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Fabrication schedules

Once you have designed connections, CivilKit Studio turns them into shop paperwork - a connection schedule, a fabricator worksheet and a member take-off - so an estimator or detailer can price and batch the steel.

Preliminary - verify before you build or quote

Connection design in Studio is still maturing and is not hardened. Everything on this page is built on top of it, so treat the fabrication output as a first-pass aid for estimators and detailers, not a shop-ready deliverable. Check every joint, plate, bolt group and quantity against the standard, the design drawings and a fabricator before you cut steel or send a quote.

Before you start

The connection outputs only have something to show once the model carries connections. If you open them on a bare model you'll see "No connections - run Auto-design first."

  1. Build or import the frame and assign real catalogue sections to the members.
  2. Open the Connections tab and Auto-design the joints (or design them by hand) - see Connections.
  3. Then open any of the three outputs below.

The member schedule is the exception - it lists members, so it works on any model with members and sections (no connections needed).

Connection schedule (PDF)

A one-page-style table for sanity-checking the total fabrication work content of every joint. Identical joints collapse to one row with a quantity, grouped by connection type.

  1. Open the File menu → Connection schedule (PDF).
  2. Review the table (joints are labelled N12, members M45, matching the model).
  3. Click Save as PDF to print, or Close.

What the document contains:

SectionWhat it shows
Title blockProject, job no., client, engineer, rev (from the report header)
Schedule tableOne row per joint type, grouped by template, with a thumbnail, joint refs, framing members, a standard/custom badge, and the per-joint operations - holes, bolts, weld length, cuts, copes, plates, plate area, plate cut length, fit-up, components
Subtotals & grand totalOperation totals per connection type and for the whole model
Bill of materialManufacturing operations (one row per fabricated plate), plus model-wide weld and bolt summaries
Cost summaryAn indicative cost estimate (see warning below)
DrawingsA dimensioned set-out drawing per unique plate type, with a typical bolt layout

Cost is indicative only

The cost summary uses generic rates and is a rough first-pass estimation for the report. It is not a quote - the authoritative price comes from your estimator.

Connection worksheet (fab)

What a fabricator actually works from. Identical joints are grouped, and each unique joint type gets its own printable card.

  1. Open the File menu → Connection worksheet (fab).
  2. Read each card: a joint drawing, a big "x N off" quantity, and the full take-off.
  3. Click Save as PDF to print the cards, Download CSV for the take-off data, or Close.

Each joint-type card carries:

On the cardWhat it shows
Code & quantityA type code (FP-1, EP-2, GUS-1...), the joint template and the "x N off" count with the node refs it applies to
DrawingA dimensioned elevation and isometric - or, for a gusset, the flat gusset-plate set-out
SpecsPlate sizes, bolt group (e.g. 6 x M20 8.8), weld, operations, fit-up and a components list tagged off-the-shelf or fabricated
Set-out (indicative)Per-member section, bolts, bearing and rake angles, and the included angles between members
Procurement totalsA project-level shopping list: total bolts by spec, weld length by type, plate count and area, and holes to drill or punch

The Download CSV button writes the same grouped take-off as a spreadsheet - one row per joint type (type, qty, template, class, sections, bolts, weld, plates, holes, cuts, copes, nodes) followed by the procurement totals.

Schedule vs worksheet

The schedule is a single table for checking total work content at a glance. The worksheet is one card per joint type, laid out for the shop floor and for ordering. Neither applies labour rates beyond the schedule's indicative cost estimate.

Member schedule (CSV)

A plain quantities table of every member - the steel take-off an estimator starts from.

  1. Open the File menu → Export… (or press E).
  2. Choose Member schedule (CSV).
  3. The CSV downloads as <model>_members.csv.
ColumnMeaning
MemberMember number
NameMember name, if set
SectionResolved section name
Node A / Node BThe end nodes
Length (m)Straight node-to-node length
Mass (kg)Length × the section's mass per metre

Mass needs a catalogue section

Mass per metre comes from the resolved section. A member with an uncatalogued or custom section that carries no mass/metre is counted as 0 kg, so confirm every row has a real section before relying on the totals.

Where this fits

These outputs are downstream of the connection design - improve the joints in the Connections tab and the schedules update. The PDFs share the title block and print pipeline with the analysis report, and you can tune the deliverable wording from your templates.