I want to see your plan Printed Out. And Soon.
FACT:
Ugly drawings are the bane of many people in the early stages of using understanding BIM.
Don’t fight your coworkers. Instead draw them in. Teach them.
When starting a project, whether it’s new construction or a remodel, I always want to see a clean plan as soon as possible. Whether that means adding 2D or 3D place holders to the model, I get to a spot where I can print out a legible plan that I’m not embarrassed by. Once that’s done I get elevations to that point. Then sections. I don’t ignore the model, but these drawings are still the foundation of the communication process with (too) many of our coworkers and clients. And from my experience, at the tail end of 2012, a larger majority of our decision makers within the AECO world still gauge progress and overall project quality by 2D printed drawings
If you can hide these drawings and only show legible 3D, great. In the grand scheme of things there are SO many better solutions than just sharing early printouts of the construction documents (Exhibit A and Exhibit B). But if your coworkers or clients still need to see plans, sections, and elevations, then you need to get them those drawings. Otherwise all the other great aspects of BIM are going to be ignored. Instead of discussing the design and potential of what’s next, all you’ll hear about is ugly drawings, high bills, and disappointment. And I know that you know that that is just crap and misunderstanding. But what’s the easier path to changing someone’s mind about working in a BIMworld: bad drawings and “but but but it’s all there, just wait, it’s not ready to show you” or by saying “fine. I’ll get you those drawings and then I’ll drop a crazy awesome model in front of you.” With BIM you know you’re doing both. It’s just about prioritizing and understanding the work flow. Your endgame might be a model as a deliverable, but there are going to be shorter term goals that look suspiciously like the checkpoints of yore.
And one final point: this isn’t backtracking or a dead end. Once you can produce really good looking preliminary drawings from a BIM, then you’ve already set yourself up for so much more. But we’ll talk about that in 2013.
Subscribe to my blog to read more about the tricky world of being an Architect in the 21st century: Shoegnome on Facebook, Twitter, and the RSS feed.
Djordje
Let’s open 2013 by disagreeing 🙂
For preliminaries, a quick set of 3D views, or a BIMx model does wonders and is more readable and understandable by a client that any set of drawings at any level. What do “proper drawings” mean? If you have your template set up, then you have them at the moment when you model is half decent.
Never think in drawings, whatever or whoever asks for them, think in buildings. We live in a world, what lives in your computer that is accessed via ArchiCAD (or other BIM authoring software) is a Virtual Building world … there is no 2D there, as there is really no 2D in this world. It’s a convention, nothing more.
Conventions, as all rules, are there to be broken 🙂
Jared Banks
Unfortunately, I’m not going to open 2013 by disagreeing. Instead I’ll agree with both of us. While acknowledging that there are still many people in the architecture world that need their hand held with 2D printouts, I am also completely on board with what you’re saying. Your comments actually foreshadow a portion of a talk I gave in November and December that I’m in the process of turning into a blog post.
One of the huge problems with relying on 2D documents is that people so easily focus on the wrong parts. On the graphics instead of the design. On one elevation instead of the entire room. On relationships that while intellectually and architecturally comforting don’t really exist in the experience or perception of the final product. So the hope of printing sooner rather than later is to minimize those effects. A template will do a lot of the work for you. But that is all a distraction. Just skipping the drawings and only showing the model / 3D would solve most of those issues. I guess it’s time to get that follow up post written now! Thanks.