Discussion Thread

Building off of Salvador's question last week about civil engineering tools you use most often. Are there any tools you use often that surprises you? Maybe you are surprised how frequently you use a tool or maybe its some random, obscure tool that completely simplified your work flow and you cant live without it. I'd love to hear about it!

In my early years after college, I never imagined I would use Outlook emails as often as I do. Now I'm responding to, delegating, or simply deleting 70-100 emails per day! A more specific tool that I'm not necessarily surprised that I use but more surprised and THANKFUL that it exists is the Studio tool within Bluebeam. 13 years ago in my early days I never imagined we'd be able to create and respond to live redlines that track everything in one convenient file. I use this tool all the time now and dont think I could live without it at this point.

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Nicolai Oliden P.E., M.ASCE
Roadway Team Leader
ETHOS Engineers
Tempe AZ
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Certain versions of Microsoft Office contain a tool called Spreadsheet Compare!   It allows a user to load in 2 spreadsheets and it will compare each cell for differences in content. The tool is also smart enough to realize if two spreadsheets are similar but have additional columns or rows.  It is a wonderful tool if you are experiencing version control issues.

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Christopher Seigel P.E., M.ASCE
Civil Engineer
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-29-2021 01:28 AM
From: Nicolai Oliden
Subject: What tool are you surprised you use as often as you do?

Building off of Salvador's question last week about civil engineering tools you use most often. Are there any tools you use often that surprises you? Maybe you are surprised how frequently you use a tool or maybe its some random, obscure tool that completely simplified your work flow and you cant live without it. I'd love to hear about it!

In my early years after college, I never imagined I would use Outlook emails as often as I do. Now I'm responding to, delegating, or simply deleting 70-100 emails per day! A more specific tool that I'm not necessarily surprised that I use but more surprised and THANKFUL that it exists is the Studio tool within Bluebeam. 13 years ago in my early days I never imagined we'd be able to create and respond to live redlines that track everything in one convenient file. I use this tool all the time now and dont think I could live without it at this point.

------------------------------
Nicolai Oliden P.E., M.ASCE
Roadway Team Leader
ETHOS Engineers
Tempe AZ
------------------------------

I only discovered Spreadsheet Compare this week. Pretty neat tool to compare not-so-big files otherwise it could take forever :). On the same topic, I find myself using Excel a lot more than I expected. I was surprised by what it can do going through the reports and dashboards that my colleagues built.

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Tung Nguyen, PhD, WR Modeler
Jacobs
Sacramento, CA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 09-30-2021 12:10 PM
From: Christopher Seigel
Subject: What tool are you surprised you use as often as you do?

Certain versions of Microsoft Office contain a tool called Spreadsheet Compare!   It allows a user to load in 2 spreadsheets and it will compare each cell for differences in content. The tool is also smart enough to realize if two spreadsheets are similar but have additional columns or rows.  It is a wonderful tool if you are experiencing version control issues.

------------------------------
Christopher Seigel P.E., M.ASCE
Civil Engineer

Original Message:
Sent: 09-29-2021 01:28 AM
From: Nicolai Oliden
Subject: What tool are you surprised you use as often as you do?

Building off of Salvador's question last week about civil engineering tools you use most often. Are there any tools you use often that surprises you? Maybe you are surprised how frequently you use a tool or maybe its some random, obscure tool that completely simplified your work flow and you cant live without it. I'd love to hear about it!

In my early years after college, I never imagined I would use Outlook emails as often as I do. Now I'm responding to, delegating, or simply deleting 70-100 emails per day! A more specific tool that I'm not necessarily surprised that I use but more surprised and THANKFUL that it exists is the Studio tool within Bluebeam. 13 years ago in my early days I never imagined we'd be able to create and respond to live redlines that track everything in one convenient file. I use this tool all the time now and dont think I could live without it at this point.

------------------------------
Nicolai Oliden P.E., M.ASCE
Roadway Team Leader
ETHOS Engineers
Tempe AZ
------------------------------

OK, so I'm "Light Years" away from my early introduction into the practice of the profession of Civil Engineering. 

I would have been thrilled to have 24/7 - 365 access to professional knowledge sources like "Google Scholar."

This is a great starting point for one who wishes to learn what the thinking was, is, and where it seems to be going.

Try it out by asking "Why projects fail?"

Stay Healthy!

Cheers,
Bill

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William M. Hayden Jr., Ph.D., P.E., CMQ/OE, F.ASCE
Buffalo, N.Y.

"It is never too late to be what you might have been." -- George Eliot 1819 - 1880
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-01-2021 09:23 AM
From: Tung Nguyen
Subject: What tool are you surprised you use as often as you do?

I only discovered Spreadsheet Compare this week. Pretty neat tool to compare not-so-big files otherwise it could take forever :). On the same topic, I find myself using Excel a lot more than I expected. I was surprised by what it can do going through the reports and dashboards that my colleagues built.

------------------------------
Tung Nguyen, PhD, WR Modeler
Jacobs
Sacramento, CA

Original Message:
Sent: 09-30-2021 12:10 PM
From: Christopher Seigel
Subject: What tool are you surprised you use as often as you do?

Certain versions of Microsoft Office contain a tool called Spreadsheet Compare!   It allows a user to load in 2 spreadsheets and it will compare each cell for differences in content. The tool is also smart enough to realize if two spreadsheets are similar but have additional columns or rows.  It is a wonderful tool if you are experiencing version control issues.

------------------------------
Christopher Seigel P.E., M.ASCE
Civil Engineer

Original Message:
Sent: 09-29-2021 01:28 AM
From: Nicolai Oliden
Subject: What tool are you surprised you use as often as you do?

Building off of Salvador's question last week about civil engineering tools you use most often. Are there any tools you use often that surprises you? Maybe you are surprised how frequently you use a tool or maybe its some random, obscure tool that completely simplified your work flow and you cant live without it. I'd love to hear about it!

In my early years after college, I never imagined I would use Outlook emails as often as I do. Now I'm responding to, delegating, or simply deleting 70-100 emails per day! A more specific tool that I'm not necessarily surprised that I use but more surprised and THANKFUL that it exists is the Studio tool within Bluebeam. 13 years ago in my early days I never imagined we'd be able to create and respond to live redlines that track everything in one convenient file. I use this tool all the time now and dont think I could live without it at this point.

------------------------------
Nicolai Oliden P.E., M.ASCE
Roadway Team Leader
ETHOS Engineers
Tempe AZ
------------------------------

For me in my early stages of being young professional is the used of google earth. Navigating the project locations of what the clients gives, and it's relevant to water resources and flood control categories. And sometimes when topography of client is hard to understand, you can google earth those places whether you want to confirm the depth of certain bridge, open canal, and the flood footprint in the area. And another one I am surprised is the used of Civil CAD which is not far different in the used of AutoCAD. Another one is the software's like ArcGIS not to mention others that provides programming features that can make your life easier when you are knowledgeable to programming, I think it's pretty cool.

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Llala Chrishaye Ocampo S.M.ASCE
Student
City of General Trias Cavite
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 09-29-2021 01:28 AM
From: Nicolai Oliden
Subject: What tool are you surprised you use as often as you do?

Building off of Salvador's question last week about civil engineering tools you use most often. Are there any tools you use often that surprises you? Maybe you are surprised how frequently you use a tool or maybe its some random, obscure tool that completely simplified your work flow and you cant live without it. I'd love to hear about it!

In my early years after college, I never imagined I would use Outlook emails as often as I do. Now I'm responding to, delegating, or simply deleting 70-100 emails per day! A more specific tool that I'm not necessarily surprised that I use but more surprised and THANKFUL that it exists is the Studio tool within Bluebeam. 13 years ago in my early days I never imagined we'd be able to create and respond to live redlines that track everything in one convenient file. I use this tool all the time now and dont think I could live without it at this point.

------------------------------
Nicolai Oliden P.E., M.ASCE
Roadway Team Leader
ETHOS Engineers
Tempe AZ
------------------------------