struggling w/ reasons for 3d

[MKH-VB]

Hi everyone.....I am still looking at going the 3d route for my drafting of plans.  I am struggling with why am I doing this!  I still have to create 2d construction plans, and 3d seems like an unneccssary step.  My main structures are pump stations, lift stations, air vaults, etc.  Not really large structures.  I am just lookng for some insight.  I keep hearing from my engineers, that "everyone else is doing it" and " this is the way everything is headed".

I suppose I just need some convincing.  Thanks for any insight you can give.

MKH

[TomislavGolubovic]

3D - model once, everything after that is for free. Bill of Materials, Plans/Layouts etc.

[dgorsman]

Plus, nothing beats having all stakeholders (including the client rep, who is usually a project manager rather than a piping designer) doing a walk through to identify a variety of tasks without having to interpret drawings ("Is there something being hidden under that steel?  I can see another line but whats it for?").  For example: the impacts of moving a flare stack and associated rack 50m to the East; checking user accesibility in super-compact modules; referencing in a point cloud scanned from the field or fab shop for accurate as-built information; fill/cut volumes on civil work; checking to see whether that 300-wide cable tray electrical wants to use will in fact fit all the way down the rack; finding out that designer A routed their piping through designer B's piping; one of our clients sends Navisworks NWD files along with isometrics to the fab shop and they *love* it for the clarity it provides; checking crane access for construction scheduling/planning; reference for field constructors; reference for operator training; and on, and on... so many advantages.

[JohnHolder]

The way I see it, and this is just my opinion.  Nothing is built 2d, so why draw in 2d?

I design aquaculture sites.  For me, 3d is invaluable.  with doing 2d construction sets - the tools in plant 3d make it fairly simple or complicated as you want - I do not redo 2d drawings!  Autocad does them for me.  I have a great BOM - since everything is modeled and accounted for - easy to tell if anything is missing.  and for the clients - I can have fully rendered pictures for them aswell as a 3d model they can rotate and zoom around - even use an avatar to walk the facility.

just my 2 cents ( before they are gone )