Issue 1

Graphics has always been essential to conveying geometrical information and therefore to the construction industry. If lawyers designed buildings, they would have to describe them entirely in work. This would run into millions of pages and would be almost useless to the people on site. It might reduce claims, however! R. Howard

After a review of early computer assisted methods for rc detailing, the more recent approach, employing interactive computer graphics, is considered. The operation of a specific system, RCDS (an extension of GDS). is explained. Trials of the system are reported as achieving an average productivity ratio of 2.2 compared with manual drafting. Experience of the production and costs of working drawings is described. Improved productivity, earlier completion of projects, and other potential benefits, are discussed. Scope for future development is suggested, combined with a need for the engineer to retain control over the system. S.Port and A.P. Myers

This paper examines some of the factors which have affected the development of a 2-dimensional drafting system within a large structural engineering practice. R. Whittle

All members, when applying for admission to the Institution, sign a declaration that they will be bound by the provisions of the Charter and Bye-Laws and by the Rules of Conduct. For the majority, the latter simply strengthen the duty that they in any case owe to themselves as professional engineers. For some members in their day-to-day work, however, the Rules call for the observance of long-standing conventions, ignorance or disregard of which places the professional reputation of a member at risk, as well as reflecting adversely on the Institution itself.

This paper describes a computer aided drafting system which has been developed by a firm of consulting engineers for the production of design and construction drawings. Although it is applicable to many engineering disciplines, this paper deals mainly with the structural engineering aspects of the development and use made of the system, with particular reference to reinforcement detailing. T.J. Parsons

The purpose of the Institution is to foster the science and art of structural engineering and through the practice of its membership contribute towards the achievement of excellence in construction.

The possible variations in the answer to the question passed in the title are many and depend directly on the circumstances of who perceives the question. J.J.G. Wheeler

I am honoured, as a non-engineer, to be invited to give this lecture. Engineers, like the medical profession, attract, in equal measure, respect and suspicion. We all know that one day we will fall into your hands-we have to cross your bridges, live in your radical new buildings, cooperate with your exciting machines, just as we all know that, one day, we will end up on some surgeon’s table or in some physician’s clutches. And yet you are men and women like us, not inhabitants of the rarified world of n dimensional space like mathematicians, or of the vast expensive labyrinths constructed by experimental physicists for their own pleasure underneath the Alps. You are practical men dealing with practical needs, and we think we know what you are talking about when you get together in your meetings. Michael Posner

Subsidence of residential property In October, Mr J. Arnold drew our attention to some of the difficulties encountered in adopting economic remedial measures for dealing with building subsidence. Two of our readers have responded to this letter. Mr J. B. Johnson writes from Dudley: I am surprised that the matter has arisen because, in my opinion, strengthening of existing structures because of subsidence is not subject to Building Regulations control. The original construction was subject to previous legislation, and by this action was deemed to have been approved. Verulam

‘Back in the good old days you could design a beam on the back of an envelope: it was just a matter of WL/8. Now it requires pages of calculations and probably a computer to do the same job’. A.W. Beeby