09.15.06
Posted in CAD at 5:19 pm by Admin
Computer-aided design is software used in art, architecture, engineering and manufacturing to assist in precision drawing. It can produce and also simulate the end result before it is even built. The process of building tangible things can cost a lot of resources and to make sure it is worth the resources spent, the design has to be proper so that it will prevent from unnecessary cost that will occur in case something happen in the future.
Earlier this week, we went to the Public Work Department (PWD) here in Kuala Lumpur to check out a tender offer. The offer was to supply the PWD with CAD software and hardware for them to use. There were other offerings but it didn’t align with our scope of work.
Honestly, nearly 2 years of employment in the Facilities Management Software and CAD industry, I have never heard of the list of software and hardware the PWD requested. Well, there are millions of software on cyberspace so I can’t be blame for never heard about these software. (I did searches on Google just to wipe away my curiosity):
Software
- Bridge Design Software (RM2006)
RM2006 is an upgrade for RM2000 which is a 4D static and dynamic design plus analysis for steel, concrete and composite structures.
- LUSAS Bridge Software
LUSAS Bridge is a software for bridge engineers to analyze all type of bridge structures.
- Personal Interactive Graphic Layout EdiTor (PIGLET)
Called PIGLET, it is a 2D engineering drawing editor that supports hierarchical description. Going a little bit more on the programming, PIGLET is written in C language with recourse to plain Xlib functions. PIGLET is easy to understand and a good vehicle for studying 2D graphics technique because of only little X code is required to support the required functionality. (Basically I’m not so sure they refer to this product plus have no idea about what it means but it is interesting to know something new though).
- PILEPro
This above is the closest link page I can find about PILEPro. I’m not really sure what the software is for because it is written in Germany. I don’t speak or read Germany.
- WaterCAD
WaterCAD is a water distribution modeling and management. It’s main function is to design model hydraulics, operations, fire flow, critically and water quality with ease.
- SewerCAD
SewerCAD is a wastewater collection modeling and design. It is used to design, analyze and plan wastewater collection systems.
- Plaxis Professional V.8.2
Plaxis Professional is a finite element package intended for the 2D analysis of deformation and stability in geotechnical engineering.
Hardware
- ROBOTEL SmartClass Multimedia Teaching Control System
SmartClass Systems from Robotel is an exclusive solution for corporate training. For more information, visit ROBOTEL Website.
I also found all the details about the local distributor for the above product here in Malaysia. Eventually, we decided not to pursue the tender offering because we don’t have sufficient information for all the above product plus we don’t really have the required knowledge to move further.
Eitherway, it was an eye opener for us and hopefully to all of our blog readers.
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09.11.06
Posted in Facility Management at 11:49 am by Admin
Having a large business and organization without the proper software is an unproductive attempt of saving up resources. It is even a disaster if there are tones of hard copy data on maintenance, billing etc scattered all around the place. This is a reason why facility management software is constantly being developed. The development of facility management software ensures quality management and a better keeping track of all the data.
Facility management software goal is to provide custom specialized solutions for people, assets and space. This ranges from employment, payables and receivable, warehousing, site management, meetings and conferences, office locations and many more.
With the ever changing technology springing up, facility management software system is increasingly user-friendly. Personnel in charge of facilities are not required to go to extensive 6 months of training or so. This saves on labor and training costs.
Needless to say, web application these days seems to be intuitive enough and is virtually connected anywhere. Be wise in choosing your facility management software and this will ensure you to make a good investment over your facility management.
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09.04.06
Posted in Software Reviews at 3:32 pm by Admin
If you’ve visited to this blog before or even now, you’ll noticed that there are advertisements about free CMMS softwares and other stuff about facility management. We recently took a peek of one of them. We are really happy to know that it has been developed by a local Malaysian company. The name of the software is CWorks. Of course we are not as big as them as they are quite well established and they have a list of reputable clients. Maybe we could try and work with them some way in the future.
CMMS stands for Computerized Maintenance Management Software. Basically it is a software used to aid the process of maintenance for a building or organizations. So, instead of having it all on paper, you can now use a piece of software to process all the required work. Taking a typewriter as an example, a typewriter is noisy, time consuming and it cannot be corrected once you make a mistake. Nowadays, people use computers to type, store, print and retrieve any information in a click of a mouse. That saves up valuable precious time in today’s hectic schedule.
Taking it up another level, a popular way to collate data is by using spreadsheets. Here’s some issues concerning using spreadsheets:
- It’s easy to use (advantage)
- Easy to manipulate and configure at the beginning (advantage)
- Hard to search when the data is really big (disadvantage)
- Large amount of data can be corrupted easily when duplications occur (disadvantage)
So, how do you overcome the disadvantage concerning large amount of data? You need to build a database. What kind of database you may ask. For a start, you can use this piece of software:
CWorks CMMS uses Microsoft Access database in the background. Microsoft Access is a basic database management software sufficient to handle large data in a small scale.
CWorks CMMS simplifies maintenance work by putting all the data in organized database and retrieves the data in a click of a mouse. Best of all, you can try it for free first before you even buy it. The only software you need before downloading this software is Microsoft Access (the latest 2003 version is recommended).
You can also check out their product comparison page to see what other features they have. With so many features, the only missing thing for you to do is to build up the real usable database. Now that involves a lot of man hours and requires excrutiating process of data collection and collating mainly for facility managers. That is another subject to cover which involves Project Management but for now, we should start somewhere. This software is excellent for small scale or even expanding to big organizations who needs a simple ready to use software to manage their maintenance process but lack in numbers of personnel. For bigger needs, there is always other solutions (we recommend ARCHIBUS/FM) which we will discuss later on.
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