Trimble Business Center Increases New Legacy Design’s Efficiency and Customer Satisfaction

Customer Profile: New Legacy Design is a site modeling consultant that specializes in machine control models, 3D design, site takeoff, data prep, and Trimble Business Center software training. Founded in 2017 by Dwight Womack, New Legacy Design is focused on delivering a personalized experience with every client they work with, which has included the Department of Transportation, Duit Construction, and United Track and Turf.

Business Challenge: Helping small construction companies reap the benefits of technology

Solution: Trimble Business Center

Growing up in a construction family, Dwight Womack saw a disconnect between the mom-and-pop shops and technology. When his brother had his own company, he followed the mindset of doing things the way they’ve always been done. But Womack knew that with software, there was an easier way.
 
“It just became a passion after that to help those smaller companies get a foothold on technology and not get scared away by the wow factor, the cost, and all those things,” he says.

Which led him to launch New Legacy Design in Oklahoma City. With more than 20 years of combined experience in construction and 3D modeling, Womack relies on Trimble Business Center (TBC) to not only build his site models but help show companies where they can possibly save and be more efficient.

Trusting TBC for Quick Turnarounds

Womack has worked on a range of projects — from apartment buildings, to track and softball fields, to billion-dollar highways, to even an RV and tiny home development. But whether the client is a small family-owned operation or the Department of Transportation, he counts on TBC to exceed the customer’s expectations, especially when they’re in a time crunch.

One part of his business is fixing problems with models that the customer had created by someone else. Often, they need them resolved fast. With TBC, Womack can use the various functions to correct the model promptly. For instance, he worked with a client who was building an apartment complex, but the building pads had contours running through them at different elevations. 

“This is a no-no,” he says. “You never let contours cross. I was able to use TBC’s clipping function to actually fix that issue the customer was having and send it out pretty quickly.”

Project Cleanup and Offset Command Simplify Workflow

The clipping function is just one feature of TBC that Womack relies on in his business. Another major one he uses routinely is the project cleanup tool.

“Getting rid of all those blank layers, all those zero layers, and just being able to do large tasks in the click of a button,” he says. 

He runs it whenever he works with CAD data. Recently, he was working on a model and after standardizing all of the layers, immediately saw contours going all over the place.

“Usually when you have the elevation in your CAD data, it creates maybe a 4-foot space,” he explains. To solve this, he highlights all of the contours and runs project cleanup, then deselects everything except segment link, and runs project cleanup again. This joins the lines automatically.

Project cleanup not only gets rid of any layers Womack doesn’t want or need, it also creates a cleaner, smaller file that he can export out easily to customers who use TBC. 

“One of things I do is either send them the VCE or the VCL and they can take a look at it, do a proof or check on the model and let me know if I missed anything,” he says. “I do that all the time.”

Womack is also a big fan of TBC’s offset command, because he doesn’t want anything touching his pads. He does a 100 offset on almost everything so he doesn’t get flags when contours or different elevations are butting up against a building or corridor or road. 

Edit Line String Eases Spot Grades

Another function Womack finds particularly helpful is the edit line string. He explains that it helps add vertical points of intersection (VPIs), which makes it a lot easier when there are spot grades along a flow line or pavement edge. He mostly uses it on parking lots where the curb and flow line changes a lot. 

He recalls working on one project where someone engineered a model that had the water flowing uphill. He explained they needed to change the elevations in the curb to keep the water moving away. 

“It was just as easy as right click, edit, add VPI or edit VPI, to get the water out of there,” he says. 

Templates & New Features Increase Efficiency

Another benefit of TBC is the ability to create templates, which increases Womack’s efficiency as he gains more repeat customers. 

“It’s very powerful because the customers I work with, some things never change,” he says. “Existing contours, proposed contours, flow line, grade breaks — those things just don’t change from model to model. So it’s good to have those things when you’re standardizing and going forward.”

Womack continues to increase efficiency as new features are introduced. The recent release of the plan rotate function comes to mind because, “we spend a lot of time zooming and trying to turn your head and look at models in 3D,” so that has helped improve his workflow.

Superior Surfaces for a Successful Business

Womack’s favorite type of model to build are site models, and he says one thing TBC does really well is surface modeling.

“Once you do maximum length and your surface settings, your computations, that surface looks really, really good,” he says. “I don’t know anybody competing with that.”

It’s just one part of Trimble Business Center that has been critical to New Legacy Design’s business, which Womack says is very steady and trending upward.
 
“Trimble Business Center is a godsend because I had the construction experience and I had the technology experience, and it was the perfect mesh for me regarding technology,” he says. “I’ve been able to excel with it, provide for my family with it. I love using it. I love the surface models. I’ve seen other softwares. Not knocking them by any means, but Trimble is just doing it better in some aspects.”