Most construction projects rely on crawler cranes to perform lifting and hoisting activities. In practice, crawler cranes are managed based on demand, urgency, and prioritized work tasks that must be performed within a set period of time in the field. A lifting plan is needed to make. While presently the lifting plan is made based on the conventional manners of manual computation and 2D drawings, so that much time is spent examining load charts, making drawings and planning lifts before starting a lifting job; moreover, a vivid 3D lifting simulation of the cranes lifting is not available, which can not meet the lifting requirements of swiftness and high-efficiency for large and complicated lifting. As a computer tool, simulation has proved to be effective in modeling complex construction operations and can be a substantial help in aiding practitioners in construction planning. However, the use of simulation has fallen far below its maximum potential due to a lack of appropriate support tools which would allow construction managers to use simulation tools for themselves. Therefore, a 3D virtual lifting system, based on a 3D engine SR and oriented to lifting industry, is developed here. This system integrates computation, finite element analysis (FEA), creation of job environments, creation of equipments and 3D lifting simulations. The integrated system is a mean that enable domain experts, who are knowledgeable in give domains but not familiar with simulation, to easily model operations within their domain and analyze the simulation results, and aid them to make lifting plans. Firstly the architecture of the simulation system is proposed, whose basic functions are depicted. Then the modelings of cranes and their operations are presented. Finally the integration of FEA are introduced in this paper. The simulation system is tested through some practical cases. This paper demonstrates that the simulation system is helpful in verification and validation of simulation thus improving the accessibility of simulation as a lifting plan making aid.
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