“Often for masonry, the user has to do a lot of hand-drawing to get to spec-ready details, and ultimately, to get to final construction [phase],” says Cuneio. This translates to hours of work and added costs, and can still result in inaccuracies, especially when successive rounds of changes come into play. Unfortunately, such inaccuracies are often not realized until the construction phase, resulting in change orders and costly delays in a project.
Masonry iQ focuses on getting the design construction-ready earlier in the process, allowing architects to focus on creative design, and not the challenge and tedium of modeling. Users are able to translate their flat models into fully analyzed masonry structures and not just “wallpaper.”
In addition to minimizing detailing time, the plug-in handles complex engineering considerations, such as the placement of movement joints, rebar, corners, and field cuts, and allows these elements to be adjusted as needed. The masonry design tool handles these complex analyses in the cloud, helping to ensure the model does not include unnecessary data.
The time savings from using the plug-in for the Triangle Aquatic Center were significant, according to Sutton.
“When we specified masonry products for the first phase, we did it the long way, by photoshopping block images onto a 2D drawing to produce the final rendering,” he says. Using another modeling tool, the team had to “hand-draw the different block sizes because of the shape differences.”
They also spent even more time thinking about the design and placement of the cuts, penetrations, movement joints, and other similar details that would need to be included. Overall, the project included more than 7100 units of split-face and smooth-face masonry blocks in three colors and two textures. Sutton says the company that provided the masonry products for the second phase is now offering free licenses for the Masonry IQ software because it makes designing and estimating easier.
“Using Masonry iQ during the second phase had a definite impact,” says Sutton. “We were also able to use the plug-in to produce photo-realistic 3D renderings with accurate color and texture, thanks to the company already having uploaded their materials to the database.”
Photo-realistic visuals
One challenge for the aquatic center’s expansion was colors on the elevations of the two additions had significantly different wall patterns compared to the existing building.
“Typically, we would take CAD elevations and try to bring it into Photoshop, but with the plug-in, all of the locally produced products were available right in the program,” explained Sutton. “We could select the colors and textures and lay out a pattern very easily, then render it out in photo-realistic detail.”
