Total Station Layout
Acquiring a CAD File
In order to orientate your Total Station for laying out lines, you must have a file that includes the lines for your concrete walls, and other elements you may need for layout.
Upon request, the project’s Architect may issue you, the Concrete Contractor, the CAD file that the blueprints are made from, but if the Structural Engineer’s plan shows additional walls not on the Architectural plan, a request for the Structural CAD file should be made. However, there is no obligation or guarantee that either party will release to you their proprietary file. On the contrary, the file(s) you receive may contain too much information/linework, causing your total station controller to run slowly. If the file is organized into layers, you may be able to turn some of them off, but there is also no guarantee that the elements are organized or separated in a fashion that suits the needs of a Concrete Contractor.
Because of the variables in acquiring a usable CAD file, you could be left to create rudimentary linework with the Total Station tablet/field controller based off the original drawings. This can take anywhere from a few minutes to a full day depending on the project and number of plans, details, and lines needed. It can be a frustrating process.
Laying out formwork lines with repeatable precision is most effectively be done by using a Robotic Total Station and CAD file, setting up the instrument based off the licensed Surveyor’s building pins. To store location of the building and pins, it is best practice to create your own control points after the initial setup
Another option: send the original drawings to Crete Sheets, where we will draw the concrete elements from all the relevant pages, combining them into a single organized DWG format file that can be imported into your Total Station and used seamlessly for your layout and concrete forming needs.
Why Our CAD Files?
As Concrete Contractors ourselves, acquiring a usable CAD file has been a personal problem of ours since preforming layout via Total Station. We also noticed we spent more time drawing lines on the tablet than executing a layout. After some research, AutoCAD became a viable solution.
Because of our 10+ years (and counting) of concrete forming experience, we know exactly which elements Concrete Contractors need from the Architectural and Structural drawings to create a usable CAD file for formwork layout.
Our files:
DWG (.dwg) format
Neatly organized layers, all of which are colour-coded to stand out from one another on a Total Station tablet.
Each layer (Walls, Curbs, Footings, Wall Dimensions, Footing Dimensions, Point Loads, Columns, etc.) can be hidden in the tablet software to further simplify the view depending on your present task.