Hello Sunshine!
It's funny, I spent years fighting the good fight by trying to keep up with the constant changes that result from indecisive project owners, incompetent design staff, and a total lack of fucks given on the part of those who decided to throw Revit into the midst of an already unstable system under the delusion that all of that other shit would somehow work itself out.
I sidestepped that shit show, but still find myself downstream from it from time to time, which makes it necessary to take steps to prevent myself from winding up wading in fecal matter. I received a call the other day from someone in one of our other offices asking about (yet another) hotel where someone reviewing our drawings pointed out that we hadn't put the necessary devices into hearing impaired guest units.
I pointed out to the caller that I had responded to these comments several months ago with some pertinent questions, but received no response (meaning they never read my e-mail, or read it and forgot about it) I forwarded the e-mail to them (yes, forwarded the same e-mail that I had already sent them).
Now, even though I have considerable experience in the skill of convincing people who don't want to deal with their own projects to pay attention for long enough to grasp the intricacies, it can still be difficult to get them to understand the questions that I ask require more than two word responses (and may actually require them to do their fucking jobs).
In this case, after reviewing the drawings we received from the engineer, it became clear that there was no way to actually determine which guest units were hearing impaired. Their typical units only had normal and ADA plans - although I did find one note buried on one of the sheets about hearing impaired unit requirements.
While looking at the list of units they claimed were hearing impaired I started to see that (most of) these units had a '-CF' added to the end of the unit type (although what '-CF' was supposed to indicate was nowhere on the drawings). Looking harder, I found that even that wasn't consistent throughout all of the floors (with some '-CF' units not being on their list, and some on their list without '-CF'.
The one difference between what I used to do and what I do now, is that when there are mistakes, inconsistencies, etc. on the drawings we receive (or changes come along later), we can charge to make these changes. It would sometimes happen at my old job (if the changes were being driven by the owner, and the project manager had the sack to ask for more money), but it's standard practice here.
It still requires getting the project manager on board with the fact that the information we received was incomplete, and that it wasn't an oversight on our part. Fortunately (as always), because I'm using CAD, I was able to put together updated plans quickly so they can see the extent of the changes that were necessary.
I doubt that the explanation that I provided them (and outlined here) will ever get to the people who made the comments (although when I send these drawings - I'm going to reiterate it again). I guess I shouldn't be surprised though - since every project I've ever done with 'typical' units required grabbing someone by the face and convincing them that units requiring special attention need to be brought to my attention.
If I'm successful in making my case, they might even keep me in the loop when changes that affect me are made (the second the decision to make those changes is made - and not when those changes finally make their way onto drawings/models).
Revitards made a clusterfuck out of a the last building with typical units I ever had the displeasure of looking at in Revit (by trying to detail out a specific unit in the overall plan for each 'typical' unit). Even after extensive planning, I still had to hold their hand through the process (imagine that).
Now that I'm one step removed from that whole process, I have to rely on someone taking the initiative to send me updated drawings - but as I mentioned earlier, whether they give them to me now, or wait until later, they are getting charged.
Fuck incompetent morons, and since there is a good chance their incompetence is being multiplied exponentially through the use of Revit, then fuck it too.
Now Go Fuck Yourself,
-Skullfuck
Next Time: Diverting The Bus
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