Happy Independance Day

Alright, heading out for an extra-long weekend. I'm looking forward to good times with some great friends in sunny California (God, do I miss mountains!).

I'll be getting 'reconnected' at home soon, so hopefully I can remedy being so neglectful of my postings here.

I wish you American's a happy 4th celebration, and I wish you in the rest of the world a lovely time as well.

Happy CADding and don't forget there is a meeting of the Gateway AUG tonight at Hagerman's facility, so if you're in the area, don't forget to drop by for some good food and great presentations.

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Very Valuable Variables: LWDISPLAY / FILLMODE

Very Valuable Variable 1: LWDISPLAY

Ridiculously thick lines even when they have no width?

Controls whether the lineweight is displayed. The setting is saved with each tab in the drawing.
0 Lineweight is not displayed
1 Lineweight is displayed

Very Valuable Variable 2: FILLMODE

Specifies whether hatches and fills, two-dimensional solids, and wide polylines are filled in.
0 Objects are not filled
1 Objects are filled

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Mtext Line Spacing

From AutoCAD Help:

If you enter ‑mtext (precede with hyphen) at the Command prompt, MTEXT bypasses the In-Place Text Editor and displays additional prompts on the command line.
Current text style: current Text height: current
Specify first corner:
Specify opposite corner or [Height/Justify/Line spacing/Rotation/Style/Width]:

Line Spacing
Specifies line spacing for the multiline text object.
Line spacing is the vertical distance between the bottom (or baseline) of one line of text and the bottom of the next line of text.
Note Exact spacing is recommended when you use MTEXT to create a table. Use a smaller text height than the specified line spacing to ensure that text does not overlap.

Enter line spacing type [At least/Exactly] :

At Least
Adjusts lines of text automatically based on the height of the largest character in the line. When At Least is selected, lines of text with taller characters have added space between lines.
Enter line spacing factor or distance :
Spacing Factor: Sets the line spacing to a multiple of single-line spacing.
Single spacing is 1.66 times the height of the text characters. You enter the spacing increment as a number followed by x to indicate a multiple of single spacing. For example, specify single spacing by entering 1x, or specify double spacing by entering 2x.
Distance: Sets the line spacing to an absolute value measured in drawing units. Valid values must be between 0.0833 (0.25x) and 1.3333 (4x).

Exactly
Forces the line spacing to be the same for all lines of text in the multiline text object. Spacing is based on the text height of the object or text style.
Enter line spacing factor or distance :
Spacing Factor: Sets the line spacing to a multiple of single-line spacing.
Single spacing is 1.66 times the height of the text characters. You can enter a spacing factor as a number followed by x to indicate a multiple of single spacing. For example, specify single spacing by entering 1x, or specify double spacing by entering 2x.
Distance: Sets the line spacing to an absolute value measured in drawing units. Valid values must be between 0.0833 (0.25x) and 1.3333 (4x).

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Facilities Management - Asset Management? What's the difference?

Alright, I've been meaning to make a post about this for a while, but, a question on FMforum.org prompted me to finally get around to it.

So many people that I speak with assume that since I work in 'Facilities Management' that I am an asset manager... or a space manager... but, I'm not. I'm a systems manager more than anything, but, as far as I know, that's not a commonly used term... or a term used at all. As a matter of fact, I think I might have just made it up.

Our lease management is done in conjunction with our space management, which is outsourced. Asset management is handled within each respective department as it best suits them.

I don't pline spaces, I don't run usage reports... I'm all MEPFP, baby. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one. In my experience, this sort of thing is usually handled (if at all), by sending an in-house engineer or project manager to 2 day training course at a local software reseller. I'm not dissing the training that those places provide, it's simply an observation that they are learning differently than a person like myself who has obtained a multi-year degree.

What's the ideal way to manage facilities or spaces? Depends on your facility... but, that's not the topic for today.

I am going to define: facilities management, asset management & property management
not from my own perceptions, actually defining the words themselves, no matter how our postitions are forced to interpret them... I have italicized the definitions that I believe are most apt.

Facilities Management -

The co-ordination of many specialist disciplines to create the optimum working environment for staff. narains.com/glossary.htm

the outsourcing of utilities management, waste services and maintenance operations by industrial customers to a single supplier. The service provided may include operating technical installations, delegated management of maintenance operations, building upkeep, security and services. www.suez.com/metiers/english/energie/lexique_energie.php

Management of the organisation in operating and maintaining a completed project. www.ecbp.org/glossary.htm

The management of facilities provided in a PFI project, eg cleaning, maintenance, security, catering. https://www.marketplace.lloydstsb.com/doc/glossary/pfi.html


Asset Management -

Process of deferring the day to day management of assets to a professional money management team, similar to a mutual fund however assets are not pooled with those of other investors. www.retirement-solutions.net/term.html

Asset management systems have evolved from maintenance management systems. Maintenance management systems use work orders for preventive and predictive maintenance, equipment recording and tracking, replacement parts inventory, and maintenance labor scheduling. The goal of asset management is to optimize asset use and manage all maintenance efforts involved in making assets as reliable, accurate, and efficient as possible. ... www.leanmean-manufacturing.com/glossary2.html

The timely and proper maintenance, location tracking and disposal of leased assets. www.leasingworld.co.uk/html/body_leasing_glossary.php

The process of managing demand and guiding acquisition, use and disposal of assets to make the most of their service delivery potential, and manage risks and costs over their entire life. www.deh.gov.au/parks/best-practice/reports/asset/glossary.html

Inventory tracking and record-keeping for all transactions related to furniture and equipment assets. www.heritagecalgary.com/architects_designers/resources/glossary.cfm

The term Asset Management has many industry-specific definitions. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_management


Property Management -

The range of functions concerned with looking after buildings, including collection of rents, payment of outgoings, maintenance including repair, provision of services, insurance and supervision of staff employed for services, together with negotiations with tenants or prospective tenants. The extent of and responsibility for management between landlord and tenant depend on terms of the lease(s). The landlord may delegate some or all of these functions to managing agents. narains.com/glossary.htm

The function of managing land and working, storage or living space within premises, and of acquiring a new facility or carrying out constructing, alterations, refurbishment and fit outs in order to fulfil an accommodation need. It also includes the functions of managing, maintaining, protecting and disposing of property. Includes buildings and land allotments either owned, rented or leased by the organisation, such as office blocks, repositories, and workshops. ... metadata.curtin.edu.au/manual/classification.html

The management of real estate, including collection of rents, maintenance of the property and upkeep of all accounting for another for compensation. www.hersheyhomes.com/FindAHome/Glossary.htm

A branch of the real estate business involving the marketing, operation, maintenance and day-to-day financing of rental properties. www.sanderco.com/Glossary%20Pages/P.htm

The operation of property as a business, including rental, rent collection, maintenance, etc. www.peakagents.ca/glossary/p21.htm

the act of looking after a property on behalf of its owner. www.apm.com.au/osbuyers/glossary.htm

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Autocad 2007/2000 Format Copy/Paste bug Fix Released!

I know this has been a hot topic on the discussion groups, and a frustrating one for users who are ready to pull their hair out... well, pull no more, the fix has been posted!

ID: DL7450124
Autodesk.com under Updates and Service Packs

This hotfix will correct a problem where cut and paste operations fail in drawings that are saved in AutoCAD® 2000 file formats.

If you open or create a file in AutoCAD 2007 and save it in AutoCAD 2000 file format and then open the drawing in AutoCAD 2000, 2000i, or 2002 and attempt to cut, copy, and paste objects within the drawing, then the cut, copy, and paste operations will fail. This Hotfix resolves this issue.

Edit: ID: DL7450124 new URL.

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Very Valuable Variable: REMEMBERFOLDERS

From the autocad help files:

REMEMBERFOLDERS - Controls the default path displayed in standard file selection dialog boxes.

0
Restores the behavior of AutoCAD 2000 and previous releases. When you start the program by double-clicking a shortcut icon, if a Start In path is specified in the icon properties, that path is used as the default for all standard file selection dialog boxes.
1
Uses standard Microsoft behavior. When you first start the program after installation, the default path in each standard file selection dialog box is My Documents. When you open or save a file to another folder, that folder is remembered for future file selection. The Start In folder specified for the shortcut icon is not used)

To change the default drawing folder
On the command line, enter rememberfolders, and then enter 0.
On the Windows desktop, right-click the AutoCAD icon. Click Properties.
Click the Shortcut tab.
In the Start In box, enter the path of the folder that should be the default when you open or save drawing files.
Click OK.

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VTENABLE and my new Scanner (mfp) is here!

VTENABLE system variable (from autocad help)

Controls when smooth view transitions are used. Smooth view transitions can be on or off for panning and zooming, for changes of view angle, or for scripts. The valid range is 0 to 7.
Setting
For pan/zoom
For rotation
For scripts
0
Off
Off
Off
1
On
Off
Off
2
Off
On
Off
3
On
On
Off
4
Off
Off
On
5
On
Off
On
6
Off
On
On
7
On
On
On

And some good news is that I just took delivery of my new HP820mfp. A large-format printer/scanner/copier. I have to unpack it and set it up. Just had the network drop put in last week, so I should be up and running in no time. I'll make a report on how easy it is to work with when I get a few.

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