“Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful” ― George E.P. Box, Empirical Model-Building and Response Surfaces

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While the quote above was made in the context of mathematical model it provides useful context. The model is primarily about information management and to do this efficiently we need to know what information is required in order to be useful.

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I have been working with 3d constructability modelling myself and with Michal for some years now and have usefully applied these techniques in the planning, design, tendering and construction phases of several projects.

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Most people will know something of BIM and will have seen or used flythrough videos. We are offering something similar but different. Many people focus too much on the 3d element, in reality this is just one of the outcomes of putting all your information in one model, and there are for more benefits than just the 3rd dimension.

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The attraction of SketchUp is its ‘user friendliness’. This allows us to create useful models quickly, even from limited information, of course as more information becomes available the model can be made more detailed as required – but this does not always make it more useful.

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Key decisions can often be made from models based on limited information if presented holistically and prepared by people who understand the relevance of the information to the decision at hand. In essence all tenders and design development are based on this premise.

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But making decisions is just one part. Once made they have to be communicated to, understood, and accepted by colleagues, managers, stakeholders and clients.

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Our models bring all the relevant information together and can readily be tailored to suit the target audience with more or less detail and complexity as required. The model can be used ‘live’ in a presentation or meeting setting or can be used to produce video or drawing outputs for formal documentation.

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As all the information is combined the proposal can be framed from any viewpoint required, for example, on a recent public transport infrastructure redevelopment we framed the proposed construction staging from the public viewpoint to allow the client to understand this element easily.

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Presenting even basic models to tender teams has allowed them to better understand the risks and opportunities in the project and to test ideas in a virtual world (instead of the real one!). Almost always we spot something that had not been picked up by several people working from drawings alone.

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As a risk management tool the model is invaluable – in simple terms, if we cannot model it from the information available you probably cannot build it either, but at least you know that before committing.

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With Michal’s modelling prowess we can take the process to as high a level of detail as you need, but bigger is not always better, better is.