3D digital twin
The model VANTAGE reconstructs from the drawings, what it covers today, and exactly how far you should trust each part of it.
VANTAGE reconstructs a 3D model of the project from its PDF drawings and links every element in it back to the project record. Click a pipe and you get its properties, what it connects to, and its submittals, RFIs, spec sections, and schedule activities.
It is a reconstruction from drawings, not a survey and not an imported BIM model. This page is mostly about where the line falls between the two, because knowing that is what makes the model usable.
The model lives on the VANTAGE page and needs the VANTAGE add-on on the project.
What is modeled today
The build order is fixed: each layer is the framework the next one attaches to, so disciplines are reconstructed in this sequence no matter what order the drawings were uploaded.
| Step | Built from drawings today |
|---|---|
| Site / Civil | Yes |
| Foundations & Structural Grid | Yes, as a labeled preview |
| Structural Frame | No |
| Architectural Envelope | No |
| Interior Architecture | No |
| MEP (mechanical, plumbing, electrical, fire) | No |
| Finishes & Specialties | No |
Two of the seven have builders. The other five are declared so the order is fixed, and they produce no geometry. A build that reaches one of them records that there is no builder and moves on. It does not silently skip, and it does not invent anything to fill the gap.
Choosing a view
The view selector at the top of the workstation offers:
- Civil Drainage. The storm and sanitary network: structures and pipe runs, with real diameters, materials, lengths, slopes, and endpoints, plus the terrain surface.
- Structural Grid. The column grid and footings.
- All Disciplines. Both of the above in one scene, so the foundations sit on the terrain rather than on a separate flat plane. Each discipline keeps its own model; the view loads whichever ones exist and shows those.
Steel, Architectural, and MEP appear in the same bar with a lock and cannot be selected.
How much to trust what you see
A model family is either surveyed or approximate, and the workstation says which. When a view contains approximate data it carries a Preview · approximate badge and a note explaining the caveat. If any one discipline in All Disciplines is approximate, the whole combined view is labeled approximate. An approximate model is never presented as surveyed.
The structural grid is a preview, from vision only
The structural family is extracted visually from the foundation plan, and its two halves are not equally good:
- Grid axes are high confidence. The named lettered and numbered lines, their bay dimensions, and the grid's rotation are read from the sheet's own annotation and confirmed against it.
- Column placement is approximate. Columns that follow dimensioned offsets from perimeter walls rather than sitting on clean grid nodes are placed at the nearest node and flagged low or medium confidence. They are a labeled preview.
Individual elements carry their own placement provenance. An element the builder could not anchor with confidence is still placed, flagged, and tagged Pending RFI in the viewport with the RFI that was raised to resolve it. Clicking the tag selects the element.
Do not scale a dimension off an approximate element, and do not use one to set out work.
Terrain elevations come only from what is printed
The ground surface is reconstructed from the survey and grading sheets, under one rule: no elevation is invented.
- Z values come only from printed contour labels and spot elevations on the sheet.
- A contour gets an elevation only when its chain ties to a printed label, either directly or by filling a known interval between two labeled chains.
- A chain that cannot be tied reliably is reported as UNASSIGNED. It is not guessed at, and it is not smoothed into its neighbors.
- Regions the reader could not read confidently are reported as gaps for a later pass, not filled in.
- After the surface is built it is re-sampled at every label position and the error against the printed value is reported. Anomalies are surfaced, not smoothed away.
Where the model has fewer printed elevations to work from, it says so rather than producing a smooth surface that looks more certain than the drawing was.
The model is not georeferenced
The terrain lives in its own self-consistent frame in real feet. It is not tied to absolute state-plane coordinates, because the survey control on these sheets is tabulated rather than plotted, so there is no drawn tie point to register against. Rather than fabricate a transform, the builder emits the control set that a later registration would need and leaves the frame relative.
Distances and elevation differences within the model are meaningful. An absolute northing and easting is not something the model can give you. Do not use it to stake anything.
Data gaps are shown, not hidden
Where the extractor had to work around a gap in the source drawing, it records it and the viewport shows a Data gaps panel with the count and the details, for example a structure whose invert had to be derived from its rim rather than read from a surveyed value. Read the gap list before you rely on a number near it.
Inspecting an element
Click any element in the scene to open the Inspector, which resolves that element against the project record:
- Properties from the element's own record.
- Connections to other elements, with the relationship named.
- Submittals, RFIs, and Spec sections linked to it.
- Schedule activities that reference it.
Each section says plainly when there is nothing linked, for example "No linked submittals", rather than showing an empty panel.
Layers
The layer panel over the viewport toggles and recolors what is drawn. Which layers appear depends on what the model actually contains, so the panel never shows a control that toggles nothing.
| Layer | What it is |
|---|---|
| Existing terrain | The pre-construction ground surface |
| Proposed terrain (new) | The graded surface after earthwork |
| Structures | Civil structures such as manholes and inlets |
| Pipes | Pipe runs |
| Control points | Survey control |
| Column grid | The named gridlines painted on the ground |
| Column footings | Footings at grid intersections |
| Wall footings | Foundation and wall footings |
In All Disciplines the layers are grouped under Civil and Structural, and a whole group can be collapsed and toggled at once.
Coordination
The Coordination tab lists geometric conflicts between elements, with the overlap depth and a camera fly-to. Clashes are computed from geometry, not inferred.
When a model has no conflicts, the tab says Continuity verified, 0 conflicts rather than showing an empty list. That is a real result: the network was checked and nothing conflicted.
Findings that carry a position also pin themselves to the element they affect in the 3D scene. Clicking a pin selects the finding and flies the camera to it. The same findings are in the Findings queue, where they are triaged.
Building and republishing a model
Starting a build needs project owner or admin rights plus the VANTAGE add-on on the project. The build menu offers Site / Civil and Structural, or Build all; the trades with no builder are shown but cannot be started.
A finished build does not replace the live model on its own. It stages, and the workstation shows a banner:
- Preview loads the staged build so you can compare it against the current one.
- If the build raised RFIs to resolve placement ambiguities, the publish is blocked until every one has been reviewed. The banner replaces the publish button with Review N RFIs.
- Approve & publish makes the staged build the live model.
Until you publish, the live model is unchanged.
If the page says there is no model
"No 3D model generated for this project yet" means VANTAGE has not reconstructed a model for this project. The viewer only shows models that have been built and published; it does not fall back to a placeholder or a sample.
Troubleshooting
A discipline tab is locked. Steel, Architectural, and MEP have no builder. No amount of uploaded drawing makes them selectable.
A discipline I have drawings for produced nothing. Check that the drawings are filed under the discipline the build step reads. Site and civil work is read from civil and landscape drawings; the structural grid is read from structural drawings. A document that has not been processed contributes nothing. See Processing.
The model looks approximate and I need survey accuracy. The Preview · approximate badge is accurate and there is no setting that improves it. Use the model to find and understand conflicts, and use the drawings and a real survey to set out work.
A structural element is in the wrong place. Check whether it is tagged Pending RFI or flagged as an approximate placement. The builder places ambiguous elements at their nearest grid node and raises an RFI rather than leaving them out. Resolve the RFI and rebuild.
An elevation is missing on part of the site. The reader found no printed label it could tie that chain to, so it reported the chain as unassigned rather than guessing. Check the Data gaps panel, and check whether the source sheet prints an elevation there at all.