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AEC Newsletter archive:
Geoffrey Moore Langdon
CADENCE AEC Tech News # 36 (October 15, 2000)
AEC Tech News 10/15/2000
In This Issue:
Sending Drawings
internet hard drives
iDesign Online
AutoCAD LT 2000i
Architectural CADD College 2000
Microstation Engineering Links
Distributed Drawings - Sending Drawings
When you need to get a CADD drawing immediately to a colleague there are a few obstacles. Assuming you have already worked out any of the legal liability issues, the specific CADD program (or file translation) issues, which layers or sections to send, and how to include fonts/images/hatches/linetypes/symbols, plus any related xrefs, you still need to actually GET it there. Sending the (hopefully zipped) file as an attachment to an email works for small files, but is fraught with enough potential glitches (over swamped email boxes, internet filesize limits, deferred transfer of large files, and so on) that many offices still resort to burning CDs and physically sending them via FedEx or even via those bicycle guys. Two solutions which have worked far better, particularly with no filesize limits and perfect reliability, are using a commercial Extranet for a project, or simply putting the file in a library area on a firm's web site (where a click on it will automatically FTP it to the receiver). One issue there though, is that both those systems must already be in place to work, and, sometimes when I suggest either technique to firms, I receive that glazed look of technology overload. Another option has newly surfaced - one that is ridiculously easy, simple, and free - that of internet hard drives in the form of www.idrive.com and www.xdrive.com.
Distributed Storage - internet hard drives - xdrive/idrive
You just go to the web site of either www.idrive.com and www.xdrive.com and you instantly have another 25 - 50 meg of storage, and both companies include software which will even make their "drive" show up in your Windows Explorer as just another storage drive. I use both services from Macintosh as well as from Windows systems as I travel around teaching and troubleshooting in various design offices (though idrive is a bit more Mac friendly). Between the internet hard drives and Microsoft's free hotmail.com I can now sit down at any system at any school, office, library, or even cybercafe, and use it as though it were mine. For CADD managers, the ability to post a drawing (or macros/programs/setups) in either a public shared or private folder with passwords in a snap - all for free - is wonderful. Getting drawings to colleagues is now easier than ever. As a "heads-up" to managers and principals, though, this has a huge potential for abuse, so make sure you have that office ethics policy posted on your OfficeWeb - see AEC Tech Oct. 1 for help.
Distributed Learning - iDesign Online
All this month and next Autodesk is joining the recent fray of online distance e-learning already pioneered by many colleges through WebCT, training centers, the AIA at aiaonline.com and Bentley at viecon.com. The classes scheduled for specific times are presented by experts and muckymucks including CEO Carol Bartz. One of the nice things about the Third Wave was that all this interdispersed computing would free us from the central key of the old Second Wave technology - The Clock. This is why I find it particularly disturbing that, because of other commitments, so far I have missed every one of the seminars I have signed up for. I would guess that, because of the huge numbers of people involved, there is not going to be a lot of "student" input to these classes, so that they will end up essentially being presentation lectures, so why not do them as digital tutorial movies you could download and run at ANY time like what they do at www.cadd.bigstep.com. The link to the archives of past iDesign classes is listed below. I would like to hear from anyone who has successfully attended one of these online classes.
Distributed Attention - AutoCAD LT 2000i
At a college where I teach AutoCAD LT 2000i, the students were overwhelmed with the number of windows of information that pop up on starting the software, and were bewildered how to even start drawing a drawing. This new version automatically links you online to a web site called PointA which is possibly helpful, but really just more gimmicky. I think I would rather pull up my own calendar or project notes from an internal OfficeWeb or Outlook. Another window called Active Assistance pops up on virtually every mouse click, which becomes annoying so quickly that I even gave extra credit to the first student who came up with how to turn "active assistance" OFF ! (you right-click in the Windows tool bar.) Navigating yet another window with several drawing management features makes me wonder why File Open and Save needed such improvement. It all results in a lot more class distraction and disruption for those of us trying to teach AutoCAD.
Distributed CADD Skills - Architectural CADD College 2000
For those wanting to expand their CADD skills beyond vanilla AutoCAD, Architectural CADD College 2000 is a special Boston Society of Architects event on October 25 - 26 covering AutoCAD ArchitecturalDesktop, DataCAD, ArchiCAD, IntelliCAD, VectorWorks Architect, and Design WorkShop.
Distributed Hyperlinks - Microstation Engineering Links
As a followup to the discussion on Hyperlinks in the last issue, such Hyperlinks have been in all of Bentley's CADD software since 1996 (established so long that it skipped my mind) and they are "very much in agreement with your assessment about the added-value that hyperlinking design data provides." Their nomenclature is "Engineering Links" and it is integral to MicroStation/J, MicroStation SE, MicroStation PowerDraft v7.1, MicroStation PowerScope v7.1, Viecon.review, and more. To give due credit, it is this technology that Bentley executives demonstrated to me years ago, that gave me ideas for the immense potential of hyperlinks now AutoCAD, DataCAD, Arris, Revit, Aperture, and the others.
Links :
idrive = http://www.idrive.com
xdrive = http://www.xdrive.com
iDesign Online = http://idesign.autodesk.com/idesign/z200.html
WebCT online classes = http://www.webct.com
AIA architectural tutorials = http://www.aiaonline.com
viecon tutorials = http://viecon.com
cadd.bigstep.com tutorials = http://www.cadd.bigstep.com
AutoCAD LT 2000i = http://www.autodesk.com
PointA personal project extranet = http://www.pointa.autodesk.com
Architectural CADD College 2000 = http://www.architecturalcadd.com/seminars/cadd2000.htm
Bentley MicroStation = http://www.bentley.com
About Geoffrey Moore Langdon, AIA
Prof. Langdon is a registered architect and is the principal of Architectural CADD Consultants, a firm that specializes in helping architectural firms with computing and CADD. He has taught Design, Solar Energy, and Architectural CADD at a number of colleges in the Boston area. He is the author of Architectural CADD: A Resource Guide to Design and Production Software Appropriate for Architects, a guest speaker at many AIA events, and the founder and organizer of the Designers 3D CAD Shootout competition. contact him at aectechnews@architecturalcadd.com, or through his website: http://www.architecturalcadd.com
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