Glossary

Key terms used in Blue Vellum and warehouse design.

A

Aisle

The travel space between rack rows. Width is driven by the lift equipment -- see Wide Aisle, Narrow Aisle, and VNA.

Area

A defined zone in your layout -- a storage area, staging area, office, or obstruction. Drawn as a polygon on the plan view; click one with the Select tool to open its menu.

Auto Fill

An elevation mode that generates the levels for you from the building's height limits and the unit dimensions, instead of you placing each level by hand. While it is on, only the default level's settings can be edited -- the rest are derived.

B

Bay

A section of rack between two frames along a row. Bays have a length (along the beam) and a depth (front to back). One bay typically holds 2-3 pallets across.

Beam

The horizontal member pallets rest on, connecting frame to frame. Each level of an elevation is a pair of beams (plus whatever sits on them).

Beam Length

The clear span of a bay between its frames -- set per elevation in the elevation menu.

Bill of Materials (BOM)

The live parts count derived from the drawn geometry: frames, beams, wire decks, row spacers, anchors, and so on. Counts update as the drawing changes. The BOM is counts, not prices.

Bottom Beam

An elevation option: the first level sits on a beam near the floor instead of pallets resting directly on the slab.

C

Carton

A box or case stored on shelving.

Clear Height

The building's usable interior height -- one of the first inputs you give in the wizard or the building menu. Clear height minus min clearance is the top-of-storage height that is used by, for example, the autofill feature.

Column (Building)

A structural steel post in the building. The column grid places them; the rack layout keeps clearance around them (see Frame Buffer / Beam Buffer on the building menu).

Column Grid / Column Line

The building's grid of columns. Lines along one axis are numbered, the other lettered, so any bay has an address like "B-3" -- Clark understands those addresses too. Click a spacing label between lines to edit that gap.

Customer

A company or contact in the built-in CRM. Customers can have many projects; drawings link to projects.

D

Dock Door

A door where trucks load and unload, placed with the Door tool (R). Placing a dock door creates an auto-generated staging area that clips racking.

Double Deep

A rack configuration storing pallets two positions deep, served by an extended-reach truck. Denser than single selective at the cost of direct access to every pallet.

Drive-In Rack

High-density rack where forklifts drive into the structure and pallets rest on rails. An industry term for comparison -- Blue Vellum's generated layouts are selective rack.

DXF

Drawing Exchange Format, the CAD interchange file Blue Vellum exports (Download > DXF). Coordinates are real-world scale in inches, organized into layers (building, columns, storage, doors, elevations).

E

Egress Door

A personnel exit door, placed with Shift+R. Brings an auto-generated clearance zone that keeps the exit path free of storage.

Elevation

The vertical configuration of storage -- the levels, their heights, and the structure (frames, beams) that holds them. Each elevation lives in its own view; rack areas on the plan reference an elevation for their vertical design.

F

Floor Stacking

Storing pallets directly on the floor without racking. Blue Vellum models this as floor storage.

Floor Storage

Ground-level pallet positions without racking, laid out in a grid with aisles. Pallets may stack more than one high.

Flue Space

The gap between back-to-back rack rows. Also known as longitudinal flue space. The gap between pallets on a beam level, or between pallets and the bay's frames, is known as the transverse flue space. Both are used in sprinkler system design calcualtions.

Frame

The vertical structure of a rack row: two posts (uprights) plus bracing, defined by its depth and height. Also called an upright frame. Frame Depth and Frame Height are set per elevation.

G

Ground Clearance

The open height between the slab and the bottom of the first level, shown for tunnels and bottom-beam racks. For a tunnel, ground clearance IS the opening traffic passes through.

L

Level

One horizontal storage position within an elevation. Levels have their own heights, unit dimensions, and quantities; click a level in an elevation view to edit it.

Lift Off

The clearance between the top of a stored load and the beam above it, so that a lift truck can lift the pallet free. Typically 4 inches.

M

Min Clearance

The clearance the building must keep above storage (sprinklers, code). Clear height minus min clearance is the top-of-storage height.

N

Narrow Aisle

An aisle sized for reach trucks -- roughly 96 inches. See also Wide Aisle and VNA.

O

Obstruction

An area flagged as blocked floor -- columns of storage flow around it and nothing generates inside it. Used for offices, equipment, and keep-out zones; obstructions get their own distance-to-rack padding.

Orientation

Whether rack rows run horizontally or vertically across the plan view.

P

Pallet

The standard storage unit. Blue Vellum sizes rack around your default pallet's dimensions and weight (commonly 48" x 40" in North America).

Pallet Position

One location where one pallet can sit. Capacity is counted in pallet positions.

Plan View

The top-down view of the layout -- the building, areas, doors, and dimensions.

Polygon

The drawn shape of an area. "Area" is the everyday term; polygon shows up when talking about the shape itself (vertices, edges).

Project

A CRM grouping under a customer. Drawings attach to projects.

R

Rack

Steel structure storing pallets vertically -- frames plus beams. "Pallet rack" and "selective rack" describe the standard form.

Reach Truck

A narrow-aisle forklift with extending forks. Plan roughly 96-inch aisles.

Row Spacer

A short steel member tying back-to-back rack rows together at a set gap. Quantity and length are set per elevation; the gap it holds is where the flue space lives.

S

Selective Rack (Single Selective)

The standard configuration: every pallet directly accessible from an aisle, one position deep. Compare Double Deep.

Shelving

Storage for cartons and smaller items on shelf levels rather than pallet beams.

Snapping

Drawing aid that aligns dragged shapes to nearby edges and grid lines. Per area, the Allow Snapping toggle controls whether OTHER shapes snap to it.

Staging Area

The auto-generated zone at a dock door where loads are staged. Its shape follows its door and cannot be reshaped by hand.

T

Top of Storage

The derived height cap: clear height minus min clearance. Every elevation must fit under it -- exceeding it is what triggers the "invalid elevation configuration" warning.

Tunnel

An elevation flagged Is Tunnel: a raised opening traffic passes through, with its opening height set by ground clearance. Rack areas use a tunnel elevation to run cross aisles through rack. In all but the smallest of warehouses, tunnels are required for safe egress

Turret Truck

A very-narrow-aisle forklift with a rotating fork carriage, operating in roughly 60-inch aisles. Its limiting turn is usually the cross-aisle, not the storage aisle.

U

Upright

Another name for the frame's vertical post. In Blue Vellum the frame is the primary term.

V

Vertex

A corner point of a polygon -- drag one with the Select tool to reshape the area, or add one with the Add Point tool.

View

One way of looking at the same drawing: the plan view, one view per elevation, and the 3D view. The view dock at the bottom of the canvas switches between them.

VNA (Very Narrow Aisle)

Aisles around 60 inches, served by turret trucks. The one aisle class that goes by its acronym.

W

Wide Aisle

An aisle sized for counterbalanced forklifts -- roughly 120 inches, the default aisle width in Blue Vellum. See also Narrow Aisle and VNA.

Wire Deck

Welded-mesh decking that sits on a level's beams, giving pallets and loose items a surface and letting sprinkler water through.