General Contractor — Mixed-Use Development
Representative scenario based on typical Helonic usage patterns
847 across 340 sheets
$320K avoided rework
12 hours vs. 3 weeks manual
The Challenge
A mid-size general contractor was coordinating a 24-story mixed-use tower with ground-floor retail, six levels of parking, and 18 floors of residential above. The drawing set spanned 340 sheets across architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection disciplines — produced by four different design firms.
Their preconstruction team was spending three weeks per review cycle manually cross-referencing drawings, and coordination meetings kept surfacing the same types of conflicts: HVAC ducts routed through structural beams, electrical panels placed behind plumbing risers, and fire-rated wall assemblies that didn't match the architectural plans to the structural sections.
With the permitting deadline approaching and two more revision cycles expected, the team needed a way to compress review timelines without sacrificing thoroughness.
How They Used Helonic
The team uploaded all 340 sheets to Helonic and ran a full multi-discipline analysis. Helonic's AI engine processed the entire drawing set in under 12 hours, cross-referencing every sheet against every other discipline simultaneously — something that would have taken the team an estimated three weeks of manual effort.
The analysis flagged 847 issues across all disciplines, categorized by severity and type: 312 coordination conflicts between structural and MEP systems, 189 code compliance gaps related to fire-rated assemblies and egress widths, and 346 cross-referencing discrepancies between architectural details and structural sections.
The team used Helonic's Procore integration to push the most critical issues directly into their RFI workflow, tagging each issue to the responsible design firm with the relevant sheet references already attached.
Results
Of the 847 issues detected, the team confirmed 94% as legitimate coordination problems or code discrepancies that would have eventually surfaced as RFIs or field conflicts. The remaining 6% were flagged as low-confidence findings that the team quickly dismissed.
By catching these issues before the next submittal, the contractor estimated $320,000 in avoided rework — primarily from MEP routing conflicts that would have required field modifications to structural penetrations and fire-rated assemblies that would have failed inspection.
The compressed review cycle also allowed the team to issue a consolidated set of 127 RFIs to the design team in a single batch, rather than trickling them out over weeks. This accelerated the design response cycle and kept the permitting timeline on track.
“We used to spend three weeks passing redlines between disciplines. Helonic gave us a comprehensive cross-discipline report in half a day. The Procore integration alone saved our project engineers hours of manual RFI entry.”
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Helonic handle drawings from multiple design firms?
Helonic processes all sheets together regardless of which firm produced them. Helonic's AI cross-references every sheet against every other sheet in the set, so coordination issues between firms are automatically surfaced — which is often where the most critical conflicts hide.
Can Helonic replace manual drawing review entirely?
Helonic is designed to augment, not replace, experienced reviewers. It catches the coordination conflicts, code discrepancies, and cross-referencing errors that are tedious and error-prone to find manually — freeing your team to focus on design intent, constructability, and strategic decisions.
How accurate are the cost savings estimates?
Savings estimates are based on industry-standard rework cost data and the types of issues detected. Actual savings vary by project, but coordination conflicts caught before construction consistently cost 10-50x less to resolve than the same conflicts discovered in the field.
Does Helonic work with any drawing format?
Helonic accepts PDF drawing sets, which is the standard format for construction document distribution. Upload your full drawing set and the system handles sheet identification, discipline classification, and cross-referencing automatically.
Next Case Study
MEP Subcontractor — Healthcare Facility
See What Helonic Catches in Your Drawings
Upload your drawing set and get a comprehensive multi-discipline analysis — coordination conflicts, code compliance gaps, and cross-referencing errors, all in one report.
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