Where Form Meets Function: Scaffold Design

My name is Samu Lilio, and I am a senior drafter here at DH Charles Engineering. I have been with the company for going on 20 years. I started my career here and have the privilege of being a part of a company for this long.  Some could say that I am a dedicated employee to the company. I can attest that DH Charles Engineering, Inc. has been dedicated to me in my professional growth not only as a drafter but also as a person. In my career, I have helped design all types of civil engineering plans that include, but are not limited to, scaffolding, excavation, bridge falsework, etc. There are plenty of jobs I have encountered that have left an impression. Of the many jobs that have stuck with me, one stands out for turning the usual form‑versus‑function conflict into a required partnership.

Designing a scaffold layout can be beautiful when done in the confines on AutoCAD. Being able to see the plan views, cross sections and elevations not only makes a 50’-tall scaffolding structure look aesthetically pleasing, it simplifies a complex structure down to it’s individual pieces. Every engineer and drafter shares this perspective to some degree. Unfortunately, when a design becomes reality, scaffolding becomes intimidating and somewhat unsightly. Especially to the public who has to walk over and around said scaffold structure.

“This would mean forgoing a lot of conventional design parameters while maintaining staunch requirements to ensure safety for the workers and pedestrians.”

In late 2023, I was part of a team that was responsible for designing scaffolding that had to access a large building in the heart of Dallas, Texas. With the building being a large part of the downtown area, it had to both be practical and easy on the eyes. This would mean forgoing a lot of conventional design parameters while maintaining staunch requirements to ensure safety for the workers and pedestrians.

As a drafter on this project, I was partially responsible for the scaffold’s physical layout around the building. Most importantly, I was responsible for the readability of our plans. It’s a daunting task considering the complexity of the design. While the engineer was responsible for creating an aesthetically pleasing scaffold structure for the public to view, I was responsible for creating an aesthetically pleasing design plan for the general contractor to read.

To quickly summarize the design aspect of the job, the team was tasked with designing a platform 40’-tall and all the scaffolding to support it. There were large walkthrough paths under the platform, which required large beam spans above to support the platform. In terms of just these requirements, it was nothing out of the normal design plans we encounter with any other job. What made this design more extraordinary was that this scaffold design was needed to be able hold solid paneling on its face so to hide the unsightly scaffold parts. With these panels being so heavy, we had to use quad leg modular scaffold posts versus your traditional single leg posts.

“I had to break this design in stages so that this was readable and organized.”

I had to break this design in stages so that this was readable and organized. I broke this design into 3 elements and created 3 separate plan views. And even though these were 3 separate plan views, they depended on each other in terms of layout and readability. These are the steps I took to make this design plan readable (some drafter lingo will be used that will either excite you or put you to sleep):

STEP 1 – Identify the 3 elements:

1. The supporting scaffold towers below (SCAFFOLD)
2. The shoring beams above the scaffold towers (BEAM STACK)
   1. With such large beams being used, we needed 2 plan views (one for support beams alone and another for cross/header beams)
3. The working platform supported by the shoring beams (PLATFORM)

STEP 2 – Create plan views for each element and make them into blocks/xrefs (SCAFFOLD, BEAM STACK, PLATFORM)

STEP 3 – Stack all 3 blocks/xrefs on top of each other

STEP 4 – Create 3 sheets where each sheet highlights 1 specific element while fading the other 2.

STEP 5 – Generate necessary sections and details

What made me proud about this job is that I took a complicated job and made it simple to understand. I could have created one large plan view and made a valiant effort to make things somewhat clear. But I chose to break it down into pieces to make it digestible even to the lay person.

Looking at this design with a drafter’s eye, there is a lot of organization that goes unseen. D.H Charles Engineering prides itself on creating standards for our drafting department that keep our designs readable and easy for our clients to view. There is a lot more to our drawings than the vectors and images seen on page. Listing all these standards may be a bore to the lay person, maybe even to other drafters. But these standards ensure safety and efficiency in all our designs.