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Hello and welcome to this DanePlan tutorial. Today I'm going to show you how DanePlan allows you to include external points of strike in your lightning protection planning.

A classic example is a tall building in the immediate area of the object being planned.

We start with a building which in this tutorial represents a new facility on a factory site.

I've already loaded the building into the program and provided it with an earthing system.

For lightning protection we choose the MASH method and place the lightning protection components on the large flat roof.

We then connect the MASH to the earthing system with MASH down conductors.

By clicking on protected volume we see a graphical depiction.

We see that the small roof superstructure is not in the protected volume because no lightning protection material has been placed on it.

It is therefore unprotected.

What options do we have to protect this area?

For a start we can place a MASH here as well and connect it to the other MASH or directly to the earthing system.

Alternatively we could work with air termination rods and HVI conductors.

As the planner you can also think about whether existing surrounding buildings can be integrated into the lightning protection concept.

In our case there is a 20 meter chimney next to the building we are planning.

I've already drawn a rough sketch of this chimney which I'm going to show you now.

On consultation with the owner we found out that this chimney has a proper down conductor and earthing system.

It therefore does not have to be integrated into the new building.

However due to this exposed position the tower changes the protected volume of the new building.

And so we decide to consider this external object in the protective volume planning.

In the object settings I have set the selection checked impact to no.

This means that the tower is not part of the lightning protection system to be planned and therefore does not have to be drawn in detail together with its existing lightning protection components.

In the in plan it is possible to set snap lines and snap points to simulate a point of strike beyond the building being planned.

We select the command snap lines in the toolbar and click on the edge we want to include.

This creates a snap line.

If we now delete the protected volume and recalculate it we see that the external point of strike has been included in the calculation of the protected volume.

The roof mounted structure is now inside the protected volume and is thus protected for a direct lightning strike.

Setting snap points works in the same way for example with the corners of objects.

You can use snap points if you want to simulate smaller masts or air termination tips.

Setting snap points also works in open spaces.

However in order to position the snap objects as accurately as possible it is always advisable to roughly recreate the buildings using solid models and then select corners or edges.

If you want to move an object after placing the snap lines be in mind that the snap line is not linked to the building.

When you move the building the snap line remains where it was before.

So if there are subsequent changes the snap line needs to be deleted and placed on the building again manually.

However with this method of lightning protection planning it is important that the person responsible for planning is aware that a change to the external object has also consequences for the lightning protection of the building being planned.

In our example the demolition of the chimney would mean that the roof mounted structure is no longer adequately protected.

Therefore before using this method you must always check very carefully to ensure that the lightning protection system is functional and that the operator of the building you are planning will be informed if there are any structural changes in the neighboring building.

The result is a project specific risk assessment and subsequent documentation.

You can find more tutorials and news about DEMPLAN on our e-learning platform.

Thank you and see you next time.