OT: Comment Moderation

I apologize to the couple of good comments left waiting in a queue for a couple of days.

When I first started this blog, I didn't have any type of restrictions on commenting. Then, after a fellow CAD-blogger spammed my blog with links, I turned on the 'word verification' feature to make that more of a hassle.

Lately, I've gotten sick of having to log in just to delete spam comments, so I've caved and turned on 'comment moderation'.

I apologize for the hassle that  both of these might cause anyone, but, unfortunately, some folks just don't care about common internet courtesy, so it becomes a necessity.

Thank you for your understanding.

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2010 Salary Survey ends July 10th

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Please, take a few minutes to input some data for the AUGI Annual Salary Survey. We can only report on what you tell us. 

Your industry, your pay range, your feelings of job satisfaction and job security, the survey is anonymous and will only be reported in large groups.

Please feel free to look over the questions asked in the survey, as well as answers to the Frequently Asked Questions from the membership.

Thank you for your contribution to this resource, the results will be published in the Fall issue of AUGIWorld Magazine.

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UNM BIM Survey : "View of the future for Facilities Management"

I was recently informed of a survey on BIM for Facility Management. I was expecting it to focus primarily on design and construction, but, it actually talked more about Operations and Maintenance (such as the use of Work Order Management (CMMS - eg. IBM Maximo, Aims, Archibus, Datastream Infor, TMA Systems, Micromain, etc etc etc)).
If you work in Facilities, I'd encourage you to add your data and opinions. I just took the survey myself, it was less than five minutes of my time. The only warning I have is that one of the questions necessitates that you watch a video, and it is hosted on YouTube, which is blocked in my workplace and others.
Here's a description from the survey introduction. 

Francisco Forns-Samso, graduate student in the Construction Program at the University of New Mexico(UNM), in collaboration with BIMWorkx, are conducting a research study in the area of Building Information Modeling (BIM) for Facilities Management (FM). The intent of this study is to determine the perceived value and future benefits of using BIM as portal to visualize and access important Operation and Maintenance (O&M) information. The survey consists of a two (2) part questionnaire :  initial set questions on your facility characteristics and how you currently perform O&M activities and a follow on set of questions after watching a short "View of the Future for FM" video. To complete survey including watching the video should take about 5 minutes.

The results of this research will be published and distributed upon request to those who are interested.

Please note that your name and that of your facility will not be identified with any of the results.

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Two Autodesk events in St. Louis this week 4/29/10

I was a little late hearing about these, so I wanted to make sure I shared... These FREE events are both this Thursday, April the 29th.


http://www.hagerman.com/upcoming_Events/2011_launch_stlouis-aec.asp
There'll be one out at Hagerman's offices. Kate Morrical and Joe Gould from Autodesk, and our very own Tomislav Zigo will be presenting at that.
They're covering AutoCAD 2011, Revit Architecture 2011 and BIM for Construction.


https://solutions.seilerinst.com/NewsandEvents/tabid/143/vw/3/ItemID/103/d/20100429/Default.aspx
This one is put on by Seiler but will be held at the offices of the Lawrence Group downtown.
William Spier from Autodesk will be speaking.
"BIM for Buildings Retrofit & Renovation- Autodesk 2011 Seize the Opportunity Special Event"
This live event is exclusively geared towards Executive Management, Owners, Building Owners, Architects and Structural Engineers who want to discover all the ways new Autodesk® 2011 BIM solutions for Buildings can help turn their business challenges into opportunities - so you can profit more and waste less.  Additionally, in this unique event setting you will see first hand a demonstration and discussions how utilizing 3D Laser Scanning Technology for Building Retrofit & Renovation is being utilized in many BIM models today.


I hope that if anyone is interested in attending, there will still be some open spots available.

Obviously I'll be attending the one on Building Retrofit & Renovation, hope to see some of you there.

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Celebrating Milestones this Spring

So, I've got some milestones this spring that have caused me to do a bit of reflecting.

First and foremost, I just ticked over into a new decade, having celebrated my 30th birthday yesterday. I won't bother boring you with the meandering story of my life, but, rest assured, I've seen a few things and called more than a few places 'home'.
Here's hoping I have learned a few things that will make my next 30 years even better than the first.

My second milestone, as it coincides with my birthday, is the fact that I've just marked a decade with my employer. Random reminisces here from my recent office move.
10 years ago, I was working three pedestrian jobs in an attempt to pay my way through college. My friend's Dad told me about a position in the company he worked for, and I was hired as a temp. I hope that they agree they made a good investment in me (and continue to do so). My work is so different from that which I was hired to do back then. I've completed one Associate's degree and have almost finished my Bachelor's (actually, I just applied for a Master's program as well, and my coursework will overlap), as well as having attended Autodesk University eight times, two AUGI CAD Camps, having been a member of AUGI for nine years and constant immersion in the industry to try to keep my knowledge fresh.

Work ID Badge Photo - 20 years old

My third and final milestone is the 5th anniversary of this weblog. Here is my introductory post, along with the story of how I got the name for the blog.
Since the inception, I've blogged about AutoCAD 2000 through AutoCAD 2011 (okay, I *will* be posting about AutoCAD 2011). I've also used MAP3d and AutoCAD Architecture and posted resources for them, as well as my foray into FMDesktop CAFM software. Currently I'm migrating to the Revit MEP suite and helping to support our CMMS software migration. Of the 340 articles/announcements/tips I have posted, well, I'll admit my smattering of tips about Access and other MS Office products and hardware seem a little random; I am inspired to post about what I'm working on at the time, and my work *is* pretty random. ;-)

Social media was non-existent when I was born and in it's infancy when I started my current job. Five years ago there were perhaps a dozen Autodesk product-geared bloggers and now there are dozens and dozens (I had a list a couple of years ago, I got over 120 in the list before I gave up keeping up with them all). The world is changing fast, and boy, what a ride.

How long have you worked for your current employer? How long have you held a certain position in industry? Please, feel free to reminisce with me. :-)

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AU notes: CADalyst

While at Autodesk University 2009, I was fortunate enough to be invited to join the CADalyst writer's breakfast.

I had a lovely time meeting and chatting with the CADalyst/Longitude Media staff (Seth, Nancy and Cyrena), as well as a couple of experienced authors and tech gurus, Bill Fane and Paul Aubin.
I don't want to sound like too much of a fan-girl, but, I was pretty much beside myself getting to talk with these guys in this circumstance (fun fact: Bill has been writing for CADalyst since I was in kindergarten, wow!).
While I resisted the urge to do anything lame like ask for autographs, I did have to ask for a photo.

Look at me!!! Hangin with Bill & Paul!!! :-D

The big news from the discussion was that CADalyst can now be bought in print. The sample issue I saw is slightly larger than a traditional magazine, and with a much higher quality paper.


For more writing/editing geeks, here's my report from AU2007 on all of the great folks I have worked with.

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Current Work

As I mentioned last June, I have doubled my course load at Saint Louis University's School for Professional Studies. My summer semester really kicked my tail with some hard classes, and I certainly stayed busy in the fall, but, I had every intention of making some quality blog posts while I was on winter break.

Of course, I didn't know that I'd be extended the wonderful opportunity to work as the Technical Editor on the next edition of AutoCAD: No Experience Required. The author updating the text is fellow under-30 blogger, Donnie Gladfelter (better known as The CAD Geek).
I first had the pleasure of meeting Donnie at the AutoCAD 2010 launch (my tweets), and also caught up with him at AU2009. You can check out some of his videos and Ask the Expert archive from the AutoCAD Exchange (we recorded our videos in the same studio and I still crack up when I remember how many times he had to start over to prevent himself from saying 'paramedic' constraints hehehe).
So, obviously, there are a lot of deadlines associated with working with Donnie, and the fine folks at Wiley, so I've been neglecting my blog even further. I apologize, especially to those kind readers who emailed me to make sure I hadn't actually fallen off the face of the planet.

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Now, with regard to my day job, I'm currently managing one of the largest projects I've ever been assigned (Project Management ups and downs = Upside: I don't have to do the work myself. Downside = Tons and tons of paperwork.), so that is fairly exciting.

Obviously we're also still in our slow ramp up to BIM adoption in my facility, trying to make sure the lines of communication are clearly open with everyone staying in the loop and driving toward the same goals. It's extremely interesting and a great learning experience.

Also, we've essentially completed our long review of CMMS systems and should be making our final decision soon, then we move onto the adoption/migration itself. It's... long overdue.

In addition to our normal construction and troubleshooting, our office is as busy as always.

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School continues to be a challenge. The courses are run on compressed eight-week schedules, so that makes for some long nights and a lot of homework, it's extremely intense. However, my Professors are all really great teachers, I've felt engaged in all of my courses, and I sure don't remember that from my previous forays into the world of academia.

My current class is Programming Logic and Design, in a few weeks, I'll begin Organizational Studies and Principles of Event-driven Programming. Really good courses.

I'm also a student blogger (I know, I'm SORRY!) and am looking forward to volunteering at an upcoming Blood Drive with the ASL.

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Remember, if you want to chat with some of the local St. Louis CAD geeks, pop into the Gateway AUG's google group forum.

You can find me on micro-blog site Twitter:
MelaniePerry <- General CAD/Technology/OT/family tweets
MistresDorkness <- postings and highlights from CAD & BIM events I attend

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