1. Purpose of the tool

The Scaffold Bay Tool is a comprehensive feature designed to facilitate the modeling and management of scaffold bays. Key functionalities include:

• Naming Conventions: The tool provides an overview of naming conventions and options available for scaffold bays, ensuring clarity and consistency in project documentation.
• Bay Selection and Configuration: Users can select a bay and configure its properties, including top working platform and wall line indications, as well as defining the sides of the bay (End1, End2, Outer, and Inner).
• Hierarchy Management: The tool allows users to manage the hierarchy of objects within the bay, providing flexibility in design and enabling modifications at different levels - Bay tool -Item tool access.
• Advanced Bracket, Bracing and End Arrangements Options: Users can create additional bracket platforms and choose close bay ends, and manage bracing options effectively and save standard configuration away for future use.

2. User Interface overview.

The tool is located on the ScaffPlan Toolbar.

To open the tool menu please double click on the tool.
The tool contains following features:

Bay Configuration Tab contains drop downs for dimensional constraints of the Bay, you are guided for length and height by the scaffold system manufacturers values, then manually input top platform height and building offset requirements.

You can also control the Platform Lift Heights by manipulating the Up/Down arrow to move in increments of 500mm

Standards Tab allows greater control on how bay configuration is implemented.

The main driver is the Size parameter that allows ScaffPlan to automatically choose Standard Lengths or alternatively specify a specific length from the system manufacturers range that may be required for design or availability reasons.

Top and Bottom end also can be specified to form more bespoke bay configurations, these include;

• Open
• Spigot (Top End only)
• Head Jack
• Baseplate

The rotation parameter controls the direction of the Top and Bottom end configurations

If the Bottom extension type is set to Custom an additional Input parameter becomes available to specify a user input value.

Sole board Tab defines the material Type and Arrangement.
For Type:
•    Timber 
•    Steel
•    None
For Arrangement:
•    Single
•    Triple
 

Ledgers/Transoms Tab are created on a Bay specification basis but can also be manipulated further in the model if required so ensuring you have a good specification platform where minimal editing is needed later in the model, so picking between the options available in the drop-down menu can help achieve this early on in a project.

The main options are either:
•    None
•    Ledger
•    Transom
 

Guardrail Tab are created on a Bay specification basis but can also be manipulated further in the model if required so ensuring you have a good specification platform where minimal editing is needed later in the model, so picking between the options available in the drop-down menu can help achieve this early on in a project

For the Inner and Outer parameters, you have the option of:

• None
• Ledger 
• Tube (at Corners)

For the Inner Top and Outer Top parameters, you have the option of;

• None
• At 1m (Inner Top only) 
• At 1m and 2m (Outer Top only) 

Bracing Tab can initially be placed on creation and you can control the direction and the faces of the bay to where is applied and the lift between levels where it is included.

The Direction can either be Right-to-Left or Left-to-Right, and you can choose the following positions

• Inner
• Outer
• End 1
• End 2

Top Ring provides an option for creating and controlling the top ring in a bay configuration extending the inner and outer standards to a common level and closing off with ledgers to all sides.

Vertical Ladder is a comprehensive method of applying ladder access directly to a bay with varying placement and arrangement scenarios.  By selecting Yes in the Create parameter this activates the additional options and the drop-down parameters for you to tailor the ladder access for your exact needs

Ladder 

We provide a selection of 17-inch wide ladders, including:

• 3ft ladder (0.43 x 0.91m)
• 5ft ladder (0.43 x 1.52m)
• 6ft ladder (0.43 x 1.83m)

Connection

• Ledgers (default option)
• Brackets
• Tube and couplers

Ground Clearance

The ground clearance is defined in millimetres from the bottom of the ladder base plate to the bottom of the ladder, with a default value of 100mm.

Bracket Offset

The ladder bracket offset is calculated in millimetres from the bottom of the ladder to the bottom of the bracket, with a default value of 0mm.

 Stop at First Lift 

This option controls the positioning of the ladders at lifts. If set to "Yes" (default), the ladders will stop at the first lift. If set to "No," the ladders will extend all the way up to the last lift of the bay.

Tube Connector

This option adds internal or external joiners to the vertical tubes that the brackets are connected to.

Create Gates 

This allows you to add or remove gate access.

Flip 

This option allows you to add ladder access to the left (End1) or right (End2) side of the bay. By default, it is set to End1, but you can flip it to End2.

These features provide flexibility and control over how vertical ladder access is configured in your bay setup.

There are additional information image guidelines to assist with the Ground Clearance and Bracket Offset inputs:

Hatch Stair is a comprehensive method of creating hatch and ladder access directly inside a bay with varying placement and arrangement scenarios.  By selecting Yes in the Create parameter this activates the additional options and the drop-down parameters for you to tailor the ladder access for your exact needs.

Create Gates

You can add or remove gates by setting the Create gates option to Yes or No, respectively.

Bottom Connection

• Tube at Top of Ladder
• Ledger at Top of Ladder 

Flip 

This option allows you to mirror hatch stairs from one end of the bay to the other (from End2 to End1) with ladder access.

Hatch Stairs at Lifts

Once the dropdown is expanded, you can tick on/off the lifts where the hatch stairs are required.

Console Bracket it is possible to add console brackets at one or both ends of a bay and to the inner and outer faces of the bay, you can quickly setup arrangement for different bay configuration for mid and end bay types and save for future use.  Additional options become available depending on where you specify Inner and Outer console bracket instances.

Depending on the system you are using the selection available to you will vary, below is an example showing some of the U-Layher console bracket sizes.

Additional information is available for the Planks inside (at corners) for greater clarity on the parameter setting 

Bay Ends refer to the two ends of a bay in scaffolding, typically designated as End 1 (Left) and End 2 (Right). These ends can be customized with various options.

There are often scenarios where the copying and modifying of bays may result in items often being replicated or doubled up so additional adjustments may be required to resolve this, the following options are available via the drop-down parameters.

• Open 
• Closed (end guardrails/handrails and toeboards)
• Open without inner standard
• Closed without inner standard
• Open without outer standard
• Closed without outer standard
• No standards

Neighbor Bay Adjustment feature allows users to quickly access the option from the Scaffold Bay Tool Properties dialogue, there are various functionalities related to neighbor bay adjustments, including moving neighbor bays at either end and adjusting the length of neighbor bays. 

The Adjustment options focus on changing the size of the selected bay and the adjacent bay in relation to the specific end, this will in turn stretch or shrink to suit resulting in no change to the overall length of the scaffold run.

The Move options are more geared to editing the size of that specific individual bay and then nudging along all the other linked bays from the specified end along which will either lengthen or shorten the scaffold run.

3. Tool dialogue buttons.

No.	BUTTON	FUNCTIONALITY
		To save a current tool setting it is required to type name of the setting into the box and click Save button. To load previously saved settings please click on the box to drop down a list of setting s available then choose a desired setting. Once the setting clicked from the drop-down it will be automatically loaded, and dialogue boxes updated to values saved under the setting.
		Opens ScaffPlan knowledge base articles on the tool usage.
		Saves values set in the dialogue boxes and closes the dialog box. ScaffPlan uses these properties the next time you create an object of this type.
		Saves values set in the dialogue boxes without closing the dialog box. ScaffPlan uses these properties the next time you create an object of this type.
		Modifies the selected ScaffBlock using the current properties of the dialog box such Type, Subtype, Name etc. as set in the tool.
		Gets properties from the selected a block selected in the model and fills the menu with the values of the selected block. If several blocks are being selected, ScaffPlan takes the values from the first one selected and updates the dialogue boxes.
		Switches all check boxes in the dialog box on and off. Used when all boxes need to be unticked then some only need to be ticked (taken into effect) once the Modify button is pressed after.
		Closes the tool menu without saving the properties or modifying objects.