Autodesk Authorized Developer +91 40-4528 7403 sales@fdestech.com

Solution · Lighting poles & high masts

Street Light & High Mast Pole
Design Automation

Every tender wants the same pole, slightly different: a new height, a new bracket, a new wind zone. And every one means fresh GA drawings, shaft developments, base plate details, and BOMs, drafted by hand against the deadline. We build automation that generates the whole package in minutes, on your CAD platform, to your standards.

Book a 30-Minute Walkthrough See the Pole System in Production
Octagonal · Polygonal · Conical Shafts GA + Fabrication Drawings + BOMs Inventor · AutoCAD · SolidWorks & More 19 Years in Design Automation

The problem

The Pole Is Standard. The Drafting Never Is.

Street light poles and high masts are catalogue products with tender-shaped edges: heights, luminaire loads, wind speeds, and mounting details change on every job. The engineering rules stay the same; the documentation gets redrawn anyway.

Tenders won or lost on turnaround

The GA drawing is owed at quotation stage, before the order exists. When drafting takes days, you either quote late or quote from a stale drawing and correct it after the win.

Hundreds of variants, one team

A 9 m octagonal pole in wind zone II is not a 12 m conical pole in zone IV, and neither is a 30 m high mast with a raise-lower carriage. Every combination is its own drawing set, BOM, and plate development.

Errors that surface in the yard

A wrong door cutout position or a stale bolt circle doesn't fail in CAD. It fails after galvanizing, as scrapped shafts and a site crew waiting on replacements.

Our solution

Parameters In. The Whole Manufacturing Package Out.

The same rule-based automation we run in production with pole manufacturers, configured for lighting poles and high masts: your shaft geometries, your standards, your templates, your numbering.

HEIGHT · LOADS · WIND ZONE IN → COMPLETE 3D MODEL OUT

3D Models Without the Modelling

Enter height, cross-section, taper, plate thickness, and fittings once. The system builds the shaft, base plate, door opening, brackets, and for high masts the head frame and lantern carriage, as a complete parametric assembly.

3D MODEL IN → GA + FABRICATION DRAWINGS OUT

GA and Fabrication Drawings on Your Templates

General arrangement drawings for the tender, fabrication drawings for the shop: views, dimensions, weld symbols, and notes land on your title blocks automatically, as DWG, IDW, SLDDRW, and PDF.

SHAFT GEOMETRY IN → PLATE DEVELOPMENT OUT

Plate Developments for Cutting

Flat patterns for tapered polygonal and conical shafts, door cutouts included, generated straight from the model and ready for nesting and plasma or laser cutting. No manual unfolding.

MODEL DATA IN → BOM · WEIGHTS · PART NUMBERS OUT

BOMs, Weights, and Part Numbers Without Data Entry

Bills of materials, galvanizing weights, hardware lists, and part numbers come straight from the model, exported to Excel or your ERP. Quotation costing gets real numbers on day one.

The workflow

From Tender Spec to Manufacturing Drawings in Minutes

STEP 1

Structural design

Size the pole as you do today, from your design calculations, spreadsheets, or analysis tools, to EN 40, AASHTO LTS, IS 875, or your local code.

STEP 2

Input parameters

Carry the design into the tool: height, section, taper, plate schedule, door and bracket details, mast head configuration.

STEP 3

Automated generation

The 3D model, GA drawing, fabrication drawings, plate developments, and BOM generate in minutes, not days.

STEP 4

Review and release

Your engineers check the outputs, adjust where needed, and release: GA to the tender, fabrication set to the shop.

STEP 5

Fabrication data

Cutting files, weld maps, and BOM data flow to nesting, ERP, and production planning without re-entry.

Typical results

The Numbers Pole Manufacturers See

80–90%Faster documentation, days per pole family become hours or minutes
Same DayTender GA drawings, generated while the enquiry is still warm
Near ZeroDrawing errors, rule-based validation stops mismatches at the source
60%Capacity freed, engineers back on engineering, not drafting

Run the Numbers for Your Pole Volume →

Proven approach

Built on a System Already Running in Pole Manufacturing

This is not a concept page. The same automation architecture runs in production with US-based steel pole manufacturers today: parametric pole assemblies, automated fabrication drawings, BOMs, and direct hand-off to fabrication systems.

  • Design-to-fabrication cycle reduced from 2 weeks to 2-3 days
  • Zero fabrication errors from drawing inconsistencies
  • 60% of engineering time freed from repetitive documentation
  • Direct data flow to fabrication systems eliminated manual re-entry

See the Full Case Study →

Custom built

Configured to Your Poles, Not the Other Way Around

The automation is shaped around your product range and your shop. Every one of these is built to your specifics:

Pole types

Street light poles, high masts, flag masts, stadium masts, camera and signage poles

Shaft geometries

Octagonal, polygonal, conical, stepped, swaged; single or multi-section

Fittings and details

Base plates, door openings, brackets, head frames, lantern carriages, raise-lower systems

Design codes

EN 40, AASHTO LTS, IS 875, BS, or the standards your markets demand

Drawing templates

Your title blocks, annotation standards, and view layouts

Part numbering

Your existing numbering system and conventions

Output formats and integration

DWG, IDW, SLDDRW, PDF, DXF flat patterns, Excel, ERP

How we work

From Audit to Production in 8-16 Weeks

1
Workflow auditWe map your tender-to-fabrication workflow end to end. Free, no commitment.
2
Solution designArchitecture, parameter flow, and output integrations are agreed before code is written.
3
DevelopmentThe automation is built on your CAD platform, with your team reviewing it as it grows.
4
TestingValidated against your real pole designs, not sample data.
5
DeploymentHandover with source code, documentation, and training. It's yours.

Why FDES

Why FDES Technologies

  • 19 years building design automation and CAD customization
  • Pole-domain fluency, from transmission structures to lighting masts
  • Fluent across platforms: Inventor, AutoCAD, SolidWorks, and more
  • In production today with US-based steel pole manufacturers
  • Custom engineering, not a generic product that almost fits
  • One team, end to end, from workflow audit to production-grade automation

FAQ

Asked on Nearly Every First Call

Does this cover high masts with raise-lower systems?
Yes. High mast configurations, including head frames, lantern carriages, and winch arrangements, are modelled as part of the parametric assembly, and their components flow into the drawings and BOM like everything else.
Can it generate plate developments for our cutting machines?
Yes. Flat patterns for tapered polygonal and conical shafts, with door cutouts and openings included, are generated from the model as DXF, ready for your nesting and cutting workflow.
Which design codes can the automation work to?
The automation documents what your engineering has already sized, so it works alongside any code you design to: EN 40, AASHTO LTS, IS 875, BS, or utility-specific standards. Validation rules can encode your code-driven constraints so non-compliant configurations are flagged before a drawing exists.
What CAD platforms do you support?
Autodesk Inventor, AutoCAD, SolidWorks, and other platforms. The automation is built for whichever CAD platform your team already uses.
How long does implementation take?
Typically 8-16 weeks depending on how many pole families and fittings need covering. We build iteratively, so you see working automation early rather than waiting for a final delivery.
Do we own the source code?
Yes. This is custom engineering, not a licensed product. You own the system outright, operate it independently, and pay no per-user licensing and no annual subscription.
What does it cost?
It depends on scope: how many pole families, how complex the fittings, and what integrations are required. The free workflow audit comes first and produces a detailed proposal with real numbers.
Can we try it before committing?
Yes. The free workflow audit analyzes your current tender-to-fabrication process, identifies what's automatable, and gives you a detailed assessment. No cost, no commitment.

Related solutions

More Pole and Structure Automation

Transmission Pole Design Automation

PLS-Pole output to fabrication drawings, BOMs, and part numbers in minutes.

Distribution Pole Design Automation

Class-based steel distribution poles documented at catalogue volume.

Substation Structure Design Automation

Gantries and equipment supports from analysis to erection drawings.

Free assessment · no commitment

Quote the Next Tender With Drawings, Not Promises.

Bring us your tender-to-fabrication workflow for lighting poles and high masts. We'll map what automates cleanly, flag where the risk sits, and show you what a production-grade system would look like for your product range. Free, with no commitment.

  • Your current workflow, mapped end to end
  • Automation opportunities, ranked
  • Risk and feasibility, assessed honestly
  • Projected results, in your numbers