Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet

Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals

Search results for query: *

  1. brandonbw

    Professional Insurance . . . Getting started

    I would call around on insurance and get some quotes. It probably won't be very much at the beginning as you won't have any or much work to go by. Another thing is if you have a car. I would also check your car insurance if you want to turn it into a business car. Car insurance could bring some...
  2. brandonbw

    Quality Of New Hires and Recent Grads

    For engineering it seems like the easy part would be learning how to draft. And I don't think drafting is an easy thing either. I don't remember meeting any graduated engineers that could draft well and they all did fine. Same as the design process. What I learned in school gave me the ability...
  3. brandonbw

    Enterpreneurship or Job

    If you have any plan to fail, you aren't ready. I think its important to go all in, unless you can run it on the side until the time is right to go full time. But it will never be right until you are all in. Its a ton of hard work to get started. B+W Engineering and Design | Los Angeles Civil...
  4. brandonbw

    Rollercoaster 3D geometry

    themeparkreview forums are another place to check out. Many years ago while I was looking for something new to do I applied at every coaster company I could find. Never heard back, but it was still fun to look. NoLimits or NL2 are some other software to check out. Not sure what the actual...
  5. brandonbw

    Start my own company vs. trudge through the mud

    From early on I wanted my own company. It was easy working for someone else, but didn't always agree with everything going on. I was let go from a job, which told me one thing and did something completely different. Thought that was a good time to give this a go. Starting mentioning to anyone I...
  6. brandonbw

    Engineering Ethics classes, courses, seminars, etc.

    An engineering ethics class can be taught by anyone? You can get a degree online, but they don't want continuing education to be done online? This world is starting to play tricks on my mind. B+W Engineering and Design | Los Angeles Civil Engineer and Structural Engineer http://civilengineer.la
  7. brandonbw

    Self-employed contract design

    Taxes and benefits would be different. You probably need to ask what the consultant position would be doing and see it in writing. Will you be covered under their insurance if your design fails, or do you need to get your own insurance? If you are moonlighting, that could be a grey area for...
  8. brandonbw

    Professional Experience Letter

    I would keep the past work history off of your brochures. I do tell the potential client that I helped design the Death Star at my previous job. It took us a few years to really get our foot in the door. For a while I was emailing companies just to let them know we were here, I found them...
  9. brandonbw

    Called Loan

    I read that China is coming for the money from people who left the country or were washing the money into Canada. I wonder how that affects things. We are getting started on 2 more apartment buildings right off of Sunset in Hollywood. Just as one project has about 4 months left to build, their...
  10. brandonbw

    Called Loan

    We have had a few projects stall from the newer developers. Some of the long time developers are purposely stalling as they build multiple sites, looks like they are trying to stagger the sites so the crew can go from one job to the next with no down time. Construction loans still sound harder...
  11. brandonbw

    Earthwork 3d Cad Import Scaling Help

    Just about all of the siteplans we get are in "inches". And if I can't get the original survey, that sometimes has been changed into "inches" as well. B+W Engineering and Design | Los Angeles Civil Engineer and Structural Engineer http://civilengineer.la
  12. brandonbw

    Stormwater regulations vs a rural property

    Over here in Los Angeles, the City of LA has handouts for small scale residential. The size of the rain garden would be based on square footage of the roof/impervious areas. Raised planter boxes, drywell, and rain barrels are some alternatives. I would take a trip down to the local agency and...
  13. brandonbw

    Earthwork 3d Cad Import Scaling Help

    Check using the "units" command in the original CAD files. Normally siteplan is in inches, survey is in feet. B+W Engineering and Design | Los Angeles Civil Engineer and Structural Engineer http://civilengineer.la
  14. brandonbw

    Drainage Problem

    Can you take a picture straight up showing the above roofline? Why is the french drain the contractors go to fix for all drainage problems?? B+W Engineering and Design | Los Angeles Civil Engineer and Structural Engineer http://civilengineer.la
  15. brandonbw

    Accessible Ramps - 2% Slope In Any Direction

    OP was talking about landings. I hope we know the different rules for ramps. B+W Engineering and Design | Los Angeles Civil Engineer and Structural Engineer http://bwengr.com
  16. brandonbw

    When to Hire (small structural firm)

    We brought our first structural on as a contractor. They take a percentage of the project. This person has their own business, but we seem to get more work than a lot of other newer companies so it works out for everyone. Our next hurdle is finding a street designer, yet we don't always have...
  17. brandonbw

    Do you Hate Marketing Firms?

    Getting our name out there to the people that matter. My first business partner had all these fancy pamphlets to hand out, but no work. When we partnered together suddenly work came in because I was doing whatever networking I could think of. Here's a simple example that would impress me if I...
  18. brandonbw

    Accessible Ramps - 2% Slope In Any Direction

    I keep anything ADA at 2% and under in all directions. The story when I first started working about ripping out an entire parking lot because the ADA crew comes to check new construction at random made me never forget. Sue happy people out here. The thing I can't stand is redoing a crosswalk...
  19. brandonbw

    Project / Design Budgeting and Tracking

    One place kept track in what looked like a law firm would use to track project budgets. That was also the company timesheet system. You billed by project number, and task by .5 hour increments. Everyone would spend 30 minutes to an hour filling this thing out once a week. Dotproject is something...
  20. brandonbw

    Need some tips

    A project manager in an office needs to understand the software somewhat so they can realistically manage other people using that software. The idea of wearing more hats would help significantly. All the good project managers I worked with could design like it was the back of their hand, but...
Back
Top