The 2D vs. 3D Debate is the wrong question
Why BIM 2.0 is not about choosing between drawings and models, but about data precision.
Last week, after Erik de Keyser published his thoughts on where 3D modeling is headed, Dominic Seah, an architect, wrote something that many BIM managers think but rarely say out loud:
“I have at least a decade of experience seeing BIM admins extolling the 3D-only single source of truth model… whilst most of the guys in the back of the room doing the actual design and engineering are laughing. Still doing things on 2D drawings, PDF markups, screenshots of the 3D model outside the model.”
Dominic Seah, Architect
Dominic is right. This tension: between boardroom visions and the reality on the ground, is exactly what we are resolving at Qonic.
This article is not a manifesto for killing 2D. Banning engineers or designers from ever drawing a 2D line would be absurd. It is about fixing what happens when 3D is finally good enough that 2D documentation becomes what it should have been all along: a derived output, not a parallel representation that requires manual updating.
Why BIM Managers are caught in the middle
If you are a BIM manager, you know the pattern. You implement a model-based workflow. You set up standards, templates, naming conventions. You get the architects and engineers into the model. And then, somewhere around the coordination phase, the project quietly splits in two.
The model lives in one place. The decisions get made somewhere else: on marked-up PDFs, in WhatsApp threads, in Excel sheets that someone emailed on a Friday afternoon. The model becomes a reporting artifact rather than a working environment.
This is not a “people problem”; it is a tooling problem. The 3D environment was never fast or accessible enough to replace the workflows people already trusted. So they kept both. And maintaining both is where the time goes.
“The model becomes a reporting artifact. The decisions get made somewhere else. Maintaining both is where the time goes.”
Erik de Keyser
What “3D Leading” actually means
In BIM 2.0, 2D documentation is generated from the model rather than maintained alongside it. When 2D is derived from 3D, a change in the model propagates to the drawing automatically. There is no longer a synchronization task. The drawing becomes a view: a slice through a single source of truth, rather than a document that has to be kept current by hand.
The precision prerequisite
This only works with exact geometry. If your 3D model is built on mesh or triangulated surfaces, the quantities and section cuts it produces are merely approximate. You cannot derive trustworthy 2D documents from geometry that isn’t mathematically exact.
This is why Qonic runs exclusively on B-Rep geometry with NURBS surfaces. When Qonic generates a section cut, it calculates an exact curve. When it reports a volume, it extracts that figure from exact solids. The 2D output is only as reliable as the 3D geometry underneath it. We covered this in depth in Episode 3, but it is worth stating plainly here: the 2D vs. 3D debate is inseparable from the geometry question.
This is also what separates Qonic from platforms like Revit that already derive 2D from 3D: when the geometry engine has limits, those limits get filled with manual 2D annotation on the sheet, and that is where the parallel truth problem begins.
What Qonic is actually building
In Q1, Qonic is releasing its 2D document generator. It is a focused tool for producing clean, accurate PDF and DWG output directly from the 3D model, with a UI designed for immediate usability.
Alongside this, our live sectioning gives architects, contractors, and site managers the ability to cut through the model in any direction, on mobile or in the browser, with zero installation. An installer on-site doesn’t need a static drawing; they need to see the section they are building, in context, with the surrounding structure visible in 3D.
What will not change and what will
Some 2D will always exist. Topographical survey plans. As-built documentation for buildings that predate 3D data. Specific output formats required by authorities or contracts. We are not dismissing these.
What will change is the baseline assumption. Today, 2D is the primary deliverable and 3D supports it. In BIM 2.0, 3D is the source and 2D is a derived view. The workflow does not split anymore. The model does not become a reporting artifact. The decisions made on Friday afternoon end up in the same place as the geometry.
An increasing number of building authorities already require a BIM model as part of the permit process, not because regulators are technology optimists, but because they recognise that a well-structured 3D model contains more verifiable information than a drawing package. That signal will strengthen.
“We are not asking BIM managers to bet on a future that does not exist yet. We are building the tools that make that future reachable today, one workflow at a time.”
Erik de Keyser
What is coming next
In Q1, Qonic also releases a first set of early-design tools, with sweeping as a central feature. The quarters that follow will complete the precision detailing toolkit. And later this quarter, intelligent 3D space recognition: the system understands the geometric relationships between spaces and enclosing walls, automatically.
More on that in Episode 5.
If this resonates with what you are navigating on your own projects, or if you have been in the back of that boardroom quietly disagreeing, we would genuinely like to hear from you.
Try Qonic
Explore BIM 2.0 directly in your browser: app.qonic.com
Questions or feedback? Email us at info@qonic.com or follow us on LinkedIn.