My fourth Career move

Its that time of my life when I suddenly realise its all over, 50 years working and I am seriously considering that final move to retirement. I had dinner with a friend last night and although he retired 20 years ago, he is busier than ever.

Will that be for me, I wonder. I take a look at what's available, I could go as a consultant and earn a little, but that means forming a company again, accounts and insurance, and that is just not appealing. No that's not the right route for me. Can I start writing, Mmmmm now this seems to be more like what I want, a little writing each morning sound good, but what do I write about, old work-related subjects or something completely new, or perhaps a side of my business life that I have never delved into?

This last thought has me thinking, and the more I dwell on the subject the more I think, this just might be for me. I have my Scays web site and I wonder if this is the tool for expanding this new area.

Scays.co.uk, was and still is my site for my lectures, this might prove a basis for all I want to do, expand my thoughts out of the normal lectures into something a little bit more out of the box, so to speak.

Scays has for the last few years been a place where students, ex and present, can find the slides I use at my University lectures on construction, themed around the role of the Architectural Technologist.

Expanding it into this new area is beginning to excite me, and might just be the fourth career move I have been looking for.

So where to start, well this blog seems the right beginning, a place where I can explore my thoughts, develop themes and work up ideas, that I can migrate over to scays.

In recent years I have developed an interest in photography, mostly about the places I have travelled to, but a little on photos to back up my slides, I have placed some of these on Flickr, so search scays to see my collection, or follow the link. I intend to enhance the collection with more from my Google Photo repository.

So here it is, retirement and my fourth career, oh did I mention travel, part of my writing will be travel, and yes I intend to travel widely. Mostly by trains, and including cruising. But some airlines will be inevitable.

Today's photo is of the monolith in Hudson Yard, it's not just the buildings or the truly stunning Architecture, but the construction itself being situated over the station and railway tracks. More on this later, but for now just one of my many photos of the complex.

Sketchup Units

In the free version, one of the common mistakes is to create a new model and not check for the Units being used, students don't look at the bottom right for the units being used, and can't understand why adding dims or length does not work.

So there are two ways to correct this, easiest is to use the info button at the bottom right menu bar, clicking on this open up the model info menu, at the top are the imperial units, and for some reason the default, under this the metric and for me mmm use, clicking on this even when half way through a model will switch it over.

Of course, just adding the dim in the measurements bar with mm after the number will work, but best to change the units completely.

Alternatively and possibly good practice is to open the three bar menu and make a new model and choose the metric mm template. whatever way checking the measurements bottom right is always good practice.

The free version has a download button and is the way my students can pull the saved version from Sketchup's cloud to the desktop and then into Moodle, my universities all singing communications platform. I make it quite clear to all, saving as metric mm is one of the marking criteria, and worth 10% of the marks, mean I know but it gets the point across.

My.Sketchup is quickly coming of age update

The end of the academic year is nearly upon us in the UK, I have been using Sketchup free to run my last module, understanding 3D design, it has all that's required in understanding 3D, layering grouping use of components, colour, texture and the beginning of data control, plus the way perspective works and how to turn of perspective to parallel mode.

Recently I noticed that an upgrade button has appeared on the bottom left of the free screen, Wooooo excellent, by upgrading :

What you get:

• SketchUp for Web
• Import/Export CAD files
• Import/Export vector images
• Export raster images
• Customize materials
• Remove SketchUp watermark
• Unlimited storage
• Unlimited collaborators
• Pro tech support
• File organization
• Solid tools

Still no layout, but for students, this just might be worth following up.

As I have the desktop pro version I can easily use that to complete an Architectural drawing. without loading the desktop onto several machines. OK so there is a workflow to sort, but it's easy to see the effect Trimble is having on Sketchup driving the advancement forward, and the web browser version is very popular. I can't see how to download a video of scenes, or walkthrough, but I have no doubt it will arrive, perhaps on the browser upgrade, there is an export for vector images, so it might be there, I will check as I get my upgrade.

I recently purchased the Google Daydream AR/VR viewer and looking to see how this might be incorporated into the module. the screen is still a little fussy, not good for fine detail, but I can see this getting better. there seems to be a way to record the screen as its seen in the viewer, again I need to check and see how it works.

CAD research on Google Search results

I was doing some research on CAD use over the globe and used this excellent service from Google Trends to compare search terms on three main products :

• Autocad
• Archicad
• Vectorworks
• Sketchup

The graph below show a remarkable scale of interest, and not in the order I was expecting.

ok Autocad I expected to be top, but Sketchup so high and the other two Vectorwork and Archicad so low, remarkable.

Weather, Data , & the planet Earth

I have not blogged for a few weeks, its been sort of busy, with end of year, sorting marking and working out how I can lecture at two colleges. So many slides and lecture notes to prepare.

I have taken Google wholesale into my work pattern, Apple just does not cut it, they are so private, I understand why, but I need to share, so google it is. But this brings me onto a new web page, I so like Sites.Google.com the new version is so easy to use, it still lacks some function, but I can easily use it to create a new site I have made. To this end I purchased Scays.co.uk from the Domains.google.com site, its so easy, and linking it to the new web page just some simple copying of the URL and within about a minute I was up and running. The site is being developed, I want to allow better access to my lectures and slide, it is a work in progress, but it may change.

So what else, I have a major research project trying to understand the weather, how we can look at weather patterns and use the data to help buildings project, weather the weather !, Again its still early day's but open up a lot of different routs from storing building data, to something so simple as, can I give a building an email address. I had to think long and hard on this, but eventually I ground it down to a simple need, if my building needs to communicate with other buildings in a simple mesh to hear about incoming weather patterns how does it do it, and how can other building know were my building is located, and what relationship does it have in it's actual position to all the other buildings.

I wondered about using its actual easting and northing, that might work, or perhaps a simple address, the first line of any address plus the post code, that puts it in common with the postal service and its position. but its a tad long, perhaps easting & northing is simpler.

Storing all this data is the first big hurdle, I have no idea on the actual amount and given building might want to store, I am in talks with several people but as yet the life of a building might be 60 years or more, thats 60x365 or 21915 day or 31536000 hours say we store 5000 separate bits of data every minute, thats 5000x60 or 300,000 bits of sensor data over the 60 years, thats 31536000x300,000 or a staggering 90,000,000,000 data bits over its life time 90bn bits, thats just one building. magnify that by a smart city.

To that extent I am now researching methods of storage, Google is looking very good, with a service called IOT CORE, it's still in beta but it looks very good.

Heritage is also featuring very high in all of this, looking at the way older materials differ to new materials in their performance.

Todays picture is a sketch I made to understand an eaves detail on an old building, and how to water proof it.

Sensor Update

For so long, I have always thought that to track how a building is running, what machines or devices are running, I had to install sensors into the element and or object. That seems to have been turned on its head with a new single sensor board, that seems to use sound, and a smart algorithm, to analyse each sound to determine what is creating the sound, ir opening a microwave door, a window, or just entering the room.

The video below outlines the product. as yet I can't get one, but as soon as it becomes available I will purchase a few and trial them out.

Follow this link to the official site for more info, and the Academic paper describing this unit.

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Browser or downloadable program

On Thursday of this week, I attended the Google Next cloud event in London, ausum, not just good but totally, aussum, and I say that not because of the free lunch, but the presentations, and information the way I was received, and the help I got from all the Google Staff.

So first, the reason I attended, was to learn about data, the way Google Handles it and how I can tap into this, using the wide breadth of storage they offer, but also to tools. It's here you suddenly understand the breadth of the capacity Google has, its in a world of it's own, they talk in numbers that only a few can really comprehend, and at speeds, I just look at and wonder.

For some, the type and format of the products offered by Google is an easy choice, but for me, it's not so easy, this video has some answers:

But for my sort of work I think it's spreadsheets, this video on Google Cloud give me more info

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Lesson Plan

In the early days of my slight change in career, from simply running my small practice, to being a Professor, I would be asked to run a lecture, so I made the slides and loaded them up, ran the lesson and was mightly pleased at the result, but come the next year, I found that I have added similar slides to the set, for other years and slightly different classes, that I could not remember which slides I used last time, and the over all format I used.

So I went in search of a lesson plan, and whoooo, there are so many, and so many reason, layouts, formats and styles. So I sat back and played about with different ideas, this was over a few weeks. I left it dfor a while, and tried again, this time fixing a style I likes, see todays photo.

My lesson plan works for me, I tweek it every now and then, but for the past year its worked well, I use it not only to itemise the slides I want to use, but why. My most recent addition is the pre lesson reading list, articles or books I want the students to read, prior to my lesson.

In my slides I so often add a post lesson reading bibliography, but if I am using several slides, this get a little mixed up, so I have also added a specific post lesson list to the Lesson Plan.

I tried to use the slides themselves to organise my lessons, but this failed, I got so mixed up, so now I keep them is generic folders, and use the lesson plans to list my slides, its so much cleaner.
My next question is do I issue it to my students, so far my lesson plan has been my own aid, but having shown it to a few past students, I got great feedback, so for my next lecture I will add a link to Moodle.
I am a massive fan of Google Slides and Docs, the way it works and how I can share docs without actually sending pdf copies is great. I can update add items and know the next time they look at it, its the latest version.

This latest lesson plan is written in a spreadsheet, I like the way I can organise, but it adds its own problems to formatting, specifically bullet point lists, so I have added a link at the bottom to a way to fix this. But I have plans to revise it, make it better, and currently I am looking at a new format, thats simpler and more specific.

If you want a copy let me know, but the photo today is of a complete day

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Google Cloud NEXT event, London 4th May 2017

I have my pass for the Google Cloud Next meet on the 4th May 2017, although as yet I have only the pass for one day, I would so like to attend on the 3rd, so here's hoping.

But back to the subject matter of Data, , I have planned out a long day of lectures, and for once I am not giving a single second on stage, this is a chance for me to sit back and learn. the presenters methods of teaching, the subject matter, and the networking possibilities.

A long time back, I wrote a blog on the old site about planning a day like this, just attending is a waste of time, to get the most of the day, I intend to prepare.

First I have listed my lectures, the days is packed with so many alternatives :,

09.15 - 10.45

Keynote

Brad Calder, Greg DeMichillie and Matt McNeil

11:30-12:15

Breakout three

Google Cloud Functions and Firebase

Speaker: TBC

12:30-13:15

Breakout one

Cloud Spanner 101: Google's mission-critical relational database

Speaker: Fausto Ibarra

13:30-14:15

Lunch

14:30-15-15

Breakout five

New Hangouts - What you need to know

Speaker: Serge Lachapelle

15:30-16:15

Breakout three

Google Cloud Storage: best practices for selecting the right storage class, reliability, performance and scalability

Speaker: Kirill Tropin

16:30-17-15

Breakout three

Using Google's Identity as a Service (IDaaS) for GCP and G Suite

Speaker: Sriram Karra

Now I need to add notes to the "Google keep" stack I have created, oh and yes, I seem to be using Keep so much more these days.

Next is getting there on time with room to spare, so for me it's a train to Marylebone, then tube out to ExCel

Then is there any one to meet there, so far its a zero, but I have posted my attendance in the usual places so lets see.

Next its my kit, I plan to take just enough to survive, so its my Mac, power, and phone, should I take the iPad, no to much weight. moleskin and some writing material, a couple of pens, pencil and marker.

Thats it, now to research on each lecture to make sure I understand whats being talked about.

I have added labels to this posting, as always, but I have added one in particular, thats the label "Data Convergence", as Architectural Technologists move forward we need to understand how data, and the abundance of it, from so many different places, will affect the way we detail, This day, I hope will lay a lot of foundation work that will help me understand this.

ArchonCad - Jon Pickup Posted Vectorworks, Articles, Lecture videos

Jon Pickup has been prolific this month with his Vectorworks Video Lectures and tips postings. I have know Jon for a long time and watched his site with all his excellent videos and books, grow to one of the best repositories of Vectorworks help on the net.

The list below is this months list and its a doozey, you have to be a member to view the files, buts thats only right and proper, Jon spends a life time getting his manuals ready and correct, plus the videos that go through the various work.

Todays photo is of the moon creeping behind the earth, I recently gave a presentation on this, the way the moon was created and its effect on our weather even now.




epodcast202 - Nudge Tips
http://learn.archoncad.com/2017/04/30093/epodcast202-nudge-tips/

Nudge is where you move objects a small amount using the shift+arrow keys. it
can be useful, but watch out if you need to measure the objects. There are
also Vectorworks Preferences that control the nudging. In this extended podcast
I explain all the options.

1703_03 - Record Formats - Advanced Topics
http://learn.archoncad.com/2017/04/30087/1703_03-record-formats-advanced-topics/

These topics are the advanced topics. In this part of the manual we going to
cover the topics that really use the power of the record formats.

1703_02 - Record Formats - Intermediate Topics
http://learn.archoncad.com/2017/04/30077/1703_02-record-formats-intermediate-topics/

In the previous section we looked at the basic concept of the Record Format. In
this section will look at using record formats with other objects. Record format
is a very powerful when attached to objects, especially symbols.

1703_01 - Record Formats - Beginner Topics
http://learn.archoncad.com/2017/04/30072/1703_01-record-formats-beginner-topics/

A record format is a way to record information on an object. The record format
can be a simple one that only records one piece of information about an object.
But your record format can also be a complex one that will record several pieces
of information about an object.

1702_03 - Creating Drawings for A Landscape Project - Advanced Topics
http://learn.archoncad.com/2017/04/30065/1702_03-creating-drawings-for-a-landscape-project-advanced-topics/

In the previous section we looked at several objects that will speed up the
drawing process, especially when we come to create elevations, sections, and
links between drawings.

1702_02 - Creating Drawings for A Landscape Project - Intermediate Topics
http://learn.archoncad.com/2017/04/30053/1702_02-creating-drawings-for-a-landscape-project-intermediate-topics/

The previous section was all about beginner topics, these are topics that
everyone should know. This section is all about the intermediate topics that you
will need to know in order to create your drawings from the 3D model.
This section will be about how the 3D parts of the design work.

1702_01 - Creating Drawings for A Landscape Project - Introduction
http://learn.archoncad.com/2017/04/30046/1702_01-creating-drawings-for-a-landscape-project-introduction/

These are topics are the foundations of creating drawings. Creating the
information is nothing if you cannot organise it into drawings.
To create drawings we use several concepts. These concepts include Design
layers, Classes, Viewports, and Sheet Layers. These concepts are used in
conjunction with each other to create a drawings, but we will be looking at them
individually to see how they used.

Demolition of life,

Yesterday, one of my colleagues showed me the video below, created by GlidebyJJ - Jody Johnson, its a moving little piece, for a number of reasons, The building was a mental hospital in the USA, called Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital, it was built in 1876 and was the largest building in the US at the time. This beautiful, historic masterpiece was demolished from May - November 2015. and for all sorts of reasons it was not a nice place, but putting that aside, the video is packed with interesting construction, its actually reversed, and as the film proceeds, you see the building come to life.

I had to watch it several times to get the full impact of the construction, the brickwork, the roof construction, and the floor structure, and as the building completes the final impact of the estate.

So often classic buildings are lost to the demolition crane, some are lucky enough to have been photographed, and some even filmed. The film at the bottom is packed with similar wonderful Architecture, and a search for Demolished Historic and see several like minded videos.

The CPD here is huge, I can easily see six or severn major classifications to add to your list, 

• Construction
• Architecture
• Landscaping
• Planning
• Material selection
• Services
• Demolition

My own city of Birmingham in the UK has similar lost Architecture, grand and hansom buildings lost to such poor replacements, the last video is of a classic building lost some time ago to a modern library, which has just been pulled down for yet more modern Architecture, when will we learn.

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My data bank - Shall I stick to Evernote

For as long as Evernote has been in existence, I have been adding articles, pdf files, meeting notes, just about anything I thought work keeping, in the great archive Evernote.

I scan letters, articles I see in magazines, and my trusty Moleskine pages, I take photos within Evernote of bookshelves. The OCR will, if I have taken the photo close enough, will mean it's searchable.

I use it as part of my research, as the little app I have on both safari and Google Chrome Web Browsers, shows any links in my Evernote account as well as the internet. Very usefull for my private notes.

But in the last few month, Evernote has increased the premium fee, there is a free account, but my use means I need to pay, so is the increase justified,

I sat back and wondered,t has anyone else got a similar product that does all of what Evernote does and more.

My list is simple,

• Google Doc notes
• Google Keep
• Microsoft OneNote
• Mac Pages - Spotlight

I have alway used Mac, so have a lot of notes pre Evernote in Mac format, mostly “pages”, Searching can be done via the Spotlight search button, but is not easy and only brings up the file name

Microsoft OneNote has for some time been gaining ground on Evernote, but after using it to trial its ease and sharing I find on the Mac it's not really ready yet, the iPad version has a hit and miss approach to sharing the main account, and search is therefore limited, but I like the layout and methodology.

Google Keep, has quietly, been adding features to this simple yet so easy to use product, and sharing across all my devices is very google like, easy, it just works, I like the way I can add data, even on the Mac its simple, but it can’t save PDF files, there is a simple work around involving saving the pdf to Google drive, getting the link and pasting that into Google Keep, but any search will only read the link and notes you might have made, unlike Evernote that saves a complete pdf, and makes the entire content searchable. And the search is limited to Keep, searching on my browser does not bring in my keep notes unlike Evernote.

Making notes in individual Google Doc’s is so much like Apples Pages, it is so easy to use, but searching is so limited to the file name.

So after a month of trials and frustration, I am back to Evenrnote, well I never went away, I just duplicated my notes, it took time but showed me that Evernote still has the edge, by some considerable margin, sharing is so good, across all my devices, and almost everything I do is available for the search withing my browser.

Is the extra worth it, answer, yes, will I do the same trial again, yes, but I’ll wait a year and let the other programs mentioned, try and catch up, Google Keep seems to be the one I will watch, Google's ability to both store for free and search this information is well known. However they need to up the ante on pdf and photo import.

There is so much to talk about I blog, toweet, and add notes to various places, so to clooect all of these into a readable archive, I have created an email News letter

This first newsletter. Essentially it's going to be an alternative to my blog, with the current article, plus side issues.

I have for some time wanted to add, my side research and findings, like my Twitter  uploads, but not limited to the letter limit. I want to explore this newsletter design, so it will change.

I use a Google App called “Convert Google Docs to Gmail drafts”, which as the title says, I create this as a google Doc and transferred to gmail to send out. Taking a copy to add to my blog. So if you want so recieve this, try this download link to the PDF. or alternativley fill in this google form with your name and Email and I'll send as an Email. ( This is in trial so hang in there as I sort )

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Home Security

I am at last moving into the home security market, I get clients asking what to do, so I thought its time to experiment and look for products that I can fit to my own home.

First it's the usual alarm, We had one fitted some 20 years ago, and its still as good as the day it was fitted, ok we have it services regularly, and the battery has been changed a couple of times. Its a same guard, I like to set the thing when we go out, most of my neighbours have the same unit, and we all check when it goes off. I have thought of getting a better, internet connected unit, but I thought about it and decided to invest in something a little up market.

Enter stage right, out new web-cam we purchased from Y-Cam, its a simple little device that is wifi connected, has sensors to detect movement and works in the light and dark of the evening.
The output is good, and its viewable on their web site vis their iPhone App, and on my Mac. I can down load the video feed, and best of all, once you purchase the unit, the web site is free. the video I attach is an example of the quality, its not bad.

We use this for two reasons, one to watch our dog, when he is home alone, and then we move it to a upper window to view the front drive, the sensor is good enough to pick up anyone walking to the front door. Although we quite like watching our dog, its surprising what he gets up to.

Next, a front alarm bell, I Have my eye on a Ring unit, but at £120 the same price as the Y-Cam, I think it will wait, as the cam in the window does what I want at present, although the idea of answering the door from the ring unit and telling the post man to leave the parcel is tempting.

As always, for us its a matter of adding the correct items to support all of this to the drawing, for both units it down to a simple power supply, the Y-Cam is 240v so a plug in a convenient place is all thats required, the Ring needs its own power via a transformer, Specifying that the house is connected to the WiFi is interesting, as thats down to the house owner, but as long as its mentioned in the specification.

Conclusion, I like the Y-Cam it does most of what I want, I can check on the house whilst away, and I get advice on my phone when its activated. I can easily phone my neighbours to check on anything, and adding another unit to say the back of the house is easy.

Techcitejournal my new site to promote academic papers

For some while I have been thinking about setting up a site to host not only my own Tech papers but any one who has or wants to publish a tech paper to promote Architectural Technology. I have named it Techcitejournal, I think it adequately describes what the site is all about.

Currently its hosted on a Wordpress.com site, but if there is enough interest I'll move it to its own site.

At present I an setting up the papers I have written, but if you have a paper old or new, sent it to the upload address and I will review and post

If your interested in becoming a reviewer, again drop me anEmail to the same address and we can talk.

I still have no logo, so thats next, also I need to add some html to allow citations to be easily done for any article. I also want  Scholar.Google.com or at least Google.com to list and scan my new site, this I have requested.

There is no cost to all of this, I want to provide a free and uncluttered publishing web site free of firewalls,  This Peer review journal will operate on the principles of Open Access. I see no reason but to quote this excellent open Access statement from Peter Suber on Open Access. The full version can be found here, it say it all. You might also want to read the Sparc site on this subject as well.

Open-access (OA) literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. What makes it possible is the internet and the consent of the author or copyright-holder.

But till them take a look, I'll be uploading my papers as and when I can.

Times are a changing

In a few weeks, on the 16th Nov to be precise, I will be giving me professorial speech, which my University, Birmingham City University, Birmingham ask all new professors to do. I plan a Ted style lecture with what I plan on calling 'Times are a changing'.

For me, the last few months  have been a rolle coaster of change, with my father passing, and having to  sort his estate. He was a structural draftsmanship and probably the last of the board users, drawing with pencil and ink, never wanting to move into cad, and probably the reason he retired at 65, together with several new projects starting, and a few papers fleshed out.

And change is what he saw coming, but in his wildest dreams, he could not imagine the pace of those changes, and the depth. Just before he died we talked about my life drawing and the cad programs I use, I tried to explain what it meant and some of the developments I would see over the next 25 years as I aproach his age of 89. Some of it was passing over and beyond his head, some he recognised, but could not believe.

My address to the university will take much the same path, but I hope to more enlightened colleagues. I plan to outline our current situation status, looking at our present stock of cad programs, but quickly move on to the changes I forsee, initially the way data will develop within the building then spread its wings spreading out into the neighbourhood. How the building will use the data to react to use, the weather aging and most of all ageing. Plus the type and scale of data we will be generating.

It's not new, most of the large aeroplane jet engines use sensors to monitor their engines, in real time, that is as they fly, getting ground crews to meet planes that require service or repair,

The data flow is also not new, a single engine may have in excess of 5000 sensors all communicating,  and thats about 10GB/s for a largish plane thats serious amounts of data, add a twin engine configuration and your easily into 2 Tb/s

So a fun ride, but so interesting, add this above to a city the size of say London or Birmingham and we are into serious data, but change 1 plane into 50,000 flying about the globe almost constantly and each of the engine manufacturers are into a large data centre each.

CIAT CPD Officers Meet 20-06-2016

In about five weeks, or on the 20th June 2016, all the region CIAT CPD officers will meet in City Road, London, to discuss CPD. As yet I have seen no agenda, but you know me, thats not going to stop me making a list of things I want to talk about, from manufacturers presentations, to real study time, to reading lists, to note taking to building up some sort of personal archive of information. to just an electronic record system.

I also want to discus the way BIM seems to be taking hold of CAD, not that thats a bad thing, just the way the "CAD" bit is being dropped and I hear only I am going to BIM this up, not CAD or draw it up. Yet BIM surely should be on the list as it will and is affecting the way we draw, and also with it huge potential for data rules base, or internal / external algorithms, and how it will be shared via IFC.

Evernote, or anything similar, is there anything!, should surely be discussed, as the personal archive I mentioned before.

Is there a place for online lecture, or hangouts, I attend several and find then just as good, with no travel time.

I wonder if the way academic papers are written and viewed, might be discussed, its a major way to learn and research a subject, but for many its a system that might be unknown, thinking its only for academics, yet its not, and so many of the AT universities might well help is reading and advising on a papers format and subject.

So there it is, if you want to add to my list,  drop me a line and  will raise it, or contact your local CPD officer.

Todays photo is of the old Queens Hotel that was built onto the side of Curzon Street Station Birmingham the subject of much discussion as HS2 becomes more of a certainty,  and pulled down as part of the saving of the main station entrance building. I have never seen any other photos of the hotel building, one of the other lecturers who was heavily involved in the work says there are some, so watch this space to see if they turn up. This shot was from the rear of the site looking south West wish.