CADKEY Corporation

Gallery : Success Stories

CADKEY User Profile

CADKEY USER PROFILE - Design and Manufacturing

Company:

Pol-X West, Inc.

Application:

Design and analysis consultants for transportation systems and amusement park rides

Specialties:

Smoothing the transition from paper to factory

Website:

http://www.polxwest.com/

Pol-X West #1

Pol-X West, Inc., an independent engineering firm with many years of experience in the design, analysis and inspection of transportation systems, has particularly good experience in the area of ropeways such as aerial tramways, people-mover systems, and amusement park rides. Professional engineer Les M. Okreglak founded the company in 1988, and Paul Eckert, an engineer with long experience, in both the United States and Europe, with the same transportation areas joined the company in 1997.

Pol-X West worked with Poma of America on the design and analysis of the Mount Roberts Tramway in Juneau, Alaska, which opened for public operation in 1996. Pol-X West had responsibility for the design, analysis and detail of the upper platform. At that point, Eckert worked for Poma where, he says, "The CAD program of choice was CADKEY." To make the joint project easier, Pol-X West also used CADKEY for their part of the project and, Eckert says, "I brought CADKEY with me when I went to work for Pol-X West."

Pol-X West #2

Eckert says, "The tramway had a complicated 3D lattice tower, and to design it we needed software that made it easy to manipulate the tower design into different views. CADKEY is very intuitive in letting us do that."

The tramway has two 60-passenger cars that go in one long span from the terminal at the bottom of the mountain to a large viewing platform at the top. "The 1000-square foot viewing platform had to have windows all around and be roofed in," Eckert says, "because it rains just about every day in Juneau. And the platform still had to provide a wide view. These factors made its design and analysis more demanding than most tramway terminals."

For the project, Pol-X West had to account for the live load of people plus the snow load on the roof of the platform. The tower design required a finite element model with over 1500 beam elements that had to be analyzed in six different load cases involving combinations of wind, live people, snow and tramway cable loads. When completed, the company had generated more than 250 detail drawings of the tower components. "The platform and the roof had to be very strong to meet code requirements," says Eckert.

Pol-X West #3

"We used CADKEY to create the wireframe drawing of the tower for Pol-X West to verify with finite element analysis. Then we drew all the beam members in 3D wireframe. These were very complicated and at strange angles to each other as part of the strengthening of the tramway tower - and we used those drawings as a guide for manufacturing." The design package for the Mount Roberts Tramway also included design and detail drawings for the tower feet and guy wire anchor foundations - designed around 36 rock anchors up to 40 feet long, which had to be installed by helicopter because no road access to the tower site existed.

CADKEY is a registered trademark of CADKEY Corporation.

| Top of Page |

| Home | Products | Company | Showcase | Support | Resources | Contact | Webstore |

Design Professionals: Subscribe to FREE eNews
Receive news, product updates, and special offers, via email!

©2001 CADKEY Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

CADKEY USER PROFILE - Design and Manufacturing
Company:	Pol-X West, Inc.
Application:	Design and analysis consultants for transportation systems and amusement park rides
Specialties:	Smoothing the transition from paper to factory
Website:	http://www.polxwest.com/
Pol-X West, Inc., an independent engineering firm with many years of experience in the design, analysis and inspection of transportation systems, has particularly good experience in the area of ropeways such as aerial tramways, people-mover systems, and amusement park rides. Professional engineer Les M. Okreglak founded the company in 1988, and Paul Eckert, an engineer with long experience, in both the United States and Europe, with the same transportation areas joined the company in 1997. Pol-X West worked with Poma of America on the design and analysis of the Mount Roberts Tramway in Juneau, Alaska, which opened for public operation in 1996. Pol-X West had responsibility for the design, analysis and detail of the upper platform. At that point, Eckert worked for Poma where, he says, "The CAD program of choice was CADKEY." To make the joint project easier, Pol-X West also used CADKEY for their part of the project and, Eckert says, "I brought CADKEY with me when I went to work for Pol-X West." Eckert says, "The tramway had a complicated 3D lattice tower, and to design it we needed software that made it easy to manipulate the tower design into different views. CADKEY is very intuitive in letting us do that." The tramway has two 60-passenger cars that go in one long span from the terminal at the bottom of the mountain to a large viewing platform at the top. "The 1000-square foot viewing platform had to have windows all around and be roofed in," Eckert says, "because it rains just about every day in Juneau. And the platform still had to provide a wide view. These factors made its design and analysis more demanding than most tramway terminals." For the project, Pol-X West had to account for the live load of people plus the snow load on the roof of the platform. The tower design required a finite element model with over 1500 beam elements that had to be analyzed in six different load cases involving combinations of wind, live people, snow and tramway cable loads. When completed, the company had generated more than 250 detail drawings of the tower components. "The platform and the roof had to be very strong to meet code requirements," says Eckert. "We used CADKEY to create the wireframe drawing of the tower for Pol-X West to verify with finite element analysis. Then we drew all the beam members in 3D wireframe. These were very complicated and at strange angles to each other as part of the strengthening of the tramway tower - and we used those drawings as a guide for manufacturing." The design package for the Mount Roberts Tramway also included design and detail drawings for the tower feet and guy wire anchor foundations - designed around 36 rock anchors up to 40 feet long, which had to be installed by helicopter because no road access to the tower site existed.

CADKEY is a registered trademark of CADKEY Corporation.
\| Top of Page \| \| Home \| Products \| Company \| Showcase \| Support \| Resources \| Contact \| Webstore \| Design Professionals: Subscribe to FREE eNews Receive news, product updates, and special offers, via email! ©2001 CADKEY Corporation. All Rights Reserved.