"But it doesn't look right in the 2D Deliverable?"

As we all know, this is still one of the biggest “complaints” we all hear on projects. “Why doesn’t it or why can’t it look like all of the typical drafted outputs we have done in the past!?!”

For the 2D designer, the non-parametric minded individuals and even the CEO & Partners of the firm – this is a big hurdle to overcome. Which is crazy when you stop & realize programs like Revit, ArchiCad and Bentley have been around for more than a decade at this point and are the standard tool in the AEC industry for building design & modeling in the 21st century.

Yet I continue to see Architects, Engineers & Designers draw in a 2D environment, producing floor plans, elevations & sections one red, yellow & cyan line at time. Plans not “talking” to elevations which in turn don’t “talk” to the sections or to the details. Schedules drawn with lines and lines of text typed in. I have shown numerous people & design teams the advantages to be had even on the smallest of projects as well as the efficiency in designing a building and having all of the verticals developed simultaneously. Yet all they want is a 2D output representing the framed structure only with “their” line-weights. “Why show all of the sheathing, gypsum board, exterior materials?” they ask.

Well – do we need to really point out that the difference between a simple 2x6 wall and a 2x6 wall with gyp board, sheathing, vapor barriers and finished material can add up to 2” more width to the wall? So when you are designing to within inches of your setback or easement – don’t you want to know where it will really be in the real world?

And why manually drawing elevations & sections, line by line, when the program is at the very least, is massing it out correctly throughout the design process? I offer the following link as an example of what is for most – obvious advantages in a BIM environment: 2D AutoCad to a visually data rich Revit environment

Old School v New School-

This is argument is no different than when we transitioned form Mylar drafting with our trusty Rapidographs and electric erasers into the 2D drafting of AutoCAD. So why is the 2D world hanging on so tightly to colors of lines, line-weights and unrealistic building representations?

Question of the Week-

I ask you – is this generational? Is this merely a comfort level thing? Should we assume that if a person cannot design in a 3D environment that they are not understanding the built world all around us? The assemblies? The details?

I once worked for a Principal of a firm who stated that some people have a "3D gene" and some do not. Do those of us in the BIM environments simply possess a 3D gene which others do not?