Case Study: How does Cedar Falls Building Systems uses VR as a marketing tool

Cedar Falls Building Systems Inc is a design/build general contractor that specializes in commercial and industrial projects. Their primary markets include commercial, manufacturing, industrial, and retail facilities.

We interviewed Christian Peterson, Business Development Director at CFBSI about their journey to VR and how the technology has helped them in their workflow.

How did you get to know about Sentio VR?

We are a commercial general contractor with a wide range of projects. Initially, there wasn't any BIM design, so I converted everything from CAD to Revit. We have a large project coming up that involves a wedding and a music festival venue, so I really wanted to step up the 3D game a little and thought of doing something different for this project. After extensive research, I found Sentio VR. I played around with it a little and discovered it to be an excellent tool for our needs.

How has the transition from CAD to 3D happened?

We are moving towards creating our drawings in 3D using Revit because I'm involved in business development and I take them through the pre-construction stage and Revit adds to them as a sales tool. I can do a lot of screenshots from Revit and share them with my clients to give an idea of the design.

People, in my opinion, want to see how something appears in reality, and Revit allows me to do that. And with Sentio VR's Revit to VR interface, we've just taken a big step forward. People are now able to walk around the site and get a better sense of the space. Being able to walk through each of the planned buildings and, standing on the garden deck to observe the view of the stage, assisted us in determining whether any changes needed to be made, which saves a lot of time at the backend.

How did you get the idea to use VR at work?

As I mentioned before, I am working on a large project coming up that involves a wedding and a music festival venue. Therefore, for this project, I always thought of doing something different from what we have done in the past. Hence, I introduced the use of VR, wherein we can actually have an immersive experience to understand the space, and we can even use VR as a marketing tool for this project.

Do you think VR enhances productivity and aids the design process?

Yes, of course. For instance, we have an architect in our office who was walking around her design in VR and was all smiles and really enjoying the experience. By reviewing her designs, she was able to figure out some design changes she needed to make. With such a small investment of time, I believe VR definitely helps in design reviews and in making better and quicker decisions, which directly impacts productivity.

Why did you choose Sentio VR?

Sentio VR is extremely simple to use, and that's what I liked about it the most. I exported a few views, and with Sentio VR's cloud-based service, I was able to quickly view my designs in VR by entering the access code and I was walking around my model within minutes. The process is not at all difficult, and the user interface is excellent.

We thank Christian for sharing his journey and experience with our product. Check out the entire interview below.