How to Survive Five Construction Documentation Pet Peeves
Documentation makes or breaks a project. Now more than ever, BIM applications do much of the work for us, allowing designers to create sheets to their hearts content. You're thinking to yourself, “Yea, I’ve got this”. You probably don’t. Stay away from these five common construction documentation pet peeves and your peers will thank you.
Building Pandora’s Box
With floor plans, detailed drawings with enough dimensions are essential. Don’t make the mistake of not having enough detail that will cause confusion or delays with questions about the dimensions of a room or how thick a wall should be. There may also be additional features needing dimensions, i.e., built in storage like book cases or walls with unconventional angles. It's important to save the person who’s actually constructing what you’ve drawn from taking additional measurements or doing unnecessary guess work. Give them some love without overdoing your drawings. Watch how to create floor plans in Designing and Documententing a Building in Revit.
All Men Are Created Equal, Not Lines
In section drawings with section cuts (or slices), the background is exactly that – the background. Let your slices come forward with thicker lines and allow your background to take the back seat with thinner lines. When you do this, your section cuts will pop, making them easier to find while the thinner background provides perspective within the overall design.
Over Confidence Does Not a Design Make
In every title block, there is a space for the name of whoever has checked your work. Don’t leave that blank before passing on your documentation. Everyone experiences time crunches and deadlines but leaving that element blank will lead to problems down the line. Having someone redline your work will allow you to create a more efficient design with less time from everyone on your team. Find out how to look professional with Creating Title Blocks in Revit.
The Devil’s in the Details
BIM software makes detailed drawings easy to create with a library of components at your fingertips. Don’t take advantage of the work they do for you though. Double-check the detailed connections in your connection drawings. They’re not always there. Create the component or detail to ensure everything comes together. Learn how to work with components and adaptive component families with a tutorial about Building a Parametric Tree in Revit.
Not Knowing Which Way Is Up
This one is simple but makes a huge impact when it comes to talking about the building plans laying in front of you with colleagues. Include a North arrow on your plan drawings. With large scale projects, it is easy to forget to place something as easy as a North arrow but without it conversations can easily get disoriented.
Building Information Modeling allows us to create larger, more complex projects in diverse teams accurately and efficiently. Bad documentation; however, will bring any project to a screeching halt. From the owner to the design team, this can be prevented by simply putting more emphasis on communication and considering what others will need to be successful.
Watch professional CAD and BIM documentation tutorials and Revit tutorials and training in the Digital-Tutors training library to learn more ways to communicate effectively in your documentation.
Sign up for a Digital-Tutors demo account and get started for free - or become a member and get complete access.
All Men Are Created Equal, Not Lines
In section drawings with section cuts (or slices), the background is exactly that – the background. Let your slices come forward with thicker lines and allow your background to take the back seat with thinner lines. When you do this, your section cuts will pop, making them easier to find while the thinner background provides perspective within the overall design.
Over Confidence Does Not a Design Make
In every title block, there is a space for the name of whoever has checked your work. Don’t leave that blank before passing on your documentation. Everyone experiences time crunches and deadlines but leaving that element blank will lead to problems down the line. Having someone redline your work will allow you to create a more efficient design with less time from everyone on your team. Find out how to look professional with Creating Title Blocks in Revit.
The Devil’s in the Details
BIM software makes detailed drawings easy to create with a library of components at your fingertips. Don’t take advantage of the work they do for you though. Double-check the detailed connections in your connection drawings. They’re not always there. Create the component or detail to ensure everything comes together. Learn how to work with components and adaptive component families with a tutorial about Building a Parametric Tree in Revit.
Not Knowing Which Way Is Up
This one is simple but makes a huge impact when it comes to talking about the building plans laying in front of you with colleagues. Include a North arrow on your plan drawings. With large scale projects, it is easy to forget to place something as easy as a North arrow but without it conversations can easily get disoriented.
Building Information Modeling allows us to create larger, more complex projects in diverse teams accurately and efficiently. Bad documentation; however, will bring any project to a screeching halt. From the owner to the design team, this can be prevented by simply putting more emphasis on communication and considering what others will need to be successful.
Watch professional CAD and BIM documentation tutorials and Revit tutorials and training in the Digital-Tutors training library to learn more ways to communicate effectively in your documentation.
Sign up for a Digital-Tutors demo account and get started for free - or become a member and get complete access.
