So... this turned out to be more of a rant than I expected... sorry.
I check a lot of submittals. Most submittals are rebar shop drawings, concrete mix designs, that kind of thing. Sometimes I get submittals for cold formed steel curtain walls designed by others and things like that, and they have calculations attached. More often than not the calculations are very vague, employ some type of software printout that is completely foreign to me, and any hand calcs are not accompanied by formulas or units. In my designs I have to do all of my calculations by hand. Software can assist me in choosing the best shape, but I cannot turn that in for a design. Maybe I'm jealous?
When I was in school (less than a year ago) there were some very basic principles that needed to be followed, such as: No units? No credit. If we were allowed to use something like the AISC Steel Manual and we used formulas from it, No reference? No credit. My professors always told me “if I can't look and see what you did it’s useless. People in the industry won't stand for incomplete calculations.”
Getting to the point, I have reviewed so many calcs that have only solutions with no work, some work but no labels or units, or (my favorite) "[beam, column, footing, ect.] OK by inspection." Is it wrong for me to see this phenomenon as any of several things: sloppy, lazy, unprofessional, and/or arrogant? I think it’s great that some people are so good at what they do they don't actually need to verify their design with numbers. Wonderful. In all honesty, I AM jealous, but I'm expected to approve this? How can I possibly check and approve anything when there isn't actually anything worth something to look at? Most often from my supervisors I get "I'm sure they know what they're doing, they've been working there forever, it looks OK." OK, let’s assume they have the competency to do that kind of thing, but are we to assume that they didn't make a mistake? Isn't that what checking is all about? How do you check off on "OK by inspection?"
Structural Review Comments: Pretty pictures, straight lines, good handwriting. Calcs? Eh… ya sure, he/she is probably right.
I understand that some calcs are very basic but is it too much effort to write out a formula? Use units? Labels? Give actual insight into design methodology? Isn’t this Engineering 101?
Is this common or am I being overly sensitive?
I check a lot of submittals. Most submittals are rebar shop drawings, concrete mix designs, that kind of thing. Sometimes I get submittals for cold formed steel curtain walls designed by others and things like that, and they have calculations attached. More often than not the calculations are very vague, employ some type of software printout that is completely foreign to me, and any hand calcs are not accompanied by formulas or units. In my designs I have to do all of my calculations by hand. Software can assist me in choosing the best shape, but I cannot turn that in for a design. Maybe I'm jealous?
When I was in school (less than a year ago) there were some very basic principles that needed to be followed, such as: No units? No credit. If we were allowed to use something like the AISC Steel Manual and we used formulas from it, No reference? No credit. My professors always told me “if I can't look and see what you did it’s useless. People in the industry won't stand for incomplete calculations.”
Getting to the point, I have reviewed so many calcs that have only solutions with no work, some work but no labels or units, or (my favorite) "[beam, column, footing, ect.] OK by inspection." Is it wrong for me to see this phenomenon as any of several things: sloppy, lazy, unprofessional, and/or arrogant? I think it’s great that some people are so good at what they do they don't actually need to verify their design with numbers. Wonderful. In all honesty, I AM jealous, but I'm expected to approve this? How can I possibly check and approve anything when there isn't actually anything worth something to look at? Most often from my supervisors I get "I'm sure they know what they're doing, they've been working there forever, it looks OK." OK, let’s assume they have the competency to do that kind of thing, but are we to assume that they didn't make a mistake? Isn't that what checking is all about? How do you check off on "OK by inspection?"
Structural Review Comments: Pretty pictures, straight lines, good handwriting. Calcs? Eh… ya sure, he/she is probably right.
I understand that some calcs are very basic but is it too much effort to write out a formula? Use units? Labels? Give actual insight into design methodology? Isn’t this Engineering 101?
Is this common or am I being overly sensitive?