The VanderWal Homes and Commercial Group, a member of the Sarnia Lambton Industrial Alliance, is now using specialized software called Steel Engine which allows the company’s products to be used in 3D modeling and are part of a nation-wide network which designs “clash-free” buildings reducing construction time and cutting down on unexpected problems.
“With Steel Engine, the cold-formed steel building fabricator can create, attach and extract information in true AutoCAD 3D environment…and also brings roof, floor and wall design into one central program providing true whole structure modeling capability,” says Ziad Hadyeh, sales manager at VanderWal.
Hadyeh says VanderWal Group is one of very few companies which can supply cold-form steel engineering design with Steel Engine, to aid in designing large steel framed building.
Hadyeh says construction firms across Canada can work together to put together a structure virtually. “Engineers can collaborate with different firms on products…and put it together in a model to see how it works together,” says Hadyeh. “They can see if there are any problems.”
That, he says, reduces glitches when the building actually occurs. “You can see a potential problem before it actually happens.”
The technology, Hadyeh says, can cut construction time between by 33 to 50 percent; for example Mariners’ Village in Point Edward took only three weeks to build each four-storey condo unit.
And Hadyeh says the ability to design the building virtually means VanderWal can submit more competitive bids for projects, saving its customers thousands. “Most construction companies put in a contingency for any potential problems; depending on the size of the building, that can be hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he says. “We don’t have to put in that cash contingency and that is reflected in the cost savings to the owner.”