CAD Standard – Start with an Introduction

The first thing you need is to have an introduction. Why do you need this? Who cares about something that most people won’t pay attention to anyway. It is just extra wording that you don’t need. Or is it?

Here are some things that I think need to be set forth before you publish your standard. You have defined how these work, so you need to let people know.

Document Overview.

Keep it brief. Tell them how you may have come to create the document. One paragraph at most. Just a quick statement that says why you are doing the whole thing.

Here is an example:

The CAD Manager at XYZ Inc. is involved with developing, enhancing and maintaining electronic CAD Standards to enhance the ability to consistently develop CAD files and share work across multiple offices.

XYZ Inc. is focused on sharing work among offices and companies. Our goal is to provide ways for every user to learn how to better unify the output of our CAD system.

The general goal is to comply with the National CAD Standard. Where the NCS is silent we strive to use the “best of breed” methods gathered from the A/E industry. By complying with the NCS, we can also share work with subs and clients who have also adopted the NCS.

The development and use of the CAD Standard and software tools is not seen as an end in itself. The goal is to enhance productivity and share work among users and companies. To this end the process will never be completed. We will continue to develop and enhance our standard and the CAD tools that we use every day.