The Dirt

Ten Years After

I was reminded the other day that ten years ago this month, Autodesk acquired Softdesk. I can’t believe it’s been that long!

For those of you who may not know the history of the Autodesk civil products, here is the abridged version:

• 1985 – DCA Engineering starts marketing LISP routines for AutoCAD
• 1991 – DCA renames itself Softdesk
• 1997 – Softdesk is acquired by Autodesk

I was never a Softdesk employee, but I was a Softdesk Registered Consultant, so I remember the acquisition well. All the Softdesk folks were scared to death that they would lose their jobs. Few actually did. In fact, more than a few former Softdesk folks are still at Autodesk, most of them based in Manchester, NH.

We certainly have seen evolution at work since 1997. Land Desktop was the first. Today of course, Civil 3D and the dynamic modeling capability it provides, is revolutionizing how we do our work

Looking for AU 2007 Class Presenters

Interested in teaching at the next Autodesk University?

When:   November 27–30, 2007
Where:  The Venetian Resort Hotel

Right now, we are building our class schedule for AU 2007. Submit your class proposals at https://www.autodeskuniversity07.com/portal/cfp/welcome.ww.

The deadline for proposal submissions is April 30, 2007.

Here’s what we’re looking for in presenters:

1. People who are comfortable in front of a LOT of people. Depending on the schedule and the numbers of class registrants, you may have 500 to 700 people in the room.
2. People who are energetic / charismatic.
3. People who can (and will) share real-world best practices and guidance that will help others successfully adopt Civil 3D in production. That’s what AU is all about!

Types of classes that we’re looking for in the Civil/Survey track include:

• Migrating to Civil 3D from other products (including Land Desktop)
• Surveying (including survey, point, COGO and DTM operations)
• Site development
• Subdivision design
• Road and highway design (new roads, intersections, rehab/reconstruction, urban roads and highways)
• Pipe and utility layout
• Environmental projects
• Production drafting
• CAD management (styles, standards, data interoperability between AEC and GIS solutions)
• Project/data management (Vault, shortcuts, best practices for production)
• Visualization and project communication

Note that there are classes (lectures) and labs (hands-on) sessions. Define what you want the proposal to be, but we may need to change it as we juggle the agenda. Those of you who are new may also want to consider being a lab assistant.

Finally, if you have never been to AU, start making the case to your boss now to join us. It really is an amazing event for learning how technology like AutoCAD Civil 3D can be used to solve real-world production problems. The people who teach classes there have incredible experience and knowledge to share.

A-FIB in BA

In prophetic style, I closed my posting from Santiago, Chile with, “I can’t wait to see what happens next.” Well I certainly got a big surprise on Sunday afternoon, February 12th, in Buenos Aires.

After eating a fabulous meal of Argentinean BBQ, I headed back to my hotel on foot and my heart started fibrillating. Fortunately for me, it was A-Fib not V-Fib. If it had been V-Fib—an actual heart attack—I would have died right there. And without the help of my new, best friend Guillermo Melantoni, I doubt things would have ended so well.

After dealing with policemen who didn’t want to help us for fear of having to take responsibility, an ambulance finally showed up and rushed Guillermo and I off to a public hospital (see photo). The first thing I’ll say about this hospital is that the staff were some of the kindest people I have ever met. Sadly they work under very sparse and primitive conditions.

After being diagnosed with A-fib and realizing it was not that serious, they put me on IV meds and left me alone to wait for my heart to convert back to a normal rhythm. Ten hours later I was still fibrillating and I had seen just about everything in this place. On my right, a bloodstained EKG machine monitored my racing heart. On my left was a plywood partition (circa 1880), also covered with old bloodstains. Across the room was an enormous woman, about 65-70 years old, naked, unconscious, and obviously in really bad shape. They resuscitated her twice during my stay. A few hours later, they brought in an 18-year-old boy covered in blood and tattoos. From what I could understand, he had been shot. He died about thirty minutes after he arrived. The poor guy lay there across from me for about two hours before they took him away. Looking up, I noticed my IV bag –and everyone else’s - hung from a piece of old, bent wire that ran the length of the room. Crude, but efficient.

I never saw people work so hard and genuinely care so much as I did that night. In college, I drove an ambulance and I worked in a hospital for a year, so I have some experience in these matters. I asked everyone’s name, from the doctors to the janitor and told them all, muchisimas gracias. Yolanda, Elena, Mabel, Maria, Raul, Walter, Daniel, Ariel, Diego, Alicia, and Rolando, you are the very best!

Around midnight, due to frantic efforts by Guillermo, I was transferred to a private hospital that specialized in cardiac cases. This place was a palace. State of the art equipment everywhere and great people dedicated to their work and their patients. I was treated with more IV drugs and sent up to a room where I met my roommate, Johan. Johan was about 80, bow-legged, very nice, full of energy and a former Nazi. He did not admit this to me but I could tell from his tattoos that he had been a party member.

After a sleepless night, I converted back to a normal rhythm around 11am the following morning. Lucky for me I did. They had explained to me that if I did not convert by noon they were going to shock me with a defibrillator. Not a pleasant thing to contemplate, I assure you!

Two hours after converting, the doctors discharged me with a clean bill of health. Armed with a box of pills, I have been cleared to return to work with no restrictions.

I am convinced that Guillermo suffered far more than I did through this ordeal. He struggled with lazy policeman, insurance companies, ambulance companies, two hospitals, my credit cards, and passport for payment and identification…and of course, translation. Worst of all, he had to sit in the waiting room for hours and hours. He saw some horrible things, I can assure you. My friend, I am more grateful than I can ever express.

While all this was going on, we (Autodesk) had our World Press Day where the 2008 products were announced. Sorry—I can’t tell you more than what is in the press release That I posted on Feb 12.  I can tell you that 2008 will be a really good release of Civil 3D. The early returns from some of my beta-test friends (both fellow employees and non-Autodesk-ers) look very positive indeed.

Finally, let me close this post by making this absolutely clear: I CAN wait to see what happens next!

The Dirt “Banner” Photo

I have received many inquiries about the photo used for my blog’s title “banner”. Questions like, “Who’s the ‘dirtbag’ in the photo?” “Where was the photo taken?” “What is the piece of equipment in the photo?”

Well, I am the proud dirtbag in the photo. Dirtbag…that still cracks me up. Now there’s a T-shirt or a bumper sticker idea for Dirt fans if ever there was one!

The photo was taken last fall (September 2005) about 80 miles southwest of Denali National Park in Alaska. I had arranged to conduct a 3D laser scan of the Hurricane Gulch Bridge for the Alaska Railroad with my friends at Intelisum. Click here to view the site using Google Earth.

The scanner in the photo is from Riegl. It is a LMS-Z420i

Check out another photo from this job in the photos section.

Recognize this logo?

Recognize the logo on this 1930’s-era steamroller? That’s right, it is the prancing horse of Ferrari. Most folks don’t know that Enzo Ferrari began his business manufacturing steamrollers. When I saw this one on Anguilla in the Caribbean, I had to have a photo. Construction equipment has come a long way . . . and so has Ferrari!

11/15/06 CORRECTION - It turns out that I have mislead you!  My information regarding this roller was WAY off.  I would like to thank "Puntoracer" of the Sporting Fiats Club U.K. for pointing out that this roller was actually manufactured by the Aveling Barford company whose logo is almost identical to Ferrari's.  My apologies to the Ferrari and Aveling Braford enthusiasts.  I'll be more thorough in my research from now on!

How do you view DWF files?

All,

You would be doing co-worker Scott Sheppard and I a big favor by taking a quick second to answer a question about How You View DWF files.  Just click HERE to view the link.  Many thanks!

You Can’t Afford to Miss the Civil 3D Bus

Many of you feel that current production deadlines stop you from taking the time to implement Civil 3D. But you can’t afford to wait. If you don’t get on the Civil 3D bus soon, you are going to get run over by it.

Review the Civil 3D success stories and press releases that Autodesk is cranking out in increasing numbers and notice the 30-75% increases in productivity that your fellow dirt readers are experiencing. Where are you in this picture?

Slowing down or even halting production to implement new technology can be a very hard sell to the powers that be at a civil engineering firm. But those of you who make this argument should remember that this situation is nothing new. Many of us migrated from manual drafting to CAD, and from surveying with a transit and a tape to GPS, and now LIDAR. If these examples are too pre-Cambrian for you, then perhaps you were around when we switched from DOS to Windows or from AutoCAD 14 to AutoCAD 2000.

So why did we make these changes? Profitability, pure and simple. We knew that if we made the switch, we could do more in less time.

How did we manage these implementations? We did them incrementally. We selected a small project and a small team of brave souls, told the boss we would probably lose our shirts on said project, procured all the learning materials and training we could get, and dove in. We came out on the other side battle-scarred, but wiser. We had identified and mapped the minefields and were able to lead the rest of the firm down the trail we had blazed.

Now’s the time to pick a small project, assemble your team, get clearance from the boss, and jump in. Not doing so, in my opinion, puts your firm at risk of losing to your competition.

Pete Kelsey is with Autodesk now? Really?

The rumors are indeed true. On June 15, 2006 I became a worldwide technical evangelist for Autodesk. If you don’t speak fluent Autodesk or find my title puzzling, it means I’ll be reaching out to you, the customers and partners, to exchange information, knowledge, and experience with Autodesk civil and geospatial products.

Together I hope to we’ll discover, promote, and share information that increases everyone’s knowledge of the Autodesk Civil/Survey/GIS product line and the civil engineering industry, so that we all can do more in less time with these very cool products and, in the end, foster true customer-driven solutions.

Be forewarned. I plan to discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly. I am indeed an Autodesk employee, but I intend to be the voice of the customer, and this I will do with great enthusiasm and dedication.

You are all invited to join me as we break new ground together, share what we learn along the way, and play in my sand box—The Dirt.

Why did Pete Kelsey leave K-TEK?

In the weeks since I started at Autodesk I have received a combination of well wishes and questions about how and why I took this job. Thank you all for both! It seems reasonable to use my blog as way to explain how this happened.

Bottom line, I really missed being out there in the trenches with the customers. As many of you know I started K-TEK Solutions, LLC (KTEK) in 2001 with friends and partners Felicia Provencal and Glenn Quinn. In the five years that seemed to fly by, we grew from the three of us to 74 people in seven countries. Modeled (copied actually) after the Softdesk Registered Consultant program, we provided technical services to customers all over the world.

With the rapid growth of the company, I found myself becoming farther removed from the customers and more involved in management. I really missed the customer contact and I began to grow unfulfilled and unhappy.

But that wasn’t the only reason. From the day I first saw a pre-alpha release of Civil 3D, I knew it would be revolutionary. If you table the growing pains that any technological leap of this magnitude endures and focus on the impact this technology will have on the Survey, Civil Engineering and GIS communities it should give you pause too. It’s either get on this bus now or get run over by it later. Bottom line, model-based design as an industry standard is inevitable. When you combine the power of Civil 3D with the power of Autodesk MAP (on which Civil 3D is built) the wall dividing CAD and GIS can’t help but come down… and it’s high time it did!

In March of 2006 I asked several Autodesk folks if there was a need for a Civil / Survey / GIS evangelist at the company. The reply was a resounding "yes." Three months later, I came on board and I could not be more excited to be here or more grateful to Autodesk for creating the position for me.

K-TEK will be dissolved or sold to new owners. For those of you left wondering where you can turn for the same quality of training and services you’ve come to expect from K-TEK, feel free to contact me and I can connect you with the most talented Autodesk instructors, consultants, and subject matter experts we have available. While I may have left K-TEK, I still have contact information for the entire team. I may even post this info later on.