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In recent conversations with three model providers--two veterans and one newcomer--as well as a contractor who uses 3D models, discussion about qualified modelers surrounded one common denominator: that you have the talent or you don’t.
Sure the modeling software available today does some fancy stuff to make what many call “pretty pictures” (a term most modelers hate). But if those pretty pictures aren’t accurate, disaster strikes. Marco Cecala, president of Peoria, Arizona-based TOPS, gives an example: “The office calls and wants the job built to subgrade and the guy in the field thinks it’s the finish. He dials it down another foot and a half and says, ‘Geez, I’m running into a storm pipe; I wonder why?’”
It goes to show you that common sense in modeling is duly required, and that technology can’t replace it.
Many times common sense means that contractors need to call on qualified data modelers to build the files to guide their machine-controlled equipment. Those files depend on the expertise of the modeler--the guy who can “do the math.”
Who is the right guy for the job? “The qualification [for a data modeler] is how much you understand the 3D world in your mind. It’s a God-given talent,” says Marty Schmidt, owner of Anaheim-based Earthwork Calculation Services.
Cecala claims it needs to be “A dirt guy [who] learned computers. Like me. I can visualize what that retention has to look like when I’m looking at an empty field.”
Newcomer Brett Smith who opened shop on April 1 concurs. The co-owner of Higley, Arizona-based Dirt Pro LLC says he and his partner know dirt. “We know that when you go out to a site with the civil plans for the grading portion of a job, what’s on those plans is not how they’re going to stake the project,” he explains. “You have your overbuilds, your street subgrades, all these other details that unless you have the field experience, you’re not going to know what to incorporate into the model. That’s why our experience and our willingness to sit down with clients and figure out exactly what they want [is valuable]. A lot of times we will sit down with the foreman of a project just because he knows exactly how they’re going to go out and grade that job. And that’s how we build that model--exactly how they want it.”
That knowledge has been helping data prep firms to create--and fix--3D data models used across the country for years, supplying contractors with the tools they need to prep our land and infrastructure. But what if state regulations prohibited them from doing this work?
Recent information unearthed by our columnist Harry Ward, PE, has informed us that some states are solidifying legislation to require only licensed engineers and surveyors to build data models. If more states sign on the line in a similar way, competition for the niche market of data modeling could be dynamically altered or even quashed.
In common economic terms, stripping competition among the current pool of modelers for this necessary business could potentially drive the prices of models up. Filtered through the construction process from businessman to consumer, you can imagine the effects on a multimillion-dollar project.
Phoenix-based Construction 70 Inc. Vice President Tim Priester explains potential effects on a specific scale: “Free enterprise over the long run will get the best quality and the cheapest pricing--which we pass along to the owners. It’s a trickle-down effect: if we can deliver it cheaper, that all goes into the price of a home that the consumer buys.”
What’s more, without competition, contractors nationwide could potentially suffer from inaccurate, inefficient and error-riddled files to guide their machines. It will all depend on if the modeler knows how to calculate the job and do the math.
Who Will Do the Work?
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He adds, “The esoteric side of it is this: our guys have the ability to think in three dimensions and that’s a talent you can’t teach somebody.”
Priester opposes the general idea of engineers as modelers as well. “To add an engineer who’s not even trained to [make models], let alone they have to go through the training [for work that] would not be used all the time … it’s not a good deal,” he says.
Schmidt says that “most [engineers] don’t want to be part of data building because they don’t want the liability. Many engineers in southern California are not even doing their plans in 3D.”
In those states where regulations mandate the work be done by engineers and surveyors, many contractors are wondering about the shakeup it will cause to the overall construction process. Do they have the time to do this work in addition to their regular tasks?
Today, contractors and their clients are hit with enough challenges. Jobs are expected to be done faster; state, county and city legislation impede standard job processes; global and national market drivers (high economic growth in China and migrating residents, for example) add pressure; and retaining and recruiting talent all stand in the way of the contractor’s level of success. Can the market handle the effects of another regulation that could potentially impede the site preparation process of a construction job?
Just the challenge of getting and keeping workers is stressing out many contractors. The approaching retirement of about 72 million baby boomers in the next decade will cause many business owners to look to the next generation to fill the ranks. But there are only about 55 million Gen Xers. For that reason and others, many companies will look to technology to fill some gaps. Expecting unqualified professionals to utilize that technology to build 3D models will not be a resolution, and in many cases, will be a disaster.
The facts are that projects are getting bigger, specs are more specific, and fewer people are available or qualified to build a job. Many contractors think that throwing another wrench into the process will be counterproductive.
“I really don’t think anything will happen because there is no formal training or licensing for data prep,” Schmidt says. “Who are they going to hire? Everyone is coming to us to do it anyway.”
Plain and simple, successful modelers have one thing in common: they know how to build models and do the math. There aren’t a ton of these professionals out there; that’s why it’s a niche business. Most of these firms are growing rapidly with two to five new clients each month.
And as discussion continues in the industry about who should be required to build 3D data models, many contractors and data prep bureaus across the country are standing by the fact that a small pool of “dirt guys with 3D vision” can produce the proper product.
The essence, to many, is for engineers and contractors to understand the expertise and value of 3D modelers. “We want engineers to understand that we take their information for what it is,” Smith explains. “We like to look at it as a 2D set of information. We create a 3D model of information, re-creating what they provided us into a tool for our contractors to more efficiently grade a job. We’re not trying to re-engineer their work.”
Cecala adds, “One job doesn’t mean you know it all. Every job is different and these models are not anywhere near all alike. Evaluate each job and know when to call an expert.”
In the 3D data modeling business, it all comes down to the math. Whether that math will be done by the current batch of data prep bureaus, licensed engineers and surveyors, or contractors remains to be seen. Ultimately, the market will benefit from seeking long-term solutions instead of short-term. For the sake of the industry, my hope is that public service will be at the core of the decision.
hohnerl@bnpmedia.com
Lieca Hohner is Senior Editor of Site Prep magazine.
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