Concrete Mix
The Concrete Mix helps you keep track of the actual mix of concrete that are being used in the elements. If the Concrete Mix exists in IMPACT, it can also be used to define the Concrete material in IMPACT Environmental.
The Concrete mix can be set manual or more automatic based on specification values from Design.
Settings
Every Company can make a matrix of their Concrete Mixes that has some parameters in IMPACT Resource Manager. To set this up there is a branch called Concrete Mix in the Settings of Resource Manager. That setting is divided into two parts where the first one called Concrete Mix handles the different available Concrete Mixes. They will be shown in 2 tab pages (Concrete Mix and Settings) like in the picture below.
Figure 1: Concrete Mix settings
There are some terms that we are using for the different types of Fields.
Mandatory: Required fields that must be filled in for all Concrete Mixes.
Forced by criteria: Fields that if the design value has a certain value needs to be fulfilled in the Concrete Mix. For instance, if the Exposure Class is XF3 or XF4 the Concrete Mix needs to fulfill that criteria.
Fallback: Fields that must present in the Concrete Mix if the Connected To value isn't provided. This means that the Concrete Mix will have one of them, but the Design value can have both and will then be able to get possible Concrete Mixes for instance,.
Dependent: Fields whose visibility or required status depends on another field's value. For instance, the Air Content that needs to be filled in for the Concrete Mixes that has exposure class XF2 or XF3.
Tiebreaker: Field used to determine the preferred or highest-priority value when multiple matches are found, ensuring a clear selection among equal candidates.
The Data Type can either be Text or Number. If the type is text the Comparison can only be Equal to which means that the text is matching completely. If the Data Type is Number there are more alternatives for the comparison.
Figure 2: Comparison types
The Field Type in the logic is bind to the Design Specification Data that can come from multiple sources
Figure 3: Design Specification values from IMPACT for CAD/Revit, IMPACT Tekla Base Tools or Excel
As an element can consist of multiple layers, we have Field Type named with a number in the end example Exposure Class 1 and Exposure Class 2 when matching them with a Concrete Mix we will ignore the number in the end.
The Field Type Tiebreaker is a special one and that value doesn't come from the Design data. That value is to qualify the best Concrete Mix if several Mixes are matching the Design Specification Values. In the example here GWP or Global Warming Potential is used and as that value is better if it's lower the Comparison for it have been set to Lowest Wins. Something else could be used as tiebreaker for instance Price.
Figure 4: Comparison types for the Tiebreaker.
The Actual Concrete Mixes can be defined on Company or Producing Factory level.
Figure 5: Concrete Mix on Producing Factory or Company level
The Concrete Mixes defined on Producing Factory level can only be set one an element once a Producing Factory has been assigned to the element.
If there exists Concrete Mixes on a Producing Factory level and there is assigned a Producing Factory to the element is it only possible to select Concrete Mixes from that Producing Factory.
Figure 6: Producing Factory set in Project Manager Element Id grid
Figure 7: Concrete Mixes defined on Company level
The Concrete Mixes that you define in the upper part will have their specific values defined in the lower part as you can see in the Picture above. If several values should be used for a Field Type they are separated with a ; so for instance if I would like to have my Concrete Mix to work both for C30/37 and C35/45 I will write C30/37;C35/45 in the Concrete Strength field above.
To make the Concrete Mix Active you need to check that box. The reason for having these fields is to make it possible to remove Concrete Mixes from selection if they are no longer used. We can't just remove them as they have been used on older elements already. The “Active” field can first be checked when the lines fulfill the criteria for a Concrete Mix.
Criteria’s:
- All mandatory fields must be there.
- Minimum one of the fields on a fallback setting must be there.
- There must be a line with the Tiebreak.
There is a specific Permission in IMPACT User Admin that has to be set to Write in order to allow someone to define Concrete Mixes.
Figure 8: Permission for accessing the Concrete Mix Settings in IMPACT User Admin.
It's possible to crave date from Design so that they can't set there elements ready for production before the data needed for selecting Concrete Mix is defined. That value is set in Resource Manager.
Figure 9: Setting to set Design Criteria craving on the Design per Elementtype.
This setting also have a Project Specific on and off button to allow this to be implemented gradually.
Figure 10: Setting to set Design Criteria craving on the Design per Project in IMPACT Project Manager Project Properties.
IMPACT Resource Manager and Project Manager Element grids
For Design there will be information given when they set the element Ready for Production in IMPACT for CAD, IMPACT for Revit or IMPACT Project Manager.
Figure 11: Setting element Ready for Production in IMPACT Project Manager for an element missing data or even a drawing.
There are several ways to assign the Concrete Mix to the elements depending on how you want to use it.
Figure 12: Setting to define how automatic the Concrete Mix setting should be.
There is a function in IMPACT Project Manager Element Id grid and IMPACT Resource Manager Planning grid where you can Check Concrete Mixes. The function will check for a match between the Specification values and the Concrete Mix bank. The user can also change the Concrete Mix manually. IMPACT shall allow to change it without warning (even if it doesn’t fulfill the criteria), not allow if the set Concrete Mix isn’t matching (Mandatory), or warn for a Concrete Mix not fulfilling the criteria depending on the setup in IMPACT Resource Manager Settings (see above).
Figure 13: Menu on the right click from Resource Manager to the left and Project Manager to the right.
If there is more than one layer of concrete in the element type (Sandwich Walls, Double Walls) both will be checked at the same time when the Check Concrete Mix is selected. If there is no value in the Concrete Mix the Check Concrete Mix shall select the best suited Concrete Mix that fulfills the design criteria.
Figure 14: Concrete Mixes that are Green and Red
We use different colors to indicate for the users about the result of the check. Blue if the Concrete Mix is ok but there is another Concrete Mix with a better tiebreaker. Green if the best Concrete Mix is selected. Red if the selected Concrete Mix is not fulfilling the criteria.
We store the History of the Concrete Mix in the Show Element History which is available from both IMPACT Project Manager and IMPACT Resource Manager.
Figure 15: Element History Concrete Mix
In the picture above, you can see that we have both Concrete Mix and Actual Concrete Mix. The thought behind that is that the Concrete Mix 1 and Concrete Mix 2 fields should be used all the way to the actual pouring of the concrete into the mold. Then the Actual Concrete Mix 1 and 2 fields should be used instead and this will make it possible to track changes done late out in Production.
Cast Planning
In the Cast Planning list view and calendar view you can find information about the Concrete Mix. As the blue value on Actual Concrete Mix 1 and 2 indicates you can also fill in the values from here.
Figure 16: Concrete Mix in Cast Planning
IMPACT Sync
There is a new node in IMPACT Project Properties that corresponds to the new automatic function in IMPACT Sync Engine called Auto Concrete Mix Check (no 52). That function will be run on elements that have a drawing with specifications and has not yet been Produced. This shall only be run for elements that are in Projects of Type “Production” where the State is “In Progress”.
Figure 17: Autocheck Concrete Mix with IMPACT Sync Engine set to Yes and Latest Update when it was actually run.
IMPACT Go NG
From IMPACT Go NG you can also Edit the Concrete Mix.
Figure 18: Concrete Mix in IMPAC GO NG.
Additional comments
One more detail to notice is that Concrete Mix can only be set for elements having the following Material Types
Figure 19: Material Types where the Concrete Mix is active.