Steps to Calibrate 2D to 3D Models

Overview

This article covers how to calibrate 2D plans with a 3D model in Fieldwire, enabling users to accurately align contract documents with BIM data. Calibrating 2D and 3D views helps BIM users easily navigate between plan and model, ensuring teams can reference the right information in the right context, without needing other advanced tools.

Table of Contents

• How to Calibrate
• Add Plans to Elevation
  • Align the Plans to the Model
  • Using Model Visibility Controls During Calibration
  • Navigating between 2D and 3D Models
• Troubleshooting

How to Calibrate

To calibrate 2D to 3D models, you need the following requirements: 

• You must be an Admin on the project
• You have up to 10 3D models in your project. 
  Note: If you uploaded 11 or more models to the 3D module, calibration is disabled. You will see a note when hovering over the greyed out button "Manage plan calibrations".

In addition, you must follow these steps:

1. Go to the 3D models tab where you'll automatically be loaded into the federated view
   • Note: In order to calibrate, you must first wait for all of your models to load in.
2. Click the Manage plan calibration button
3. Click the + New elevation button
4. Enter an Elevation name
   • As an example, think about what you would see on elevator buttons - ‘Ground level’, ‘Lobby’, ‘First floor’, etc.
5. Enter an Elevation value
   • This is something you would find in your model or on your floorplans.
   • It refers to the height above the ground.
   • Note: Currently, these values can only be in meters
6. Click Create elevation 

The elevation will then be saved in the Manage plan calibration view.

Add Plans to Elevation

To add a plan, do the following:

1. Click the hyperlinked Add a plan text
2. Choose the plan sheet(s) to calibrate
3. Click the Calibrate [x] plan(s) button

Align the Plans to the Model

Once the plan has been calibrated, follow the steps on-screen:

1. Select the top left corner of the drawing
2. Move the drawing to the same point as the model
3. Select the bottom right corner of the drawing
4. Resize and rotate to align the drawing with the model
5. Click Save calibration

Steps 1-2:

Steps 3-4:

During the calibration process, you can quickly start fresh with calibration or instantly re-center on your plan/model for faster, smoother navigation. To do so, simply click on the Reset calibration button, which is the most bottom button on the left-hand side.

Using Model Visibility Controls During Calibration

To give you more flexibility when aligning 2D plans to 3D models, the calibration view includes model visibility controls and enhanced snapping behavior. These tools help you calibrate with greater accuracy when the building’s exterior edges are not the best reference points.

Show/Hide Model Elements While Calibrating

In some situations, structural elements, such as columns or core walls, provide more reliable calibration points than the building façade. Because these elements can be obscured within finished floors, you can now selectively hide portions of the model directly within the calibration view.

To use the visibility controls:

1. Open the Manage plan calibration view 
2. Select the plan you are calibrating.
3. Click the eyeball icon on the left-hand toolbar.
4. The Object Tree will appear, displaying the same hierarchy you would normally see in the Story view.
   • You will not see the option to switch to Class view.
   • If none of your models contain story metadata, the models will still appear in the Object Tree but cannot be expanded.
5. Toggle visibility on or off for models or story groups as needed.
   • For example, you may choose to hide the floor slab to reveal structural columns for more precise alignment.

This added control allows you to expose the most stable reference geometry before selecting your calibration points.

Snapping to Model Edges During Calibration

When placing or adjusting the plan, the calibration tool now operates similarly to Fieldwire’s measurement tool and will snap to edges on the 3D model. This includes snapping while:

• Moving the plan into position
• Resizing the calibration bounding box
• Rotating the plan for alignment

Snapping provides more precise placement and reduces calibration time, especially when targeting smaller or partially obscured structural elements.

Navigating between 2D and 3D Models

Once you've calibrated and connected your plan sheets with your 3D models, you'll be able to easily go between the two. To do so:

1. Right click on the plan sheet
2. Click View in 3D

OR

1. Select the cube icon shown in the screenshot below
   • Note: If you don't see this icon, then you have not calibrated and connected that plan sheet with your 3D models
2. Click the area on the plan sheet that you want to view in 3D

From there, you'll be redirected to the 3D model.

Once you are finished viewing the 3D model, navigate back to the plan by clicking the back arrow with the name of the plan sheet.

Additionally, you will be able to easily tell which plan sheets are connected with a 3D model from the main Plans tab thumbnail view as they will have a cube icon directly on the plan thumbnail. This reduces guesswork and streamlines workflows.

Within an individual task, you can also navigate to a 3D model! The pinned task must be associated with a calibrated plan. To get to the 3D model, you must

1. Click on the individual pinned task
2. Select the cube button on the plan sheet (see screenshot), which will redirect you to the same location in the 3D view.

Troubleshooting

Models can be set up in infinitely different ways on design authoring softwares, such as Revit and Tekla. Most models set their coordinate base at (0,0,0) but some have the model placed elsewhere. If a model (or all models on the project) are not placed at (0,0,0) (i.e. they are in global coordinates), and your elevation values reflect local coordinates, the model will not be sliced accurately for calibration.

Example
A model uses global coordinates, and is offset by 71m in the z-coordinate, i.e. the coordinate base is (0,0,71), or ground = 71m. Their levels in Revit are displayed in local coordinates (ground = 0). The user enters ‘Ground level' and ‘0m’ as their elevation name and value. Because the model does not intersect with 0m in the 3D space, they will see the following message:

When this occurs, you have two options:

1. Re-export your models from Revit

You could re-export the models from Revit if you change one setting. On the export modal (example shown below), you should change the Coordinate Base to Project Base Point. This will place the model at (0,0,0).

2. Do the math
If you do not want to re-export, or you do not have the ability to, you can do the math, if you can identify the Z-value for where it is placed. For example, if the model is 100m above sea level, you can account for that when creating your elevations. Where your ‘Ground level’ would typically be at 0m, you can instead put 100m and the slice will be placed accurately.

More Information

• How to Upload and Organize 3D Models
• How to View and Navigate 3D Models (Web)
• How to Select Objects and View Properties in 3D Models (Web)