The May DBUG meeting was hosted by the office of Greg Smith (GSD) in scenic North Andover on the 26th. The GSD office is nestled into the edge of a beautiful mill pond under a dense canopy of trees. We would be remiss not to mention the wonderful spread of barbequed steak, vegetables, breads, beer and wine during the hobnobbing prior to the meeting – they have set the hosting bar at a high level for the remaining meetings.

The meeting was well attended (probably heard about the steak) and after the standard introductions the meeting got underway with a presentation by Mike Smith (no relation to Greg) on XREF CLIP CUBES.

The premise of CAD as Mike states to only draw things once if possible. To elucidate this Mike showed the group a condominium project where two basic unit types were established during schematics. Turning the standard unit types into symbols and keeping them on separate layers. Each time a change is made to a unit type it is now made by opening up the symbol thus changing all the similar units at the same time. Helpful hint- make an obvious insertion point. Mike then makes one drawing using separate “symbol” units and can then lay dimensions and text over the top of the plan.

The unit plan then can also be used for detail plans by creating an “Xref clip cube” Identify the area that you want to isolate

• A) Save Drawing ( Control S)
• B) Go to your detail layer/go to view/drawing
• C) From the header bar pick Insert then Xref
• D) Pick the file that the original drawing is in from the menu box and Open
• E) Place the Xref on the drawing
• F) From the edit menu go to 3D Menus (S8)
• G) Go to 3D Views (S9)
• H) Choose Clip Cube(S7)
• I) Choose  XREF Clip (F0)
• J) Make a bounding box around the area you want
• K) Choose  clip On (F1)
• L) You will now have an isolated Clip cube

The beauty of this Xref Clip is that you can now add notes or draw over the top of it creating a further detailed drawing with out redrawing the base.

The night’s second presentation was given by Greg Smith on setting up a simple FTP (file transfer protocol) site.
Greg first had to show off his “Smart Screen” display a white board display that when used in conjunction with your computer allows you to control the computer from the projected screen- very nice.

The FTP site (File Transfer Protocol) is a useful way to upload and download files using the internet. It can be used in the creation and maintenance of websites or for just transferring files.

It can handle files too big to send by email and you can give your client a link with which they can go directly to the files they want and clients can in turn up load revisions, photos or other files back to you. Greg demonstrated by setting up a site. The basics are that you need to pick a Hosting service or use your own PC as a FTP service and then  pick a FTP program ( there are many many services and FTP programs: CesarFTP, CuteFTP, WS FTP Pro, Leech, FTP Commander and FTP Surfer  are programs, services such as ZFTP.com or whalemail.com

Batting clean up (apologies for the American slang) was Evan Shu with a presentation on creating a quick, professional sun study for a client using DATACAD, SKETCHUP and SNAG IT. Evan calls it his “12 step program for creating Sun Study Animation” (and I quote here)

• 1. Import Assessor’s map as bitmap into DataCAD and calibrate scale properly. Make sure map is oriented so that straight up the page is North.
• 2. Trace with closed polylines (z height and z base +0) to create all building and block outlines. (Note: polygons with tops will result in the same import. Z-height will make the entities more difficult to work with in Sketchup).
• 3. Keep various areas separated by layers. (* here a discussion about the use of components in Sketchup ensued which will be presented in the May meeting)
• 4. Save as a Drawing
• 5. Import into Sketchup and zoom to extents to see (wheel scroll down)
• 6. Use the pencil tool to trace one side of each polylines boundary and Sketchup will close the top.
• 7. Use the push/pull tool to create building masses. Add appurtenances or cut outs using various Sketchup tools.
• 8. Create special pieces in a separate file and import them into the main file as components.
• 9. From the View pulldown menu pick Shadows to get the Sun and Shadow dialog box. Set the Location and pull on the slider bars to show the shadow progression through any given day.
• 10. Use the Pages feature in Sketchup by going to a view (DCAD GTV’s) and marking the view you can then make a slideshow that creates a mini-animation.
• 11. Use SnagIt as a utility to capture each screen to create AVI files for the client. These will run on many or all media players.
• 12. AVI files can be put on a CD or emailed to your client.

All in all it was an impressive multi-program presentation.

The evening wrapped up with a old fashion “SHOW AND TELL” period. Gadgets like the laser measurer  LEICA DISTO, a wood and brass folding rule, BLUETOOTH TECHNOLOGY hands free phones, a HANDHELD COMPUTER , PDA, an Apple IPOD and a spiffy MP3 player/recorder were all handled and discussed and in some cases drooled over.

The June DBUG meeting will be held at 6pm on Wednesday the 23rd in Framingham at Chris Walsh & Company,  9 Vernon Street (508 820 9707 / arcwalsh@rcn.com)
 

                                                                                        --- Meeting Notes by Chris Walsh, AIA