What a drawing cannot settle
Drawings cannot settle tone under the project's own lighting, the feel of a junction, or whether an installer can physically reach a fixing. Those are the things that come back as variations.
Visual and technical are different exercises
A visual mock-up answers whether it looks right. A technical mock-up answers whether it can be built, coordinated and maintained. Asking one mock-up to do both usually produces a compromise that answers neither.
Record it, or it did not happen
The output of a mock-up is not the object. It is the signed approval, the photographs and the marked-up drawings that production will be inspected against.
- Signed approval sheet with date and attendees
- Photographs under the project lighting
- Marked-up drawings covering every agreed change
- A retained physical reference for inspections
