Computer Assisted Designs

Spencer Engineers, Inc. (SEI) has had in-house PC computers for engineering design calculations and word processing since 1979, and in-house AutoCAD drafting since 1985. 

1.      DRAWINGS:  Spencer Engineers, Inc. (SEI) has had in-house AutoCAD since 1985 for our production drawings.  We are currently are using AutoCAD 2008 for our CAD drawings.  Gerald Spencer has been modifying these CAD systems so that we are able to utilize purchased LISP programs and our in-house produced LISP programs written by Gerald Spencer.  We have CAD PC workstations networked to a central file server.  We use an HP 600 Design Jet plotter in conjunction with numerous laser printers, and one color jet printer.  The only hand drawn drafting that we produce are modifications to existing as-built master documents, where we have made revisions to them, and must update them.  We produce the remainder entirely on CAD.  We have many lisp programs written in-house to facilitate our work and some purchased software programs that work with AutoCAD to produce better results and more speed.  We consider ourselves to be CAD experts.  We have been using Integraph Microstation since 1992 in our production drawings for CESWF.  We normally work in AutoCAD and then convert the files to Intergraph for the clients that prefer Intergraph.  Only a few of our CAD operators are both Intergraph and AutoCAD operators.  Most of these dual system operators prefer to utilize AutoCAD in lieu of Intergraph.  We have CADFILE libraries of standard details in each design discipline to prevent our re-inventing the wheel for each project.  These standard details are reviewed and improved constantly.

2.      SPECIFICATIONS:  Gerald Spencer regularly uses the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Guide Specifications for the design and the construction of  Army and Air Force projects, the U. S. Navy Specsintact Guide Specifications for Navy Projects.  We have used the SPECSINTACT program for the last ten years for military projects.  We have used SPECSINTACT for NASA projects for the past 38 years.  We have been commissioned for projects by the U. S. State Department, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, and other agencies that do not have complete standard guide specifications.  When our client does not have standard guide specifications, we will use one or a combination of other Federal agency Guide Specifications for these clients.  We believe that the two separate sources government specifications keeps these personnel constantly expending much effort to keep their specifications up-to-date and to be a better product than the other agencies.  Gerald Spencer is an expert with the Corps of Engineers CEGS and the Specsintact automatic specifications systems required to create specifications for government specifications.  We Subscribe to the CCB and get the up-dated CD-ROMs on a quarterly basis.  This subscription provides all the DoD specifications from the various branches of the military service that participate in the SPECSINTACT program.  We have the latest versions of Microsoft® Word and Wordperfect® to use as word processing software.  (We prefer Word.)

2.1.            CSI FORMAT:  All of the available guide specifications that we have knowledge of are based upon the CSI Specifications Format.

2.2.            SPECIFICATION WRITING/WORD PROCESSING:  We have used the SPECSINTACT program for the last six years.  We subscribe to the CCB and get the up-dated CD-ROMs have all the DoD specifications from the various branches that participate in the SPECSINTACT program. 

2.3.            WordPerfect CAPABILITY:  We have the latest versions of Wordperfect® and Microsoft® Word to use as word processing software.  We will deliver the specifications to your office on a CD-ROM in Word Perfect or Microsoft® Word format if you desire.

2.4.            Adobe Acrobat:  SEI has been delivering specifications to the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of State in the Adobe Acrobat Format.  This allows the contractors, the technical reviewers, project Contracting Officers Representatives, and other personnel involved in bidding and/or contract administration to quickly and more easily find a specific reference to a specified item or work requirement.

3.      COST ESTIMATING:  We use Microsoft® Excel spread-sheet software (based on NASA criteria and the 12 part DOS criteria) for our cost estimating, except for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, where we use M-CACES Gold for CESWF cost estimating.

4.      DESKTOP PUBLISHING: We generally use Pagemaker to prepare our reports and design analysis.  We have several black & white laser printers and one color ink-jet printer.  We can print ‘photo quality’ digital photographs in our publications.  We produce many reports, preliminary engineering reports, investigations for numerous government agencies and for clients in the private sector.  We feel that the presentation of this data should be clear and concise as possible.  The end user should not have to hunt for his data, or be familiar with the project to be able to understand the subject and data within the report that is being presented.  We have Digital Cameras that allow us to easily unload the digital pictures directly into our computers for incorporation into our reports.

5.      ELECTRONIC MAIL/COMMUNICATION:  SEI is connected to the Internet with a broadband connection and has e-mail accounts.  This account allows us to transfer E-mail, graphic files (jpeg, gif, cdr, etc.) and CAD drawings electronically.  We have software combined with a DSL line and a high speed modem that will allow us to communicate with any BBS in the world.  We have used this to access the Corps of Engineers ARMS (Automated Review Management System) software that we use to annotate comments electronically.

6.      ADDITIONAL SOFTWARE PROGRAMS:

ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1 - 2001 Compliance Calculation Program………..This program automatically calculated the energy consumption requirements for a building and provides reports indicating the construction compliance and/or non-compliance

HVAC Load Calculations – ESD, Inc………....…According to ASHRAE Chapter GRP158 Load Calculation manual

MHVAC Load Calculations – ESD, Inc…………According to ASHRAE Chapter GRP158 Load Calculation manual in all metric SI units

RHVAC Load Calculations – ESD, Inc……..…..According to ASHRAE Chapter residential Load Calculation criteria and the Manual J

EZDOE – ESD, Inc …………………….........…..Department of Energy building energy compliance program.

EZ-LCCID - ESD, Inc ……………….........…….Department of Energy Life Cycle Cost Analysis

ECA- ESD, Inc ……………………….........…….Earth Coupled heat Pump Design Calculations

Fire Protection - ESD, Inc ……………........……Automatic.Fire Sprinkler Design Calculations

Life Cycle Cost Analysis ……………........……..According to the Fort Worth District Corps of Engineers & DoD procedures and criteria.

Refrig - ESD, Inc …………………….........…….Low Temperature refrigeration system software.

LIGHT - Lighting Level Calculations - ESD, Inc………According to the IES Lighting Handbook.  This program calculates the lighting levels in rooms, or determine the number of fixtures in each room.

OUTPOINT - ESD, Inc.……..............…..This program calculates point by point vertical and horizontal lighting levels for outdoor lighting, plus variable directional illumination levels for TV camera usage. 

INPOINT - ESD, Inc.………...........……This program calculates point by point vertical and horizontal lighting levels for indoor lighting

Icon II - Cooper Industries…...........……Point by point lighting level calculations.

Icon/Encon - Cooper Industries…............Economic Life Cycle Lighting Cost Analysis.

SHORT - ESD, Inc.…………….........….Electrical Short Circuit Analysis

Electrical Short Circuit Analysis - Bussman, Inc…….Electrical Short Circuit Analysis

ECOORD…………………....………..Electrical Circuit Protection Device Coordination Program -ESD, Inc.

Easy Power® ESA, Inc.….......……….Integrated Graphical One Line, Database, Short Circuit, Power Flow Program

ETPA Power Plot Operation Technology, Inc. …….Power System Analysis Program

Harmonic Circulating Current Analysis – Dranetz & RPM…………This software analyzes output from Dranitz 658 instruments into usable data.  We also have similar software from RPM

Constructor - CMH Software……..…Constructs and tests ladder diagrams and imports them into AutoCAD drawings.

Quicksize – Kohler Power Systems….Sizes Engine Generators

Gen Size 96 – Cummins Onan….……Sizes Engine Generators

Tray-Pro – Thomas & Betts…………Draws cable trays in AutoCAD.

ETABS v6.2…………….........………Structural Frame Analysis - for Steel and Concrete design

StruCAD*3D………….........………...Structural Frame Analysis - for Steel and Concrete design

ArchT…………………........…………Architectural Program for automatically creating floor plans, elevations and perspectives.

dBase IV - Aston Tate……………….Used for energy management program at Ft. Bliss, Texas and Fort Sam Houston, Texas.  We also integrate dBase with AutoCAD as required for gathering data from the drawings and integrating this information into dBase IV files.  Gerald Spencer is the dBase programmer. 

Paradox – Borland……………………Database program.

Pagemaker V6.5 - Adobe……………..Document software for organizing and presenting reports. Desktop Publishing

Photoshop V4.0 – Adobe……….…….Image manipulating software for editing photographs for greater clarity.  Desktop Publishing

CorelDRAW V7.0…………………….Vector based graphics program, used to work with file conversion, graphics manipulation, drawing, etc.  Desktop Publishing

Kypipe - Haestad……………………..Water multiple loop flow analysis.

Sansys – Civilsystems®………….….Gravity Water Flow Analysis for sanitary sewer and stormwater flow analysis.