Electrical contractors are usually the last trade in the design phase of the project, and then they compete with mechanical and plumbing systems for space on busy roads. Endless change orders and delayed coordination meetings can also further threaten installation timelines for electrical systems.
With all of this in mind, electrical contractor C&R Electric decided to try something different for an upgrade to Mt. Hope in Lansing, Michigan. The project design “had a Revit model and was pretty simple to begin with, being K-12. It had a lot of piping and a simple hallway system,” says Kyle Sponseller, Mich., president of C&R Electric. test an artificial intelligence system.”
The company used the AI engine in Augmenta software that can automate the detailed design and routing of electrical systems, generating designs from input such as square footage and volumetric dimensions. The tool can generate designs in minutes instead of days, with relatively few fixes needed.
Sponseller says the company was able to shave 100 hours off the design process, the equivalent of a full month’s worth of “prefabrication drawing preparation time” for the Mt. Hope. Augmenta’s AI was also able to help C&R and Lansing contractor The Christman Co. to use fewer ducts and fewer fittings based on more detailed drawings with exact quantities.
“We are always looking for innovative methods to provide high-quality, efficient buildings for the communities we serve, and with the help of Augmenta, this school [project]is a shining example of that commitment,” says Andrew Dobbs, the contractor’s project manager.
Augmenta CEO Francesco Iorio worked with the team to get the most out of his company’s AI engine, including how to make the right queries and make the most of prefabrication opportunities.
“It was a 50% faster design and a 15% savings in materials, too,” says Iorio. “Not only did these people not have to pay for this material, but they also didn’t have to take it to the site, bend it, cut it, and then throw half of it away after that process.”
AI took the project’s Revit model to create usable drawings for the electrical subcontractor.
Render courtesy of C&R Electric
C&R has more experience with Augmenta now. Its second project with the AI tool, Willow Elementary, also in the Lansing school district, had even better results. The company benefited from an additional 50% reduction in design time and reduced approximately 400 hours of manual drafting to just 80 hours of work. It also reduced material waste by 25%, a considerable improvement over the Mt. Hope, all to refine and improve the use of Augmenta’s generative AI design tool.
According to Sponseller, time savings like this can help electrical trades who can often join a project after mechanical and plumbing trades have taken up most of the design space needed for electrical conduit. “Many times you start in a meeting about a BIM model and the mechanics [firm] Say it’s 90% done, but you just got the model yesterday,” says Sponseller. “Same thing with plumbing, so now’s my chance to get a model, dump it all into Augment and say ‘yeah, I’m 90% done too,'” he explains.
The prefab support alone made Augmenta worthwhile, Sponseller adds. “[Mt. Hope] It was fun, because it was a good architect model, and we used Augmenta and we used Allied BIM to run their results through our precast machines,” he says. “We actually took the Augmenta product, cleaned it up, and then pushed it. [computer-controlled] equipment in our shop and we actually built it and shipped it to the site.”
