Case study / Plants & infrastructure
A 1950 pump house, rebuilt from one drawing
We rebuilt an industrial pump house 1:1 from its 1950 architectural sheet. A separate check that never saw the drawing measured the 3D model and drew the sheet back. Every printed dimension matched.
- 84/84
- printed dimensions restated exactly
- 0.00 in
- largest dimensional error
- 1:1
- scale, from a single sheet
- 1.2 m
- design change, drawings updated with it
The task
The only source was one architectural sheet from 1950: plan, sections and printed dimensions for a pump house with its pumps, pipework and vestibule.
What we did
We built the structure, equipment and pipework to the sheet. Then a fresh session with no access to the drawing measured the model and produced the sheet again, so the drawing could be checked against the 3D model rather than by eye.
Outcome
All 84 printed dimensions came back exact. When asked to move the vestibule 1.2 m north, the model and the drawings were updated together.
Drawing: Historic American Engineering Record, Library of Congress (public domain).