Self-perform GC
General contractors
One model your estimators, superintendents and trade partners all work from, so nobody rebuilds it twice.
Read more
Model
We author the model your project is built from — in your template, to the level of detail each element needs, federated so every trade opens the same building.
Talk to a VDC lead
What it is
A model is not a drawing set in three dimensions. It is the file every later question gets asked of.
We build discipline models — architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing — in your authoring template, on your version, with your titleblock and view templates already loaded. What comes back opens in your environment and behaves the way your team expects it to.
Then we federate them. One shared origin, one level scheme, one set of grids. The model your estimator prices and the model your foreman builds from are the same model.
Detail is agreed element by element before authoring starts. A duct that will be spooled is modelled to fabrication level. A ceiling grid that will not be is not. The matrix is written down, and the file is checked against it before it is issued.
Deliverables
What you get
Files, not capabilities. Every item below lands in your CDE, in your naming, at a stated revision.
-
Discipline models, authored in your template
Architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical and plumbing — built in your file, your titleblock, your view templates, your version.
-
A federated model
Every discipline linked to one shared origin, one level scheme and one grid, so the whole building opens as one thing rather than as a folder of files.
-
Elements carrying your data
Cost codes, system names, zones, phases and equipment tags written into shared parameters on the elements themselves — not typed into a spreadsheet sitting beside the model.
-
Schedules generated from the model
Quantities, equipment lists and system inventories taken off the elements, so they move when the design moves instead of being re-counted.
-
A sheet set cut from the live model
Plans, sections, elevations and details on your titleblock, at your revision, printing from the same file the quantities came off.
-
A model-check report at every issue
The rules in your BEP run against the file. Each one passes or is flagged, and every flagged item is named and routed back to whoever owns it.
-
Native and exchange files
The authoring file, an IFC export and the coordination format your team already opens — all three produced from the issued model, named to your convention.
-
A revision record
What changed between this issue and the last, element by element, so nobody has to open two models side by side to find out.
The standard
What a model has to pass before we issue it
Level of detail is agreed in writing before authoring starts. Everything after that is a check the file either passes or does not.
Level of detail
- LOD 200
- A generic placeholder. Approximate size, shape, location and orientation. Enough to plan around, not enough to buy from.
- LOD 300
- The specific element. Real size, shape, location and orientation, measurable directly off the model rather than off a note.
- LOD 350
- LOD 300 plus the interfaces — supports, hangers, connections and the clearances to whatever runs beside it. This is the level coordination actually runs at.
- LOD 400
- Detailed enough to fabricate and install from, with assembly and connection detail carried on the element.
Level of detail belongs to an element, not to a model. A live job runs several at once, and the matrix says which element is at which. We agree it at kickoff and check against it at every issue.
The pre-issue check
- Shared origin, levels and grids match the rest of the federated set
- Files, views, sheets and parameters follow your naming convention
- Shared parameters populated on every element expected to carry data
- View templates applied, with no view left on a local override
- Every element at the level of detail its matrix line calls for
- Warnings reviewed, the file purged and audited
- Exports produced from the issued file, never from a working copy
The BEP is the contract. If something is not in it, we ask. We do not assume it and we do not quietly do it our own way.
Where it sits
Modelling is one phase of the same job.
We run the whole lifecycle with one team and one set of standards — pre-construction, construction, operations. Modelling sits in construction, and it is the file the phases either side of it depend on.
-
Pre-construction
- Quantity takeoff
- Change analysis
- Constructibility review
-
Construction
- Modelling
- Coordination
- Shop drawings
- Fabrication and spool
-
Operations
- As-built creation
- Submittal reviews
- RFIs
The tools
We work in what your team already runs.
There is no platform to buy and no file your people cannot open. We author on your version, in your template, and hand the job back in the format your CDE expects.
- Revit software
- Discipline authoring, families, shared parameters, schedules and sheets.
- Tekla Structures software
- Structural steel and concrete carried to detailing level.
- ArchiCAD software
- Authoring where the design team already works in it.
- Rhino software
- Geometry a parametric family cannot hold, brought back into the authoring model.
- SketchUp software
- Early massing carried forward rather than redrawn.
- Civil 3D software
- Site, grading and utilities tied to the building’s own origin and levels.
Who it is for
Who we build models for
MEP & mechanical
Trade contractors
Systems modelled to the level your shop will fabricate from, not the level a drawing needs.
Read more
Steel & structural
Fabricators
A structural model your detailers can take straight into connection design.
Read more
Start here
Send us a job and a template.
We will tell you what we would model, to what level, and what it takes to start.
Talk to a VDC lead