Does Taxing the Rich Help Me?

***This will be last non-Civil 3D related post here on this blog. I’ve decided to put non-Civil 3D related posts on this new blog: http://www.dobeafraid.com/ ***

The United States has a progressive income tax system, the more you make the higher percentage of income tax you pay. Some in Congress, and the President, are advocating that certain tax cuts on those making over $250,000 expire (the tax rate would go from 33% to 36% for money earned from $250k to $373K and from 35% to 39.6%). I’m not quite sure how this benefits me, a furloughed Civil Engineer. If anything I only see negatives from this for me.

It doesn’t balance the federal budget, it only “helps”. If anything it prolongs me getting a job by pulling money out of the economy. I work in an industry that is largely discretionary in nature. Governments have the discretion to improve and maintain the government owned infrastructure. Land owners, and their investor partners, have the discretion on whether to improve the land they own (with the governments permission). While the government spending has increased it has not increased adequately to compensate for the decreases in the private sector. Who funds the private sector developments? Last time I checked it’s not the person behind the counter serving me fries. It tends to be people who have a large amount of discretionary income, the very people the taxes will affect.

Now a large part of the problem is that people have lost faith and aren’t using their discretionary spending on land development. I can’t really blame them. If they had some of their money invested in land development during this current bust they probably lost some money. Locally there has been two or three investment funds go bust. There’s also a lot of housing and commercial stock on the market which needs to be filled up with families or employees. Taxing the rich only delays this.

Now what could the government do that would really help get investors back into the game? How about getting out of the way? The first step could be requiring federal and local agencies to deal with permit requests within 10 working days. Any time period beyond that time the governmental agency would pick up the tab for the costs involved in the delay (interest, inflation, etc.). This would remove a large portion of the risk in land development and provide an incentive to investors to reenter the market. Best of all it wouldn’t increase the national debt.

Dynamic Profile Label

I’ve hit a snag on my pipe crossing label using profile view labels as shown in the video below. The label moves to an incorrect location on open since the number of grips is different from when the drawing is fully open. I’m going to head to San Francisco next week to try to get a solution to my problem at a DevLabs. Since I have some free time, and the help fits my budget (free), I thought I’d make the journey.

I’m thinking of taking the train up to San Fran and try to make a Surface label dynamic to a profile. That way if the profile moves the label will continue to point to the correct location. I think, except for the above grip problem, to have everything I need to accomplish it.

If you are in San Francisco and want to meet up let me know by sending me an email. I’ll be down near the Embarcadero on Wednesday and Thursday.

Certified Cost Engineer

It looks like my Excel Flash Card program works wonders. I got word today that I passed the examination to be a Certified Cost Engineer (CCE). Also included was word that I can successfully write a technical paper, also in regard to the CCE. So what is CCE?

“Since 1976, AACE’s CCC/CCE™ has recognized several thousand certified individuals as Certified Cost Consultant™ / Certified Cost Engineer™. AACE’s CCC/CCE™ is independently accredited by the Council of Engineering & Scientific Specialty Boards (CESB) and the International Cost Engineering Council (ICEC). The intent is to recognize specialists who meet a demanding set of earned value management criteria by a rigorous examination, experience, education and ethical qualifications. The CCC/CCE™ requirements reflect the sophistication of individuals in today's earned value industry and it fairly measures their knowledge, experience and adherence to best management practices.”

“CCC/CCE™ certification distinguishes cost and management professionals who have the knowledge and skills that impact the bottom line. AACE certification ensures a high quality standard.”

More information may be found on the Association of the Advancement of Cost Engineering’s website.

So that makes me a furloughed Civil 3D expert, professional engineer, LEED accredited professional, certified nuclear gage operator and now certified cost engineer.

Updated Civil 3D Reminders Pack

I’ve made some improvements to the Civil 3D Reminders Pack 2010 and I am looking for beta testers to try it out. The new features include linking a MLeader to a crossing pipe in profile and linking laterals to main line pipes.  I’m sure there are some bugs or situations I haven’t thought of happening which could cause unexpected results, which is why I’m looking for Beta testers.

The video below shows the commands in action.

If you are interested in beta testing these new features, send me an email (the link is on the right side of the page).

The relevant commands are:

C3DRLinkCrossingProfileViewLabel – Links a MLeader to a Pipe crossing a profile. The station and elevation of the pipe is updated when the pipe is moved.

C3DRUpdateSewerLaterals – Creates a link between a mainline pipe and a lateral pipe. If the mainline pipe is modified the laterals will update accordingly. The user is given an option to have the other end adjust or have it stay in place.

C3DRTurnOnAutoUpdateSewerLaterals – Turns back on the link between the mainline pipe and lateral if it has been disabled. The laterals do not update automatically, the mainline pipe would need to be updated.

C3DRTurnOffAutoUpdateSewerLaterals – Turns off the link between the mainline pipe and a lateral.

Station Offset Label – Aligned on Sheet

Some people like things aligned on sheets. One of these items are station offset labels. They’d prefer the station offset labels be aligned near the top of a sheet away from the actual object they are labeling.

We can get this look by utilizing expressions. The first expression is going to be called YValue. This value will establish the Northing value the station offset labels should be aligned with. For this post I’m using 2600.

The next expression will calculate the distance from the point being labeled to the point we want the label to show. The Drawing Conversion Scale Conversion changes the value from feet to inches.

Now put the Difference expression as a Y offset. This will move the component of the label to the correct location.

Here’s the look of the label I’ve created.

Not quite the look of the picture in the beginning of this post, but it conveys the concept of how to accomplish the label. If you want to download the drawing you may find it here. If you have more than two rows you’ll have to create a Y expression for each row of Station Offset Labels.