Sort of Back

BIM Assist for Revit (Webinar)

Day 084
	Optimize my Productivity (Apparently) Supports Revit Architecture, Structure, and MEP. Modular support for productivity tools. When new tools are added, they can easily be added to your BIMAssist for Revit menu. Automatic Update keeps your modules current.

Still, listening, pretty good so far.

Certification Update

Day 081

Some Successes Autodesk Licensed Professional AutoCAD 2012 Civil 3D 2012 Revit Architecture 2012

Not too shabby. I'm actually listed as the only person one of only two people in the US with a Civil 3D 2012 Professional License

Now to persuade employers that that actually matters.

The exams were pretty straightforward, at least the AutoCAD and Civil 3D, the Revit however, in which I've not really had any real world project experience was a little more testing.

I should have taken the Revit earlier in the day as it would have given me more opportunity to ask around and gauge how the other takers felt about the exam. Just to see if they thought it easy/hard, fair/sneaky etc.

Of course now I need to complete the Associate level exam in order to get my name listed amongst the successful Revit pros. (Currently 3 in the Bay Area, and all working for Ideate)

I should also spend an hour checking out the Revit blogs, find the most useful and frequently update and add it to my blog roll.

Mis-LEED-ing

Day 070

Is LEED really green? How developers use a popular environmental certification program to sell projects and mislead the public - By Maggie Beidelman The archangel of sustainable development has arrived, promising much needed city housing that will add to the “social fabric of the waterfront community” with its glamorous green rooftops and unheard-of bay views. This is going to be the greenest building of them all, or so we’ve been told, but the truth is a bit more complicated.

Pretty interesting and well argued from the cats at the SF Guardian

Dolores Slides

Day 069

Just finished a few slides of Dolores

Pretty good for a beginner

No Money

Day 065

No Money The Trust for Public Land, a national land conservation organization, today expressed disappointment with a Fiscal Year 2012 bill approved by the House Subcommittee on Interior and the Environment Appropriations. The bill proposes drastic cuts to the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) reducing the program by 80% from fiscal year (FY) 2011 levels that were already 30% below the FY 2010 levels.

LWCF is the principal federal program for conservation of key lands within our national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, and other popular and sensitive areas, and for support of state and local parks and recreation. The program is funded using a fraction of offshore oil and gas revenues, and unlike other federal spending, uses no taxpayer dollars.

Oh well, I guess that money can be better spent elsewhere.

I'm awake I'm awake

Day 061
	Yawn Stretch No, really.

Mission Local's Dolores Roundup

Day 060

Mission Local Meeting Jun 30th Building underground facilities, blowing up the clubhouse and a creating a zigzag promenade were some of the suggestions heard at the second Dolores Park workshop this week. But the most common desire expressed: More bathrooms. The workshop was a follow-up to the first meeting, on June 2, in which neighbors brainstormed ideas for the park. Dolores Park has $7.9 million available for renovations because of the Clean and Safe Neighborhood Parks Bond, passed in 2008.

From Octavio Lopez Ragyoza
Mission Local Workshop 3
Mission Local Workshop 2

SFAUG - Next Meeting July12th

Day 052
	San Francisco Autodesk User Group Meeting July 12th Just a reminder to myself that I accepted Dave's offer to speak at the upcoming meeting.

Upcoming Events

Day 051

June 30th Workshop to Follow-up Successful Kickoff of Dolores Park Community Design Process - Reminder June 30 On June 30th at 6:30pm in the Mission High School Cafeteria, the Dolores Park Project Steering Committee and RPD will host the second Dolores Park community design workshop. During this session park users and neighbors will vote to determine the priorities of the project and then work in small groups to create conceptual plans for the rehabilitation of the park. This second workshop follows the resounding success of the kickoff workshop held last night in the same location. Over 120 people came together to assess the current conditions of the park and brainstorm a comprehensive list of rehabilitation needs. As the RPD design team explained, this was the first step in a “co-design” process. Rather than follow the traditional route of presenting ideas and asking for input, co-designing starts with a blank page and asks the community to present ideas and create plans to give the designers direction.

1. Finish and Print Befores and Afters (and Upload)
   
2. Finish and Print Existing and Proposed Toilet\Clubroom\Equipment Stote
   
3. Create kmz Files
   

For the upcoming meeting I need to do some more research on the landscaping firms employed to facilitate the design and the SFGOV officials involved in the project. Plus of course finish my ideas.

Also reminder:
Monday is the Golden Gate slideshow and lecture at the Cafe Royale
Tuesday is SF Debate off night but prep for the following week
Wednesday is Toastmasters
Thursday is the Park

Infrastructure Financing at the Commonwealth Club

Day 050

Infrastructure Financing From Point A to Point B: Fixing U.S. Transportation Systems Steve Heminger, Executive Director, SF Regional Metropolitan Transportation Commission John Horsley, Executive Director, American Association of Highway and Transportation Officials Michael J. Scanlon, General Manager and CEO, San Mateo County Transit District; Executive Director, Caltrain Asha Weinstein Agrawal, MTI National Transportation Center Finance Director Polly Trottenberg, Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation - Keynote Speaker Mortimer Downey, Chair of the MTI Board of Trustees; Former Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Transportation - Moderator

If you have ever been stuck in traffic on the Bay Bridge, late to meetings, or have had a ruined weekend because you couldn’t make it to a destination in time, you know that California suffers from a major transportation infrastructure problem. From pot holes jarring people’s necks and backs, to bridges collapsing nationwide, thousands of commuters are being affected every day by America’s inadequate and faltering transportation infrastructure system. At the upcoming FREE Commonwealth Club transportation infrastructure summit, experts will examine what can and must be done to ameliorate this dire situation. U.S. Department of Transportation Undersecretary for Policy Trottenberg will headline a panel of national transportation leaders to explore solutions to this serious crisis. Trottenberg works toward implementing the president’s priorities for transportation including safety and creating jobs. The DOT employs more than 55,000 employees with a $70 billion budget that oversees air, maritime and surface transportation missions. For 12 years she worked extensively on transportation, public works, energy and environmental issues in the U.S. Senate, for Senators Barbara Boxer, Charles Schumer and Daniel Patrick Moynahan.

This is the sort of presentation where I couldn't really disagree with anything that the panelists offered by way of future transportation plans. Our infrastructure is in need of repair, the current gas-tax doesn't even cover the basic maintenance, the Republican leadership cannot be seen to waver on their no-new-tax promises, and the Chinese and European commitment to infrastructure and transportation dwarfs our feeble attempts.

What to do?

Probably, pull out our collective fingers, and get stuff done.

I was very impressed with the panelists, and especially with Polly Trottenberg who is not a transit professional, but clearly knew her stuff, particularly during the Q and A session.

Tiger Links
DOT Information Related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act)
Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery(TIGER) Grants USDOT 2010
TIGER Discretionary Grant (TDG) Applications Overview

Other Links
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 (WIKI) - Wonder why Lautenberg voted nay

Webinar Sustainable Infrastruture

Day 049
	Schlosser Webinar Site Development: Planning for Sustainability This presentation will begin on June 23, 2011 at 01:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time.

Live Blogging
Still not sure about these webinars, aside from very vague sales-y information, I'm not convinced that the signal-to-noise ratio is worth it.

Every one of these presentations starts with a tired message that "we've been doing things wrong" and "we've got to be more connected". And then invariably focuses on a few simplistic projects, which tend to be on the underwhelming side.

1) Spray
Using MAP3d queries and buffer analysis to theme maps and locate potential spray facilities.

2) Golf
Because we need new golf courses. More of the same analysis tools. But much more useful and much more in depth. For once the method of determining possible locations is better than dart at a board.

3) And one for San Francisco residents ... Coffee Shop
Overlay analysis and pivot charts. That was new.

---

OK. I take it back, because that was actually a very good example of what MAP 3D can do. I have the slides and I'll definitely download the webinar once it is up and I'll go to CADLearning and check out the MAP 3D training videos.

Get the Bus

Day 048

Big Trip Read the Whole Shocking Story My route is the brainchild of transit blogger Matt Nelson, a baby-faced 24-year-old who grew up in an Arkansas town where the closest thing to mass transit was a Chrysler Town & Country. After relocating to transit-rich San Francisco, he founded www.californiastreets.org.image Among self-professed transit nerds, devising Rube Goldberg–like routes necessitating dozens of bus or train rides to travel even short distances is a matter of pride. Many itineraries are strictly theoretical: No sane human will undertake Nelson's 68-hour S.F. to L.A. route via Yosemite ... ...The N-Owl pulls up at Haight and Fillmore at 4:11 a.m. Somewhat surprisingly, it already has 16 passengers. Not surprisingly at all, the bus is already thick with the official Muni odor — BO ineffectively masked by Old Spice with hints of pee. Sunflower seeds are scattered beneath the seats and the floors are already movie theater-sticky. A man wearing a Philadelphia Eagles knit cap repeatedly smacks himself on the forehead; his pensive expression indicates some elusive knowledge is on the tip of his tongue. The driver's eyes meet mine. He exhales deeply. "It's Monday," he sighs.

And they say there are no real explorers and adventurers any more.

Learning about Old Stuff

Day 047

Roman Architecture (at Academic Earth) Go to Lecture Introduction to Roman Architecture The Founding of Rome and the Beginnings of Urbanism in Italy Technology and Revolution in Roman Architecture Civic, Commercial and Religious Buildings of Pompeii Houses and Villas of Pompeii Habitats at Herculaneum and Early Roman Interior Decoration Painting Palaces and Villas in the First Century A.D. Exploring Special Subjects on Pompeian Walls Augustus Assembles Rome Roman Tombs Nero and His Architectural Legacy The Colosseum and Contemporary Architecture in Rome Imperial Palace on the Palatine Hill Civic Architecture in Rome under Trajan Hadrian's Pantheon and Tivoli Retreat Roman Life in Ostia, the Port of Rome The Baths of Caracalla Roman North Africa: Timgad and Leptis Magna Baroque Phenomenon in Roman Architecture The Rebirth of Athens Architecture of the Western Roman Empire The Tetrarchic Renaissance Rome of Constantine and a New Rome Discovering the Roman Provinces and Designing a Roman City

Not really work but you cannot live on current engineering alone. 28 hours of lectures on Roman Urbanism, great great stuff. Gotta love Academic Earth.

Talking about New Software Trials

Day 046
	Demo Period Goto Luxology - Modo Go beyond the traditional 3D workflow to an immersive creative experience. modo delivers the next evolution of 3D modeling, painting and rendering in a single integrated and accelerated package for the Mac and PC. And now, modo is a true end-to-end solution that includes true 3D sculpting tools, animation and network rendering!

You know you are working too hard when you download a piece of demo software for 15 days and end up spending about 15 minutes using the product, then neglect to click it again till the demo period has expired. Grr.

Linked In you say

Day 045
	Edit Opportunity Preferences Get Recommendations Find where the Opportunity Is Find out the skill sets required Find out how your colleague got that nice offer Contact the HR Grow your network first

Hrm Remind me to look again at my linkedin profile.

Autodesk Vs Google

Day 038

123d and SketchUp So, I bet you are thinking, Colin, what do you think of Autodesk 123d. How does it measure up to Goolge's SketchUp. I'm going to make sure I know them both and then have a review.

A Bridge Too Far

Day 037

Just some Photoshop practice and thinking about Dolores Park Currently the footbridge over the J-Church line is in pretty good shape, minor spalling of the concrete and in dire need of a repaint notwithstanding. I heard on more than one occasion at the Dolores Park meeting that the bridge and stairs were considered architecturally significant, although that classification seems less than totally accepted. The stop below the bridge is not used and at the present time the only function of the stairs from down to track level is to attract graffiti and vandalism. Removal of the stairs and reshaping the embankment would require some interruption of the J-Church service but would provide a much cleaner visual look to the crossing from either side of the tracks.

Really, thats what you do with you Saturday Nights

Day 036
	Upcoming Closure Closure For some weird reason I feel the need to hang out over there if I can find a good vantage point and watch the proceedings. I didn't get round to it , but it still seems like a 'good-ish' idea.

In Progress Bridge

Day 035

Useless Stop under 19th Street Pedestrian Bridge. Remove stairs, discourage trespass. It's a little bit slow going because I don't really have a library of architectural and landscape elements, preferably with transparent backgrounds, to work with. Maybe there are some free images online somewhere.

Central Market Meeting

Wednesday - June 8, 2011
6-7:30 p.m.
1355 Market Street (SF Market Square)

The Central Market Partnership meeting agenda will include a presentation and discussion of research findings from the first phase of the Central Market Economic Strategy project, including:

-Existing conditions in the neighborhood
-Demographic Analysis
-Real Estate & Housing
-Merchant and Person-on-the-Street surveys
-Case studies of other arts districts around the country & more...

This research will feed into the second phase of work which entails a series of key stakeholder interviews, focus groups, resident surveys, and community meetings to build consensus around a set of strategies for building on and sustaining an arts district in Central Market while creating a more stable, healthy and vibrant commercial district that serves the adjoining neighborhoods with increased retail, services, recreation, and jobs. Presenters will include consultants from AECOM and Deborah Frieden, an expert on planning arts districts and arts facilities.

This is why we can't have nice things

Day 033
Work was slated to start on the playground rehab, and as promised the construction fencing went up. Well that security fence lasted exactly 1 day

It seems I should have called somebody or at least shouted at the two women about to negotiate the twisted fence, ok, maybe the toddlers being pushed were more my size.

SFist with the story Link So, Missionites and fans of Dolores Park may have already noticed the ugly fencing that went up around the playground and central meadow of Dolores Park earlier this week, marking the first stage of the park's renovation -- which has now been phased so that the entire park did not have to be shut down at once. They totally cut a hole in the fence within like 24 hours (not visible, at right), and then just went ahead and mowed down a section of the fence so they could get back in!

Dolores Park Playground - Baby Steps

Day 032
	Playground Fenced and Closed In anticipation of construction of the new Hellen Diller Playground at Dolores Park a rented chain link fence was thrown up Friday morning. - By Robert Brust

Robert Brust, Founder Robert lives in the Mission Dolores area with his partner of 20 years, Joel Costa, and maintains the blog, Dolores Park View. He is a chef and works for Left Coast Catering and is on the board of the Dolores Heights Improvement Club, where he helps produce the annual neighborhood block party. An avid organic gardener, he tends a plot at Ogden Terrace Community Gardens in Bernal Heights.

Before After Toolsheds at Delores

Day 031

Currently the maintenance tools for the park are stored in old containers. Could be used for more picnic facilities.

Before After Stairs at Dolores Park

Day 030

There are 3 or 4 access points from Church Street down to the footpath alongside the J-Church line. All are in poor condition and encourage pedestrians to illegally cross the track. A physical barrier could be added along the foot path, the concrete steps could be rehabilitated and new planting made to soften the edges.

New Date - Still Going

Day 029

Itinerary 7:45am – 8:45am Coffee and Registration 8:45am – 10:00am Session 1: Applying 2012 Features and Functionality 10:00am – 10:15am Break 10:15am – 11:30am Session 2: Reaping the Rewards – Productivity Best Practices 11:30am – 12:30pm Lunch 12:30pm – 1:45pm Session 3: Master the Skill Set – Certification Exam Objectives 1:45pm – 2:00pm Break 2:00pm – 3:15pm Session 4: Secrets to Preparing and Passing the Certification Exam 3:30pm – 4:45pm Session 5: Combination of the above

Don't spend any more of your career looking up. Attend the powerful, single-day Autodesk boot camp when it arrives in San Francisco. Register to attend AUGI CAD Camp 2011 today.

I think I'll go. I hope there is a good turnout. The higher the turnout the more people I can beat at the Top Daug competition.

Dolores Park

Day 028

Mission Dolores Park (commonly called Dolores Park; formerly known as Mission Park) is a San Francisco, California, city park located in the neighborhood of Mission Dolores, at the western edge of the Mission District, which lies to the east of the park. To the west of the park is a hillside referred to as "Dolores Heights" or considered a part of the Castro neighborhood. Dolores Park is two blocks tall by one block wide, based on the configuration of north-south and east-west blocks in that part of San Francisco. It is bounded by 18th Street on the north, 20th Street to the south, Dolores Street to the east and Church Street to the west. The northern end of Dolores Park is located directly across the street from Mission High School.

SF Chronicle - Octavio Lopez Ragyoza

Mission - Octavio Lopez Ragyoza

Dolores Mission

Day 027

Water Resources Group - May Meeting Please join us on Tuesday, May 10 as Jennifer Lehane of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) San Francisco Professionals speaks on three water projects in the developing world – namely Tanzania, El Salvador and Fiji. Ms. Lehane will also talk about the EWB as an organization. EWB-SFP supports community- driven development programs worldwide through the design and implementation of sustainable engineering projects, while fostering responsible leadership EWB-SFP’s vision is a world in which all communities have the capacity to meet their basic human needs. Ms. Lehane will be joined by project managers to present the above projects.

Not simply a mercenary opportunity to meet a number of engineers at URS, after all water is not really my area, because I truly am enamored by the idea of Medecins sans Frontieres and all of its offshoots.

I think I can just manage to squeeze it in-between class and the Emperor.

As for Monday a mixture of applications, phonecalls and study.

Salt

Day 028

Thursday, May 26. We will hear a very interesting and informative presentation about the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project by John Bourgeois and Eric Mruz. The presentation will focus on the history, background, and current status of the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project. As the largest wetlands restoration project on the West Coast of the US, the project encompasses 15,100 acres of former salt ponds located around the edge of South San Francisco Bay. Its mission is to restore and enhance wetlands in South San Francisco Bay as habitat for federally endangered species and migratory birds, while providing flood management and wildlife- oriented public access and recreation. John Bourgeois is the Executive Project Manager for the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project. He is an estuarine ecologist with experience in a wide array of coastal settings, including San Francisco Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, and mangrove swamps in the western Pacific. Eric Mruz is the Refuge Manager for the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge where he manages over 30,000 acres of former salt ponds, tidal marshes, and uplands. Eric has worked at the San Francisco Bay Complex since 2004 and was originally hired to manage the newly acquired Salt Ponds as part of the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project.

You really do acquire increased knowledge on a daily basis.

Parkmerced

Day 020

Parkmerced transformation wins approval Will Kane, Chronicle Staff Writer Wednesday, May 25, 2011 The San Francisco Board of Supervisors gave the go-ahead Tuesday to a $1.2 billion plan to transform the sprawling Parkmerced area from a car-centric neighborhood to a state-of-the-art sustainable neighborhood. In a 6-5 split, the board voted to replace 1,500 rent-controlled town homes with 7,200 new energy-efficient units over the next 20 to 30 years. When the project, which currently houses about 8,000 residents, is completed in 2040, an additional 14,000 people will be living in the 152-acre neighborhood, originally built in the 1940s as a suburban outpost in San Francisco. Units where rents are currently controlled will stay that way, but new ones will be rented or sold at market rate. The rebuilt Parkmerced will have a maximum of 3,200 rent-controlled units, the same number it has today.

Bout time too. Remind me to look up the split and vote accordingly.

Stellar Management - National
Stellar Management - San Francisco
Stellar Management - San Francisco
Supervisor Sean R. Elsbernd

002 - EWB and Other Matters

Day 002

Water Resources Group - May Meeting Please join us on Tuesday, May 10 as Jennifer Lehane of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) San Francisco Professionals speaks on three water projects in the developing world – namely Tanzania, El Salvador and Fiji. Ms. Lehane will also talk about the EWB as an organization. EWB-SFP supports community- driven development programs worldwide through the design and implementation of sustainable engineering projects, while fostering responsible leadership EWB-SFP’s vision is a world in which all communities have the capacity to meet their basic human needs. Ms. Lehane will be joined by project managers to present the above projects.

Not simply a mercenary opportunity to meet a number of engineers at URS, after all water is not really my area, because I truly am enamored by the idea of Medecins sans Frontieres and all of its offshoots.

I think I can just manage to squeeze it in-between class and the Emperor.

As for Monday a mixture of applications, phonecalls and study.

Day 001 - Upcoming CadCamp

Day 001

7:45am – 8:45am Coffee and Registration 8:45am – 10:00am Session 1: Applying 2012 Features and Functionality 10:00am – 10:15am Break 10:15am – 11:30am Session 2: Reaping the Rewards – Productivity Best Practices 11:30am – 12:30pm Lunch 12:30pm – 1:45pm Session 3: Master the Skill Set – Certification Exam Objectives 1:45pm – 2:00pm Break 2:00pm – 3:15pm Session 4: Secrets to Preparing and Passing the Certification Exam 3:30pm – 4:45pm Session 5: Combination of the above

Don't spend any more of your career looking up. Attend the powerful, single-day Autodesk boot camp when it arrives in San Francisco. Register to attend AUGI CAD Camp 2011 today.

I think I'll go. I hope there is a good turnout. The higher the turnout the more people I can beat at the Top Daug competition.

Not Really Work but Sort of ASCE

The nice people at the ASCE in association with the nice people at RTO have been doing some volunteer work at the Brookdale Discovery Center.

Rebuilding Together Oakland, a local nonprofit, generously donated materials and tools for 25 volunteers to help spruce up the local Discovery Center. The Discovery Center offers free hands-on activities in physics, rockets, electro-mechanics, woodworking, telescopes, microscopes, woodworking, art, computers and more for children. Throughout the day, volunteers will work on the following projects at the center:

Refurbishing the garden beds in the back; Weed whacking the clover; Building a chicken coop; Pulling down ivy from the left side and spreading mulch; Cleaning up the front; Clearing out the brush on the right side (in the fenced area); Fixing the trim around the front door; Light painting and possibly other tasks. Volunteers who are skilled in carpentry are a plus! Pastries, lunch, snacks, beverages, and T-shirts will be provided. Volunteer shifts are as follows: 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

SO I've spent the last two Saturdays in head high brambles and scrub - hacking away. OW, my arms hurt.

Very Soon

Revit 2011 Certification This is a list of the peeps in the Bay Area who have passed the exam. I'm going to join them very soon.

probably sometime week 18th

What I would do - a ramble

No matter what the benefits of aggregation, then, our new civilization is likely to need many cities of diverse sizes, each matched to the ability of the local environment to supply its needs. That means no megacities in the middle of the desert, like Phoenix, Arizona.

Another example of the 'easy targets' which i think everybody has at least come to accept. I always wonder about Phoenix, a city so incongruous, a city so misplaced and so ill-advised, how exactly did it get there and what does that tell you about us. I don't think recognizing that Phoenix is a problem (about 50 years too late) is something we should be all back-slappy about, the 20-20 hindsight of today's urban planner is no reason for optimism and no reason for urban planners to broadcast their new self-importance in today's long term development strategy.

"Hey, we know we made a huge blunder in the desert, but our recognition of an empty stable is why you should listen to us now."

We get it, it is bad, and anybody with half a brain should have known that long ago. Now you tell us you should trust us now?

While we're tinkering with the economy, we might want to move away from using GDP as a measure of success. When nations began focusing on GDP after the Second World War, it made sense to gauge an economy by its production of goods and services. "At that time, what most people needed was stuff. They needed more food, better building structures - stuff that was lacking - to make them happy," says Ida Kubiszewski of the Institute for Sustainable Solutions at Portland State University in Oregon. "Now times have changed. That's no longer the limiting factor to happiness."

On the other hand, increases in mobility, communication and technology - as well as the sheer size of the human population - mean that many of the world's problems are now truly global. "What if there were a newspaper that was published just once a decade? What is the macroheadline of our time?" asks Paul Raskin, president of the Tellus Institute, a think tank in Boston.

boom boom boom boom

From SFGATE: (03-28) 12:15 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Shoppers in San Francisco's Union Square got a shock this morning when a manhole cover on Grant Avenue blew off and sailed into the air. No one was injured by the blast, which was caused by the failure of an underground power cable at about 9:45 a.m., said Brian Swanson, spokesman for Pacific Gas and Electric Co. The cover landed a few feet from the hole, he said. Grant Avenue between Post Street and Campton Place is still closed. No power was lost, but repairs to the cable are expected to continue until tonight. - Will Kane

And it's not the first one either. PG&E is not having a good time of it recently. I'm surprised there is not a google app of exploding manholes, a free walking tour of exploding manholes, or the ever popular hipster treasure hunt of exploding manholes.

Revit Architecture 2011

I should probably go and get certified.

It shouldn't take too much effort, I'll need to go look up a few things and practice a little for the professional section of the exam. And then I should be good to go.

Reminder

Another Whine, You Know While I'm Here

Still learning about pivot tables, do we spent an hour working on pivot tables or do we spend 5 minutes on pivot tables, 40 minutes on formating a report because its cool if the date is right justified, and 15 minutes talking about the teacher's dog?

Training and a Note to Self

I'm sitting in a class at the local city college, keeping my MS Access toasty warm, watching teachers teach and students study.

I've done my own bit of teaching software applications, not Access, but fairly complex programs to a wide range of levels of users, not completely unlike this scenario. I hope I do not teach in this way.

As an example of what I would consider a poor method of learning is the kind of rote intructions we are following with the regard to pivot tables. I know how to create a pivot table in Access and Excel but the majority of the class do not. I'm nort sure the majoroty of the class know what a pivot table is or what it does and the teacher is doing nothing to explain.

The teacher simply instruts the students to go to database tools, view the relationships, add the junction and additional tables, create the links between primary keys, but doesn't explain why, she simply keeps repeating that this is difficult stuff.

Obviously its difficult(-ish), but there's no need to make it more difficult to remember steps by not explaining why these steps are taken. There is no way to better way to prevent students from missing steps than explaining why a step needs to be taken and what the effects will be on future steps should a step be missed.

Augi World February

As you all are probably aware, AutoCAD® Civil 3D® is built on top of Autodesk® Map 3D®, and Map 3D is built on top of AutoCAD®, so Civil 3D has all of its own functionality plus the functions of the other two separate pieces of software.

Now Civil 3D can’t really be used without using some of the commands and functions of AutoCAD. We still draw basic objects, we still plot and use layers. The list of AutoCAD tools is enormous in itself, and then we add all of the civil-specific functions and we have an enormous number of tools at our disposal. This leads me to the biggest reason why we tend to overlook all of the

Map functions at our disposal: We may be overwhelmed with tools and commands, even before we start to explore all of the functionality that Map has to offer!

Civil 3D Guide to 10 Map 3D Tools

• Tool 1 – Coordinates
  
• Tool 2 – Drawing Cleanup
  
• Tool 3 – Inserting Raster Images
  
• Tool 4 – Source Drawing Queries
  
• Tool 5 – Attribute Data
  
• Tool 6 – Object Classification
  
• Tool 7 – Stylizing features
  
• Tool 8 – Map Import
  
• Tool 9 – Map Books
  
• Tool 10 – Feature Object Data
  

Really? I mean, really? There are Civil 3D Users who do not, and do not know how to use Map 3D. Next you'll be telling me there are Civil Engineers who do not know how to to use Civil 3D (or InRoads, or both).

Gentlemen, put away those slide rules, for we have a new tool, its called a c-a-l-c-u-l-a-t-o-r.

Happy New Year