Fencing a simple perimeter: enclose a construction site

You work for [your company name], a construction company in [city, province], with the TektonAI tools connected to this conversation.

What the TektonAI tools do:
- Scaffold prepares 3D scaffold plans from the dimensions of the structure, or from the architect's IFC model or PDF drawing: dimensioned A3 PDF plan, calculation note, bill of materials in Excel and CSV, 3D model (STEP) and CAD plan (DXF). It revises an existing plan from its drawing number.
- Parts is our company's parts library: references, dimensions and weights. It imports our parts list.
- Scaffold plans use the parts of our Parts library when we ask.
- Fencing draws the site fence plan from the perimeter, or around a Scaffold scaffold along a street, with the public walkway: PDF plan, bill of materials in Excel and CSV, and the site's wind per NBC 2020.
- Materials keeps the catalogue of common building materials (drywall, lumber, insulation, hardware…) with our own items, and produces PDF and Excel catalogues from it. When I ask for a family, give only that family; accessories only when I ask for them.

How to work with me:
- Answer in English, in plain words and site terms. Produce documents (plans, calculation notes, catalogues) in English.
- Use the TektonAI tools for every plan, quantity or weight. Never make up a dimension, a quantity or a weight.
- Before producing a plan, show the configuration and the bill of materials, and wait for my approval.
- When a tool asks me a question through a form, let me answer it myself. Never choose the duty class (light, intermediate or heavy) for me.
- Leave plans at the “PRELIMINARY” status until I give you the names of the person who checked the plan and the person who approved it.
- For an import into Parts, show the preview and wait for my confirmation: a click on the card, or the word “Import” that I type myself. Pass my message on exactly as I wrote it.
- Remind me that plans are preliminary: a competent person must check them before erection.

A construction site is often fenced before anything else. This tutorial shows how to get the plan of that fence with Fencing · Palissade, from the site’s perimeter alone, without a scaffold plan.

Julie Exemple, of Entreprise Démo TektonAI, is fencing a 40 m x 25 m rectangular site in Montréal. She has not decided yet where the entrance goes: the plan will remind her.

What you need

• The dimensions of the site, or its corners in order if it is not rectangular.
• The panel type: mesh or other.
• Your fences in your Parts · Remise library, if you have any. Without them, Fencing uses generic parts.

Step 1: describe the perimeter

Open a conversation in your TektonAI project:

Prepare the fence of a 40 m x 25 m rectangular site in Montréal, with mesh panels, using the fences in our library.

It worked when: Fencing answers with a form of questions.

Step 2: answer the questions

Before drawing, Fencing asks 5 questions:

• Is the site at the top or on the slope of a hill, ridge or escarpment?
• Importance category of the fence for wind (factor Iw, NBC 2020, Table 4.1.7.3)?
• The company’s library has panels of several heights: which fence height?
• The company’s library has several parts for the role “base”: which one should be used?
• The company’s library has several parts for the role “stay”: which one should be used?

Julie answers in the form:

• the site is not on a hill, ridge or escarpment;
• the importance category is normal;
• a 1829 mm (6 ft) fence;
• base DEMO-CLO-BASE and stay DEMO-CLO-CTF.

It worked when: Fencing answers with a plan whose number starts with CLO-.

Step 3: read the plan

Plan CLO-261023-431B, revision A (PRELIMINARY)

Fence 1.83 m (6’-0”) high in mesh panels, closed perimeter, in 4 segments: perimeter of 130.00 m (426’-6”), 130.00 m (426’-6”) fenced in 4 runs. 46 panels, 54 bases, 0 gates. Parts from the Entreprise Démo TektonAI parts library, the others generic. Site wind: q1/50 = 0.44 kPa (Montréal (City Hall), QC).

The bill of materials counts every part:

• 46 mesh panels of 6 ft x 10 ft, 4 of them overlapping;
• 54 concrete bases;
• 54 fence clamps, marked “Not in Entreprise Démo TektonAI catalogue”;
• 4 stays, one at each corner.

No panel is cut: on each side, the last panel overlaps the one before.

It worked when: You have the PDF plan and the bill of materials, with your part numbers.

Step 4: read the points to note

Under the summary, Fencing lists three points:

• OVERTURNING: under the site wind, the overturning moment of a typical panel (1.21 kN·m) exceeds the resisting moment of its bases (0.14 kN·m). Add ballast or intermediate stays before installation.
• For the fence to stand under the site wind: add 364 kg of ballast per base, or set a ballasted stay at every panel, fixed to the panel and to its base, with 214 kg of ballast per base. Conservative calculation (50-year wind, NBC 2020): a competent person checks it before installation.
• No gate and no entrance: how do workers and vehicles get in? Add a pedestrian or vehicle gate, or say how the site is reached.

The last point comes from Julie’s request: she described a closed perimeter, with no gate. The plan says so plainly, in the answer and on sheet 2 of the PDF.

Answer in the conversation, as the plan asks: add a pedestrian or vehicle gate, with its width and the side where it goes, or say how the site is reached.

It worked when: You know what ballast to plan and how workers and vehicles will get in.

Step 5: verify the plan

Each PDF carries a reference and a QR code. The QR code opens TektonAI’s verification page. It says whether the plan is authentic, who issued it and when. See Verify a plan.

It worked when: The verification page shows the plan's reference as authentic.

Special cases

• Your site is not rectangular: give its corners in order, with their distances.
• The fence runs along a scaffold: start from the Scaffold plan. See Fencing around a scaffold.
• You have no fences in your library: Fencing uses generic parts and does not ask about the height, the base and the stay.
• You work in French: write your request in French, or set the language of your profile. The plan then comes out in French.
• Your assistant does not see the tool: an administrator has to give you access, on the Access page of the console. See Your team in TektonAI.

Good to know

• The plan stays preliminary. It says so itself: “This plan is not approved for installation: it is for preparing the fence and having it checked.”
• Fencing gives no prices.