The Evolving Nature of "Modeling First" Design...

Recently, while working on a new project we reached out to a manufacturer, as is customary, and requested cutsheets of their products, technical drawings, and mounting information. What we got back lacked the details we would need to actually model the systems we were about to design. I had to clarify that we no longer design in 2D and would need additional, more detailed information. We work it all out in a virtual world first, to the last detail, even down to the cables and connectors.  We “model” it first.  

We have been told to watch it, and that REVIT is bottomless pit of money, but it’s not if you really plan your design workflows out and have an efficient, capable, and forward-thinking team. (We are so lucky in this category!) You definitely need REVIT, special software, special people, simplified and efficient tracking markup tools, and a special sauce to pull it off. I won’t get into the details much, but what I would like to get into is what we are learning with model-first based design and how it’s affecting our projects…since it is really fascinating, and it has triggered a bit of a thought revolution with some. It has just been incredibly fun to watch it evolve!

Many of you have seen my posts about “getting what you draw,” which are fun to look at, and it is without doubt really true, except we are no longer drawing per se. We are modeling, and then deciding what to show on pages to convey our design intentions rapidly in great detail. We work with our clients to bring their rooms, systems, and dreams to life virtually first, until they are happy. We let them float around in them in virtual reality, and then we decide which drawings, views, details, close ups, notes, data, and dimensions are needed. It takes a while to grasp this modelling-first (MF) concept, but once everyone on the team gets it, the spurs come out and the horses are sprinting. To keep the harras moving, we often must dissuade people away from the urge to just drop a static note onto a drawing, and instead must suggest ways to come up with a method to convey the requirement dynamically in a data-tagged way. That way, if something needs to change, the data (or intention) is not lost, and it automatically updates throughout an entire set of drawings…wherever and whenever it appears...effortlessly. For example, below, if we change a custom 6' L5-15P to Neutrik PowerCon cable, we just have to do it once, not 80 times on 12 different sheets.

We start out with a REVIT inventory of products, parts, cables, cable anchors, bolts, and even zip ties that we know will be used for the project in the form of a Bill of Materials (BOM) created by our lead consultant(s) using a custom software tool (thanks Brett!). If there is something that is not already in “virtual” stock, the software has a data-driven process for prioritizing the act of modelling it and placing it into our virtual warehouse of MF (ha!) integration products. We do not stop there though. For something to make it into our “virtual inventory,” it must have intelligence and informative value. We are not just making REVIT families and simply placing them into models, we are making REVIT families with all the data that should accompany them and treating it as a precious asset, which is what I suspect the creators of REVIT had in mind. This includes cost, power consumption, weight, cutsheets, heatloads, make, model number, and a unique identifier that can never be repeated. This is precious data for making informative lists, or massive amounts of changes automatically later in a project. Precious data that is often needed by mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, structural engineers, architects, and project administrators who are all the sudden very pleased to have a sheet solely dedicated to just their interests…and we’re pleased to give it to them in minutes of work, not hours. For example, because we have the data, we can create a sheet with a 3D view of a room, highlight every relevant device, tag them in a variety of formats, color-code them for scope, and automatically provide a summary spreadsheet that tallies up weights, or heatloads in tons, or BTU/HR, or watts, or costs...at the click of a button. It is the stuff that dreams are made of, and it is also very depressing because I spent so many late nights doing this by hand previously! Moreover it is free from errors and decidedly more accurate.

This entire process is so concise and thorough, that we have actually needed to engage veteran field technicians with copious amounts of installation experience to actually guide our modelers on exactly how to “install” things virtually first. So, by the time these MF (ha ha!) drawings are in the field, it can be said that they have been curated by virtual installers first. There is no guesswork (we thought this would fit), mechanical persuasion (hit it with a hammer), or surprises (we cannot get a wrench on it). It is just a matter of A) use this bolt, B) drill a hole here, C) run the wire like this, and D) place a cable tie there.  As an example, I proudly saw a project team the other day contemplating which dimensions to omit from a view of a model on a drawing sheet, because someone realized that giving all the dimensions just created more work for an installer! The thought was, "if they just drill these two holes, everything else will fall into place!" Bingo Keno as a friend would say. This is crazy because we have always been of the “dimension everything under the sun” mindset!! Is less more if you start with more behind the scenes and thoughtfully hold back? Yep!

At the end of the day, the goal is to simplify life for clients, colleagues, architects, and integrators by leveraging the tools that are now at our disposal in this increasingly “REVITized” digital world, with exceptional value. If one is successful in doing the aforementioned, money is saved by all parties, stress is reduced, schedules are met, systems are built right, and the value for everyone fairly outweighs the profit necessary to successfully run a design business. We are working hard to develop ways to rapidly produce beautiful sets of bid documents based on something everyone knows is “virtually” do-able before they hit the street. So far so good…assuming the buildings themselves are constructed by people who can measure…which thankfully is the case!