38 - Reminiscences

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Author Message Ralph Liebing, RA, CSI Senior Member Username: rliebing Post Number: 1005 Registered: 02-2003 Posted on Wednesday, July 01, 2009 - 03:16 pm:    Thanks for coming over to our new place-- hope you'll stay with us. Welcome to the new folks. Below is the last item we sent in our series via e-mail. From now on we will post here, every Wednesday. PER-SPEC-TIVES OTHER PERSPECTIVES, OPINIONS, EXPRESSIONS, IMPRESSIONS, THOUGHTS AND IDEAS ABOUT THE NOBLE PROFESSION OF SPECIFICATIONS WRITING--OPEN FOR, AND SEEKING DISCUSSION NO. 38 REMINISCENCES by Ralph Liebing, RA, CSI Cincinnati, OH Let’s see-- no one knows of a spec writer under 50 years of age. This means the youngest was born in 1959 [the year I graduated from college!]. Since we all fall in the 20-year era just after this hallmark, let me ask: Did you take a course or more in high school called “mechanical drawing? How about architectural drawing? Where or how did you learn drafting?-- manual drafting! Did you use wood pencils or a lead holder? Ever use a ruling pen? linen, Mylar, vellum, 1000H paper? Did you draw in the border lines and title boxes? Was your text book called, “French’s Engineering Drawing”? Who taught you to read “blueprints”—err, working drawings? Did you get a “feel” for a drawing as you did it? Did you understand its intent and content-- its concept, creation, development and refinement—its use? Did you learn line weighs, material symbols, drafting techniques [like rolling your pencil to keep it sharp]? Did it take you some time to conquer the triangular scale? Did you own a T-square, triangles, French curves, ships’ curves, an adjustable triangle; a full set of drafting instruments [maybe in sterling silver from Germany in a box about 8-1/2 x 11]? How did you come to learn the concept, content, intent and method for producing each type of working drawing? How about detailing [what to show; what not to show; when to stop; adjusting stock materials; interfaces]? Did you have a course in computer operations and/or computer-aided drafting back then? The first time I hit a computer was 1970 at a working drawings seminar. The firm doing the maze of Holiday Inns being building along the Interstates gave a demonstration-- enter the number of “A”, “B”, and “C” units you want. The units were plotted [??? new term] from the “library figures” stored in the computer. Whoa!!! But now this is all archaic! Today, none of the hand work is present! It’s gone! Not taught in many if any schools! Youngsters come out of pre-school computer literate and go from there. Through Voc Ed and high school the computer skill is magnified-- operations so fast and so intricate amazing is a gross understatement. Colleges no longer teach “drafting” or even CAD-- they gave up and merely let the kids use whatever array of skill and software they wish to solve the problem. What’s lacking? What is the fundamental problem today, with graduates and emerging professionals? Flat out, there is far too much emphasis and satisfaction with electronics, glitz and gyrations and NO working understanding or any depth of insight into contract documents-- namely working drawings and associated specifications! Now they are so filled with the glitz and potential of CAD, BIM and LEED that they easily ignore the fact that the base document MUST be valid and proper to make the other “stuff” work as it should. BIM is a design instrument that may produce decent working drawings but remote from the operator-- the human is a bystander as the database functions and spits out drawings. Does the machine understand intent and content, or does it merely mirror what instructions it is given? Who gives those instructions? What MUST—SHOULD-- they know about drawings? Our problems today are not what is there but cranky and often despondent-- balkish in operation, and susceptible to electrical outage, but the fact that those who soon will be 50 and “trying” to write specs, don’t know zip about the creation and production of working drawings. All they do, now, is convert hand sketches from their project leads into non-descript CAD drawings via mysterious [even to them] electronic red, blue, yellow and purple lines! Did you use colored pencils in your early drafting courses or work? See what I MEAN? Ralph Liebing, RA, CSI Senior Member Username: rliebing Post Number: 1006 Registered: 02-2003 Posted on Wednesday, July 01, 2009 - 03:21 pm:    Oops! Discussion is in the Specs Discussion folder under "Why Younger......" Ralph Liebing, RA, CSI Senior Member Username: rliebing Post Number: 1007 Registered: 02-2003 Posted on Thursday, July 02, 2009 - 07:31 am:    Forgive me for doing this all piece-meal, but the change over took place rather suddenly. There is a follow-up piece to the first item here, located on the SpecReflections folder on the CSI Forum, and also on the SCIP web pages. This goes into a little more explanation of the direction started above.