At this time of year the teams gather in the warmer climate cities for Spring Training.  It is a time when the veterans get back into shape, coaxing their bodies into one more season.  It is the time when rookies try hard to make the squad.  It is time when player selections are made, work on the fundamentals is renewed and strategies begin to take shape that prep teams for the regular season.

(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

This is also the time of year when new software starts rolling out from Autodesk and we start prepping for the new releases.  Older software that is replaced with new releases.

It is time to start thinking about your CAD environment and the health of your veteran software, the value of the rookie programs and the strategy of how you will embrace this possible change.

Here is a little chalk talk about what you need to do to get in shape for the coming season of rollouts.

Listen for the start:

First you will hear from Autodesk about the official kickoff of the season with the lifting of the embargo on discussions. There have been hints and nods and winking of the tech eyes at what might be in the shipping products,but no one is really allowed to discuss it openly yet.  Autodesk requires Alpha and Beta testers to be under a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) in order to participate.  One requirement is that the person respect the date that Autodesk sets of official discussions to begin.  Start talking early and you might suffer the disdain of Autodesk and a lot of others who are respecting the “gag order”.

Let the talks begin:

You will soon start hearing from the reviewers about the next release of software. Some have spent countless hours fiddling with Alpha and Beta releases of the platform. Some have taken the time to test and retest the software. They do not move forward with the reviews until the embargo is lifted but once it is, they unleash their pent up wealth of knowledge and experience with the newest release.

Look for the best at places where you typically find discussions.  Bloggers, press outlets, Social Media, AUGI and many more will start sharing the info.

Look for the Leaders:

Once the spring training is well underway you will start hearing from the early adopters.  These are the folks that buy early and implement quickly.  They will spot the bumps in the road and the potholes to avoid.  They will soon be sharing.or ranting, on the virtues and foibles of the software in the real world.  Go to the AUGI Forums to find these people chatting it up over the next month or so.

As the new release takes hold and starts to move forward,we will move from Spring Season in the Regular Season.  That is when you start thinking about adopting it yourself.

Many of these have been used by presenters

1. Ask a few questions to see who is in the audience. See who is there. Owners, Engineers, Architects, new users, seasoned vets or others. You need to know who you are talking with. I have seen this done and it helps for future interaction with the audience.

2. Adjust your presentation based on who they are and what they want to see. I have not seen too many presenters ask what the people want to see. It might work if the presenter really knows the subject.

3. Don’t give the canned demo. Nothing is worse that seeing someone read from a script or show a product that they really don’t know. Get to know your tools before you show them to others.

4. Put the good stuff up front. Don’t make me wait through the slide show or the little improvements. Show me the best – first.

5. Interact with the audience. Ask them questions and get feedback. Let them interrupt you (within reason). The more you engage the audience the better you are at hitting their curiosity.

6. Take specific questions offline. Answer every question briefly and directly and move the long answers to the end.

7. End on time. Make your presentation and end on time so that those who have not seen something worth chatting about can move on. The ones that are interested will stick around. And they are the ones you want to talk to anyway.

These suggestions may improve your presentations and demos. But the most important thing is to know your product.

Good intentions or not all of these presentations either hit the mark or they do not. Here are some things that I think make them miss the mark.

1. They are talking to the wrong audience. Presenters cannot control who comes to their presentation so they may be shooting at the wrong target. They ramble on about certain features or tools and seem to have no idea if those attending even care.

2. They show too many slides before getting to the demo. This burns me. If I have not decided if the tool they are showing is going to apply to my firm or my needs, I have little need to find out how long the company has been around, or how many offices they have or how many users they have. Get to the demo

3. They take too long to demo the good stuff. Ok… the demo finally started… but they take forever to get to the good stuff. Don’t save the best for last – put it up front and make me interested in the rest.

4. They answer the wrong questions. By providing more information than I am willing to sit through they sometimes give me more than I want on the wrong subject.

5. They talk too long on the wrong subject. What they think is “killer stuff” may not be what I think is great. Not that I am the only one that matters when they are speaking, but some topics wander around and get discussed too long.

Granted, it is tough to hit everyone’s sweet spot. And maybe my sweet spot is not what everyone else wants to see. But I have seen the things above consistently for a long time.

I have heard that there is a subtle differentiation from selling and telling.  In an audio book that I listened to some time back called Spin Selling by Neil Rackham.

Basically he says that “Telling” is just running through a list of features that you want to present, while “Selling” is building a relationship, uncovering needs or problems and finding solutions.

SPIN is his acronym for a process that he suggests for doing that… another topic for another blog post.

Back to my point… do software presentations tend to “sell” or just “tell”. I have seen so many that just rattle through a list of features that is it frustrating. I know that the initial point of contact may be a sales presentation and it is not designed to actually turn instantly into a sale. The list of features is used to uncover what might be a hint at a solution for you. So the presenter just rolls through them one at a time and builds to the crescendo of what he thinks is the best feature of all (usually 3d or visualization).

There are many ways to present… face to face, webinar, con call, etc. All of them seem to march toward a list of features. But some of them are different.

What have you seen as lacking or great in a presentation on software?

Table of contents for Last Gasp

1. The Last Gasp for CAD
2. The Last Gasp for CAD – What made me think of this?
3. The Last Gasp for CAD – Part 2
4. The Last Gasp for CAD – Part 3

What will make it the last gasp for CAD?  What will be the final nail in the coffin of 2D CAD?  Will there be one final function that will move everyone to 3D?

Here are some events, items of functions that could make CAD be gone forever…

1.  We move away from hard copy deliverables.   As long as we push out designs out to flat 2d hard copy then 2D CAD will remain.

2.  3D fabrication for all objects becomes a reality.  There are many trades that have pressed toward 3D fabrication.  Manufacturing has made leaps and bounds in this direction.  They have always been 3D in fabrication and finally the tools have caught up with their desire for them.

3.  When Owners and end users want the 3D functionality from a perspective of really understanding it.  This has started happening.  Many owners are asking for more 3D, but they have not really understood the process or demands that it takes to make it a reality.  When they know the impact and the cost (time and money) and still want to fully embrace it, 2D CAD might be doomed.

4.  When design review can take place 100% electronically.  On screen review, markup and correction.  All of it – All Digital – All the time.  I know that this is happening now.  But not everyone is doing it.

5.  When some grand must have tool comes along.  What will be the Killer App in 3D CAD that will push everyone over the edge? I have no clue, but when it arrives, it will  change everything.

6.  When the Government “forces” people to move – kind of like Digital TV.  If you are not moving in the direction that your State government may be headed or the feds, you may be left behind.

Table of contents for Last Gasp

1. The Last Gasp for CAD
2. The Last Gasp for CAD – What made me think of this?
3. The Last Gasp for CAD – Part 2
4. The Last Gasp for CAD – Part 3

Last Gasp for CAD…  maybe not…

Here are some reasons that CAD may not be closing in on end of life.

1.  The developers of CAD software are still making strides in adding tools to the 2D world of CAD.  Each new release brings improvements.  They may seem small to most, but out there somewhere is a very happy user (many of them) that the new release does this or that.  And sometimes there are major upgrades that bring new functions.

2.  The trickle down of functions end up in the base CAD products. There are many items that use to be part of the advanced tools in the past that are now resident in the newer releases.  These improve the basic CAD functions and provide greater productivity.

3.  CAD is the basic 2D drafting function that everyone needs.  Face it – there are a lot of functions that you do that do not need to be in 3D.  They just are not 3D objects.  They do not need to be displayed in 3D.  Annotation comes to mind.

4.  CAD platforms are the guts of many advance tools.  Most of the migratory programs (those that continue to mature from a 2D platform) are based on 2D CAD code and functions.

5.  There are way too many people that just need 2D.  Scores of them.  Tons of them.  Dare I say – most of them?

Table of contents for Last Gasp

1. The Last Gasp for CAD
2. The Last Gasp for CAD – What made me think of this?
3. The Last Gasp for CAD – Part 2
4. The Last Gasp for CAD – Part 3

Here is the article that started me thinking about the Last Gasp of CAD.  It was an article in Harvard Business Review and one more in HBR.

In the article, Daniel Snow warns of a surge in old technology as new technology threatens to overtake it.

It is worth the read.

Table of contents for Last Gasp

1. The Last Gasp for CAD
2. The Last Gasp for CAD – What made me think of this?
3. The Last Gasp for CAD – Part 2
4. The Last Gasp for CAD – Part 3

Technology transitions usher in new software, but the older technology may exhibit a resurgence or “Last Gasp” before it goes under.  A “Last Gasp” is a valiant attempt to revitalize a technology that appears to be reaching the end of it’s useful life.

A recent example of one such technology that might be nearing it’s last gasp is the standalone GPS devices like Garmin produces.  They produce a lot of differing devices, but the consumer level products lit the in car navigation are being impacted immensely by the GPS enabled Smartphones.  iPhones, Droids and the like have fully enabled GPS turn by turn directions that make the Garmin’s less needed.  Why buy a single purpose device?  Garmin is now trying to produce GPS devices that also make phone calls.  Too little, too late?

The reason I bring this up is that I was wondering if CAD is experiencing it’s last gasp.  AutoCAD has been around for over 25 years.  The CAD industry has begun the long promised move the better 3d Design tools like Revit and Inventor and Civil 3D.  Is AutoCAD finally near the end of the line?  Will there soon be little need for “drafting” tools that focus on 2D?

Warning: Doing this will change your profile.  You may want to save the profile before you make changes.  Go to the Profiles tab on the Options dialog box.

Here is what you do to revisit the Initial Setup questions:

If you skip or cancel Initial Setup, AutoCAD is not changed from its current state. You can return to Initial Setup when AutoCAD is restarted by checking “Remind Me the Next Time AutoCAD Starts” on the “Skip Initial Setup” page or through the Options dialog box.

To change settings from Initial Setup through the Options dialog box

Click the Application menu button Options.
In the Options dialog box, User Preferences tab, click Initial Setup.
In Initial Setup, make the desired changes and click Finish.
In the Options dialog box, click OK.

This will take you through the exact same questions as the original install.