Woah!

I just got a 1 MB PDF file. Opening it makes my poor little 1.5 GHz 
Athlon cry. Printing it resulted in a dense tangle of lines that was 
beyong legibility. Checking the PDF properties, I see it's designed for...

...are you sitting down?...


A0 paper.

As in, the largest standardised paper size that exists, at more than a 
meter wide. (2.5 feet by 4 feet, roughly.)

The writing was hopelessly small. (If you ask Word to print some 2 pt 
text on an A4 sheet, that's roughly how big. Although I notice it's a 
particularly bland sans serif typeface that only appears to contain 
uppercase.)

Interestingly, I asked the computer to print it again at A3 size (we 
have *one* printer that can do this), and the lines all stayed the same 
thickness; they're just further apart now. It's still extremely cramped, 
but it's vaguely readable. (I notice fairly extreme aliasing due to the 
fact that all the lines are very slightly off axis.)

This plan contains an entire zoo of curios symbols - but unlike the 
previous plan, there's a key explaining what they all are:

   (Semicircle with line)
   FLUSH SINGLE 13A SWITCHED SOCKET OUTLET

   (Filled semicircle with line)
   FLUSH TWIN 13A SWITCHED SOCKET OUTLET

   (Half-filled semicircle with line)
   13 SWITCHED FUSED CONNECTION UNIT

   (Half-filled semicircle with line inside dashed box with "FCU")
   13A SWITCHED FUSED CONNECTION UNIT AT HIGH LEVEL ABOVE CEILING FOR 
FAN COIL UNIT

   (Half-filled semicircle with line inside dashed box with "HVA")
   13A SWITCHED FUSED CONNECTION UNIT AT HIGH LEVEL ABOVE CEILING FOR 
HVAC CONTROLS

   (Semicircle with cross)
   16A SPN+E SINGLE PHASE NEUTRAL & EARTH INDUSTRIAL UNSWITCHED SOCKET 
OUTLET MK COMMANDO OR EQUAL & APPROVED

   (Box with "R")
   SP&N ISOLATOR - R DENOTED RATING OF DEVICE

   (Half-filled box with "R")
   TP&N ISOLATOR - R DENOTES RATING OF DEVICE

   (Box with "PP")
   POWER POLE C/W 4XSINGLE 13A SWITCHED SOCKET OUTLETS AND 4XRJ45 DATA 
OUTLETS

   (Dashed line)
   3 COMPARTMENT DADO TRUNKING INSTALLED BELOW WINDOW CILL

   (Box with "FB")
   3 COMPARTMENT FLOOR BOX C/E 2xTWIN 13A SWITCHED OUTLETS & 4xRF45 DATA 
OUTLETS. 3 METRE UNFUSED 32A TAP OFF UNITS & FLEXIBLE CONNECTION

   (Unequal-dashed line with crossed box)
   63A UNDERFLOOR BUSBAR WITH END FEED UNIT

   (Rectangle with diagnol hatching)
   200mm BASKET TRAY - ABOV CEIL[cut off printout]

   (Rectangle with dots)
   200mm BASKET TRAY - IN FLOOR VO[cut off printout]

   (Filled triangle)
   RJ45 OUTLET WIRED BACK TO PATCH PANEL IN COMMS ROOM TESTED AND LABELLED

   (Filled square with white triangle)
   ENTRANCE INTERCOM AND DOOR RELEASE

This entire text takes up less than 3 inches of paper.

(Woah - 63A? o_O Anybody know what thickness of copper it takes to 
handle that kind of currentl? That's gotta be more like a girder than a 
wire!)

Inspecting the plan itself, I see an underfloor tray leading from that 
curiosly non-square "riser cupboard" to all of the ofice spaces and my 
server room. I then see an above-ceiling tray running from the server 
room to all the lab spaces.

The office spaces are liberally littered with floor boxes, the lab 
office has floor boxes and a generous sprinskling of wall-mounted power 
and data sockets, and the lab is positively *encrusted* with power and 
data sockets on every available vertical surface. (Even the support 
girders holding the roof up!)

Checking the other data on the plan, I find this:

   TITLE
   Ground Floor Office B
   Small Power & Ancillery Services

   DRAWN BY
   KB

   APPROVED
   RB

   DATE DRAWN
   27-09-07

   SCALE
   1/50 @ A0

   DRAWING NUMBER
   1001/E003 B

(All of which is really *extremely* hard to read. The typeface is fairly 
big, but seems to be boldface or something. Almost no whitespace inside 
letters like "O"...)

Nice of them to include the paper size this time! (It makes a bit of a 
difference.) So, printed at A3, this should be... hmm... 1:400. Ouch!

So, given that it's 1:400, that means we've got power and data sockets 
every... uh... 2 meters, roughly. On almost every internal wall in the 
lab. And floor boxes every 4 meters everywhere else. Wow.

Oh look, there's a box on the back wall marked

   GENERATOR INPUT SOCKET

Since we store stuff that has to be kept frozen, a power cut is a fairly 
major event. Our customers won't be too pleased if their $80 million 
project has to be restarted from scratch because the stuff melted! So in 
the event of a power cut, a big truck comes along and dumps a huge lump 
of pig iron labelled "CAT POWER" outside our building, with a 
ridiculously huge cable and a comically over-sized plug on the end. 
(Seriously, the cable is thicker than some tree trunks!)

There's A LOT of over-printed text, but it seems that the individual 
sockets don't have unique numbers. ;-)

It's really quite confusing trying to reed this plan - the trunking 
stands out much more than the actual walls. I keep thinking the wire 
trays are the walls, and the walls are wire trays! LOL.

Post a reply to this message

> (Woah - 63A? o_O Anybody know what thickness of copper it takes to handle 
> that kind of currentl? That's gotta be more like a girder than a wire!)

Roughly double your standard 13A cable would do...  Look at the cable going 
to the starter motor on your car, that's usually 100A or so.

> It's really quite confusing trying to reed this plan - the trunking stands 
> out much more than the actual walls. I keep thinking the wire trays are 
> the walls, and the walls are wire trays! LOL.

Can't you print it out tiled, ie 8 A3 sheets (or however many it is) then 
just put them together?

Post a reply to this message

scott wrote:
>> (Woah - 63A? o_O Anybody know what thickness of copper it takes to 
>> handle that kind of currentl? That's gotta be more like a girder than 
>> a wire!)
> 
> Roughly double your standard 13A cable would do...  Look at the cable 
> going to the starter motor on your car, that's usually 100A or so.

1. A car runs on 12V electrics, not 250V. Does that make a difference?

2. Is maximum load proportional to diameter or cross section area? (The 
latter is quadratically propertional to diameter.)

> Can't you print it out tiled, ie 8 A3 sheets (or however many it is) 
> then just put them together?

Well, in principle yes. In practice, I very much doubt you'd ever get 
the pieces to line up properly. (Ever notice how map books *always* put 
the place you want to look at in the crease?) Plus I'm having enough 
trouble finding somewhere to put an A3 printout without it getting 
crinkled up... :-S

Apparently the planners have access to an A0 printer. I don't even want 
to imagine what that must cost... ;-)

Post a reply to this message

Invisible wrote:
> scott wrote:
>>> (Woah - 63A? o_O Anybody know what thickness of copper it takes to 
>>> handle that kind of currentl? That's gotta be more like a girder than 
>>> a wire!)
>>
>> Roughly double your standard 13A cable would do...  Look at the cable 
>> going to the starter motor on your car, that's usually 100A or so.
> 
> 1. A car runs on 12V electrics, not 250V. Does that make a difference?
> 
> 2. Is maximum load proportional to diameter or cross section area? (The 
> latter is quadratically propertional to diameter.)

Hmmm... Here's some info:

http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm
http://www.epanorama.net/documents/wiring/wire_resistance.html

According to the one site, 6 AWG wire would be enough. Next size up if 
over 100 ft. :)

Post a reply to this message

Invisible wrote:
> scott wrote:
>>> (Woah - 63A? o_O Anybody know what thickness of copper it takes to 
>>> handle that kind of currentl? That's gotta be more like a girder than 
>>> a wire!)
>>
>> Roughly double your standard 13A cable would do...  Look at the cable 
>> going to the starter motor on your car, that's usually 100A or so.
> 
> 1. A car runs on 12V electrics, not 250V. Does that make a difference?
> 
> 2. Is maximum load proportional to diameter or cross section area? (The 
> latter is quadratically propertional to diameter.)
> 
>> Can't you print it out tiled, ie 8 A3 sheets (or however many it is) 
>> then just put them together?
> 
> Well, in principle yes. In practice, I very much doubt you'd ever get 
> the pieces to line up properly. (Ever notice how map books *always* put 
> the place you want to look at in the crease?) Plus I'm having enough 
> trouble finding somewhere to put an A3 printout without it getting 
> crinkled up... :-S
> 
> Apparently the planners have access to an A0 printer. I don't even want 
> to imagine what that must cost... ;-)


They are not too bad - at least the cheaper ones.  We have a 'plotter' 
that prints 2'x3' pretty easily.  The paper is on a roll that is 3' wide 
and like 50' long.

If you need to get it printed look at local copy centers - they might be 
able to help.  Some engineering shops (that sell stuff) might be able to 
help you out as well.

But then again, maybe you are expected to look at your tiny screen and 
figure everything that you need in your head.  After all, pencils cost 
money as well..


Tom

Post a reply to this message

Mike Raiford wrote:
> Invisible wrote:
>> scott wrote:
>>>> (Woah - 63A? o_O Anybody know what thickness of copper it takes to 
>>>> handle that kind of currentl? That's gotta be more like a girder 
>>>> than a wire!)
>>>
>>> Roughly double your standard 13A cable would do...  Look at the cable 
>>> going to the starter motor on your car, that's usually 100A or so.
>>
>> 1. A car runs on 12V electrics, not 250V. Does that make a difference?
>>
>> 2. Is maximum load proportional to diameter or cross section area? 
>> (The latter is quadratically propertional to diameter.)
> 
> Hmmm... Here's some info:
> 
> http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm
> http://www.epanorama.net/documents/wiring/wire_resistance.html
> 
> According to the one site, 6 AWG wire would be enough. Next size up if 
> over 100 ft. :)

I'd say 3 AWG - but either way, it's less than 1 cm thick.

Like I said, when they hook up the external generator, it comes with a 
cable well over 10 cm thick (!)

Post a reply to this message

Tom Austin wrote:
> Invisible wrote:
>> Apparently the planners have access to an A0 printer. I don't even 
>> want to imagine what that must cost... ;-)
> 
> 
> They are not too bad - at least the cheaper ones.  We have a 'plotter' 
> that prints 2'x3' pretty easily.  The paper is on a roll that is 3' wide 
> and like 50' long.

I used to own an old HP line plotter. (Do they still make those?) It 
seems amazingly fast - until you actually try to plot anything of any 
real complexity, and then suddenly it seems absurdly slow...

> If you need to get it printed look at local copy centers - they might be 
> able to help.  Some engineering shops (that sell stuff) might be able to 
> help you out as well.

Nah. If I was that bothered, I'm sure the planners themselves can supply 
a printout. (Indeed, it seems to be easy to get prints, and 
near-impossible to get electronic copies...)

Post a reply to this message

Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> I'd say 3 AWG - but either way, it's less than 1 cm thick.
>
> Like I said, when they hook up the external generator, it comes with a
> cable well over 10 cm thick (!)

A lot of that thickness will be insulation, shielding and armor.

Stephen

Post a reply to this message

Stephen wrote:
> Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> I'd say 3 AWG - but either way, it's less than 1 cm thick.
>>
>> Like I said, when they hook up the external generator, it comes with a
>> cable well over 10 cm thick (!)
> 
> A lot of that thickness will be insulation, shielding and armor.

Probably.

The plug is physically larger than my head. The whole contraption looks 
like a giant's plaything has fallen out of the sky or something...

Post a reply to this message

And lo on Fri, 09 Nov 2007 11:44:37 -0000, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> did  
spake, saying:

> Since we store stuff that has to be kept frozen, a power cut is a fairly  
> major event. Our customers won't be too pleased if their $80 million  
> project has to be restarted from scratch because the stuff melted! So in  
> the event of a power cut, a big truck comes along and dumps a huge lump  
> of pig iron labelled "CAT POWER" outside our building, with a  
> ridiculously huge cable and a comically over-sized plug on the end.  
> (Seriously, the cable is thicker than some tree trunks!)

And what happens if the firm can't get you a CAT out in time? If it's that  
crucial shouldn't you at least have a CAT UPS or equivalent to tide you  
over.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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