Good Enuf Construction Communications

The Associated Press reported recently that students are writing papers and answering essay questions on their test in what Nathan Snow calls IM/Text Speak – a kind of short hand that gives users the ability to maintain rapid, almost continuous intercommunications.

While some educators see this as further evidence of the deterioration of writing skills, many point to the fact that students are actually writing far more than they did just a few years ago and learning to build strong communication skills.  In fact, the entire context of social networking is stretching the boundaries of relationships between students, students and teachers, teachers and teachers, and innovative young professionals.

Cell to cell is the new face to face

Wired Magazine notes in “a study by comScore MediaMetrix, more than 250 million people use instant messaging regularly. And IDC estimates that more than 7 billion instant messages are sent every day.”  To put that into perspective, the population of the US is a little over 300 million.

The spread of computer mediated communications is obviously growing exponentially around the world.  Even more interesting is the introduction of a miniaturized 3D environment by companies like “There.”  They’ve invented a way to let people communicate with each other inside an animated three dimensional space – on their cell phones.

One can easily imagine these three-dimensional environments growing into larger virtual worlds, stretching the potential of cell to cell communications, suggesting an even deeper value for the communications challenges facing the construction industry.

Communication tangled by technology

At the same time, what is particularly interesting is how the real communications potential of simple cell to cell conversations gets tangled up in the marketing mumble jumble of constant upgrades and gigabyte computers.

For example, Edward Tufte writes about what he calls the poverty of content in PowerPoint presentations in his book Beautiful Evidence.  He details how the cut and paste format of this slide show software reduced and masked the underlying dangers of what was represented in a slide show as a relatively minor incident, channeling the misunderstandings that caused the Challenger disaster.

Tufte points out that ideas and real openended discussions are reduced to pretty headings, short bullets, and meaningless statements in an often endless sequence of slides and what he points to as PPPhluff (Power Point Fluff).  This rigid format shuts down any hope of a real conversation and blocks the kind of interaction needed to reach a comprehensive level of understanding.

Good enough communications

The September 2009 issue of Wired Magazine did an article entitled “the good enuf rvlutn”(sic).  The article pointed to a growing trend in technology – simplification and downsizing.  As software developers and marketing machines churn through endless upgrades and more and more expensive features in bigger and better incomprehensible PPPluff, it’s the simple things that are coming to be the most effective communicators.

For example, hi-def plasma screens compete directly with tiny portable video iPod movies, multi-gig laptops look more and more like dinosaurs next to little light weight $300 netbooks, and simple straightforward web pages like Google, Craigslist, and even eBay, deliver new markets and new information strategies with none of the flash and flicker that only blurs the underlying message.

This good enough approach is one that cuts to the heart of the underlying value of a technical tool for the construction industry.  Take a look at what Mitchel Stangl of Stangl Associates in Amherst MA has been doing with an older version of Google SketchUp Layout.  He is clearly reinventing 2D/3D graphic communication with an intuitive approach to construction documentation.  His work breaks free of the boundaries of much more complicated programs to return to the essence of what it means to simply explain how his designs are to be constructed.

Do we hide behind our technology?

This explosion in direct communications technology is even more amazing when one looks at high-end graphical work stations running gigabytes of software that cost thousands of dollars to buy and take months and months to master.  Only to face regular and inevitable retooling and retraining for the next generation upgrade when even bigger pieces of hardware hit the full color pages of marketing media.

Comparing the incredible complexity of 3D software like AutoCAD to simple intuitive programs like Google SketchUp is a real eye opener.  One program takes months to master and is impossible to use by everyone except the very determined (and highly paid..;-).  The other program takes only minutes of playing to learn and even children can almost immediately begin to apply the communicative potential of 3D to their ideas and imaginations.

This simple good enough program has now become the starting point for many professional design and construction proposals because it clearly and simply communicates — in 3D.  And it’s free.

Perhaps it’s time to step back from the overwhelming hype and the growing piles of computer generated PPPluff and look at construction communications for what it is and what it always has been, a simple face to face, eye to eye, person to person, voice to voice, exchange of information.  And nothing more.

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Augmented Construction Communications

Project managers who are responsible for developing competitive marketing strategies, know that having a good idea is not nearly as important as presenting that idea effectively to potential clients.

Quick and Simple Graphic Information

As a new communications tool, many companies have learned that SketchUp is uniquely suited to produce the kind of graphic information that is often critical to explaining a particular approach to a construction contract.  Exploring this communicative potential and staying out in front of its power is essential in today’s competitive markets.

In fact, each of our construction modeling books (http://insitebuilders.com) is a research project intended to both explain and explore not only the practical potential of construction modeling, but also to illustrate alternate ways to deliver and transfer construction information.

Presenting Construction Concepts

At the same time, constructors building 3D construction models for their projects also know that almost any model can be quickly cut and pasted from in-house libraries of previous projects.  Once a construction model is ready for distribution:

1. Screenshots can be exported to illustrate a written proposal,
2. Sequence animations can be embedded into presentation programs,
3. Both the images and animations can be posted to the web.

For example, these are low resolution images of a research tool we use to explore alternative concepts for both construction and construction documentation.  The images were Exported from SketchUp and are fast to upload or email and simple to paste into a text editor, or slide show.

A video animation of the model can also be uploaded to You-Tube.  This particular video is a simplified version of a more comprehensive construction model found in our book, Living SMALL.

You-Tube animations can be embedded in an email, web page, or viewed by anyone who visits their site.  Alternately, controls can be set to limit viewers to a restricted group of project players.

The SketchUp construction model

The actual SketchUp file can also be uploaded to Google’s 3D Warehouse where anyone can download it, examine its details closely, or embed it in another construction model.  Downloads are done within SketchUp, but the file can also be picked up directly from the website containing the shared model.

Manufacturers and suppliers working to serve the needs of the design and construction industry use this feature to make models available of their own products.  You can download this model using this Tiny URL link to the Google Warehouse:

http://tinyurl.com/oyhm7s

Note that because the model is also “geographically located” it is possible to view the model on Google Earth as a 3D Building.  All one needs is the address of the project to search and fly to its location.  As readers of our books know, Google Earth is a powerful program able to contextualize a jobsite and help in site utilization planning.

Hypergraphic Communications

In the end, what we’re seeing is a number of emerging communications technologies, including 3D modeling programs, high level presentation media, and growing social networking sites like this blog, Facebook, and MySpace that can be used to distribute construction information.

Each evolution of these technologies brings new power and potential to increasingly aggressive and innovative companies.  Giving those that understand how to use these new tools the ability to present their ideas clearly and communicate in ways that were once considered not only impossible, but unnecessary in the markets of just a couple years ago….

Competitive Construction Modeling

Successful companies use 3D construction models to clearly communicate their ideas and win new projects.  These models are a powerful way to deliver and understand construction information because they clearly convey the details of a structure and the actions necessary for its assembly.  The models also visually communicate questions and alternatives during construction, setting the stage for an efficient and coordinated production process.

Deteriorating Construction Information.

It’s no secret that the quality of construction drawings has been steadily declining.  Facing lower fees, higher risks, and the demand for more information, many designers use stock sheet templates, standard details, and server side resources that allow computer operators to piece together hundreds of sheets of documents with little time to check the results.

As a consequence, poorly drawn construction documents set the stage for adversarial relationships that begin with bid clarifications, memos, and addenda and evolve into hundreds of requests for information (RFI) during construction.  These RFIs are regularly followed by field bulletins to correct or stop ongoing work and change orders to adjust the scope and cost of the original contract.  Add to all this paperwork revised specifications, daily reports, letters, meeting minutes, and emails and the shear quantity of information quickly becomes overwhelming.

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Light & Fast Graphic Communications

The value of our books is that they demonstrate the use of SketchUp as a graphical tool that can streamline the challenges of construction communications.  Our objective is to show how construction models can be used as a common collaborative point of view.  This reduces redundant communications and the time it takes to describe and explain what can more easily by conveyed in an illustration.

Important is that anyone can build a simple 3D model.  This means every person on the project team is able to contribute to the project using models to establish a common point of view.

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Guerilla graphics

Model construction is quick, simple, and intuitive.  Layer and object level controls are used to stage the model for screenshots.  These screenshots are edited and imported into a desktop publishing program, or inserted into email, spreadsheet, word processor, or presentation programs.  The resulting images represent strategies, illustrate questions and answers, demonstrate solutions, or visually communicate a series of distinct activities.

Completed models are also a resource for new models.  Our readers are encouraged to “pick and pull” pieces or assemblies from our models and use them on their own projects.  In other words, the equipment, frames, and mechanical systems included in the models with our books can be used to build almost any other project.

For example, the materials and methods found in “How a House is Built” or “3D Construction Modeling” can be reassembled to build a construction model of almost any imaginable house.

In the same way, the equipment, formwork, and mechanical systems found in “Building SIMPLE” and “Being SUSTAINABLE” can be quickly reassembled to represent almost any type of commercial building.

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Competitive Construction Communications

If a picture is worth a thousand words, and a model can generate a thousand pictures, a single construction model can easily illustrate even the most complicated assembly.  This makes a three-dimensional model a critical resource in competitive construction communications.

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Spotlight: news.SketchUcation.com

Spotlight: Dennis Fukai of Insitebuilders

Written by Csaba Pozsárkó Books, Education, Google SketchUp Tutorials, Interviews Jun 29, 2009

Barbara and Dennis Fukai are the people “behind” Insitebuilders, a small press specializing in books for the design and construction industry. All of their construction books are written as graphic narratives using a combination of three-dimensional illustrations, interactive 3D construction models, short videos, captioned text, and interactive media. Their goal is to keep their construction books simple. The objective is to make complex construction information quick to read and easy to understand. To accomplish this they use very accurate 3D construction models built with Google SketchUp. The Daily CatchUp asked Dennis about his reasons for using SketchUp for this purpose.

TDC: What do you see as the real value of SketchUp?

Dennis: I think Brad Schell, the founder of SketchUp, said it best on the cover of our book “Building SIMPLE: Building an Information Model.” To paraphrase, he saw 3D modeling as the best way for everyone to share the ideas, designs, and dreams we all have floating around in our heads. For Brad, everyone, the “professional architect, builder, mom and pop remodeling a kitchen, or a kid designing the next space station…” has an idea that needs to be expressed. In short, his dream was to bring 3D to the masses, and that’s exactly what he did.

What has always amazed me about SketchUp is its intuitive feel. It seems like the tools are right where they should be, they operate almost exactly how one would expect them to, and the program anticipates the little things necessary to make 3D modeling easy for everyone. In fact, the pure genius of SketchUp, is that some how the original @Last team was able to get all of these ideas coded into a simple program that seems to just expand and grow from within its own user base.

And what is truly amazing is that in all our books, with thousands of pieces in hundreds of assemblies, we have yet to find the limit of what even the early versions of SketchUp can do. There is no way any of this is an accident, and I continue to admire how inventive and instinctive that early vision remains in probably the most useful product out there for construction modeling.

TDC: Why use SketchUp for construction modeling?

Dennis: Though it’s a great design tool, SketchUp is more than a pretty face. It also has an important role to play as an information and communications tool for manufacturing, construction, and property development. In fact, its real value is not that it can simply illustrate objects in 3D, but that it can also very quickly model and communicate “time” as an erection sequence, simulated field assembly, or a preconstruction process. (See Dennis’s blog: http://insitebuilders.wordpress.com)

We use our books to show how SketchUp can be an effective tool to visually communicate the means and methods of an assembly as a series of distinct events or activities. This is especially important in risk management, but it is equally important in discussing change orders and clarifications because it sets up a visual understanding of a problem from a common point of view.

The result is an increasingly collaborative approach to construction, where owners, designers, and constructors are all able to animate concerns in 3D, illustrate project production over time, test alternative approaches to an assembly, and evaluate schedules and costs as a logical sequence of activities in order to find the best values for a project.

TDC: How is construction modeling different in SketchUp?

Dennis: The speed and intuitive feel of SketchUp makes it easy for almost anyone to build a construction model. The trick is using the Outliner in combination with strict control over the organization of the pieces of the total construction. Layer controls, Groups and Components help, but the basic idea is to maintain distinct clusters of objects as a controlled collection of nested construction assemblies.

Fortunately, almost all estimates and schedules in construction are organized in a work breakdown structure (WBS). This means the WBS quickly provides an over all framework for the pieces of the construction model, including three standard levels of subassemblies, sequences, and the supporting labor and equipment used to actually build almost any complex construction project.

The organizational methods we use for the construction models in our books have evolved with the changes to SketchUp over the years. This means that our readers not only interact with the animated details of complex construction in 3D, but they can also follow through with those assemblies using the hands-on project based tutorials included with every book.

TDC: Thank you, Dennis, for these “insights” and finally here are some exciting (though low resolution) samples from the books:

Thank you Csaba !!

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Sitework Planning Tool for SketchUp

Al Hart of Render Plus Systems announced the release RpTreeMaker, a free integrated plug-in for Google SketchUp that creates realistic trees.

RpTreeMaker is a new, free, product that construction modelers can use to create realistic, fractal trees and place them into the SketchUp model as 2D face-camera components. Program parameters (Tree Type, Number of Trunks, Bending, Crookedness, and Leaf Type) let users easily create custom trees for a construction model that might be critical to planning the production of a project.

This new plug-in makes it possible to add depth and realism to a SketchUp model, including quickly and easily adding a large variety of trees to match existing site conditions. This would be important in site utilization planning, selectively clearing existing trees for construction, or modeling a specific management technique for working on heavily wooded jobsites.

Render Plus Systems is a software development group in Centennial, Colorado devoted to adding functionality to Google SketchUp. The company fills many of the gaps in SketchUp with design tools that the Google development teams have overlooked.

Render Plus started out with two products: 1) RPS 3D PDF, which lets SketchUp users create interactive 3D PDF documents from SketchUp drawings that could be especially useful in construction communication, and 2) a set of programmatic routines called RpTools that makes it easier to place and manipulate model components in order to fill rooms and quickly populate a working jobsite with repetitive element such as safety railings, fencing, scaffolding, or falsework.

Their most popular product is IRender nXt, an integrated photorealistic renderer for SketchUp, that uses lights, reflective materials, plants and 3D Objects, to create high quality renderings from a SketchUp model.

For more information see the Render Plus Systems Website < http://www.renderplus.com/wk/Products_w.htm > and RpTreeMaker < http://www.renderplus.com/wk/RpTreeMaker_w.htm >. 3939 E. Arapahoe Rd #100 , Centennial, Co 80122. (303) 713-1401.

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The SketchUp Outliner and 3D Construction Models

The SketchUp Outliner organizes a construction model so it can be used to display the sequence and time embedded in the model’s assembly. In fact, without the ability to visually represent time, SketchUp would have little value as a real-world construction communications tool.

Though its features are often overlooked, the Outliner makes it easier to:

1. Break the model down into the pieces of its construction. These pieces are the “named” Groups that make up the deconstructible assembly of the construction model. Every piece is then joined as part of a subassembly or Group of Groups.

2. Stage these subassemblies according to Hide and Layer commands in the SketchUp program. These subassemblies include the operational parts of equipment and materials, the components of subcontracts, and the visual representation of scope within the construction phases or processes.

3. Scenes are created to construct and deconstruct the subassemblies, in order to animate the sequence of a task and navigate through the construction site. The Outliner is central to the control and display of the pieces in these Scenes.
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With the Outliner dialog box open, try these basic steps:

1. Fabricate the individual pieces on Layer 0, then Group and name the piece. Note the named Group is now visible in the Outliner. To a constructor, it’s these individual pieces that are important to the construction. Fabricating and naming the pieces separately means they can be identified and controlled within an assembly.

2. Group the piece-groups and name them as subassemblies. Note that the named subassemblies are now visible in the Outliner as nested Groups. The subassemblies organize the model in phases or sections in the same way they are organized in the real world.

TIP: You can cut, copy and paste the names of the pieces in the Outliner. You can also drag and drop the pieces from named Group to named Group.

3. Use Scenes with the Hide and Layers commands to control the pieces and the subassemblies. To Hide a subassembly, Right-click its name in the Outliner. You can also place individual pieces or entire subassemblies to a named Layer and then turn layer visibility on and off in the Layers dialog box.

4. When ready, create a Scene to capture the current view. Each Scene can be exported as a 2D image and inserted into a text document, spreadsheet, or slideshow. A series of scenes can also be played as an animation.

TIP: You’ll see these techniques first explored in our book 3D Construction Modeling. They then evolve through all our books and the 13 tutorials in our most recent publication, How a House is built: With 3D Construction Models.

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Real World, Real Time Construction Information

We’ve just published a follow-up to the book 3D Construction Modeling. The new book, How a House is Built: with 3D Construction Models is a how-to book on construction modeling using the latest version of SketchUp. The modeling lessons in the book are wrapped in the virtual construction of a small, simple, and sustainable house that covers the step-by-step and day-to-day details of residential construction from surveyed layout to MEP finish.

The book uses the same detailed 3D models, captioned text, short videos, and 3D illustrations we use in all our books, but its final chapter differs from our earlier publications because it begins to explore how a contractor (or designer) might use the web as a visual interface to communicate construction information.

Though all our books come with CDs that act as a window to the Internet, offering links to the models, video downloads, and the web resources used in the book, this is the first time we’ve mounted a chapter on the web in an attempt to explore a fully interactive construction information environment.

A paper-based model for a paperless jobsite

Not to say that the resulting web pages are so great, or that the over all research potential has really even begun to be explored. But what occurred to me as this section of the book was being developed is that the original notion of paperless project documentation on a rapidly moving construction jobsite is, in practice, constrained by a fundamental assumption that paperless information should follow a paper-based model.

In other words, in order to find a paperless environment, early attempts by constructors have been to use paper as a template for electronic translation. Documents are simply posted online as PDFs, text or spreadsheet files, or a collection of JPEGs. Worse yet are the orphaned CAD.dwgs — complete with bundled X-refs and a conglomeration of programmatic references which, of course, only actually work on the computers that originated the graphic files.

Even more challenging is that these electronic files are often emailed or quickly posted and indexed as a list of cryptic titles with no visual references or clue as to what they are or how they might fit together. Over the life of even the smallest project, electronic information becomes as worthless to day-to-day management as the growing pile of printed boilerplate specs crowding the back of a construction trailer.

The resulting indices are handy archives to store and retrieve evidentiary information, but a long way from the visual and dynamic potential of what the web might bring to support real world, real time, construction management.

A construction information environment

What is interesting to me in this new book is the combination of the three-dimensional storyboards used in all our books, mixed with manufacturing links, interactive details, animations, and streaming videos – both from the models that illustrate the book and publicly posted videos on U-Tube and similar websites.

It’s as if the chapter’s six web pages flesh out the construction information I’m trying to convey and expand on the three-dimensional models, not as 4D or nD, but as an information environment that points in a direction that casts a dark shadow over the existing paper-based paradigm. In fact, the resulting chapter could not be printed. A single page of multidimensional information cannot be tied to paper or printer and must remain in its interactive, electronic state.

Readers, or perhaps users, must then be induced (or enticed) into a participatory world. Moving from topic to topic and link to link, taking in the information in response to actions that only they can initiate. The information is therefore layered in relational stacks of visual data, stepping beyond the role of a static construction document and back into the fold of real time, relevant construction communication.

Understanding motion and movement in this graphical information environment is something we’ll continue to test and explore in our next books. But the notion of moving through the data, inferring references from graphical clues, and presenting information in deepening layers of relevance, has the potential to parallel and somehow represent the same controlled chaos we find on almost every jobsite.

3D Construction Model Controls Engineering Information

The construction model for this steel stair tower was built piece by piece right down to the bolts and connectors. It is 41 ft tall and will provide access a large cooling tower here in Monterrey, Mexico. Except for the critical dimensions, elevations from grade, and the general layout, the stair was built directly as a three dimensional model. This means we did not need to invest a lot of time with two-dimensional engineering drawings.

This is important because the model is to be used to illustrate a preliminary proposal for design and construction and is the basis for a cost proposal for the project. Because it is a 3D construction model, we are able to control our initial engineering assumptions and the structural details for the project and at the same time provide our clients with enough visual information to understand our concept. In other words we were able to be competitive without “giving away” the steel profiles, connection details, and 2D drafted documents and structural details that may have been lost from our control.

Once the project has been accepted, we can export the model into our CAD progeam to generate the 2D drawings directly from the model. This means final approval will be very quick and we can move immediately into fabrication and final installation. Important is that the construction model is available to support the entire process and can be continually viewed for clarification and visualization. This will of course simplify fabrication and be helpful to our office for fine tuning our calculations, the 2D drafting, and do the structural detailing for the connections.

The value of a construction model is that it gives us the ability to manage our commitment to the project, control the information we provide to our clients, and use the resulting model to facilitate the design and construction process.

Joel Kennington
jdkennington@gmail.com
Monterrey, Mexico

Piece-based Construction Models

Graphic communication in design and construction is nothing new. It has long included the traditional 2D and 3D drawings found on every jobsite.  In an increasingly competitive economy, constructors have even begun to regularly use new tools such as animated slide shows, illustrated word documents, and simple sequence animations to differentiate themselves from the crowd.

In fact, the videos and tutorials included with our books are now used by architecture and construction schools all over the world to illustrate classroom handouts, lectures, websites, and student projects.  At the same time, many professional developers and contractors use these learning aids to support their ideas and illustrate their own construction methods and practices.

It’s no secret then that in order to survive we all look for every available tool to quickly communicate complex ideas with our clients, manage risks, plan and document our projects, and clearly explain project methods to a broad community of interests.  This might explain some of the interest in the building information models (BIM) that are just beginning to reach the mainstream of the construction industry.

There’s little doubt that this new environment of graphically competitive practices makes 3D construction models even more important for the future.  Construction models are piece-based because they are organized so that every part of the model can be easily identified, modified, and reused in another model as a distinct three-dimensional object.  These objects are then counted, measured, and categorized so that their data can be used to graphically manage estimates, schedules, and other related projects.

Each of our books includes all of the piece-based construction models used to illustrate that book. This means that each book is a three-dimensional library of not only the parts and pieces of the constructions, but also a collection of the furnishings, tools, equipment, and workers used in the virtual model.  Readers are therefore free to deconstruct, reconstruct, and visually explore their own ideas whether in a classroom or the real-world. The notion of shared three-dimensional resources in a virtual model is one of the underlying goals of our books.

Construction Modeling Method

3D construction models begin with a set of 2D contract documents. These are the construction documents that represent the scope of the contract requirements provided by the design team. The model is constructed to confirm a bid, during contract negotiations, or in the field just ahead of the actual work.

The idea is to use the 3D modeler as a tool to systematically check the 2D documents, test details and dimensions, and understand the assumptions made by the design team — before the documents are used in the field.

1. Start with a site model: this is a scaled scan of the plat map or survey laid over a geographically accurate model base. Use the site model for site utilization planning (SUP), to simulate the impact of weather and sun on construction activities, and to map the regional context of the jobsite.

2. Excavate the building from a workpoint. Base cuts, grading, and shoring on the referenced elevations and dimensions shown on the survey and plot plans. Use scaled equipment models to test available access routes, stockpiles, and staging.

3. Use the 2D documents to begin the foundations (formwork). Set up the scaffolding, falsework, and equipment that will be needed to complete the foundation. Include reinforcing, connectors, and other specialty items shown on the contract documents. The modeling program automatically surveys quantities and identifies phases, tasks, and errors and omissions.

4. Build the structural frame according to the engineered documents. Include staging and lay down area as well as scaled models of the workers, tools, and equipment necessary to complete the framing. The model is built using the sequence and processes anticipated for the construction. Survey quantities are again automatically generated, means and methods are coordinated with field teams, and the resulting model illustrates areas of concern, RFIs, and conflicts.

5. Building systems are installed per plans and specs. Important is to build these systems in the order of their actual construction using scaled models of the tools and equipment needed by each subcontractor. Sequence modeling highlights conflicts, anticipates coordination problems, and tests design assumptions.

6. Finish work follows the contract details. 3D component models are fitted to roofing, curtain and window walls, siding, finishes, cabinetry and furnishings. The completed model focuses on coordinating processes and sequences necessary to complete the contract obligations.

The result is a construction model that details the means, methods, and processes embedded in the contract documents. Errors and omissions are identified (often output from a poorly constructed BIM model) and schedule concerns, subcontractor challenges, value engineer alternatives, and real-world conflicts are illustrated for all to see in three-dimensions.

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