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Thursday, September 29, 2011

School Fundraiser–Order Here

It’s that time of the year for school fundraisers. My daughter’s school has chosen the Innisbrook as the service provider for the fundraiser. If you wish to support her quest to collect prizes (she is in 1st grade); order some stuff using the information below. They are offering a plethora of stuff including wrapping paper, make-up, chocolate, magazines, gift bags, tumblers, things for girls on the go, candles, bottle stopper’s, cookies, measuring spoons, brownies, spices, nuts, ribbon, lotion, body wash, birthday cards, brain games, final touches, and more…

Here is the form letter from the fundraiser provider:

My school's annual fundraiser with Innisbrook has begun.  Innisbrook Wraps has beautifully designed gift wrap printed on quality recycled paper, coordinating gift wrap accessories, gourmet foods and fine Helen Grace Chocolates that make great gifts, Time Inc. magazine subscriptions, and more.

For every item that is purchased, Innisbrook donates up to 40% of the purchase price to my school.  I also earn a prize credit for every item purchased.  The more prize credits I earn, the more prizes I win!

Please consider visiting the Innisbrook website and making a purchase on my behalf.  A link is included below. Our sale will be over soon, so don't wait. Place your order today.

Thanks for your help!
Seller: SEDONA  Seller ID#  R285148G
School: COASTAL CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
School Number:  102730
Click this link below to visit the site and they will recognize me and my school automatically.
http://www.innisbrook.com/credits/index/studentlink?id=R285148G
If the above link does not work:
  1.  Click below
  2.  Select Shop the Innisbrook Online Store
  3.  Enter School# 102730 and Select Go
  4.  Select Continue
  5.  Enter Seller ID#  R285148G
www.innisbrook.com

Here’s my daughter’s pleading for the opportunity to earn prizes:

Please buy this stuff. They have ones with almonds in it. There is one’s with just chocolate, there are ones with chocolate and blue squirrely lines on them. Daddy I don’t know what those are. And on the top and the inside. Chocolate with funny shapes with nuts or something. A mint I think. Something with yellow stripe, but I don’t know what the filling is. (she then read the description reluctantly and determined they are lemon filled). And then theirs something sprinkled on it, and a filling that I don’t know what is (couldn’t read the description). Chocolate things with pretty diamonds on them. And then I don’t know what these things are, I can’t read the first one. And then I have to turn the page and there are these things.

Definitely a shorter request, we’re going to have to work on her selling skills.

Curb Attachment Points and Flip

So you want to create a curb in Subassembly Composer and let it have multiple attachment points. One way I’ve done it is to create a variable called Flip. The Flip variable will let me adjust the X offset direction. I use the enumeration of this previous post to get the placement the user wants. I then use the enumeration to determine if the Flip value should be positive or negative. I then multiply the X offset value by Flip. This will provide me a way to mirror the curb that I’m creating easily. So I don’t have to build the curb twice depending on the enumeration.

To get the curb in the correct location I use variables called dX and dY. I then use the enumeration again to determine what the dX and dY values should be. I then create my P1 using those values. If it’s the lip of the gutter then I can set dX and dY equal to 0. If it’s back of curb, then I put in the appropriate values to get P1 in the correct location to get the back of curb at the origin when the curb is built in the subassembly composer.

Want an example of how this is done? Then purchase the Caltrans A87A Curbs subassembly from the Civil Reminders App store. It will also show how you can combine all of the curbs and gutters from one agency into one as well as show how the dX, dY and Flip work.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Point List Report

So you go to create a report using the Toolbox and the Point List Civil 3D puts out isn’t in order. Well it is in order, the order created, but you want them to be in a more logical numerical order. What to do? Well if you were me you’d do this.

Open the file that controls the report in Notepad (or other text editor), in this case it’s:

C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\C3D 2011\enu\Data\Reports\xsl\pointlist.xsl

Next we need to tell the report to sort the list before it process the points. For this report the location is right below this line:

<xsl:for-each select="//lx:CgPoint[not(@pntRef)]">

A quick internet search for xsl and sort, gives us the information we want. To sort the list we need to add these lines under the above line:

<xsl:sort select="@name"
data-type="number"/>

The report will now run with the point list in order. If we want the list sorted by another field, then change @name to the desired field.

image

Want to add more information to the report? I can provide services to do just that. Contact me at the email on this page near the top right for more information.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

SAC-Report Message

When your creating your subassembly in Subassembly Composer you may want to convey to the user imagewhen something went wrong. For instance if the math doesn’t work when modeling your retaining wall and the given design height is less than the modeled dimension height. To send a message utilize the Report Message found under Miscellaneous on the Tool Box.

image

Fill in the Message for the error. Next provide the level of the warning. There is Error where what went wrong was disastrous, Warning where  something went wrong but was recoverable, and finally Informational where you are just annoying the user with the event viewer.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

SAC-Output Parameters

When creating a subassembly using Subassembly Composer the hardest intellectual thing is knowing if I should use Output Parameters. It’s not hard in creating them, it’s hard in knowing if another subassembly that you have or haven’t thought of yet will need a value from your subassembly. An output parameter essentially lets you provide information of your subassembly to another subassembly other than the point of attachment. For instance you could provide a slope of the roadway pavement as an output parameter. This might be handy if you wanted to match slopes with a subassembly that does not support superelevation.

To use the output parameters in another subassembly you have to set them from the subassembly properties dialog. Select the parameter you want controlled and then you should be able to select an output parameter of a subassembly within the currently attached Assembly.

Friday, September 02, 2011

GE Power and Water

You never know who you are going to meet when you are out and about. I was recently at a crowded Starbucks and met a representative of GE Power and Water, Kevin Crockford. Kevin was kind enough to let me ask him a few questions for my blog.

ThermoPleat High Temperature Filter Elements
Filter Elements Source: GE

Q1: Many software companies (Bentley, Autodesk) are currently promoting Building Information Modeling (BIM) as part of their products. Does GE Water facilitate the inclusion of GE Water products into the design software? 

A1: To my knowledge, GE does not include our water products into design software.  Water treatment presents a unique process design and equipment selection challenge since the raw water to be treated can vary considerably from one location to the next.  If one assumes the client is starting with US EPA safe drinking water, you can more broadly apply an silver impregnated point of use activated carbon adsorption device for the removal of chlorine and residual amounts of soluble organics and an ultrafiltration membrane for fine particulate removal.

Q2: What type of cost savings can an water purveyor expect to save by using a single source for equipment, components and technical services? 

A2: The range of cost savings will vary depending on the size, complexity  of the treatment system required and volume.  I estimate a water purveyor could save anywhere from 10%- 20% by using a single source for equipment, components and technical services for CAPEX and another 10%-20% for OPEX over the useful life of the equipment.   On industrial water treatment systems I estimate the customer could save 10%-15% on the total installed cost of the system by using pre-engineered process equipment components and eliminating the competitive bid specification process.

Q3: Is the purification process of water more or less complicated then concentrating valuable products or materials. 

A3: Due to varying raw water quality, I would suspect the process of treating water to be more complicated.

ZeeWeed Source: GE

Q4: What’s the largest installation of GE water equipment in the world? 

A4: In terms of volume, our ZeeWeed  immersed hollow fiber ultrafiltration membrane technology  is used in drinking water treatment plants (e.g. San Diego, Toronto) with an average volume of  100 – 110 million gallons per day (MGD).  The largest municipal wastewater treatment application is 36 MGD in the state of Washington. 


For the designers of water and wastewater systems it would be beneficial for the inclusion of equipment process within the design process. After working on a wastewater treatment facility design and seeing all of the duplicated work that was required a single stream workflow would definitely provide efficiency. I guess the question would be how would manufacturers benefit from including their products in design software. The manufacturer’s would miss out on being able to interact with engineers and not really be given an opportunity to distinguish their system from their competitors. We’ll see how it shapes up in coming years.

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