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phansford
Joined: 18 Apr 2004
Posts: 832
Location: SW Ohio
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 Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 11:53 am Post subject: |
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Matt - Thanks... I never read the "drawing on the iPhone" thread because it did not interest me..... who knew it would go off tangent.
As to being able to import/export Z dimension - that seems to be a big deal and if PC is to continue to grow, this needs to occur. I would think there is a natural draw for Sketch-up and PC to be linked or compatible. And with BIM bearing down on us - getting the Z information is going to be important.
PC 8 will support me for a few years - much like the rest of us. Hell.... I could keep one computer with 10.3 and PC 6 and never need to change.... but there's that whole need to communicate with my subconsultants (DWG Translation)
So basically - BILL - get off-center and start working on the Z dimension translation. Some people need it now.... the rest of us will need it in the very near future.
We all have business decisions to make. The CAD package we use is one of many decisions. Many of us feel it is one of the most important. To stay competitive, we need to be progressive and to grow. Continuing education, new marketing strategies, tweaking management tools and so on...... As stated before.... I am working on LEED education.
I think BIM - in some form - is in my future.
Like any other person, subconsultant, or part of our business, ES can either be a partner with us or determent. Everyone will need to make that determination... including ES |
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Matt
Joined: 13 Apr 2004
Posts: 525
Location: Sterling, Virginia
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| Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 5:30 pm Post subject: |
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| CJH wrote: | In a sense, this is all somewhat a moot point for me as in this economy it's not like I'm going to go out and invest in a whole new CADD system, when there is little work to do on it. I have a great system with PC that I can be very productive on, even if I do nothing to upgrade it for several years. I'll probably just sit tight, obtain any upgrades that ES comes out with and let the whole BIM issue settle out. Perhaps by the time the economy improves the direction of CADD will be more clear.
Also note that Alfred stated he will be supporting WT, which I presume means keeping it compatible with any new versions of PC-he is just not going to actively work on new features.
I don't know about the rest of you, but there is a pretty large emotional edge to the crash in our industry-my work basically fell of the cliff in October/November. At first there was denial, that as fast as it fell apart it would improve, then when it didn't I was angry at myself for having missed any warning signs. I've gotten past that in seeing that money people who know a lot more than I do missed this. Now it's just apprehension as to how long this will last and how to get through it. Perhaps instead of venting at ES we could share survival strategies. |
There's a huge emotional edge to it, I agree, and it's an enormous hurdle to getting on to the business of figuring out what to do next. My survival strategies are:
-- work on an all-cash basis, do not borrow a cent. Been doing that for four years or so.
-- stock up on rice and beans. Really stock up.
-- look at any alternatives... I went to Dubai a few weeks ago, I'll post some of my perceptions below. What I didn't mention in that piece was the fact that, as superheated and incredible as the construction market is there, it's grinding to a halt. The people who are building the World Islands project recently cut staff by 20%, and I suspect it is the first of more cutbacks. There's is so much work going on there right now that it will take a year or so for the slowdown to really hit, but the middle east doesn't thrive when oil sells for $35 a barrel. I'm working on a book about architectural working drawings and cad, but I am dubious about the market for it, it's not a BIM cheerleading tome, as you might suspect. There is only one or two architectural schools around me, so I'm skeptical about opportunities to teach... no harm looking under that rock however.. (www.stairwaytoarchitecture.com)..
I'd be interested in other ideas. Thanks, CJ for pointing the discussion in a positive direction. |
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Matt
Joined: 13 Apr 2004
Posts: 525
Location: Sterling, Virginia
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| Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 5:31 pm Post subject: Dubai |
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Our plane landed in Dubai City late at night on a Thursday. As we came down through the clouds, beyond the window of the plane I saw a tangled grid of streetlights, throbbing neon, and the headlights and taillights of pumping traffic, like Newark or Los Angeles, stretching away to the horizon in the labyrinth of the city.
Dubai is one of seven Emirates in the United Arab Emirates, located just inside the crook of the elbow of the Persian Gulf (the Arabian Gulf to some) near the Straits of Hormuz. The climate is dry and warm, sand is plentiful. The rulers of Dubai recognized the prudence of enlarging the basis of their economy beyond oil, and have embarked on a development project intended to create a center of finance, commerce, and recreation; with provisions for the most luxurious accommodations in the world. As a result, Dubai City has been growing at a phenomenal rate over the past two decades; now home to close to 4 1/2 million people (one tenth of whom are nationals). Dubai got it's first paved road in 1967; today it has a seven-star hotel.
My luggage was waiting in the baggage carrel, and I made my way to the queue where your passports are stamped. Late at night the airport had a leisure about it, because departures are few, or maybe it was the palm trees. The signs are in English and Arabic, and for the duration of my stay I did not meet anyone who did not speak at least a rudimentary form of english, or, in the case of my driver, at least thought they did (if you ask someone if they speak english, the answer "yes" is not definitive, it is a good idea to probe somewhat further).
The airport is spacious, shining and polished, an extravagance of chrome and glass, which made a contrast with the sandaled and barefooted emigrés, mostly from India and the Philippines, who were sleeping here and there on the floor in the crannies of the terminal; I was in the arrivals area of the airport, so they were not waiting for a flight but for something else -- a work visa or permission to enter.
Gliding here and there were groups of people and families in traditional arab dress, numerous, but not a majority among the travelers. Because the hems of their clothes are at their ankle, they seem glide rather than walk, as though on rollers; as you read this, visualize small groups of them continuously drifting to and fro in the distance, some in black, some in white, the men with a white scarf on their heads (a Ghutra) with a twice-wrapped black coil (Igal) nestled on top of their heads and holding the scarf in place. I was jealous of the ease and comfort of their clothing.
I had heard about some of the incredible projects under construction in Dubai: they're building palm-tree-shaped islands (the breakwater on the larger one is five miles in diameter) and filling them with luxury villas; they've built an indoor ski-slope with five ski runs, one of which is a quarter-mile -- this is called Ski Dubai; and of course the Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world -- a superscraper, currently almost a half-mile tall -- the final height has not yet been announced, let alone reached.
Security is very strict, but maintains an equally low profile, both at the airport and in Dubai City. At a long series of counters sits a row of very quiet, bearded men, wearing pressed white robes, with white ghutras and igals on their heads; their clothing gives you the impression that they were stamped out of some arab-passport-clerk machine. They are serious and pleasant in the hushed space of the gleaming airport.
As I waited in line to get my passport stamped, a small wiry dark man wove his way through the line, cutting his way to the front, pulling wrinkled papers from his pocket and presenting them to the clerk ahead of us. There was no outcry at this usurpation of protocol, instead the clerk just smiled and shook his head. The man was persistent, pleading. The clerk shook his head and gestured, sending the man away, to the end of the line or worse, and turned and went, as though pushed by the finger of God. Authority in Dubai is not insecure in it's roles and responsibilities.
My passport was stamped at midnight and I found the van that would take me to the hotel. We pulled out from under the airport onto a bustling highway, bordered by billboards and Lexus dealerships, shopping malls with Gucci stores. The roads are new and of the best quality I have experienced, despite this I had a strong sense of deja vu until I remembered that I had grown up in New Jersey. Before we had arrived at the hotel I had worked out the formula:
New Jersey (plus) enormous sums of money (minus) mature aesthetic sensitivities (plus) palm trees = Dubai.
The next morning I looked out over the city from my hotel room on the 13th floor. Dubai has been entirely constructed in the past twenty years, and if there is an architectural gimmick or twist that has not been tried there, I am unaware of it. I believe that if you made a matrix of a million cells, one for every variation of geometry and materials that an architect can use, you could fill every cell with a photograph taken in Dubai City. There are buildings that look as though they are inside out. Buildings that look as though they are in the process of being turned inside out. No expense has been spared, everywhere you look you will see extravagance, every building tries to say, "look at me, I'm the coolest." Spires, pinions, arced cables and set-out struts, chiseled and mirrored balconies are everywhere. They call this "iconic" architecture, for lack of a descriptive term. In this sense "iconic" means: anything we can think of and physically do.
Somewhere along the way the designers lost sight of the fact that the extraordinary requires a context of the ordinary to be noticed. In Dubai, every facade tries to be the center of attention, to the point where my host, an architect with a practice there, has embarked on a study of Anti-Architecture; his buildings are stark and elementary, and amazingly refreshing in the way that they stand out in that environment.
Most construction there is poured concrete with concrete block infill and some cladding, the pricier the better. I have heard that a sixth of the construction cranes in the world are in Dubai City, and I do not discount it. The frenzy of construction there makes Ocean City and Washington DC of two years ago look like sleepy Williamsburg. Overall the city is beige, the color computers used to be, or the color of the moon in that photo showing earthrise they took from Apollo 8, 40 years ago.
Because it is so young, and so affluent, Dubai City is unique in being a city essentially without a past, and when you pass from district to district, there are no stylistic clues of the difference. Neighborhoods exist only insofar as they were defined on planning and zoning maps in advance of being built, in contrast to the practice elsewhere, where large portions of the community were established, and grew in accordance with local requirements before the arbitrary constraints of zoning regulations were applied. I'm hopeful that architectural styles will change and allow this to happen somehow in Dubai. I saw a three-year-old twenty-story hotel being demolished to make way for a new, larger and more luxurious building, so there is hope.
I was surprised to see very little evidence of traditional middle-eastern architecture, even being referenced, in the buildings there. Perhaps the land is too precious to waste on perimeter spaces defined with screens, or thick walls and deep arcades to modulate the heat of the sun. There is one development of villas that uses the traditional wind-chimney motif, but my host confided in me that this was for looks only and not functional. In terms of architectural integrity, anyone from southern California would be quite comfortable in Dubai. There is plenty of style to spare, it oozes from every square inch of the city.
I was in Dubai City on the night of the 37th anniversary of the formation of the United Arab Emirates, and the city was decorated with flags and pictures of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai's benevolent leader (there are no taxes in Dubai). Construction on many ordinary projects continued through the night, the cranes hoisting concrete under the floodlights. There is a priority given to economic activity there.
On the night before I left, I went with a friend to a shisha bar, in a tent behind a shopping center on the beach. The low balconies of an adjacent hotel formed a square off the beach, with grass and fountains, filled with tiki torches and the soothing murmur of the breakers. Suited waiters brought hookah pipes as tall as a ten-year old, with tobacco and mint in a bowl covered with foil. They would place white-hot coals in the foil for you and refresh your hookah before you could tell you needed it. Couples lounged in the tent and on the deck, nibbling exquisite dishes and whispering and laughing in the smoke. My companion had a beer and risked his license to drive had we been pulled over afterwards, there is zero tolerance for drinking and driving. There was a sudden downpour and much hilarity as the tent leaked gushers. Burka-clad women held up their skirts and splashed through the ankle deep water in their slippers, giggling, while the waiters struggled with buckets and brooms.
I was made most welcome by the people of Dubai City and didn't see -- or eat -- anything I didn't like, other than the ludicrous architecture. I did have the impression that most of the completed buildings in the city are largely unused, with absent or absentee occupants, and I'll be watching to see how the city develops when it eventually clears it's adolescence. Based on my experience in Dubai City, I do not expect to be disappointed. |
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GaryV
Joined: 13 Apr 2004
Posts: 282
Location: Walnut Creek, CA
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| Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 10:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | WHOA!!
Somehow I missed Alfred's post regarding the end of development for WildTools. |
I think many did.
| Quote: | | What I didn't mention in that piece was the fact that, as superheated and incredible as the construction market is there, it's grinding to a halt. |
I have a friend in Dubai now and he said some of his work is being either delayed or scrapped. He is not sure. There is no silver bullet unfortunately and it appears many of us are in the same boat. For those that want to "connect" on a personal level, I have started using LinkedIn. If you want to join and connect send me an invite. That will allow us to support each other a tad...no sense doing it here.
| Quote: | | Perhaps instead of venting at ES we could share survival strategies. |
I agree that this would be more worthwhile at this point. However, I am not venting due to the economy or the frustration with my financial future. I am venting out of principle. The fact that there is a disagreement is not the issue to me as reasonable men disagree. However, to not be able to mend the fences is an absolutely inexcusable action. I agree with Matt's last post:
| Quote: | | That engineered software would let Alfred's announcement go un-addressed, nevermind un-rebutted, publicly, is a disgrace. That they would allow the relationship to deteriorate to the point where it could even happen is a senseless tragedy. |
I will just leave it at that for now.
Matt, I will drop you a line... |
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