The Dirt

Kosrae, Island of the Sleeping Lady

On Wednesday, May 16th, I arrived on the island of Kosrae. Known as the Island of the Sleeping Lady, Kosrae is one of the four states that makes up the Federated States of Micronesia, and let me tell you, it is a stunning place. I have never seen such pristine, natural beauty like this anywhere. Download this KMZ file to locate/view Kosrae with Google Earth.

I was invited to the island to meet with the Governor, as well as many state and local government department heads, to discuss how Autodesk technology can help sustain, preserve, and protect Kosrae (pronounced Ko-shry). These visionary people understand that Kosrae is virtually untouched by Western influences, that it’s terrestrial and marine beauty is unrivaled, and that it is vulnerable.

The islanders want tourists, diving magazines, the Discovery Channel, etc. to discover Kosrae, but they understand that proactive planning will make the eventual onslaught of tourists manageable, profitable, and sustainable. This situation reminds me of what I found on Easter Island, but with one big difference–with regard to tourism, Easter Island is in a reactive situation. On Easter Island, a Boeing 767 loaded with tourists arrives several times a week. The island is struggling to meet the demands made to their infrastructure and the natural environment. By the way, my work with the Easter Islanders continues . . . more about this later on in the fall.

On Kosrae, we created the Kosrae Sustainable Asset Management Project (KSAM), a new committee that brings together the stakeholders from government, land management, public works, marine resources, survey and mapping, historic preservation, and tourism. Acting as a single unit, adopting one standard, and working toward the ultimate goals of preservation, sustainable design, and private development, this group will create processes, procedures—and maybe even laws—that will welcome tourism, but manage it wisely to preserve their magnificent island.

I was fortunate to visit, survey, and map several unique sites on Kosrae, including prehistoric ruins, World War II sites, and even an underwater survey—all completed with AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008. Look for my posts (some with video) about them in the near future.

FIG Working Week 2007

On Sunday, May 13th, I arrived in Hong Kong to give a presentation at the annual FIG Working Week Conference. FIG is an acronym (in French) for International Federation of Surveyors. What is FIG? According to their website:

FIG was founded in 1878 in Paris. It is a federation of national associations and is the only international body that represents all surveying disciplines. It is a UN-recognized non-government organization (NGO) and its aim is to ensure that the disciplines of surveying and all who practice them meet the needs of the markets and communities that they serve. It realizes its aim by promoting the practice of the profession and encouraging the development of professional standards.

What I find most interesting about FIG is their commitment to:

• Addressing the global shortage of licensed land surveyors.
• The creation of standards and practices for surveyors everywhere.
• Promoting educational programs in an effort to create more interest in land surveying.

Indeed, just as there is a shortage of engineers in most of the world, there is also a shortage of land surveyors.

At the conference, I spoke about the importance of having specific standards working together with respect to Civil 3D 2008. Without standards—including a field coding standard, CAD standard, and what I call an “IT standard” (file naming conventions, etc.)—you simply cannot achieve the maximum return on investment from Civil 3D.

This posting also marks the first VIDEO posting I’ve ever done. Moving forward I hope to do many more of these. 

My thanks to the Autodesk staff in Hong Kong and to Andy Chan who showed me his new Civil 3D 2008 book.  I’ll be posting a review of this book very soon.

Expert CAD Management: The Complete Guide

My friend and fellow guitar player Robert Green has just finished his book Expert CAD Management: The Complete Guide. If you follow Bob’s writing for Catalyst, etc., you know he is one of the leading authorities on issues faced by CAD managers.

Budgeting, training, management oversight, expectation management and software/network configuration are all topics you will find in the book. The accompanying CD includes a video presentation from Bob showing you how to make the most out of the content. Two thumbs up from me; this is a must have for all CAD managers.

Las Vegas Valley Water District Integrates GPS, CAD, and GIS

Check out this great article “Betting on Technology” about the Las Vegas Valley Water District (LVVWD)! The LVVWD has integrated GPS, CAD, and GIS into an extremely efficient solution. With the explosive growth that Las Vegas continues to experience, LVVWD had to do something innovative to integrate the three technologies that they use every day. Seriously, read this and think about how your organization could benefit.

BIM and Civil 3D

I was talking with a friend of mine the other day about the dynamic civil modeling capability in Civil 3D.  At one point in the conversation, I mentioned BIM and how it had much in common with Civil 3D. To my surprise, he said he had never heard of BIM. This was one of those moments where my BLOG instincts kick in. If this guy (who I have known for years and who I consider a giant in the civil industry) has not heard of BIM, then I should assume there are others who would appreciate an explanation.

BIM stands for building information modeling. It is a concept spearheaded by Autodesk in 2002 (yes, by architects) that suggests building designs should consist of 3D models that understand that design changes will cause drafting changes, scheduling changes, time to construct and cost changes.  When design changes occur, the model, the drafting and subsequent reports and schedules update dynamically.  This keeps the architects, the drafters, the clients, and the contractors all on the same page. The benefit of BIM is a better design achieved in less time with little-to-no opportunity for miscommunication between the stakeholders. 

Sound familiar?  It should, because this is the way that Civil 3D works. The dynamic civil model allows Civil 3D users to explore “what if” scenarios in real time. As options are explored, the drafting components update dynamically. Furthermore, the design is three-dimensional, so costly mistakes, drainage errors, clash detection of pipes, etc. can all be identified early during the design phase, instead of during construction where it can get very expensive to remedy.

Having trouble dealing with the fact that BIM is an architectural initiative?  Try this. Replace the word building (noun) with building (verb) and you have an acronym with more AEC appeal!

Want to know more about BIM? There is a ton of information HERE.