Changes
16
11 changed, 2 added, 2 deleted, 1 renumbered
C For electrical contractors who cut cable from drums
Rev C just landed. Half the cable is already cut.
Drumplan plans which cable run comes off which drum, keeps that plan true as the site cuts and pulls, and when a revised cable schedule arrives, shows exactly what it does to the work already done and what you now have to order.
Imports the Excel schedule you were issued. Runs in your browser: your spreadsheets are never uploaded. Planning is free, with no account.
The problem
A drum schedule is right on the day it is issued.
Allocating runs to drums is the easy part, and there are free optimisers for it. The hard part is keeping the plan true after the site has started cutting, when the engineer issues the next revision.
B Day 1
The plan is issued
Every run is allocated to a drum, the shortfall is ordered, and drum cards go to the cable crew.
Week 3
The site has been cutting
Pieces are cut a metre long, a part drum turns out shorter than its label, some cables are pulled early with a tray section, others are cut and waiting.
C Then Rev C arrives
Somebody has to work out
- which cut pieces are now too short
- which installed cables are now abortive work
- which drum cards are wrong
- what to order before the site runs out
What Drumplan does with it
The sample project, when Rev C arrives
An invented water treatment works with realistic data: 99 cables in 8 cable types, 13 drums including part drums and an offcut from another job. When Rev C arrives, 47 cables are installed and 14 are cut and waiting to be pulled.
Rev C relocates a backwash pump, uprates a blower motor, adds a pump, deletes a drain valve, shortens a tray route and renumbers an instrument loop. It changes 16 cables, and 12 of those changes hit work already done.
Drumplan re-plans only what is not cut yet, and keeps runs on the drums the site already has cards for. That moves 3 runs. Re-optimising everything from scratch would move 15 and buy no less cable.
B to C Revision impact
Hit work done
12
cables already cut or installed
Abortive
123 m
2 installed cables, listed for a variation
Back to stock
287 m
4 cut pieces become offcuts
Scrap
30 m
tails from shortened runs
To buy
450 m
was nothing before Rev C
6 drum cards changed3 runs movedcomputed by Drumplan on the sample
| Order after Rev C | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| 4C × 95 mm² Cu XLPE/SWA/LSZH | - | 250 m |
| 12C × 1.5 mm² Cu XLPE/SWA/LSZH | - | 100 m |
| 4C × 50 mm² Cu XLPE/SWA/LSZH (new in Rev C) | - | 100 m |
How it works
Five steps, all from spreadsheets you already have
1
Import the schedule as it was issued
Drop in the consultant's Excel or CSV. Drumplan finds the header under the title block, maps the columns, reads the revision letter and date, and merges the three ways the same cable is spelt.
- Cable no., from, to, type, length in any column order
- Cores, size and insulation in separate columns or one description
- Section headings, totals and notes skipped
- Struck-out DELETED rows treated as deleted
- Feet or metres
2
Add the drums you really have
Import the drum register or store list: full drums, part drums with their balance, loose offcuts, drums on order. Measure a drum and the record follows.
3
Issue the plan and print drum cards
Every run goes to a drum. Part drums and offcuts are used first, leftovers are either about zero or long enough to reuse, and whatever stock cannot cover becomes an order list in standard drum lengths.
Each drum card lists the cuts in order with the balance after each, and space for the crew to write the sheath marks.
4
Record what the site cut
Record cuts one at a time by length or by sheath marks, or, with Pro, import the site's whole pulling record at once. Drum balances come from real cuts, not the plan.
Cut from a different drum than planned? Cut a metre long? Pulled early? Record what happened; the plan for everything still to cut adjusts to the stock actually left.
5
Reconcile each revision before it costs you Pro
Import the revised schedule. Before anything changes, Drumplan shows what was added, deleted, lengthened, shortened, re-typed, re-routed or renumbered, and what that means for every cable already cut or installed.
- Cut pieces that no longer fit go back to stock as offcuts
- Installed cables that changed are listed as abortive work, with your decision to replace or keep
- The re-plan keeps the drums on the cards the site already has, and tells you what a full re-optimisation would save
- The order list shows before and after
What you send on
Outputs in the formats people already use
Excel
Drum schedule
Per drum: cable numbers, cut lengths and balance after each, in the layout drum schedules already use, with the order list.
Print / PDF
Drum cards
One per drum for the cable crew. Print only the cards a revision changed.
Excel / Print Pro
Revision impact report
What changed, the work it hit, abortive cable in metres (and value, if you enter prices), and the order before and after. The record behind a variation claim.
Excel
Order list
Drums to buy by type and length, with the cables each one is for. Mark it ordered and the plan counts it as stock on the way.
Excel Pro
Project workbook
Schedule with status, drum register, drum schedule, orders and the revision log in one file.
File
Project file
Back up the project or hand it to a colleague, who opens it in their browser.
Fit
Built for the people who keep the drum schedule
For
- Site engineers, project coordinators and estimators at electrical contractors
- Packages where armoured power, control and instrument cable comes on drums: industrial, water, energy, solar, data centres, commercial plant rooms
- Jobs with tens to hundreds of cables and more than one revision of the schedule
Not for
- Cable sizing, routing, tray fill or pulling tension: keep your design tools for those
- Building wire bought as cut reels to a feeder schedule, where the distributor does the reel planning
- PDF schedules, for now: open them in Excel first (see the questions below)
Pricing
Plan for free. Pay for the revisions.
Planning a job is free. Pro adds everything that happens after the first revision arrives.
Free
$0
- Import the cable schedule and the drum register
- Drum plan: every run allocated, part drums and offcuts first
- Drum cards to print, drum schedule and order list in Excel
- Record cuts by length or sheath marks, measure drums, orders and deliveries
- Unlimited projects, feet or metres
Pro Coming soon
$49 per user a month, or $490 a year
- Everything in Free
- Revision reconciliation: what each revision does to cable already cut or installed
- Abortive work listed per cable for a variation claim, with the order before and after
- Import the site's pulling record in one go
- Revision impact report and the full project workbook in Excel
Pro is not on sale yet. Until it is, every Pro feature is unlocked in the sample project.
Questions
Questions contractors ask
Where does my data go?
Nowhere. Spreadsheets are read in your browser and never uploaded, and projects are saved in the browser on your computer. To back up a project or share it, export the project file from Settings.
What does it cost?
Planning is free: importing the schedule and drums, the drum plan, drum cards, the drum schedule and order list, and recording cuts. Pro, which adds revision reconciliation, the abortive work report and pulling record import, will be $49 per user a month or $490 a year. Pro is not on sale yet; until it is, every Pro feature is unlocked in the sample project.
Is the plan optimal?
It fills each drum with the combination of runs that fits it best, then improves the whole plan by moving and swapping runs, weighing what must be bought against scrap and against opening a fresh drum. In the test suite it fills a drum exactly whenever an exact fit exists and never plans more onto a drum than it holds. It is a planning aid: the site engineer checks it, and drum cards say to ask before cutting anything not on the card.
What counts as scrap, and what allowances does it use?
You set them: length added to every cut for the pulling end, any percentage on top of schedule lengths, the length kept back on each drum for tolerance, and the shortest offcut worth keeping. Defaults are 1 m per cut, 2 m kept back and 15 m.
What if the engineer renumbers cables?
If a cable number disappears and a new one appears with the same type and the same two ends, Drumplan asks whether it is the same cable. If it is, the cable keeps what the site has done to it.
Our schedules come as PDF.
Drumplan reads Excel, OpenDocument and CSV. Most PDF schedules export from the consultant's spreadsheet; ask for the native file, or convert the PDF table to Excel first. Reading PDFs directly is not built yet.
Can two people work on the same project?
Not at the same time yet. One person keeps the project and exports the project file for others. Shared projects need accounts and a server, which Drumplan does not have yet.
Metres or feet?
Either. Imports read the unit from the column heading, and each project shows lengths in the unit you choose.
See what a revision does before the site finds out.
Open the sample project, import Rev C, and decide what you would have done. Then try it with your own schedule and drum register.