What to Prepare Before a First Consultation

Most first meetings about BIM software go sideways for the same reason: the engineering team brings a list of features they want, and the vendor brings a slide deck about what their platform can do. Nobody talks about the actual building until the second or third call. That wastes everyone's time, especially when the project is a large industrial structure with tight deadlines.

Before you book a consultation with us, take an hour to pull together a few specific things. You do not need a polished brief or a complete model. You need enough context that we can talk about your real constraints instead of generic capabilities.

Start with the structural grid

The single most useful document is a drawing of your structural grid, even a rough one. Column spacing, floor-to-floor heights, and the location of major transfer beams tell us more about your project than any written requirements. If you have a preliminary Revit or Tekla model, export a wireframe view and bring that. If you only have PDFs from the architect, that is fine too. We will ask about load paths and connection details regardless, so anything that shows the framing approach helps.

Know your deliverable format

Think about what your client or the approving authority actually needs at each stage. Are you producing documentation for a building permit, or are you validating steel connections for fabrication? The rendering level, the level of development, and the file format all change depending on the answer. Write down the deliverable formats you are expected to hand over: IFC, DWG, native Revit, or a visualisation package. If you are unsure, say so. That is a normal starting point.

List the problem areas, not the features

Instead of saying "we need clash detection," describe the situation. For example: "We have a pipe rack crossing a concrete frame at level two and the structural engineer keeps finding conflicts after we issue drawings." That kind of statement lets us point to a workflow, not a checkbox. The same applies to rendering. If your client rejected the last visualisation because the steel looked flat, tell us that. It changes how we set up materials and lighting in the test scene.

Bring one person who can make decisions

A consultation works best when the person who can approve a pilot project is in the room. If the BIM manager attends but the engineering director is travelling, we can still have a useful conversation, but we will likely need a second session. That is fine. Just be aware that the first meeting is about scoping, not about closing a deal. We want to understand your workflow well enough to propose a small trial that fits your actual project calendar.

If you are unsure whether your current model data is clean enough for a pilot, bring a sample file anyway. We can assess it during the call and tell you honestly what needs cleaning. That alone often saves a week of internal back-and-forth.

Ready to talk specifics? Contact our team and we will schedule a session around your project's structural grid and deliverable schedule.