Here we go again.
I picked up another project - two buildings, one three story with 72 units, and one four story with 63 units. The plans were obviously done in Revit, however there was no attempt at making the typical units based on anything in the buildings.
It was immediately apparent something was wrong though, because they had still attempted to overlay the typical units on the floor plan - and in every single unit, the stove/range extended nearly all the way through the adjacent wall.
What struck me as odd was that I had reviewed a .pdf set and hadn't noticed it looking as fucked up as the plans I was setting up to use, so I took a closer look at them and was amused to find that the way they had made it work was by squeezing the stove/range to fit (leaving the eyes/burners on the range oval shaped).
I supposed it's possible that the width of the range is now correct based on the model they are going to install - however it still looked stupid on the .pdfs and completely retarded on my plans, and even though nobody is installing countertops based on my plan, I'm not about to send out my drawings looking like ass.
Quickly stopping to thank my lucky stars that I wasn't constrained by the idiotic shit that someone else crapped out in Revit, I dove in and fixed the plans (along with any number of other fuckups that have apparently become acceptable since Revit turned everyone's brains to shit).
Even though there was no difference between the building dimensions down both sides of the corridors, they had still somehow fucked up the dimensions within individual units (it would have been unnoticeable except when I attempted to align multiple ranges to their adjacent walls).
I'm still waiting on information to complete some of the systems, but I went ahead and got as far along as I could, and made a few guesses to fill in the blanks so that when that information is forthcoming I can either pat myself on the back for guessing correctly (or more likely end up having to adjust it accordingly).
Again - the ability to sketch out multiple options quickly, and then adjust and insert the necessary one(s) is invaluable to my line of work. I've already sized conduit sleeves into the individual units, so the only other thing I will have to do once I verify the rest of the information is to size sleeves through firewalls in the corridors based on the number and types of cabling going through each.
I'm sure someone somewhere has figured out how to make Revit calculate conduit sizes based on fill charts, but I can generally guess pretty close, and then run calculations to double-check. Of course, I will also leave some spare space - since invariably, someone will forget to tell me about something (or tell me wrong).
One other task I will have to undertake (as with any hotel/apartment) is to grab the person responsible for designing the building, shake them out of their Revit stupor, and force them to give me accurate counts on the number of handicap accessible, hearing impaired, etc. units (as opposed to what they are currently showing on their drawings - which is almost guaranteed to be wrong).
Not that they won't change the number/location of these later - but I want to have it in writing, so if we have to go back and change things, we can demand additional payment (in addition to not having to worry about someone making the mistake of questioning our ability to design our systems correctly).
If experience has taught me anything, it's that someone will inevitably fuck up, and the first thing they will do is start looking for someone to toss under the bus.
And goddamned if it's going to be me.
Fuck Autodesk, Fuck Revit, and Fuck Reviteers. Eat a bag of dicks!
Sincerely,
SKuLLFuCK
Next Time:More Typical Bullshit
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Thursday, January 5, 2017
Hey - Where Did Revit Put That Door?
Glorious Morning!
I'm digging through a massive upgrade project that I somehow got talked into assisting with (another firm had been working on it up to this point, but between them being incompetent, slow, and error prone, we were asked to de-fuck the project).
It's actually the kind of thing I could see some Reviteer jizzing in their pants over the opportunity to show off their mad scheduling skills because the client (for some reason) wants schedules showing every piece of conduit and cable throughout the project (in addition to drawings showing the same information).
Fortunately for me, the people doing it used ACAD for their drawings (with .cal files referenced into them showing the backgrounds that came from an old set of drawings that were scanned and converted). It's not what I would call the 'best' way of doing it, but they apparently tried converting the scans into CAD linework and the results were terrible. Drawing over the top with CAD linework would normally be how I would do it on a smaller project, but this is multiple large buildings across a huge facility (and our scope/budget doesn't include time/money to do anything like that - and sure as hell doesn't include resources for modeling or dicking around with Revit for the rest of our lives).
The schedules are all done in Excel, and while it was a little bit tedious, I was able to completely redesign the first (relatively small) building despite them having put the panel feeding the system we are designing at damn near the diagonally opposite corner from where it actually needed to be. Someone also added some devices and modified the floor plan (which I had to fake in, since the background isn't really editable). All I have to do now is punch in a few quick dimensions (thank you polyline!) and doublecheck the conduit schedule to make sure that I have all of the cables shown properly.
Some automation would be cool - but at the same time, it's difficult to guarantee that said automation won't fuck things up worse than these morons did in the first place (especially if that automation is being utilized by similar morons). I've mentioned in the past how many errors I run across on other people's work simply because I'm spending a little more time (key word 'a little') to go through and actually look at how everything is being designed rather than say 'well, it's in Revit, so that's good enough'.
Case in point. Over the last few year or so I've had a fairly large data center project (approx. 9000 s.f.) come back around a few times with changes and added scope. I've talked about it before - because the architect on the project Revited up a model of the main area and a few ancillary rooms (in a much larger existing building).
They have multiple disciplines working with that model (HVAC/Pluming/Fire Protection, Electrical, etc.), which makes it especially amusing when I receive their latest and greatest model (exported into ACAD of course) to use as my background, and I notice that (since my systems extend beyond their area of work) that it doesn't actually line up with the rest of the building.
Also of note is a solid wall shown between the foyer and the main area - where I know there is a door, but most likely due to one of the 1/4 billion or so view settings that I always harp on, it just ain't there. I also have a .pdf of the drawing they (and the rest of the Reviting disciplines) are submitting too, and it isn't there either - so it's not just the export.
Then, while trying to figure out how to merge their plan and the overall plan, I notice that their entire plan is actually rotated a fraction of a degree. Again, I go look at the .pdf and sure enough - you can zoom way in and see little jogs in the line indicating that they aren't squared up. I use my trusty 'ALIGN' tool to fix that, but there is still something wrong. Columns that should be at 30' spacing are actually shown at 29'-11 39/64. Not a big deal - until you get to the other end of the room and walls are off by over 3".
Until I started noticing these fuckups, I was almost to the point of giving them the benefit of the doubt that someone had gone out, taken measurement, and accurately modeled the rooms that were being modified. In reality, either nobody gave a fuck - or nobody noticed. As always, Revitbots will point to the user (and not Revit) as the problem, which would be fair, except that this shit which wouldn't have flown pre-Revit, somehow gets a pass now.
If I were (god forbid) using Revit and was tied to this shitty model in order to produce my drawings, I wouldn't have a choice but to fake it and put mine out just as half-assed as everyone else, and fuck that. My only other choice would be to try to cajole the dipshits responsible for it to fix their fuckups (which, at this stage in the game, is almost certainly not going to happen - except maybe that door...)
Fuck Revit, Fuck Autodesk for foisting Revit on the design industry, Fuck Autodesk again for continuing to stand behind Revit, and fuck them one last time just for good measure. Fuck Revitbots, Revitards, Reviteers, and Revit Gurus.
And if you don't like it - FUCK YOU. Go fix your fucked up model fucktard!
Sincerely,
SkullFuck
Next Time: A-typical
I'm digging through a massive upgrade project that I somehow got talked into assisting with (another firm had been working on it up to this point, but between them being incompetent, slow, and error prone, we were asked to de-fuck the project).
It's actually the kind of thing I could see some Reviteer jizzing in their pants over the opportunity to show off their mad scheduling skills because the client (for some reason) wants schedules showing every piece of conduit and cable throughout the project (in addition to drawings showing the same information).
Fortunately for me, the people doing it used ACAD for their drawings (with .cal files referenced into them showing the backgrounds that came from an old set of drawings that were scanned and converted). It's not what I would call the 'best' way of doing it, but they apparently tried converting the scans into CAD linework and the results were terrible. Drawing over the top with CAD linework would normally be how I would do it on a smaller project, but this is multiple large buildings across a huge facility (and our scope/budget doesn't include time/money to do anything like that - and sure as hell doesn't include resources for modeling or dicking around with Revit for the rest of our lives).
The schedules are all done in Excel, and while it was a little bit tedious, I was able to completely redesign the first (relatively small) building despite them having put the panel feeding the system we are designing at damn near the diagonally opposite corner from where it actually needed to be. Someone also added some devices and modified the floor plan (which I had to fake in, since the background isn't really editable). All I have to do now is punch in a few quick dimensions (thank you polyline!) and doublecheck the conduit schedule to make sure that I have all of the cables shown properly.
Some automation would be cool - but at the same time, it's difficult to guarantee that said automation won't fuck things up worse than these morons did in the first place (especially if that automation is being utilized by similar morons). I've mentioned in the past how many errors I run across on other people's work simply because I'm spending a little more time (key word 'a little') to go through and actually look at how everything is being designed rather than say 'well, it's in Revit, so that's good enough'.
Case in point. Over the last few year or so I've had a fairly large data center project (approx. 9000 s.f.) come back around a few times with changes and added scope. I've talked about it before - because the architect on the project Revited up a model of the main area and a few ancillary rooms (in a much larger existing building).
They have multiple disciplines working with that model (HVAC/Pluming/Fire Protection, Electrical, etc.), which makes it especially amusing when I receive their latest and greatest model (exported into ACAD of course) to use as my background, and I notice that (since my systems extend beyond their area of work) that it doesn't actually line up with the rest of the building.
Also of note is a solid wall shown between the foyer and the main area - where I know there is a door, but most likely due to one of the 1/4 billion or so view settings that I always harp on, it just ain't there. I also have a .pdf of the drawing they (and the rest of the Reviting disciplines) are submitting too, and it isn't there either - so it's not just the export.
Then, while trying to figure out how to merge their plan and the overall plan, I notice that their entire plan is actually rotated a fraction of a degree. Again, I go look at the .pdf and sure enough - you can zoom way in and see little jogs in the line indicating that they aren't squared up. I use my trusty 'ALIGN' tool to fix that, but there is still something wrong. Columns that should be at 30' spacing are actually shown at 29'-11 39/64. Not a big deal - until you get to the other end of the room and walls are off by over 3".
Until I started noticing these fuckups, I was almost to the point of giving them the benefit of the doubt that someone had gone out, taken measurement, and accurately modeled the rooms that were being modified. In reality, either nobody gave a fuck - or nobody noticed. As always, Revitbots will point to the user (and not Revit) as the problem, which would be fair, except that this shit which wouldn't have flown pre-Revit, somehow gets a pass now.
If I were (god forbid) using Revit and was tied to this shitty model in order to produce my drawings, I wouldn't have a choice but to fake it and put mine out just as half-assed as everyone else, and fuck that. My only other choice would be to try to cajole the dipshits responsible for it to fix their fuckups (which, at this stage in the game, is almost certainly not going to happen - except maybe that door...)
Fuck Revit, Fuck Autodesk for foisting Revit on the design industry, Fuck Autodesk again for continuing to stand behind Revit, and fuck them one last time just for good measure. Fuck Revitbots, Revitards, Reviteers, and Revit Gurus.
And if you don't like it - FUCK YOU. Go fix your fucked up model fucktard!
Sincerely,
SkullFuck
Next Time: A-typical
Thursday, December 8, 2016
Battle Hymn of the Revitpublic
GUTEN TAG FUCKTARDS!!!
I've been in an inexplicably good mood lately. Not having to use Revit or deal with Architects/Engineers - other than tangentially (and getting a raise) probably has a lot to do with that).
Then, out of the blue, some faggots start babbling about how awesome Revit is (see comments in: No Wonder This Revit Shit Eats Itself). As you can see, I made the distinct mistake of trying to defend my attitude towards Revit, rather than simply reminding myself that anyone extolling the virtues of Revit is likely to have sustained multiple severe head injuries.
They will agree with me that Revit has "a lot of messed up functionality", and have run into times where they are "wasting hours trying to figure things out" or having to "fake it" (kind of like any women unlucky enough to find themselves on the receiving end of attempted penetration from their micro-penises), but listening to them make excuses for Revit - and blaming themselves when things don't show up on a drawing (which is fine if they are only fucking themselves over - but when other people rely on your shit to be right, it's not fine) is a reminder of just how masochistic someone can willingly be.
One of my favorite bits was the claim that "when everyone is working in CAD, everyone is dumb, all the information is dumb, nothing is connected, and everything is manual input, unless you are using add-ins or other MEP functions with it, either way information is not typically active. You have zero ability to assign parameters to information, filter information efficiently, actively schedule information, or even assign formulas for schedules or blocks to add more intelligent useful information".
Holy Fucking Shit.
It's almost hard to believe that much bullshit can pour out of one person's brain - like they are repeating the Revit sales pitch they were given verbatim. Now, in theory - some of these things are great 'it's all connected', yeah - until 'it's all fucked'. Revit was ALLOWING people to fuck themselves (and by extension - me) into a hole in the ground on every single project - which is why I didn't really differentiate between Revit problems and user error.
So much of what was being done with Revit at my old firm was 'cutting edge', meaning that they were constantly experimenting with it - leading to all kinds of new and exciting ways for things to fuck up. I knew the fun was about to start anytime I saw the Revit Buttfuckery Team huddled around somebodies desk discussing something along the lines of "we've determined that the way we've been doing things doesn't open enough people up to the risk of having their whole day wasted".
Another gem is "I have found if you use just about anything third party for Revit, especially for electrical, you are definitely going to be doing it the hard way". So, in addition to being responsible for figuring out how to use Revit, I was now responsible for generating content as well - with little to no way of knowing whether something that I was doing wouldn't decide to fuck me later (as bad, if not worse than 3rd party content - or content included with Revit would).
The other problem being that I wasn't in control of what other people put into a model. I had a mechanical designer who was convinced that (at some point) they would slap mechanical units onto a drawing and it would magically populate my panel schedule (he actually said this so many times, I was starting to question whether he hadn't been replaced by a recording).
By the time I left, I was still manually entering information into my panel schedules (CAD) or manually entering information into a disconnect switch (Revit). Half of the time I would get their mechanical schedule, and immediately start spotting inconsistencies, errors, etc. (none of which I would've noticed if I just let a program fill shit out for me - and at least some of which the person making that schedule would have noticed if they were paying attention to scheduling units instead of expecting that to happen automatically as well.
Now - Revit vs. CAD stability. Revit fucking crashes - that's just a goddamned fact. It doesn't matter what kind of machine you have (the one I had before I left my last firm was a FUCKING BEAST), and while they might've managed to make it 'more stable' over time, I don't think there was a day that went by where I didn't have to deal with it locking up, throwing up some apocryphal error, or just plain eating itself.
Again, I had little to no control over how projects were started, especially after the 'one file for all' revolution. When I would bring up problems with stability, they were consistently met with an indifferent 'yeah, it does that'. Could one of you fucktards have been able to show them how to do it better? Maybe. Maybe fucking not.
In the rare event that ACAD crashes, locks up, etc. (and it is rare), in the time it takes to fire Revit up and load a model, I can have CAD up, file open, and replace any work I've lost (15 minutes max between autosaves - which still always seems to be the most productive 14 minutes and 59 seconds of the day) and then some done. Oh - and rather than 'putting my computer into a coma' pressing 'shift' while I pan does 3D orbit in ACAD - not that I ever need to do that.
Just this morning, I received a CAD file of a site plan for an almost 700,000 s.f. industrial building (that I had already designed systems for - and was waiting for the owner to quit fucking with the location of the guard shack/entrance gates so I could finish the project). I had it cleaned up and ready to issue within an hour. Revit wouldn't have even known what the fuck to do with it. Then I dove back into the 164,000 s.f. middle school I've been working on for the last couple of days (after issuing a 267,000 s.f. high school earlier this week), and at no point did I think 'Revit would've improved my ability to do this job' (even if it worked as advertised - which it doesn't).
But hey, keep on assigning formulas for schedules or blocks to add more intelligent useful information - I'll be busy putting projects out the door.
Fuck Revit.
-S.F.
Next Time: Somebody probably tries to convince me I'm wrong.
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Getting Down To Business
Knock Knock Fuckheads!
Last time we had a little fun bitching about Microsoft Word - which, in the meantime, I used to fix up the formatting on a few more papers for my wife. Unsurprisingly it came up with new and exciting ways to fuck things up, every one of which I was able to overcome. She actually used the template her professor provided, which (ironically) had things broken in it (sheets weren't numbered correctly, etc.), so I got to learn a bit more about how things work. It had one fairly impressive feature - a table of contents that automatically populated based on headings (although nothing I couldn't do in a few seconds and not have to worry about it automatically fucking things up).
Back at my job, It's amazing to think that I've been here for an entire year - which (combined with the two months I took off before jumping on this opportunity) gives me just over 14 months of Revit clean time. It's still inconceivable how much damage was done to my psyche having to deal with an army of fuckwits trying to convince me that the poorly designed and implemented piece software that they've had jammed up their ass would be a good fit for me as well.
This company is configured quite a bit differently than my previous one - which did reviews twice a year, one of which would be accompanied by a raise based on performance (and, despite having two middle fingers up at Revit the whole time, I would always get one). Here, it was up to me to go to the owner and convince them that I deserve more money. Fortunately I've made a good impression on everyone I work with, and I'm on good terms with the owner (we ended up talking about classic cars for the majority of the time).
I didn't get quite what I was hoping for, but it was still fairly substantial (enough to keep me from immediately going back to job hunting), and since we've been busy, I've been averaging 5 hours of overtime a week, which puts me almost back to where I was at before (especially since my old job had switched me over to salary - meaning no more overtime). And, of course, the fact that I can simply do my job, and not have some moron standing in the way of my ability to be productive is worth an almost incalculable sum.
I was also surprised a few months back to find out that I have been amassing considerably more paid time off than I was originally led to believe - which means I'll be taking off damn near the entire end of the year (and still rolling some over). This job isn't the be all end all, but it's been a good opportunity for me to learn more useful stuff to add to my resume (as opposed to just slapping a piece of software on my list of skills - which I will most likely remove at some point in time in the future).
One of these days I'm going to figure out what I want to do with my life, but one thing I can guarantee - it won't involve Revit, because fuck Revit.
-SF
Next Time: Bring the Butthurt
Last time we had a little fun bitching about Microsoft Word - which, in the meantime, I used to fix up the formatting on a few more papers for my wife. Unsurprisingly it came up with new and exciting ways to fuck things up, every one of which I was able to overcome. She actually used the template her professor provided, which (ironically) had things broken in it (sheets weren't numbered correctly, etc.), so I got to learn a bit more about how things work. It had one fairly impressive feature - a table of contents that automatically populated based on headings (although nothing I couldn't do in a few seconds and not have to worry about it automatically fucking things up).
Back at my job, It's amazing to think that I've been here for an entire year - which (combined with the two months I took off before jumping on this opportunity) gives me just over 14 months of Revit clean time. It's still inconceivable how much damage was done to my psyche having to deal with an army of fuckwits trying to convince me that the poorly designed and implemented piece software that they've had jammed up their ass would be a good fit for me as well.
This company is configured quite a bit differently than my previous one - which did reviews twice a year, one of which would be accompanied by a raise based on performance (and, despite having two middle fingers up at Revit the whole time, I would always get one). Here, it was up to me to go to the owner and convince them that I deserve more money. Fortunately I've made a good impression on everyone I work with, and I'm on good terms with the owner (we ended up talking about classic cars for the majority of the time).
I didn't get quite what I was hoping for, but it was still fairly substantial (enough to keep me from immediately going back to job hunting), and since we've been busy, I've been averaging 5 hours of overtime a week, which puts me almost back to where I was at before (especially since my old job had switched me over to salary - meaning no more overtime). And, of course, the fact that I can simply do my job, and not have some moron standing in the way of my ability to be productive is worth an almost incalculable sum.
I was also surprised a few months back to find out that I have been amassing considerably more paid time off than I was originally led to believe - which means I'll be taking off damn near the entire end of the year (and still rolling some over). This job isn't the be all end all, but it's been a good opportunity for me to learn more useful stuff to add to my resume (as opposed to just slapping a piece of software on my list of skills - which I will most likely remove at some point in time in the future).
One of these days I'm going to figure out what I want to do with my life, but one thing I can guarantee - it won't involve Revit, because fuck Revit.
-SF
Next Time: Bring the Butthurt
Friday, November 11, 2016
Microsoft Word 2016 Can Suck My Dick
Bonjour Le Skullfuckers!!!
I figured with Revit out of the picture, I should probably turn my ire to my second least favorite software company - Microsoft. They've obviously sucked a lot of dick for a lot of years, and don't seem to be showing any signs of slowing down (if anything, they are doubling down on it).
This became especially obvious when my wife recently started a Doctorate program, which seems to mostly revolve around writing fucktons of papers. Fortunately for her she is an excellent writer, but technology seems to fucking hate her - exacerbated by the fact that most of it is designed by half-wit morons whose idea of 'user friendly' is hiding extremely important functionality behind a wall of ribbons (sound familiar?)
For her, if something can go wrong with a computer, piece of software, or printer - it will, and at the worst possible time. I could use the exact same shit all day long without fail, but the second she sits down, it's a goddamned miracle when it doesn't catch on fire. She's highly intelligent, and isn't a technophobe, but her experience has left her without a lot of confidence that she won't get screwed over somehow.
The format they have to use for their papers is different than what she is used to, and despite being given a template (that doesn't seem to work correctly - probably because it was made in an older version of Word) and having a book that shows how everything is supposed to look, it still took over an hour last night to get everything formatted correctly - while every strange fucking thing that could come out of the woodwork seemed to be conspiring against her.
Now that we've done it all, I'm going to make this paper into a 'template' (not one to be applied, just one to open up and start a new paper - with all of the headers, numbering, spacing, etc. already in place and ready for editing/writing). Now, I'm no 'Word Guru' (I prefer OpenOffice - both due to it being free - and not a Microsoft product) but I've used it for as long as it has existed - and while I don't tend to use a lot of the formatting functions (preferring to stick to manually formatting) I have had to delve into them more than once.
The first thing we ran into was that she had several sources that were hyperlinks, and they wouldn't break where she wanted them to (they would jump down to the next line - and only THEN would they wrap). They didn't have to stay hyperlinks, but even after turning it off, it would not allow me to break it where I wanted to - forcing me to manually type the part that I wanted to stay on the first line, then delete what I had typed from the rest of the 'link'.
Then - lo and behold, the line spacing was fucked up because it was taking it upon itself to insert a paragraph symbol, and deleting it would cause it to go back to wrapping incorrectly (a little fiddling around and I found that I could put an extra space at the end to make it stay put and keep the line spacing the same.
After I fixed the first link, I figured I would go online and see if anyone had a better way to do it - the first one I ran across was to insert a special character called an 'no width optional break' and it... didn't fucking work. At all. I went ahead and fixed the rest manually - and later I ran across a suggestion to use a no-width empty character (I'll try that the next time I get pulled in to assist).
Next was setting up the header(s). I had actually gone through the process once, so I was fairly confident I could do it again. Started by using the header that showed up at the top of the page, but of course that's wrong. Went into 'Insert' and 'Header', and was off to the races. Right up until I accidentally held down 'shift' for too long and the stupid 'sticky keys' menu popped up - then disappeared and left me unable to type (it would just 'tick tick') requiring a reboot (and then a quick search on how to make that shit go away permanently).
Each issue that I had to fix was stupider than the last (constantly having to fix line spacing and other 'auto-formatting' that needed to take a fucking hike), but I finally beat it - because the one indispensable tool I have is the fact that I'm goddamned relentless when it comes to figuring shit out, which was one of the reasons Revit left such a bad taste in my mouth. People would get the incorrect impression that I just didn't want to learn something 'different'. The reality was that it wasn't just 'different' it was FUCKED.
At least with Microsoft products like Windows and Word I can go online and find where other people have had the same problems (and have a 50/50 chance of finding a solution that actually works). With Revit it was a wasteland of nothingness - especially at first. But even years later, I would try searching for a solution to an issue and the vast majority of the hits were either out of date (and/or didn't address the problem) or were for places offering 'Revit training' (i.e. - pay us money to show you the useless tutorials that are already available for free online.
I came to the conclusion last night that the only reason that these people get away with putting out shit software with shitty 'features' is that they are safely esconced somewhere that I can't get hold of them and slam their fucking hands into a drawer repeatedly. It's pretty much the same with everything else - faceless corporations who don't give a fuck about who they screw over, and a populous willing to shrug and say 'it is what it is'.
Fuck that.
And if you think like that - then FUCK YOU.
Sincerely,
S.F.
Next Time: Getting Down To Business
I figured with Revit out of the picture, I should probably turn my ire to my second least favorite software company - Microsoft. They've obviously sucked a lot of dick for a lot of years, and don't seem to be showing any signs of slowing down (if anything, they are doubling down on it).
This became especially obvious when my wife recently started a Doctorate program, which seems to mostly revolve around writing fucktons of papers. Fortunately for her she is an excellent writer, but technology seems to fucking hate her - exacerbated by the fact that most of it is designed by half-wit morons whose idea of 'user friendly' is hiding extremely important functionality behind a wall of ribbons (sound familiar?)
For her, if something can go wrong with a computer, piece of software, or printer - it will, and at the worst possible time. I could use the exact same shit all day long without fail, but the second she sits down, it's a goddamned miracle when it doesn't catch on fire. She's highly intelligent, and isn't a technophobe, but her experience has left her without a lot of confidence that she won't get screwed over somehow.
The format they have to use for their papers is different than what she is used to, and despite being given a template (that doesn't seem to work correctly - probably because it was made in an older version of Word) and having a book that shows how everything is supposed to look, it still took over an hour last night to get everything formatted correctly - while every strange fucking thing that could come out of the woodwork seemed to be conspiring against her.
Now that we've done it all, I'm going to make this paper into a 'template' (not one to be applied, just one to open up and start a new paper - with all of the headers, numbering, spacing, etc. already in place and ready for editing/writing). Now, I'm no 'Word Guru' (I prefer OpenOffice - both due to it being free - and not a Microsoft product) but I've used it for as long as it has existed - and while I don't tend to use a lot of the formatting functions (preferring to stick to manually formatting) I have had to delve into them more than once.
The first thing we ran into was that she had several sources that were hyperlinks, and they wouldn't break where she wanted them to (they would jump down to the next line - and only THEN would they wrap). They didn't have to stay hyperlinks, but even after turning it off, it would not allow me to break it where I wanted to - forcing me to manually type the part that I wanted to stay on the first line, then delete what I had typed from the rest of the 'link'.
Then - lo and behold, the line spacing was fucked up because it was taking it upon itself to insert a paragraph symbol, and deleting it would cause it to go back to wrapping incorrectly (a little fiddling around and I found that I could put an extra space at the end to make it stay put and keep the line spacing the same.
After I fixed the first link, I figured I would go online and see if anyone had a better way to do it - the first one I ran across was to insert a special character called an 'no width optional break' and it... didn't fucking work. At all. I went ahead and fixed the rest manually - and later I ran across a suggestion to use a no-width empty character (I'll try that the next time I get pulled in to assist).
Next was setting up the header(s). I had actually gone through the process once, so I was fairly confident I could do it again. Started by using the header that showed up at the top of the page, but of course that's wrong. Went into 'Insert' and 'Header', and was off to the races. Right up until I accidentally held down 'shift' for too long and the stupid 'sticky keys' menu popped up - then disappeared and left me unable to type (it would just 'tick tick') requiring a reboot (and then a quick search on how to make that shit go away permanently).
Each issue that I had to fix was stupider than the last (constantly having to fix line spacing and other 'auto-formatting' that needed to take a fucking hike), but I finally beat it - because the one indispensable tool I have is the fact that I'm goddamned relentless when it comes to figuring shit out, which was one of the reasons Revit left such a bad taste in my mouth. People would get the incorrect impression that I just didn't want to learn something 'different'. The reality was that it wasn't just 'different' it was FUCKED.
At least with Microsoft products like Windows and Word I can go online and find where other people have had the same problems (and have a 50/50 chance of finding a solution that actually works). With Revit it was a wasteland of nothingness - especially at first. But even years later, I would try searching for a solution to an issue and the vast majority of the hits were either out of date (and/or didn't address the problem) or were for places offering 'Revit training' (i.e. - pay us money to show you the useless tutorials that are already available for free online.
I came to the conclusion last night that the only reason that these people get away with putting out shit software with shitty 'features' is that they are safely esconced somewhere that I can't get hold of them and slam their fucking hands into a drawer repeatedly. It's pretty much the same with everything else - faceless corporations who don't give a fuck about who they screw over, and a populous willing to shrug and say 'it is what it is'.
Fuck that.
And if you think like that - then FUCK YOU.
Sincerely,
S.F.
Next Time: Getting Down To Business
Monday, November 7, 2016
No Wonder This Revit Shit Fucking Eats Itself
Yo Fuckheads,
I was going to waste my time talking about this bullshit election - but that's depressing, plus I'm working on my third massive High School project in the last few months, and this thing was Revited to the goddamned gills before being sent to me as a CAD file. A lot of the exterior windows/storefront have so much fucking detail (cross-sections of extrusions, fasteners, brackets, glass, etc.) that just to change everything to my background layer (without losing linetype information) required grabbing dozens and dozens of little bites.
I'm sure whoever modeled it was busy sucking their own dick over how awesome it was that they could grab views of all of the various connections to use as details and just note them up, and probably set their larger views to lower detail, but when I get the thing it's just black blobs as far as the eye can see, (and literal fucktons of extra linework - ONE GODDAMNED corner joint has 2456 lines).
Hell - one 52' wall (that has an exploded hexagonal grid hatching in it for some reason - possibly some kind of insulated glass?) contained nearly 80,000 lines. Obviously Revit handles objects differently than what I'm seeing in the exported file, but as many people have pointed out, EVERY SINGLE PERSON using a Revit model has to be aware of how much shit their families are bringing to the table (even if you are just linking a file) to keep it from turning into a bloated clusterfuck that crashes every time you look at it wrong.
I'm sure if the person who exported this file gave a shit (instead of most likely opining why anyone wouldn't just do everything in Revit) they could have set up a background specifically for export that didn't have 4 trillion extra lines that add zero value to the plan to anyone who isn't an Architect (and questionable value for those who are). Even then, there are always fucked up view problems, overlapping shit due to multiple disciplines. Overlapping (or more amusingly - slightly offset) architectural + mechanical families for toilets/sinks/etc. is a common one - I deleted a couple from this plan as well.
A stylized plan with a little extra detail is cool - and I will leave one alone (other than a little tidying up) if it isn't horribly bloated. I can remember a time when I could select an entire floor plan (sometimes even multiple floors of a building) and change layer all at once from properties. I'm not sure what the upward limit is - but it's in excess of what is necessary to depict a floor plan, that's for damn sure. I've talked (at great length) about how I get a little OCD when I start cleaning one up - but there is nothing quite like having a super-clean background to work on.
Keeping the file size reasonable also guarantees that the file will open/save quickly - change views quickly (not sure why, but the last one would take forever to switch paper space views - and I'm making damn sure this one doesn't go the same route). Someone else set that one up (and had started this one) and while I did some cleanup on the other one, I'm going to beat every last bit of unnecessary shit out of this one. There were a few other systems that the other guy was going to leave in just in case we pick them up later, but I'm ditching them (we can always bring them back in from the original drawings we received).
What's great is that even though I like to complain about the garbage files I receive - I can slap on my headphones, crank up some death metal, and fix any stupid fucked up piece of shit that some moron sent me with ACAD. Nobody is going to build anything off of my drawings, so as long as I'm accurately representing what the people installing my systems need to see, then I've got a lot of leeway. Even if it takes the majority of a day to get it ready to go forward - I used to spend the majority of a day trying to get one stupid fucking thing to work in Revit (on an annoyingly regular basis) and that didn't guarantee I wouldn't actually be further into a fucking hole than when I started.
I was highly amused by a recent response to a post I did back in December of 2013 while I was still under the Revit bootheel. Some idiotic fucking glitch (that came out of nowhere) was making it to where I suddenly couldn't add light fixtures to a circuit. Apparently, despite multiple new releases of Revit since then, they were running into exactly the same issue. It seems like it was limited to one file (could have been one of the thousands and thousands of unnecessary settings - but both I and others went through it repeatedly with no success, leaving me having to fake it in).
But hey - at least they've got 'sketchy lines' now (oh, and the ability to make stuff in the foreground stand out better).
Fucking Fuckwits.
Fuck Autodesk, Fuck Revit, Fuck anyone forcing good, hardworking individuals into using Revit, and if you don't like it - GET FUCKED.
Sincerely,
S.F.
Next Time - I go after Motherfucking Microsoft Word (it will make more sense when you read it).
I was going to waste my time talking about this bullshit election - but that's depressing, plus I'm working on my third massive High School project in the last few months, and this thing was Revited to the goddamned gills before being sent to me as a CAD file. A lot of the exterior windows/storefront have so much fucking detail (cross-sections of extrusions, fasteners, brackets, glass, etc.) that just to change everything to my background layer (without losing linetype information) required grabbing dozens and dozens of little bites.
I'm sure whoever modeled it was busy sucking their own dick over how awesome it was that they could grab views of all of the various connections to use as details and just note them up, and probably set their larger views to lower detail, but when I get the thing it's just black blobs as far as the eye can see, (and literal fucktons of extra linework - ONE GODDAMNED corner joint has 2456 lines).
Hell - one 52' wall (that has an exploded hexagonal grid hatching in it for some reason - possibly some kind of insulated glass?) contained nearly 80,000 lines. Obviously Revit handles objects differently than what I'm seeing in the exported file, but as many people have pointed out, EVERY SINGLE PERSON using a Revit model has to be aware of how much shit their families are bringing to the table (even if you are just linking a file) to keep it from turning into a bloated clusterfuck that crashes every time you look at it wrong.
I'm sure if the person who exported this file gave a shit (instead of most likely opining why anyone wouldn't just do everything in Revit) they could have set up a background specifically for export that didn't have 4 trillion extra lines that add zero value to the plan to anyone who isn't an Architect (and questionable value for those who are). Even then, there are always fucked up view problems, overlapping shit due to multiple disciplines. Overlapping (or more amusingly - slightly offset) architectural + mechanical families for toilets/sinks/etc. is a common one - I deleted a couple from this plan as well.
A stylized plan with a little extra detail is cool - and I will leave one alone (other than a little tidying up) if it isn't horribly bloated. I can remember a time when I could select an entire floor plan (sometimes even multiple floors of a building) and change layer all at once from properties. I'm not sure what the upward limit is - but it's in excess of what is necessary to depict a floor plan, that's for damn sure. I've talked (at great length) about how I get a little OCD when I start cleaning one up - but there is nothing quite like having a super-clean background to work on.
Keeping the file size reasonable also guarantees that the file will open/save quickly - change views quickly (not sure why, but the last one would take forever to switch paper space views - and I'm making damn sure this one doesn't go the same route). Someone else set that one up (and had started this one) and while I did some cleanup on the other one, I'm going to beat every last bit of unnecessary shit out of this one. There were a few other systems that the other guy was going to leave in just in case we pick them up later, but I'm ditching them (we can always bring them back in from the original drawings we received).
What's great is that even though I like to complain about the garbage files I receive - I can slap on my headphones, crank up some death metal, and fix any stupid fucked up piece of shit that some moron sent me with ACAD. Nobody is going to build anything off of my drawings, so as long as I'm accurately representing what the people installing my systems need to see, then I've got a lot of leeway. Even if it takes the majority of a day to get it ready to go forward - I used to spend the majority of a day trying to get one stupid fucking thing to work in Revit (on an annoyingly regular basis) and that didn't guarantee I wouldn't actually be further into a fucking hole than when I started.
I was highly amused by a recent response to a post I did back in December of 2013 while I was still under the Revit bootheel. Some idiotic fucking glitch (that came out of nowhere) was making it to where I suddenly couldn't add light fixtures to a circuit. Apparently, despite multiple new releases of Revit since then, they were running into exactly the same issue. It seems like it was limited to one file (could have been one of the thousands and thousands of unnecessary settings - but both I and others went through it repeatedly with no success, leaving me having to fake it in).
But hey - at least they've got 'sketchy lines' now (oh, and the ability to make stuff in the foreground stand out better).
Fucking Fuckwits.
Fuck Autodesk, Fuck Revit, Fuck anyone forcing good, hardworking individuals into using Revit, and if you don't like it - GET FUCKED.
Sincerely,
S.F.
Next Time - I go after Motherfucking Microsoft Word (it will make more sense when you read it).
Friday, November 4, 2016
On Your Mark, Get Set, Achieve 'Real Speed-to-Market Success?'
Guten Tag Skullfriends!
I can't remember what I was doing the other day - but I ran across this 'design-build' company's website:
http://www.connectwithbutler.
Their incessant use of buzzwords/phrases ('employing collaborative upfront design', 'integrated 'project delivery', etc.) immediately made me think of the B.S. generator a reader had brought to my attention: http://www.dack.com/web/bullshit.html
Despite this, they actually make a few good points when it comes to how projects go from poorly thought out concept to horribly implemented design.
They start off with some 'Preliminary Questions to Consider':
1) Do you have the right decision makers at the table?
The answer to this question is almost always 'not only no - but fuck no'. The people you ARE guaranteed to have are 'The Dreamer' (who has grandiose ideas - but doesn't have any concept of things like budget, schedule, etc.), 'The Unrealist' (who really should know better - but still thinks that everything is going to be much cheaper than it demonstrably will be), 'The Dabbler' (who shouldn't fucking be there, but has inserted himself into the process, and if not carefully monitored, will throw the whole thing off course - also known as 'The Interloper'), and if you are really really lucky - you might get 'The Guy With The Purse Strings' (really the only guy you should ever actually pay attention to).
2) Are they a collaborative team that can work together seamlessly and simultaneously or are the linearly dependent following a step-by-step, on track path?
I'm assuming they meant 'are *they* linearly dependent' but were too busy cramming in buzzwords to worry about spelling/grammar. At any rate - it's almost a given in every case that people are going to be working simultaneously at both the design and construction level - the only 'step-by-step' you run into is when the aforementioned interlopers and other fuckups won't stop changing shit, causing the 'seamless' approach to turn into a long, drug out clusterfuck. Note - this happens regardless of how much work you do on the front end to prevent it.
3) Do your construction suppliers have the 'optimal value chain' to deliver a 'lean project cycle time' (whew)?
With any experienced firm, there is considerable attention paid to long lead-time items and coordinating their arrival on-site to where they won't hold up work (or be in the way/require storage). Again, this goes to shit due to the lack of understanding on the part of people who just will not stop fucking with the design WAY after the point where they needed to fuck right off.
I've been in so many meetings where people keep coming up with 'brilliant' ideas about how to 'improve' a design (typically with the aim of saving money) that get shot down once we force them to wrap their heads around 1) The fact that you can't just go pick up some of this shit at a Home Depot, and 2) The correct shit is already on-site (if not installed or in the process of being installed.
The assumption that you can swap out 'apples for apples' with different systems is another classic mistake. We regularly run into situations where there might only be one source for a device that will do what we need it to do. There might be other solutions, but they quickly become untenable due to the need for extra pieces/parts/etc. to interface a competitors devices with any given system.
The simplest solution is (almost) always best - but people want to layer on unnecessary bullshit to make themselves feel 'part of the project'. A firm can talk all day about how adept they are at coordinating a project - but I have yet to run across even a single one where one or more (if not all) of the people I described above to come crashing through at the most inopportune moment and drag a project off schedule.
I completed a massive warehouse/production facility a while back, and then we got the contract to do security equipment. No big deal - I knocked it out in short order, but we didn't receive a cad site plan - which was fortunate, because it turned out to have changed (and despite having requested it two weeks ago - the owner won't stop making changes for long enough for me to get it.
Hilariously, they keep operating under the delusion that the delivery date is still firm, even though they are the ones holding up our ability to complete it. That's pretty standard though - as is everyone's lack of willingness to confront yet another out of control client.
As always - if you stand in the way of my ability to do my goddamned job, you can take a long fucking hike to 'Gofuckyourselfville'.
Sinsquarely, SF
Next time: No Fucking Wonder This Shit Eats Itself
I can't remember what I was doing the other day - but I ran across this 'design-build' company's website:
http://www.connectwithbutler.
Their incessant use of buzzwords/phrases ('employing collaborative upfront design', 'integrated 'project delivery', etc.) immediately made me think of the B.S. generator a reader had brought to my attention: http://www.dack.com/web/bullshit.html
Despite this, they actually make a few good points when it comes to how projects go from poorly thought out concept to horribly implemented design.
They start off with some 'Preliminary Questions to Consider':
1) Do you have the right decision makers at the table?
The answer to this question is almost always 'not only no - but fuck no'. The people you ARE guaranteed to have are 'The Dreamer' (who has grandiose ideas - but doesn't have any concept of things like budget, schedule, etc.), 'The Unrealist' (who really should know better - but still thinks that everything is going to be much cheaper than it demonstrably will be), 'The Dabbler' (who shouldn't fucking be there, but has inserted himself into the process, and if not carefully monitored, will throw the whole thing off course - also known as 'The Interloper'), and if you are really really lucky - you might get 'The Guy With The Purse Strings' (really the only guy you should ever actually pay attention to).
2) Are they a collaborative team that can work together seamlessly and simultaneously or are the linearly dependent following a step-by-step, on track path?
I'm assuming they meant 'are *they* linearly dependent' but were too busy cramming in buzzwords to worry about spelling/grammar. At any rate - it's almost a given in every case that people are going to be working simultaneously at both the design and construction level - the only 'step-by-step' you run into is when the aforementioned interlopers and other fuckups won't stop changing shit, causing the 'seamless' approach to turn into a long, drug out clusterfuck. Note - this happens regardless of how much work you do on the front end to prevent it.
3) Do your construction suppliers have the 'optimal value chain' to deliver a 'lean project cycle time' (whew)?
With any experienced firm, there is considerable attention paid to long lead-time items and coordinating their arrival on-site to where they won't hold up work (or be in the way/require storage). Again, this goes to shit due to the lack of understanding on the part of people who just will not stop fucking with the design WAY after the point where they needed to fuck right off.
I've been in so many meetings where people keep coming up with 'brilliant' ideas about how to 'improve' a design (typically with the aim of saving money) that get shot down once we force them to wrap their heads around 1) The fact that you can't just go pick up some of this shit at a Home Depot, and 2) The correct shit is already on-site (if not installed or in the process of being installed.
The assumption that you can swap out 'apples for apples' with different systems is another classic mistake. We regularly run into situations where there might only be one source for a device that will do what we need it to do. There might be other solutions, but they quickly become untenable due to the need for extra pieces/parts/etc. to interface a competitors devices with any given system.
The simplest solution is (almost) always best - but people want to layer on unnecessary bullshit to make themselves feel 'part of the project'. A firm can talk all day about how adept they are at coordinating a project - but I have yet to run across even a single one where one or more (if not all) of the people I described above to come crashing through at the most inopportune moment and drag a project off schedule.
I completed a massive warehouse/production facility a while back, and then we got the contract to do security equipment. No big deal - I knocked it out in short order, but we didn't receive a cad site plan - which was fortunate, because it turned out to have changed (and despite having requested it two weeks ago - the owner won't stop making changes for long enough for me to get it.
Hilariously, they keep operating under the delusion that the delivery date is still firm, even though they are the ones holding up our ability to complete it. That's pretty standard though - as is everyone's lack of willingness to confront yet another out of control client.
As always - if you stand in the way of my ability to do my goddamned job, you can take a long fucking hike to 'Gofuckyourselfville'.
Sinsquarely, SF
Next time: No Fucking Wonder This Shit Eats Itself
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