I got to agree with the Salad CZar, too
For sure, with an architect or any pro, I discuss details of deliverables prior to contract, then if they want anything else, just whip it out and charge the extra fee if more than a few minutes effort is involved. I would have a flat version to them in 15 minutes at likely no charge on a 2 to 5 grand boundary and topo project.
Scares me too when a pro can't understand and manipulate things in-house for specific needs. But if it means more jobs from time to time, fix them fast every time and charge for teaching them how to fish, how to tie what fly for the waters they probe.
It's all about added value. Value to who?? THE CLIENT and his agents, whether they never got past 8th grade or PHD cum laude who thinks Decarte has somthing to do with shopping.
> Them: You have plotted the fences in the wrong place...I need to move them to the property line...or do I need to move the property lines over to the fence lines?
>
> Them: Oh, and the building you show falls inside the setback line...so I need to move one or the other...you know...so the plan meets code...it is the law you know...
>
Dang Dan!
Get with it! This is no big deal! Give them what they want! Times are tough! Be part of the 'TEAM'!
Them: Trust me...I will respect you in the morning.
DDSM
Just got a ... Question
I'm not an autocad user, but my understanding is that in our drafting department, topo points are usually brought into autocad with their elevations as land desktop attributes -- so they can be used for labels, etc -- but are added at zero elevation, so as not to mess up dimensioning or other calcs (3D inverses give slope distances instead of horizontal dists).
It's so rare to add points to drawings at their actual elevations that, to our "Export to DWG file" module in Copan software, i added an "Insert points in 3D" option (default being No) so users need to specially request 3D point insertion if they really want it.
Am i missing something here -- is it now actually easy to get horizontal dimensions between 3D points in autocad?
I got to agree with the Salad CZar, too
I'll go down with the above as well or perhaps even stronger. Maybe it is even more professional for him to ask the surveyor to electronically manipulate the data than for him to do it himself. It might be showing some integrity on the architect's part.
I know I would be crying bloody murder if I ended up seeing a design project that was based on my field work, and things weren't as I presented them. I have known surveyors who didn't even want to share their cad files from concern that the other person could be manipulating the original product.
