"The NLCS makes my work neater, clearer and more fun" Wesley Kleinveld (DAGnl) on the Dutch CAD Standard

Wesley Kleinveld can no longer imagine a career without NLCS. The project leader of engineering firm Civil Management (Huissen) was one of the 'early adopters' of the Dutch CAD Standard. By far the biggest advantage: the interchangeability of drawings.

Kleinveld has been working at Civil Management since 2012, a firm for integral project management where - according to its own website - "professionals" work with heart for the business and passion for the profession. Civil Management is also one of the entities of DAGnl, a group consisting of several consulting firms, each with its own specialty in civil engineering (see box). The project manager explains: "DAGnl is a collaboration between several market players. Thanks to our large constituency, we can take on projects of any size. After all, through our partners we have all the knowledge, expertise and capacity in house, but we retain our short lines of communication. An additional advantage of this construction is that through DAGnl we can jointly purchase services, such as IT solutions. Each company thus retains its identity, but we all work in the same way."

Wesley Kleinveld

Interchangeability

Kleinveld has been delivering drafting work in accordance with the NLCS for years. "Interchangeability is by far the most important advantage of the NLCS," he states. "It is a clear drawing standard that everyone understands at a glance. That makes our work a lot easier. In addition, it prevents a lot of time and thus costs."

For example, he used to easily spend half a day working on a third-party drawing before he had turned it into something usable for application in his own work. "Nothing is more annoying than a drawing that is not on coordinates and has no layer structure. In short: which has not been made according to a fixed drawing standard. If you get the same drawing delivered in NLCS format, it's solved in fifteen minutes. So working in accordance with the NLCS saves us considerable time. Take the project for the municipality of Haaksbergen, in which we designed the traffic access on the new N18. Everything conformed to the NLCS. As a result, there were hardly any differences in interpretation and the implementation went very smoothly."

Uniform appearance

Even internally, within DAGnl, the interchangeability of drawings is one of the biggest advantages of the NLCS. Moreover, thanks to the NLCS, the external appearance is always the same and recognizable. Although this uniformity is even better since DAGnl works with InfraCAD, a tool for drawing in accordance with the NLCS. Kleinveld: "A few years ago we started looking for a suitable tool to work with the NLCS. We had developed our own tool in the past, but we spent a lot of time and energy keeping it up to date. After all, the NLCS keeps evolving, just like AutoCAD. And, of course, we'd rather be doing our job than developing and keeping up with software."

In the end, they chose InfraCAD. "A very user-friendly, intuitive tool clearly developed from the user's needs. After just a few personal settings you can get started.
Using symbols, creating layers, setting up a clear, proprietary library: it all comes naturally. By now, our drawings can be recognized at a glance as DAGnl designs, regardless of which location or which draftsman created them. That's the uniform look we had in mind."

Traffic access new N18 commissioned by Municipality of Haaksbergen - Projection of NLCS design over realized work

NLCS and BIM

In practice, Kleinveld experiences daily benefits from the uniform language they speak at DAGnl. "Take the construction of Park 15, a 120-hectare sustainable business park on the A15, centrally located between the ports of Rotterdam and the German Ruhr. That project has been underway since 2015. But because we delivered all the drawing work in NLCS format at the time, those designs are still easily transferable, for example to a civil contractor who needs the drawings to develop a plot."

The fact that the NLCS is a BIM level 1 standard also plays a positive role. "Although BIM remains a broad concept," says the project manager. "Basically, every piece of information you add to a drawing object is already a form of BIM. We design most 3D models in accordance with the NLCS: we update our 2D drawings to
3D models, preserving the layer structure. Useful, for example, when creating machine models for partners in the
contracting."

Neater and clearer

All in all, Kleinveld sees a future in the NLCS, even if not all parties in the GWW sector use the Dutch CAD standard yet. "But there are more and more of them. After all, governments have made the NLCS mandatory when submitting drawing work. A good thing; if it were up to me, everyone would soon start working according to this standard. There are still clients who draw in their own standards, often because their entire system is set up around that standard. I understand that they can't just throw those overboard, but on the other hand: if we all speak the same language, the work becomes a lot clearer for everyone. An additional advantage is that you reduce the chance of errors, because the interpretation of drawings raises far fewer questions. And that in turn has a positive effect on the cost estimates you make and contracts you draw up. Thanks to the NLCS, your work becomes a lot neater, clearer and more fun."