After leaving Kingston University and not getting an architecture degree…. I’m now being asked by architecture students how to do things. Slight flaw that they don’t teach this bit at all, and I doubt the staff even know hwo to do it. Every semester is the same.
There are a couple of stages missing… interpOSe… (get that from dotted eyes)… and extracting the .zip file which you should know how to do. If you don’t god help you.
Stage 1: how to get a digimap
Stage 2: what to do with the files from digimap
Stage 3: Scaling drawing (the default is to set the cad drawing in meters, this will convert it to milimeters)
Stage 4: Scaling a layout (for when you want to print it to a scale)
These steps are intended for using with Autodesk AutoCAD which is freely available from their student website, don’t ask me for a “dodgy” version, it’s illegal and wrong. By virtue of the fact that AutoCAD is a Windows based application, these instructions were done intended for computers running Windows.
Written by Neil on 14th October, 2009
After attempting to use the Digimap that the university provided of the area we were working on (which was hopeless), I decided to make my own, and added all the relevant sites to my studio group to save others time (in scale!!).
Studio 2.4 sites – 3.7MB old
Studio 2.4 Sites rev.2 – 4.2MB old
Studio 2.4 Sites rev.3 – 2.6MB current
*EDIT*
I’ve just added all three sites at 1:200 @ A1 for making the site models. Saved as an AutoCAD 2000 file for compatibility.
Written by Neil on 20th January, 2009
So, it came up during a tutorial this week about looking at a model from above appears boring and out of context, and while looking at it from eye-level or below gives a model a sense of purpose and atmosphere.
As you will know, I am an atheist, and if you do not, you should do by this point.
However, I felt it important to point something that came to mind when the statement about looking from above came about. Traditionally, (Old Testament and all), God is “up” in the heavens, looking down at the world; whilst Satan, sits down in the “depth” of hell.
The point I’m trying to get at here, is the idea of perspectives. Sure, my university tutor made a simple point of saying that looking at a model from above is dull as it doesn’t engage the person with the purpose/meaning of the model. However, this triggered something off in my head to think about what the ancients must have been thinking when conjuring up their gods and devils and placing their juxtaposition in a vertical direction from where we stand in our everyday world.
If you haven’t read the fantastic book by Robert M. Pirsig: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, you will probably be a stranger to the idea that since the Greeks, we’ve developed our (western) language and way of thinking around objectivity, which then leads to: is something a thing or is it not, and so on. The point is that, through hundreds of years of semantic evolution, we now living in a capitalist world where hedonism and consumerism rules.
Much like, when placing God “up” (in the heavens) and Satan “down” (in hell). It is therefore, a perverted act to want to look at something from below, and pure to look from above. It then leads me to wonder about the times we live in where everything is lead to make new rules and break old ones. How does this rebellion affect our psyche? Are we latently repressing some anger at our forefathers for something? Are we disappointed in the fact that there is no threshold not already covered?
Oh what a load of drivel! See what lazy Sundays do to people?! Do exercise and socialize more!
Written by Neil on 16th November, 2008
