Pile cap geometry making

[sayyadwajed]

Hello Folks!
I am trying to automate the geometry making for pile cap foundation.
Referring to following figure:

There are basically three categories of geometry:

1. Staggered pattern: Piles arranged in staggered pattern
2. Linear shape: Piles arranged in linear pattern orthogonally in X & Y direction.
3. Polygonal shapes: Piles at each corner of the polygon with optional center pile
   Note: The light grey dashed circles represent a reference line indicating spacing between two piles.

For 2nd type of geometry, I have done it using Point.ByCoordinate node using cross product by using number of rows and number of columns in and direction
But I am stuck to make the geometries for other two types.

Thanks,

Regards

Sayyad Wajed Ali

Note: For better clarity I am attaching a PDF file for the above image.
Pile family-Model.pdf (190.4 KB)

[jacob.small]

For linear:
get the points that make up the shape
Line.ByBestFit
Curve.Offset
Curve.PointAtParameter or segment length or equal segment lengths or…

For Perimeter Offset:
Polycurve.ByJoinedCurves
Curve.Offset
Geometry.Explode
Curve.PointAtParmeter or segment length or equal segment lengths or…

For staggered: same as the first until the point at parameter, where you would double the amount of points.
List.Chop to get groups of two lists of points
List.Transpose
List.first into List.Drop every Nth
List.Last into List.Drop Every Nth

[sayyadwajed]

Hi @jacob.small
Thanks for your response. After posting the topic in the forum, I worked out and found solution for linear geometry (shown in second row of the picture) and for polygon shape geometry (shown in third row of the picture).

But I am stuck in staggered pattern geometry (shown in first row of the picture). I’m initially unable to get the points to form the geometry. My biggest issue is, How to get the points if I specify number of piles then it should give the points in a staggered pattern.

Regards,

Wajed

[Tom_Kunsman]

I am hopeful you might share what you come up with as I never thought of using Dynamo for pile caps.

[jacob.small]

@sayyadwajed - Can you share your starting point (the outlines in Revit) and the graphs as they currently sit? Something Tom hasn’t seen means this is something worth having a good demo for.

[sayyadwajed]

Hello Folks,
Please refer following pictures for linear and polygon shaped pile caps geometry:

1. Linear shape:
   

   
   
   For this, you can extrude the rectangular surface in Z direction for the amount of depth. And also the pile circles can be extruded in negative Z direction for the amount of piling underground.

2. Polygon Shaped pile:
   

   
   
   Same like linear shape, you can extrude the geometries to get the pile foundation

3. Pile caps for pile arranged in staggered pattern:
   

   
   
   I am unable to make the starting initial points for this type of geometry.
   I have Number of piles and spacing between them as input.

Would request the experts to please help me in getting the initial center points for the piles in 3rd type of geometry.

Thanks,

Regards,

Wajed

[jacob.small]

@sayyadwajed

I am unable to make the starting initial points for this type of geometry.

Can you provide the RVT file as well, ideally with the piles already drawn? I can’t help without an example. I am not a structural engineer and most of us here also are not, so while your concept makes sense to most your starting point is rather alien without the data set to play with.

[Tom_Kunsman]

@jacob.small but you do know at least ONE structural person

[jacob.small]

Very true @Tom_Kunsman!

I do know maybe dozen structural engineers who are active here, but the bulk of the usage isn’t from any one industry or skill set, and so for us to help across trades we often need a bit more help in the beginning.

This is doubly so when I have to help in Civil 3D stuff.

[sayyadwajed]

H
@jacob.small , As I am writing a design program for pipe caps related to only Structural calculations, I am not making anything in Revit. So I’m just scripting in dynamo only.

[jacob.small]

So how do I know what the caps are shaped like or supposed to result without? Your sketches up there have no dimensions and I seriously have no clue on the scale here (are those 5’ wide or 500’ wide?).

[sayyadwajed]

Well then I’ll illustrate all the attributes on the figure and reattach the picture.

[sayyadwajed]

@jacob.small Please have these attributes for the staggered pile arrangement.

• Light grey circles represent the spacing/2 between two piles.
• Yellow dashed line represents a triangular curve which may form the geometry.
• the spacing between each pile is ‘x’ times ‘d’. where ‘d’ is the diameter of pile (represented as red circles), and ‘x’ can be any number between 2.5 to 5.0.
• ‘e’ is the edge distance for the pile cap from the face of all outer piles.

Number of piles shall be variable parameter. If a user changes number of piles, it should get the geometry accordingly. I mean, different logic / methods wont work for 5 piles, 8 piles, etc. Only one logic / method need to be evolved to get all these geometries to form the pile cap.