2 weeks into the job

So it is 9.30pm on a tuesday and here i am sitting all showered, having had dinner at home. This is what life can be still as an architect. Now, is that cool or what?

For dinner L kindly gave me one bento box and that was delicious. Beef and spinach with rice, very moist and tasty.

the daily routine of taking Bus153 has become something quite unconsious now. Instead of changing a bus and train and bus again for 45mins, i rather sit one bus and have it at an hour or sometimes 45mins. Somehow one thing ive come to realised is that it is important to prequalify whether or not something is worth doing.

Work was calm and i continued on modelling out the overhead bridge with lifts and linkway. quite enjoyable. lunch was at the redhill hawker center which we walked over. i had a curry chicken that was only chicken so that was not too good. Perhaps i will eat that banana tonight. The upgrading for the lifts is still in the proposal stage but i was told to start reading up on the regulations as when and if we do get that, i will have to get 7 approvals or is it to do 7 submissions in 1 month...to the different authorities. This will be a crash course on authority submissions indeed.

i am looking forward. meanwhile think i better read up on the regulations again..

Day3+Day4

Today was a bit better.
It sounds really simple, design the enclosure for a substation. Somehow, it is really like feeling for the elephant in the room.
In the end, i realised instead of the quiet fairface bricks approach, it was a planting grid.

The Day after a wednesday.
Day 4. Here it seems the knowledge of authority submission and managing of the people element is their strength. I did my first piece of sketch today, for an adjacent plot next to the substation. a small garden for the community. didn't know i still had it in me to do a colored sketch. it was a good day.
It was raining from the afternoon all day though, so taking the bus i spent almost an hour, lucky i had my kindle with me. so bought my horfun and frozen dumplings that took the ride with me as well. And had Guinness on tap with L.

Day2

left the house at 8.10 again today, and as i arrived at the bus stop i saw the bus left so i decided to take another route that said 30mins which involved changing 2 buses and ended up reaching only at 9.30am. next time even if i missed the bus i m going to just stand there and wait.

a new term i learn today for the NRP(neighbourhood renewal program) is the ELU(Electrical load upgrading). This upgrades the loading from existing 30amp to 40 amp now. It seems mainly that HDB after 1994, are already 40amp.
Firstly after googling Amps is like the volume of water in a pipe, and Volts is like the pressure of the water, and Watts is like the power of (Volts x Amps).

http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/hdb-carry-out-electrical-upgrading-4000-more-older-blocks

Another thing is that when suggested movement of services. Existing appliances and view to all adjacent buildings should . ( Typed when sleepy)

time to zzzZ

Day 1 on Bus153

The Pc arrived at about 4pm as a rehabiliated CPU so when booted up had alot of software in it.
my first assignment is to design 4 substations.
the office is clean spacious, and habited. the toilet as left to the original is a little scary with an open shelf and detergent bottles strewn all over.
left at 5.45pm to go for the dFMA class at bca, it was nice to have the sun on my face.

dfMA Lesson 3

Today i arrived 40mins late for class, and after seating, only to find that it was a new lecturer.
He spoke very clearly but it took me a period of adjusting drifting in and out of sleep before my brain adjusted. Quite a few slides were repeating the same points about dfMA, the ones that are not are as listed:

-ICPH: Integrated Construction and Prefabrication Hub
thoughts: Basically the prefab factory in sg, however, it seems for any of the other students i speak to all their projects prefab items are all done overseas..

-Value Stream mapping
elaboration: lean manufacturing approach of breaking down processes in order to reduce number of components and save time. Breaking down into what department and what activity
Input:combination of processes rather than process specific, considering impact on others

-Locally, when selecting concrete or steel
Concrete always seem to be the one to go to as cost wise it is cheaper. However, the lecturer pointed out that steel actually saves time in terms of construction, and is faster to assemble, hence needing less labour.

-LTA guideline max ht clearance is 4.5m
thoughts: from deck of trailer is 1m? so max height of module should be 3.5m
width: 3m or less escort and restricted delivery times not needed.

Overall: Felt that the 3 hours of class to basically hear about this 4 points is not so smart, and not even considering the price of the class fees.

ArchiCad #2

ArchiCad is one serious smart software.
This video above features a nice plugin for creating stairs? It seems it is a combination of sketchup and autocad into one. But there is some steep learning to be done.
I think it must have been an architect or engineer that thought, you know what i am tired of all these late nights and endless drafting.

The attributes of all the elements like staircase and even furniture. Being able to choose distance apart and then adding them onto plan. In which it will appear into all the drawing types. In fact it is exactly like how revit is, i am almost amazed at mine own amazement. Like i know this is how revit works too but somehow, i seem more surprise now? Is it from knowing how much time it can save me; from the numerous late nights, or is it that it is just a more beautiful interface.

Lynda online learning is also a God-sent in this 21st century. amazing amazing.
In the series of videos, the bite-size lengths of the video really helps in digesting it, even though i do fall asleep sometimes. The last bit, publishing to phone/ tablet is really cool. Especially as in the printscreen, where the section transform onto the model cut away to merge the two.

Can't wait to get started on this software!

ArchiCad#1

Now i have to learnt this as the new office uses it. Oh well.

Some Commands and their shortcuts:
Reference: https://bim6x.com/blog/command-and-control-archicad-part-1

Multiple Types
Trim: Cltrl + Left Click
Cltrl click seems to work for both trim and extend
Bring Wall Dialogue up: Ctrl T
To move element/object: Cltrl D
To reference place location w mouse click location: Change anchor point, hold down Alt+Shift (O,O point is change), then type X for offset distance

Singular Types
d: to type length of wall
p: to toggle for line of wall from inside, center, outside.
hold shift: move cursor in direction of increase or reduce, then type d for value
F3: for 3D
F2: for floorplan
shift: to lock the direction of cursor movement
Marquee and F4: Goes straight to 3d of that part
Cltrl e: rotate
Cltrl d: move