Cundall Codes Issue 1

Access chamber parametric design

Access chambers - from the surface they seem a simple hole in the ground but dig deeper and it becomes clear that is more to them than meets the eye. The design of access chambers must account for various elements such as pipes, ducts, loading, flotation and access for installation and maintenance. It is essential that they are correctly designed from the outset to avoid problems later in the project.

At Cundall, great strides have been made regarding digitalising our design processes for MEP, structural and specialist design services. This is expanding into civil engineering design, starting with a smart Revit family using parametric design tools to automate inspection chamber designs.

Parametric design allows the user to input any desired dimensions and penetrations without affecting the overall design of the chamber. This enables our engineers to be agile and update designs quickly when required. The images below show how specifying the dimensions and position of a duct penetration automatically adds it to the 3D geometry.

Coordination with other design disciplines is improved thanks to the inclusion of visible access zones in Revit. This enables us to account for the underground services as they are seen above ground when the slabs and roads are modelled. All members of the design team can easily identify them, facilitating alignment across disciplines.

Lastly, automatic scheduling enables the engineer to generate schedules derived directly from the Revit family. The schedules are created in a standard table format and include information necessary to specify the general arrangement of an access chamber (setting out, dimensions, wall thickness, cover slope, etc.)

Digital advances are enabling Cundall to produce higher quality designs more efficiently for our clients. We have been developing many of these tools which are being utilised across our projects, we will share more of them in future editions.

If you would like to get in touch about this or any other topics of digital engineering please contact csdigital@cundall.com