Engineering Inc. - Winter 2020 - 7

consultants and see clashes and conflicts between the different
trades immediately. Because of that, we have been able to reduce
change orders and schedule delays."
Rickey and other practitioners say another key piece of technological equipment for MEP firms is a 360-degree 3D scanner. "It
is especially effective in renovations when you're figuring out what
is in a space," he says. "The precision is tremendous. It is accurate
up to 1/16 of an inch."
It replaces the need for a tape measure, Turek says. "We can
set it up in a mechanical room and it creates a 3D point cloud of
everything in that room," she says. "We can see if such-and-such
boiler will fit in the room, what needs to be demoed, what can fit
through the door, and where we would make our connections."
TECHNOLOGY TOMORROW

Looking into the future, these practitioners see big potential
changes in the technological tools for MEP firms. In the near
term, they expect to see improved coordination across the design
and construction teams.
"The collaborative effort between design professionals and
contractors will get more and more efficient," Rickey says. "That
will further streamline the process and cut down on delays and
change orders."
Greenleaf agrees. "The interface between designers and contractors can still be rough," she says. "We can export files, but

they are not native, and they do not work as well. I'm confident
that it will not be too long before that is fixed."
Rickey also sees improvements in Revit and other BIM programs in building operations and maintenance. "More and more
owners want BIM models of the building and facility, so if there
is a problem with a piece of equipment in the building, they
know where it is and what it is," he says.
Turek sees increasing client demand for net-zero designs
propelling technological innovation. "Energy codes are pushing toward net-zero design, and to achieve that we face a lot of
moonshot technology challenges," she adds.
P2S's Batra also expects to see increasing levels of automation in
overall designs. "The overall design production will become more
automated and efficient using scripts in the future," he says.
Goodmonson says it's just the beginning for automation: "We
are going to get to the point where we can tell our artificial intelligence partner what we want, and it will propose a solution. We
are already there with duct sizing and locating diffusers."
Looking further out, Goodmonson sees even more innovation. "In the not-too-distant future, we will be designing in
a projected hologram, like Tony Stark in the Iron Man series,
grabbing components out of space," he says. ■
Gerry Donohue is ACEC's senior communications writer. He can be
reached at gdonohue@acec.org.

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