Comprende Amigo?

Righty right.

I mentioned 'The Revit Kid' before - who has apparently procured employment at some firm or another, where I can guarantee that he is annoying as hell, but does seem to be interested in at least trying to help out other disciplines where he can.  Chances are this experience has shown him that no, not all disciplines are working with a fully functional set of software that has been developed sufficiently to take into account the complexities of that discipline.

He mentions a back-and-forth discussion regarding phase loading/calculation - and is actually not only intelligent enough to realize, but also humble enough to admit, that he does not know enough about electrical engineering to understand much of what is being said.  This is a huge step for a lot of architect/designer types to take - and one that many never actually do.  Unfortunately his links to the hand-out or whatever are broken, but, like I said at least he is becoming aware that there are other disciplines - each with its own set of problems to overcome.

His ability to help doesn't necessarily depend entirely on understanding everything to do with the problem - and in fact, I have had many non-electrical co-workers be able to catch mistakes that I have overlooked.  I am always appreciative of it - especially because they tend to be very 'now I don't know - but I thought I would give you a heads up' kind of mentality (I try to reciprocate if I catch an error that I think they have made).  Although for every mistake I've had someone point out, I've probably had dozens who simply didn't understand enough to know that it was correct (I try to be nice about it though - because I really do appreciate any attempt at help).

This is exactly the issue though - most people can't comprehend what is on my drawings.  They know that there are various pieces of equipment, panels, lights, receptacles, etc. - and despite it not really being all that difficult to understand (I will take the time to explain it to some people, if I think they might benefit from a little extra knowledge), a lot of peoples brains shut completely off as soon as they look at an electrical drawing.  Obviously the same thing might happen to me if I'm looking at an HVAC, plumbing, civil, structural, or architectural drawing (although I have had considerable experience with each - and have turned out a handful of small projects where I had a hand in designing all aspects of them).

And therein lies the trick - I have to assume that the people who are going to be reading my drawings understand them, without over-assuming or leaving too much to interpretation.  I can spell things out if I think there might be room for confusion, but at the same time I try to keep from filling the page with unnecessary notes.  One of our former electrical designers had a penchant for putting dozens and dozens of keyed notes on his drawings, often repeating the same information in multiple locations - making it necessary to scrub the notes every time a change was made to make sure they all agreed.

I have had what are supposed to be qualified people to have serious trouble understanding my drawings (or more accurately - the design intent of my drawings).  This is usually worked out with a couple of quick explanations in an addendum (or directly), and I can usually tell if the person was just clarifying versus someone who is just incompetent (which you run across from time to time). 

Sometimes I almost have to grab them by the head and force them to look at the drawings - otherwise they will go around telling the client, the general contractor, other people at our firm (or even my immediate boss) that we have made a mistake/omission.  Like I said, mistakes happen, but the only thing I hate worse than making a mistake is having someone make me second guess myself (and/or throw me under the bus).

I absolutely love the feeling when someone tries to call me out (especially on projects that have been issued for a while, but are just now getting bid or built), and due to having clear, concise CD's wtih things laid out exactly as I want them to be, I can easily point at them to the correct answer, or due to my exceptional organizational ability to point them to where someone specifically requested something to be change.  Things still fall through the cracks, but I make absolutely sure that the same thing doesn't ever fall through the same crack again.

A quick story about something that happened to me early on at my current firm.  I completed a design, which is reviewed by the fire marshall, electrical inspector, etc. and issued.  It is completely built, when an inspector (I think it was someone with the utility) came back and requested that a wall be built around the service entrance transformer due its proximity to an exit from the building.  The architect comes over and starts reading us the riot act because it's going to be expensive, why did you put it there, etc. etc.

My boss goes down to chill them out - I go to digging through my job folder (I rarely, if ever throw anything away), my eyes light up when I find a particular piece of paper.  I walk downstairs with it, just in time to catch my boss walking out of the architects office with the 'I just got chewed out' look on his face.  I hold up the piece of paper, which shows the original location of the transformer at the corner of the building (well away from any exits)  which is circled in red pen, with an arrow pointing to the location near the exit with the words 'move here'.

I hand it to him and ask 'whose handwriting does that look like?' (already knowing that it's the architect who just got done chewing him out).  He gets a huge smile on his face, turns around and walks back into their office.  A few minutes later he comes back upstairs (still smiling), hands me the paper, and says something the lines of  'HELL YES SON!'