z (AS 1170.4) and the design loads. Read the slab, lateral system, transfer and the concrete and steel quantities under Results.
- Geotechnical: tick whether an investigation has been done, choose the soil and the AS 2870 site class, and enter bearing, groundwater depth and rock depth when known. The results give the footing type, basement retention, dewatering, rock excavation and the number of boreholes.
- Civil: set the design rainfall intensity, the runoff coefficients and the detention rate (litres per square metre of impervious area) from the DCP. Optional: a rainwater tank size, the platform RL, the drainage run and the number of vehicle crossings. Read the on-site detention, rainwater reuse, driveway and ramp check, site levels, earthworks and retaining walls.
- Every result that costs money appears as a line in the Costs tab (boreholes, piles, rock excavation, tanking and dewatering, transfer slab, detention, retaining walls, cut and fill, driveway pavement) and in the Excel export and the PDF report.
- The figures are concept-stage rules of thumb to brief each consultant, with the NCC, AS/NZS 1170, AS 2870 and AS/NZS 3500 clauses named in the results. They are not an engineering design.
Transcript
The Engineering tab. The Engineering tab reads the current option and sizes every discipline at concept stage: architecture, structural, civil, geotechnical, hydraulic, mechanical, electrical and fire. Each group has its inputs, its results and a list of checks, and the figures flow into the Costs tab, the report and the exports.
Structural. Structural picks a system from the building: a flat plate, post-tensioned slabs, a core with P T slabs for a high rise, or a light frame for houses. Set the column grid, the concrete grade, the wind region and the earthquake hazard. The results give the slab thickness, the lateral system, whether a transfer level is needed above the basement, and the concrete and reinforcement quantities.
Geotechnical. Geotechnical describes the soil report. Choose the soil and the A S twenty-eight seventy site class, or enter the allowable bearing pressure, the groundwater depth and the depth to rock. The designer then decides between pad footings and piles, flags a tanked basement and dewatering below the water table, rock excavation, and how many boreholes the investigation needs.
Civil. Civil sizes the stormwater. The design rainfall, the runoff coefficients and the detention rate from the council D C P give the on-site detention volume, the rainwater tank and the site drainage. It checks the driveway grade and the ramp, sets the platform level from the terrain, and estimates cut and fill and the retaining walls. Every result that costs money becomes a line in the Costs tab.