It’s often tough to get the right people on the MEP project team when it comes to BIM. We’re all used to the typical Engineer, Designer, Drafter lineup but teams often neglect to consider design technology expertise.
It’s generally expected that drafters are the ones with modeling experience. They already know CAD… now teach them BIM and we’re good to go. Unfortunately, it isn’t that easy. It’s critical that members of the project team at all levels are well versed in BIM and have at least a minimum level of design knowledge.
Often (too often) I hear engineers and designers complain about not knowing what’s in the model. If a client calls with a question or concern, they open the model (or have a drafter do it for them) and try to figure out what’s there and whether it needs to be fixed. The drafters typically don’t have much, if any, design knowledge and therefore what was modeled may not be accurate. This is highly inefficient and prone to error. When…