Comments on: The End of Blueprints

By: EHouser

EHouser — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 15:44:00 +0000

Great theory for the office, but don’t forget the field guys. Hauling a laptop around the job to check plans just isn’t going to happen in the near future!

By: Dan Trexler

Dan Trexler — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:34:00 +0000

I partially agree, and partially disagree. I do agree that digial applications are the way to go in the office setting regarding estimating, scheduling and the other general pre-construction applications. However, the disagreement part would be that I think a hard copy of the plans and speciaifications on the job site is a invaluable asset. Maybe I am from the old school (which is sad, for I am only 50), but I prefer when I am on the site, I like to have a copy copy of the plans. That way I can flip back and forth thru the sheets, make notes when needed, and have a visual aid to have me problem solve. The diadvanage with a digia set of plans is that I feel it is easier to miss things. In a digial set of drawings, one needs to be specific as to what they are looking for. Sometimes sections or details are mislabeled and one need to scan thru the plans to find the correct detail. anyway, my thoughts…

By: john

john — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 20:28:00 +0000

From a purely estimation point of view, I find the current method of E-docs very cumbersom to read properly. The industry needs to get a standard in place regarding hotlinks to sections, details & notes. Why can’t the drawings come with these already in place? Why do we have to set up all our own? It’s just as easy to set them up all at once when detailing the plans at the architects office. There is no need for the detail or section mark, just insert the hotlink and make it printable. Is that so hard? Same thing with notes, make them an interactive jump to the specific note. Also, a back & forth button to move thru the last 5 or 6 screens more easily would be immensley helpful. I don’t think Architects realize how much jumping around people do just to get the proper information in order to build an assembly. Until this is standardized within the design community, there will always be a need for printed plans, if only to have a copy of mini’s in front of the estimator so we can get information quickly and without zooming in and out, switching pages, etc. I can’t believe someone is not working on this already, this is 2011 after all, what are you waiting for…

By: Dennis

Dennis — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 19:19:00 +0000

Not to change the subject, I fully understand the issues facing our industry, but we actually grow trees to make paper and wood products, they are called managed timberlands. What effect do you think this will have on those industries? Paper is recycled mainly to save landfill space. So if it’s about selling software and technology, let’s put it out there like that and go from there. Let’s find something else to save the planet from, like narrow-minded ideologies.

By: Alan

Alan — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 18:12:00 +0000

Like so many “green” sounding articles, this ignores the facts that paper is a
biodegradable, renewable, sustainable product made from trees. It is also worth noting that cultivating and harvesting trees provides jobs for millions of men and women, and working forests are good for the environment, providing clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat and – if you buy into the man-made global warming story – carbon storage. The pulp trees used for paper are grown like a crop, and reforestation occurs as a natural part of that cycle. Should we be equally concerned at how many corn, beans or wheat plants are “killed” each year? The printing and publishing industry employs over 500,000 people in the US alone. I’m all for improving efficiency and reducing waste; when it makes sense the market does this naturally and beautifully all by itself, only when founded on weak pseudo-science does it need government meddling and support.

By: Kevin Rowe

Kevin Rowe — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 12:08:00 +0000

Great article. I have been in reprographics for 40 years. I was asked to write a white paper on our industry by Goldman Sachs. The article was entitled “The Greening of Plans and Specs” and was republished by the AIA. The reprographics industry is now about 1400 firms, and shrinking. Volumes are off 40%.

Our estimates of the trees killed is much higher. The average blueprint is 30×42 and our shop routinly did 3 million square feet of prints a month, and the specifications generated about half that amount each month.

One example: Local 20,000 seat arena-200,000 sq. ft. of space
Reprographics required to diseminate and distribute that information:
2,000,000 sq ft of paper or 10x the size of the space.

The industry is guilty of protecting printing and not moving to newer technologies to change with the times. Without this change we will find ourselves in the same boat as the newspapers and quick printers – as an industry we can do it but it is difficult to change a 100 year old culture

Cost to all of the disciplines in time, effort energy to keep track of all this information? – thousands of project hours – manage the project not the paper!

There are hundeds of in-house repro facilities some much larger that the print-for-pay. The advent of professional estimating tools, BIM, animations etc no longer allow for flat 1D imaging.

Our company http://www.iplantables.com is doing everything we can to keep the information in digital form. How about that information at the end of the project called close-out? TEvery bit of that information was digital at one time – keep it digital until there is a demand for print. Don’t print and hope somebody needs it.

Color marketing boards have know been found to have been mounted on a know carcinagen Styrene. Inkjet inks average $3000.00 a gallon, fuel to ship the prints. The manufacturing of paper is one of the biggest polluters of all time.

Large 3D/4D/5D workstations, SmartPhones and operating system enabled tablets are here, the information is already digital and the process is way more efficient – let’s get with it!

By: Markus Hogue

Markus Hogue — Mon, 09 May 2011 01:23:56 +0000

Paperless is direction for blueprints, not only to save on trees and the enviroment but to save on the bottem line.

I use bluebook and other paperless ways of viewing projects when I am working on sites, but what they lack is the flexiblity to change data on them. With a paper blueprint you can use a red pen and show changes but with pdf files, you must print them to show changes. Also try walking around a commercial site with a laptop and trying to view items on the screen. Not very handy and I hope Ipad or possible future electronics – eRoll – Rolltop, will make it simpler to go paperless.

Getting LEED credits for going paperless is a GREAT idea and makes sense. I hope to be apart of this and not only save money but the enviroment.

By: Edward Theus

Edward Theus — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 19:30:59 +0000

I realize this article is dated, but Houston, let’s here from you. Blue Beam & Blue Book guys your opinions would warrant some merit if you weren’t trying to push your products. The Reprographic industry is going through a major paradigm shift and digital technology is taking over and will be predominately used moving forward. Paper will not go away completely…just look around your desk right now. I think the “facts” stated in the initial article were way off base a would love to know where Houston retrieved his information.

By: Bud Nordman

Bud Nordman — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 23:50:18 +0000

Watch this video about tablet PCs and iPads being used on the job instead of paper. There are ‘Ruggedized’ tablet PCs that are used in the military by tank operators and infantry soldiers. So the worry about fragile computers on a jobsite is not an issue. Handle a wet, creased, muddy, faded, folded paper plan and then we’ll talk fragile. A paper plan on a jobsite is like trying to read a paper road map in a convertible at 75 MPH.

http://www.bluebeam.com/web07/us/insider/articles/11-15-10.asp

By: Terry Finberg

Terry Finberg — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 01:13:54 +0000

Digital is cool.However, in the field, I am not sure how effective digital will be. I doubt you will ever get away from blue prints 100%. Iron workers, carpenters etc etc are not going to treat tables, ipads or whatever as gently as the manufactures of said products designed them.