POSforAFS: Automating Formwork Placement Directly Inside AutoCAD

Formwork placement is one of the most time-consuming and error-prone tasks in concrete construction engineering. For complex structures or multi-stage pours, the manual process could occupy a structural engineer for days or weeks – and any change to the design meant restarting significant portions of the layout from scratch.

InStandart developed POSforAFS: a custom AutoCAD-integrated software solution that reads outline drawings of concrete structures and automatically generates optimised formwork layouts. Built on FormCalc, configured to the client’s proprietary panel system and rules. What previously took weeks now takes hours – with a 70% reduction in formwork placement cost and an 85% improvement in turnaround time.

Project Summary

The Problem: Manual Formwork Placement Was Slow, Expensive, and Expertise-Dependent

Formwork defines the temporary mould into which concrete is poured and held until it sets – it is a critical component of every concrete structure, from slabs and walls to columns and complex geometries. Defining the correct formwork configuration requires determining panel sizes, reuse sequences across multiple pour stages, load-bearing requirements, and material quantities. Done manually, this is demanding, skilled engineering work with several compounding problems:

• Time-Intensive Process for Every Project. Manual formwork placement for a complex structure or multi-stage pour could take days to weeks of engineering time per project. The process required interpreting structural drawings, decomposing geometry into formwork zones, selecting panel configurations, and working through material optimisation by hand. Any design change – even a minor one – required revisiting and reworking affected sections, multiplying the time cost further.
• Heavy Dependence on Individual Expertise. The accuracy and consistency of formwork placement depended heavily on the knowledge and experience of the individual engineer performing it. There was no standardized, repeatable method – two engineers working the same problem could arrive at materially different panel configurations and material quantities. This made quality control difficult and created single points of failure when experienced engineers were unavailable.
• Suboptimal Panel Reuse and Material Waste. Maximizing the reuse of formwork panels across sequential pour stages is one of the primary drivers of cost efficiency in formwork planning. Manual placement made it difficult to systematically optimise reuse across complex geometries – engineers had to balance too many variables simultaneously to reliably find the most efficient configuration, resulting in higher panel counts and increased material cost.
• Impact on Project Timelines and Budgets. The cumulative effect of slow manual placement, iterative revisions, and suboptimal panel configurations translated directly into increased project costs and delayed construction schedules. Formwork placement was a bottleneck that sat upstream of procurement and on-site preparation – delays here cascaded into every subsequent phase.

The Solution: POSforAFS – AutoCAD-Integrated Formwork Placing Software

InStandart developed POSforAFS as a software solution integrated directly with Autodesk AutoCAD, using existing structural outline drawings as input data. Rather than replacing the engineer’s workflow, the software fits inside it – engineers work in AutoCAD as they always have, and POSforAFS handles the placement layer automatically. The solution has three core components:

• AutoCAD Drawing Analysis Engine. POSforAFS reads the outline drawings of concrete structures directly from AutoCAD – the engineer does not need to re-enter geometry or export data to a separate system. The analysis engine parses the structural geometry, identifies formwork zones, and extracts the dimensional and positional data required for placement. This tight AutoCAD integration means the software works on the files engineers already produce, with no additional data preparation step.
• Panel Optimisation Algorithm. The core of POSforAFS is a specialised optimisation algorithm that generates formwork configurations with a primary objective of minimising panel count and maximising reuse across subsequent pour stages. The algorithm evaluates: panel size selection and placement across the structural geometry; Reuse sequencing – which panels can be stripped and reused at the next pour stage, and in what configuration; Material quantity calculation – total panel area, filler elements, and hardware required; Edge cases and irregular geometries that would require non-standard panel arrangements. The result is the most material-efficient configuration the algorithm can find – one that a manual placement process is unlikely to consistently match, particularly on complex structures.
• Output and Reporting Interface. Results are presented through a WPF and Windows Forms interface that gives engineers a clear view of the generated configuration – panel layouts, reuse schedules, and material takeoffs – in a format ready for procurement and on-site use. Engineers can review, adjust parameters, and regenerate the layout within the same interface without returning to manual methods for modifications. The output integrates back into the AutoCAD environment, maintaining a single working file throughout the project.

Results

Measured against the same formwork placement workflows before POSforAFS was deployed:  

Additional operational improvements:

• Consistent output quality regardless of which engineer runs the placement – results are determined by the algorithm, not individual expertise or experience level
• Faster response to client design change requests, since re-running placement no longer requires restarting the manual process from scratch
• Reduced material waste and procurement costs through systematically optimised panel reuse across pour stages
• Improved project scheduling predictability – formwork placement is no longer a variable-length bottleneck upstream of procurement and site preparation

Why This Problem Is Hard (and Why Spreadsheets and Generic Tools Don’t Solve It)

Formwork optimisation is a well-understood engineering need. So why did this project require a custom AutoCAD-integrated solution rather than an existing formwork placing tool or a spreadsheet-based approach?

• Geometry Complexity Scales Nonlinearly. For simple rectangular structures, manual or spreadsheet-based formwork placement is manageable. As structural geometry becomes more complex – irregular perimeters, openings, level changes, curved elements – the number of variables that need to be simultaneously managed grows rapidly. Generic tools either can’t handle this complexity or require the engineer to decompose it manually, preserving most of the time cost.
• Reuse Optimisation is a Combinatorial Problem. Finding the panel configuration that minimises total material while maximising reuse across sequential pour stages is a combinatorial optimisation problem. The number of possible configurations grows exponentially with structure complexity. Manual placement cannot systematically explore this space – engineers make pragmatic decisions that are rarely optimal. A purpose-built algorithm can.
• AutoCAD Integration Eliminates a Critical Friction Point. Standalone placing tools require engineers to re-enter geometry or export data from their CAD environment – an error-prone step that breaks the workflow and creates version control problems when drawings are revised. Integration at the AutoCAD API level means the placing tool always works from the current drawing state, with no intermediate data handling.
• Project-Specific Formwork Systems. Different contractors use different proprietary formwork systems with different standard panel sizes, connection hardware, and load ratings. A generic placing tool uses generic panel libraries. POSforAFS was built around the specific formwork system in use – meaning the optimisation algorithm works with real available components, not theoretical ones, and the output is directly usable for procurement.

Applicability: Where This Approach Works

The AutoCAD-integrated placement automation approach developed for POSforAFS applies wherever engineering layout work is repetitive, geometry-driven, and currently performed manually in parallel with a CAD workflow:

• Residential Construction. High-volume residential developers and contractors who run the same formwork placement workflow across many similar projects – where automation delivers compounding time savings at scale.
• Commercial & Civil Construction. Complex concrete structures – multi-storey frames, bridge decks, retaining walls, tunnels – where structural geometry is irregular and manual formwork optimisation consistently underperforms what an algorithm can find.
• Formwork Hire & Supply Companies. Businesses that provide formwork planning as a service alongside equipment hire – where faster, more accurate placement is a direct competitive advantage and the basis for more reliable material utilisation forecasting.
• Structural Engineering Consultancies. Firms where senior engineers currently spend significant time on formwork placement that could be delegated to automated tooling – freeing capacity for structural analysis, client engagement, and complex design work.
• EPC & General Contractors. Large contractors managing multiple concurrent concrete structures who need consistent, auditable formwork placement across projects and engineering teams – not outputs that vary by individual.

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