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Notre Dame High School - Cadd Alta Drafting and Design Inc
In 2004 the Calgary Catholic School Board in Alberta Canada decided they needed a new, state-of-the-art facility to provide students with outstanding leadership and learning opportunities. The facility became known as the Notre Dame High School.
In order to get the ball rolling on this 500 ton joist and steel project, a highly reputable project team was assembled. The team consisted of Gibbs Gage Architects, HMS Engineering, Maple Reinders (main contractor), Western Steel Fabricating and CADD Alta Drafting and Design Inc. (steelwork detailer). Overall, the project took 8-10 months to complete.
One of the biggest challenges faced on this project was coordinating the different trades at different parts of the project. StruCad allowed all members of the teams to get up to date information by utilizing StruCad’s superior integration facilities and collaboration tools to enable streamlined workflow in line with Building Information Modeling (BIM) concepts. Through facilitation of information transfer between the contractors and the masons, along with coordination of the concrete workers, re-bar companies, and joist/deck companies, StruCad contributed significantly to the organization and management of the many aspects of the project.
The 3D capabilities of StruCad helped isolate trouble spots on the project and gave the detailers a chance to solve the problems before they became an issue. The end result was fewer headaches in the field and the removal of costly field work. Gary Stokell, President of CADD Alta, acknowledged that this was the most obvious benefit of using StruCad but that there were also other numerous benefits. "StruCad helped speed up the detailing and checking of this project and every project we work on seems to be getting easier and faster to detail."
Not only did StruCad help with the detailing portion of this project it but also facilitated the fabrication and erecting aspects as well. With the help of StruCad, the architects along with the engineers were able to anticipate conflicts, thus giving them ample time to provide details or add framing so that the project could be completed on time. "StruCad is a program that speeds up productivity as well as accuracy and its 3D modeling capabilities are extremely useful for training" reiterated Gary Stokell.
With the help of StruCad, CADD Alta was also able to run Advance Bill of Materials reports which assisted the fabricator in locating and shipping odd sizes to the shop prior to fabrication. This allowed for little to no down time in the shop. The accuracy of the program allowed CADD Alta to ensure easy erection on site and delivered maximum confidence. High praise was received when the 3D and isometric views were shown to the erectors. "Without the help of StruCad showing the other trades the discrepancies, this would have been a complete nightmare" added Gary Stokell.
CADD Alta Drafting and Design Inc, formerly known as Western Steel Fabricators, currently owns seven full StruCad Licenses, seven StruCam licenses and three StruMac licenses. In April 2005 Gary Stokell, a former partner at Western Steel Fabricators, bought and renamed the company CADD Alta Drafting and Design Inc. CADD Alta’s goal is to provide their customers with a superior service and to ensure that with the aid of the StruCad 3D modeling system all critical deadlines efficiently met.