How To Use Print Screen

Have you ever pressed the "PrtScn" or "Print Screen" key on your Windows keyboard and wondered what it does, since it never seems to do anything? Not so long ago, it used to send whatever was on the screen to the printer. The "Print Screen" button actually sends the printable image to the "clipboard" to paste into any graphics program. Not only is this extremely useful, but there are three variations of "Print Screen"

1. Pushing the "Print Screen" button alone will take a snapshot of all the active programs on your screen(s). This means if you have 2 monitors it will copy both screens to the clipboard. This is important because if you paste this into an email, more than likely the recipient will not be able to read it. It will look like the image below.

From TBG Two Minute Training

2. Using "CTRL+Print Screen" will copy entire contents of the active screen to the clipboard, or in other words, the last screen you clicked on (assuming you have two screens). An example of this is shown below.

From TBG Two Minute Training

3. Use "ALT+Print Screen" to copy the active dialog box to the clipboard. You can make a dialog box active by clicking on the box (or window) you would like to make active.

From TBG Two Minute Training

CAD Cartoon

From TBG Two Minute Training

Outlook .PST Files - Where Are They Kept?

THE DEFAULT LOCATION FOR .PST FILES IN WINDOWS XP:  
"c:\documents and settings\(username)\Local Settings\Application data\Microsoft\Outlook"
However they can be kept anywhere.

It is recommended that the .pst files be kept in this default location until archived. If they are ready to be archived, it is recommended that they be kept on an external hard drive or burned to CD/DVD. Just remember that DVDs have a capacity of 4.7gb, so keeping .pst files no larger than 4gb is a good idea.

TO FIND OUT WHERE A CURRENTLY LOADED .PST FILE RESIDES:
1. Right-click on the pst file
2. Left-click on "Properties for (personal folder name)"

From TBG Two Minute Training

3. Click the "Advanced" button

From TBG Two Minute Training

4.This is the path where you can find the .pst file. Simply highlight the path, then copy and paste this path (minus the .pst file) into windows explorer to find the .pst file.

From TBG Two Minute Training

TO SEARCH FOR .PST FILES ON YOUR MACHINE:
1. Right-click on the "C" drive (or other drive letter if stored on an external drive)
2. Click on the "Search" option

From TBG Two Minute Training

3. In the search dialog under the "All or part of the file name" option, type "*.pst" (do not include the quotes). This will search your hard drive for all of the .pst files on your drive.

From TBG Two Minute Training

4. Scroll down to the "More advanced Options" Be sure to place checks in the boxes for "Search system folders", "Search hidden files and folders", and "Search sub folders".
5. Click "Search" and the results should appear on the right side of the dialog in just a few minutes.

From TBG Two Minute Training

Outlook .PST Files - How To Open And Close Them

TO OPEN A PERSONAL FOLDER (or .PST):

1. Go to the menu bar at the top of Outlook and find "File-Open-Outlook Data" file (why it doesn't say personal folder is a good question)

From Two Minute Training

2. Browse to the location of the .pst file. The default location is "c:\documents and settings\"username"\Local Settings\Application data\Microsoft\Outlook", but it could be in any folder you have specified at an earlier time. If you don't know the location of the .pst files, you can do a search for *.pst on your C drive, external hard drive, or other drive location to find all the .pst files on your machine. 
3. Select the desired .pst file to open.
4.Click "Ok".

**Note** Once opened, the .pst file name may not have the same folder name in Outlook.

From Two Minute Training

TO CLOSE A PERSONAL FOLDER (or .PST):

1. Right-click on the personal folder you would like to close.
2. Highlight and click "Close".

**Note** The main mailbox folder cannot be closed. 

From Two Minute Training

Outlook .PST Files - Find the Size

HOW DO I FIND THE FILE SIZE OF MY .PST FILE IN OUTLOOK?

1. Find the personal folder you would like to find the size of and right-click on that personal folder.
2. Click on "Properties for "Your ,pst Name""
3. Click on "Folder Size"
4. Total folder size (including sub folders) will be listed in kilobytes (kb)
5. In general, kilobytes to megabytes to gigabytes looks like this:
- 1,000kb = 1mb (i.e. 16,500kb = 16.5mb)
- 100,000kb = 100mb
- 1,000,000kb = 1gb (i.e. 2,500,000kb = 2.5gb)
- A .pst file should be about 2gb to 4gb for better performance (4gb being the maximum size).
- Outlook will perform better when there are fewer .pst files open. The total open should be 2 to 3 .pst files at a time for maximum performance (assuming they follow the 2 to 4gb size above).

From Two Minute Training

Creating A Signature In Bluebeam

1. Sign a blank piece of paper. A dull sign pen works best to give you a lush, dark signature.

From Two Minute Training

2. Scan the signature on the paper by using one of the copier/scanners in the office.

From Two Minute Training

3. Open the scanned document (pdf, jpg, or .tif) in Bluebeam. Using the "Snapshot" tool (i.e. the camera icon on the toolbar, keyboard shortcut "G", or Edit->Snapshot) drag and draw a selection box around your signature.

Or...

From Two Minute Training

4. Paste (Ctrl + V) your signature snapshot into the same document (you should see a dashed box w/ yellow dots around it, this means it's Highlighted)

From Two Minute Training

5. While the new signature is highlighted, right-click and select properties. The properties dialog will usually appear on the right side of Bluebeam window.

From Two Minute Training

6. Under the Appearance section change your "Blend Mode" from "Normal" to "Multiply"

From Two Minute Training

7. Then while your signature is highlighted, the background will blend into the document.

From Two Minute Training

8. Right-click on the selection and go to the bottom to "Add to Tool Chest" and select "My Tools"
.

From Two Minute Training

9. Now you should be able to see your signature in your "Tool Chest" (usually located on the left side of the Bluebeam window under the tab that looks like a tool chest). Drag that sucker from your "Tool Chest" and BOOM!, your digital signature is ready to use in any document that needs your signature.

From Two Minute Training

Courtesy of Kyle Grist

AutoCAD 2011 And The "F1" Key

Most of you have come to associate this image with the F1 Key.


That should no longer be the case, now you can hit the F1 key with total ease all day without bringing up that dreaded Autocad "Help" menu. No longer are those precious seconds lost closing your browser. Now you can drink your coffee a few seconds longer, be on time to that cad meeting, or even get your timesheets done.

Isn't life good.

From Two Minute Training

Change Right-Click To A Shortcut Menu

One of the more frequently asked questions about AutoCAD 2011 is, "How do I change the right-click option to show shortcut menus?". By default, the standard right-click option is set for using right-click as "enter". If you would like to change this, you can access this option from AutoCAD by typing "options" (or "OP") and pushing the "enter" key on the command line. Once the options dialog is up, then follow the steps below.

1. Left-click on the "User Preferences" tab.
2. Left-click on the "Right-click Customization" button
3. In the "Edit Mode" area left-click on the "Shortcut Menu" radio button.
4. Left Click "Apply and Close"
5. Left-click the "Ok" button to close the dialog

Now the right-click button is set to bring up the shortcut menu.

From Two Minute Training

AutoCAD 2011 - Staus Bar Icons

If you want to change your status bar in AutoCAD 2011 from icons to text, follow these instructions.

1. Find the status bar icons at the bottom center of the AutoCAD screen.

From Drop Box

2. Right click on the status bar to bring up the menu options. Click on the "Use Icons" menu to either select or unselect this option.

From Drop Box

3. Now all of your status bar icons should be in text format.

From Drop Box

Cartoon

Just a funny cartoon from Architexts before we leave for the extended weekend. They print a lot of cartoons from the architect's perspective.

WebEx Online Meetings

Now Available on theHub, instructions for hosting an online meeting through WebEx. The instructions can be found on the left menu bar called "WebEx".

Click here to view the instructions for holding a meeting.

From Drop Box

Pavestone Hatch Patterns

The Pavestone hatch patterns are now included in the list of AutoCAD hatch patterns. They are custom hatch patterns so you will have to go to the custom tab to select the Pavestone pattern you need. Use the scale of 1" for architectural units or .08333 for decimal engineering units.

Click here to view Pavestone's list of hatch pattern names.



1. Click the Browse button.
2. Click the "Custom" tab.
3. Select the pattern you need, then click OK.

Single Project - Landscape Folder Structure

LANDSCAPE PROJECT TYPES
TBG has two types of Landscape project folder structures.

1.) Single Project Directory - This folder is normally a self contained project, meaning that all drawings in the directory tree will be used for this project only. It will have only one project number.

2.) Multiple Project Directory - This type of project contains many single projects under it, or in other words multiple project numbers. This is useful when there are files that will be used over and over again for each of the single projects in it. There will be many project numbers in contrast with the single project folder which has one project number.

Since a Multiple Project needs many single projects, we will cover this first.

HOW DO I MAKE THE SINGLE PROJECT DIRECTORY STRUCTURE?
To make a new Single Project folder, open AutoCAD and run the "SPJ" command. (refer to Command "SPJ")

THE SINGLE PROJECT DIRECTORY STRUCTURE

The single project directory looks like the image to the right. These are what will be referred to as the core folders. The "Name" - In this case "Section 01" is the name of the project. It's not a very nice name for a project, but this example comes from a multiple project folder that we will be discussing later on. "Section 01 is the name of one of the sub-projects. "Section 01" could be named "Recreation Center", "Pocket Park", "Texas Tech Student Center", etc.. The name should follow the General File and Folder Naming standards. MULTIPLE PROJECT NOTE: If this is a single project in a Multiple Project folder, do not be redundant with the names. If the name of the project is Lake Creek Community, do not make the single project name "Lake Creek Community Section 01" or Lake Creek Community Recreation Center. Instead the single projects should be listed in the multiple project folder of "Lake Creek". The "Lake Creek" is assumed and the single project names should be "Section 01" or "Recreation Center". The "Job Number" - In this case is "A10100". The "A" in the job number stands for the city ("A" for Austin, "D" for Dallas, "H" for Houston, and "S" for San Antonio) and the first two numbers are the year of the project (in this case 2010).

The Single Project Directory Structure

00 Administration - This folder is for the administration and management documents of the single project. It should contain items such as: Correspondence Meeting notes Management documents Scheduling documents File Audit There is a fine line between Correspondence, Consultant Bases, and Issue Sets, but the rule of thumb is that if there is a folder for that type of information, then that folder should be used. Drawings received should go to Consultant Bases, Issue Set contains package PDF's that have been sent out, 05 Deliverables in the Presentation folder should contain the PDF's of those presentations. You should not duplicate files by putting them in both places. All other correspondence should be placed in the Correspondence Folder. The file that says "Do Not Delete - File Audit" contains the name of the person who made the folder structure, when it was made, and how it was made.

The 00 Administration Folder

00 Overall Xrefs - is to be used to house the xrefs for the SD (Schematic Design), DD (Design Development), and CD (Construction Documents), if they are being used simultaneously. Normally each xref is placed in it's corresponding xref folder, but using the 00 Overall Xrefs allows a person to make Permits, Design Development, and Construction drawings at the same time. This folder also contains an Archive folder and "xxName" folder for attached xrefs. (see Attached Xref Folder Structure)

The 00 Overall Xrefs Folder

01 Consultant Bases - Contains a list of folders with the consultants we work with. You have the option to leave the Architect and Civil the same, or renaming them to the name of the company you are working with. The folders underneath have the "YYYY-MM-DD - Name" to be renamed to the date that you receive the files and the name that helps you remember what was updated (e.g. weekly, parking change, drainage). This is the vault to refer to if a base gets edited incorrectly, damaged, or accidentally deleted. ABSOLUTELY no files are to be referenced from this location. Also, there is no reason to keep duplicates in the 00 Correspondence folder. Adding files in both places takes up extra space. Another use of the 01 Consultant Bases can be used for research. Treat the products you are looking for as consultant bases and give them folders for the product name. For instance, you are looking at different types of lights by different companies, you would create a folder for each company and place the documents and/or drawings in each folder. These you can reference later when making schedules for your projects in the CD phase or your image boards for your presentations.

01 Consultant Bases

02 Permit - This phase of the project contains files and folders needed for the permit process of the project. "Calcs" for permit calculations "Cost Estimates" (see article), "Sheets" (see article) "Work" (see article) "Xref" (see article)

The 02 Permits Folder

03a SD (Schematic Design)) - Contains the documents and images needed for the Schematic Design phase of the project. This phase of the project includes sketches and illustrations for presentation and marketing purposes. "Cost Estimates" (see article), "Presentations" (see article)

03a SD (Schematic Design) Folder

03b DD (Design Development) - The 03b DD folder contains all the initial CAD drawings, CAD/Illustration presentations, and folders specifically for more graphic presentations. A 100% DD set of drawings, should be moved to the CD directory for a 50% CD set. Some people just bypass this DD folder set all together if it all happens quickly and work solely in the 04 CD directory. (folder structure shown below.) "Cost Estimates" (see article) "Models" - Contains SketchUp, AutoCAD, and other 3D modeling software models "Presentations" (see article) "Sheets" (see article) "Work" (see article) "Xref" (see article)

03b DD (Design Development) Folder

04 CD (Construction Documents) - Contains all the CAD drawings specifically for construction and is a little more detailed than the previous folders and will require a little more explanation. (folder structure shown below.) "Cost Estimates" (see article) "Sheets" (see article) "Specs" folder contains all the specifications for this project. They are usually word documents that are placed either directly into the folder or they are placed in sub-folders that contain a description. Every project is different. Some may have many specs and others just a few pages. "Temp" folder is just a place to put, you guessed it, temporary files. Consider if you couldn't delete it at the end of the day then it probably doesn't need to go in the temp folder. "Work" (see article) "Xref" (see article)

04 CD (Construction Documents) Folder

05 Issue Set - Contains PDF versions of Design Development (DD), or Construction Documents (CD) that have been sent out. These are meant to be our digital flat file containing documents that have been sent to the client, for review, for bid, the city, the county, etc. Presentations in the SD design can say in the deliverables folder. The correspondence folder should not replace the issue set. If it goes out it should be placed in the folder in the Issue Set with a date attached. These are complete sets of drawings. All revisions after the bid process should be kept in the Construction folder under the appropriate revisions.

05 Issue Set Folder

06 Construction - Contains the revisions made to the Construction Documents. After the bidding process and the bid has been awarded, 04 CD becomes the working document. This is the most important concept to understand. The working drawings will stay in the 04 CD, but all the PDF's and documents such as, Request for Information (RFI), Change Orders (CO), Change Proposal Requests (CPR),etc.. will be placed in the their appropriate construction folder. Common changes are included in the folder template shown below. Ideally each Construction item will have all documents placed in PDF format, such as, the Word documents and CAD drawings will all be combined into one document.

06 Construction Folder

07 Photos contains the site photos taken for the project. These are not photos referenced into drawings. All photos are placed in a folder with the YYYY-MM-DD - Name format. 08 LEED folder contains all the documents and forms needed for LEED Accreditation. Because this is such a new division in the project folder, there are no sub-folders for items yet.

07 Photos and 08 LEED Folder

09 EG folder is a folder created for Environmental Graphics. We currently offer environmental graphic design services for our projects. This folder looks and works like the SD folder above for presentations and graphics. Sometimes these will have a different job number than the rest of the project and you will see that tacked on the end of the folder name (e.g. 09 EG (A10100)). "Cost Estimates" (see article) "Presentations" (see article)

09 EG (Environmental Graphics Folder

General File And Folder Name Practices

The following office file and folder naming standards have been developed over the years working with different programs. We have come to find out, through experience, that file names are handled differently by different types of programs and services. Because there are different server types, operating systems, ftp protocols, browsers, databases, and programs that handle file names differently, we have developed a set of office standards that have encompassed our computing needs.

TBG OFFICE FILE AND FOLDER NAMING STANDARDS

• File and Folder names should be as small as possible (length and size)
• File and folder names should be as meaningful as possible (e.g., instead of dsc00035.jpg, 2010-03-10_sitevisit.jpg)
• File and folder names when using the date should be in a "yyyy-mm-dd" format (e.g., instead of 03102010, 2010-03-10)
• File and folder names can only contain the symbols "(", ")", "-", and "_" when symbols are needed.
• File and folder names should not contain any of these characters ! @ # $ % ^ & * = + ~ ` [ ] . , { } | \ " ; : < > ?
• In case you missed it above NO PERIODS period!
  
• Folders should not be created when a simple file name will do
• File and folder names can and will be renamed, if they have periods and/or any of the symbols listed above in them.

SOME REASONS WHY THESE STANDARDS EXIST
There are reasons for all of these and granted you might not care too much about them, but these are some (not all) of the reasons why we have file naming standards the way we do.

• Windows won't even allow some of these characters to be used.
• Different databases handle symbols differently (e.g., Sepialine, Tape Backups, Exchange, IIS).
• Access via dos commands can be tricky.
• When searching for files "*" means any character, "#" means any number "@" means any alpha character "%" means space.
• Microsoft's MSDN article on naming conventions say that a period should be used to separate the base file name from the extension. Program conflicts can arise when using periods, because different programs have differing rules when it comes to handling path names and file names.
• Microsoft's MSDN article on file naming issues with Share Portal and Share Point Sever has problems with file names that have periods. There are some specific ways around this, but we would rather be safe then sorry.
• The more folder names that exist in a file, the longer it take a programs to open.
• Autodesk products have had previous problems with file and folder names that have brackets, symbols, and long names (previous versions had 32 character limit). They may accept these now, but keeping things short is still a good practice.

Posting To Basecamp Via E-mail

HOW TO SET UP A BASECAMP CONTACT TO POST VIA E-MAIL

Most people log into Basecamp and then post their files and messages. If you post a lot of files and messages to your Basecamp project, here is a quick way to post your files and messages without ever having to log into the Basecamp site. It will require a one time setup between Basecamp and Outlook for each Basecamp project.


A.) Log into Basecamp, go to your project, and click on the "Messages" tab.
B.) Click on "Post a message via e-mail"


C.) This will bring up a screen with a long e-mail address. This is the Basecamp project e-mail address that you will need. Highlight and copy this e-mail address.


D.) Click on the "New Contact" button in Outlook.
(Optional -You can copy and paste that e-mail address into a new e-mail message. Although it may become hard to remember whose address is associated with the project after doing this a few times)
E.) Use a common contact name you can remember. I would suggest using a common name for all Basecamp users, such as, "Basecamp - Domain II", or "Basecamp - Congress Ave".
F.) Paste that e-mail address into the e-mail field and save the contact.



G.) Start a new e-mail in Outlook Click on the "To" button to bring up the contacts list. Find your "Basecamp" contact in your Outlook address book.
H.) Once selected, click the button "To", thus inserting the Basecamp email address.Type your message and send it. Next time you log into Basecamp you will find your items there and your project group will be notified of any new posts.

When posting messages via e-mail, the message will be posted in the "Messages" tab and any files attached will be placed int the "Files" tab.