Dan McCarty, owner of QA Graphics, has built a distinguished career on the foundation of his expertise in process automation, 3D design, and over 17 years of experience in BAS graphic design. Under his leadership, QA Graphics has grown into a premier provider of BAS graphic outsourcing services, employing a team of 18 dedicated professionals. Dan is passionate about delivering top-tier graphic services to the BAS industry and maintaining outsourcing opportunities within the United States, demonstrating his commitment to enhancing industry standards and supporting domestic talent.
The Challenge: Equipment and products are increasingly more difficult to visualize for marketing, sales, and training.
The Goal:To create photo-realistic 3D graphical representations. Whether you have parametric models or photos as the starting point. QA Graphics can accurately transform your product into 3D graphics with exploded views, animations, and cutaways. Saving you time and money versus other costly concepts.
The Results: Customer are delivered photo realistic models/videos for sales, marketing, training, and stakeholder presentations that effectively illustrate your product.
Make your design become a reality. Contact us to learn more and see examples.
Visually Appealing Design
Using a state-of-the-art rendering software, we provide fast, professional, and cost effective platforms for marketing and sales presentations.
3D Rendering Video & Motion Graphics 3D Modeling
It’s much easier to work on equipment when…
you have a solid idea of how the internal process looks and works. This allows for workers to safely conduct maintenance when fully trained and an impressive piece for trade shows when equipment is to large to transport. Let QA Graphics help you and your team visualize your ideas. Contact us today.
Dan McCarty, founder of the Ankeny-based company QA Graphics.
Technology inside the Ankeny offices of QA Graphics are used in projects for companies across the country.
So when Ankeny-native Dan McCarty got an opportunity to help his hometown, he jumped at it.
Ankeny-native Dan McCarty started QA Graphics—an interactive design studio that offers web development, energy dashboards, virtual reality, 3D design and animation—with one full-time employee in 2006. A decade later QA Graphics has 19 employees and has been profitable for the last five years.
“Companies like us, there are a few companies on the coast that do some of this but they can’t even compete with us,” McCarty says. “And we have the same high-end equipment that everyone else has.”
Working globally, and locally
McCarty says he could never imagine having his company based anywhere else but his hometown.
Then came the Prairie Trail project in Ankeny, an Urban development project on 1,031 acres.
McCarty said QA Graphics used 3D designs so potential tenants could view properties along the Prairie Trail with photo-realistic views to help in the decision-making process. YouTube videos can be paused and rotated to view different angles and perspectives.
The final products allowed anyone wanting to see The Prairie Trail project in a 3D perspective.
“They are outselling their space to national retailers, but for those people it’s hard for them to visualize and get here,” McCarty says. “So we did this entire site map, 3D of all of Prairie Trail.
“It’s great and we’ve done it for a ton of other companies. We just applied that locally.”
‘I wasn’t a good employee’
McCarty started his career in sales and in the food processing industry. He admits that he probably wasn’t the best employee and always had an interest in 3D and interactive software.
“There were a couple other companies doing it, I just thought I could do it better,” McCarty says. “I’ve applied some of what I learned and some of those things to this industry. They were ahead of the game in that industry and the building animation industry was way behind.”
McCarty says his 3D developers are versatile and that the developers don’t really care what the project is.
“It’s a pretty powerful thing to have,” he says. ”
Now that it’s been over a decade, McCarty says it’s challenging finding qualified people and keeping them. He says he’s thankful for Des Moines Area Community College and Iowa State University as a talent pool.
“It’s a grind,” McCarty says. “You are constantly finding new people, maintaining customers and keeping up with technology. We have no investors and sometimes it can weigh on you, but overall I would do it again in a second.”
QA Graphics, leading provider of design services for the building automation industry, has provided 2D floor plan graphics for Centennial Controls, whom provides state of the art temperature control and building automation services for contractors.
Centennial Controls looked to QA Graphics to develop 2D floor plan graphics with and without ductwork. Taking advantage of QA Graphics’ knowledge to accurately place ductwork, using them as backgrounds for Niagara AX and Niagara N4 graphics. This allows them to map room temperatures, alarms, CO2, or humidity measurements for example. As well as saving them time and money to have QA Graphics create quality floor plans.
QA Graphics has always exceeded my expectations. The QA staff has been able to generate plans from hand drawn sketches and puzzle pieces in some cases,” said Kelly, from Centennial Controls on working with QA Graphics, said Kelly, from Centennial Controls on working with QA Grapahics.
QA Graphics provides professional floor plan graphic development for those who do not have the resources or time to create them. QA Graphics can take existing AutoCAD files, PDFs, sketches, or anything with an image and provide professional floor plan graphics. The design team can provide drafting solutions in 2D, 3D, and photorealistic design. Floor plan graphics can range from simple, basic, or complex and include the building details such as zoning, windows, built-ins, railings, etc. Floor plan graphic projects are provided with fast turnarounds, typically less than 7 business days. To view examples visit http://www.qagraphics.com/bas-design/floorplans.
The top two images consist of an example of graphics given to QA Graphics. These two images represent one floor and consist of missing pieces and unnecessary annotations. The bottom graphic is a finished 2D floor plan graphic with duct work of what was given above.
QA Graphics, a full-service digital design company, is a recipient of an Award of Excellence in the Video Production/Creativity category for their Dual Tank Whiskey Flask video. To view the video visit: http://bit.ly/2tZY9CN. The Videographer Awards identify and recognize outstanding work in video production and graphic design. Winners were selected from over 1,400 entries throughout the United States and 13 other countries, with approximately only twelve percent of entries awarded the Award of Excellence honor.
QA Graphics has over a decade of experience in 3D design and animation. By working with QA Graphics, Discommon Goods gained a video to be used as a tool in their marketing efforts that showcases their unique product design. Demonstrating the complexity and every detail of the flask, down to the exploding view of its156-components. This project allowed QA Graphics’ 3D Design team to demonstrate their vast talents and values in quality of graphics and video production.
The Flask was truly a special and exciting project for QA Graphics’ team and a fantastic way to showcase the design team’s diverse skills and talents for sales and marketing applications. As an original design collaboration between Discommon and two other unnamed international luxury brands, the digital replication and details of the product were of the utmost importance. Using QA Graphics’ state of the art rendering farm, QA Graphics’ 3D design team brought to life photos, CAD images, video clips, and schematic designs into an incredible, attention grabbing, animated 3D graphic representation.
The Videographer Awards is an international competition, recognizing outstanding production and communication professionals who excel in the scope of their own environment. Winners are selected from 166 categories grouped under video production, web based production and television production. AMCP judges are industry professionals who look for companies and individuals whose talent exceeds a high standard of excellence and whose work serves as a benchmark for the industry.
Sinclair: How did QA Graphics venture into Virtual Reality?
McCarty:Virtual Reality is already changing how industries conduct business and how investors capitalize on commercial properties. For QA Graphics, this is simply just another step forward from our already photorealistic 3D video creation that we are producing for our clients. VR allows you to get your point across by giving customers realistic views from any perspective in a hyper-realistic way. Plus, you are saving time and money, which is another key factor. We see this fitting into several industry areas of our client base and want to be able to offer our clients that next step.
The example of the commercial property we created is just the start of our capabilities. View the 360° virtual tour of the neighborhood below.
Drag the mouse around to view the district as you fly through.
Sinclair: The example you created started in the Commercial Real-Estate industry, what are key factors of VR that apply to any industry?
McCarty:With technology rapidly changing, traditional methods in the commercial real-estate and other industries as well are tapping into this newer offering. Some key factors for VR is flexibility, mobility, affordable, and usability.
By the power of your smartphone that you carry in your pocket already and a headset or a video player on a cpu which allows you to rotate and view, you can accurately view a building. Seeing it as if you are there, yet be sitting at your desk. There is no traveling and your team can focus on other larger task at hand, while you let graphic professionals like QA Graphics work on the 3D modeling and VR creation. Saving you time and money by allowing you to view any potential issues before completion.
Sinclair: What are other ways you see your company venturing into with VR?
McCarty:QA Graphics see several opportunities for virtual reality. One way we see it progressing is by incorporating it into our dashboards. We have been doing video fly throughs already for dashboards and other applications used for marketing. With this added feature, we see it being able to show a manager live data and incorporate important stopping points of interest. Educating Facility Managers on their energy use by bringing a typical 2D design to life.
Sinclair: How will VR impact the construction phase?
McCarty:Stakeholders, Facility Managers, or Construction workers, for example, will be able to visualize a space, space planning, or new construction like never before. Allowing all of those involved in the project to have insight into the process earlier will create better communication in coordination, modeling, and quality control for example. Creating a better environment for feedback, highlighting features that would typically be overlooked, or address common questions. You will be able to be on location or hundreds of miles away surveying what is currently there, then peer into the future for what will be installed. All of this will now be capable just by placing the headset on.
Sinclair: How do you see virtual reality taking shape in the building automation world?
McCarty:Virtual reality will become a tool for people out in the field such as Facility Managers and maintenance. By being able to see issues that arise within the walls that they could not see otherwise. With the ability to apply layers, a manager can take away the wall view to see the right of ways for the electrical, plumbing, ductwork, and any utility really, to see situations within the wall accurately.
