Monday, November 7, 2011

Draw ceilings as you would build them

The intent behind BIM is to model your building in 3 Dimensions the same way as you would build it. The wall assemblies should match how they will be constructed (layers of materials), ceiling compositions should match what they will be in the field, total thicknesses should also be consistent.


Staying on the theme of model it how you would build it, here is another example of not following that philosophy:



As you can see, the ceiling is drawn in a rectangle which intersects with a large round structural column. Besides not following the philosophy outlined above, this method can also pose several other issues including giving false clashes if you run the model through the clash detection process. If you do any renderings or printing of line drawings of that space, the connection between the column and the ceiling will not read correctly, since technically there is not an edge there.

The correct way this ceiling should have been drawn is with a curved edge following the column. Confused? Think about how the drywall would meet the column.