Alright ladies and gentlemen - so I'm beating my way through piles of bullshit last week (rather than working on my current projects), mostly due to other peoples incompetence, poor planning, and even shittier management of their projects - when I am called to help a teammate with a sizable project that she has been busting her ass on for several months.
I had been curious as to why they hadn't been running into more trouble with Revit (although 90% if the time I would walk past their desk, they would have Navisworks open - probably attempting to see what stuff looked like in 3D since Revit does such a shitty job of navigating models).
As it turns out, while they had been Reviting along, they had been doing their panelboard schedules in ACAD for ease of entry, the ability to actually modify the schedules on the fly as needed, and because 'panelboards that automatically calculate themselves' is not as much of a boon to an electrical designer as an unitiated (and most liklely non-electrical designer) might think.
Anyway, the client is a big one, who had requested Revitized Shiznit (while obviously not knowing or understanding what that meant or entailed) - but both their contact people and the project manager(s) are horribly stupid (to put it lightly).
The owner's idiocy was evident in the fact that they had specifically requested the drawings be completed in Revit 2012 (apparently not knowing that as of the soon to be 2014 release - that the '12 version will have only another year of support (and knowing these morons - the project will still be in flux long after that.
So, not only can I not use my shiny new Revit 2013, our subscription will eventually make it impossible to open, view, or modify anything in the file without first going through the (painfully slow and glitchy) process of upgrading to a newer format.
Upon pulling up my teammates file (and talking them down from the ledge), I was able to fairly easily get both of us started reproducing the schedules in Revit. They had been using Revit families for the equipment, and even had Revit panelboards - so they were 1/3 of the way there.
There were a few things that weren't going to work (as is always the case in Revshit), and I wasted a lot of time figuring out various 'workarounds' or other solutions before starting to make anything resembling 'progress'.
Fortunately, since the majority of the layout had already been done, it was just a matter of recreating it. Once I had a rhythm (and some motherfucking death metal), I was able to straighten out some of it.
It's still totally fucked though, as are my other projects - although they have both been exported to ACAD in the interest of getting them done as well. Anyone that has anything to say about it is going to get both middle fingers, and quite possibly a beating.
The way that both our project manager(s) and the owner had already been riding this employee - and then rewarded their hard work by taking a shit on their face (and reducing them to tears) is a common theme in the Revitverse.
What they had been attempting to do with her hybrid Revit/ACAD system is what Revbots typically refer to as 'BIM-washing' (in the most derisive tone of voice possible).
Obviously if our client was paying for and expecting 100% Revit, then we would need to provide it.
In reality, we are not charging the client sufficiently for the amount of extra effort necessary to accomplish this task (mostly because the bullshit lies that Autodesk and Revit Dick Sockets have been telling everyone about how it makes electrical design faster - while simultaneously doing an end run around us and convincing our clients that there is any value added to having a fully integrated and functional 3D model).
I take it as a personal attack when people who repeatedly prove that they know dick-all about electrical design try to tell me that I'm not doing what they think I'm supposed to be doing - like in the example of expecting us to be responsible for fleshing out their renderings.
It makes me even angrier to watch them take advantage of someone (unlike me) who they know isn't capable of kicking their teeth down their throat for fucking with their ability to do their job -especially when they decided to redefine what that job involves.
It's been an all-too-common situation (one I've touched on before) - with the economy, job market, etc. in flux, they know that they can get away with treating people like fuckdolls, and know that they will keep asking for more.
As I always say - fuck that, fuck them, and if you don't like what I'm saying then FUCK YOU.
Skullfuck out.
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