I send this informative email about once a month, offering helpful hints and 
CAD news from a variety of sources.  
Richard's Rant - April, 2016
It is my birthday, the 19 th for all of you that want to mark your calendars and send me an email next year.  What I reflected on today is how my sister and I have completely differing views of our childhood. I recall laughing, breaking an arm, building a fort, playing in the woods and generally being gone from sun up to sun down. My sister remembers the bad things - she wrecked her bike and got stitches, got mauled by a dog and got stitches (see a theme there), wrecked my homemade racecar. Not that she doesn't ever recall fun times, but she seems to hold the bad ones closer to mind.
 
So for all of my kids, I have tried to teach and reinforce the great times and mitigate the bad ones.  Much harder to say than do, so what I tend to do is recall them every day when we sit down for dinner - What good happened today to you?. I also try to direct them on how to manage those bad times, talk about how you could have done or said differently next time.  So far so good.  My kids aren't too warped.  Haha.
 
And for those avid readers of my monthly Rant. Disney was AWESOME!!  We stayed at a hotel on the beach the first two days in Jacksonville, just to unwind.  Magic Kingdom was amazing, it rained for half the day at Epcot, but we didn't care, we brought dry socks and umbrellas.  It was a lifetime of family memories. Comically when asking the 7yr old son: What was the best time of our Florida vacation?  It was NOT meeting Mickey, not a roller coaster, and not lunch with Winnie the Pooh. He says, "Picking up shells on the beach. I got like a thousand of them." And he did. We came back with 2 gallon bags of seashells.
 
Make your own good memories, don't dwell in the bad ones, live the good parts.


-Richard
Quote of the Day

Write your Sad times in Sand,
Write your Good times in Stone.
George Bernard Shaw

Tech Tip of the Month

Platform: AutoCAD 2016
 
Issue: 
When trying to work with raster images within a drawing in AutoCAD 2016, the following actions may cause AutoCAD to crash:
  • Opening a drawing with an attach image(s)
  • Attempting to attach an image file as an xref
  • Switching between layouts
  • Zooming and panning with raster image objects within view
  • Plotting 
All attachments load correctly (no missing xrefs). Images may turn black and not redraw correctly when working in a drawing, which can be a precursor to a crash. The more images in a drawing, the higher the chance of having a crash, but it is possible to crash with only one raster image.

 
Solution: 
Guess what, it was an "undocumented feature".  (haha).  Install the Hotfix, that should get you working.  https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/downloads/caas/downloads/content/autodesk-C2-AE-autocad-C2-AE-2016-hotfix-2.html


Builder Technology Summit

BuilderMT Technology Summit is at Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale, AZ in October. This was called the User Conference in past years, but this year we are expanding the scope a bit more and adding some new tracks for the executive teams. We are also hosting Lessons from the Pipeline.  The agenda is almost final. Click here to learn more. 

Builder Portal Training

BuilderMT Builder Portal Training - Dashboard, Navigation, and Collaboration Session.  Click here to view the recorded session and helpful information on where to find Builder Portal Guides.

There is also a help link on the Builder Portal after logging in under the user's display name.

Social Media

Join us and follow, comment, like and tweet.

 
US Dept of Housing Report

The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly announced the following new residential construction statistics for March 2016:
 
BUILDING PERMITS
Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in March were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,086,000.  This is 7.7 percent (±1.2%) below the revised February rate of 1,177,
000, but is 4.6 percent (±0.9%) above the March 2015 estimate of 1,038,000.
 
Single-family authorizations in March were at a rate of 727,000; this is 1.2 percent (±1.1%) below the revised February figure of 736,000.  Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 324,000 in March.
 
HOUSING STARTS
Privately-owned housing starts in March were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,089,000.  This is 8.8 percent (±11.1%)* below the revised February estimate of 1,194,000, but is 14.2 percent (±11.7%) above the March 2015 rate of 954,000.
 
Single-family housing starts in March were at a rate of 764,000; this is 9.2 percent (±10.3%)* below the revised February figure of 841,000.  The March rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 312,000.
 
HOUSING COMPLETIONS
Privately-owned housing completions in March were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,061,000.  This is 3.5 percent (±13.3%)* above the revised February estimate of 1,025,000 and is 31.6 percent (±15.2%) above the March 2015 rate of 806,000.
 
Single-family housing completions in March were at a rate of 734,000; this is 0.3 percent (±11.5%)* below the revised February rate of 736,000.  The March rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 316,000.

Informative Links 

 

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