Manufacturing | Formwork - Automating Vertical Formwork Design with Recursive Subdivision

Face Data Chaining (The Alignment Engine)

To solve the alignment problem, we developed a Face Data Chain algorithm.

• Topological Pairing: Instead of solving walls individually, the system scans the model to pair opposing faces that fall within the wall-tie threshold.
• Unified Solving: Once paired, the solver treats the wall as a single volumetric entity. It computes a "column width domain" - the aligned widths of the panel columns on both sides of the cavity - satisfying the constraints of both faces simultaneously so wall ties always align.
• Balance Validation: Matching both sides is not as simple as copying panel widths across the cavity - resizing can push a panel below the system's 75mm minimum width. The solver validates every solution and adjusts the balance - the non-standard panel that closes each run - until both sides align within the system's limitations.
• Anchor Weighting: The anchor point selected in the Deck Solver acts as a weighting for the wall layout: balance panels are orientated towards it, so the non-standard panels for both wall and deck formwork consistently land in the same location.
• The Beam-Side Exception: Beam sides take no wall ties, so the solver separates them from the chains and solves them in isolation, rotating panels to lie horizontally along the beam.

Recursive Subdivision

Rectilinear walls are simple, but real-world concrete cores have complex returns, kickers, and projections.

• Vertical Slicing: A first pass slices each face with a bias towards vertical cuts, maximizing panel height utilization before finer subdivision begins.
• Convex Corner Slicing: We implemented a recursive subdivision algorithm that slices non-rectangular surfaces at every convex corner.
• Fitness Tree: The solver generates multiple potential subdivision strategies and uses a fitness function to select the solution that produces the most square (and therefore most packable) bins.

Each rectangular bin is then packed with columns of panels using linear packing, working from the system's standard 600mm panel width.

Modular Feature Solvers

Vertical geometry is full of interruptions: Windows, Doors, and Projections (extruded fenestrations).

• Context-Aware: We built dedicated sub-solvers for each feature type. The window and door solvers identify jambs, sills, and heads - selecting different opening components depending on whether the opening has a jamb or is flanked by an adjacent wall - while the projection solver resolves every face of an extruded void, and the window hood solver handles the cantilevered shading slabs above openings.
• Domain Ownership: These features live in the Wall Solver deliberately - even their horizontal surfaces. The wall and beam components are the variants used to solve openings, a projection's slab needs the surrounding wall context to select the correct solution, and a window hood's deck props can bear on an upstand below - context only the vertical solver holds. Splitting these features across tools would fragment the workflow and produce incorrect results.
• Multi-Phase Execution: The solver runs in passes - first solving the primary panels, then evaluating vertical corners for adjustments, and finally aligning soffits to match the modified corners.

Enterprise Features

Beyond the solver core, the tool codifies how the client's design teams actually work.

• Codified Rule Engine: Hundreds of the client's design rules and system specifications are defined in JSON, deserialized at runtime, and injected into the solvers via the Strategy Pattern - layering the specific rule for each condition so the output matches the manual design process the rules were codified from.
• System Selection & Overrides: Users select which of the client's formwork systems to target and can override its presets from the UI - substituting a 500mm standard panel width for the default 600mm, for example - with the solver responding to every input.
• Inventory & Priority: Users can import a customer's previously purchased formwork inventory, filter and rank it in a dedicated component-priority page, and have the solver draw from that stock first - only "ordering" new components once the imported inventory is exhausted.

UX & State Management

The solver is wrapped in a WPF interface styled with Material Design, mirroring the Deck Solver's production UX.

• Embedded Viewport: An embedded Rhino viewport renders the shell model - the unified concrete geometry extracted from Revit - giving users immediate visual context for the surfaces the solver is about to work on. The solved formwork itself is placed directly in Revit.
• Smart State Management: Every component the solver creates is a domain object holding a reference to its Revit element ID, persisted to JSON. On a re-run - in the same session or days later in a new one - the solver restores this state, deletes only its own stale components, and places the new solution. User-authored elements are never touched.