Endless Path of Improvement

Backup! Seriously. Backup.

How often do you back up your files? Daily? You better. Anything longer is a wrong answer. Here’s Part One of why: My brother is in IT; when I was younger he excitedly told me about a new server he’d installed. It had 7 drives in parallel. You could rip one out of the server while it was on and no data was lost. It needed to be set up

Read More

Eric Bobrow wants to make you Better

Many of you have probably heard of Eric Bobrow. He’s the guy behind ArchiCAD Master Template. Eric was a major Graphisoft reseller for 21 years and is now focused on improving our ArchiCAD skills. Eric has put together a new online training course on the most effective methods for working in ArchiCAD. In a recent article, AECBytes Tips and Tricks #56, he goes over his 7 Keys to Best Practices

Read More

Black & White Hidden Line Renderings

I like adding 3D views of the major facades on my cover sheets. I first did this about 3 years ago using the sketch rendering engine. I knew it was a good move when in a client meeting we hardly left the cover sheet while discussing the exterior of the house. I use 11_Tech_Pencil and turn down all the noise settings to zero. It makes a nice black and white

Read More

Shop Drawings, an intermediate solution

Many years ago when I was an intern at Gensler in Houston, one of my jobs was transferring redlines on shop drawings. The lead architect marked up the original and then I made 5 copies by hand. Some shop drawings came across my desk today and I had a thought. At SALA, I’ve set up pen #20 to always print red (more on that later). What if I dropped a

Read More

Benchmarking and the Endless Path of Improvement

Below is an excerpt from a draft of a document I’m putting together for my role as CAD / BIM Manager at SALA Architects: Competencies: Outside of the office standards, users will not learn or use the program in an identical manner. As a result, tiers of users are differentiated by having competency in a certain quantity of skills within the program, rather than specific requirements. The intent is that

Read More
Scroll to Top