Drawingless

Work has been stressful lately. The project has been made into a mess and we have a new VP that has been tasked with cleaning up the mess. I think he's got a good start but there is a long way to go. One of the things that frustrates me about it is that a lot of the fixes we are trying to implement are things I tried to implement over two years ago and was told to stop.

That is frustrating. And I'm still struggling to get any of it in as now we are too far down for most of it to matter. We just gotta put our heads down and work hard. That doesn't mean I'm going to stop looking for solutions though. There is always the next project. Plus, there have been a lot of improvements in technology in the last two years.

One example is drawingless construction. There was a bridge built in Europe with zero 2D drawings created. They did the whole thing from a 3D model. That's bonkers to me. Most experts say that is find for a lot of simpler things like a bridge but when you have something like an electrical design, you currently still need schematics, loop drawings, etc.

This still intrigues me to no end though. The guys in the field say they like using the model more than a drawing anyway. This of course comes with issues. The software we use doesn't allow for good measurements in the field app, our internet on site is garbage, our manager doesn't like technology.

And the big one is that if you go to the companies that do it, they don't have a good write-up or example of how they did it. So, you are left figuring it out on your own. I can't blame them too much. Without having to spend the time creating drawings they can probably put forward spectacular bids. It does make it hard for me to implement this though. I have to piece it together from hints and my own ideas.

The biggest drawback to me is what software to use in the field. I can make a model that has every piece of information for a build but it has to be easy to retrieve for the guys in the field. That's why drawings are nice since I can pick and choose to only give them what they need.

We have a decent Autodesk system right now but getting dimensions sucks. Using your finger to pick a point when it is trying to pick every object, line, surface, point and arc that is around it is a bad mix. So, more research required.

We do have some EXTREMEMLY nice 3D printers at work. Maybe I'll just print it out and they can just measure with their rulers. Or even better! Print it out 1:1. Like a grain elevator.

I'm a genius.