DigiPara in lift planning at SOLTIC: smart software, strong specialist planning

As a spe­cial­ist plan­ner, SOLTIC is com­mis­sioned specif­i­cal­ly for the plan­ning of lift sys­tems in spe­cial build­ings, for exam­ple high-rise build­ings, hos­pi­tals, indus­tri­al parks, uni­ver­si­ties, depart­ment stores and rail­way sta­tions. We have noticed that the require­ments for lift sys­tems have increased notice­ably in recent years: high­er user num­bers, more com­plex build­ing geome­tries, stricter stan­dards, BIM coor­di­na­tion and a grow­ing demand for trans­paren­cy in ear­ly project phas­es:

• Build­ing own­ers want to know at an ear­ly stage which solu­tion is eco­nom­i­cal­ly and oper­a­tional­ly suit­able.
• Archi­tects need reli­able dimen­sions and a mod­el that inte­grates neat­ly into the over­all plan­ning.

It is pre­cise­ly at this inter­face that Digi­Para Lift­de­sign­er pro­vides sup­port as a pro­fes­sion­al spe­cial­ist tool for lift plan­ners. Impor­tant: Digi­Para does not replace spe­cial­ist plan­ning. It rein­forces it.

What is DigiPara?

Digi­Para is a spe­cialised plan­ning soft­ware for lifts and esca­la­tors with a strong BIM focus. The tool enables the para­met­ric con­fig­u­ra­tion of lift sys­tems, the sys­tem­at­ic dimen­sion­ing of shaft and cab­in dimen­sions and the gen­er­a­tion of 2D plan­ning doc­u­ments and 3D BIM mod­els.

The deci­sive added val­ue lies in the rule-based log­ic: Digi­Para maps tech­ni­cal­ly plau­si­ble con­fig­u­ra­tions. This pro­vides a sound basis for vari­ant deci­sions, BIM coor­di­na­tion and pre­sen­ta­tion.

Exem­plary rep­re­sen­ta­tion of a man­hole head con­struc­tion in Digi­Para

Vendor-neutral dimensioning — faster to resilient concepts

A ven­dor-neu­tral design is essen­tial, par­tic­u­lar­ly in study/pre-project phas­es and pub­lic sec­tor projects, as it ensures free­dom of choice. This pre­vents clients from com­mit­ting to cer­tain prod­ucts at an ear­ly stage, which can lead to prob­lems and restric­tions lat­er on in the ten­der­ing process. As inde­pen­dent spe­cial­ist plan­ners, we exclu­sive­ly rep­re­sent the inter­ests of the client — not the sales objec­tives of a man­u­fac­tur­er.

Digi­Para sup­ports this neu­tral approach by:

• Quick cre­ation of vari­ants (e.g. num­ber of lifts, load capac­i­ties, speeds, cab­in types, shaft groups)
• plau­si­bilised para­me­ter com­bi­na­tions that reduce plan­ning errors in ear­ly phas­es
• Imme­di­ate visu­al­i­sa­tions that make space require­ments and func­tion­al con­cepts com­pre­hen­si­ble for clients and archi­tects

This enables ear­ly deci­sions to be made on the basis of clear­ly struc­tured, com­pa­ra­ble con­cepts.

At SOLTIC, we are ven­dor- and indus­try-neu­tral when it comes to lift con­sult­ing and plan­ning. This results in objec­tive sys­tem com­par­isons and tech­ni­cal­ly opti­mised solu­tions instead of sales-dri­ven pro­pos­als. This avoids over­sized or unnec­es­sar­i­ly expen­sive sys­tems while at the same time check­ing the plau­si­bil­i­ty of spe­cial sys­tems and designs. We objec­tive­ly assess the entire life cycle of the sys­tem.

DigiPara: powerful, but no substitute for experts

At first glance, Digi­Para Lift­de­sign­er looks «sim­ple», but appear­ances are decep­tive. It is a soft­ware for sup­port, not for mak­ing deci­sions.

The rea­son for this is that the tool does not auto­mat­i­cal­ly gen­er­ate the best solu­tion. It pro­vides pro­fes­sion­al, para­met­ric options. It is still up to the lift plan­ner to decide which of these actu­al­ly makes sense. Exper­tise and expe­ri­ence are cru­cial, espe­cial­ly for com­plex build­ings:

• Stan­dards and safe­ty require­ments
• Earth­quake design in lift plan­ning
• Trans­port and util­i­sa­tion con­cepts
• Oper­a­tional process­es (hos­pi­tal, indus­try, pub­lic trans­port)
• Res­cue con­cepts and inser­tion con­cepts
• Archi­tec­tur­al and build­ing ser­vices inte­gra­tion

We see Digi­Para as a tool and accel­er­a­tor — but the qual­i­ty comes from pro­fes­sion­al inter­pre­ta­tion and con­cep­tu­al work. Dur­ing our many lift plan­ning projects, we have seen how impor­tant it is to be able to empathise with each customer’s busi­ness. The opti­mum lift con­stel­la­tion can only be devel­oped by ask­ing spe­cif­ic ques­tions and involv­ing the users.

This is how we use DigiPara at SOLTIC — consistently and for complex projects

We use Digi­Para Lift­de­sign­er in all plan­ning phas­es:

Studies & preliminary projects

We use Digi­Para for visu­al­i­sa­tions, com­par­ing vari­ants and defin­ing reli­able shaft dimen­sions. Clients and archi­tects gain clar­i­ty about space require­ments, con­cept log­ic and fea­si­bil­i­ty at an ear­ly stage.

Building project

Digi­Para pro­vides us with a valu­able con­tri­bu­tion to coor­di­na­tion in the BIM coor­di­na­tion mod­el — togeth­er with archi­tec­ture and oth­er spe­cial­ist dis­ci­plines. Con­flicts become vis­i­ble before they become expen­sive on the con­struc­tion site.

We have a par­tic­u­lar focus on the flex­i­ble cus­tomi­sa­tion of indi­vid­ual sys­tem com­po­nents. Because we are often asked to work on com­plex build­ing types — hos­pi­tals, indus­tri­al plants or build­ings with het­ero­ge­neous uses — solu­tions often have to be very spe­cif­ic. Digi­Para is also a real advan­tage for unusu­al con­cepts: it helps us to quick­ly devel­op, test and clear­ly doc­u­ment vari­ants.

Thanks to the data export options, we were able to pre­pare the lift mod­els for our BIM projects quick­ly and reli­ably and col­lab­o­rate effi­cient­ly with the plan­ning teams.

Anoth­er suc­cess fac­tor is the strict sep­a­ra­tion of tech­ni­cal con­cept and mod­el­ling: our tech­ni­cal experts are respon­si­ble for tech­ni­cal details and con­cepts — the 3D mod­el­ling is car­ried out by spe­cialised mod­ellers. This keeps the roles clear, inter­faces reli­able and each side can utilise its core exper­tise.

Conclusion & recommendation

Digi­Para is a very good tool for us — if it is used cor­rect­ly. It does not replace lift plan­ning, but makes it bet­ter: faster, more trans­par­ent and BIM-capa­ble.

Since we start­ed using Digi­Para, we have been able to notice­ably increase our effi­cien­cy, while at the same time improv­ing the qual­i­ty and pre­sen­ta­tion of our ser­vices. For clients, this means ear­li­er cost cer­tain­ty and reli­able con­cepts. Archi­tects ben­e­fit from smooth inte­gra­tion into the over­all plan­ning and a clear basis for deci­sion-mak­ing.

Our rec­om­men­da­tion:
Digi­Para should be used ear­ly on in the project — this is where the lever­age is great­est. With clear­ly defined inter­faces, trained users and con­sis­tent tech­ni­cal inter­pre­ta­tion, it becomes a real qual­i­ty and effi­cien­cy dri­ver in the plan­ning of lift sys­tems.

We take your project to the top!

We know our way around lift plan­ning — we also solve unusu­al projects with the right tech­nol­o­gy. In the next step, we work with you to find the right con­trac­tor to realise the project. This applies to spe­cialised con­struc­tion and pub­lic pro­cure­ment as well as to high archi­tec­tur­al demands. At SOLTIC, you have a direct con­tact per­son who can also advise you on spe­cial ideas and con­cepts in all areas of oper­a­tions and logis­tics.

Do you want to aim high?