"We can iso that"

Linking In

2011-10-21T15:09:00.000-07:00

So today it was breakfast with the Transportation Committee Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce at which the economic weather forecast from the government spokesman was "increased volatility and uncertainty on all fronts". Your scribe followed that with a two hour session at a Sandler training center getting to drill down deeper into LinkedIn. Expect an invitation soon!

2011-10-21T15:03:00.001-07:00

Where did the time go?

2011-08-28T20:46:00.000-07:00

2011 is speeding by so fast I can't keep up. We have been involved in some prestigious educational projects with the likes of Mortenson Construction through a client relationship with a couple of MEP subcontractors, become re-acquainted with Revit MEP, made measurable advances in proficiency with Autcad MEP and Navisworks Manage, and now are collaborating with our former client Virtual Buildiong Logistics on a prototype package for a National Pharmacy Retail Chain. I have also had the privilage of being a panelist at two Bluebook presentations, and won an I-Pad doorprize at a Colorado Association of General Contractors BIM Expo. We are currently exploring possibilities with a well known Architectural practice setting out on the transition from 2d to 3d building design. Our involvement with Trimble has also moved forward as one of our clients purchased a robotic total station and realized its full potential in a multi-storey building with a Pentagon-like foorprint. We are also currently evaluating Tekla's entry into the VDC marketplace with its TEKLABIMSIGHT offering and laser-scanning wares. All very high tech and glitzy, but when all is said and done, collaboration is about people thinking and acting beyond their normal horizons.

2011-08-28T20:22:00.001-07:00

More high tech every day

New Year, New Business

2011-01-15T22:07:00.000-08:00

It's been a while, time for another post. My new venture, CC2BL, INC is now official in Nevada, and soon to be legit in Colorado. After lying dormant for quite a while, my website hosting has been re-established and I learned that the price of that omission was to get to redesign the entire site. Oh joy. Commerce, like the weather here, blows hot and cold. Still not getting to iso anything, but the mep coordination is humming along, and I've picked up some consulting work. Total Station is in the offing - wecanlayoutthat! way faster than a guy with a tape and string line. Since I got into this business back in 86, the progression has been 2d autocad to 3d autocad to 2d microstation to 3d integraph PDS+SmartPlant DesignReview+Isogen to kinda 3d Fire-ACAD to 3d CAD-Pipe to 3d CAD-Duct/Mech+Architectural Desktop to 3d QuickPen DD3D/PD3D to Revit MEP+Architecture to Autocad MEP+Architecture to 3D East Coast Fab with some Carrier HAP, Trane Trace, Navisworks Jetstream and then Manage along the way, not to mention dabbling in Ecotect and Green Building Studio. Yes the only thing constant is change. I learned so much in 2009/2010 and am continuing in that vein in 2011 with Paul F Aubin et al, learning the right way to wrestle Autocad MEP to the ground, and Autodesk Revit MEP 2010 fundamentals from the folks at advanced solutions. It was so good to see that my previously developed thinking on how to run with Project Navigator is in complete synch with Paul's advice. And thanks to a tip from the lazy drafter, I purchased Revit 2010 Family Standards and Best Practices - take the dysfunction out of your families by Shawn Zibes & Integrated Content Solutions Inc. I also now participate in the Denver Revit User Group and the Denver Boulder Architect Group. Seems I can't live without a" face" and a "suit" plus a bookkeeper and a banker, I gotta up my rates or get a whole bunch faster. That pretty much brings us up-to-date so it's back to cleaning up some-one els'es mess and preparing for the next great project.

A new take on BIM visualiztion

2010-12-03T17:48:00.000-08:00

A new take on BIM visualiztion

Making Project Vasari

2010-11-26T09:51:00.000-08:00

Making Project Vasari

CAD is dead - long live CAD

2010-11-11T15:55:00.000-08:00

Well I can't take credit for thinking of this, but I can help spread the word. Computer Assisted Drafting is now Collaboration Analysis and Design. So watch for Autodesk Project Vasari. Not sure what that is, neither is the Revit Kid, but he'll tell when he finds out.

Now is the summer of our content

2010-11-10T10:56:00.000-08:00

Apologies to Willie for that title, couldn't resist. Looking out the window this morning I see it has truly passed because things are looking kinda white out thee on the front range. But hey with three pc's and four monitors cooking inside it's real toasty.

Grand Coulee Dam

it snows in Kamloops?

new Black & Black wheels

Number 1's new venture Black & Black

Travel: we made it up to Canada again this summer for three district conventions

Recognize this guy? Hint: he lives in Brooklyn NYC

and saw a bunch of old friends.

Met with our IT Manager

Toys were discussed at a Board Meeting in Abbotsford BC

got an oil change from our Service Manager

Spent some time with the grandkids

Mataya

Remington (Steal)

We went across the pond in the friendly skies

to see poor old mumsy, now in the stroke ward of a nice hospital in St Leonard's-on-Sea - guess anything is an improvement on the dementia ward in an old folks home right?

See how they run, NOT!

At The Ranch:

Can't believe they wanted $800 to do this

: the fence is finished in the backyard

My kinda spring cleaning!

R & R
All work and no play......

Our HR Director with Mataya at the Denver Zoo

Camping at Rampart

On Assignment:
2009-2010 saw a variety of work assignments - here are the highlights

ME Group - Revit MEP

Quickpen and TSI

More Revit MEP

The VBL Denver Metro crew at a typical strategy session

And a new Corporation was born

Our new Corporate Logo

Visit us at

To keep the founders trim and slim with lots of vital energy, we appointed a Director of Health and Wellness, our son Paul. He and his spouse stopped by to make sure we were on track with our program

Our Electrical Consultant dropped in for a consultation on our corporate headquarters renovation

We had a great summer here on the front range, but not without the odd incident:

And an old faithful friend lost his sight

That pretty much brings us up to date. Watch this space

2010-04-11T19:45:00.000-07:00

So now that with the passage of time I'm older and supposedly wiser, for safety and health reasons, here's what I do when I'm volunteering and it's hot out:

To see where I volunteer, navigate to http://kingdomhall.newspasiding.com/

Didn't iso anything but did strip a bunch of curb forms and do a lot of tidying up. Almost 300 yards of concrete paving laid down between Friday and Saturday. Just about at the halfway mark.

Bimpotency

2010-04-07T12:41:00.000-07:00

Revit 3d coined a new word - don't you just love it?

http://bit.ly/biEq8Z

try it, you'll like it.

I'd like to iso that

2010-03-24T17:25:00.000-07:00

Created in AutocadMEP

Wot are weekends for? (if not for hanging pipe)

2010-03-21T16:17:00.000-07:00

I've got to tell you, this Autocad MEP isn't so bad after all, in fact it has some very cool revit-type stuff. And with the right customization it can be extremely lifelike. So todays play might not be isoistic but its very virtual and exteme fun. Now if could just get paid for it..............

a moving experience

2010-03-14T21:02:00.000-07:00

So no, we didn't iso that, but as part of the closeout proceedings on the old homestead, we did fix the leaking cleanout on the big wye at the bottom of the picture. Amazing stuff WD40.

presto - it's all back together again.

and finally.................we went from this................

to stuffed full with a little help from our friends. That's a full 27 feet long!

and that was the end of the mortgage!

2010-03-14T20:47:00.000-07:00

yes it's all happening here in beautiful Commerce City where a new KH is soon to rise in no time flat.

making an investment

2010-03-14T20:44:00.000-07:00

Not having been paid to play (again) for a while, its time for something completely different. Virtual Building Construction - as mr S (he of the pointy ears) would say - quite logical So they beamed me up and here I am - investing my (free) time (virtually) at a certain well known educational establishment on the East Coast - Ivy League plus plus.
you've got to be kidding - there's no way all that stuff will fit in that tiny space.............
Not sure if we'll get to iso any of it but just the modeling is heaps of fun, and ductwork with AMEP is always interesting. And I get to play with Project Navigator again.
Pretty soon we'll see if and how big (well) the investment returns are. With the overhead lowered to the bare bones, the bottom end should be well withing reach and everything else is gravy after that. The good news is that the new schedule should permit the good news to be spread more often. The aim is to fill the jar with the big theocratic balls first, then the secular pebbles, and then the personal sand. Sooner be the master's slave than anyone elses.

tweeting away

2010-02-10T11:04:00.001-08:00

you can now follow me @fishandchips47 on twitter

we have been having technical difficulties

2010-02-10T11:03:00.000-08:00

But they are now fixed so I am back into the blogosphere. I remember the bad old days of "dos". It seems they haven't really gone away.

we did iso that

2009-11-16T01:36:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to the New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins on being the first victim since my return to the working world.

so underground drainage is a bit of a challenge due to the fall and odd angles. I resorted to rotating the model for some of the runs to get a decent view angle.

MMI in Lincoln, the gauntlet has been thrown, the challenge is out there.

eureka!

2009-11-07T14:49:00.001-08:00

well the editsense thing seems to have taken effect
Thanks http://therevitkid.com/

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

2009-11-07T14:48:00.000-08:00

Why did I have a daughter?
Why indeed
Why did I have children?
Why didn't I stick to terriers?
Heading to the poor house on the slippery slope
Good thing I can still iso that!

feedburner

2009-11-07T14:43:00.001-08:00

Must be good - migrated to google
Working with it - not sure how successfully
New technology hard on an old fart like me

we can iso that again!

2009-10-24T18:10:00.000-07:00

So I'm off the breadline after a 6 month hiatus. Whoopdedoo.
Will it be good for me? Time will tell. Got my very own office again.
Hello Quickpen - I missed you.
I might even get to AU this year - we talked about it.
The first project will be a nick, so back to the dreaded triangular chases and special bars/grilles for all openings. Haven't done one of these since oh I don't know, 20002 maybe. Of course, there's also a brewery - gotta love those. Lots of stainless steel drainlines. I'll be tweaking the ole database for those fittings no doubt. Then there's the sad sad case of the outsourced ductwork models - only 174 hits! Gonna have to get good with autocad mep duct in a hurry. Could it be worse than Kuck Mechanical, well its drafted by a gal, so..............
Hey at least the commute is a dream, just straight down I-76 to Pecos, or even Federal - there's a railroad crossing that always seems to be blocked by a long line of not-moving hopper cars.
Seem like nice folks. Hope this pans out. Gotta keep a lid on the OT. And keep playing with Revit, my retirement fund(er). And my P.E. project, mustn't forget that.

A revelation

2009-10-20T00:59:00.001-07:00

After six months on the breadline, I can honestly say that there's more to this job search thingy than meets the eye. Fortunately, help is at hand.

2009-10-06T00:57:00.000-07:00

Rrrrrevit!
Yes folks, Revit MEP rules, AUGI is Awesome.
So now we just wait to see if the next big thing is consulting or design-build contracting. Either way, Revit MEP will be in my future.
Dinner with the Denver Revit User Group on Thursday, courtesy of CAD-1.

life after work

2009-09-28T23:07:00.000-07:00

time was when that phrase meant a cold one and fire up the barbie. still, being paid to take the summer off ain't all bad. not too much isoing in Revit MEP unless you count plumbing riser diagrams, but hey its a really neat program nevertheless. so where will your scribe end up next? maybe any of the following: Denver, San Antonio, Houston, LA, NYC, San Francisco, Twin Cities, Philadelphia, DC, Pittsburg, Woburn MA, Qatar, Madrid, Norfolk UK, Fairbanks or Anchorage - who knows. anything is possible. 221 apps and counting. on the bright side - one interview this week and shortlisted for another job from a week ago. several headhunters sniffing around and two more in reserve.

2009-08-22T15:31:00.000-07:00

Just sitting at the airport minding my own business like and I noticed this thing of beauty above. Do you think the loop was big enough?

Revit MEP has some very nice features for running generic pipe and duct. Love the trim, section and align commands.

2009-08-19T23:54:00.000-07:00

Having finished both Revit Architectural and MEP tutorials, I am now getting to put these new found skills to good use with a contract at a prominent consulting firm. Very nice, although 2009 version not as good as 2010 I studied. Love that ribbon.

2009-08-12T21:47:00.000-07:00

Oh wow - talk about an experience. Look ma, no gall bladder! Hence the deafeneing silence for the last month or so.

It's good to be back. Knee deep in Revit MEP now, which of course doesn't do isos of anything.

web page design

2009-06-23T21:50:00.000-07:00

So this business of designing a web page is tougher than I thought. Sort of like buying cad software, the demo looked great, you get it home and test drive it and whoa! this is harder than it looks, time consuming too. But in order to get stuff to iso, I need orders, clients, customers which means web page. I've got the home page down, and the about us page but I have to figure out how to delete some stuff I don't want and add some stuff I do for the other three pages. 5 pages is all I get for my dime. Now picture this: The scene is a castle under seige back in the day. Across from the moat is a new catapult. It's been fired. Splattered all over the castle wall fairly near the top is the body of a soldier from the attacking army. Ugly. The king is looking askance at his engineer who says "Funny, the prototype worked great!" (with apologies to non sequitur). Seemed relevant somehow.

One day in paradise blends into another.......

2009-06-22T22:08:00.000-07:00

The search goes on - still looking for that perfect day job - actually any day job would be just fine. I never really liked being a government artist drawing UI.

Got this really neat free logo making software from our friends at AZpiping. Here's a look at what I did with it. Yes plan B (always have a plan B folks) is to be an independent.

So far 26 potential hirers and counting excluding my friends at Cad-Tech in Delaware. Guess they don't realize an energetic tireless 24year old lurks in this ancient frame.

Am now a student licensee of Revit MEP Suite and Navisworks Manage (2020 versions). Looks like it'll work great for BIM but prefab is quite another matter.

Did some networking today with Tom Stright and Kevin Allen. Cool guys who really get around.

You never know.
(Ecclesiastes 11:1) . . .Send out your bread upon the surface of the waters, for in the course of many days you will find it again. . .

Maybe I'll continue in that vein with Dr Brown and Brett Stacks over on the dark side (that's a TSI in-joke) tomorrow.

we can't iso that

2009-06-20T01:02:00.000-07:00

Being unemployed results in the title of this post. So what to do. Checked out Autodesk Assistance program and registered, downloaded Revit MEP Suite and Navisworks Manage. Also joined Typepad so I can post in various MEP blogs. Got myself an igoogle home page - very nice.

Thats about it - not much of a cheese shop at the moment.

Ah, those were the days.

safety first middle and last

2009-06-15T22:08:00.000-07:00

THINK SAFETY. SAFETY IS NO ACCIDENT!

2009-06-15T17:43:00.000-07:00

Today's thought - pay attention, sweat the details, because this is what happens when you don't. As you can see, they thought they could get by with a pair of snips, but wait - see that tdf flange - how were they going to get the tile to lay-in?

2009-06-14T23:31:00.000-07:00

My first LEED project. All the equipment submittals had to be redone - the vendors didn't know how to format for certification review.

2009-06-14T22:57:00.000-07:00

Here I am, back at the keyboard, thinking about my next post. So do you think I could remember how to do that? Apparently not. Had to watch the create a blog video again.

blog construction site

2009-06-13T02:18:00.000-07:00

An example of how to minimize excavation costs and thus maximise profits.