Finally finished a full set of matching shop plans in one day without a single revision

I had this one day last month where everything just clicked. Usually I'm going back and forth between AutoCAD and Revit, fixing someone else's mess ups, but on this particular Tuesday in Nashville I got handed a clean set of field measures for a 2,400 square foot addition and I just ran with it. No redlines, no angry emails from the architect asking where the header sizes came from. I even had time to double check my beam calculations against the span tables before lunch. By 4 PM I had the whole thing plotted and sent to the client for approval. My boss actually walked by and said "this looks right the first time" which is basically a trophy in this trade. Has anyone else had one of those rare days where the stars align and you don't have to eat your own words the next morning?

3 comments

3 Comments

faith_king1mo ago

Yeah that clean field measure is basically winning the lotto in our line of work.

emery_black1mo ago

Wait, @faith_king, do you think we'll ever see those kinds of clean fields become more common? I mean, a lot of the old rules made it nearly impossible to find a property that wasn't a total jungle of permits and surveys. But with the new zoning changes and faster review times in some counties, maybe the odds are getting a little better. Not saying it's gonna be a sure thing, but at least the lotto ticket doesn't feel quite as expensive now.

lee_reed1mo ago

I read somewhere that in Davidson County alone about 30% of field measures come back with major errors that stall the whole project. @emery_black mentioned the lotto comparison and that's spot on here because a clean measure saves you days of back and forth. Getting one of those plus a full set of plans through without a single revision is like hitting two jackpots in the same week.