[David Cutler]

I really appreciate you making the time to make these videos @Vince !

I think I may have missed something in the 3rd one though – how did you establish the 100 mm offset in the double line for the path?

[David Cutler]

That’s a good question @robgib0 that I haven’t heard discussed before. Have you tried drawing a series of lines of various weights and then using a measurement tool to see how they scale?

@Vince has been doing something similar using a “double” line style to create offsets. I’d suggest checking his video on how he is using this tool.

Keep us posted on what you find.

[David Cutler]

Looking forward to Shirin Arnold’s presentation @troy-degroot and to learning who you have lined up for the future!

[David Cutler]

Good morning @britger

Have you reached out to your plotter vendor and/or your Bluebeam reseller?

What we have here was setup when I started 3 years ago and hasn’t had any significant problems so unfortunately I don’t have much to offer.

[David Cutler]

I’m not sure I’m understanding what you are hunting for here @Doug McLean

Are you looking to create a checklist that you would have on each sheet of what scope is included on the sheet – or are you looking to track changes to each trade/suppliers scope on a sheet?

[David Cutler]

Would it work @tabz-nixonkingspan-com to bring all of the files into a Studio Project? Doing so may take some re-training of your end users, but it could work as a way of collecting everything into one central location that can be shared. Others in the group are more familiar with this process.

Re-reading your post a further thought on my previous comment about asking for unlocked copies of the files would be to work this into your qualifications for your services. Be upfront with your needs in your quotes/contract language. Something along the lines of “Customer will provide all required documentation in unrestricted PDF format for incorporation into final project records.” might do the trick. As Civil Site Contractors we include language in our proposal that requires the Customer to provide a CAD file for us to build our survey model from. This saves us a tremendous amount of time and cost when developing our survey models.

[David Cutler]

Looking forward to seeing what you have up your sleeve @troy-degroot !🍿

[David Cutler]

Especially when they are Engineered well.

🤣🤣🤣

[David Cutler]

🤣🤣🤣

[David Cutler]

I may be over simplifying things @Doug McLean , but could you establish a legend with color codes by vendor with your takeoff and then flatten everything to lock it in as your contract scope?

You could then as built your takeoff as the work is completed/as items are changed or otherwise updated, with a new updated legend to track quantities. You may even be able to cut/paste your original takeoff markup over your flattened takeoff and then change the “live” copy of the markups to match the updated conditions.

Depending upon how you worked your colors you could end up with unchanged areas in black and changes in red – similar to the way the overlay feature works in Revu.

For identifying if the changes have been captured by your vendors you might consider using some custom statuses on your markups.

[David Cutler]

At this point I don’t see Revit or 3D PDF’s on the horizon here.

I’ve had this discussion in the past with IT folks at my previous employers. Waiting for your computer to “catch up” with what you are asking it to do is a complete waste of time. If the controls on our excavator responded as slow as our office equipment we would have mechanics all over the machine until they were able to restore the responsiveness, yet at those same companies they have dozens of people working on computers that they wait on all day!

Ultimately it is a question of return on investment. Don’t need to have the estimators in Ferraris if they can win work in a Ford. But then again, how much more work could they win???? 😎

[David Cutler]

I know @mechave and Jason speak very highly of their Bim Box machines @Doug McLean , but I don’t know that they work them as hard as some of the folks on here would. I had a call with my ATG rep and a couple of their Bim Box product specialists yesterday. I’m sure I’d love having the Ferrari of computers, but at the end of the day is it worth the extra $$$ over a tried and true F-150?

[David Cutler]

Good point @Vince ! Your spreadsheets and Power Queries would bring my computer to its knees!

[David Cutler]

Welcome home @troy-degroot !

Glad to hear that you and the family had an amazing trip. Looking forward to reading your post.

[David Cutler]

@mechave does ATG have an pull with Bluebeam on getting these type of issues moved up on the “to do” list of fixes?