The Dirt

World's Oldest Man (a Land Surveyor) Dies at 113

Wow!  Must have been all the fresh air and exercise!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31439522/ns/world_news-asiapacific/

I'm Back

It was GREAT to see my friends on Rapa Nui last week.  Things are changing so fast on the island.  The effects of tourism and erosion are even more pronounced as are the islander's continuing efforts to meet the challenges they and their island face.  They continue to fight the good fight.

Now, it's back to work.  If I ever get through all of this email it will be a miracle!

Autodesk & Bentley Announce DWG/DGN Interoperabilty Initiative

This is great news!

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. and EXTON, Pa., July 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- At a joint press conference, Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) and Bentley Systems, Incorporated, two of the leading providers of design and infrastructure software, today announced an agreement to expand interoperability between their portfolios of architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) software. Autodesk and Bentley will exchange software libraries, including Autodesk RealDWG, to improve the ability to read and write the companies' respective DWG and DGN formats in mixed environments with greater fidelity. In addition, the two companies will facilitate work process interoperability between their AEC applications through supporting the reciprocal use of available Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). With this agreement, the companies aim to improve AEC workflows by enabling broader reuse of information generated during the design, construction, and operation of buildings and infrastructure, and by enhancing the ability of project teams to choose among multiple software sources.

Interoperability has emerged as a critical issue for users of design and engineering software. A 2004 study by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology found that users bear direct costs of almost $16 billion annually from time wasted due to inadequate AEC software interoperability. By virtue of this agreement, and the interoperable offerings that it will enable, AEC firms will be free to employ software tools of choice from either Autodesk or Bentley to accept or submit either DWG or DGN files. By improving fidelity of work shared between the two file formats, users will be able to focus on being creative and getting work done, rather than being constrained by file-compatibility considerations.

Through supporting the reciprocal use of their available APIs, Autodesk and Bentley will enable AEC project teams to combine products from both providers within integrated workflows. For instance, a design team could use a mixture of Autodesk and Bentley software, such as Autodesk's Revit platform and Bentley's STAAD and RAM structural products, and simulate and analyze their designs or manage project information using Autodesk NavisWorks software or Bentley's ProjectWise.

Norbert Young, FAIA, president of McGraw-Hill Construction and former chairman of the International Alliance for Interoperability in North America, said, "This groundbreaking agreement directly addresses many of the critical issues detailed in the October 2007 McGraw-Hill Construction study on interoperability in the construction industry (http://construction.ecnext.com/mcgraw_hill/includes/SMRI.pdf). I applaud both companies for their foresight and leadership."

Added Patrick MacLeamy, FAIA, CEO of global architectural firm HOK and a founder and current chairman of the International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI), "As a longtime advocate of interoperability, I welcome this agreement as an important step toward enabling AEC information to be more broadly shared, increasing the value of BIM to our clients."

"Autodesk recognizes that many customers use our products in mixed environments, and this agreement will help to better support these firms," said Jay Bhatt, senior vice president, Autodesk AEC Solutions. "As part of our commitment to provide technology that improves productivity and efficiency across the AEC industry, we're pleased to enter into this agreement with Bentley Systems -- Autodesk's largest development partner -- and together help customers design, build, operate, and maintain the world's infrastructure."

"Bentley and Autodesk share a goal of enabling the creation and operations of better-performing infrastructure," said Greg Bentley, CEO of Bentley Systems. "Realizing that our mutual users bear unnecessary costs resulting from lack of interoperability, we came together to finally make information reuse the norm. By raising its sights beyond file format issues, the resource- constrained AEC community can better serve us all."

About Bentley Systems, Incorporated

Bentley is the global leader dedicated to providing comprehensive software solutions for sustaining infrastructure. Architects, engineers, constructors, and owner-operators are indispensable in improving our world and our quality of life; the company's mission is to improve the performance of their projects and of the assets they design, build, and operate. Bentley sustains the infrastructure professions by helping to leverage information technology, learning, best practices, and global collaboration -- and by promoting careers devoted to this crucial work.

Founded in 1984, Bentley has more than 2,800 colleagues, offices in more than 50 countries, annual revenues surpassing $500 million, and since 1993, has invested more than $1 billion in research, development, and acquisitions. Nearly 90 percent of the Engineering News-Record Top Design Firms are Bentley subscribers, and a 2008 Daratech study ranked Bentley as the world's #2 provider of geospatial software solutions. For additional information about Bentley, visit http://www.bentley.com/.

About Autodesk

Autodesk, Inc. is the world leader in 2D and 3D design software for the manufacturing, building and construction, and media and entertainment markets. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk has developed the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art digital prototyping solutions to help customers experience their ideas before they are real. Fortune 1000 companies rely on Autodesk for the tools to visualize, simulate and analyze real-world performance early in the design process to save time and money, enhance quality and foster innovation. For additional information about Autodesk, visit http://www.autodesk.com/.

Autodesk, AutoCAD, DWG, Revit, and NavisWorks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. Bentley, the "B" Bentley logo, STAAD, RAM, and ProjectWise are either registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks of Bentley Systems, Incorporated or one of its direct or indirect wholly owned subsidiaries. All other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

  (Logo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050415/SFF034LOGO)

   Press Contacts:

   FOR BENTLEY:
   Ron Kuhfeld
   +1 610 321 6493
   ron.kuhfeld@bentley.com

   FOR AUTODESK:
   Noah Cole
   +1 415 200 6310
   noah.cole@autodesk.com

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050415/SFF034LOGO
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com

SOURCE: Autodesk, Inc.

CONTACT: Noah Cole of Autodesk, Inc., +1-415-200-6310,
noah.cole@autodesk.com; or Ron Kuhfeld of Bentley Systems, Incorporated,
+1-610-321-6493, ron.kuhfeld@bentley.com

Web site: http://www.autodesk.com/
http://www.bentley.com/

Land Desktop 2009 - That's all folks!

2009 will be the last release of Land Desktop.  See this LINK for the official word on Autodesk.com.

Many of you Land Desktop veterans, myself included, have already made the move forward to Civil 3D.  If you are still on the fence about why you should migrate to Civil 3D the answer is clear.

Land Desktop is a static, model based application.  Civil 3D is a dynamic, model based application.  You simply cannot compare the two . . . it's apples to elephants.  Those of you who have made the jump and are well aware of the competitive advantages that dynamic modeling provides.  If you are not clear about this I urge you to read the customer testimonials and success stories that can be found HERE.

For those of you who remember the DOS to Windows migration . . . could you imagine actually going back to DOS?  I can assure you that the same is true for moving forward from Land Desktop to Civil 3D.  Yes, there is a learning curve, but once you are through it your productivity will soar and you will never look back!

A New Role for the Technical Evangelist

OK, I lied.  I may keep the blog up for a while.  I guess I have underestimated The Dirt's significance - so we'll keep it up and running.

I can now share a bit about my new position here at Autodesk.  The official announcement:

Pete Kelsey’s contribution over the past two years at Autodesk as worldwide evangelist for Civil 3D has provided him a unique perspective on customer needs and the transition challenges to model-centric workflows.   He contributed mightily to the success in building worldwide awareness of Civil 3D.   In his new role as AEC Key Accounts Technical Manager Pete will focus on the top AEC firms within North America.  With the adoption rate of Civil 3D really accelerating it is clear that Pete’s focus should now shift from evangelizing Civil 3D to helping some of Autodesk’s biggest customers maximize their return on investment.

Pretty exciting (and slightly terrifying) - eh?

BTW - Thanks for all the well wishes and the "commentary" on my recent haircut - some of it was hilarious!  Here's my favorite:

"When I recently saw pigs flying outside my office window I was totally baffled having no idea what the significance could be.  Now I know why."

Prospering after a 60% Loss of Senior Staff

Recently I met with a federal agency where I learned that in the next five years, 60% of the senior staff will retire. That startling fact has been nagging at me ever since.

Can you imagine losing 60% of your senior staff? Many would proclaim the sky is falling, bury their heads in the sand, and hope things magically improve. This is not the case with this agency. Forgive me for being secretive about who the agency is, but I am not sure if this is public information or not.

They are very wisely seeing this event as an opportunity to evolve. By abandoning antiquated technology and processes, and in turn, integrating new technology, standards, and processes, this very forward-looking agency is planning to make a long overdue leap forward.

I have been encouraging them along this course of action. Do you think we're nuts?

Look at it this way. With the senior staff retiring in great numbers, a great deal of the resistance-to-change-fear retires too. With such a profound reduction in staff, it makes perfect sense to tune up, if not completely rebuild, the "engine" that cranks out your deliverables. By improving your output, it will be possible to maintain, and even exceed, existing production levels.

One leap they will inevitably make is from 2D, static-based design to 3D, dynamic-based design. This alone will greatly improve their production as well as the quality of their work. One irrefutable fact about 3D is that it allows us to catch errors before we get to the construction phase.

Another leap will be to adopt standards. I talk a lot about the power of standards, because I helped many firms, public and private, migrate from a non-standardized environment to a standardized one, and witnessed profound results: 50% to 700% increases in productivity.

The many contractors that work for the agency will be required to adhere to the standards and to submit electronic deliverables. This means all the data coming in from the outside will follow the same standards as work generated from within. The result is seamless interoperability.

There will, of course, be a training component, and a well thought out and executed implementation plan.

By following similar plans, I believe that any organization that is suffering from the effects of the engineer, designer, surveyor, and technician manpower shortages can optimize their company to actually do more, higher quality work than they are currently doing.

The agency agrees and has ambitious plans. You'll hear more about this project as it moves forward.

Rox v. Sox

I just have one thing to say:  It's a good time to be from New England!

If both teams go down in flames this weekend, I'll know it was because of this post—and I'll never make another sports-related post again. I have offered to teach both teams Civil 3D, so they can model the drive to work, the playing fields, and what will happen to the fields when it rains . . .

No response from either team yet—but I remain hopeful.

Autodesk Updates AutoCAD-based Solutions for Architects, Civil and MEP Engineers

New Features and Functionality Support Existing 2D Workflows

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 12, 2007 — At its World Press Day event today, Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) unveiled updates to its comprehensive portfolio of discipline-specific software solutions based on the AutoCAD software platform for architecture, engineering and construction (AEC). Autodesk also announced that several product names have been modified to reflect their sharing the AutoCAD 2008 platform for design and documentation productivity.

AutoCAD Architecture 2008 (formerly Autodesk Architectural Desktop), AutoCAD MEP (formerly Autodesk Building Systems) and AutoCAD Civil 3D software applications incorporate new features and functionality to help architects, mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) and civil engineers improve productivity and increase efficiency. Enhancements in these AutoCAD-based applications also pave the way for architects, designers and engineers to streamline fundamental tasks and redefine traditional design process.

“From our vantage point as a driving force in design software, we can see tremendous opportunity for our customers to continue to improve design and documentation productivity for even the basic tasks of engineering and building design,” said Jay Bhatt, vice president, Autodesk AEC Solutions. “The latest updates to our portfolio of 2D and 3D tools are improving established ways of working, and make meaningful enhancements to the functions that are integral to our customers’ work.”

Updates Raise the Standard for Core 2D and Modeling-based Activities

The latest application updates are built on the AutoCAD 2008 platform, also announced today (see “Autodesk Enhances Industry-leading AutoCAD Software,” Feb. 13, 2007). Autodesk now offers customers state-of-the-art 2D and 3D model-based software solutions that bring innovations in conceptual design, dynamic modeling and usability to design workflow and core tasks. These features and functions boost the speed and coordination of drafting and modeling work.

AutoCAD Architecture 2008

AutoCAD Architecture provides the best AutoCAD-based design and documentation productivity for architects. AutoCAD Architecture 2008 makes it easier for users familiar with AutoCAD to automate tedious drafting tasks so design documentation can be completed more easily and more quickly. 

New features and functionality in AutoCAD Architecture 2008 include:

·         Automatic scaling of drawing production allows users to simply change the scale of the design, and the annotations including dimensions, tags and leaders are automatically updated.

·         Changing building elements and components display (such as a door and its swing) is now as easy as modifying AutoCAD linework.

·         New Drawing Compare feature, available through the Autodesk Subscription program, uses color-coded displays to show items on a drawing that have been changed, added or deleted by other members of the design team. Changes to items such as styles, fire ratings or other non-graphical properties also can be tracked.

AutoCAD MEP 2008

AutoCAD MEP 2008 is AutoCAD-based software for mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) engineers, designers and drafters. AutoCAD MEP 2008 software brings efficiency to AutoCAD-based workflows for greater productivity and accuracy, which also helps minimize coordination errors between architecture and engineering teams.

New features in AutoCAD MEP 2008 include:

·         Automation of MEP systems design, layout and documentation, including single line plumbing, electrical layout and piping.

·         Part wizard to speed creation of new parts with predefined parametric templates.

·         International metric content, for documentation in global projects using international metric measurements.

·         Improved display control for construction documentation and display.

AutoCAD Civil 3D

Autodesk provides civil engineers, designers, surveyors and drafters with a comprehensive AutoCAD-based package that uses a dynamic model to link design and production drafting for site development, road design and more. This capability enables changes to update across the project, so that all team members work from the same consistent, up-to-date design. AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008 is helping civil engineers redefine design by using proven technology to eliminate much of the tedious step-by-step development of plans.  At the same time, Civil 3D helps speed execution of design changes and facilitates evaluation of multiple design scenarios.

Key features in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008 include:

• Enhanced multiuser environment for work on larger, more complex projects.
• Interactive design capabilities and feature automation for greater productivity, such as automatic generation and updates to roadway plan and profile sheets.

§         Increased survey functionality to create base geometry faster and move data from and to the field.

§         Interoperability and migration for multiple data formats, including Google Earth mapping functionality and the DWF file specification.

AEC Solutions Portfolio Consolidates Products, Services

In addition to updating industry-leading applications, Autodesk has consolidated its efforts across architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) to better serve the increasingly integrated teams and processes across the industry as well as the business needs of the individual disciplines within the industry. Autodesk AEC solutions include industry-leading civil engineering, building design and engineering, and building operation applications, as well as collaborative project management (CPM) tools for construction. In addition to AutoCAD-based applications, the portfolio features the latest Revit family of products for building information modeling (BIM), Autodesk FMDesktop software for facility management, and Autodesk Buzzsaw and Autodesk Constructware software and services for CPM.

Availability

Product availability will vary by country Details on purchasing options will be available in the spring at: www.autodesk.com/purchaseoptions. 

About Autodesk

Autodesk, Inc. is the world leader in 2D and 3D design software for the manufacturing, building and construction, and media and entertainment markets. Since its introduction of AutoCAD in 1982, Autodesk has developed the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art digital prototyping solutions to help customers experience their ideas before they are real. Fortune 1000 companies rely on Autodesk for the tools to visualize, simulate and analyze real-world performance early in the design process to save time and money, enhance quality and foster innovation. For additional information about Autodesk, visit www.autodesk.com.

Autodesk, AutoCAD, Buzzsaw, Civil 3D, Constructware, DWF, FMDesktop and Revit are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product offerings and specifications at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. 

© 2007 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

Aging Infrastructure

Here is yet another example of the aging infrastructure in many cities:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/us/08sink.html?hp&ex=1170997200&en=e09c469da7965801&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Thank you Kelly for this link!

The Bureau of Reclamation and Civil 3D

(L to R) Wes Clain with Autodesk and Dave Winslow, Manuel Salas and Gary McDanel of USBR

Recently I was in Manchester, NH with the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation where we discussed plans for implementing Civil 3D. I also gave Reclamation a peek at Civil 3D 2008 (no, I can’t tell you about it!  If you’re curious about the next release you need to come to Autodesk University).

I have a lot of history with Reclamation. Back in 2001, when I was running K-TEK, Reclamation contracted with us to create standards, provide training, and fully implement Land Desktop throughout all five regions. Fortunately it was a very successful project that resulted in a press release from Autodesk.

Now, six years later, Reclamation has decided it’s time to implement Civil 3D 2007.  This time our plan is to help them migrate their standards forward and to provide training using those same standards. 

I’ll be making progress reports over the next few months.  Stay tuned!