Steel Detailing | Precast Detailing | Estimation

Author: admin

  • How can I earn more? (Memo 29)

    • How can I earn more?
    • How can I get a higher wage?

    Legitimate questions.

    In order to answer those questions, consider:

    • Where is the money coming from?
    • Why is the money being paid?

    Where is the money coming from?

    • Nobody has a pot of gold.
    • For all businesses, the money comes from clients. It is the client who is paying you, not me. The client pays you, not the shareholder.

    Why is the money being paid?

    • You are being paid because the client needs help.
    • Your job is to guide the client to his destination. This means looking after and caring for your client.
    • Clients are risking million dollars (in some cases) on their projects. You need to help the client so that they don’t lose their money, business and reputation.
    • This means if you want to get paid well and get repeat business: focus on doing a great job for your client.
    • If you do a mediocre job, barely good enough – then this will not impress the client. How then are you going to ask the client for a pay rise?

    How can I get a higher wage?

    If you want more, the only way to do this is to give more. The question you should be asking is: how can I give my client more?

    (a) Outstanding Service

    • First provide an outstanding service to your client. If you do this, you’ll get more clients and more work. If you don’t do this, then you’ll lose clients, and you’ll have less work. Keep doing mediocre work and you’ll soon have zero clients, and no work.
    • Do the simple things well. I do not want to keep reminding you to:
    1. update your status,
    2. inform the client when you are unavailable (perhaps a cultural celebration, or an event, or a wedding etc),
    3. or to post links to drawings in the private details of your statuses.
    4. don’t promise things you cannot deliver.
    • Once you have many clients, then we can choose our clients carefully, and choose the rates.

    (b) Innovate

    • Anything you can suggest which will make us cheaper / faster / better will be highly regarded.
    • Innovate: This is the best way to get higher wages. Because if you provide something that the client finds valuable, that they cannot easily get elsewhere, they will pay for it. Small things are fine. Here are a few examples of innovation.
      • All of you have Teams accounts so you can better communicate.
      • We are now providing Live Links on all projects.
      • We provide statuses. We have private_details on all statuses.
      • All of you now have phones. Use them! Turn them on. Be a professional. Call clients on delivery of drawings.
      • We have multi-tenancy on the quote app. (Ram suggested it a long time ago).
      • Big one: we have EBs and approval process.
      • Big one: We have bonuses for winning and retaining clients (i.e. client reviews).
      • Barath made tutorial videos – this reduces our cost of training.

    Proof of Tek1’s commitment to your remuneration:

    1. EB. We have proven that if you give clients something valuable to them – they will pay you for it. You have seen this with our EB system.The innovation here is simple: give clients compelling documentation.
    2. Bonuses. For winning and retaining clients. For high quality work.
    3. Higher wages. Retaining a stable of premium clients allows us to pay you higher.

    Higher wages takes time. If you focus on client outcomes, and innovate (or at least, help me innovate) then you will be able to get persistent differential returns. However, if you don’t focus on client outcomes, then it will be difficult for you to earn differential returns anywhere – whether inside or outside Tek1.

  • Why builders and fabricators should care about the legitimacy of supplier services?

    Dealing in Fenced Goods and Services

    It’s not uncommon for those receiving fabrication drawings to overlook the legitimacy of the products used by service providers. There seems to be a prevailing mindset of indifference, with the attitude being, “As long as the drawings are correct, I’m fine—I’m legally protected, and proving involvement with stolen goods is too challenging.”

    Similarly, many fabricators and builders consciously avoid probing into the legitimacy of the software used for services. The fear of inadvertently becoming complicit in any wrongdoing deters them from asking uncomfortable questions. However, this approach presents a couple of significant issues.

    1. It sets a concerning tone within your own business. If engaging in any form of dealing with stolen goods becomes an accepted part of your company philosophy, you inadvertently create an environment where “dealing in stolen goods is acceptable as long as we avoid problems.” This not only makes your business susceptible but also ingrains a risky culture among your staff.
    2. Secondly, this approach poses a broader threat to society. By turning a blind eye to the legitimacy of goods and services, you inadvertently contribute to a scenario where bad actors replace good ones.

    The moral compass guiding what can be stolen and how far one can go becomes unsettlingly subjective, lacking the high ethical standards needed to foster a thriving and reputable industry.

    It’s crucial for businesses to reassess their practices, placing a premium on integrity and ethical conduct to ensure the industry maintains its standards and safeguards against potential harm.

  • The fallacy of insurance in the building and construction industry – (Staff Memo)

    Clients often ask me: “do you have professional indemnity insurance” (PI Insurance)? The short answer is “yes” we do. It isn’t cheap: we pay over $20,000 per year in premiums – last year was about $27,000. But the long answer is, while we do have insurance: you cannot rely on it.

    Here’s why:

    • Insurance companies are not in the business of paying out. Their business model consists of collecting premiums (up front), re-investing those premiums, earning a return on the “float” as well as profiting from any claims that are not paid out. In order to minimise their costs, they are incentivised to fight claims.
    • The procedural / documentation issues: in getting a pay-out is very high – it is almost impossible for anyone to meet these requirements. If a claimant cannot access the insurer’s honey-pot, then you’re stuck without a paddle.
    • Subrogation: You’ll have to claim from me, I will be required to notify the insurance company, and then they will grab the steering wheel off me and takeover – i.e. “subrogation” occurs. Since the insurance company is the one who will be paying out, they must necessarily do this to safeguard their interests.
    • The costs of pursuing a claim are very high.
    • If there is a successful payout – such firms will be black-listed in the insurance market, they won’t be able to get insurance, consequently they may have to go out of business. The mere existence of a firm, lasting 15 years, is indicative of their quality.
    • At Tek1, we limit our liability.
    • Building and construction is usually collaborative endeavour. If a project goes wrong, everyone gets dragged into the fray. Most firms cannot afford to pay for the costs and mistakes of third parties.

    In summary, while we have insurance, both you and me cannot rely on it.

    The best protection is prevention: mitigate risk, and take care, and ensure all parties are equally vested to achieve the desired outcome.

  • You Need to Win Jobs at a Margin (Commercial Tips)

    There is no point being “a busy fool”. If you’re winning jobs at a loss, or at really unattractive margins – things are probably not going to go well for you.

  • Collect a deposit: (Commercial Tips)

    It is critically important that you collect a deposit:

    • So that your client is on the journey with you. i.e. you are both incentivised to reach the same outcome
    • So that you can pay your suppliers (on time).
    • So that you are not held to ransom.
    • So that you can actually do the job, to the standards which you are attaching your name / reputation to.
    • So that you don’t have to BS people – so that when you say you will pay, you can actually do so.

  • How to get fast variation approvals (or denials) on your construction projects?

    How do you get fast variation approvals (or denials) on your construction projects?

    You need:

    (1) Clarity : Be clear of what change is needed.
    (2) Evidence : Evidence of client change request.
    (3) Brevity : Be brief, concise, to the point.

    Watch here for an example from a real life project (not a hypothetical) of the fantastic work done by @Ramakrishna L.

    If the approvals / denials are delayed, it is super easy to track and follow up – now that you have the records.

    Subscribe for more useful tips on Tek1’s Steel Detailing blog: https://www.tek1.com.au/category/steel-detailing/

  • How to Debug a Tekla Plugin Without Restarting Visual Studio (Tekla Open API Tutorial)

    How to Debug a Tekla Plugin Without Restarting Visual Studio (Tekla Open API Tutorial)

    To my surprise, debugging is not a trivial exercise. Please watch the video to guide you on where to click etc.

    Source code – github repository of the tekla beam plugin.

    You need to follow the instructions listed here: https://developer.tekla.com/tekla-structures/documentation/debug-plugin-without-restarting-tekla-structures with the following notes and amendments:

    1. Add “set XS_PLUGIN_DEVELOPER_MODE=true” to the teklastructures.ini file and open Tekla Structures. – Trimble Documentation

    In order to add the flag above, you need to locate the ‘teklastructures.ini’ file: on my PC: it is here: `D:\Program Files\Tekla Structures\2019.1\nt\bin` (refer to the above URL) – it might be in the C: drive on your computer.

    Post Build Events

    For more information on post build events: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/ide/how-to-specify-build-events-csharp?view=vs-2022

    As you can see they are basically .bat files. Which means you can use “MS-DOS Batch File Language” or batch commands in there. The MSFT documentation suggests you can also use PowerShell (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/overview?view=powershell-7.4) script commands.

    Here is the post build event I used:

    The Tekla documentation is confused about where to paste the DLL – in some cases they say the ‘plugins’ folder, but in others, it is the ‘extensions’ folder. Yet elsewhere, different Tekla versions have different places where you can paste it. In my case, I have focused on the “extensions” directory.

    Warning: If you paste it into multiple locations, you may find that you cannot hit break points! The above link suggests the files should be copied into the .environments/common/extensions folder. I am taking that to mean, in actuality: the `Environments/common/extensions` folder. I am not pasting it into the `plugins` folder, but have opted for the `extensions` folder.

    If you want to use the plugins folder, follow these instructions: The dll containing the plug-in has to be copied into: \<Tekla Structures installation folder>\<version>\nt\bin\plugins. A sub-folder could also be created to store the dll. In my case, the plugin files are located here: D:\Program Files\Tekla Structures\2019.1\nt\bin\plugins\TestWPFBeamPlugin

    Setting up a macro:

    Run the UI macro (Reloadplugins.cs) in the Applications & Components catalog on the side pane. We must set it up. In my system, the location is at the following:

    D:\Program Files\Tekla Structures\2019.1\Environments\common\macros

    Go there and copy the code noted in the above git gist. You can add an image if you wish to.

  • Memo 28 – Staff Moonlighting Policy

    Memo 28 – Staff Moonlighting Policy

    Moonlighting Policy

    I do not believe it is possible for someone to work for two entities at the same time:

    No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Luke 16:13 KJV

    This applies to both spiritual things and also worldly things.

    If a staffer is drawing income from another source, especially if that income is substantial, then that is a problem for me – because:

    Why should he care about this firm?

    • If he makes a mistake in the work – it’s no big deal – he doesn’t suffer a loss in income because he is drawing some from elsewhere. In fact, he will take less care.
    • He won’t bother to focus on improving his work, his efficiency at Tek1, because he is getting money elsewhere.
    • His energy is divided. It is impossible to run two marathons, with the same energy as if you ran just one.

    Using Tek1 licenses for your own private endeavours is DISHONEST, it cheats the firm, it cheats other staff.

    Entrepreneurship

    If you are capable and skilled at bringing in work – then bring in work FOR THE FIRM.

    You will be rewarded for doing so.

    But if you do things on the sly – use the firm’s resources to personal gain – then that is a policy that will not serve you well, nor will it serve the rest of the firm well. You must choose: either be hot, or cold. But lukewarm water: I will spit out.

  • How to Get Drawing Revision Numbers

    How to Get Drawing Revision Numbers

    Couldn’t do it, because it’s not exposed. This is a hack that I used to circumvent: