FacilitiesNet on FM and BIM

Greg Zimmerman posts on FacilitiesNet about his perceptions of Facility Management's possibilities with BIM (Building Information Modeling). He hopes the new BIM Standard will be the first step in the right direction to help move more people/companies forward to embrace the newer technologies and fully benefit from them.

I'd also recommend looking through some of the FacilitiesNet blog archives... commentary on the boomer generation and tech positions, great technologies being implemented in building design, etc...

Read More

FMDesktop Tips and Tricks

Trying to learn a new program, the first thing I'm going to do is keep up with Peer to Peer Discussion Groups!

There has been a lot of activity recently over on the FMDesktop area on the Autodesk Discussion Groups. Check out what others are saying, and add in your questions and/or solutions!

Don't forget about the AUGI forums, there have been some good posts in there as well.

But, my post was actually prompted today by a thread started by Robert Burns over on the FMDugi (that's FM Desktop User's Group International) forums, with some great FM Desktop Tips and Tricks. Read what's posted and add your own!



Read everything else I've posted about FMDesktop!

Read More

My Son Just Read His First Sentence!

I found this wonderful website with great games that Ty is loving. Most of it is filling in missing letters from words. Ty does great with sounding out letters! There are some more complicated games every few activities that involve instructions in a sentence. The kids can click on the words and they'll be read out loud or they can just read them themselves.

Well, the first one Ty, clicked through each word... (it was something like, Click on the snake), but, the second one!!! he just READ... no clicking... he just said:

'c-..can... you.. f..i..n...find... the... cahv-ee. cahvee, mommy what's a cahvee?'


I cover up the 'e' with my finger and say 'try another sound for the a'; and he says, 'oh, cave'... and then finds the cave.

But... he just read nearly the whole sentence!!! (and, YES, I took a screenshot! you'd better believe it!)

I was stunned... and proud, of course. ;) That's my boy.

What a guy! He'll be four next month (so far, too young to be embarrassed by my bragging his every little accomplishment to the world).

Read More

As Bob is my witness, I'll never be Plining Spaces Again!

Creating Spaces for Use with Autodesk FMDesktop

Alright, Scarlett O'Hara, I'm not... but, I do feel this is one of those moments in history that should be captured for posterity. I just 'p-lined' the entire floor of a building in less than 20 minutes.

:-o

What's got me so excited is that this isn't actually polylining. Any Space Manager can tell you how mind-numbingly dull that task is.

Well, at one (of many) of my fabulous classes at AU2006, Bob Fahlin was the instructor, there was discussion of how FMDesktop 7 can read ADT (ACA!) spaces and Revit rooms. So, on top of that wonderful news, there was the revelation of the AutoGenerate Spaces command in ADT/ABS (Acad MEP)!

So, instead of tediously polylining, or quasi-tediously click-dragging spaces, you can set up and automate the creation of spaces.

True, this isn't a 100% *perfect* tool, but, since no *perfect* tools exist, I will be happy with this one!

I took a floor plan, 9,500 sqare feet, just the basics, right.

First, I turned off the casework and plumbing and text layers, just leaving pretty much walls, doors and windows. This is also where good drafting practices can come into play... you need those happy little osnaps working so you don't have gaps at your walls and doors, etc. You *can* add in a 'fudge' factor to ignore gaps, but, really, isn't it just easier to do it right the first time and not have to worry about making the fudge too big and ending up with a mess?

Anyway, I ran the command and here's what I ended up with on my first pass through...
Not too shabby for less than two seconds worth of work.

I manually selected the three spaces near the top that weren't generated for whatever reason, and then I did go back through and drop in a couple of spaces that weren't generated because their openings were... erm, open. Then I quickly plined the two reception areas and three hallways that were left and generated the spaces. That, along with fixing the staircase and elevator spaces and deleting the space on the patio, took all of 20 minutes.

I know this isn't a very big floor, it is one floor of one building on my campus of over 30 buildings, but... it was so much faster than manually polylining that I will take it, and happily.

The only drawback is that, if we adopt this program at work, I'll be cross-grading from my current production software of Autodesk MAP3d (love the cleanup tools) to AutoCAD Architecture (ADT/ACA) and I'm afraid of contaminating my MEP engineers with architecture cooties. :-/ (sorry, Jason M said that earlier today and I couldn't help snickering over it)

This is just one step in setting up an FMDesktop project, but, one of the most important ones.

Read More

Next Meeting of the Gateway AUG March 20th

The next meeting of the Gateway Autodesk User's Group will be Tuesday, March 20th.

We start showing up for food around 6 and try to get the meeting started by 6:30, don't worry if you're a few minutes late, come on along anyway, we all know how traffic can be.

We'll be down at Vatterott Technical College (the front lobby of the building closest to the entrance), and our food and handouts will be sponsored by Seiler Instruments.

We'll be doing some CAD tips and tricks (nothing too discipline-specific) and will have handouts and door prizes available (loads of goodies!), along with the usual pizza, snacks and soda/water.

Everyone is welcome to attend. Ask (and perhaps answer) questions and just be ready for a good old geeky time.

Read More

50000 Visits to the Dork Side! My blog reaches a milestone!

Wow. I just noticed my counter ticked past 50,000 hits today. Wow. I know, that doesn't sound like a whole lot when you compare me to most autodesk and cad management-geared blogs, but, heck, I think it's still pretty impressive for someone in a niche field like Facilities Management.

I started this blog as a communication tool for my Local User's Group (affiliated with AUGI), at the suggestion of then-president Brian Myers. It is much easier to keep up with than the monthly newsletter I used to make.

I started blogging in April of 2005, but, didn't add a counter until July of that year; so, 50,000 hits since then.

So, I make announcements for the gateway aug and augi, talk about the salary survey, facilities management and give tips and tricks on programs I use (from autocad, map, adt (aca), fmdesktop and microsoft office products)... and I like funny stuff, too.

Some of the searches I've noticed that are popular are 'Select Similar' 'AEC objects' 'Print plt files' 'cafm programs' 'bim standard' 'bim cafm' and 'mistress training'
~helpless shrug~ well, what can you do? It's an occupational hazard of being the Mistress of the Dorkness. ;)

My hit counter says that about 20% of my hits are repeat visitors, but, as that is based on ip-address, it's hard to say how accurate that is with the prevalence of wireless access points.

Thank you, faithful reader, for coming back time and again, I hope I manage to offer some good tips and timely news about the CAD/Design Industry.

Read More

Women of Note in St. Louis

I just recently picked up another issue of the fabulous St. Louis Woman magazine.

I thought I'd point out a great feature... 'Women of Note'. This segment introduces us to women making a difference in the community. For example, a mother of four being a mayor, a hard-working fund-raiser, someone bringing to light health issues and education.

Check out the rest of the site with material on women's heart health and to download a free eBook on surviving cancer.

Also, check out StLouis BizWomen.com's Success Profiles.

You might also want to pop by St. Louis Women's Journal. It doesn't appear that they have a regular column profiling admirable women, but, they do mention plenty of great ladies in their various features.

Did you know that there is also a directory of Women-owned businesses for the city of St. Louis?

I'm sure there are various other publications in the area that profile some of the greatly talented women of this city and I apologize for not being able to recognize them all.

Read More