CAD Tech News (#44)

▶ User Profile: The Relationship Builder

Christine Massoud knows that to make a big project run smoothly, people skills are just as essential as software skills.

By Cyrena Respini-Irwin

Christine Massoud is the regional director of the Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) department at Rogers-O'Brien Construction, leading the southern region of the company's projects. At the Texas–based contracting firm, Massoud supports all of the company's on-site project teams and oversees the implementation of VDC processes, including building information modeling (BIM) integration.

Cadalyst: How did you become interested in architecture?

Christine Massoud

Christine Massoud: It intrigued me when I was growing up: my sister wanted Barbies and I wanted Legos! And when I was 9 or 10, I remember seeing the blueprints for factories my Dad was building — I even got to visit the lab where they were printed. Then we moved from Egypt to the United States, and my parents began encouraging me to consider my potential career paths. That was probably the first time I could think about possibilities and opportunities as if I could reach for whatever I wanted.

In high school, I learned AutoCAD v14, and I got to help draw the floor plan for our new house; that was exciting. That was before they had mouse commands, so I got really good with the typed commands.

After earning your Master's degree and working as an architect, you made a transition to VDC management. What caused you to adjust the course of your career?

As I pursued my education, I realized that I liked the problem-solving phase of architecture. The early design stage was great: creating beautiful pictures, meeting with clients, flying to different places to get inspiration. But the part that came afterward — drawing up page after page explaining how I had solved each problem — was exhausting to me, instead of intriguing.

What's your work like at Rogers-O'Brien Construction?

I spend about half of my time on VDC-related tasks: making sure jobs are set up correctly from the beginning; looking at the return on investment (ROI); figuring out what our technology strategy will be. When setting up jobs, it's important to match each member of the VDC team to the appropriate task. The team comprises VDC specialists and quality managers, and everyone has their own skill set, experience level, and work style. Read more »

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Cyrena Respini-Irwin is Cadalyst's editor in chief.

▶ IMAGINiT Tricks Tutorial: Boost Your Efficiency with Assembly Codes for Catalog and Footprint Lookup in AutoCAD Electrical

By using the assembly codes in both the Default_Cat.mdb and the Footprint_Lookup.mdb, you can quickly provide assemblies with the correct BOM information and the correct footprint on the panel layout.

By Thayne Wickam

What are ASSEMBLYCODE and ASSEMBLYLIST in AutoCAD Electrical? The AutoCAD Electrical Default_Cat.mdb uses Assembly Codes during BOM reports, to provide assemblies through one schematic component in the project drawing. This can affect the Footprint_Lookup.mdb configuration when inserting or updating the footprint symbol.

Assembly codes (ASSEMBLYCODE) provide a unique entry to be used with additional parts that may or may not display in the drawing, such as internal parts, parts you cannot physically create, or parts you simply don't want to display. These additional components can be placed in the BOM by adding the ASSEMBLYCODE in the assembly list (ASSEMBLYLIST) for those entries.

How it Works: Adding ASSEMBLYCODE and ASSEMBLYLIST to the Default_Cat.mdb. While in the Insert/Edit dialog box for parent or footprint components, the Default_Cat.mdb is accessed through the Lookup button in the Catalog data section. Read more »

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Thayne Wickam is a manufacturing application engineer with IMAGINiT Technologies.

▶ WHAT’S NEW

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Caps Lock and Columns in AutoCAD Mtext
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