Frog Up or Down

Cobie Use I have started to take a serious look at Cobie use as an Architectural Technologist , so I started first with who will want to use it, and came up with a sort of sketch of a projects time line, from design through to construction, through to client hand over. Todays sketch is my first attempt to understand the flow of spreadsheet information, and some of the links that may arise, and what information may flow, from simple room areas, to door and window lists, through to zones and sub zones. It was the last point I started to wonder about, my own experience in that zones created by us, so often get changed, ok fire zones, maybe not, but it got me thinking, about easting and northing zones, which would not be changed or renamed. My view on Cobie files is that they are so ridged, but perhaps thats ok, at the end of the day, deep learning does not care, so I can see them being used by the contractor to link say purchase orders . And certainly clients will use the zo...

Scan to PDF One of the things I am doing at present, is cataloging my construction books in Evernote, so I can include them in any search I do. This I do by scanning the front page for the title, and then as part of the scan, which I save as a pdf, is to include the index pages. The picture today is a screen grab of PDFpen, the program I use to operate my scanner, where you can see the title page followed by two index pages. I also tag the pdf with several tags like construction, Book, and the title, I also will be placing them into a separate folder within Evernote so I can share as required, with my students.

Perhaps one of the biggest things happening to CAD is the way BIM, is adding such richness to the drawings we produce, and so much of this is being exported as Cobie files , a posh way of saying structured spreadsheets. Its here I want to take a look, and I have added a specific section to my CPD to look after this subject. I often teach this to students, and I look at spreadsheets as Four distinct areas of learning, I will briefly list these, but they will take separate blogs to expand on them. Drawing aid Detailing with a view to export Exporting as Cobie files and it use Data Manipulation So first off as a drawing Aid This is were I started, so long ago, playing with spreadsheets on a very old mac, the spreadsheet was basic, and did not have many commands, but it allowed the usual multiply div and subtract, enough to work out petrol us and millage, this I added to over the years to allow area calc, and working out ventilation rates for area or volume, it served...

As Technologists, we are being inundated with data, lots of it from almost everything we do. The easy route is to just delete, or make a folder on your hard drive , and dump it in there thinking you'll sort it later. But there are a few simple tricks that will solve you problem and make it easy to retrieve. First is Email, I use gmail its still the leading service, despite its age,  I get so much, some important and these get tagged and put into a correct folder, the rest just get marked as read, I never ever delete emails. Important ones that I want to keep out side of Gmail , I send to my Evernote account, via the secret email address they give, more on this later. Never ever rely on your hard drive to store important things, I have, like so many done this and lost it all when the disk failed, and it will. With the cloud now so easy to access, I store all items in one of two places, first Google Drive , this has to be a no brainer, its easy to set up, easy to use, and yo...

To day I have added an Email link which will let you know if I post any new articles, please sign up, and you'l get an email to let you know. I thought when I discontinued the Wordpress site, thst the export I got of all my past blogs would be easy to import into Blogger , but it seems after due trial and a lot of research, that its not going to be. Seems I have to break it down into very small lunps to import, so rather than waste time doing that, I will repost some of the more interesting posts, with obvious updates. So signing up might just be a good idea. Related articles Architectural Technologist - ifTTT

A few days ago I posted a new blog , talked about an alternative way to recognise the value of CPD using proper research instead of sitting for an hour listening to a CPD lecture. Well today I want to extend that article, by describing a way to add notes to your CPD list. I keep mine in a google Spreadsheet, and have all sorts of formula to add up and show the time I have spent on a subject, I also have a cell thats a link to an Evernote Folder thats got the research I made for that subject, its an easy way to organise notes, web links and articles you find. Not only is it easy to create, a folder link, but in your notes on the spreadsheet an individual link can be made to a specific article. This is so easy to do, just right click on the folder in Evernote, choose publish and follow the "create link" for adding to your spreadsheet. I have tried this in Google Keep , but the links just don't work well, and as for saving web pages it only saves the URL , where Eve...

I have for a while, in fact I may well have written about this on my old site, But I am a little frustrated with the current thinking on CPD, most seem to think its just a matter of attending some free trade shows , and racking up a few hours listening to sometimes very biast lectures from a trade manufacturer. Don't get me wrong, I have learned a lot from one or two very good manufacturers, Marley Roofing for one, and Leaderflush as another, but so often you leave with no involvement whats so ever, and I question if you have even listened, any learning taken from sparse notes or hand outs. My thoughts on this are not to test your memory after the lecture, this does nothing for you, but drive the attendees away, my thinking on this is going in the direction of perhaps the research, of proper subject lists and research gathered about that subject, rather like a university, PhD research student, producing a reading list, and pulling together thoughts on the current materials t...

I am currently researching Brickwork, for a new construction chapter on the subject, and as I was making notes, I suddenly wondered how many ways can I lay a brick, well the obvious way is stretcher, either long or as a header, we see is all the time in every bond, but there are other ways to see the brick face. As a simple count, I listed 6 ways, thats the two main sides and oriented, see todays photo, but I think I can add two more thats a cut brick, King Closer and Queen Closer. All are used in general brickwork, some as cills, or arch's, some as just plain decorative, some are there to correct the bond at corners or openings. I can add two more thats as a herringbone, laid at an angle, face and end, and if I add colour and texture then the list becomes endless, so I thing 6 is the correct answer. But structurally the answer has to be 2.

If there is to be a major change in the way Architectural Schemes are prepared and used, and AR & VR, Augmented and Virtual Reality products are set to be at the heart of it all. Who ever says that VR is just gaming has not used a Ocular Rift device, to view a scheme, or just play a game, the realtiy is so good you do actually feel immersed into the reality. An article posted by  Huda Salman on Linkedin " The 10 Most Important VR/AR Developments of 2015 ", is an excellent read and well worth an hours CPD, just reading the article and following up on the many links to understand VR and AR. But its the next life of both AR & VR that I see as the real game changer for Architecture . Remember the video World Builder by  BranitFX and Lucamax Pictures , I showed a long while ago, well given the way we I see the current level of Technology, I just don't see how it will be that long before we get a CAD package that allows just this and more. I have loaded the vid...

This is an article I made some time back and it was saved to my Evernote account via ifTTT, I thought I might reblog it. I went through some of my saved details this morning, well I have been doing it for about a week now, looking through saved scraps I have made, from Skirting’s, to Screws, to plasterboard details, to this detail pitched eaves-1,  I found of a pitched roof eaves detail, I can’t remember where I found it, but its not bad, the ventilation is there, the insulation in the right place, the cold bridging has been almost removed, I might not use the small batten at the ceiling edge, but as a detail it works. So often I have saved details and come back to then years later, wondering whats so special about this, well from now on I save things like this into Evernote , with a small detailed description, perhaps if I can remember where I got it, or if I was the creator, pertinent notes on constructi...

Some time back I wrote a book on the easy use of Vectorworks as a2D drawing CAD package, I now have it for sale @ £1.99 on my web personal Web Site as a downloadable pdf. It was written as a guide to a series of lectures I was doing to teach Vectorworks to Gardeners and other surveyors. It's very basic but it has all the information I used to teach the Simple use of Vectorworks, and add a few of the specialist sides such as Classing, Viewports, and Printing. I will be issuing an updated version in the near furture, with more Videos and links, plus some rewriting of parts for Vectorworks 2016. http://scaysbrook.co.uk/book-store.html  Related articles 6 Best Laptops for Architecture Students and Architects Onshape CAD Software Leaves Beta How Vectorworks' New Energos Tool Makes Sustainable Design a Snap

Over on my hoffou-framtioar Futurism blog , I have written on the way Robots may or may not take over the world , its a look at the problem and my list to read up on the subject This Video is a great intro into Robotic and AI, John Markoff is a guest of Tech News Today and John goes through the problem quite well. Related articles Is a Robot 'Cambrian Explosion' Possible? Robot Revolution Prompts Scientists To Launch AI Advocacy Group Artificial Morality? The Internet of Things Elon Musk & his Super Friends Promise to Foil Evil Robot Plans of the Future