Recently we have been reviewing the way things work in our office, to try to do what every business want, that is to increase productivity without having to work more hours. It was with this in mind that we reviewed a project that was done about 8 years ago. An engineer and his technical assistant sat down, armed with heat load calculations, airflow volumes and unit selections, and drew out the design for a large commercial venture. We now look at these marked up drawings, and clearly marked are the duct routes, the air flow amounts, the duct sizes, as well as structural elements such as columns and penetrations which would affect our services. This was all neatly laid out in a fashion that could be drawn up by any draughtsman. This was a systematic approach, requiring some time, and some effort to produce a drawing which could then be interpolated into a working CAD drawing.
Conversely what we have found in recent years is we have been trying to use our technology, which can be very useful. However, for the most case, we do this bit by bit, never bothering to collate the full calculations, and thus a marked up drawing is impossible. We tend to feel this saves time, and in the short term, that may be the case. Sitting down, making sure we have all of the information, may be time consuming at the start of the project, however this simplifies the process further down the line significantly. When starting a project, we should collate all of the data and compile a drawing that clearly shows the design, such that further down the track, we can clearly see where our design originated from, rather than having multiple sketches and revisions, so no one know where it all started. In this technological age, where we try to minimise our paper useage. we must still remember the effectiveness of having a blueprint for our design in hardcopy.
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