Which building information is best conveyed in 3D, and which still requires 2D?
◦ Which stakeholders need 2D drawings, and why has that not gone away?
Contractors & trades: they build from paper/tablet plans, which includes dimensions, plans, sections, and details.
Building officials: they review permit sets which are defined as 2D sheets because the drawing set is the record legally.
Owners: they want a printable record for operations and renovations.
◦ Give an example of something in your building a 3D view fails to communicate.
The dimensions of the floor plan are easier to visualize in 2D. In a 3D view, perspective can distort lengths and angles, and dimensions and room-to-room relationships are hard to read at once. In a 2D plan you can see every wall length, door swing, and clearance, and read the layout in a single glance.
The same location needs to be shown differently to different audiences.
◦ How would information at one spot be filtered for a client, a contractor, a code official and a fabricator?
◦ What is the risk of showing everyone the same view?
View templates enforce consistency across a set.
◦ What goes wrong on a real project when views are configured individually?
When views are individually configured it can create inconsistent sets. The scales, line weights, detail levels, and annotation styles will differ from sheet to sheet. For example, if the scales are different on two sheets, the contractor may not know which one is correct and which to follow. Additionally, if one thing is changed on one sheet, it will not update onto the other sheets, which can cause future issues and misunderstandings.
◦ Who should own the templates and standards, and why?
The owner of the templates and standards should be a designated BIM manager/coordinator. Having one person be the owner ensures that changes are documented and consistent across the entire model, thus leaving less room for error.
Your schedules pull information straight out of the model.
◦ How can schedules support procurement and model based estimating?
◦ What is the danger of a schedule that is accurate about the model but wrong about the building?
◦ What did your calculated field reveal that the plans did not?
You published two versions and compared them.
◦ Why does version history matter more on a shared model than a personal one?
In a shared model, different people depend on the model’s content at specific moments in time. Additionally, other people have no idea what others have changed in a model, because they weren’t the ones making the change. Having a version history creates a record of who made changes and when. This record is important for resolving disputes, tracing errors, and showing evidence for decision making.
◦ If a consultant says their work was based on last week's version, what do you need to be able to tell them?
I would need to be able to tell them what that version contained, and be able to open/restore that version. Additionally, I would need to tell them exactly what has changed between that version and the current one, and how that would impact their work.
◦ When should a model be formally issued rather than just saved?
A model should be formally issued when it is being sent to an outside party for review, construction, permitting, etc. Additionally, when a project milestone is completed, it could also be a good time to formally issue the model.