As we are looking to implement V6 at our other branches, we took a laptop out to Las Vegas and LA to see how V6 would perform over the network. Our SQL server is in Fremont (San Francisco bay area). Over the WAN, performance was less than stellar. We took one of our large quotes (360 quote items) and ran time trials in each location. A full save in fremont was running 6 minutes. Over the WAN it was over an hour. This obviously wasn’t going to work.
So we tried using the Microsoft Remote desktop that’s built into windows. We installed V6 on a server in the Fremont office then accessed it remotely using the same laptop. All time trials were the same as being local. Next I tried it from my very underpowered netbook using a Verizon wireless card. Again, exact same opening and save times!
If you are looking to use V6 in a distributed environment with one central server, this is definitely the way to go.
April 23, 2010
V6 and Remote Desktop
March 8, 2010
Sub-quotes
Spoke to Geoff today and we found a way to get the sub-quotes to work for nested frames. By using a resource frame in lieu of a template frame, we can share the nested frames between the parent and child quotes. This enables you to work on smaller quote items but still have a combined quote which is another advantage. We need to test it out on a project, but it looks like a great solution! There are a few settings you need to change to get this to work. If you are interested, let me know and I’ll post the instructions.
February 16, 2010
New Feature
Met with Geoff and Mike from SoftTech. We were out doing some BIM training at our Las Vegas and Los Angeles offices. Geoff and Mike met up with us in Las Vegas. Geoff showed us a hidden feature where you can create sub-quotes. This is a feature we had asked for and they were looking into the idea. You create a main quote and then, if this command line option is set, you can create sub-quotes that contain different quote items from the main quote. Changes made in the main quote will update the sub-quote and changes in the sub-quote will change the main quote. It works perfect for stick walls! It still needs a bit of work for unitized walls though. This allows you to have more than one person working on a single project. It also allows you to work in smaller quotes so that saves go much faster on large jobs. If we can get the nested frames to work in the same way, this will be a huge feature.
January 30, 2010
Great Week
We had a very productive week this week. We announced the merger of our drafting and takeoff teams. This will allow us to have all engineering under one roof. I think this will really help us in our implementation of V6. Since the process of shop drawings, material takeoffs and fabrication tickets will soon emanate from one central software, it makes sense to keep all those activities in the same team.We also finished our proof of concept on using V6 for shop drawings. The outputs from V6 are less than stellar. SoftTech has been working on this for some time and they are anticipating that in version 3.5 it will be greatly enhanced. In the mean time, we began exploring using the V6 output along with some custom clean-up routines and the Sheet Set functionality in Autocad to create our shop drawings. This seems to be working very well. It will still require a bit of manual clean-up but should reduce the time required to produce the elevations and details as well as ensure the shop drawings are in sync with the data.
January 9, 2010
IFC and VRML
V6 can create excellent VRML models of your windows or curtainwalls. These can then be imported into Navisworks to create a seamless BIM integration for your projects. We are starting to look at creating an VRML to IFC converter. It would be great to convert the VRML files to IFC files so you could import them into Revit or Tekla. Our precast division is using Tekla right now and they would like to import our V6 data and be able to cut a section and get their details. Anyone ever tried this before?
November 25, 2009
V6 Implementation Update
Just a quick update on our project. We are very near completion on the V6 implementation. We are running our second project through the program. We have created a wish list and SoftTech is working through the items we have asked for. We had an issue with our template frames taking a long time to save, but it appears they have a fix and we should have it in the next couple of weeks.I’m really happy with our progress and I hope to be complete with our testing phase by the end of the year. We created two estimates and the associated 3d models from the program and that worked out great. The real opportunity is to be able to create the jobs at the sales/estimating stage then just tweak it around at the operations stage.We have a meeting in December to review how this new paradigm might change our structure. We plan on using the V6 software for estimating, shop drawings, takeoffs, fabrication tickets and CNC output. Most of these modules are in place now. The question becomes, do we change the departments when we implement the software? Right now we have one group doing shop drawings and another group doing the takeoffs and fabrication tickets. Would it make sense with the new software to combine the groups so one person does all of that on a single project? Do we train the sales team to use V6 or put engineering people in sales to do the V6 work?
I’ll post more as we move forward.
