113 — Pick Points¶
A pick point is a lifting insert cast into the panel — the anchor a crane hook attaches to when the panel is stood up. Get them wrong and the panel cracks on the lift, so this is one of the few features where the drawing is a safety document.
Note
A browser version covers part of this lesson. Open it here — it lists exactly which steps it does not cover, so you know what to come back to AutoCAD for.
Where it lives¶
Pick Points has both routes: a tile on Main Panel Details, and a Pick Points command on the ConstructiVision menu. See lesson 101 for what the two routes mean — briefly, the tile saves and defers the redraw to Main Panel Details’ OK, while the command redraws immediately.
How many¶
Across both sample projects — 146 panels — the picture is clear:
pick points |
panels |
|---|---|
none |
86 |
four |
41 |
five |
9 |
one |
7 |
two |
2 |
Four is the working answer for a panel that has them at all. The 86 with none are mostly small panels and site drawings; the fives are the tall ones.
That distribution is worth reading before you place any: if you find yourself entering three or six, check the panel against a four-point layout first, because the corpus says four is what real jobs use.
It is columns times rows, not a list of inserts¶
This is the thing to get right before you touch the dialog:
“Then set Row elevations — the column pattern repeats at each. Points = columns x rows.” — the dialog’s own instruction
You set columns across the panel and row elevations up it. The column pattern repeats at every row, so the point count is columns × rows, and the dialog shows the result as you work: 2 columns x 2 rows = 4 pick points.
So the four-point layout is 2 × 2 — not four inserts placed one at a time.
Placing them¶
Set the columns — a left and a right position across the panel. Auto-symmetry will mirror the left column to the right for you.
Set the row elevations — the columns repeat at each one.
Two columns × two rows gives the standard four-point layout.
OK.
Pick Point Hardware Type is materials-list only. The dialog says so beside the field — (materials list only — not drawn). The type you enter reaches the take-off and will never appear on the drawing. If you enter one and then look for it on the panel, it is not missing and you have not mis-set it: it was never going to be drawn.
Warning
The dialog carries its own caution, and it is worth repeating here: actual Pick Point placement must be determined by a qualified engineer. ConstructiVision records the layout and carries it to the drawing and the take-off. It does not calculate lifting stresses, size an insert, or approve a rigging arrangement.
Reading the result¶
Pick points draw as marks on the panel face. Their positions are the deliverable — a lifting insert half a foot from where the drawing says is a different insert.
Warning
This drawing does not size the insert or certify the lift. ConstructiVision records where the picks go and carries that through to the panel drawing and the take-off. It does not calculate lifting stresses, choose an insert capacity, or approve a rigging arrangement. Those are engineering decisions and they belong to the engineer of record.
Watch the lesson¶
Note
What this recording does and does not demonstrate. It places a four-point set and shows the panel redrawn with the marks on it.
It is not a check that the marks land where the numbers say. Entity counts — which is what the lesson’s gate gathers — are blind to position: a pick point at the wrong elevation counts exactly the same as one placed correctly. Confirming placement needs a coordinate comparison, which is separate work.
This lesson was blocked until recently by CV-1907, where the dialog redrew eight points on a panel that has four. That is fixed; this lesson exists because it is.