GLODOCHECK: check reinforcement labelling before you issue the drawing

On a dense reinforcement drawing a single unlabelled bar easily hides among dozens of labels, dimensions and lines. The opposite case is just as awkward: the same position is labelled twice, so the drawing looks finished while carrying a duplicate that can confuse the contractor or trigger another round of corrections.

GLODOCHECK is an ALLPLAN add-on built for exactly that final check. Instead of reviewing the whole drawing by hand, the tool analyses the reinforcement you select, isolates bars without a label and bars with a duplicate label, and highlights them in the workspace. The result is a short, repeatable check you can run before issuing a drawing or after every larger reinforcement change.

What GLODOCHECK checks

The add-on looks for two kinds of problem:

• unlabelled reinforcement bars — positions with no label on the drawing;
• double-labelled reinforcement bars — positions whose label appears more than once.

After the check GLODOCHECK reports the total number of bars analysed, how many are labelled correctly, how many have no label and how many are labelled twice. Below the summary it lists the problematic position numbers, so you immediately know where to look.

Running it inside ALLPLAN

After installation the add-on sits in the library palette under Standard → PythonParts → Glodocheck. Double-clicking it opens its settings. The interface is deliberately simple: the main Run command, an option to highlight bars permanently, and a colour picker for that highlight.

The check itself takes a few steps:

1. Click Run.
2. Select the reinforcement you want to analyse — from a single area to the entire drawing.
3. Finish the selection with Esc.
4. Read the summary and the list of problematic positions.
5. Fix the labels, then run the same check again.

That sequence makes the tool useful during the work as well, not only right before issuing documentation. You can repeat the check after copying a detail, moving labels or changing bar positions — precisely when a manual review is most likely to miss an unintended change.

The summary shows the scale of the problem at once

In the demonstration 80 reinforcement bars were selected. GLODOCHECK recognised 77 as correctly labelled, one as unlabelled and two as double-labelled. The same dialog names the positions: position 1 has no label, while positions 7 and 47 are labelled twice.

The numeric summary matters because it answers two different questions quickly. First, is there a problem in the selected area at all? Second, how many corrections are needed? The list of positions then turns a general result into a concrete task.

Highlighting in the drawing cuts the search short

A position number alone is not always enough, especially on a large plan where the same position can appear in several pours or details. That is why GLODOCHECK also highlights the problematic bars in the workspace. After you close the report the highlight stays visible until you exit the command.

The first example shows the duplicate label on position 47: two labels are attached to the same reinforcement position, one horizontal and one vertical.

The second example shows the duplicate label on position 7. In a detail this dense a manual review means comparing labels and their leader lines, whereas the report tells you in advance which position to look for.

Fix and re-check closes the loop

Once the problems are identified, the redundant labels on positions 47 and 7 are deleted. The unlabelled bar series on position 1 then gets a label using ALLPLAN's standard labelling tool. GLODOCHECK does not change the content of the drawing itself; it gives you a precise list of the places to edit with the standard ALLPLAN tools.

The most important step comes after the correction: the check is run again on the same reinforcement. The new report confirms that all 80 bars carry a label and that no unlabelled or double-labelled positions remain.

The “check — fix — check again” principle beats a one-off visual review because it leaves a clear finishing criterion. The drawing has not merely been looked at; after the corrections the tool returned a result with no labelling deviations found.

Permanent highlighting for longer corrections

The standard highlight lasts only while the command is active. When corrections take longer, switch on the Highlight bars permanently option and pick a colour. The problematic bars then stay coloured after you exit the command, which makes them easier to find while you edit.

The temporary highlight colour is set in ALLPLAN

The colour GLODOCHECK uses to highlight results temporarily is taken from ALLPLAN's selection settings. Under Options → Desktop environment → Selection you can change the selection preview colour and pick the contrast that suits the background colour and the graphic standard of the particular drawing.

Where GLODOCHECK pays off most

The tool is particularly useful on drawings with many reinforcement positions, repeated pours and frequent label changes. Its most natural place in the process is the final check before an internal review or issue, but it is worth repeating after larger model corrections too.

An office can adopt a simple rule: the author runs GLODOCHECK before handing the document to a colleague for review. The engineering review does not disappear — on the contrary, it frees up time for the questions that matter more, such as geometry, quantities, anchorage and structural logic, while the tool takes over the narrow, repetitive labelling check.

A short checklist before issuing a drawing

• select all the reinforcement that belongs to the drawing;
• run GLODOCHECK and finish the selection with Esc;
• read the summary and the list of problematic positions;
• remove the duplicates and add the missing labels;
• run the check again;
• stop only when the report no longer shows unlabelled or double-labelled bars.