Assignment 4 Grades and Comments

Hi Everyone,

      The grades for the Structural Selection Assignment are posted now for your viewing.  This assignment had the highest average in the class so far, and reflects good performance from the class as a whole.  The most common mistake was leaving out numeric parameters when describing the systems.  I also think that it is important to note some discrepancies between the decision results and what are actually used in practice.  It is important to realize that these methods are not absolute, and, in practice, the system is usually verified by an experienced PE.  While chosen systems were, in some cases, slight deviations from what would be ideal systems for your building type, you all were mostly on the right track, and none of the systems you chose would be inappropriate.

     Even though the grades were very high, if you decide to get a few points back and want to resubmit for 2/3 of the points back, you will have until next Wednesday, November 2nd at midnight to email them to me at amm543@drexel.edu.  As always, if you all have any questions at all, please feel free to reach out to me!

Have a good week,

~Arthur

Assignment 3 Grades and Comments

Hey Everyone!

      I have finished grading your Structural Variety Assignments, and, at this point in the term, it looks like you guys have all gotten the hang of these submissions.  All errors were minor, and didn't warrant that many points taken off.  One of the most notable errors, however, was that we were looking for a description or diagram of the load paths for both horizontal and vertical loading.  When considering structural analysis and design, the most important loads are not necessarily the dead and live load, which is what a lot of you were saying in your submissions.  Instead it is the combined effect of seismic/wind loading and gravity loads (Dead + Live).  I recommend reading all of the submissions if you have time throughout the next few days.  It will help you with A4, and prepare you further for AE391, where you will actually have to design one of these systems.

     If you want to resubmit your assignment, please email me directly with the link to your updated site, outlining exactly what you have changed.  This will get you 2/3 of the points back.  Re-submissions are due next Tuesday, October 25th at Midnight.  Please send your submissions to amm543@drexel.edu.

     As always, if you have a question about a grade, please feel free to ask!  Have a good week guys!

~Arthur

Update to A2

Hi All,

It was brought to my attention that, while the grades for A2 were posted last Friday, they were not view-able by students until yesterday, 10/12.  That was totally my fault!  In light of this, the date for re-submission has been moved to Wednesday October 19th at Midnight to my indox: amm543@drexel.edu.

Have a Good Day!
~Arthur

Hi Everyone!

I hope your first few weeks have been going well!  I have graded all of your Initial Building Analyses and, for the most part, you guys all did really well.  By now, most of you have gotten the hang of catering your website to the rubric, and a lot of you received at least 80% of the points for all your sections.  Still, I do have some comments on where you guys can improve a little.  The first is references.  Please make sure you cite all of your references on a works cited page.  You are publishing your research on the internet, where it is available for most of the world, and it is unacceptable to use other peoples' work without given them what was due.  As it relates to the assignment, a lot of you had buildings that were difficult to find information on, which is fine.  One of the points of the Sketchup Model is so that you can use it to get missing information (or at least estimate it).  If there was a section diagram missing from your research, you should have taken a section through the Sketchup Model.  Additionally, I would like to make a comment on "systems,"  This class is meant to teach you about major structural and HVAC systems, so I don't expect you all to be experts, but when the rubric asks you to mention specific systems, you need to invoke the exact Structural System (i.e. moment frames, diagrid, bearing walls, etc.) or the exact HVAC system (VAV, CAV).  Reinforced concrete or flexural steel is NOT a structural system.  You all will learn this as the term progresses but I would be remiss if I didn't bring it to your attention.

If you decide to resubmit your assignment, please email me directly at amm543@drexel.edu, describing exactly what you have changed.  You have one week from today, so resubmissions are due next Friday, October 14th at midnight.

Hope you all have a great first week of midterms :)  Good Luck!

~Arthur

Programs to use for making drawings

Question

I am working on the HVAC section of the building for my project and was wondering which program we could use to draw the diagrams because one of the links you provided are dead and the other has a questionable download that I'd rather not try.  Could I use Auto CAD for this section? Thank you.

Response:

We don't care what program you use.  I used Google Draw in class.  Autocad is fine, though a program with variable line widths usually "reads" better.

Here's a fine resource for many free programs.  For diagrams I'm particularly impressed with draw.io.