A picture’s worth a thousand words… if you can find it

Photographs are becoming more essential to project communication and documentation. Just this week, I sat in a local airport integration project meeting in which the owner outlined their expectation for construction documentation. One of the first requirements was to provide photographs throughout the building process, linked directly to relevant construction documentation.
Oct. 18, 2013

Photographs are becoming more essential to project communication and documentation. Just this week, I sat in a local airport integration project meeting in which the owner outlined their expectation for construction documentation. One of the first requirements was to provide photographs throughout the building process, linked directly to relevant construction documentation.

They didn’t designate a specific process for linking photos; they simply outlined their expectations for the end result: drawing and construction documentation must contain linked photos accessible from the documentation itself.

Most of us carry around smartphones with cameras, so it’s easier than ever to take photos and email them, text them, or upload them to the cloud. As a method of digital communication, nothing really beats a photo to articulate an issue, document progress, or explain a potential solution. But I wonder, how many of you have put processes in place to store, catalog and arrange photos in such a way that they can be easily recalled and linked to electronic documentation directly?

In other words, would you be able to fulfill the owner’s requirement above with your given processes today? If not, what is holding you back?

About the Author

Sasha Reed

As Vice President of Strategic Development at Bluebeam, Inc., Sasha Reed collaborates with leaders in the architecture, engineering and construction industry to guide Bluebeam’s technology, partnerships and long-term goals. She joined Bluebeam in 2007 and co-created the Concierge Approach, a distinctly branded process of customer engagement, product feedback and solution delivery to which much of Bluebeam’s success is attributed, and which today is replicated at every organizational level.

Sasha is known industry-wide as a “conversation facilitator,” creating platforms for exchanges necessary to digitally advance the industry, including the BD+C Magazine Digital COM Blog, which she authors and manages. She’s been a featured presenter at numerous national and international conferences, including the 2014 Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA), Federal Project Delivery Symposium and NTI Danish BIM Conference. Sasha also co-chairs the Construction PDF Coalition, a grassroots effort to provide a common industry framework from which to create and maintain construction PDF documents, serves on the City College of San Francisco BIM Industry Council, and is Advisor to the Board of Direction for the National Institute of Building Sciences BuildingSMART Alliance.

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