RobiNZ CAD Blog

The CIO who can't write an Excel macro...

CIO NZ have a interview with Warehouse CIO Owen McCall. In his time the IS systems have grown to cope with a growing General Merchandise business and the new “Extra” Supermarket offer.

It’s not until I talk to other CAD Managers that I realise how much infrastructure, and support, the IS team supply leaving me just to deal with the CAD stuff. The fact that they leave me to deal with that allows a degree of freedom which makes my role a whole lot easier.

I also think it’s kinda cool he can admit; “The closest I’ve got to programming is I wrote a macro in Excel once that didn’t work”.

Perhaps it’s time for me to admit: “I’m a CAD manager who can’t write LISP”

CIO > 'Two steps forward, two steps sideways, one step back' –
By Chris Bell | Monday, June 02 2008

Owen McCall, CIO of The Warehouse Group, understands the importance of learning to walk before you run. Cost-effectiveness hinges on system dependability, and he says IT will not be valued by the business until it provides firm foundations…

Warehouse ruling appeal bid cleared

The latest round of the The Warehouse “takeover” has the Commerce Commission getting right to appeal, the appeal, with a few conditions (to keep things moving, it appears )…

Warehouse ruling appeal bid cleared - Stuff.co.nz
The Commerce Commission has been cleared to appeal a High Court decision allowing Woolworths and Foodstuffs to make takeover bids for The Warehouse.

The Warehouse ditch mainframes

So that’s what they’ve been doing in the server room  

Jade helps The Warehouse ditch mainframes - New Zealand's source for technology news on Stuff.co.nz
The retailer's mainframes, which were managed by Unisys under an outsourcing arrangement, have been decommissioned and replaced with IBM servers running Microsoft Windows that will be supported by Jade.

UPDATE 23–01–2008:

Computerworld > Warehouse's Jade ERP upgrade to save $4 million
The company went live in September with a new Jade system and Wintel platform, after switching off its Linc legacy system

Jade Software Corporation – Established in 1978 by Sir Gil Simpson, Jade Software Corporation is an information technology research and development organisation that produces innovative software services and solutions.

Humour or Horror: A Blast from the Past - Where were you in 1982?

Warning: The images below may require parental guidance for younger readers.

Scott Sheppard started this so direct all complaints to him. Inspired, if that’s right the word, by Lynn Allen’s 1982 AU photo he posted a image of himself in 1982 and challenged to Shaan Hurley, Melanie (Lynn 2.0) Perry and Myself to respond.

Why 1982?

AutoCAD is 25 years old and “Party like it’s 1982” was the theme of the recent Autodesk University 2007 conference.

Not only AutoCAD started in 1982!

Just before leaving for Autodesk University my employer, The Warehouse Limited, celebrated its 25th anniversary. While John Walker (& co) was creating AutoCAD in California on the opposite side of the Pacific, in New Zealand, Stephen Tindall opened the first “The Warehouse” store.

To commemorate this Support Office staff joined for a group photo outside our office (Store Development is the blue “stain” in the sea of Retail red uniforms). It’s funny that the software we use to design our stores is almost the same age as the company!

TWL Staff Photo Credit: http://www.kphoto.co.nz/

So where was RobiNZ in 1982?

I figured out I was 16 and still, just, at High School. This is the only photo I could find that is definitely from that year, scary eh! Although it looks like some sort of mug shot it was actually taken in my sister’s office (Don’t you love the 70’s fake wood partitions!). She worked for a camera retail company, in their head office, and it was to try a brand new high tech compact 35mm automatic camera. The Canon Snappy was also released in 1982 and I had a red one!

While searching for that I found this even earlier photo. It’s not really CAD related but shows me with Grandad's state of the art portable typewriter and, surely one of the first, LED digital calculator. This one is dated 1974…

Sorry about inflicting all this on you, it’s Scott’s fault!

Tags: au2007

Court says The Warehouse can be sold...

Let the games begin… 

Court says Warehouse can be sold - 29 Nov 2007 - NZ Herald

Shares in The Warehouse Group surged as much as 25 per cent today after the High Court granted supermarket giants Woolworths and Foodstuffs permission to bid for New Zealand's biggest discount retailer…

Names...

A Warehouse Group supplier made the paper today…

Sideswipe: Tuesday - 13 Nov 2007 - New Zealand Herald
Strange business names: John Christiansen of Mt Albert has always wondered what the firm of Stiffe Hooker Ltd, of Newmarket, Auckland, actually do (they're architects and engineers).

It's waiting time for The Warehouse...

The waiting game… 

It's waiting time for Warehouse ruling - Stuff.co.nz
The submissions have been made, the arguments argued. Now the interested parties, investors and the public must wait to see whether the Commerce Commission's decision blocking either Foodstuffs or Woolworths from taking over The Warehouse will be overturned…

Warehouse tussle heads to court...

Let the games begin, again… 

Supermarket tussle starts in court - NZ Herald
Supermarket giants Foodstuffs and Woolworths will today go head to head with the Commerce Commission in the High Court at Wellington, appealing a decision barring either from taking over discount chain The Warehouse…

Warehouse's date with fate - Stuff.co.nz
The future of The Warehouse is likely to be decided by a court hearing that starts today…

Tags: Woolworths, Foodstuffs

RobiNZ Autodesk University 2007 Schedule

I’ve posted my Autodesk University class schedule to a static page, rather than a post:

RobiNZ Autodesk University 2007 Schedule – http://rcd.typepad.com/rcd/AU2007-Schedule.html

It’s confirmed, but still subject to change, so I’ll keep it current with any revisions.

There are two significant firsts for me at AU this year:

• I’m bringing a computer, HP 2710 Convertible Tablet, to AU so email and blogging should be a little easier. That’s assuming HP manage to deliver it before AU!
• I won’t be the only person there from The Warehouse New Zealand.

If any readers will be there would be great to meet. Email me or leave a comment on this post.

Tags: au2007

25 years of AutoCAD?

AutoCAD is turning 25! Crikey, I must be getting old as remember most of it!

We first used AutoCAD R2.something at Tech. I say “we” as there were few CAD PC’s so several of students used one together. My first CAD drawing was a group effort, a side elevation of a motor scooter project which took us several weeks! There was limited access to slow, if top spec for their day, machines. The desire to draw curves (this was just 2D not 3D) and fill them with hatch patterns plus the “first encounter with AutoCAD factor” meant it was a long process.

I still remember “Beth”, can’t remember her surname, who came to New Zealand from Autodesk to spread the AutoCAD word. She was amused, or maybe bewildered, by design students trying to do things real draftsmen wouldn’t attempt. I think it resulted in a few calls back to the US for updates or test code. Thinking back, I wonder where Beth is now & regret not having that .dwg other than as a print…

Then there was a gap until R9 before I encountered AutoCAD again. For most of those computer free years it was literally back to the drawing board but since then it’s been all digital. My own first CAD PC is a metre away as I type this and still runs fine. Not that there’s much use for a 436 dx33 with 8mb ram which cost $5150.25 (in 1993).

It’s a coincidence The Warehouse, my employer, is also 25 later this year. They didn’t use AutoCAD internally until sometime in early/mid ‘90’s. I’ve been using it, or AutoCAD based software, there since 1997! Now I do feel old…

Celebrating 25 years of AutoCAD - www.autodesk.com/autocad25

Via BTL

Retail News: Westfarmers (Bunnings) buy Coles Group

The latest move in the Australasian Retail chess game sees Westfarmers (Bunnings) buy Coles Group (Coles, Kmart Au, Target, Officeworks etc)…

Wesfarmers buys Coles - Business - theage.com.au

Australia's biggest takeover is to go ahead with Wesfarmers to buy the country's second biggest retailer, the Coles Group, for $22 billion…

Note: Woolworths Au & PEP mentioned in this article were/are linked to The Warehouse acquisition deals.

The Warehouse Te Rapa stake sold

TWL announced the sale of it’s share in “The Base – Te Rapa” today. This project, on land which was formerly an Air Force Base, has been the work of many but I must congratulate Property Development Manager Murray Smith who pulled it together. He lived “The Base” and was great to work with on the little I had to do with it.

Warehouse offloads Te Rapa stake to Tainui - NZ Herald

“A Warehouse spokesperson said The Base was the largest development joint venture the company had been involved in, although it had jointly developed many other properties.

The Base had been a successful venture for The Warehouse, which had achieved its goal of supporting Tainui to develop a successful centre, and of having a store trading in the centre.”

Tags: The+Base

BREAKING NEWS: Supermarkets' Warehouse bids denied

Commerce Commission says no...

Supermarkets' Warehouse bids denied - Stuff.co.nz
BREAKING NEWS: Supermarket rivals Woolworths and Foodstuffs have been knocked back by the regulators in their plans to bid for discount retailer The Warehouse...

PS: I wonder if Cynthia will find this in her blog searches :-)

UPDATE 09–06–2007: Some more comment…

Tindall will set course for future of the Red Sheds – NZ Herald
One thing is unchanged by yesterday's Commerce Commission decision - Stephen Tindall will ultimately decide the fate of The Warehouse…

No one gets a bargain – NZ Herald
"It could be back to the future for Tindall and PEP," said one source close to the Tindall consortium that tried to privatise the Warehouse in September...

Crazy MindManager Export to web, generated 500mb + content & thousands of files, worked!

This is my last ever MindManager 6 Pro post . It’s sad to say goodbye to a great application but the day had to come. I couldn’t let it go without perhaps the ultimate export to destruction test…

Imagine over the years you’d built a complex interlinked web of MindManager Maps to document the systems, applications & process related to your job. When it comes to archiving this information not everyone has MindManager, or even the free viewer, but they do have a web browser. If you opened MindManager and clicked “Export to Web”  what would happen?

No news is no news...

Stuff hit the mark in this article on the Commerce Commission and TWL. I have a theory where all this will end but (to corrupt a quote):

“I might very well think it; but I couldn’t possibly comment”

(Inspired by Francis Urquhart – House of Cards)

No news is bad news - Stuff.co.nz
No news is good news, they say. But Woolworths and Foodstuffs won't be saying that today…

The Warehouse wars

David Hargreaves has a good summary of the events to date in the scrap over The Warehouse Limited just as the battle is about to heat up…

War of The Warehouse - Stuff.co.nz
D-Day is nearly upon us in the drawn-out battle for discount retailer The Warehouse. David Hargreaves looks at the background and the possibilities…

Warehouse combination wok & satellite dish, next it's Etch-A-Sketch BIM?

Kiwi ingenuity + Wok = Bargain satellite dish?

$10 wok keeps TV station on air - 22 Feb 2007 - National News - New Zealand Herald
Why pay $20,000 for a commercial link to run your television station when a $10 kitchen wok from the Warehouse is just as effective?

Thanks to Phil at Autodesk for the lead…

Kiwis are renowned for their ingenuity. I heard someone in Eketahuna purchased an Etch-A-Sketch from a nearby Warehouse and is developing it into a BIM platform. Expect more details soon on:

• Etch-A-Sketch Architecture 2008
• Etch-A-Sketch MEP 2008
• Etch-A-Sketch Structure 2008

Themes to the rescue - Architectural Desktop Display Theme

One reason to prefer object based Architectural Desktop over line, arc, circle, hatch CAD;

• Devise a new display grouping scheme for area spaces…
• In the library;
• Add a style based property to spaces defining the new display groups.
• Create a Display Theme to look at that group property definition and re-colour existing objects.
• Take seven years of legacy files created with areas defined as styled AEC Space objects:
• Add the Display Theme
• Synchronise to update the existing space objects with the library.

Seven years of legacy plans display the new scheme with no redrawing, no new or duplicated objects, no layers. Priceless!

Even better: If it changes… edit the library, re-synchronise and it’s updated!

The Warehouse Toon

Click thru for a brilliant cartoon from Rod Emmerson regarding the recent events.

Rod Emmerson: The Warehouse for sale - 18 Jan 2007 - News cartoons

Inspired by…
Woolworths seeks bid permission for NZ's Warehouse - 17 Jan 2007 - Business
Australian retailer Woolworths said today it had lodged an application to bid for the country's largest listed retailer, The Warehouse Group…
Foodstuffs lines up takeover of The Warehouse - 22 Dec 2006 - The Warehouse Group
Supermarket operator Foodstuffs has joined forces with Pacific Equity Partners to consider a takeover of The Warehouse Group. Foodstuffs yesterday applied to the Commerce Commission for clearance to buy The Warehouse outright…

CAD/Software System Documentation with MindManager and Camtasia

Regular visitors may have noticed that I mention using MindManager and Camtasia for documentation . It’s difficult to share real content here without extensive editing to remove confidential information but this overview may be enough to get an idea of the process.

I made it to share with our IT how I document the design related applications, network resource use and structure, build process and applications. I start with a basic OS build from them and add design related applications. The build is ghosted but I capture the creation of that build, mainly for my own reference!

The YouTube resolution is fairly low but hopefully you can see/hear enough to make sense of it. If not let me know via “email me” or comments & will try some other format/host.

 

Foodstuffs Seeks Clearance to Buy The Warehouse

Interesting times… 

Foodstuffs Seeks Clearance to Buy N.Z.'s Warehouse - Bloomberg.com
Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Foodstuffs NZ Ltd., New Zealand's biggest grocer, is seeking clearance from regulators to buy Warehouse Group Ltd., the nation's largest publicly traded retailer….

Foodstuffs aims to buy Warehouse - Stuff.co.nz
NZPA | Thursday, 21 December 2006
Supermarket operator Foodstuffs has applied for Commerce Commission approval to buy discount retailer The Warehouse.

Autodesk + Skidmore, Owings & Merrill BIM Presentation

Today I’m heading to Seoul, South Korea, to hear how Skidmore, Owings & Merrill are applying BIM techniques to projects like The Freedom Tower and other significant buildings around the globe. It will be an interesting trip. If any readers are attending it would be great to meet up, contact me via the Blog Email Me link or COEX Intercontinental.

• Agenda
  • Transforming Building Process: Ideas Realised
    • Phil Bernstein, Vice President, Industry Strategy & Relations, Autodesk Inc.
  • Realising the Freedom Tower: Pioneering Process Change
  • If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a visualisation is worth a million
    • Darren Rizza, Associate AIA, Firmwide Director of Digital Design, SOM

Disclosure: Travel & Accommodation provided by Autodesk Building Solutions Division, Asia Pacific.

Auckland to Seoul?

Will be interesting, especially given recent events…

Auckland to Seoul 9595 km  324° true – unless dodging missiles

Catching the Building Ideas Bus

Today I hit the road to catch a bus. It was out of the office to see some new software in action, at the Salesoft Autodesk Building Ideas Roadshow, and also a chance to see couple of new’ish stores for the first time. 

The bus looked impressive & the roadshow had a nice demo of Revit Building 9, Revit Structure 3 and Robobat ROBOT Millennium (an analysis package that works with Revit Structure) working together. It was the first time I’ve seen Robobat and, while Structural Design/Analysis is not our thing, it was interesting to see it in action.

If you are reading this in New Zealand, the bus may be coming to your town soon: Click here for details.

View from work...

Cool, this will happening on the harbour in front of work in January. Something to watch at lunchtime…

Valencia Sailing: Biggest race since America's Cup attracts world's best sailors in Auckland
Five of the world’s top ten sailors along with New Zealanders Dean Barker and Chris Dickson are set to compete in the biggest yacht race New Zealand has seen since the America’s Cup…
The race - the Auckland Match Racing Cup - will take place from January 25 to 29 2006, on the Waitemata Harbour on the city side of the Harbour Bridge, near the Viaduct.

The Warehouse Logo, a new look

As part of a refresh of stores, marketing and branding the 23 year old company logo has been updated to a more contemporary design. Some like it, some don’t – what do you think?

Out with the old;

In with the new;

CAD Images on this blog using The Warehouse Group content will be water-marked with an updated “Cad icon”

 

 

DWF: The inside story

Shaan has posted a tour of the contents of a DWF file. I have spent the past few days publishing loads of DWF content as we use it to share store plans on the Intranet. The image is a png taken out of a Store DWF. Just open with Winzip and extract the image file. MindManager can use a DWF Smart map part to  access the previews and XML content of DWF files.

Its fun introducing non-CAD people to DWF & the free DWF Viewer. They are surprised at what they can do, especially with 3d DWF’s

Between the Lines: A look inside a DWF
Are you aware you can look at the inside of a DWF file?

Conference on Building Information Modeling:Challenges, Opportunities, Processes, Deployment.

Building Information Modelling is a concept many have yet to encounter, understand, embrace or implement. A coordinated Building Information Model becomes an asset from the initial design concept through the life of a building, perhaps including it’s demolition. This requires participation from all involved in the process of creating, owning and maintaining the building which means a lot of education is required. Today I received details on a conference that will further education and discussion of Building Information Modelling.

Building Information Modelling: Challenges, Opportunities, Processes, Deployment.
April 19 – 20, 2005 Atlanta, Georgia.
Organised and hosted jointly by the Georgia Tech College of Architecture (COA) Ph.D. Program and the LaiserinLetter™ (Jerry Laiserin)
The agenda includes real-world case studies and interactive panels, as well as industry applications and analyses aimed at to everyone who owns, operates, constructs or designs buildings.

Full details follow in the extended article. Audience registration and the conference agenda are available on the web at: http://www.laiserin.com/laiserinlive/index.php 

So long Glen - End of an era for Warehouse as Glen Inger resigns

I don't write much about work here, other than CAD related stuff, but there has been a significant development this week that must be mentioned. Glen Inger – Group Property and Store Development Executive Director and Chief Executive of The Warehouse New Zealand –  has resigned. His background, contribution to The Warehouse and future is covered in the story linked below.

Glen wasn't my direct manager but was instrumental in allowing the CAD & Property systems to develop to the extent that they have. The Warehouse Property/Store Development has evolved from spreadsheets & hand drawn plans to databases & building modelling because the management, led by Glen, have seen the benefits and allowed it to happen. There has been a huge amount of work done creating a mass of property data (in CAD and other systems) and as the business develops that legacy will be a increasingly vital resource.

This is only one tiny aspect of his contribution to The Warehouse but its the bit that has impacted my career. I joined TWL to draw store plans in AutoCAD LT, now we model stores in Architectural Desktop. Combine CAD model data with other databases and you have a powerful tool-set.

Thanks Glen, enjoy your new lifestyle!

End of an era for Warehouse as Glen Inger resigns
STUFF : BUSINESS - STORY : New Zealand's leading news and information website
24 February 2005
By ANNA JAQUIERY

Glen Inger, Stephen Tindall's right-hand man, has resigned as chief executive of The Warehouse New Zealand, ushering in a new era under a group of British managers.  Mr Inger was one of the founding fathers of The Warehouse, picking the sites and ordering the building of the "Red Sheds" that have become ubiquitous across New Zealand and reshaped its retail industry….

 

Red sheds' sales down 2.6 per cent

Link: Result announcement

Link: NZ Herald Business News - Red sheds' sales down 2.6 per cent.

Red sheds' sales down 2.6 per cent 10.11.2004 By PETER GRIFFIN Shares in the country's largest retailer, The Warehouse, sunk to a five-year low yesterday...

ADT Workflow - Modelling Benefits

Is his Blog article, Workflow - Modelling, Beau Turner commented on how ADT had changed his workflow in architectural projects. In reply to a comment I made he asked how it had changed ours. Coincidentally, a request at work for a drawing change was a perfect example of how ADT makes simple what could be a problem in a "non-object" CAD program. Seemed like a good idea for an article...

Before ADT:
Before ADT our layout plans were drawn in 2d AutoCAD LT. They looked basically identical to the “medium ADT plan” view today but we used AutoCAD blocks for fittings and polylines with hatch fills to indicate department areas. This is a small section of a store & shows what we created in AutoCAD days (it's actually the ADT plan used throughout this article).

Get the look you want, more than once:
We now use ADT with Space Objects for the Department Areas & Multiview Blocks or other AEC objects for our fittings.

The request today was for a denser hatch shading to use on small sub-department plans. The normal merchandise plan hatch was too light at the larger scale. Had we still been on AutoCAD there would have been a few options but it would require either compromising between the scales or duplication of the hatch for each view with all the work that would require.

ADT’s display system made this simple as we can use mulitple display configurations in the space styles for different views of the same plan:
Low: Store view where no hatch is prefered to reduce clutter.
Medium: Merchandise View, normal hatch for 1:200 scale
High: Sub-department view, dense hatch for 1:20 to 1:100.

Site Mass Studies in Autodesk Architectural Desktop

This shows the use of ADT drape mass elements for approximate site concepts and also the use of LandXML import to use as a base for ADT buildings. I wouldnt use ADT for complex site work but as a tool for prelimary investigations, or just to put some simple landforms under your building, mass elements can work well. For more complex work we use a consultant with Autodesk Land Desktop & use ADT's LandXML import to get a finished site.

The Warehouse ~ A Data Warehouse

"The Warehouse is leading the way in data warehouse implementation, becoming the first Australasian company to introduce the WorldMark 5300 server – the most sophisticated server ever to be released in a Teradata warehouse."
Read the full article on the istart site...

Use of "The Warehouse Group" content in this blog

I'm CAD Manager for The Warehouse Group Ltd which is a general merchandise retail company in New Zealand.

NOTE: Everything here is personal opinion and is not read or approved by The Warehouse before it is posted. CAD content from The Warehouse Group is used in posts with permission. All rights and copyright to that content (marked with logo or CAD Icon below & indexed in "The Warehouse Group Ltd" category) remains with The Warehouse Group Ltd. No warranties or other guarantees will be offered as to the quality of the opinions or anything else offered here.

The Warehouse Group Limited does not accept any liability, direct or indirect, for any loss or damage which may directly or indirectly result from any advice, opinion, information, representation or omission whether negligent or otherwise, contained on this site.