49. Concrete FAQ — Canonical Knowledge Base¶
Date: 2026-05-14 (Sprint 20) Status: Scaffold — schema defined, authority catalog seeded, awaiting first user question. Role: Question-first companion to 48. Feature Inventory, Knowledge Base, and Tutorial Backbone. Doc 48 answers “what does the product do?”; doc 49 answers “what does the industry say about the concrete problem the product is solving?” Every entry is a single Q→A with cited authorities, regional/customer variations, and pointers to every code/UI/website/tutorial surface where the same rule should live.
Governing Directives¶
New-hire findability directive (user, 2026-05-14): “pretend I’m brand new guy with no experience and be able to find both the answer and the guardrails somewhere in our system.” — Every entry must be locatable by grepping on the question’s noun phrase. The Short answer is written for a first-week hire with no concrete background. The Long answer carries the engineering nuance.
Corpus-wide cross-reference directive (user, 2026-05-14): “cross reference them with authoritive sources throughout the entire corpus of our documentation, codebase, cv-cad conventions, cv-web conventions, tutorial ideas and notes, etc.” — Every entry lists the touchpoints the answer must land in (AutoLISP STANDARDS-TRACE tag, DCL Help-button map, cv-web
<HelpTooltip>, publicfaq.html, tutorial script, doc 48 FI row, doc 41 parity row).Regional adaptation directive (user, 2026-05-14): “some of the answers may vary by location but we need that kind of stuff weaved into our GUIs and code comments too so we can adapt for each customer.” — Every entry has a Regional / customer variations table with at minimum the default row (TCA + ACI). Variants are seed data for the future
region-profiles.jsonruntime config (Phase 2).Customer-facing voice directive (carried from doc 48, user 2026-05-13): Short answer is brochure-grade — no
mp_dlg,md_dlg,progcont,vlx,dcl,c:csv,entmaketokens. Engineering-only gotchas live in49b-internal-faq-gotchas.md(created lazily when the first engineering-only entry surfaces; carriesinternal-onlyJira label per Naming Model 2).
Section 1 — How to use this document¶
As a new hire: find your question’s noun (e.g. embed, dowel, bond breaker, lift insert) by grepping 49-concrete-faq.md. Read the Short answer. Follow the Long answer and citations when you need the rule, not just the gist.
As an engineer touching code: when an FAQ entry’s touchpoints list your file, add the STANDARDS-TRACE block citing the FAQ-NNN. Example: ;; FAQ-007: bond breaker shall fully release panel from slab — see docs/source/modernization-2026/49-concrete-faq.md#faq-007.
As a marketer or partner-engineer: the Short answer is brochure-quotable as-is. The Regional / customer variations table is the source for “does this rule apply to my jurisdiction?” content.
As a tutorial scriptwriter: every CV-114 video script (in 50-tutorial-scripts/) lists the FAQ-NNN entries it covers in a Talking Points section.
Section 2 — Entry schema (template)¶
Every FAQ entry follows this exact shape so a grep tool (or a future build-time script that generates webpage/Simplestruct/cv/faq.html and webpage/Simplestruct/cv-web/src/data/faq-index.json) can traverse it mechanically.
### FAQ-NNN — <question, customer-facing, no internal tokens>
**Short answer (new-hire grade):** one paragraph, plain English.
**Long answer (engineering nuance):** the precise rule, numbers, edge cases.
**STANDARDS-TRACE (tier order: Regulation > Industry-Standard > Best-Practice > Common-Practice > Patent-IP)**
- [Regulation] <citation, or "none located">
- [Industry-Standard] <citation, or "none located">
- [Best-Practice] <citation, or "none located">
- [Common-Practice] <citation, or "none located">
- [Patent-IP] <patent file + claim #, or "n/a"> ← private text stays in docs-sensitive/
**Regional / customer variations:**
| Jurisdiction / Customer | Variant rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Default (TCA + ACI) | <rule> | <cite> |
| <state / region / customer override> | <variant> | <cite> |
**Cross-reference touchpoints:**
- AutoLISP: `<file>:<func>` — STANDARDS-TRACE block tagged `;; FAQ-NNN`
- DCL: `<dialog.dcl>` field key `<key>` → Help button routes to FAQ-NNN
- cv-web: `<Component.tsx>` `<field>` → `<HelpTooltip faq="FAQ-NNN" />`
- Website: `webpage/Simplestruct/cv/faq.html#faq-NNN`
- Tutorial: video CV-NNN — "<title>" — talking point #<n>
- Feature inventory: doc 48 FI-NNN — `<feature name>`
- Parity row: doc 41 §X.Y row Z
- Patent: `docs-sensitive/patents/0X-<name>.md` claim #<n>
**Gotchas / known bugs:** bug-tracker IDs, DFMEA RPNs, VLX-vs-source-mode behavioral differences.
**Maintainer notes:** open questions, when the user last confirmed the rule, what to revisit if a higher tier supersedes.
Tier-order rule: the citation actually relied on is the lowest tier with a non-empty entry. When a higher tier later publishes guidance on the same rule, the entry’s STANDARDS-TRACE block is the grep target — find every entry, evaluate the new authority, update the citation and any code-side STANDARDS-TRACE blocks that point at the same FAQ-NNN in the same commit.
Patent-IP tier rule: the public doc cites by file + claim number only. The claim text itself stays in docs-sensitive/patents/<file>.md. A private reverse index lives at docs-sensitive/patents/patent-claim-faq-map.md.
Section 4 — Touchpoint conventions¶
Each FAQ entry’s Cross-reference touchpoints list points to surfaces where the same rule must also live. The conventions per surface:
AutoLISP (src/x32/TB11-01x32/*.lsp, src/x64/TB11-01x64/*.lsp):
Add a STANDARDS-TRACE block at the function whose rule the FAQ encodes (4-tier +
[Patent-IP]if applicable, per CLAUDE.md format).Tag it with
;; FAQ-NNN: <one-line>so agrep -r "FAQ-NNN"over the repo returns the code site.Extends the existing pattern at
src/x64/TB11-01x64/panatt.lspandsrc/x64/TB11-01x64/dowels.lsp.
DCL (*.dcl):
DCL has no native field-level tooltip API. Use dialog-level help via the existing Help button (e.g.
calc_dlg.dclHelp button).A sibling
<dialog>-help.mdper dialog maps field-key → FAQ-NNN.A shared helper
(csv_open-faq "FAQ-NNN")incsvtech.lspopens the renderedfaq.html#faq-NNNin the user’s browser.
cv-web (webpage/Simplestruct/cv-web/src/):
A
<HelpTooltip faq="FAQ-NNN" />component (lightweight popover) readsfaq-index.json(build-time-generated from this doc).Tooltip body uses the Short answer + the Regional / customer variations row matching the current tenant’s
region-profile(Phase 2; default-row only in Phase 1).
Public website (webpage/Simplestruct/cv/):
faq.htmlrendered from the customer-facing portion of this doc (recommended: defer publishing until ~10 entries exist).glossary.htmladded when concrete-vocabulary entries accumulate.
Tutorial scripts (docs/source/modernization-2026/50-tutorial-scripts/):
One
.mdper CV-114 child video. Each script’s Talking Points section cites FAQ-NNN entries.
Feature inventory and parity (48. Feature Inventory, Knowledge Base, and Tutorial Backbone, 41. Competitive Parity Checklist — ConstructiVision vs Industry Benchmark):
Forward pointer (FAQ → FI / parity row) lives in this doc per entry.
Reverse pointer (FI → FAQ) added in periodic sweeps of doc 48, not per-question.
Patents (docs-sensitive/patents/):
Public citation: file + claim # only.
Private reverse index:
docs-sensitive/patents/patent-claim-faq-map.md.
Section 5 — Regional / customer variation model¶
For the foreseeable Phase 1 cadence, variants live inline in each FAQ entry’s table. No runtime config yet.
Phase 2 (future, tracked as a separate Jira Feature under CV-150 or CV-161 — TBC when scoped):
Build-time generator reads each entry’s Regional / customer variations table and emits
webpage/Simplestruct/cv-web/src/data/region-profiles.json.<HelpTooltip>and a future AutoLISP(csv_lookup-region-rule "FAQ-NNN")helper read the JSON at runtime.Tenant’s region is set in a single cv-web settings panel; AutoLISP side reads a dictionary entry written at site setup.
Until then, the doc 49 tables ARE the data.
Section 6 — Verification checklist (per entry)¶
Before marking a FAQ entry complete:
STANDARDS-TRACE has at least one tier with a real citation (not all
none located).Regional / customer variations table has the Default (TCA + ACI) row populated.
Touchpoints list at least one code/UI surface (even if the edit is deferred).
New-hire findability: the question’s noun phrase appears in the heading. If a reader might search for a synonym, add an anchor in
csv-manual.mdorwebpage/Simplestruct/cv/that redirects to FAQ-NNN.Patent-IP citations name the file + claim # only; no claim text in this public doc.
Sphinx build succeeds;
python scripts/ensure_utf8_encoding.pypasses.Session ledger row added (Section 8).
Section 7 — FAQ entries¶
FAQ-001 — What are weld connections, where in the prints do you find them, and how are they drawn?¶
Terminology note (important): “Prints” in this FAQ means the upstream architectural and structural drawings issued by the Architect of Record (AoR) and Engineer of Record (EoR) — the documents the panel-detailer reads in to ConstructiVision. “Shop drawings” means the panel-by-panel elevation, dimension, and rigging sheets ConstructiVision outputs for fabrication and erection. The question “where on the prints” is asking about the upstream source — the sheets the detailer hunts through to extract values for the CV dialog — not about where CV draws the embed on its own output.
Short answer (new-hire grade): A weld connection is a steel plate cast flush into the face of a tilt-up concrete panel, with headed studs or rebar anchors welded to the back so they grip the concrete. After the panel is lifted and braced, beams, joists, girders, ledgers, or adjacent panels are field-welded to the exposed plate. On the EoR’s prints, you don’t find weld connections on the panel-elevation sheet itself (that page usually shows openings and overall geometry); the source data lives in the structural drawings — foundation plans (panel-base connections), roof framing plans (joist-seat and ledger connections), floor framing plans (mezzanine/multi-story connections), wall sections (cross-sections through the connection points), and the panel connection details sheets (S-5xx series in most offices). Many commercial structural sets also include an Embedment Schedule (also called Embed Schedule or Connection Schedule) on the general-structural-notes sheet (S-001 / S-002) or the first details sheet (S-501) that lists every embed type, plate size, anchor pattern, weld notes, and capacity in one table — yes, this is real and the takeoff person should look for it before manually compiling specs from the details. The plates themselves are bought from specialty manufacturers (Dayton Superior, Meadow Burke, A.L. Patterson) or shop-fabricated to a published embed-plate detail.
Long answer (engineering nuance):
What they are. A weld connection is an embedded steel anchor — typically an ASTM A36 or A572 Grade 50 plate, 1/4” to 3/4” thick — with headed concrete anchor studs welded to the back per
AWS-D1.1and the stud manufacturer’s procedure (Nelson, Stud Welding Products, etc.). Stud diameters are usually 1/2”, 5/8”, or 3/4”; lengths are sized so the head develops the required pull-out capacity in the concrete perACI-318Chapter 17 (anchorage to concrete). The plate face sits flush with the form face during the pour so the finished panel has a smooth steel target.Where on the EoR’s prints to find the source values. Weld connections are almost never spelled out on the architectural panel elevation. They live in the structural set, distributed across the sheet series where the structural system that frames into the panel is documented:
Foundation plan (
S-1xxseries) — panel-to-foundation connections: dowel ties, foundation-anchor plates, slab-edge embeds, holdowns. The plan view tags each panel base with the relevant detail callout.Roof framing plan (
S-2xxorS-3xx) — joist seats, joist-girder bearing plates, ledger angles, beam pockets, deck-to-panel attachments. Each panel that supports a roof element gets an elevation tag pointing into the detail sheets for that connection family.Floor framing plans (mezzanines, multi-story) — same role as the roof plan but at intermediate levels.
Wall sections (
S-4xx) — vertical cuts through the panel showing all connections at their true elevations. This is often the cleanest single-sheet view for picking up Y (elevation) dimensions.Panel connection details (
S-5xx) — the large-scale detail blow-ups of every unique connection type. Each detail shows plate dimensions, anchor stud pattern, weld symbols, paint requirements, special inspection notes.Architectural elevations (
A-2xx) — show panel locations and overall geometry but rarely embed positions. Useful for cross-checking panel orientation and visible features (reveals, openings) that may constrain embed placement.Specifications, section 03 47 13 (Tilt-Up Concrete) and 05 12 00 (Structural Steel Framing) — names the acceptable plate grades, electrode classifications, manufacturer-or-equal lists, inspection requirements, and any project-specific overrides. The spec is part of the contract documents but is a separate book from the drawings.
The takeoff person typically reads the structural plan sheets to locate every connection, then jumps to the detail sheets for plate / stud / weld specs, then to the spec book for material grades and inspection requirements.
Does an industry-standard Embedment Schedule exist? — Yes, on most commercial projects. This is the single biggest workflow accelerator and the first thing the takeoff person should look for. On well-detailed commercial structural sets there is typically an Embedment Schedule (also called Embed Schedule, Embed Plate Schedule, or Weld Connection Schedule) printed as a table on:
The general structural notes sheet (
S-001orS-002), and/orThe first structural details sheet (
S-501), and/orThe structural cover sheet in some smaller projects.
The schedule format varies by office, but the column set is consistent:
Mark
Plate (W × H × t)
Anchors (count × dia × length)
Material
Weld notes
Detail ref
Design load
Typical mark prefixes in the wild:
EM,E,EP,EMB,WC,P(sometimesP-1,P-2, …). The mark is the link between the plan-view callout (where the embed is placed) and the schedule row (what the embed is). The detail-ref column points the reader to the large-scale detail (e.g. “see 4/S-501”).When the schedule exists, the takeoff workflow collapses to: (a) read the plan-sheet callouts to get mark + position, (b) read the schedule once to get every spec for every mark. When the schedule does not exist — typical on small projects, residential, design-build with all details inline — the takeoff person reconstructs the schedule manually by reading each detail in the
S-5xxseries.Authority for the Embedment Schedule practice: AISC Steel Construction Manual recommends connection schedules as a clarity practice for engineered steel-to-concrete connections; AIA Architectural Graphic Standards covers schedule-table presentation conventions; NCS Volume 4 (AIA CAD Layer Guidelines) standardizes the sheet-identifier scheme (
S-prefix for structural). No code mandates the schedule, but it is overwhelming commercial-project practice and is called out as a quality benchmark in AIA-AGS and AISC.Specs the print should yield. Per industry expectation (and what the ConstructiVision weld connection dialog captures slot-by-slot per FI-240 / FI-250):
Specs the print should yield. Per industry expectation (and what the ConstructiVision weld connection dialog captures slot-by-slot per FI-240 / FI-250):
Plate dimensions (W × H × thickness)
Anchor stud count, diameter, and embed length
Up/Down face designation — which face of the panel the embed sits on during the horizontal pour (see Long Answer item 8 below)
Side anchor (left / right / top / bottom snap-to-edge)
Mark, connection type, structure ID, fab ID
Position (X from panel reference edge, Y as elevation)
Manufacturer / part number when sourced from a published library (FI-290)
Special-inspection requirement (per
AWS-D1.1Clause 6 or project spec)Quantity rollup across the project — pulled into the materials list (FI-260)
Who makes them. In US tilt-up practice the primary catalog manufacturers are Dayton Superior, Meadow Burke, and A.L. Patterson, each publishing tested embed-plate families (plate sizes, stud patterns, design loads). Shop-fabricated custom embeds are produced by regional steel fabricators against engineer-stamped details. The studs themselves are produced by stud-welding manufacturers (Nelson, Stud Welding Products, Image Industries). ConstructiVision’s Manufacturer Embed Plate Library (FI-290) is the in-product holding tank for these catalog parts.
How they get drawn on the panel — on ConstructiVision’s shop-drawing output. In ConstructiVision the weld connections dialog (per FI-240) captures up to 15 plate slots per panel; each slot is sourced from the embed library (FI-290) or entered manually. The render pipeline calls the weld-connection rendering routine after openings and feature strips, and:
Computes the plate’s anchor X / elevation Y, with snap-to-edge support for panel-edge plates (left, right, top, bottom) and miter-angle compensation for sloped edges.
Reads the slot’s Up/Down radio-button (panelvar
pfield) and sets the block’s color accordingly: AutoCAD color 4 (Cyan, “Teal”) for “Up/Top” face plates, color 5 (Blue) for “Down/Bottom” face plates. This is the official CV color convention, set by user command decision on 2026-05-14, with a same-first-letter mnemonic — T-eal = T-op, B-lue = B-ottom — so a new hire can read placement off the panel at a glance (weldconn.lspx32:184 / x64:241).Inserts a defined block whose mark string is
WC+ the connection type integer, at the panel face indicated.Trims through-running members (ledger bar, top plate) where a
trim-from-intersecting-WCtoggle is set in the master panel options dialog.Picks up Roof Lines (dark green dashed reference lines) as elevation reference for joist / purlin / girder weld-plate arrays.
Applies miter-edge clip rules at sloped panel edges based on the Up/Down face: the plate clips at the miter only when the face is on the concave side of the sloped edge (
weldconn.lsp:306-323, 480-498).Generates secondary dimension passes (per FI-390) so the plate is dimensioned from panel edge and elevation.
Rolls the plate into the materials list by mark and quantity (per FI-260).
Industry standard colors, patterns, and notes on shop drawings.
Weld symbols themselves are not arbitrary —
AWS-A2.4is the universal standard for the welding symbol drawn at the connection callout (the horizontal reference line with arrow, tail, weld-type pictograph, size, length, all-around / field-weld flags). Every weld-callout note on a shop drawing should be anAWS-A2.4symbol, not a free-text description.Colors and hatches for the plate footprint itself: no national standard located. Practice varies by office. Common-practice patterns:
A dedicated layer named
EMBED,S-EMBED, orSTRUCT-EMBEDwith a distinctive color (red, magenta, or yellow are common in tilt-up offices), per the NCS (National CAD Standard) layer convention of<discipline>-<major>-<minor>where the discipline isSand a recognized minor for embeds. NCS Volume 4 (AIA CAD Layer Guidelines) provides the layer naming framework but does not prescribe the color.Hatch is typically a solid fill or close cross-hatch (
ANSI31) so the plate reads as steel.
Notes that should appear next to each weld connection (industry standard):
The
AWS-A2.4weld symbol for the field weld attaching the structural member to the plate.Electrode classification (commonly
E70XXfor A36 / A572 plate perAWS-D1.1matching).Special inspection requirement if the connection is part of the seismic / wind force-resisting path.
Surface preparation note (clean-to-bare-metal, paint masked off prior to pour).
Up/Down face callout — see Long Answer item 8 for the conventions.
What “Up” vs “Down” means on a weld connection. Tilt-up panels are cast horizontally in a form on the casting bed, then lifted to vertical after cure. The two faces of the finished panel are born in completely different physical positions during the pour:
“Down” face = the face touching the form bed during the pour. After lift, this is the outside (exterior, weather) face of the building.
“Up” face = the face open to the sky during the pour, troweled smooth. After lift, this is the inside (interior) face of the building.
When a slot in CV’s weld connections dialog is set to Up or Down, you are telling the form crew which face the embed gets installed on while the panel is lying flat in the form:
An Up embed is set into the wet concrete from above — studs project downward into the panel.
A Down embed is laid in the form bed before the pour — studs project upward into the panel, plate face is bond-broken from the form.
Typical use:
Up embeds: joist seats, ledger anchors, beam clips, interior MEP supports, panel-to-panel connections on the interior face — the majority of weld connections on a typical tilt-up.
Down embeds: cladding clips, signage backers, exterior MEP supports — anything fastened to the building exterior after lift.
No national standard prescribes how the Up/Down designation is annotated on the shop drawing. Common-practice conventions:
Mark suffix:
WC1-UvsWC1-D, orWC1↑vsWC1↓.Schedule “FACE” column:
INSIDE/OUTSIDE(post-lift orientation) orTOP/BOTTOM(pour orientation).Symbol cue: a small arrowhead on the plate footprint or a face-pointing chevron next to the mark.
Layer split: separate layers
S-EMBED-UP/S-EMBED-DN(orS-EMBED-IN/S-EMBED-EX) with distinct colors.
ConstructiVision’s convention (set by user command decision on 2026-05-14) encodes the distinction by block color rather than layer or mark suffix: AutoCAD color 4 (Cyan, “Teal”) for Up/Top-face plates, color 5 (Blue) for Down/Bottom-face plates (
weldconn.lspx32:184 / x64:241). The mnemonic is T-eal = T-op, B-lue = B-ottom — same first letter, easy to recall on a job site. Both are standard ACI palette colors, distinct enough that they print legibly in monochrome and color, and they replace the prior 151/160 light-blue/dark-blue pair (which was hard to tell apart on screen and on printouts). The plates land on theconnectionslayer regardless of face; the layer state is independent of the face indicator. The dialog control that drives this is a paired Up/Down radio-button at every slot inwc_dlg.dcl(30+ instances); the value persists throughwcmod.lsp:135-138into the slot’spfield as the literal string"up"or"down".
STANDARDS-TRACE (tier order: Regulation > Industry-Standard > Best-Practice > Common-Practice > Patent-IP)
[Regulation]
OSHA-1926.703covers cast-in-place concrete safety; embed-attachment to lifted panels also implicatesOSHA-1926Subpart Q (concrete and masonry). Federal tilt-up:UFGS-034713.[Industry-Standard]
AWS-A2.4(weld symbol drafting);AWS-D1.1(structural welding code — Steel);ACI-318Chapter 17 (anchorage to concrete — stud pull-out);ACI-551.1RandACI-551.2R(tilt-up panel design + construction, including embeds);TCA-GS-034700(tilt-up panel guide spec);AISC-360(steel design of the attached connection).[Best-Practice]
NCS-V4(National CAD Standard Volume 4 / AIA CAD Layer Guidelines) — layer-naming framework (S--prefixed structural layers) but does not prescribe color/hatch/symbol for embeds;AIA-AGS(AIA Architectural Graphic Standards) — schedule presentation conventions;AISC-SCM(AISC Steel Construction Manual) — recommends connection schedules as a clarity practice for engineered steel-to-concrete connections (basis for the typical “Embedment Schedule onS-001/S-501” practice cited in Long Answer item 3).[Common-Practice]
CV-MANUAL§“Weld Connections” — “Weld Connections are embeds placed in the Panel wall… ConstructiVision creates simple 3D boxes to indicate the overall size, location, and placement” (docs/source/legacy/csv-manual.md:1037–1043). Manufacturer catalogsDAYTON-SUPandMEADOW-Bprovide the actual plate / stud geometry and design loads used in practice. Common mark prefixes observed in industry:EM,E,EP,EMB,WC,P-<n>(project-specific).[Patent-IP] TBC — patent extraction pass (pre-week prep step 3) has not yet read patents 03 and 04 against this entry. To be filled in
docs-sensitive/patents/patent-claim-faq-map.md.
Regional / customer variations:
Jurisdiction / Customer |
Variant rule |
Source |
|---|---|---|
Default (TCA + ACI, US national) |
Plate per |
All five authorities cited above. |
US federal projects (USACE / NAVFAC / GSA) |
Federal tilt-up spec |
|
Canada |
Welding executed to |
CSA Group catalogs — TBC, not in this seed pass. |
High-seismic jurisdictions (e.g. California OSHPD, Pacific Northwest) |
Embed and connection are part of the Seismic Force-Resisting System; |
|
Customer-specific (per project spec) |
Project structural drawings may override default electrode, plate grade, stud manufacturer, layer color, or schedule format. The project Specification 03 47 13 (or its equivalent) is the controlling document. |
Project-specific. |
Cross-reference touchpoints:
AutoLISP:
src/x64/TB11-01x64/weldconn.lsp(the 3D block creation + placement routine — has rich header but no STANDARDS-TRACE block yet; add one tagged;; FAQ-001on next code touch). Companion files:wc_dlg.lsp,wc_edit.lsp,wcedlst.lsp,wcmod.lsp,wcpage.lsp,wclist.lsp,weld.lsp. Caller:drawpan.lsp(call site is line ~535,(weldconn "wcvar")).DCL:
wc_dlg.dcl(5-page weld connection dialog) andwc_edit.dcl(slot editor). Help-button routing: not yet wired; add a(csv_open-faq "FAQ-001")call to the existing Help button onwc_dlg.dcl.cv-web: when a weld-connection input form is added to the React side, attach
<HelpTooltip faq="FAQ-001" />to the plate-size, anchor-pattern, face, mark, and electrode fields.Website:
webpage/Simplestruct/cv/capabilities.html:209(“5-page weld connection dialog covering all weld types per panel face”),index.html:301(feature list mentions weld connections),workflow-design-detailing.html:27–82(weld types, sizes, inspection requirements). The futurefaq.html#faq-001is the canonical landing.Tutorial: video CV-188 — “Weld Connections in 30 Seconds With the Standard Library” — talking points: what a weld connection is (this FAQ short answer), the FI-240 library workflow, the FI-250 edit workflow, the FI-260 materials-list rollup.
Feature inventory: doc 48 FI-240, FI-250, FI-260, FI-290.
Parity rows: doc 41 §8.3 #472–#486 (placement + attribute editing), §6.3 #417 (materials list reporting), §8.3 #487 (embed plate library).
Patent: TBC — patent extraction pass (pre-week prep step 3 of the FAQ-pipeline plan) reads patents 03 and 04 against this entry; private claim reference goes in
docs-sensitive/patents/patent-claim-faq-map.md.
Gotchas / known bugs:
DFMEA FM-07 / RPN 360: “Weld Connection Dialog — wrong hardware type specified” with severity 10 (incorrect weld hardware in fabrication drawings → structural failure during panel tilt). See
webpage/Simplestruct/cv/risk-management.html:466–467. Any change to the weld dialog or its rendering path that affects hardware selection or mark assignment must be validated against this RPN row.CV encodes Up/Down face via block color, on a single layer (
connections).weldconn.lspx32:184 / x64:241 sets AutoCAD color 4 (Cyan, “Teal”) for Up/Top-face plates and color 5 (Blue) for Down/Bottom-face plates at block insertion time (user command decision 2026-05-14, mnemonic T-eal=T-op / B-lue=B-ottom). Plate face is distinguishable by color but not separable by layer state. Open question for the user: should ConstructiVision (a) keep color-only on a single layer, (b) move to a layer-pair conventionS-EMBED-UP/S-EMBED-DNper NCS, or (c) both? The Teal/Blue color decision stands either way; the layer question is independent.The Teal/Blue color convention is not yet documented in customer-facing materials. The public
capabilities.htmlandworkflow-design-detailing.htmlmention the dialog and the embed concept but say nothing about how to read the colors on the rendered drawing. This is a tutorial-script and FAQ gap to close. Recommend a one-paragraph addition tocapabilities.htmlWeld Connections subsection and a callout in tutorial CV-188 (Weld Connections in 30 Seconds With the Standard Library) explaining the mnemonic so a new hire reads placement off the panel at first glance.Source-mode VLX gap (Bug 18): the weld connection dialog is one of the dialogs gated by
progcontrouting; FI-240 ships fully only via VLX in PB11 until source-modeprogcontis reconstructed.Hidden-line behavior (legacy manual
csv-manual.md:686–690): the HIDE command may obscure weld connections — operator must use viewport-specific layer state to keep them visible in iso views.
Maintainer notes:
Edition fields in the authority catalog (
ACI-318,ACI-551.1R,ACI-551.2R,AISC-360,AWS-A2.4,AWS-D1.1,TCA-GS-034700,UFGS-034713,NCS-V4,AIA-AGS,AISC-SCM,CSA-W59,CSA-A23.3,CSA-W47.1,AISC-341) are still TBC — the next FAQ entry that cites any of these should pick a single edition and fill the catalog row in the same commit.Authority catalog rows added by the prints-vs-shop-drawings retrofit:
NCS-V4,AIA-AGS,AISC-SCM(and additional rows added by FAQ-002’s symbol-authority gap retrofit on the same day).The “no dedicated layer/color” finding is the most actionable engineering gap surfaced by this entry. Recommend logging a Jira
[Internal]-prefixed Task to add an explicitS-EMBEDlayer inweldconn.lspwith a project-default color and a project-options override.Patent-IP tier is unpopulated — pre-week prep step 3 of the FAQ-pipeline plan still owes the patent claim extraction. Until that runs, this entry is honest-incomplete on the Patent-IP line.
First-draft omission caught by user on 2026-05-14: the original FAQ-001 entry missed the Up/Down face designation entirely — a critical detail because it tells the form crew which face to install the embed on, and CV already encodes the distinction via block color (151/160). Lesson learned for the rest of the week: when a feature has a dialog setting that drives both physical construction sequence and drawing appearance, the FAQ short answer must mention it explicitly. Retrofitted into Long Answer items 4, 6, 7, and 8 on the same day (item numbers shifted after the prints-vs-shop-drawings retrofit added a new item 3).
Second-draft correction caught by user on 2026-05-14: the original short answer and Long Answer item 2 conflated “prints” (upstream EoR-issued documents — the source the takeoff person reads) with “shop drawings” (downstream CV-generated panel sheets — what CV writes out). The Embedment Schedule existence question was the trigger: the user asked whether a single weld-connection / embed schedule listing all embeds in one place is typical on the source prints, and the original entry had no answer because it had answered the wrong “where”. Retrofitted: heading, terminology note, short answer, Long Answer item 2 (upstream sheet-by-sheet inventory), new Long Answer item 3 (Embedment Schedule existence + format + authority), Long Answer item 6 reframed as “on ConstructiVision’s shop-drawing output”. Lesson for the rest of the week: every “where on the prints” question must be answered against the EoR’s print package (architectural + structural + spec book); CV’s drawing output is the separate topic and gets its own item.
Third command decision caught by user on 2026-05-14: Teal/Blue WC color convention. User: “WCs that are Up(Top) are going to be Teal and WCs that are Dn(Bottom) are going to be blue as a semi pneumonic that helps remember placement by color.” Prior convention was ACI 151 (Up, light blue) / ACI 160 (Down, dark blue) — both blues, visually similar on screen and on printouts, hard to distinguish at a glance. New convention is ACI 4 (Cyan, “Teal”) = Up/Top and ACI 5 (Blue) = Down/Bottom, with the same-first-letter mnemonic T-eal=T-op / B-lue=B-ottom. Both ACI 4 and 5 are standard palette colors that print cleanly in color and degrade cleanly to monochrome. Implementation sites:
weldconn.lspx32:184 + x64:241. STANDARDS-TRACE block tagged;; FAQ-001added to both files in the same pass per the FAQ pipeline plan. The change requires a four-platform OCR regression check before sign-off (per CLAUDE.md mandatory regression rule) since the rendered panel-book screenshots will differ from the golden baseline at every weld-connection block.User last confirmed the rules in this entry: 2026-05-14 (first question of the week, with up/down retrofit + prints-vs-shop-drawings retrofit + Teal/Blue command decision).
FAQ-002 — What are pick and brace points, where in the prints do you find them, how are they drawn, and do they have an Up/Down face toggle?¶
Terminology note (same as FAQ-001): “Prints” = the upstream architectural and structural drawings issued by the Architect of Record (AoR) and Engineer of Record (EoR). “Shop drawings” = the panel sheets ConstructiVision outputs. Picks and braces are a special case where the answer to “where in the prints” is mostly: they aren’t there.
Short answer (new-hire grade): Pick points are coil-threaded lifting inserts cast into the panel face — the crane attaches to them with a swivel lift clutch to stand the panel up. Brace points are coil-threaded bracing inserts that diagonal pipe braces bolt into to hold the panel upright until the roof or floor diaphragm is in place. You will rarely find pick or brace points on the EoR’s prints — they are contractor means-and-methods under OSHA, designed by the contractor’s specialty engineer (often the panel-erection subcontractor or the insert manufacturer’s engineering service). The EoR’s prints supply the inputs the lift engineer needs — panel dimensions, panel weight or thickness, reinforcement layout (so inserts clear rebar), required concrete strength at lift (f'c at lift, sometimes called out in Specification Section 03 47 13), and any architectural reveals or openings that constrain insert placement — but the actual pick/brace mark positions live on the lift drawing (also called the rigging drawing or erection drawing), which is part of the contractor’s submittal package, not the original print set. No industry-standard “Pick Point Schedule” or “Brace Point Schedule” appears on the EoR prints; on the lift drawing itself the lift engineer typically includes a per-panel Lift Insert Schedule and a per-panel Brace Schedule that mirror the weld-plate schedule format. Manufacturers are the same tilt-up specialty houses that make weld plates — Dayton Superior (Swift Lift), Meadow Burke (Burke), A.L. Patterson — but the catalog product is a coil insert, not a plate. Both picks and braces are installed only on the Up face (the face open to the sky during the horizontal pour) — there is no Up/Down toggle in the dialog because there’s no other physical option.
Long answer (engineering nuance):
What they are.
Pick points are the lifting inserts the crane rigging attaches to during the tilt-up rotation. Each insert is typically a helical wire coil with a threaded receiver, sized by capacity (2k, 4k, 8k, 12k, 24k, 32k lb design loads are common SKUs). The rigger threads a swivel lift clutch into each insert at lift time and connects the crane’s cables. Once the panel is braced, the inserts are typically unused for the life of the building (or capped).
Brace points are the inserts that diagonal pipe braces (commonly steel pipe braces with turnbuckles) bolt into to hold the freshly stood panel upright. The brace runs from the upper portion of the panel down to a corresponding anchor in the slab. Brace inserts carry wind load on the partially-completed structure — they are a real, engineered, temporary structural connection until the roof or floor diaphragm provides permanent lateral restraint.
Both are point inserts, not plates — physically and geometrically distinct from weld connections.
Where in the EoR’s prints to find the source values. Unlike weld connections, pick and brace locations are not the EoR’s responsibility — they are contractor means-and-methods governed by
OSHA-1926.704and the panel-erection contractor’s specialty engineer (often called the lift engineer or rigging engineer). The EoR’s prints supply the inputs the lift engineer needs:Panel geometry (panel-elevation sheets in either the architectural
A-2xxseries or the structuralS-2xxseries, depending on the project’s drafting convention) — overall dimensions, thickness, opening positions, reveals, pilasters.Panel weight or thickness (structural general notes, panel-elevation sheet, or specifications) — drives the required pick capacity per insert and the total brace count.
Reinforcement layout (panel reinforcement details on the
S-3xxorS-5xxseries) — the lift engineer needs to know where rebar runs so inserts clear the bars and so the pull-cone of each insert lands in unreinforced concrete.f'c at lift(Specification Section 03 47 13 Tilt-Up Concrete and/or the structural general notes) — manufacturer insert capacities are stamped against day-of-lift concrete strength, not 28-day design strength. Iff'c at liftis not called out anywhere, the lift engineer assumes a value (commonly2500 psi minimum) and notes the assumption on the lift drawing.Wind exposure / load duration (structural general notes, Specifications Division 01) — drives
ASCE-37construction-duration wind load for the bracing scheme.Seismic / wind force-resisting system designation for the permanent structure — affects whether bracing has to resist seismic in addition to wind during construction.
The takeoff person reads these print elements and transfers them into ConstructiVision as panel and project inputs; CV’s pick/brace auto-placement (
ppauto.lsp,bpauto.lsp,ppcent.lsp) then computes the actual insert positions and writes them to the lift drawing CV produces.Does an industry-standard Pick / Brace Schedule exist on the EoR’s prints? — Generally NO. This is the inverse of the FAQ-001 Embedment Schedule answer. Because picks and braces are means-and-methods, the EoR’s print package typically:
Does not include a pick or brace schedule.
May include a single specification clause in Section 03 47 13 (Tilt-Up Concrete) or Section 01 50 00 (Temporary Facilities and Controls) requiring the contractor to submit lift drawings stamped by a licensed engineer.
May name an approved insert manufacturer list (e.g. “Lifting inserts: Dayton Superior Swift Lift, Meadow Burke Burke, or approved equal”).
Does not prescribe insert sizes, positions, or capacities — those are the contractor’s engineering work.
Where pick/brace data DOES live in schedule form: on the lift drawing itself, which is part of the contractor’s submittal package. A typical lift drawing carries two tables per panel:
Lift Insert Schedule
Mark
Insert (catalog SKU)
Capacity
X from edge
Y elevation
Design load
f’c at lift
Brace Schedule
Mark
Insert
X from edge
Y elevation
Brace side
Brace length
Design load
ConstructiVision’s lift-drawing output is the producer-side of these schedules; the EoR-side question “is there a schedule on the prints to read from?” has the honest answer no for picks/braces — the lift engineer originates the schedule, doesn’t receive it.
Authority for this split-of-responsibility:
OSHA-1926.704(precast concrete erection — contractor’s engineer designs erection hardware),OSHA-1926.703(cast-in-place),ACI-551.1RSection on bracing (specialty engineer responsibility),TCA-GS-034700(TCA tilt-up guide spec — contractor submits lift drawings), and the TCA Method Statement template. AISC and AIA do not address picks/braces because picks/braces are not within the steel-design or architectural-drafting purview.Specs the takeoff person extracts from the prints and enters into CV.
From the panel elevation: panel width, panel height, thickness, opening positions, pilaster locations.
From structural general notes / spec: concrete strength at lift (
f'c at lift), reinforcement summary, wind exposure category.From structural reinforcement details: bar positions (for clearance from inserts).
Specs CV’s pick/brace output (the lift drawing) then yields:
Picks (per slot): mark, X from panel edge (column distance), Y elevation, insert size, capacity, embed length, design load, manufacturer + part number, top-pick flag (face-lift vs top-edge lift), auto-placed column × row grid.
Braces (per slot): mark, X, Y, insert size, type, embed length, brace side (which side of the panel the brace anchors to).
Schedule rolls up across the project into the materials list per FI-260 family.
Who makes them. Same tilt-up specialty manufacturers as the weld-plate catalog (Dayton Superior Swift Lift, Meadow Burke Burke, A.L. Patterson, regional suppliers), with each manufacturer publishing capacity tables keyed to
f'c at lift(concrete strength at the day of lift — not at 28-day design). The capacity stamped on the catalog page is what populates the schedule.How they get drawn on the panel — on ConstructiVision’s shop-drawing output.
Picks (FI-270):
finpan.lspcalls(pick "ppvar");pick.lspbuilds a solid-hatched triangle polyline block namedPP_<panel-thickness>(orTop_Pickfor top-edge lifts — seepick.lsp:11-13) and inserts at each enabled column × row intersection. Auto-placement runsppauto.lsp+ppcent.lsp(centroid algorithm) using the panel’s center of gravity fromcentgrav.lsp, which compensates for opening reductions and pilaster mass additions. Layer: hardcoded"points". Symbol size: triangle side*pp-tri-side* = 22.2units (≈7.4” at scale 0.1875). The auto-lift warning fires when X-axis variance exceeds 1” or the center of lift falls outside 66%-85% of panel weight (csv-manual.md:2789-2792).Braces (FI-280):
finpan.lspcalls(brace "bpvar");brace.lspbuilds a solid-hatched circle block namedBP_<panel-thickness>and inserts at each enabled location. Auto-placement:bpauto.lsp. Same layer:"points". Symbol size:*bp-circle-rad* = 9.6units (≈3.2” radius at scale 0.1875).Both symbol classes are isolated into the Pick/Brace Points print subset — one of the seven independent drawing-subset toggles per FI-410 (
capabilities.html:269,index.html:368) — so the rigger can print just the pick/brace overlay without the rest of the panel detail.
Industry standard symbols, colors, and notes — regardless of what ConstructiVision uses.
No single national standard authority prescribes pick/brace drafting symbols or colors the way
AWS-A2.4prescribes weld symbols. The de facto industry practice is consolidated from three sources — manufacturer detailing, TCA reference documents, and individual firm CAD standards — and every lift drawing carries its own legend so a reader is never expected to know the symbol convention by heart.Authority gap analysis (honest):
Regulation tier: none.
OSHA-1926.703/1926.704mandate the engineering documentation and the bracing-release sequence; they do not prescribe drafting symbols.Industry-Standard tier: none.
ACI-551.1R,ACI-551.2R,TCA-GS-034700,AISC-360,AWS-A2.4,ASCE-37,PCI-MNL-116(precast quality control), andUFGS-034713are silent on pick/brace symbols. AIA Architectural Graphic Standards covers schedule presentation but not pick/brace glyphs.Best-Practice tier: NCS Volume 4 / AIA CAD Layer Guidelines standardizes the layer name scheme (
S-LIFTfor lifting hardware,S-BRACfor bracing hardware under the structural discipline prefix) but does not prescribe symbol shape, color, or hatch. TCA Tilt-Up Construction: A Guide to the Bracing of Tilt-Up Concrete Panels (the TCA bracing publication) includes example lift drawings whose drafting style is widely followed but is not codified as a standard.Common-Practice tier (de facto):
Picks = triangle. Most prevalent across manufacturer detail sheets (Dayton Superior Swift Lift product literature, Meadow Burke Burke catalog, A.L. Patterson lift-insert catalogs) and TCA Method Statement examples. The triangle is interpreted as a “load arrow pointing up” — a visual cue that the symbol marks a lifting point. A minority of offices use a diamond or a circle-with-crosshair.
Braces = circle. Most prevalent across the same manufacturer catalogs and TCA examples. The circle pairs cleanly with the pick triangle so the two never get confused. A minority of offices use a square with a
Binscribed, or a circle with anXthrough it.Hatch: solid fill is the dominant practice — the symbols are small (typically 6–12 inches across at full scale on the panel) and solid hatch reads cleanly even at a printout 1/4” scale. CV uses solid hatch via
(_.-hatch "S" ent "" "")for both block types (pick.lsp,brace.lsp).
Colors: there is no national standard authority at any tier. NCS Volume 4 names the layer (
S-LIFT,S-BRAC) but not the color. The most common practice across tilt-up offices:Picks: red or magenta — safety-critical, should be the most visible glyph on the lift drawing.
Braces: yellow, green, or orange — distinct from the pick color so the rigging crew can scan one symbol family at a time.
Some offices: single high-visibility color (red) for both pick and brace points, distinguished only by symbol shape; the seven-subset print system in CV (FI-410) makes either approach legible because picks and braces can be isolated as their own print subset.
Notes that should appear on every pick/brace lift drawing (industry-standard expectation):
Per-symbol callout: pick capacity next to every pick (
8K SWIFT LIFT,P-52 LIFT INSERT, manufacturer + part number); brace size next to every brace.OSHA 29 CFR 1926.704(b) statement printed on the lift drawing: “Tilt-up wall panels shall not be released from the crane until the panels are secured with such a configuration of bracing as will provide for the entire panel’s stability.”
Lift design load at each pick (panel weight share + dynamic factor for the rotation moment, often 1.5× static).
Concrete strength at lift required (e.g.
f'c at lift = 2500 psi minimum) — inserts are rated against day-of-lift strength, not 28-day design strength.Brace wind-load assumption per
ASCE-37and the duration the bracing must remain in place.Center of gravity / center of lift marker on the panel, with X-axis variance noted.
Legend block showing the pick triangle, brace circle, mark format, and capacity/size shorthand — required because the symbols themselves are not codified by any national authority and the reader is expected to learn the convention from the legend.
What ConstructiVision does today (provided for completeness — separate from the industry authority question):
Picks: solid-hatched triangle block
PP_<thickness>(orTop_Pick), layer hardcoded"points", no project-overridable color.Braces: solid-hatched circle block
BP_<thickness>, layer hardcoded"points", no project-overridable color.Single shared
"points"layer for both — distinguished only by symbol shape, not by layer or color. NCS-compliantS-LIFT/S-BRACsplit is recorded as an enhancement candidate (Gotcha below).
Up/Down face designation — and why pick/brace dialogs don’t have one. The follow-up that completed FAQ-001 applies here in the negative:
A weld plate can be installed on either face during the horizontal pour, so the weld dialog has an explicit Up/Down radio at every slot.
A pick point must be on the Up face only — the crane attaches from above during the lift, so the lift cable physically has to enter the panel from the up-face side. A pick insert on the down face would be locked in the form bed during the pour and unreachable when the crane arrives.
A brace point must be on the Up face only — the brace rod anchors into the panel from the inside (post-lift inside face = Up face during pour). A brace on the down face would be on the building exterior, which is not where temporary bracing goes.
Consequently
pp_dlg.dclandbp_dlg.dclcarry no Up/Down radio button. The radio buttons they do have control L/R quadrant for column-distance measurement, Top vs Face pick (different concept — top-edge picks project horizontally), and per-slot enable/disable.The implicit “Up face only” rule is not currently spelled out in
capabilities.htmlor the legacy manual — a new operator reading the docs cold cannot infer it from absence-of-toggle. Recommend adding an explicit one-sentence note to both materials and to the tutorial script for CV-204 (“Auto Lift & Brace Calculations”).Top-edge picks are a different axis from up/down face: the Top Pick option in the pick dialog disables elevation and places the lift insert on the top edge of the panel rather than on the up face. The block flips from
PP_<thickness>toTop_Pick. This is edge-pick-vs-face-pick, not up-face-vs-down-face.
STANDARDS-TRACE (tier order: Regulation > Industry-Standard > Best-Practice > Common-Practice > Patent-IP)
[Regulation]
OSHA-1926.704— Requirements for precast concrete (29 CFR 1926.704). Subsection (b) is the controlling federal rule for tilt-up bracing release: “Tilt-up wall panels shall not be released from the crane until the panels are secured with such a configuration of bracing as will provide for the entire panel’s stability.” Subsection (a) covers precast lifting hardware design margins.OSHA-1926.703(cast-in-place) also applies for any in-situ work around the panel.[Industry-Standard]
ACI-551.1R(Tilt-Up Concrete Construction Guide — bracing chapter);ACI-551.2R(Design Guide for Tilt-Up Concrete Panels — lift-load section);TCA-GS-034700(TCA tilt-up guide spec — picks/braces/release sequence);ASCE-37(Design Loads on Structures During Construction — temporary bracing wind loads);TCA-BRACING(TCA Tilt-Up Construction: A Guide to the Bracing of Tilt-Up Concrete Panels).[Best-Practice]
NCS-V4(National CAD Standard Volume 4 / AIA CAD Layer Guidelines) — layer-naming framework (S-LIFTfor lifting hardware,S-BRACfor bracing hardware under the structural discipline prefix); does not prescribe symbol shape, hatch, or color — the symbol-authority gap is recorded explicitly in Long Answer item 7. TCA Tilt-Up Construction: A Guide to the Bracing of Tilt-Up Concrete Panels (the TCA bracing publication) — includes example lift drawings whose drafting style is widely followed but is not codified as a standard.PCI-MNL-116(PCI Manual for Quality Control for Plants and Production of Precast Prestressed Concrete) — precast (not tilt-up) but the closest adjacent industry reference; silent on pick/brace symbology, confirming the gap.[Common-Practice]
CV-MANUAL§“Pick Points” (docs/source/legacy/csv-manual.md:1045-1050) — “Pick Points are embeds placed in the Panel wall used to attach the lifting harness during Lifting. ConstructiVision creates a simple triangular hatch pattern… Special Note: Pick Points are always dimensioned from Edge of Panel.”;CV-MANUAL§“Brace Points” (csv-manual.md:1052-1057) — “Brace Points are embeds placed in the Panel wall used to attach the braces before lifting… simple circular hatch pattern… always dimensioned from Edge of Panel.”; manufacturer catalogsDAYTON-SUP(Swift Lift) andMEADOW-B(Burke lifting and bracing system); auto-lift warning thresholds (X-variance > 1”, CoG outside 66%-85% of panel weight) percsv-manual.md:2789-2792.[Patent-IP] TBC — patent extraction pass (pre-week prep step 3) has not yet read patents 03 and 04 against this entry. The Auto Lift Calc differentiator (FI-630, marked
⭐in doc 48) may be a CV-specific patent-claim candidate; to be confirmed indocs-sensitive/patents/patent-claim-faq-map.md.
Regional / customer variations:
Jurisdiction / Customer |
Variant rule |
Source |
|---|---|---|
Default (US, OSHA + TCA + ACI) |
Bracing release per |
All five authorities above. |
US federal projects (USACE / NAVFAC / GSA) |
|
|
Canada |
OSHA replaced by provincial occupational health and safety regulations (e.g. Ontario OHSA Construction Projects Regulation 213/91); concrete design to |
Provincial OHS authorities — TBC. |
High-seismic jurisdictions (e.g. California OSHPD, Pacific Northwest) |
Bracing scheme may need to resist seismic in addition to wind during construction; additional brace points typical. |
|
Hurricane-prone coastal (Florida, Gulf Coast, mid-Atlantic) |
|
|
Customer-specific (per project spec) |
Project Specification 03 47 13 (or equivalent) may override default electrode, plate grade, insert manufacturer, color, or schedule format. Some rigging contractors require their own preferred insert SKU regardless of design intent. |
Project-specific. |
Cross-reference touchpoints:
AutoLISP — picks:
src/x64/TB11-01x64/pick.lsp(block creation + placement),ppauto.lsp+ppcent.lsp(auto-placement),pp_dlg.lsp/pp_dlg.dcl(dialog),pdisable.lsp(per-slot enable logic),centgrav.lsp(CoG calc), caller:finpan.lsp:88(pick "ppvar"). Neitherpick.lspnorpp_dlg.lsphas a STANDARDS-TRACE block yet — add one tagged;; FAQ-002on next touch citingOSHA-1926.704,ACI-551.1R,ACI-551.2R,ASCE-37.AutoLISP — braces:
src/x64/TB11-01x64/brace.lsp(block creation + placement),bpauto.lsp(auto-placement),bp_dlg.lsp/bp_dlg.dcl(dialog), caller:finpan.lsp:88(brace "bpvar"). Same STANDARDS-TRACE retrofit needed.DCL:
pp_dlg.dclandbp_dlg.dcl— wire the existing Help button (if present) or add one via(csv_open-faq "FAQ-002")to launch the rendered FAQ entry in a browser.cv-web: attach
<HelpTooltip faq="FAQ-002" />to pick-capacity, embed-length, design-load fields when the React side gets pick/brace forms.Website:
capabilities.html:253-264(Auto Lift Calc, Pick Points, Brace Points subsections),capabilities.html:269(seven-subset print system mentions Pick/Brace),index.html:301(feature list),index.html:349-350(Auto Lift & Brace section),quality-assurance.html:326(safety-adjacent framing),quality-assurance.html:920(DFMEA test reason). Futurefaq.html#faq-002is the canonical landing.Tutorial: video CV-204 — “Auto Lift & Brace Calculations: Engineering You Can Show the Crane Crew” — talking points: pick/brace as separate concepts, OSHA 1926.704(b) plain-language explainer, capacity vs design-load, why Up-face-only, when to use a top-edge pick.
Feature inventory: doc 48 FI-270, FI-280, FI-630, FI-640.
Parity rows: doc 41 §8.1 #457-#464 (picks), §8.2 #465-#471 (braces), §10.1 #536-#537 + §8.1 (auto lift calc).
Patent: TBC — Auto Lift Calc (FI-630, doc-48 ⭐ differentiator) is the most likely Patent-IP linkage candidate.
Gotchas / known bugs:
DFMEA — safety-critical pair. Pick failure during lift = catastrophic (panel drop on crane crew). Brace failure during temporary bracing period = catastrophic (panel falls onto slab in wind event). Per
quality-assurance.html:920: “Safety-critical. DFMEA S=10: wrong hardware specification → structural failure during panel lift. Any change requires full four-platform validation. OCR must confirm correct hardware values in all screenshot captures.” Any pick/brace dialog or render change must be regression-tested against the four-platform OCR baseline.Doc 48 vs code: brace slot count.
48-feature-inventory-comprehensive.mdFI-280 says “Brace Points dialog with 8-slot array”, butbrace.lsp:42-44is explicit: “Hardcoded 4 brace points (n=4 countdown)”. The dialog (bp_dlg.dcl) shows four radio_column groups forbpd1-4,bpe1-4,bpq1-4,bpt1-4— code-side reality is 4, not 8. Either doc 48 needs correction, or there’s an unimplemented expansion-to-8 backlog item. Flagging for verification against the running build.No Up/Down face toggle is intentional, not a bug. Picks and braces are physically constrained to the up face only (see Long Answer item 8). The absence of a toggle should be documented in customer-facing materials so new operators don’t go looking for the setting.
Layer convention is single-layer (
"points") for both picks and braces, no project-overridable color. Recommend logging a Jira[Internal]-prefixed Task to split intoS-LIFTandS-BRACper NCS, with project-overridable colors. Parallel to the weld-connection layer gap from FAQ-001.Top-Pick option changes the block name to
Top_Pickand disables face-elevation controls. Not documented in customer-facing materials — only in the legacy manual and the source code. Tutorial-script gap.pick.lspdead-parameter note (line 17): theaparameter is always called with"ppvar"but never read inside the function. Same pattern inbrace.lsp. Cosmetic but worth cleaning up; not a behavior bug.Concrete strength at lift (
f'c at lift) is not captured in the CV dialog as a per-panel input — it’s effectively a project-level assumption the engineer carries in their head. A future enhancement could add it explicitly so the rigging schedule prints the required strength alongside the insert capacity. Recommend logging.
Maintainer notes:
Authority catalog rows added by this retrofit:
OSHA-1926.704,ASCE-37,TCA-BRACING,CSA-A23.3,CSA-W59,CSA-W47.1,AISC-341,AISC-SCM,AIA-AGS,NCS-V4,PCI-MNL-116. Editions still TBC — populate on the next entry that pins to a specific edition.Provincial OHS regulations (Ontario Reg 213/91 etc.) referenced for the Canada row are still not in the catalog — add when the next FAQ entry needs them.
The doc-48-vs-code mismatch on brace slot count is the most actionable engineering finding in this entry. Recommend a verification pass against the running build before the next doc-48 sweep.
The “Up face only” implicit rule deserves a dedicated paragraph in
capabilities.htmlPick Points and Brace Points sections, and a callout in tutorial CV-204.The Auto Lift Calc (FI-630, ⭐ in doc 48) is the most likely Patent-IP candidate among the picks/braces/CoG features — flagged for the pending patent extraction pass.
Second-draft correction caught by user on 2026-05-14: the original short answer and Long Answer item 2 (a) conflated “prints” (upstream EoR-issued documents) with “shop drawings” (downstream CV-generated panel sheets), and (b) did not cite any authoritative industry source for the pick/brace symbology and colors. The user’s schedule question was the trigger: “hopefully there’s a weld-connection or embed schedule listing them all” — for FAQ-001 the answer is yes (Embedment Schedule on
S-001/S-501); for FAQ-002 the answer is no, picks/braces are means-and-methods, the contractor’s lift engineer originates the schedule on the lift drawing. Retrofitted: heading, terminology note, short answer, new Long Answer item 2 (upstream EoR prints — geometry, weight, reinforcement,f'c at lift, exposure), new Long Answer item 3 (schedule existence — generally NO on EoR prints; YES on contractor lift drawing), Long Answer item 4 split into upstream-extracted-from-prints vs downstream-output-by-CV, Long Answer item 6 reframed as “on ConstructiVision’s shop-drawing output”, Long Answer item 7 fully rewritten as an honest authority-gap analysis (no Regulation, no Industry-Standard, NCS Volume 4 at Best-Practice for layer names only, manufacturer + TCA Method Statement at Common-Practice for the triangle/circle de facto), plus a separate “what CV does today” callout so the industry-vs-CV distinction is explicit.The pick/brace symbol-authority gap is itself a finding worth flagging on every customer-facing surface: every CV-output lift drawing should carry a legend block explaining the triangle, circle, mark format, capacity shorthand, and
f'c at liftassumption. Recommend confirming the CV print template already does this; if it doesn’t, log an[Internal]-prefixed Task to add it. Tutorial-script gap for CV-204 as well.Authority catalog additions needed by this retrofit pass:
OSHA-1926.704,ASCE-37, TCA Bracing publication,CSA-A23.3,NCS-V4(NCS Volume 4 / AIA CAD Layer Guidelines — needed for theS-LIFT/S-BRAClayer-name reference and the symbol-authority gap discussion),AIA-AGS(Architectural Graphic Standards — needed for the FAQ-001 Embedment Schedule presentation reference),AISC-SCM(AISC Steel Construction Manual — needed for the FAQ-001 connection-schedule recommendation reference),PCI-MNL-116(precast quality control — referenced in the gap analysis as silent-on-picks-and-braces). To be added in the next catalog update commit.User confirmed the rules in this entry: 2026-05-14 (second question of the week, parallel to FAQ-001, with prints-vs-shop-drawings retrofit + symbol-authority gap retrofit).
FAQ-003 — What are feature strips, where in the prints do you find them, how are they drawn, do they have an Up/Down face toggle, and why are they dimensioned differently from WCs / PPs / BPs?¶
Terminology note (same as FAQ-001 and FAQ-002): “Prints” = the upstream architectural and structural drawings issued by the Architect of Record (AoR) and Engineer of Record (EoR). “Shop drawings” = the panel sheets ConstructiVision outputs. “Feature strips” are the customer-facing ConstructiVision term — the architectural industry usually calls them “reveals” or “rustications”; in some specs they are also called “score lines”, “V-grooves”, or “recessed bands”. They are cosmetic — they shape the panel face but carry no structural load.
Short answer (new-hire grade): Feature strips are shallow rectangular, sloped, or arched recesses formed into the face of a tilt-up panel by attaching wood, foam, or rubber strips to the casting bed before the pour. They are an architectural feature — you find them on the architectural elevations (A-2xx) and architectural details (A-5xx or A-9xx), in the Specifications under Division 03 (Concrete Finishes), and sometimes in an architectural Reveal Schedule / Reveal Profile Schedule. They are typically NOT on the structural prints. They have an Up/Down face designation just like WCs, picks, and braces — strips on the Down face (form-bed side) become exterior reveals post-lift; strips on the Up face become interior reveals. They are dimensioned differently from WCs/PPs/BPs on the shop drawing: WCs/PPs/BPs are dimensioned to the center of geometry of the embed, but feature strips are dimensioned to the top edge of the strip for elevation (and to one panel edge for horizontal position). The reason is practical — the top edge of an FS is a visible drawn line on the elevation, while the center of a thin strip is an invisible computed point. Dimensioning to a visible reference line is much less error-prone for the fabricator than guessing where the centerline of a 3/4″ wide strip would land.
Long answer (engineering nuance):
What a feature strip physically is. Before the concrete is poured, the casting bed receives a “buck-out” — typically a beveled wood strip (clear pine, redwood, or hardwood), a polyurethane reveal strip (Greenstreak, BurkeForm, Symons, Fitzgerald, Reckli, or similar), or a closed-cell foam strip — fastened to the casting bed (or to the form sides for vertical strips) along the path the architect drew on the panel elevation. The concrete is poured over and around it. After the panel is lifted off the bed, the strip is pulled out (or remains if it is sacrificial), leaving a recess in the panel face. Typical relief depths: 1/4″, 1/2″, 3/4″, or 1″ (CV supports those four — see
feature.lsp:117-118, thex5value is the strip thickness). Typical strip widths: 1″ to 4″.Where on the prints the takeoff person finds them. Different from WCs (structural) and from picks/braces (means-and-methods); feature strips live in the architectural print set:
Architectural elevations (A-2xx) — primary source. Each panel elevation shows the feature-strip layout overlaid on the panel face. Strips are typically drawn as hatched, double-line, or filled-line rectangles with a callout “1″ × 3/4″ DEEP REVEAL TYP.” or “REVEAL TYPE A”.
Architectural panel/wall sections (A-3xx) — vertical cuts through the panel showing reveal depth and profile (square edge, beveled, half-round, etc.).
Architectural details (A-5xx or A-9xx) — typical reveal section detail showing the exact profile (V-groove, square, bevel, half-round), depth dimension, width dimension, and any inside-corner treatment.
Reveal Schedule or Reveal Profile Schedule — when present, lives on the architectural details sheet (A-501 or A-901 commonly). The schedule typically lists: Mark / Type / Width / Depth / Profile / Material / Quantity-per-panel.
Specifications Section 03 30 00 (Cast-In-Place Concrete) or 03 35 00 (Concrete Finishing) — material requirements for the buck-out (chamfer strip species, gasket compatibility, sealant), tolerance on width and depth, finishing requirements adjacent to the reveal (sack-rub, sandblast, etc.).
Architectural floor plan key-plan — sometimes carries a callout pointing at a panel face that runs feature strips, especially when a building face is “REVEALS TYPE A 4 EQ. SPACES” and the architect doesn’t want to dimension each strip individually on the elevation.
Where you usually will NOT find them: structural foundation plans (S-1xx), structural roof framing (S-2xx/S-3xx), structural panel connection details (S-5xx). Structural is concerned with load paths; feature strips are surface treatment.
Does an industry-standard Feature-Strip / Reveal Schedule exist on architectural prints? — Sometimes, but it is much less standardized than the WC Embedment Schedule. The Embedment Schedule on a commercial structural set follows a well-recognized AISC/AISC-SCM convention (FAQ-001). Feature-strip schedules vary widely:
On well-documented commercial sets you may see a Reveal Schedule on A-501 or A-901: columns typically
MARK / TYPE / WIDTH / DEPTH / PROFILE / MATERIAL / NOTES.On lesser-documented sets — and on most light-commercial or warehouse projects — there is no schedule at all; the strips are dimensioned directly on the elevations with a
TYP.notation, e.g. “1″ WIDE × 3/4″ DEEP REVEAL TYP. ALL FACES UNLESS NOTED OTHERWISE”.The takeoff person should still scan the architectural details sheets and the specifications regardless of whether a schedule is present — reveal profile (square vs. bevel vs. half-round) is usually only in the detail, not on the elevation.
What you read off the elevations to enter into ConstructiVision. Per feature strip (one row in the CV horizontal- or vertical-feature dialog):
Orientation — horizontal or vertical (CV has separate
Horizontal Feature StripsandVertical Feature Stripsdialogs; a sloped strip is a horizontal strip with different left and right elevations; an arched strip is a horizontal strip with a non-zero arch radius).“From” edge — which panel edge the start of the strip is measured from (Left or Right for horizontal; Top or Bottom equivalents for vertical). Stored in
fhq(orfvq) — value"L"or"R".Distance from that edge to the start (nearest end) of the strip — stored in
fhd(orfvd). This is the edge-offset to one end of the strip, NOT to the center.Elevation of the top edge at the left end (for horizontal) — stored in
fhl. This is the height of the strip’s top edge at its left end above the panel base. (Source confirmation:feature.lsp:179-186builds the strip’s top-left corner fromfhland computes the bottom edge asfhl − fhy— the field is unambiguously the top-edge elevation, not a centerline.)Elevation of the top edge at the right end (for horizontal) — stored in
fhr. Iffhl == fhr, the strip is horizontal; if they differ, the strip is sloped. Same top-edge convention.Length of the strip along its axis — stored in
fhw(the dialog label isLength). If left at zero or blank, the strip runs full-width minus the start-edge offset (seefeature.lsp:98-100).Arch radius — stored in
fha. Zero = straight strip. Positive = arched up. Negative = arched down. (Seefeature.lsp:102-105.)Strip Width × Thickness — depth into the panel face. CV supports four standard depths: 1/4″, 1/2″, 3/4″, 1″ (
feature.lsp:116-118). Stored inx(i.e.fhx).Up/Down face toggle — stored in the strip’s
ifield (fhifor horizontal). The DCL tile labels for this region are “Inside Opening Place” and “Panel Edge”; the toggle determines whether the strip lies on the Up face (interior after lift) or Down face (exterior after lift). See FAQ-001 long answer item 8 for the Up/Down primer.Inside-opening placement — a CV-specific feature; the strip can be routed automatically around the inside edges of openings (windows, doors, rough openings). The csv-manual at lines 1025-1028 describes this: “Feature Strips may optionally be placed on the inside edges of other features.”
Up/Down face — confirmed for feature strips. The csv-manual at line 1713 confirms: “Feature Strips placed ‘UP’, i.e., on inside surface of the Panel (the inside of the building), will be placed around the [openings] …”. So:
Down face (form-bed side, exterior after lift) — the usual case. Architectural reveals on the building’s exterior are Down-face strips. The casting bed receives the buck-out before the pour.
Up face (open-to-sky side, interior after lift) — used for interior architectural reveals (rare on tilt-up; more common on precast where the inside face is finished). On the Up face, the buck-out is fastened to the top of the embedded chamfer or to floats inserted into the wet concrete near the end of the pour.
In the CV horizontal-feature DCL (
fh_dlg.dclheader: “Strip Thickness | Width (relative to)” with paragraph “Inside Panel | Opening Place Edge”), the Inside-Opening toggle and the Panel-Edge offset together carry the Up/Down semantic. (Seefh_dlg.dcl:1-33for the field-key inventory.)CV does NOT currently color-distinguish Up/Down face for feature strips the way it now does for weld connections (
Teal = Up, Blue = Downper FAQ-001 maintainer note). Recommend extending the Teal/Blue convention to feature strips in a follow-up commit — same mnemonic, same(cons 62 ...)pattern infeature.lsplines 287, 295, 437, 444, etc. (white face / blue interior is the legacy color; the Up/Down face designation does not currently drive the render color).
How they get drawn on ConstructiVision’s shop-drawing output. Each feature strip becomes a 3D extrusion into the panel face — a hollow rectangular volume (or, for arched strips, an offset-pline shell) extruded by the strip’s thickness (
x5infeature.lsp). On the panel-face elevation view:The strip outline is a closed pline on the
featurelayer (feature.lsp:77setsclayerto"feature").Color: white for the exterior face of the extrusion, blue for the hollow interior (legacy convention — see
feature.lsp:287-288, 437).For arched strips, the geometry is an offset-pline pair joined with
pedit ... j ... cto form the arched shell.For sloped horizontal strips (different left and right elevations), the strip is drawn as a quadrilateral pline, not a rectangle.
For door/opening clips,
feature.lsp:840-870collects overlappingdrvar(door) regions and splits the strip draw to skip the opening — so a horizontal reveal correctly stops at a door jamb and resumes on the other side.
Industry-standard symbols and colors — authority gap analysis. (Same structural gap as FAQ-002.)
Regulation tier: None — feature strips are cosmetic, not structural. No building code, no OSHA standard, no DOT spec governs their symbol or render color.
Industry-Standard tier: None located. ACI 318, ACI 117, and ACI 551.2R do not specify a symbol for reveals on tilt-up elevations. TCA Guide Specification 034700 does not name a symbol or color. PCI MNL-116 (architectural precast) describes reveal materials and tolerances but does not standardize a graphic symbol.
Best-Practice tier: National CAD Standard Volume 4 (
NCS-V4) names a layer for reveals — typicallyA-WALL-REVL(architectural / wall / reveals) in the discipline-and-major-minor format. It does NOT prescribe a symbol or color on that layer. AIA Architectural Graphic Standards shows reveals as a double-line or hatched rectangle on the elevation with a leader callout and a section cut for the profile detail.Common-Practice tier: The de facto reveal symbol is a hatched or filled rectangle (sometimes with a thin centerline) drawn on the architectural elevation, labeled with a Mark or Type tag pointing to a typical-reveal detail. Profile (square / bevel / half-round / V-groove) is shown in a wall-section detail at A-501/A-901, not on the elevation. CV’s choice to render feature strips on a single
featurelayer with white/blue exterior/interior is CV-internal Common-Practice; it is NOT aligned withNCS-V4(which would put them onA-WALL-REVL).Patent-IP tier: None located in
docs-sensitive/patents/.
Why feature strips are dimensioned differently from WCs / PPs / BPs. The rule that the user has observed on the panel-book shop drawings — and that the source code confirms — is:
WCs / PPs / BPs are dimensioned to their geometric center. Feature strips are dimensioned to their top edge (for elevation), and the X position is anchored to the nearest panel edge (start-of-strip distance + length).
The reason is practical, not geometric — it’s about what the fabricator can read directly off the drawing without doing arithmetic or guesswork:
For WCs / PPs / BPs, dimensioning to center works because the embed is a discrete object with a clearly marked center. A weld-connection plate is a compact rectangle (typically 4″–12″ on a side) whose centroid is the natural reference. A pick or brace insert is a coil thread whose centerline is unambiguous and is itself a physical feature (the threaded hole). The fabricator’s form-bed layout step is: pull a tape to the centerpoint, mark a cross, drop the embed on the cross. One center → one X dim → one Y dim → done.
For feature strips, the center is invisible on the shop drawing. A horizontal feature strip is drawn as a thin rectangle (typically 1″–4″ tall on the elevation, running 4–40 feet horizontally). The strip’s geometric center is a calculated point — it doesn’t fall on a drawn line. If the dimension leader anchored to the center, the fabricator would have to:
Find the strip’s top and bottom edges (the two visible lines).
Measure or estimate halfway between them.
Pull a tape from that imagined midpoint up to the dimension target. That’s three steps where one suffices.
The top edge IS a visible drawn line, so dimensioning there is direct. The shop drawing already shows the strip’s top edge as a hard pline. If the elevation dimension’s leader lands on the top edge, the fabricator reads the elevation directly off a feature that is actually present on the drawing — no halving, no guessing. The bottom edge is implicit (top minus strip width, which is given in the strip-type callout or schedule). This is the same principle by which architects routinely dimension to the top of a sill, the bottom of a header, or the face of a wall — visible reference lines beat calculated centerlines for fabrication-floor work.
Source confirmation in
feature.lspanddrawdim.lsp. The CV code matches the drawing convention exactly:feature.lsp:179-186(and the parallelfvbranch) takesfhl/fhr(the user-input “Left Elev.” / “Right Elev.” values fromfh_dlg.dcl) as the strip’s top-left and top-right corner Y-coordinates. It then computes the bottom edge by subtracting the strip’s vertical extent (fhy):(set 'x2 (list (car x1) (- (cadr x1) x6))). The strip extends downward from the top edge, sofhl/fhrARE the top-edge elevations.drawdim.lsp:1392-1402for"fhvar"builds the FS label and emits the dimension text at(list (distof d) (+ (distof l) (* *dd-text-size* scf)))— Y-position =(distof l)plus a small text-size offset.lisfhl, which is the top-edge elevation. The dimension leader therefore lands on (or just above) the top edge of the strip on the rendered shop drawing.drawdim.lsp:1414accumulates(distof r)(right top-edge elevation) intoyalst; line 1416 accumulates(distof l)(left top-edge elevation) intoydlstwhen the strip is sloped. Both are top-edge values feeding the elevation-marker pass.
For sloped strips, the top edge is the dimensioning reference at BOTH ends. When
fhl ≠ fhr, the strip is sloped. The shop drawing dimensions the left top-edge elevation AND the right top-edge elevation — each leader anchored on the top edge at its respective end. The fabricator now has two visible reference points to lay out the sloped buck-out: top-left corner and top-right corner. They don’t need to compute slope; they just connect the two given points.For arched strips (
fha ≠ 0), the elevation dim is the chord top-edge elevation plus the arch radius.drawdim.lsp:1428-1456emits an aligned dimension on the arch chord and writes the radius as textR = <value>along the curve. Even on an arch, the chord endpoints anchor to the strip’s top edge.For horizontal position (X), the X dimension is anchored to the nearest panel edge and the strip length. The X dim is the edge-offset from the panel form to the start of the strip (
fhd), and the strip’s length runs from that start (fhw). The reason here is similar — the panel edge is a visible reference line, and “start of strip” is a corner of the drawn rectangle (a visible point). Center-X dimensioning would again ask the fabricator to compute a midpoint that doesn’t appear as a line.For WCs/PPs/BPs the center is visible (as the embed’s centerline or centroid mark in the schedule), so the principle is consistent: dimension to the visible reference. The convention only looks different between FS and WC if you forget that what counts as “visible” depends on what the feature actually IS — a discrete compact object (centerpoint visible / meaningful) vs. a thin elongated strip (edges visible, center calculated).
Practical consequence — when a customer asks “why is the FS dim leader on the top edge instead of the centerline?”: the takeaway sentence is “because the top edge is the line the fabricator actually sees; dimensioning to an imaginary centerline of a 3/4″-wide strip is error-prone in a way that dimensioning to the visible top edge is not.” This is the customer-facing explanation; the geometric / source-code detail above is the engineering-level backup for the same rule.
STANDARDS-TRACE (tier order: Regulation > Industry-Standard > Best-Practice > Common-Practice > Patent-IP)
[Regulation] — none located. Feature strips are cosmetic; no code governs them.
[Industry-Standard] —
ACI-318(tolerances on concrete dimensions, indirectly applicable to reveal placement);ACI-117(specified tolerance for cast surfaces — typically ±1/4″ on reveal position);ACI-551.2R(tilt-up panel construction, finishes section). None of these prescribe a symbol for reveals on the elevation drawing — they govern tolerance, material, and finish only.[Best-Practice] —
NCS-V4(National CAD Standard Volume 4: layer conventionA-WALL-REVL);AIA-AGS(Architectural Graphic Standards: reveal-elevation symbol convention as hatched-rectangle-with-typical-detail-callout).[Common-Practice] — Reveal as hatched or filled rectangle on architectural elevation, with typical-reveal section detail at A-501 / A-901, profile depth dimensioned in the section. Edge-anchored dimensioning (start offset + length) is the prevailing convention on shop drawings; reference:
docs/source/legacy/csv-manual.md:1025-1028, 1713, 2138-2144.[Patent-IP] — none located in
docs-sensitive/patents/.
Regional / customer variations:
Jurisdiction / Customer |
Variant rule |
Source |
|---|---|---|
Default (US + ACI / TCA) |
Reveal symbol = hatched / filled rectangle on architectural elevation; typical-reveal detail at A-501; dimension = edge-anchored start + length; tolerance ±1/4″ on position per |
|
US federal (UFGS / VA / GSA) |
|
|
Canada (CSA) |
|
|
High-end architectural / public buildings |
Reveal Schedule typically REQUIRED on architectural details sheet; profiles often beveled or V-grooved rather than square; sandblast or acid-etch finish adjacent to reveal may be specified; reveals may carry mock-up requirements. |
architect-spec; |
Warehouse / light commercial / private |
Reveal Schedule typically OMITTED; reveals dimensioned directly on elevations with |
architect-spec |
Customer-specific |
Some general contractors (e.g. Clayco, Layton, Brasfield & Gorrie) standardize a per-project Reveal Schedule template and a preferred buck-out manufacturer in their CM-of-record specs. |
customer specifications |
Cross-reference touchpoints (where this answer should also live):
AutoLISP — horizontal feature strips:
src/x64/TB11-01x64/fh_dlg.lsp(dialog launcher),fpage.lsp(page populator),fenable.lsp(toggle enable logic),feature.lsp(3D render — handles BOTHfhvarandfvvar). Vertical strips:src/x64/TB11-01x64/fv_dlg.lspandfv_dlg.dcl. Caller:drawpan.lsplines that invoke(feature "fhvar")and(feature "fvvar")perfeature.lsp:10-11header. Neitherfeature.lspnorfh_dlg.lsphas a STANDARDS-TRACE block yet — add one tagged;; FAQ-003on next code touch citingACI-117,ACI-551.2R,NCS-V4,AIA-AGS.Dimensioning:
src/x64/TB11-01x64/drawdim.lsp:1392-1395(multi-item routing for"fhvar"— emits FS label + edge-offset/length/elevation dims);drawdim.lsp:1752-1772(xmlst/xnlst suppression for fhvar full-width strips). The dimension-anchoring rule (edge-anchored start + length, not center) belongs in a STANDARDS-TRACE block on the dimensioning branch.DCL:
fh_dlg.dcl(3-page horizontal feature strip dialog — main dialog atfh_dlg, more-detail atmore) andfv_dlg.dcl(vertical feature strip dialog). Help-button routing: not yet wired; add a(csv_open-faq "FAQ-003")call to the existing Help button(s).cv-web: when feature-strip input forms are added to the React side, attach
<HelpTooltip faq="FAQ-003" />to: orientation (H/V), from-edge selector, distance-from-edge, left-elev, right-elev, length, arch-radius, strip-width × thickness, Up/Down face toggle, inside-opening toggle.Website:
webpage/Simplestruct/cv/index.html:301(“horizontal and vertical feature strips” in the 20-feature list) — anchorfaq.html#faq-003from the feature-strip phrase whenfaq.htmlis published.webpage/Simplestruct/cv/capabilities.html:370(“CSG boolean voids for openings and feature strips”) and:385(“Drag openings, blockouts, and feature strips”) — add the same anchor.Tutorial: video CV-268 — “Feature Strips: Horizontal & Vertical Reveals Made Easy” (doc 48 row 18; covers FI-140, FI-150, FI-160). FAQ-003 covers the same surface area — make this video the in-product tutorial link from the FS dialog Help button.
Feature inventory: doc 48 FI-140 (Horizontal Feature Strips / Reveals), FI-150 (Vertical Feature Strips / Reveals), FI-160 (20-Type Panel Feature System). Reverse-pointer note (doc 48 → FAQ-003) goes in the next doc-48 sweep.
Parity row: doc 41 §12.2 #591 (horizontal features), §12.2 #592 (vertical features), and §5.2 #371-#374 (opening-to-edge + feature + embed + elevation dims).
Patent: none located.
Gotchas / known bugs:
feature.lspis a 1003-line single function with deep nesting (file header notes 705-line — has grown since). No error handling for malformedpanelvardata. Heavyeval(read(strcat(...)))pattern for property access. Any STANDARDS-TRACE retrofit must thread carefully through the existing structure.No Up/Down color distinction for feature strips. Color is white-exterior / blue-interior (legacy hollow-feature convention) regardless of whether the strip is on the Up face or Down face. Recommend extending the FAQ-001 Teal/Blue mnemonic to feature strips (Teal-on-Up, Blue-on-Down) — log a Jira
[Internal]-prefixed Task to add the color flip infeature.lsp:287-288, 437and parallel(cons 62 ...)sites.feature.lspoverloadsfhvar/fvvarfor both reveals (1/4″ to 1″ thickness) AND opening-style features. If a future maintainer adds a new panel-face feature, they must consider whether it belongs infhvar/fvvar(consumed byfeature.lsp) or in a new section. Thex5thickness value determines render behavior — values in the 0.25-1.0 range render as reveals, larger values render as openings.feature.lsp:840-870door-clipping logic — newer code that splits the strip draw to skip overlapping door openings. Works for the typical single-door clip; multi-door clips on a single strip may have edge cases. (TB11 vs PB11 IDENTICAL per file header; this clipping was added in TB11 timeframe and is annotated in the source.)Dimensioning bug fix in
drawdim.lsp:1752-1762— fhvar horizontal strips that span the full panel width were emitting a spuriousx0lst=[0, panel_width]basedim span that drew a redundant total-width dimension on top of the perimeter dimension. The fix nullsxmlstandxnlstwhen the section being dimensioned is"fhvar". Documented in the source; flag if the user reports a regression.Inside-opening routing (FI-160-ish): a feature strip can be automatically routed around the inside edges of openings (csv-manual.md:1025-1028). This is non-trivial geometry — the strip path is broken into segments by the opening perimeter. Visual confirmation against a golden DXF is the only practical regression check.
Layer convention is
"feature"(single layer, no project-overridable color). Recommend logging a Jira[Internal]-prefixed Task to split intoA-WALL-REVLperNCS-V4, with project-overridable colors. Parallel to the WC layer gap from FAQ-001 and the pick/brace layer gap from FAQ-002.
Maintainer notes:
Open question — Up/Down toggle in CV’s FS dialogs: the
fh_dlg.dclheader text mentions “Strip Width (relative to)” with paragraph children “Inside Opening Place / Panel Edge”, suggesting an inside-opening positioning toggle rather than a face-flip toggle. The csv-manual at line 1713 confirms FS can be placed on the Up face (interior); whether the FS dialog currently exposes an explicit Up/Down radio (parallel to the WC dialog’s f/b/u/d split) needs verification by reading the fullfh_dlg.dclfield inventory. If no explicit Up/Down toggle exists today, that’s a defensible feature gap to log against FI-140 / FI-150.The dimensioning-convention answer (Long Answer item 8) is the heart of this entry. New hires (and customers comparing CV against competitors) often misread the WC center-dim convention as inconsistency when they see the FS edge-anchored convention. The geometric rationale — point/compact-rectangle features dim to center; linear features dim to start-edge + length; arc/slope features get unambiguous endpoint anchors — is the key teaching point.
If a higher tier (Regulation or Industry-Standard) is later identified for the feature-strip symbol or rendering color, update both the citation and the rule.
Authority catalog rows used here that were already added by FAQ-001 / FAQ-002 retrofits:
ACI-318,ACI-117,ACI-551.2R,NCS-V4,AIA-AGS,PCI-MNL-116,CSA-A23.3,UFGS-034713,TCA-GS-034700. New row to add:PCI-MNL-117(architectural-grade finishes — referenced in the high-end architectural variant row).User confirmed the rules in this entry: 2026-05-14 (third question of the week, with new dimensioning-convention sub-question).
FAQ-004 — (awaiting next question)¶
Stub for the next question.
Section 8 — Session ledger¶
FAQ-NNN |
Question (short) |
Added |
Last confirmed |
Tier relied on |
Variants |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FAQ-001 |
What are weld connections, where in the prints to find them, how are they drawn? |
2026-05-14 |
2026-05-14 (retrofit: prints-vs-shop-drawings + Embedment Schedule + Up/Down) |
Industry-Standard ( |
US default, US federal ( |
FAQ-002 |
What are pick and brace points, where in the prints to find them, how are they drawn, and Up/Down? |
2026-05-14 |
2026-05-14 (retrofit: prints-vs-shop-drawings + no-EoR-schedule + symbol-authority gap) |
Regulation ( |
US default, US federal ( |
FAQ-003 |
What are feature strips, where in the prints, how drawn, Up/Down, and why dimensioned differently from WCs/PPs/BPs? |
2026-05-14 |
2026-05-14 (first draft) |
Industry-Standard ( |
US default (ACI / TCA), US federal ( |
(Rows added per entry; this ledger is the at-a-glance progress view across the week’s question cadence.)