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Apparently, shift + rmb (right mouse button) keyboard shortcuts are something that very few people use. It's very handy. For example, I can just press shift+rmb,d in the middle of drawing a line to snap to a node without having to escape out and turn osnap on. Because of the shift+rmb shortcuts, I rarely have osnap left on any more. After a couple of minutes of experimentation, my findings for the shortcut defaults (as of 2018) are listed below. The most useful ones, in my humble opinion, are bolded. Not only are they needed, they are easily reacheable from the WASD home position of the left hand. (Which is the key for lightning fast cad work. I will elaborate on that in another article) Keyboard Shortcuts After Shift+rmb q - Quadrant w - Midpoint between 2 points e - Endpoint r - Nearest t - Point filters (submenu) i - Intersection p - Perpendicular a - Apparent intersect s - Insert d - Node f - From t - Tangent k - Temporary tracking point o - Options (dial...

Recently, I was asked to submit to my organization's IT department concerning what kind of computer setup is best for civil technology. My answer might be surprising to some: it's not a laptop, it's not 4k, and it's not a "workstation" setup. Why Not a Laptop Right off the bat, laptops are simply out of the question for any heavy duty work. The reason is that while processors are getting faster and faster, laptops lack the physical space to dissipate heat effectively. There virtually no space for a proper heat sink, fan, and air flow channels, the secondary vents are often on the bottom of the laptop which do not work unless the laptop is raised off the desktop. Not many people use their laptop raised off their desks. The high heat typically makes the laptop throttle down its chips, resulting in a massive reduction in performance and often, catastrophic hardware failures. Let's consider the heat sink design problem for laptops. There is no room fo...

" Why you should not learn to code. ("Just stop already, it's too hard.") " Techlead created this masterpiece of dry wit yesterday and it already has 21k+ views. It's a true gem. Please check it out here . Why Software Engineering Must Intersect with Civil Technology I always thought that the software engineering field had a lot to show us civil techs on how to do get things done on time, with less effort, and with style. First of all, good coders make their work readable, and with helpful comments peppered throughout their work. Compare this to a typical design drawing in a large projects with contributions from several techs. It take some real skill to be able to stitch together what corridor feeds of which surface using which targets etc. Add in a couple of tight deadlines and things can resemble a messy pizza real quickly. Now coding has its own share of nightmare stories I'm sure but I would bet money that pound-for-pound, coding pr...

My love with technology first surfaced late in my elementary school years. In hindsight it was obvious from the beginning what being a tech head was all about. I'll come back to that. In grade six I remember studying for a social studies exam  for hours every day. It was especially hard since I've only been learning English for two years at that point. A couple of weeks prior, I begged my parents if they could buy me a computer and they said that they would if I got 100% on my exam. I wanted a computer of my own because I loved playing around with the Macs in the school computer lap. A bunch of us played a multiplayer Star Trek game where we each controlled a ship and shot each other with phasers and torpedoes. I even found the fireworks screensaver fascinating. I remember that my teacher was so proud to give me back my test. I got 97% on it and she didn't expect that out of me at all. I was just a Korean kid who was still taking ESL classes. She just didn't underst...

As a mentioned in an earlier post, I've just had my fifth year as a civil tech. It took a lot of things going right for me to get started in this career. It took an outstanding teaching in college who looked out for my future in so many ways. He was the one who set me up with a two-week internship at my current employment, in fact. He, along with several other teachers, also backed me up during my negotiations with the administration when I was in danger of having to repeat my final year. If you are reading, thank you Mr. Morrison. A big thank you to Mrs. Coleman and Mr. Nelson as well. At the risk of sounding immodest, it also took an insane level of determination. The two years I spent learning at my community college in preparation for civil technology was absolute hell. The workload was high. Sure, I could have coasted and scraped by. But as with most things you get what you put into it and I really wanted to go beyond what was necessary. What really made it difficult was t...

A month ago I've hit my fifth year as a civil tech. I started this blog to document the things that I've learned about working as a tech back in 2014. A couple of months later I stopped writing to create a collection of help documents for my employer for private use. Four years later, that work has been fleshed out with several other contributors and I think it is a good time to write for myself and the community in general.I think I will begin with a look back at my still-young career, and share some observations with not only other techs but also for students who are looking into this industry. Do you have a blog of your own? Please feel free to share.