It’s common in the architecture engineering construction industry for people to say that they:

“…look forward to a time when we stop creating 2D drawings as part of deliverables and use only 3D models across all design phases.” They say that getting rid of drawings “will resolve many issues as problems can be masked in 2D.”

We can use 3D across all phases the sooner we listen to people who’ve attempted to do that for so long (20 years) that they’ve figured out that it’s important to test the inverse:

“many issues are masked also in 3D.”

This in fact has already become painfully obvious to many 3D true-believers, who now cannot understand how they’d failed to see what is obvious. Complex, large, high detail, very well made, thoroughly complete 3D models are incomprehensible other than superficially until one can, either within them or about them, articulate the act of “looking at them” in specific and clarifying ways. This is so obviously true that in hindsight it’s embarrassing to some people.

The way forward is not to “get rid of drawings”. The way forward, rather, is drawing-model fusion, the infusion of drawing as equipment built-into models, for expressing and making articulate the act of taking a closer look, at models, within them. And a step further: the evolution of drawing itself now that drawing finds itself extant there, in the fertile ground, of models.

Deliver models with equipment built into them that expresses the act of looking closer in particular ways, for communicating what matters for whatever purpose. Deliver models with equipment built-in articulating meaningful focus for fabricators, and deliver it again with equipment built-in articulating meaningful focus for others (like clients), and again, and so on.

What does it mean to have such equipment built-in? I illustrate it in my (free) book, download links here: https://tangerinefocus.com/tangerine-2/tangerine-media-innovation-spec-2018/