Our construction company has a computer and uses it manly for word possessing and bookkeeping. Which software are you using for other tasks such as client data bases, estimating programs, CAD programs, Project management programs. Or do you find paper and pen the most useful.
Thanks, Ace
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Replies
Hi, I guess there are alot of companies that do not use computers. What about PDA hand helds for phone numbers etc. I just got a palm pilot and I am finding it useful to always have all phone numbers handy. Is anyone useing these or others to help organize themselfs and company
Thanks, Ace
ace.. we use Chief Architect, GC Works, WordPerfect, QuattroPro spreadsheet, Quickbooks Pro, and a lot of other software..
We've been computerized since CPM and our first office computer was an Osbourne Portable with twin floopies and a 5" screen (early '80's).. we still only use about 20% of the power of each of our software programs
We keep all our tel. numbers in programamble memory phones.. and program our cell phones with all the frequent numbers..
We use Daytimer page-per-day organizer and have been resisting the PDA's .. they seem a little clunky in terms of data entry.. how do you find them ?
Mike Smith
Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Very interesting post! I was thinking of that all day while breaking my back doing the things that pay for what i want. Like a PDA, CAD software and a laptop. Any advise from you more experienced pros would be very appreciated.Old Pro, not quite old, not quite pro, but closer every day on both...
Off topic, to be sure, but your mention of Daytimers brought back memories. Grew up a block from the family that started the company. Went to grade school next to the plant. In http://www.daytimer.com/content/help/btm_nav_daytimer_history.asp they mention that Bob Dorney was the son of the founder. Bob and his wife are contemporaries of my parents and family friends. They'd have regular dinner parties. Grew up with their son, who went on to be a Penn State All-American offensive tackle and an All-Pro for the Detroit Lions. Reminiscing over. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.
I just ordered my new version of CD Estimator from Craftsman. Had the old version since '98.....kinda kept up with the free updates....more or less just used it as a back-up to the legal pad.......all the jobs were small anyway.
Tried to install the old CD on the new computer.....called and they said I could download a new 32 bit something or other.....for free....but that might just be a temp fix....so I figgured the old had done it's job and time to move on.
This time I plan to keep up with the free updates. Not a bad little program for $70. The CD has New Const/Remodeling/Electrical/Plumbing &HVAC/Painting/Insurance.....all 6 "books"...on one disk....with no paper books.
The website let's ya try most of their stuff out.
http://www.craftsman-books.com
Works well for my little gig here. Jeff * Jeff J. Buck/ Buck Construction/ Pittsburgh, PA *
2nd Generation Buck Const, 3rd generation Craftsman
Bet those kids were never late for a practice! Jeff * Jeff J. Buck/ Buck Construction/ Pittsburgh, PA *
2nd Generation Buck Const, 3rd generation Craftsman
hey cloud hidden ; isn't that what daytimers are for? Old Pro, not quite old, not quite pro, but closer every day on both...
I have a palm and I got the software "Documents to Go". It is an Excel and Word clone. I use Excel in my business and really like having my sheets in my palm.
GD
I was wondering what you use excel for in your business. I was looking at documents to go. I might get it. I use my palm for mainly phone numbers. The trick is, every time you get a phone number put it in the palm pilot right away. In the long run it will save time cause you will always have that number. The best feature is the search feature. For example I could search for "plumber" and it will bring up all of my plumbers in the data base. Handy if you forget a guys name. Or I can search by job name because I write all of the job names my trades work at.
Ace
Whatever you use a palm device for, be sure you back it up. All it takes is a fall or a static discharge, and you can lose it all.
-- J.S.
I agree, I lost memory a few times but I've always had it backed up on my computer. That's what is so great about the palm. It is reassuring that you will never lose your address book.
Ace
We use Quickbooks in the office for accounting. For CAD, I've got Softplan, had it for a number of years. It's pretty easy for a homebuilder to start up with. The full version gives you material lists, auto elevations and cross sections, and the ability to generate 3D walkthroughs, allthough to be honest, I haven't taken the time to learn how to fully utilize all these features. We mainly use it to generate working prints, which are then reviewed and stamped by a liscensed local engineer. Someday soon, I hope to get the time to learn more of the features it offers. My son has autocad 2000, also on the computer but so far I haven't even attempted to try that. I'll wait for him to learn it first. I've got some estimating programs, but keeping up to speed on pricing for the database is time consuming, so I mostly use pen and paper. Old fashioned I know, but I'm fairly quick at it.
Bish
The Softview part of SP is invaluable to me. Doing renderings in colour let a customer see what he/she/they is getting for the money. Saves on frustration and miscommunicated ideas and it's a good sales tool too.
Love my Softplan.
v.11
Excellence is its own reward!
Piffin,
Tell me about V11 Softplan. I've been considering the upgrade ever since I found out that it did not redimension on a reverse. I currently use V 10 and have been using SP for about 10 years.
Is it worth the upgrade? or wait for v12?
John
J.R. Lazaro Builders, Inc.
Indianapolis, In.
http://www.lazarobuilders.com
Hi everyone-
Two weeks ago I purchased a handspring "treo". It's a cell phone, palm pda, internet and email device. It won best new product at comdex. I've been very happy with it and would strongly recommend to anyone who wants a pda, email device and cell phone all within one package. If you are interested, you can review and purchase at http://www.handspring.com.
We also use a desktop, laptop, digital camera, cd burner and the following software: Word, Excel for takeoffs, Primavera suretrack for scheduling, Autocad (autocad LT would also be great at a lower cost), Quickbooks Pro and various Nolo for business books which can be viewed at http://www.nolo.com.
On a lighter note, my dog's favorite item is her cedar bed from costco.
Have a good night.
Dale
Check out the web site. That's a cool phone you got yourself. I wish my cell and palm were together. I will wait a couple of years because I just got my palm.
Ace
I went from v.9 DOS to v.11 so the difference was astonding! The biggest place I noticed was in roof mode. It handled complicated stuff easier and more accurately. Also, I upgraded CPU at the same time so I was going from pre- Pentium days to 750Mg. The old machine would not do lists or renderings.
All the guys at Splash who came from v10 to v.11 are well impressed and swear that it was worth the upgrade. My understanding is that v10 just made it windows compatable without doing too much to add functions but they got down to looking at the wish list when they built v11.
I'm sure there's a comparison of features at the SP site.
http://softplan.com/
Excellence is its own reward!
Thanks!
I'll check it out. I upgraded from V9 to v10 just because of windows and have been very happy. My biggest complaint was that whenever you reverse a drawing, it always redimensions. Tech support told me that the only way to fix the priblem was to upgrade to v11. Imagine that! Are you a SPLASH member? I didn't join because I didn't think I could justify their membership fees. I've been using Softplan for almost 10 years and am a firm supporter of the software.....even though I don't use all the capabilities.
John
J.R. Lazaro Builders, Inc.
Indianapolis, In.
http://www.lazarobuilders.com
Splash is way worth it! It is a member supported group, not a Softplan organization. There are guys there who might know more about the program than the programers do. Well, maybe I exagerate.
It is inspiring to see the stuff that can be done so I try to do more with it. Spend a litle time reading tips and problem solving and you'll suddenly find your knowledge base doubled. Somebody will give a timesaving tip that cuts hours from your work week and there's the price of admission. They are quality people in SPLASH
http://www.softplansplash.org/articles_and_tips.htm
Excellence is its own reward!
Piffin,
I haven't been to softplan's web site in ages and didn't even know about SPLASH. Sounds well worth it. I'll visit the site now and check it out.
Bish
Hi Folks,
I just joined a small company in Mpls. We use Chief Architect for CAD. I'm re-learning from Vectorworks in my previous self-employment stage. The program does a lot, but I don't find the interface very intuitive. Or maybe it's just not very much like the what I learned on.
The bookeeper uses Quickbooks.
We do estimating using the Hometech books as a base, but have built our own excel spreadsheet around the categories. Sometime I think we are just re-inventing the wheel. More on that in another post...
We use a contact manager called Goldmine. Again, it does a lot, but I find the interface clumsy and non-intuititve. Our bookeeper is the one who has settled on that program. He likes to leave the stupid smiley-faced thing on in excel, and the paper clip in word on and is a big lover of microsoft stuff, so that tells you a little bit about why he's chosen products with bad interfaces...
I use a digital camera when I go out out to measure up jobs. Saves a million trips back and forth. I use Qucktime for my media viewing needs. Windows Media player bites. I would like to get the boss to spring for a lite version of photoshop so I could do a little image clean up, perspective correction, etc.
I avoid word like the plague.
We have four handspring visors in the office and no one really uses them. I too find data entry too tedious. Maybe with one of those litte fold-up keyboards it would be ok.
I've taken chief architect files to a client's house via laptop. It is useful, but our laptop is too old and slow and short on RAM to do much on it. With a nice big-screen laptop it would be great for client conferences.
Sorry for being long winded.
Steve
Edited 4/29/2002 9:42:25 AM ET by STEVENZERBY
Ace,
I do interior trim carpentry most of the time. Recently I had about 75 windows in a house that had to be trimmed with a capitol: 1 X 6, 1 X cap, 3" crown, stool below, apron and casing for the sides. I had 12 peices of material for each window. I make one sample window for my client to approve. Then I record the width, hight, and extender sizes. Then I use excel to calculate the various pieces of material for each window. Using a paper print-out I cut all of each type of material, label them for each window. Being careful to make accurate measurments I can usually do several windows without having to trim anything. This saves me a lot of time, and as I am working on a bid that is a good thing. I also have sheets that calcualte the door bevel angles after I input width, thickness and hinge pivot offset. I have used math and trig for years but it was always a hassle to write down everything, go home and type the data into my pc, then take a print out to work next day. With the palm I can enter the data on the job, and work out the calculations then.
Greg
AutoCAD LT for CAD -- If you ever want to get big paper plots from a service company or exchange files with architects or subs, this is the only way to go. Others may claim to read and write the .DWG file format, but it's proprietary and extremely complex, so none of them really do it right. It's well worth the $600 retail, and if you look around for computer faires, you can even find a legit copy for as little as $350. I used TurboCAD for years, and finally had to scrap it and start over. Save yourself the un-learning and re-learning. The funny thing about CAD is that it makes drawing and changes so easy that you'll end up doing far more of it that you could ever imagine.
-- J.S.