Insights
Technical notes from the thread.
Practical writing on capture, modelling, design, planning and delivery: how we work and why.
- 8 October 2026
How many places does one drawing live in your office?
The email it arrived in, the server, someone's Downloads folder, the site WhatsApp group. Every copy is right on the day it lands. The trouble starts when one of them changes.
- 7 October 2026
A scan is cheaper when it's shared.
We're taking the scanner to a different area each month. £1,499 per scan instead of £2,250, guaranteed once booked. Here is how it works and where we're going.
- 6 October 2026
Scan week: Dublin, 19 to 23 October.
We're bringing the scanner and the team to Dublin for a week and pooling sites together, so a scan costs €1,499 instead of €2,250. Bookings close Friday 16 October.
- 1 October 2026
The robots are coming. They're just stuck on Revision C.
Meet GAIL, the superintelligence that was due to take over the world on Monday. Then it met a drawing office.
- 24 September 2026
We built the tool we wished we had. Now we're letting a few firms in.
Redpen was built by people who have run a drawing office, and proven on real jobs. Now we're opening it to a few steel detailing and fabrication firms at a time.
- 19 September 2026
From Tekla model to workshop: the files that actually drive fabrication
A steel model is only useful when it leaves the screen. Here are the outputs a fabricator runs the workshop on (NC files, plate profiles, drawings and lists) and why they all have to move together.
- 15 September 2026
Execution classes explained: what EXC2 asks of your steelwork
Every steel package carries an execution class, whether anyone writes it down or not. Here's what EXC1 to EXC4 control, why EXC2 is the usual answer for buildings, and what the class changes on the drawings.
- 12 June 2026
Who designs the steel connections? Delegated design, explained
On most steel frames the engineer designs the members and someone else designs the joints. Here's how delegated connection design works, where responsibility sits, and why fabricators bring it in-house with their detailer.
- 12 June 2026
Point cloud to Tekla: modelling existing steel where it really is
Most scan-to-BIM goes to Revit. When the job is structural steel (extensions, connections to existing frames, plant in live buildings), modelling directly in Tekla from the point cloud changes what the model can do.
- 12 June 2026
What ±2mm actually means in a scan-to-BIM model
Every scan-to-BIM provider quotes an accuracy figure. Here's what the number really describes, where the tolerance budget goes, and the questions worth asking before you commission a survey.