How VINCI yearly saves 300 days calculating crane foundation designs

VINCI Construction, a global leader with over 115,000 employees, is known for its expertise in managing and driving innovation in large infrastructure projects. Their development team, Synaps'Up, focuses on building innovative tools to streamline the work of their engineering teams. In search of a more efficient deployment solution, they turned to VIKTOR. Today, they use the platform to automate the calculation of over 200 crane foundation designs annually. “We want to complete these calculations in just 15 minutes, compared to the typical 3 to 5 days,” says Alexandre Cousin, Head of Generative Design at VINCI Construction in France.
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Streamlining data integration

When Alexandre’s team at VINCI Construction set out to automate crane foundation design calculations, they faced a major challenge: the process required handling vast amounts of data across multiple third-party software like Excel, PDF, Rhino/Grasshopper, AutoCAD, and Autodesk Robot. Managing these tools separately made the process inefficient and repetitive.

In their search for a streamlined solution, they discovered VIKTOR, which provided the perfect platform to connect everything seamlessly, requiring only basic Python skills. As Alexandre explains, “VIKTOR is the only product we know of that allows us to do exactly that.”


Structural design automation

VINCI engineers design up to 225 crane foundations annually, a task well-suited for automation due to its repetitive nature. By automating roughly 70% of the designs, VINCI saves 300 days of work each year. The other 30% are more unique cases because of, for example, their location or the characteristics of the soil.

“By automating 200 crane foundations per year, we avoid roughly 300 days of work.” – Alexandre Cousin, Head of Generative design at VINCI Construction in France.

3D_view of crane 3D view of a crane foundation geometry in VIKTOR


Large-scale engineering efficiency

The goal is for all VINCI teams in France to adopt the application, saving time for more technical challenges. “Although essential, crane foundations are not the most exciting part of an engineer’s job. Our app shows how automating a small process ultimately makes a specific task much easier and more efficient," adds Alexandre.

3D_view_reinforcement.png 3D view of final crane foundation reinforcement design in VIKTOR


formwork_plan.png And the accompanying formwork plan


Automate the boring to engineer the awesome

“Automation doesn’t replace engineers—it enables them to work smarter,” Alexandre explains. As engineers embrace tools like VIKTOR and Python, the focus shifts from tedious tasks to more complex, rewarding projects. “In the future, every engineer will know Python, automating what can be automated so there is more time to engineer the awesome!".

Why VIKTOR?

Even though crane foundation design is a well-mastered process, it is time-intensive due to safety checks. “VIKTOR is the only product that allows us to process large amounts of data through multiple software integrations instantly, ensuring safety,” says Alexandre.

“Technologies like VIKTOR are the future for engineering teams. We can develop anything we can imagine on the platform.” - Alexandre Cousin, Head of Generative Desing at VINCI Construction in France

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