Electrical

See where your cables run, layer by layer, before you drill a hole.

A cable tray that would have to run straight through a beam is better spotted beforehand than afterwards. Field-Viewer places your electrical plan next to the timber frame, showing only the layer you need. Slide the finishes away, and the position and height of every back box are right there on screen.

The Field-Viewer screen in split view, with wall W-07 from Maes Renovation. At the bottom the layers panel: timber frame and wiring are on, plumbing and finishes are off. On the left the 3D model of the timber frame wall of 2 400 by 2 700 millimetres, with studs at 600 centres; the electrical conduit comes up through the bottom plate from the floor into the second stud bay, past a back box at 300 millimetres, and runs through the stud to a switch at 1 100 millimetres in the third bay. On the right the same in 2D elevation: the same conduit and the same two boxes, with the dimension 600 centres above the wall and the heights 300 and 1 100 from the floor beside it. At the top the version chip V7, at the bottom the buttons select, measure, layers (active) and report.MAES RENOVATION · WALL W-07V73D MODEL2D DRAWING3001 100600TIMBER FRAMEWIRINGPLUMBINGFINISHESSELECTMEASURELAYERSREPORT

Your cable beside the stud, not through it

A paper electrical plan shows a symbol for a switch and a line for the cable, but not how that line relates to the stud standing right at that spot. In Field-Viewer you see both at once: the cable, the back box and the timber frame structure beneath it, in the same 3D view.

Turn off the finishes layer, and only electrical and structure are left. No full BIM-coordinated model with cable trays from three other trades running through it, just your circuit and the studs it has to pass.

Heights per box, read off straight away

Not every box sits at the same height, and that height simply sits with the model, not in a separate schedule you still have to track down.

Switches

On most sites that works out at around 1050 mm above the finished floor level, but with a suspended ceiling or a sloped wall you just read the exact height off the model, instead of calculating from an assumption.

Sockets

Standard is around 300 mm, except in the kitchen where they often sit just above the worktop. Field-Viewer shows the height for each box on its own, so you are never unsure whether this one is the exception.

Consumer unit and connection points

The bottom of the unit, the sleeve to the meter cupboard, the junction box for a services room: they are all there, with the position accurate down to the stud.

The stud that is in your cable's way

A cable that runs neatly past a stud on the drawing sometimes still has to go straight through it on site, for instance because the stud position was shifted slightly after a late change to the wall layout. You do not see that on paper, but you do in the model.

Turn the model a quarter turn and the clash jumps out: the cable meets the stud at exactly the height where you were about to drill through it. You move the box or the cable before you pick up the hammer drill, not after, with a hole in a stud that should never have been there.

A shifted cable tray, visible straight away

During BIM coordination a cable tray sometimes shifts forty millimetres to avoid a ventilation duct. Without your own Revit or Navisworks licence, you often only meet that change on site itself.

Field-Viewer pulls in the current coordinated model and shows it exactly as the draughtsman intended, forty-millimetre shift included. You work with today's version, not last week's printout.

The Field-Viewer screen with a cross-section through the services zone below the floor slab: from two threaded rods hangs a trapeze with at the top a ventilation duct of 400 by 200 millimetres and below it a cable tray of 300 by 35, a U in section with an open top. The old position V6 sits dotted against the duct, the new V7 sits 40 millimetres below it, with the dimension line 40 between the two undersides and a tapped point on the new tray.MAES RENOVATION · CORRIDOR 0.12V7ELECTRICALDUCT 400 × 200V6V740CABLE TRAY 300 × 3540 BELOW V6SELECTLAYERSREPORT

Frequently asked questions about electrical

Do I see only my own electrical plan, or the cable trays of other trades too?

That is your choice. Switch on only the electrical layer and the structure layer, and the rest of the coordinated model stays hidden. Want to check in on plumbing or HVAC as well, just switch that layer on for a moment too.

Do I need a Revit or Navisworks licence for this?

No. Field-Viewer opens the coordinated model directly, even if you have no BIM software of your own. You see the current version, without a separate licence on site.

What if the position of a cable tray still changes after the coordination meeting?

As soon as the new version is published, it is on screen. You do not keep working from last week's schedule while the cable has since shifted forty millimetres.

See it on your own project

Request a demo with your own project, no obligation. We will look together at whether Field-Viewer suits your team in Flanders, in your workshop or on your site.

Not ready for a demo yet? Leave your email address and you will hear from us when there is news about Field-Viewer. Not a newsletter, a few emails a year at most.