Re: PipingToons - Write the Caption

From: <Christopher>
Date: Sat Jul 02 2005 - 13:52:00 EDT

On Jul 1, 2005, at 10:57 AM, Paul Bowers wrote:

> I've possibly said this before, but "computerization" has distanced and
> disconnected people from the work they are supposed to be performing.
I'll quibble with that a little--maybe even disagree. Computerization of particular tasks brings the work a lot closer to competent designers and engineers because the trivial stuff like lettering and arithmetic are done a lot better and faster when they're automated. In my case I can do stress analysis a lot better and pay attention to the actual engineering issues without having to keep up with all the scratch paper and iterative stuff I would otherwise do. I can do things on my own (seismic analysis to name one) that would have taken a large data center and a couple of aides to do as little as 15 years ago. Moreover, I can put together the necessary reports and graphics on my own without having to ride herd on a secretarial staff and proof other people's work. CAD tools make the work of a competent designer alot more efficient in the same way, and the information sources on the Internet have made all those horrendous (and usually misfiled or obsolete) catalog libraries all obsolete.

The dark side of all this is that software very easily masks incompetence. With AutoCAD or Solidworks, any hacker can turn out a nice looking layout even though the design itself is a disaster. Same with FEA--I see case after case of FEA work by people who really haven't a clue what they're doing. Worse, more and more software design is being done by programmers and sold by marketeers who have no idea what the end user does with it. Too many pin-stripers think that the tools, can make a trade-schooler into an engineer and a computer gamer into a designer. So you find 'designers' without a clue about using design codes or specifying materials, casting around the internet looking for people to do the real engineering work for them. And suits, patting themselves on the back for getting all that work done cheaper and faster when they're clueless about the actual value of what they've received.

Christopher Wright P.E. |"They couldn't hit an elephant at <a href="/group/PipingDesign/post?postID=IwHrTkHnJQJQIWS7rrbkmwxJBfZ-kHXkUSYl-Q0gaVCoxcr5G91a-wD_57Dk0pyL2mrs-npG5Br-uNU">chrisw@skypoint.com</a> | this distance" (last words of Gen.

.......................................| John Sedgwick, Spotsylvania

1864)
<a href="http://www.skypoint.com/~chrisw/">http://www.skypoint.com/~chrisw/</a> Received on Sat Jul 02 13:52:00 2005