Introduction

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Precast Concrete Software Consortium (PCSC)

The PCSC is an consortium of major precast concrete producers from Canada and the USA, comprising a significant proportion of the precast concrete production capabilities in North America. The consortium was formed with the goal of fully integrating the engineering, production and construction operations of its members through adoption of advanced information technologies (IT). The industry currently uses a wide variety of °off the shelf" software, combined with varying degrees of customization, for all aspects of its business. These include software for estimating, design, drafting, manufacturing, inventory control, shipping, accounting functions, etc. Up to now, most of the software has been disjointed, with little or no communication between applications. Two main components are lacking:

1) A strong 3D parametric precast building modeling platform, which will replace computer-aided drafting with computer-aided building modeling. The platform will allow efficient design and detailing of building assemblies and pieces. It will also provide a platform for automated engineering design of structures and assemblies, based on plug-in applications.

2) A Precast Concrete Product Model (a data model) to enable integration of the diverse systems, existing and contemplated.

Development of these two information technologies are therefore the primary goals of the consortium.

Initial specification of the requirements for a Precast Modeling Platform was completed in December 2001. Through 2002, the PCSC solicited and evaluated offers from software companies, both CAD vendors and precast application vendors, to provide the platform. Tekla Inc. were selected to develop the software on the basis of their Xengineer application.  Preparation of the final software specification - a joint effort of Tekla and the PCSC Technical Committee, and supported by a team at Georgia Tech led by Prof. Charles Eastman, with Rafael Sack and Ghang Lee - is now underway. The first release of the full platform is expected early in 2004. Various North American precast software application providers (notably LEAP software) have committed themselves to adapting their applications to function directly within the Xengineer Precast Platform.

The Precast Product Model is expected to provide for smooth data exchange between the Precast Modeling Platform and all of its plug-ins, described above, with the range of existing applications for scheduling, order tracking, billing, cost estimation and other applications, allowing full integration of engineering data with other precast and business applications. Work on the Precast Product Model was begun with preparation of information rich Process Models by consortium members. The full development of  the the product model is being planned.
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PCSC Member List

(1) The Member Precast Concrete Producers

	Blakeslee Prestress
	Concrete Technology, Inc.
	Con-Force Structures Limited
	Coreslab International Inc.
	High Concrete Structures, Inc.
	IPC, Inc.
	JW Peters and Sons, Inc.
	Lafarge Canada/Precon
	Metromont Prestress Company
	New Enterprise Stone & Lime Co, Inc.
	Shockey Precast Group, The
	Strescon Limited
	Tindall Corporation
	Unistress Corp.
	Wells Concrete Products Company

(2) The Associate Members

	Altatech
	Blue Ridge Design, Inc.
	Cohos Evamy Partners
	Consulting Engineers Group Inc., The
	Front Range Design Group, Inc.
	Gratec Engineering Ltd.
	H. Wilden & Associates
	Kassian Dyck & Associates
	Leap Associates International, Inc
	Leap Software, Inc
	Neilsoft
	Precast Engineering
	Quanterra
	Read Jones Christoffersen Ltd.
	Salmons, PC
	Seaboard Services of VA, Inc.
	The Consulting Engineers Group, Inc.

(3) The Technical Advisory Team

	Prof. Chuck Eastman, Team Leader, Georgia Institute of Technology
	Dr. Rafael Sacks, Technion Israel Institute of Technology
	Dr. Ghang Lee, Georgia Institute of Technology

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