Back on track: our new outlet is Inlet.

Well, it has been almost two (2) months since my last post - and an eventful break it has been. Some very unpleasant, unplanned, and unavoidable 'sidetracks' have interrupted the flow, but it's back to Revit we go.

We had an uneventful (and pretty much unproductive) split with Avatech Solutions in mid-July. With the help of their 'ringer' (I shall refer to him as Yoda) and The Apprentice, they did come into our office and try to finish up the template. The effort was a noticeable improvement over the previous effort, but still came up with a number of items that I had to fix myself and some things that were just not done at all. At that point, we just cut our losses and both went our separate ways. Yoda did his best to fix it, but with limited time and trying to work with items that were started wrong, his task was an uphill battle to say the least. My hat still goes off to him though because it was like he was trying to a shattered windshield with super glue. It would have held together for a while, but you could still see the cracks and eventually...
Well, lets move along. Shall we? I wish them the best.

I have started working again with the firm we should've stayed with all along: Inlet Technology. I have trained with them before and they have an excellent crew over there. In size, they do not have the national presence of the 'other guys', but they do have a stellar reputation that reaches across the country and is growing as we speak. I have recommended them to a number of my contacts & a few past employers, and I have heard nothing but good things. They did everything Revit for the firm I used to work for in Philadelphia. The pilot project that they did (a massive hospital) is on display as a few of the pictures that rotate on-screen when you install Revit Structure. I have accomplished more in two half-day sessions this week with the structural guru at Inlet Technology than in the whole time with the other guys. There will be a complete template for me on Monday. I can't wait to sink my teeth in.

I know what you're thinking: "Why didn't you go with them in the first place? You knew these guys and what they are capable of, right?" Good point. I'm not going into any details about it. Long story short: it was a mistake. 'Nuff said.

I would like to tell you exactly what we did this week to accomplish so much, but I don't want to give away any of their processes and/or methods that make it work as flawlessly as it does. At least, so far. I will tell you that they are very exacting, thorough, pay much attention to detail, and closely scrutinize the needs of our firm as far as Revit is concerned. I was impressed at the approach that was taken to get us where we are in less than one week. Tuesday, today, and a final template (minus my few tweaks) on Monday. Six freakin' days.

That's it for this post, except for one thing. If you have been following my posts, I have referred to the players in our first experience as some of the characters in a semi-popular movie series instead of using their real names, which I felt to be inappropriate & unprofessional. I received some positive feedback concerning that, so now I feel compelled to keep tradition and find some new character names for this band of miscreants. I need to think on that for a while, though.

Stay tuned for the next chapter in the mini-series. There won't be another gap like last time though, because we've got to join the Revitlution!

Viva La Revitlution!!!

Moving on alone...

Well, it has been a while since I have posted.

The Firm and SPC (my firm) are working toward an amicable parting of ways, if you will. Almost like an uncontested divorce, but without the alimony or child support - kind of. Irreconcilable differences, of sorts. Hopefully, in the end, there will be no hard feelings on either side. Actually, the jury is still out until we see (and debate?) the final invoice for a fair settlement. Just kidding, but I do mean fair for both sides. They have clearly provided and we have been on the receiving end. We all just have to agree on what exactly that was.
'Nuff said. In the end, we are both moving on "to more productive endeavors."

I just want to get back to Revit-ing!!

Now we are venturing into the Revit Unknown to see what awaits. Gotham can be an ugly & unforgiving place.

I'll keep you posted - literally.

First look at "new" template...

Monday came and files were posted to their FTP site a few minutes before noon with the "I don't know what happened on the FTP site" comment.

I haven't had the opportunity to look at the "new" file that was updated for a few days - sometimes production gets in the way. Go figure.

Well, the first thing I looked at to check how different this file was from the last was the logo in our titleblocks. And that's where I stopped looking - for now. I've been told (by the Specialist & the Apprentice) that it was going to be converted to an image. I'm not sure exactly what difference that will make, but that's why we hired these guys. Anyway, the logo hasn't been changed from any of the other templates I have received from them. So I stopped looking at the new template.

Another email came in the afternoon explaining how he fixed the column footing schedule so that it didn't include the wall footings (oops) any longer. Not quite understanding what he said about what he "fixed", it didn't mean much. If we could learn what we needed to know from the manuals without being shown examples, we wouldn't have needed this whole process. Without him showing me what he did, it is useless because not much was even mentioned in the classroom about schedules - how they work, or a working example.

Which gets me back to "Why wasn't the content created before training?" If it was, like it was supposed to be, we could have fine-tuned the initial mistake inside (or after) class and my crew would know what to expect and how it works.

I really don't know how they ever expected to get content created without being on-site, asking questions, showing how things work. All they did was ask me to upload some files. Totally ineffective and inexcusable in my opinion. Whoever made that decision should not be making them.

Lesson to others: Do not agree to arbitrary content creation without you being there. In other words, do not agree them (whoever "them" happens to be) creating content on their own. Insist on them being on-site (yours or theirs), especially when the contract calls for it. Otherwise you'll do what we are doing and spend countless days trying to fix things before you can get down to business.

Shouldn't there have been some kind of checklist of what was to be created/done prior to commencement of training?

We are also being charged for one-half of a day of services for "Client Environment Prep." What that consisted of was mapping one drive letter and adding a folder to it - and that didn't even work correctly on some of the computers.

Also, shouldn't someone be assigned temporarily as our Project Manager when he goes on vacation?

The hole becomes deeper.

I'll post more once I have a chance to delve deeper into the "new template" in the next few days.

Still no usable template

Well, they are now 13 days past the date when they were supposed to provide content to us and still not even a usable template.

I spoke with the Apprentice for about an hour on the phone on Friday, and we appeared to be making progress. I then received email from The Specialist saying that an updated version was on their FTP site, but I checked in all of the folders that have been used by them to post for us and (of course) nothing was there. I sent out an email to The Specialist, The Apprentice, and the Project Manager saying what wasn't there. To his credit, the Project Manager replied at 6:48 p.m. Saturday night and asked "can you forward your cell number on so that maybe (The Specialist) can call you..." That's all. I didn't check my email until Sunday morning, and that's the only contact.

So much for me trying to make up a lot of time and create content on my own over the weekend. I'm tired of wasting my weekends & spare time waiting for something that is long overdue.

Wow. All I'm going to say right now is that what I expected is 180 degrees from what we got.

I'll post again tomorrow. This has got to end. The level of concern on their part for how this is affecting us as a business is becoming more obvious every day.

One last note on the bright side: try a Google Search for "Revit Structure 2009" and #1 on the list is the Revit Structure page of my website: lukewarmcoffee.com. It is even ahead of the Autodesk entry. How did that happen?