An experiential tendering design tool developed for Viacon
The tender materials of ViaCon’s new product, a concrete element bridge, will be compiled with a 3D tool that is the first of its kind in the field. Sweco’s parametrical design specialists developed a visual web platform that enables ViaCon to design the entire bridge site and optimise its structures already during the tendering stage. In the future, the tool will also enable calculating the bridge site’s carbon footprint.
ViaCon Group offers, among other services, bridge, subgrade reinforcement and stormwater solutions for infrastructure construction. One of the Group’s newest products is the American CON/SPAN concrete element bridges, for the sales of which ViaCon holds a European licence. This new bridge type was brought to the European markets a couple of years ago.
“Sweco’s and ViaCon’s teams were put together from employees in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark for this international development project,” says the department manager of Sweco’s bridge engineering department Antti Jussila. Poland was responsible for the technical side of the project.“Together, we adapted the product to meet the special requirements of ViaCon Group and each Nordic market.”
As the project’s side product, Sweco’s experts suggested that parametrical design could be utilised for compiling the tendering materials of element bridges. “The arch elements of the bridges are patented, but other structures must be designed separately for each site,” Jussila says.
New kind of experiential tendering materials
Sweco’s parametrical design specialist Rasmus Sainmaa and developer Harri Ohra-aho, developed a new kind of 3D modelling tool for ViaCon. It enables planning all the structures of the bridge sites in detail already during the tendering stage. “If you change one dimension, all structures are updated automatically and so are their cost effects,” Sainmaa says.
This approach is new, both in Finland and elsewhere. “The typical materials sent to an invitation to tender include PDF images on which structures, quantities and measurements are fitted,” Sainmaa says. “Now we can model the entire bridge site.”
When the bridge information is updated in real time as the measurement data is changed, this makes it easier to compare products of different sizes. “When the solution has been decided, a report can be printed from the tool and the 3D model can be shared with the customer. This creates a completely new kind of customer experience,” Jussila says.
The data modellers’ perspective in the solution planning is another new aspect. “There is nothing new about planning a web-based configurator, but our way of linking it to the core competence of structural engineering is rarer,” Sainmaa states.
A new tool for product component sales and emission calculations
The 3D design tool is suitable for all product component sales where structures need to be pre-designed and adapted to their environment before the sale. “The web-based platform can be agilely scaled for different purposes,” Jussila says.
The web platform also opens up new possibilities for considering the perspectives of sustainable development. “Carbon footprint calculation may be one of the next steps that we will take in the development work together with ViaCon,” Jussila states. This cooperation is not just a one-time development project, but rather a turnkey partnership. “We will also continue to maintain this web tool on Sweco’s service platform.”
“With CON/SPAN modelling tool ViaCon has definitely reached a whole new level”, says project coordinator of ViaCon Jacek Szczepiński. “We are constantly doing our best to keep leading position on the market and ensure our customers that ViaCon is a professional, reliable and very modern organisation. Sweco proved to be a perfect partner for that kind of challenging project.”