Second the suggestion of Portmeirion. It’s a wonderful place to stay & there is nothing like waking up in the village and heading down to the Hotel for your breakfast.

Website

I’d be amending (house type working drawings for a national house builder) other peoples drawings, rather than drawing from scratch.

actually scratch the bit about revit LT.
While both versions of revit use the file extension .rvt, full revit files can’t be opened by LT, but LT files can be opened by full revit.

If you want to continue to have revit & AutoCAD, then the AEC collection will make sense. As you get revit and AutoCAD for now much more than revit costs on its own

If you will be working on files sent to you then sending them back, then you need to make sure you use the same version of revit as they were created in. Revit files are not backwards compatible through the annual versions. So if you buy Revit 2021 now, and you are sent a revit 2020 file (or earlier), when you open it, revit will “update” the model to r21, but you won’t be able to save it back to an earlier version of revit like you can with AutoCAD.
Since revit 2019, it says the year version of the file your wanting to open in the “open file” dialog. (why it took nearly 20 years for that function to come in is anyone’s guess, still.. It took 15 years before there was a warning before a model was upgraded, and the addition of a cancel button was the year before)

I wondered the same, the gov. BIM mandate is still a thing, it’s not gone away just transitioned from BS1192 to ISO19650.

As for learning revit, I do a 4 day revit fundamentals course When we have new starters that haven’t used revit before. Best way is to take your car drawings and repeat the work in revit.

Also, I guess it depends how you use autocad: I switched in 2009/2010. at the time autocad had introduced the ribbon, but I always loaded in my own toolbar layout round the sides. Whereas revit introduced the ribbon around the same time so was weird for me to have to hunt through different tabs to find my commands. Where as the uni students who are used to the AutoCAD ribbon find it easier to transition.

Pretty much everything you’ll need to make a house will be on the architecture tab… Then all your modify tools in the modify tab. All the other tabs you won’t need to bother with much (Cept for creating sheets via the view tab)

Revit requires you to do more work upfront… Before you can start rattling sheets off, but once you have the building model then making the views is dead easy.

Like if you’re doing a house extension, it’ll make your life easier later if you first model the existing building in the existing phase first then add the extension on the proposed phase

That’s one thing to remember: in revit, do everything in the one place. Don’t do as one person did: model the existing house in one place then copy it across 200m and go the proposed works to the copy version

If it’s just going to be you working on a model, and your never going to be 2 or more working on one model at the same time there is The much cheaper Revit LT version

On the autodesk university site there is several AutoCAD to revit sessions that’ll get you started, as well as on LinkedIn learning.

Au.autodesk.com

BUT all the above suffer from gridlocked M66 into Manchester at peak times.

After many years of driving into manchester, i switched to using the x43 last summer. Was much better once the bus station opened and you didnt have to stand in the rain on bank street.

morning and evening there is a express service that goes via blackley and shudhill. The 7:25 express gets me into manchester for 8:15/8:30 then theres the same around 4:45/5:15 to get back.
Monthly ticket is £120 ish which is about half what it used to cost in petrol and parking in Manc.

Roller derby got me into skating about 10 years ago, till i found skating waaaay more enjoyable than the standing around waiting to be hit that Derby became (plus, Derbydrama! ugh!). The Missus is another old Empire Skate stalwart. Her Bauer Turbos came out when she started derby, but soon had the be upgraded.

Try to get to Wigan for adult night and at Bury as much as we can

I don’t expect one from my MP, Jake Berry – Rossendale with Darwen.

He buggered off to his holiday home on Anglesey just before lock down and has hidden there since.

Blues Pills

Have also stayed at Gat Point Charlie – about 6/7 years ago. And like Bolt says – nice rooms, good location (located about 2mins walk from the former Check Point Charlie (as you might guess from the name)

We also enjoyed the cocktail happy hour 🙂

Located close to the station for the U2 and U6 lines. The Visit Berlin tourist card that you can buy gets you unlimited travel on the U-bahn, S-Bahn, Buses and Trams plus entry/discounted entry to museums and discounts at restaurants. found we basically recovered the cost of the 3 day pass while we were there.

Visit to the roof of the Reichstag is free, but if you pre-book your time slot now you can bypass the queues on the day (if you want to wait till your there, then you have to queue at the visitor centre to get your passport checked and get a timeslot for later that day (at min at least 2hrs later but upto 2 days later, so prebooking is a lot easier)

Recent gigs end of last year have been Evil Scarecrow, Battle Beast, Steve Harris’ British Lion.

coming up
Going to see a friend play locally on Sunday

have Delain in Feb. Was hoping to also see Sabaton, but with already having tickets to Delain in Manchester on Friday, it was pushing it to get down to London to see Sabaton the next night.

Week after Delain, off to Wacken Winter Nights. Went last year and it was brilliant fun, so booked again this year. Winter Nights Lineup

later on the rescheduled Saxon 40th Anniversary show

June – Off to RockFest in Tampere

Then summer – Wacken Open Air (7th time, 4th in a row)

Also this summer, helping organise a music fest of local musicians in the village park

Using to learn German. Currently on a 265 day streak.

Creep

I’ve got at Kirby jumbo from officefurnitureonline.com
linky

Starts at 94 quid. Price just depends on what you want… Arms or not, how much adjustment, fancy Chrome base or simple black base

Had one I used at the office for 3 years, and then took home when I changed job 3 years ago. Bought a new one earlier this year for the new office.

At least we still have Alan Rickman.

erm….

**** that, note the tape deck!

It’s a Pre 05 SAAB… Tape deck and CD player unit – made it much easier to have your phone hooked up to the stereo via bluetooth with a aux cassette than the cars fitted with SatNav and a 6 CD changer in the boot. They were a pain to get an aux input

Least the Dame Edna Saabs have an aux 3.5mm jack

If anyone is at Silverstone, am at post 1. This year is my 10th GP as a flag marshal, only this year I have nowt to do as the blue flags have been automated.

i believe it runs something like these classes.

So the overall win went to a GT3 class car, while the Aston Martin Racing entry with Alex Brundle and Jamie Chadwick which won their “SP8T” class meaning they were in a category of race cars with engines upto 4ltr (with turbo)
Considering they had a gearbox issue at the start and ended up having to catch up their starting group and i think started 134th they finished 28th overall.

jeeez compare this to the LE MANS WEC last week……….. no contest – lets see a the WEC race every weekend

You should have watched the nurburg 24hr which ended about 15mins after the f1 started.
even better than Le Mans was.

154 cars started and it runs on the fulls circuit comprising the GP circuit and the north loop.

vid

Yeah I was wondering if the OP was talking about Rawtenstall.

Usually you can get new lenses with your new prescription as they can use the old lenses as a template.

I had a problem once when my glasses got smashed at a concert so there was no lens to get the pattern.

Thankfully I still had the plastic blanks in the glasses case so sent them and got the glasses repaired

but not great for 1:1 detailing

this i don’t get.

Model well & your detail is 80% done when you create the section and call outs. then can be embellished with some 2D line work, text and tags

https://www.autodesk.com/autodesk-university/class/Attention-Detail-Creating-Construction-Details-Revit-2015#handout

https://www.autodesk.com/autodesk-university/class/Modeling-Construction-Documents-Creating-Construction-Details-Revit-2016#handout

https://www.autodesk.com/autodesk-university/class/Creating-Intelligent-Details-Revit-2017#handout

Just a link to some of paul’s training material

I’d been a AutoCAD user for about 10 years when I started learning revit in 2008/2009. And just taking what I was doing in AutoCAD and trying to replicate it in revit.

Once I moved to a practice that had already made the switch and I was using revit every day (2013ish) it quickly became second nature on usage.

There is commonality between aCad and revit. And there are also vast process changes that you need to get your head around.

I haven’t used AutoCAD since 2015 beyond opening some survey drawings to check the scale and it’s amazing how much I’ve forgotten about how to use it.)

If you look at autodesk university there are several talks on switching from CAD to revit.

Some really good books: particularly recommend ones by Paul Aubin as he is very good at explaining the program.

These days my job involves a lot revit training in my practice. We have a new starter training session which lasts 4 full days which gets folks going if they have never used revit before.

Heres a quick table of the country of origin of signatures

Country Sigs
United Kingdom 964,799
France 8,333
Spain 4,621
Germany 3,691
United States 2,842
Australia 2,482
Netherlands 1,691
Ireland 1,379
Gibraltar 1,149
Canada 1,132
Belgium 1,000
Switzerland 960
Italy 937
Sweden 925
New Zealand 884
Denmark 570
Austria 509
Portugal 472
Hong Kong 467
Norway 382
Greece 362
Singapore 318
Luxembourg 308
Finland 288
United Arab Emirates 280
Japan 264
Czechia 249
Isle of Man 199
Jersey 187
Poland 182
Malta 176
Thailand 174
Cyprus 168
South Africa 167
Guernsey 162
Hungary 99
Russia 20

Seems the fight4brexit tweet is plainly talking codswallop

and they are dragging it on and on for the bloke who hasnt won anything

cant tell you from personal experience – as the only time i’ve spectated at Silverstone was for the free Renault day that used to happen – spent a bit of time in the stands down at Stowe.

Have been, as a marshal, for the last 9 years.  Sometimes we get given a grandstand ticket for our guest, but not every year.
My wife comes with me: she’s been in the stand at Farm Curve twice, once at Vale… but her fave was getting a stand seat in Becketts.  Its a great section of track – very VERY quick through from Maggots, Becketts and out of Chapel onto hanger straight.  Often lots of “action” in the GP3 and F2 races… and the porsches sort of vaugely follow the track through there. Plus you can also see them heading through Farm, into the loop and onto wellington straight

There are good general admission viewing spots by Becketts, outside and inside of Copse where you can see a Big screen TV.
There is a large GA area between Stowe exit and Vale too. But that fills up quite rapidly as it’s near the main gate.

If you get a grandstand ticket for sunday, then you can go into any of the stands on Friday and Saturday (Thursday i’m not sure about. The last couple of years due to the addition of the two seater F1 car running, they extended the weekend to inc Thursday and had GP3 practice on Thursday afternoon after the Safety Car / Medical Car / Systems Test – but i dont know if all the stands were open on Thurs as there are so few people in the circuit.)

Traffic wise – plan to allow plenty of time.  Traffic does flow fairly well.  Friday and Sat you dont need to be there for gates open. First action on Friday is really first F1 practice at 10am normally.
If in General on Sunday – scope out where you want to watch earlier in the weekend.. then get there early.  Gates open, i think, at 6am. and I’ll be walking past a decent queue when i’m heading through for my post at 5:30am

Commentary at the circuit is good. I normally have a little radio on me that i’ll listen to the commentary on during the day under my circuit radio.  Broadcasts on 87.7FM.  They commentary teams based at 3 positions around the track: Pits straight, the loop/becketts and down at Stowe.

Food wise – it’s expensive.  We get 2x £5 food vouchers per day expenses: sausage and chips is about £7 to £8.  A Cheese burger (without chips can be £5-6)

In terms of what to buy – if it’s a one off: go camping, get a weekend ticket. and enjoy yourself. Thursday/Friday is just practice and maybe a qualifying session. a bit dull really, so i wouldnt travel all the way to silverstone *just* to watch on friday as you’d prob come away very disappointed – but it is the cheapest single day ticket option.

stands wise: if your down at Club – you may be able to get over the track after the race to see the podium from against the barrier of the pit lane (i was at Vale In, Pit Entry this year – i was able to cycle down the pit entry, and get in to a safe area 😉  before the crowds where released onto the track: the drivers were just coming onto the podium at that point.)  if your at Vale or up pit straight then you;d prob have to miss the end of the race to get round to the gate in time.

Oh and the after race shows are worth hanging round for – pass the time for hte traffic to die down.  but in reality – stay over night sunday and get away early on monday.

there are a few former guard towers left around Berlin, a couple of them are the larger “command” towers. i know one is a little museum/memorial to those that died at the wall now on Keiler Strasser, the other is within the memorial park on Bernauer Strasse.

But hidden down a side street near Potsdam Platz is a DDR Watch tower, a group of volunteers look after the tower: for a small donation, you can climb the ladders up the tower.  Depending on how you think your kids are, it might be worth seeking out. the access up the tower is cold war military (small concrete tube, have to cross on a narrow platform from one ladder to the other to get to the top.)  The Volunteers are happy to chat about the history of the area and how things where when they squatted in the tower after the opening of the border.
https://berlinwallexpo.de/en/

A trip up to the roof of the Reichstag may be interesting: but prebook before you go, as you need to register certain details, due to it being the parliament building and you’ll get to pick your visiting time, and avoid the long queues for visiting on the day.  There are audio guides in English

The Technology Museum is massive, like the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry: we only got chance to go around the electronics section and the air section

<b>Tommy</b>: it’s quality time in the great outdoors,

<b>Sick Boy</b>: Look, Tommy. We know you’re gettin’ a hard time off Lizzy, but there’s really no need to take it out on <i>us</i>.
<b>Tommy</b>: Doesn’t it make you proud to be Scottish?
<b>Renton</b>: It’s ***** being Scottish! We’re the lowest of the low! The scum of the ****in’ Earth! The most wretched, miserable, servile, pathetic trash that was ever **** into civilization! Some people hate the English. I don’t. They’re just ********. We, on the other hand, are <i>colonized</i> by *******. Can’t even find a decent culture to be colonized <i>by</i>! We’re ruled by effete ***holes! It’s a **** state of affairs to be in, Tommy, and all the fresh air in the world won’t make any ****in’ difference!

F1 have posted a short video of the German GP from the TV Director’s perspective.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCHggit6eGQ&app=desktop

Just give him the tenner….

well, that might nearly get him an ice cream.

Feuerschwanz – Methämmer – released last friday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-A5clw2N3E

and powerwolf:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkCQg9M1ObQ

The steam trams of Rossendale:

https://peterfisher.smugmug.com/History/Rawtenstall-Corportation/i-78XCdTM/A

most recent, but its a bit longer now by another inch or 2

got a board earlier this year after my missus started going to the girls only session at Manchester Projekts and enjoyed borrowing her board when we went to the local skatepark…

then projekts started doing “adults only” nights (16+!) end of the night, of the first session, when to go down a slope i’d done several times that evening – only this time went over the nose and dislocated my shoulder.

ho hum. back to the bike

very partial to Dark Side of the Moose and portmeirion’s Beer No. 6

deffo not a fan of Portmeirion’s Architects Ale – far too hoppy.  couldnt finish the bottle.  Like drinking a pint of Brewdog IPA. Horrid

As someone else said, you can defer it (once) – tho you need a reason. In my case i had a holiday booked during the second week of the assigned dates.

When i did it later that year, the court was good at keeping you just long enough that you would get the day rate (ie they would say go for lunch and about 10 mins after the lunch hour they’d tell you to go home… the Jury Officer knew it was unrealistic for most people to return to work for the afternoon.)  Plus because of cases – from the wednesday there wasnt going to be another case starting so they said no need to return thurs/friday.  Went back on monday, wasnt picked for the case that started that day and was told i didnt need to come back, as there was enough people from that week group of jurors start to be able supply the courts.  So in the end, i missed work 2x Monday, half of Tuesday and Wednesday (the case that started that Tuesday, a problem in the court room where the case was due to be help meant the case was delayed so we turned up and were sent straight home)

Blaze Bayley, always willing to spend as much time talking to people who come to his shows as he can

Charlotte Wessels, Delain. met a couple of times – once was at a gig before the show to do an interview with one of the others guys in the band – after that an i was hanging round waiting for the interview slot with another band on the bill she sat down at my table for a natter for 5 mins til she was called away for some set up.

Joaquim – sabaton – always found him really friendly

if it’s just 2 of you, mid week – it shouldn’t be a problem getting space at a table – just ask politely if there is space at a table of the people sitting there.
When i’ve looked – most tent owners are only interested in taking reservations for a whole table (and a reservation is apparently a table and a pre-booking of being served 2 beers and a chicken per person. and tables generally hold 6-10 people)

section 16,17 and 28 of this guide may help:
http://www.oktoberfest-insider.com/oktoberfest-faq.htm

have had 9-5s since 2007 – so what i can say is… they are getting frickin hard to get hold of these days. currently running a 2003 aero saloon and a 2008 2.0t saloon. previously have had a 2.0t estate, and 2 aero estates

they are incredible cars. the estates just swallow loads, the aero has excellent power delivery. seats are the best.
They have their querks, and a good Saab specialist is a god send as Saab like to do things their way.

on the pre-dame ednas rust is starting to become an issue around the rear – lost one estate to rust, and our current 2003 has just failed it MOT on a rust hole on the rear wheel arch.  our saab indy never used to see any saabs with rust issues, but as people are keeping the older 9-5s on the road the rust is starting to appear – but as a lot of these cars are own by enthusiasts for the brand they are getting the rust sorted.

For the places near the arndale from the metro – your best looking north manchester, as you can then use the Bury line or the Rochdale line and get off at Exchange Sq. Shudehill/Market Street (all stops around the Arndale)

I used to commute via Prestwich to Market Street – would normally take 20mins to 30mins once on a tram (depends how many people are trying to crush on the tram)

a pretty much full GT fuel tank… (and upside down so the marshal’s couldnt get to the cut off switches)

took, if i remember correctly 15x 15kg powder bottles to knock the flames down, and a good 15-20x foam bottles to keep it out

And, its only now, nearly 9 years later is the grass starting to grow over the patch of ground the car landed on.