315-17 DETAILS AND DETAILING OF CONCRETE REINFORCEMENT mats more than 4 ft (1200 mm) thick that suppliers furnish
supports for such purposes only by special arrangement.
CHAPTER 6—COMPUTER-ASSISTED DETAILING 6.1—Use of computers in detailing The computer system for detailing reinforcing bars has
been devised to use digital computers and other data process-
ing equipment to speed up the preparation of placing draw-
ings, to facilitate neater and more compact drawings, and to
relieve the detailer of tedious and time-consuming computa-
tions that can be performed efficiently by a computer.
Computer-aided drafting, commonly called CAD, is also
being used in the drawing and detailing of placing drawings.
This system gives the detailer speed, accuracy, and an expe-
ditious way of making changes when necessary.
6.2—Placing drawings The detailer prepares the graphical part of the placing
drawing in a conventional manner. All the listing of quantities
and other descriptive printing, however, is performed by the
computer’s output device (that is, plotter, matrix printer, laser
printer). While producing the placing drawings, the detailer
may directly or indirectly input information into the computer
for processing. When the input data have been processed, the
drawing is completed by attaching to it the printed output
from the computer. It contains all the necessary descriptive
information pertaining to the reinforcing steel as well as the
bending details. Computer output can be printed on transpar-
ent paper so that bar lists and bending details will be repro-
duced as part of the placing drawing.
The “label system” is often used to reference the bars on
the drawing with its attached machine printout. Under this
system, the detailer assigns a label number to each separate
bar placing operation comprising either an individual bar or
a group of bars. This label number, indicating the designated
bars, is shown clearly on the drawing and is also written on
the input sheet along with other pertinent data, such as bar
size and spacing. The output from the computer prints the la-
bel number and then lists the descriptions of the various bars
under each label. In this way, a quick reference can be made
between the graphical section of the drawing and the ma-
chine printed bar descriptions.
