I think everyone is wrong about using 3D modeling for every single detail drawing.

Just finished a big set of shop drawings for a steel fabricator in Phoenix. The lead engineer wanted every single bolt, weld symbol, and connection plate modeled in full 3D. It took my team three weeks. For the next similar job, I pushed back and did the main structure in 3D but all the connection details as 2D views with standard notes. That set took five days and the shop had zero questions. The extra 3D detail didn't add clarity, it just added time and file size. When is a 3D model actually needed versus just showing it cleanly in 2D?

3 comments

3 Comments

mitchell.val1mo ago

Have you considered that the extra 3D detail is for the next guy, not just the shop? If the model is the master record, a future engineer doing a mod can see exactly how everything fits without guessing from 2D views. Your five day set got built once, but that three week model could save ten days of headache on a renovation in five years. File size is cheap, missing info is expensive.

allen.ivan1mo agoTop Commenter

That's a really good point from @mitchell.val about future work. Reminds me of a retrofit where we spent a week just figuring out the old pipe runs because the original model was too simple. Having that full detail upfront would have saved so much time and money.

miles721mo ago

Tell me about it. We had a job last year where the old HVAC ducts just vanished into a wall on the drawings. Took two guys three days of cutting inspection holes to map the actual path. The time we burned on that would have paid for the extra modeling effort twice over. It's always a tax on the next crew.