Mistress of the Dorkness

Autodesk University 2008 Course Listing

2008-07-22T07:09:00.000-07:00

Looks like the AU 2008 class listing is now available!

Of the over 600 classes available across every discipline, there will also be six 'Power Tracks'.
AutoCAD, C3D, Geospatial, Industrial Design, Inventor and Revit

There is also some further breakdown in the Mechanical classes, I think there are five different categories. Customization & Programming and Development are now in two different categories as well.

There are nine Facilities Management/CAFM/BIM classes this year (to check out the class handouts from some of the past courses offered at AU, refer to post “Free Facilities Management Class Handouts”).

FM100-1 - Space Management on a Shoestring Budget: Using Autodesk® FMDesktop™
James Niles - Virginia Commonwealth University - Autodesk FMDesktop
FM210-1 - BIM for FM and Beyond
Bob Fahlin - Autodesk - Autodesk FMDesktop
FM214-1 - Autodesk® Facility Manager: Beyond the Basics
Stephen Komisarek - Autodesk - Autodesk FMDesktop
FM300-1 - It's Official! Autodesk® FMDesktop™ can Make your Practice More Profitable!
Shaun Bryant - CADFMconsultants - Autodesk FMDesktop
FM304-1 - Blue Line to Bottom Line with Autodesk® FMDesktop™: The Real World
Matt Davoren - CADD Microsystems, Inc.- Autodesk FMDesktop
FM310-1L - Autodesk® Revit® and Facilities Management: What's in Your Toolbox?
Clyne Curtis - Brigham Young University - AutoCAD Revit Architecture Suite
FM314-1 - Revit®, AutoCAD® Architectural, and AutoCAD® Drawings to DWF™ for FMDesktop™
Arthur Franz - Simple Solutions FM - Autodesk FMDesktop
FM318-1 - NCS Version 4.0: Revisions You Need to Know About
Charles Green - Wilson & Company - AutoCAD Revit Architecture Suite
FM500-1 - Facility Management: Down to the Nuts and Bolts
Jon Luby - Raptor Software - Autodesk FMDesktop

Some pretty interesting stuff there with some good instructors. I'll really miss not attending these classes this year (as well as classes for MEP and CAD Management), especially since we FINALLY GET A LAB. I've been waiting for that and asking for that for a few years now. I'd love to hear some reports from those who do attend and participate in this track (either just a personal email for my own information, or a nice writeup that I can post here with proper credit given back to the writer).

Do check out the spreadsheet on the referenced blAUg post for a complete listing of courses and teachers to see what you might find valuable in your industry and discipline.

Customization: Hot Topics

2008-07-08T09:59:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd share with you today, a little listing of some posts I have come across in the customization newsgroup on the Autodesk Discussion Groups. These are just topics that I found fairly interesting to read; I hope you enjoy some of them, too (if you don't want to read through the whole list, don't forget to utilize your browser's 'Find' command to locate a certain topic - CTRL + F).

I've listed the original thread title, the username of the original poster, the date the thread was begun and then a short description of the topic:

Please, Need Help with this problem - Crislem - 6/27/08
application that copies attributes properties and transfers them to all other attributes in the drawing with the same tag in the same block, multiples drawings.

Need a new version of Distance - lsaapedd - 6/5/08
Distance utility shows results in various units (current units and metric units)

Launch Toolbar from Menu - AlbertRKK - 5/12/08
Describes how to launch a custom toolbar from a pulldown menu

Swap Layer Colors - KDispoto - 4/30/08
(see 5/1 reply from Jason Piercey)

Flatten Command - CadTun - 4/18/08
Check out the replies for a couple of Flatten Routines

Block Description at Tooltip - DrewJones - 3/13/08
A couple of simple suggestions for getting block information to show up

Force Anonymous Block redefinition - Hutch - 02/08/08
(any comments on whether Ajo1's suggestion works well or offer alternatives?)

Return Answer using DYN - nvanlaar - 1/29/08
Posted lisp routine adds up dynamic parameters, but, returns results in the command line
Various suggested work arounds, and one solution posted

Move object to z=0 - adwelling - 1/11/08
lisp routine posted to move a selected object to 0 'Z' elevation

I want to delete all mtext with a height 2.5 - syria89 - 1/8/08
users give multiple suggestions for automating the selection and deletion of entities of a specific type

How to replace %%U for {\L on MTEXT - Alex Diaz - 11/14/07
reminder that this is case-sensitive so %%U and %%u are not equal

xref path drive letter - rickdputo - 10/7/07
suggestions on repathing with the Reference Manager (application external to AutoCAD, availabe since R2004)
op made use of scripting with Express Tool 'REDIR' (Express > File Tools > Redefine Path)

Better SelectSimilar Command! - Nrhoads - 6/28/07
Commentary and variations on SelSim command that I'm already so fond of!

Attention All Logitech Mouse / Keyboard Users! - docsaintly - 6/28/07
tips on configuring extra mouse buttons to perform CUI functions in AutoCAD, alternative driver
(I haven't tried this one yet, although I've been meaning to)

*E Anonymous Blocks - Joe Burke - 6/26/07
discussion on type origin of anonymous blocks with certain prefixes (eg. *E, *D, *U & *X) and how to work with them

anonymous blocks - bustr - 3/22/07
link posted to file Unanon.lsp and article listing origins for *U, *E, *X, *D and *A prefix blocks and replacement tips

How to find duplicate text string ? - weechoo - 6/11/07
lisp routine draws lines between identical strings of TEXT or MTEXT
another posted displays a summary report

Insert Titleblock - Brynn-PHi - 5/17/07
tips to user who wants to insert titleblock and get attribute dialog box, rather than the cmd line

Rename Layout Tabs - S Buckley - 5/17/07
lisp routine to rename layout tabs

Plot Multiple Layouts on a single sheet - Ken Dispoto - 5/16/07
flexible lsp routine creates an array of layouts to plot multiple layouts on one sheet

Anyone ever heard of this routine? - Dave Drahn - 5/15/07
moves text in a displacement relative to it's current rotation

Annotative text gets HUGE!! - galleyslave - 5/9/07
lisp routine takes an attribute (or text) and capitalizes it (doesn't work well with annotative text objects)

Batch Processing - Jason@Draftech - 4/11/07
Best practices and resources for batch-processing CAD files (lsp, vba, scripting, scriptpro)

English to Metric Dimensions - jsteve2 - 4/11/07
user wants to use imperial units, but, have them show up with both imperial and metric when dimensioning

How to get an MLeaderStyle object - Allen Johnson - 4/5/07
posted routine provides a method of searching for and returning and mleaderstyle object

Check Numbers - shinji130 - 3/29/07
routine provided to find duplicate text strings, but, user still wanted to know if there is a way to search for text strings missing from a sequence

Simplify polylines - hmsilva - 3/12/07
suggestions for simplifying polylines, removing duplicate vertices, weed.lsp

Rotate view in floating viewport horizontal - theman1771 - 3/7/07
dview twist, ucs and macro suggestions

Compare two lisp files? - hutch - 2/26/07
method for using microsoft word to compare two files

Drawing Compare - Schmid, Martin - 2/25/03 (updates in 08)
methods and software for comparing two drawing files for differences

Applying page setup to drawing - ipower_BH - 2/14/07
routine posted

Load layers from comma delimited text file - Patrick Porter - 2/7/07
two websites given as resources

qselect in command line - varun_bose - 2/7/07
cannot be done, use ssget instead

Book: AutoCAD and LT 2009 Bible Available

2008-07-03T09:58:00.000-07:00

I just noticed a post on Shaan Hurley's blog revealing that the AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT 2009 Bible is now available.

As I mentioned, I've been lucky enough to have been able to assist Ellen Finkelstein in the updating of her priceless teaching and reference work for the past two releases. Lee Ambrosius also works with Ellen on this book, in addition to everything else he does (such as programming and writing AutoCAD for Dummies).

So, if you need to learn AutoCAD, or just want to have a handy reference of anything and everything in the program, I'd recommend the AutoCAD Bible. It's heartily cross-referenced and well organized and indexed so that you can find what you need. (And don't worry that you'd be lining my pockets with this endorsement, I will not receive any royalties based on sales, so I'm purely recommending it because I think it's such a great book. Even with my 14 years behind the wheel of AutoCAD, I use my Bible for reference quite a bit)

Ellen has also done books on Powerpoint, RSS, Flash and the Open Office products... so, if you're in need of training, tips and tricks and tutorials for any of the above, you can just go here.

Nerding of America

2008-07-03T05:36:00.000-07:00

I just read an entertaining column from one of my favorite local Post-Dispatch writers, Bob R (I can't spell his last name, but, I can pronounce it!).

He's written a piece with examples of how nerds, dorks and geeks are taking over America, from business to movies and bookstores. Sweet.

You can check it out here.

AutoCAD LT Tips and Tricks Webcast

2008-07-02T10:20:00.000-07:00

July 16th at 10am (pacific), Kate Morrical (AutoCAD LT's Technical Marketing Manager) is hosting a Tips and Tricks Webcast just for LT users.

See the original announcement from Kate here, or go to the Registrations page here to sign up.

Salary Survey Participation Numbers - Update

2008-07-01T06:45:00.000-07:00

This year's AUGI Salary Survey run is officially over!

The numbers are in and I've post an updated participation chart below.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to the nearly 6,000 participants this year!
Many of my peers suggested that participation levels might drop significantly this year, due to the downturn in some sectors of the US building industry, but, the numbers are fairly steady. We'll see if the demographics have changed much once the results are in.

The initial survey results article will be posted in the August/September issue of AUGIWorld Magazine, with further breakdowns to be posted to the web. I did get a lot of good feedback on the podcast I did last year, so I intend to do a follow-up this year.
Don't forget, about the time our survey comes out, Robert Green will be conducting his annual CAD Manager's survey; after you take part, you can find the results through CADalyst.

Ours is a somewhat unique survey in regards to the information that we collect and present, and I am happy to give a bit of support in your review of job conditions.
But, as always, I recommend at least three supporting sources when asking for a raise, so be sure to get your vague, but, geographically representative number from www.salary.com and see what you can find from www.indeed.com/salary (their numbers are based on currently posted job openings). If you can find any resources specific to your industry, I'd encourage you to include them as well, if they apply to you.

And instructors, and those looking to change industries, be sure to check out the field comparison document which will illustrate differences in job satisfaction levels and employee perceptions of job security.

OT: Really staying busy

2008-06-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a busy time in the Perry household.

We were thrilled to have hosted our dear friends Bill and Karen from Australia for a week. It's fun playing tourist here in St. Louis, especially in the beautiful springtime.

While at Grant's Farm, we did get caught in a pretty heinous downpour. But, rather than run for the meager shelter with the rest of the human cattle, we stayed standing below the umbrellas on the dining tables. Offspring Alpha, having been placed standing on the table by Bill, stayed pretty dry with the exception of his feet. Alas, we adults were cursed with soaked backsides. But, at least we had some breathing room. I always love feeding the baby goats and watching the other animals on the farm (some animals from each continent, except Antarctica).

Their tour included the Arch, the floods, the St. Louis Zoo, the Science Center, Antonio Winery and Schlafly bottleworks as well as some of our favorite restaurants. We also spent some much-needed relaxation time at home with them. Gosh, what big kids we all are!

Mike and I got to see Offspring Beta for the first time via Ultrasound two weeks ago. MAN has that technology gotten even more impressive in the five years since I first saw Alpha in his! Oh, and of course, this means TWO BOYS! A girl would have been lovely, too, but, I have so much fun with our son that I'm really looking forward to another.

I recently started a new course in my Bachelor's studies at SLU (they're compressed classes, one four-hour course per week for nine weeks). It's technically a Biology course, but, with more of a medical slant, since most of my classmates are in the medical field. It's about how cultural and ethnic differences can affect the care medical workers give to patients and how patients communicate with their caregivers. Really thought-provoking. I'm in the midst of doing a group project with a couple of sharp women from the group. It's a challenging class, but, I really like it.

Mike has also been insanely busy with his work with the AUGI Board, and just returned yesterday from his tri-annual face-to-face meeting with the other volunteering BoDs. It's obviously good to have him back home helping to keep things running smoothly.

Oh, and thanks to those friends who saw my interview in the June issues of CADalyst Magazine about online networking in the design world and gave me positive feedback about it. Obviously it's an interesting subject that is changing the way that we work (especially how we find work).

Also, the Salary Survey is ending right now, so I'll be delving into that starting tomorrow and will be immersed in it for the next couple of months.

And, St. Louis is getting another CAD Camp this year (September 23rd), so keep an eye out to see when classes are posted and registration opens up (don't forget, in year's past, you could get the cost of your CAD Camp discounted off of your Autodesk University registration fee).

If you're interested in all of the little things going on in the CAD world, check out all of the announcements, press releases, favorite resources, etc that I post for the benefit of the Gateway AUG in their discussion group.

I'm also busy tackling some other things in my personal life, so it's really never a dull moment with us.

That's okay, evidently, that's the way that I like it.

Cheers!

Salary Survey Participation Numbers

2008-06-25T10:11:00.001-07:00

Well, as we all should know, the Annual Salary Survey is getting close to the end of it's run (so be sure to take part within the next 5 days!)

I thought it might be fun to take a peek back at the participation numbers over the years:

2002: 1,629
2003: 1,271
2004: 3,259
2005: 6,026
2006: 7,830
2007: 6,721
2008: ?,???

Those are some pretty impressive numbers there, but I'm sure that, with your help, we can do even better here in 2008.

Remember that the results will be available in the September/October 2008 issue of AUGIWorld Magazine and additional results will be added soon after to the Survey channel of the AUGI site.

CAD/Design/Architecture/Engineering Salary Survey

2008-06-06T09:14:00.000-07:00

AUGI is currently running the 2008 Annual Salary Survey!

Which means that your peers need YOU to log in and report your views. We call this a survey because that's precisely what we're doing. We're collecting information from the members to compile and share back with the members. What a great idea! But, unfortunately, only about 10% of our membership takes part each year, which limits the amount of meaningful data that I've got to work with. Remember, every little bit helps. Speak for your industry!

Normally we do this survey in the fall and publish the results in the first issue of the following year. While each company may be slightly different, many will hand out raises and bonuses at the end of the year. So, in order that you can have as many resources as possible at your disposal before then, we're running this survey in June, so that it can be published in the fall.

Of course, if you have any concerns about participating in this anonymous survey or have questions about any of it, be sure to check out the updated FAQ. And the 'F' in FAQ, REALLY means FREQUENTLY. I receive emails about this survey all year round, and if folks would take the time to read the Frequently Asked Questions document, they wouldn't need to waste their time contacting me.

I did get more constructive suggestions than ever last year and, as usual, I have made changes based on the well thought out requests from our members who are interested in helping me improve what we're offering.
Many "Thanks" to those folks who truly appreciate all of my volunteer time on this and tell me about how our survey has benefited you. That's what AUGI is all about, users helping users.

Check out the results from the 2007 Survey which include: the Salary Survey article and charts from AUGIWorld Magazine, the FAQ document (which includes a listing of all questions asked on the survey, frequently asked questions and other salary sites), a Podcast (mp3 containing survey observations and tips on asking for a raise), a spreadsheet containing various comparisons and rankings between each discipline/industry as well as individual downloads providing more information on each industry/field by themselves.

Autodesk Offers AIA Podcasts and Webcasts

2008-06-05T10:38:00.001-07:00

Looks like Autodesk has posted a new site for the AIA Convention resources they've put together. Podcasts and webcasts on BIM and Sustainable Design. Sounds pretty interesting. See below for a snippet of what you can find:

Check out the “Voices of Architecture Podcast Library” where you’ll find a series of podcast interviews including:
Bob Berkebile, BNIM – Bob discuss the topic of Architecture and Public Identity and why it is a hot topic in the industry. Bob also describes one of the most interesting projects his firm is currently working on today, what he sees as a key trend in global architecture and the importance of BIM knowledge as a key factor when evaluating employee prospects.

Mark Dietrick, Burt Hill – Mark comments about the biggest new trends in the architecture industry, and what Burt Hill looks for in terms of BIM knowledge when searching for new employees.

John Moebes, Director of Construction for Crate & Barrel - Mark discusses how the Revit platform helps his company improve the design and build process, what Revit platform solutions they use, how Crate & Barrel has adopted integrated project management, and what he sees as the biggest new trend in architecture today.

Interviews with Jay Bhatt, senior VP of Autodesk AEC Solutions and Phil Bernstein, VP building industry & strategy relations for Autodesk posted at this site, along with a host of interviews with Autodesk BIM and Revit experts.

BIM Manager - What's the Deal?

2008-05-30T05:33:00.001-07:00

A term that's appearing a lot these days in the design world is BIM Manager.
How is that different from a CAD Manager? How vital is the role that they play? How much money can they expect to earn?

Well, as we all know... information is only as important as what you do with it.
Do you keep it up to date?
Can everyone find it?
Is it accurate?
Is it being passed along to everyone who needs it in a usable form?

Check out the following commentary and see what others have to say (and, I have to admit, it's difficult to find BIM Management articles, since when you google... you mostly find job advertisements for this in-demand hot job)...

The Importance of a BIM Manager in a Firm - Architectural Graphics Standards Blog
The New 'Must Have' - The BIM Manager - Dominic Gallello (via AECBytes)

Mark Kiker announced on the CADD Manager blog that he requested teach a course on Defining a BIM Manager and their duties at AU2008.

Read the BIM Manager Blog by David Kingham.

Job Descriptions:
If you really want to know what BIM Managers are doing, check out the job advertisements, Indeed.com alone shows over 260 active advertisements at the time of my search.

Wages/Salaries:
You can also check out the estimated salary here (around $80,000 usd).

According to the 109 BIM Managers who took part in the AUGI Salary Survey in 2007, their average wages were about $62,000usd (this survey is worldwide, whereas Indeed.com's only refers to positions posted in the US)
We're running this anonymous survey again next month, please take part (June 1st - 31st, 2008).

FMDesktop Pilot Program Status

2008-05-23T06:32:00.000-07:00

Hi there, fellow FM'ers. I just wanted to give you folks an update on how my project has been going.

I started out about a year ago with FMDesktop 7.0 (FM, FL, FW) and cross-graded to ACA08 (for the SpaceAutoGenerate feature), which then made me update to FMD7.1 (because the older one didn't work with anything newer than 2007, also remember that 2009 will not work with 7.1, so I hope you've got FMD subscription for when the development team adds that ).

Anyway, both programs were a slight learning curve for me. I've been on the discussion groups and at AU pumping everyone I could find for guidance on FMDesktop for the past couple of years. I made a few mistakes (accidentally deleted one field which undid a couple of weeks of work, there's the drawback of working in a database, there's no 'undo' button). But, it was quicker redoing the information since I'd already done it once before (if we push this live, I'll set up automatic nightly backups to a portable hard drive, IT does this, but, it's a big hassle to just look for and restore one file or folder on a system as large as ours).

The space creation and cleanup took about two weeks for one floor of my campus (big campus), the export to DWF went okay (once I realized I had to save in the current file format... we're saving down to an older one to accommodate older seats), import into Facility Manager was totally painless.

I found it really simple and easy to start clicking and picking to assign departments, room usage and other data. I imported a bunch of plans with my MEP info to show how easy that was, and I created queries for the information I added during my pilot (asbestos locations, plumbing shutoff valves, which air handling unit serves each area) and liked the out of the box reports (although, if you've used Access before, you know these are pretty easy to modify with some practice).

So, I'm in the second year of my pilot as we speak, but, the BIG thing in this project was the presentation I just made a couple of weeks ago.

Every year my department hosts a planning and education conference for all of our facilities group (managers and supervisors), some of our corporate folks and even some facilities people from the system's other facilities. We present on various projects we've done or wish to do and get feedback from our experienced coworkers.

I put together a presentation (I only had an hour) and had to remember that these folks were engineers, project managers, skilled mechanic managers and nontechnical administrators; NOT software or computer technicians. That's a challenge for a dork like me who is surrounded by other nerds like me all the time, they sometimes tell me I speak a different language.

But, we did just practice effective speaking and did test presentations in a course I just took in my studies at Saint Louis University, so that allowed me to hear some good tips and feedback from the professors and other students.

I reminded them of the definition and the purpose of CAFM, gave some examples of other facilities who utilize such systems and reminded them of pitches we'd been given in the past by software vendors.
Then I told the positives of FMD over others (cheaper startup cost, ease of modification, no need for a web server so we can just use our existing file server, ability to expand to include a work order system [ours is a bit outdated]), informed them of the information I put in this pilot and walked them through how it can be accessed and easily modified, suggested either having our space management firm adopt this or bring a portion of it back in house, queried for the office and associated equipment of our director as a sample and finally showed them a brainstormed list we'd put together years ago with the type of information we might choose to include with a full rollout.

I ended by telling them where they can watch a video I made (I love CAMTASIA!) walking through how easy it is to use the program to make changes (they've all seen me polyline spaces in AutoCAD before when I first did some of these plans and know it takes awhile).

Of course, I also revealed to them how many staff I thought we'd need and was grilled on that a bit, which gave me an opportunity for my long-standing justifications.

Anywho, wish me luck. This lives or dies by the reactions to that presentation. I was told by my Manager and Director that I'd presented well and they were re-convinced (believe me, it took a lot of talking to get the ten grand I needed to just get this far).

It seemed to be well-received and I got a lot of good questions from the audience (about 45 people), and even managed to mention BIM (which our corporate overlords kept mentioning during their presentations because they're starting to require it... I'm trying to make the point that I need to be more involved in that, because their current open standards will not help me much from a long-term system management position, although it's been proven to streamline the design process).

All I can do now is... wait.

Wish me luck.

Stray Rescue of St. Louis Wins $1M

2008-05-21T10:39:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Randy Grim, Stray Rescue and the St. Louis community for winning a recent contest that earned them one million dollars for a shelter makeover.

ZooToo sponsored this makeover contest and searched the country looking for the most worthy program and gave financial gifts to the top three.
This looks like a really great resource site, which was founded by the former CEO of Meow Mix (Richard Thomas).

A.G. Edwards has apparently donated a warehouse to Stray Rescue which will house them and other services including Pound Pals (Randy's ultimate goal is for them to be able to offer 5,000 free or low-cost spay/neuter services to the poor each year to help reduce the number of strays who need rescuing).

With this contest combined with funds they've set aside, they've got roughly half of what they'll need to fit out this new space for occupation and use. So, as they enter into the Design and Development phase, I wish them luck toward the successful completion of this project.

~a round of applause~ Great job and keep up the good work!

AutoCAD 2009 - All the rest

2008-05-21T10:07:00.000-07:00

I went over some of the highlights of the my initial product review of the AutoCAD 2009 release in this article back in February.

In April, AUGI HotNews published my TipNiques column on the Interface changes with ACAD09.

And in May, I did a follow up (AutoCAD 2009: Odds and Ends) listing all of the little changes, enhancements and new features that I'd come across.

In June, Brian Benton is scheduled to round out this series with a good walk through on the Action Recorder, so be sure to check it out.

There have also been some articles in AUGIWorld and in other HotNews columns about making the most of new features.

And, please note, if you want the menu bar back and things to look more traditional, just switch to the Classic Workspace.

Of course, if you're not quite ready and willing to upgrade, feel free to refresh yourself and make sure you're taking advantage of the AutoCAD 2008 features!

TIPniques: Dashboard Customization
TIPniques: Using Referenced Files
TIPniques: AutoCAD 2008 Odds and Ends

My Status Update

2008-05-13T10:09:00.000-07:00

Alright, I've been a little busy lately.

Okay, a lot busy.

Since it's new product time, I'd finished up my work for Ellen on the 2009 AutoCAD and LT Bible, then started on a couple of articles for AUGI HotNews TipNique's column (April and May 2008).

I returned to college as a student of St. Louis University's School of Professional Studies to resume my Bachelor's degree.

Then my husband and I found out that we were expecting offspring #2... so I've been having to spend an awful lot of time napping because I'm EXHAUSTED.

Also, the Gateway AUG had their Spring Quarterly meeting. I presented on AutoCAD 2009 and Haden Smith presented on workflow with BIM. It was a pretty good meeting with a lot of great commentary by the members in attendance. We do apologize for going out of character and gathering on a Friday night rather than during the middle of the week, but, we had multiple scheduling conflicts that necessitated our departure from that norm.

During the meeting, I announced to the group that because of my schooling and impending bundle of joy, I would be resigning as President and would be replaced by Nicholas Iyadurai.
I'll still be serving on the board as a Member at Large, promoting and attending the meetings, probably presenting on occasion as needed. But, I'll no longer perform emailing or treasurer duties, as I have since the group's inception.
So, since then, past-President Brian Myers and I have been meeting with Nicholas and Chris VonFeldt about procedures, history and the new website revisions (Chris has been working hard to tidy up our site, lots more to come!). Also thanks to members Elle and Rich for their review of the site and additional ideas and to Rudy for helping to arrange our meeting space.
Our members are why we can do what we do.

As for why I asked Nicholas to step into my shoes... well, his company does a lot of work for mine, and I've always been pleased with his professionalism, enthusiasm and skills, and he was ready and willing. So, many thanks to him for agreeing to take on this laborious yet rewarding task!

Last week I had my final for my first college course in over five years. Whew! That's a lot of pressure. But, I read and studied the book and lecture notes and paid attention to the comments my classmates made in our online arena (which was hard in a night class considering I've given up almost all caffeine)... and surprisingly did really well and feel a lot better now than I did at the beginning of the class. So, I'm off for a couple of weeks before my next class starts.

I was a bit disappointed that the Industry Advisory Board for Vatterott's CAD program was scheduled for the same time as my final, as I do normally enjoy those quite a bit. I did ask my husband to go in my stead and he really thought it was a pleasant and productive evening as well.

AS IF THAT WASN'T ENOUGH! Last week I also had a BIG presentation to give at work. As I've mentioned, I've been piloting the FMDesktop CAFM suite over about the past year. I've been trying to get enough support for a CAFM implementation campus-wide for almost as long as I've been here. FMD was finally cheap enough for me to push through a test, thanks to the support of my Manager and Director.

Every year we (the Engineering group) host an Education and Planning conference for our hospital, but, we also invite the pertinent corporate overlords, as well as FM leaders from some of the health system's smaller hospitals. We all present on various projects we've completed or would like to tackle, and it's a great time to get feedback, garner support and share our opinions with one another.

Well, since I'm the only nerd left in the department, I had the distinct pleasure of arranging the setup of the presentations and the A/V needs. I don't know just how many ways there are to break or choke up a Powerpoint file, but, I'll bet that I saw at least a half a dozen different methods early last week (although the deadline for submissions was the previous week).

So, everything ran smoothly technically as the two day conference went along, and last Friday I had made my presentation to the group (next to last, THAT really helped my nerves).

It was really very well received. I think we're getting to the point where we're willing to embrace technologies out of our traditional MEP engineering realm. There were some GREAT questions from the other Managers and the Supervisors. My boss and the director told me that it came off really well and they thought I'd done great.

I only hope that I did the possibilities the justice that they deserve. There's so much we could do better. We're already good at what we do, but, we can always improve things.
Wish me luck.

I'll be starting my next class soon, and I'm in the process of making my annual revisions to the AUGI CAD/Design Salary Survey. YES! You heard that right, ALREADY! We're going to run it in the summer so that we can publish it in the fall in time for year-end reviews. I don't know why we didn't think of this sooner.

Whew. Now I remember why I'm so tired.

Oh, and my office move that was scheduled for the 8th of May has been pushed back until the end of the month. Boy, oh boy. I can't wait. (rolling eyes)

Rock and Roll... that old familiar feeling

2008-04-18T05:05:00.001-07:00

Well, some residents of the Midwest are talking today.

Evidently overnight, there was a 5.4 Earthquake (or 5.2) on the border between the states of Illinois and Indiana.

Now, the Perry household resides in Missouri (over 130 miles away) but, we felt it. Near 20 to 5:00 this morning, both myself and my husband woke up. He didn't realize what woke him and fell back asleep.
But, past Californian that I am, I recognized the feel and sat up to see how long it would last and see how strong it was. It probably lasted half a minute. It was strong enough to shake the bed, but, not hard enough to knock anything over. After getting up to check on Mini-Mike, I went back to bed.

I do have to call my Mom over in Illinois later... she's got quite a collection of glass, metal and porcelain bells, so I'm sure the ringing noise was enough to wake my parents up.

There was a big to-do here when I was about ten years old, maybe a mild tremor with some guy predicting 'the big one' for the New Madrid fault. But, nothing came of it (except the wasted effort of packing away all of my Mother's bells).

The really memorable one for most people was the year prior, in 1989 I remember only that we were at DisneyLand and had to leave early because it was shut for inspections after a sizable quake. My Grandparents were fully woken, but, said that my Dad, my Sister and I slept right through it (so, sue me... a kid is pretty tired after a day at Disney!). Although what most folks talk about was a canceled baseball game, and the horrifying freeway collapses.

As for today's results... I haven't seen or heard of much damage around here (but, there is some elsewhere) but for a rickety old bridge on Kingshighway Blvd. It's been partially shut down until it can be further assessed (personally, I think the whole bridge should have been shut down long ago... I like to compare the appearance of it to a half eaten Windmill Cookie but, I'm not a bridge inspector, so, what do I know?).
This wasn't directly in our route on the way in, but, we did pass by it. I heard that it was shut down totally, but, now the center two lanes are open to traffic. That is a major artery for the South part of St. Louis city, so I can't imagine what a total shutdown would do to our roads (and tempers).

So, here's hoping everyone came through the excitement unscathed. And, here's to me being cautious and adding earthquake coverage to my home insurance policy last summer.

Using MrSid files with AutoCAD 2009 Products

2008-04-17T06:29:00.000-07:00

Check it out, Autodesk just posted the Raster Design Object Enabler yesterday.

ID: DL11091617
Applies to:
AutoCAD® 2009
AutoCAD® Architecture 2009
AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2009
AutoCAD® Electrical 2009
AutoCAD® Land Desktop 2009
AutoCAD® Map 3D 2009
AutoCAD® Mechanical 2009
AutoCAD® MEP 2009

The AutoCAD® Raster Design 2009 Object Enabler is a freeware application that you can use to display AutoCAD® Raster Design 2009 image files. This release allows object data created in AutoCAD Raster Design 2009 to be accessed outside the AutoCAD Raster Design environment.

At each new release, there is an onslaught of questions on the discussion groups from people wondering why they can't use their MrSid files in the new version, so, we just have to wait patiently (yeah right) for the object enabler to show up, and here it is. Enjoy.

AU Course Proposals Due by April 27th

2008-04-14T07:52:00.000-07:00

Autodesk University is accepting course proposals from those who wish to teach classes at AU2007 in Las Vegas.

Get them on in, don't wait until April 27th!
The great teachers and targeted topics are what make this trip worth it for eager students! Submit multiple proposals if you'd like!

Specifically for those Facility Management/CAFM folks out there, Mark Evans from Autodesk is willing to talk over ideas with you, if you'd like some feedback or refinement on a topic you're thinking about teaching.

Sadly, as mentioned, for the first time, I will not be able to attend AU this year, but, we have been increasing the quality of the Facility Management/Document Management/Coordination/CAD Management/CAFM track every year since they started being offered and I'd like to see that continue, even if I'm not there to benefit from it.

Our son shows off some new threads

2008-04-10T12:22:00.000-07:00

My little dork in training (also known affectionately as 'Mini-Mike') is very happy with his new shirt.

What do you think of it?Early November, if you're curious.

So, it looks like that class I was planning to co-teach at this year's Autodesk University will just have to be put on hold for awhile.

St. Louis Metro Area CAD/BIM Meeting on Friday!

2008-03-31T08:01:00.000-07:00

The Gateway Autodesk User Group (serving the St. Louis and Metro areas) is going to have it's Spring quarterly meeting on April the 4th from 6:00-8:00pm.

We'll be meeting at the Masonry Institute. Google map here.

I'll do a quick rundown of the interface changes with the AutoCAD 2009 family of products, and we'll have another speaker tackle a task in Revit Architecture. I might also prepare a couple of slides talking about the industries with the highest salaries (based on the recent AUGI Design Salary Survey).

As always, food and drinks will be provided (by our sponsor, Seiler Instrument, 'thanks' to them!).

I hope to see you there; bring a friend, no RSVP necessary.

If you have any questions/comments/suggestions for future meeting topics or locations, pop over to our Google Discussion Group to share your thoughts.

I'm twenty-seven & online photo editing

2008-03-27T09:53:00.000-07:00

Yep. 27.

Mid-twenties.

Just wanted to establish that.

Got it?
Okay.

~moving along~

For fans of services like Picnik who allow you to edit photos online, you may be interested in hearing that Adobe has put up a Photoshop Express online. Make sure you've got Flash 9 and head on over to try it out.

What's your Favorite Express Tool?

2008-03-20T06:04:00.000-07:00

Bonus tools, express tools... whatever you call them, you've got certain tasks that just wouldn't be as easy without them!

The past few years, Autodesk has rolled more of them into the AutoCAD-based products (like the layer tools now on the Layers II toolbar like LAYISO, Change Space, Layer Merge). A couple of those tools have really been improved/expanded, too.

BUT, there are still a few more tools left over on the old EXPRESSMENU.
Autodesk wants to know which ones are your favorite!

So, take this survey and share your thoughts with them. Who knows that could happen next?

ADDA Education Conference is in St. Louis in April

2008-03-19T09:54:00.001-07:00

Some of you may or may not be familiar with the American Design Drafting Association, so feel free to check them out here.

It looks like they will be hosting their 49th Annual educational conference here in St. Louis. The Gateway to the Wet (that was intentional, because we're flooding a bit right now).

The conference runs from April 14th through the 18th,

It looks like there are a few opportunities for attendees to qualify to receive some free software. They also encourage you to bring a laptop because many vendors will be offering free downloads? Interesting.

Here are some highlights mentioned: CAD Academy, LEED (green certification and implementation), NCS (National CAD Standard), BIM (building information modeling), AutoCAD, Dynamic Blocks, Annotative text and scaling, CUI, Solidworks, PTC Pro-Engineer, Google Sketchup, the General Aviation Space Group, Digital Photography and Documents and Inventor.

Wow. Sounds like there will be a lot going on.

I don't clearly see the conference location listed... I'd have to guess it's at a hotel on 9th street downtown?

Anyway, yet another education opportunity to enjoy for those that are interested.

Here's one to put on your calendars for next year: the National Organization for Minority Architects will be hosting their 2009 NOMA conference here! You can check out NOMA's 2008 conference details here. It will be held in Washington D.C. this October.

In Honor of St. Patrick's Day...

2008-03-17T07:54:00.000-07:00

In recognition of St. Pat's day, for myself, my half-paddy hubby and the 34.5 million Americans who claim some Irish ancestry, how about a look at Irish Architecture (from About.com's Architecture page).

Mike showing off our little dork in training sporting his Irish gear last St. Patty's day.

Pi day is March 14th!

2008-03-11T11:32:00.000-07:00

Well, well, well. It's every nerd's favorite time of year again... Pi day!

Find out more on the Official Pi Day site.

Show your support for your geeky brethren and... erm... sistern, and sport some pi wear (my favorite is the digits mug), geeky humour shirts or just ThinkGeek.