Take a look at the full lists of “Updates & Services Packs” for AutoCAD.

These are what Autodesk calls “Maintenance Releases”.  They use to be called Patches and before that Bug Fixes.  Now they have a more generic name.

There are service packs for just about every software title.  They may be kind of hard to find…

When you go to the Autodesk site – go to the Service & Support pulldown > Technical Support…  then select the product that you are looking for.  Once inside the product area click on Data & Downloads nav on the left side.  This opens another nav and page.  Select Updates & Service Packs and there you are…

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Table of contents for BAD CAD Management Habits

1. BAD CAD Management Habits – Jumping to Conclusions
2. BAD CAD Management Habits – Attacking the Person not the Problem
3. BAD CAD Management Habits – Allowing others to make your decisions
4. BAD CAD Manager Habits – Offering False Hope
5. BAD CAD Management Habits – All or Nothing
6. BAD CAD Management Habits – Being Too Flexible

The last post I made on this subject got a few comments that hinted at this post (but I had not written it yet). This post is the reciprocal of that one. You may want to read that one first or read that one after you read this one.

One of the temptations and struggles that afflicts CAD Managers is to allow exceptions to the rules. By doing this, it erodes the stability and continuance of a consistent march in the same directions. But I do feel that some flexibility is called for. There will always be reasons to grant “variances” to individual standards and guidelines. If that is the case then they should be few and far between.

Pressing toward what I call “unification of your firm when it comes to standards” is something that you should always strive for. Here is one of my maxims.

Standards – Follow Them…

Every Office – Every Project – Every User – Every File – Every Day

This means that you constantly strive for perfection, but you realize that you may never achieve it and that others may not be able to either.

There are times when you have to grant some slack.

When you do – try to follow these concepts.

1. Don’t let repeat offended continue being repeat offenders. Don’t grant them a variance.

2. Never, ever violate a principle. The principles of your standard are things like the fact that you focus your efforts on getting the files out the door.

3. When you grant a variance – go back and fix it after the project milestone so that it complies with the CAD Standard.

4. Don’t grant more than one deviation per File/Project.

5. Variances can only be granted to someone in authority of the area where the variance is to be granted. So the PM has to ask for project variances. Users can only ask for file level variances.

6. Bring others into the conversation when you grant a variance. Discuss the need for the variance, the length of it and when it will be fixed. Get agreement from more than one person.

These may sound like strange categorizations for being flexible, but if you just allow haphazard variances to the rules you will soon forget who got what and when. By formalizing the process of flexibility, you stand a better chance of not be overrun with requests.

Can you think of any more guidelines for when or what to allow as a deviation?

Table of contents for BAD CAD Management Habits

1. BAD CAD Management Habits – Jumping to Conclusions
2. BAD CAD Management Habits – Attacking the Person not the Problem
3. BAD CAD Management Habits – Allowing others to make your decisions
4. BAD CAD Manager Habits – Offering False Hope
5. BAD CAD Management Habits – All or Nothing
6. BAD CAD Management Habits – Being Too Flexible

When we make a list of what we desire to do and what we actually can do – it may be a different list. Getting from the “desire” to the “done” of a project requires us to negotiate with others. When our desires come into conflict with someone else’s area, there may be some dialog on means, methods and movement. Getting something done demands working with others.

Working with others is often frustrating and can be disheartening. It can cause you to want to give up. When progress gets strained the achievement of the end goal can get compromised. When it comes down to talking it through with others some have taken an All or Nothing attitude.

All or Nothing is a negotiation method that might work in some cases, but not very often. It is seen as an ultimatum. It is seen as a challenge to someones authority. It can backfire and get you nowhere. When you slide over into an All or Nothing attitude you are playing an end game card. You are moving to the bottom line and asking others to give up. You are saying, “my way or the highway”.

This kind of perspective can truncate your forward movement. Especially if the other party can throw the Nothing card. I feel that nothing is over until its over. Even a hard “no” today can be softened over time. Calling for an end to the negotiations by deciding in your head or out loud that you are going for broke can cost you the game.

CAD Managers do this when they make statements like…

“The CAD Standard must be followed without any deviations, no matter what your client says”

“We never will allow nested XRefs in this office”

“There is no way that we can do what you are asking unless we throw out all of our customization”

These statements may have a place, but being flexible and continuing to talk allows for the creation of a win-win compromise. A slight deviation from a standard might allow a project to be profitable. (Don’t panic… I am not throwing out the standard, but allowing for a one project variance from the compliance. No global waiving of the standards). Finding a project type that could take some advantage by using “managed” nested XRefs may work out well. (Hotels, etc.) Adjusting the customization could yield added benefits to the overall workplace.

All I am saying is that the CAD Manager should not be the one that is stomping their feet, demanding their way or threatening to take their ball and go home. They may be the one that ends up with Nothing…

Table of contents for BAD CAD Management Habits

1. BAD CAD Management Habits – Jumping to Conclusions
2. BAD CAD Management Habits – Attacking the Person not the Problem
3. BAD CAD Management Habits – Allowing others to make your decisions
4. BAD CAD Manager Habits – Offering False Hope
5. BAD CAD Management Habits – All or Nothing
6. BAD CAD Management Habits – Being Too Flexible

People want and need to have something to look forward to. It gives them a reason for pressing ahead. It provides them with hope that their CAD problems might be answered, the project problems might go away and that the next release of software is actually going to do what it says it will do.

When a CAD Manager speaks, people listen. If you are the CAD Manager, you may not think people are listening, but they are. They listen to what you are excited about, what you are depressed about and what you complain about. They hear what you say and they remember what you promise.

The promises are the focus of this post.

Promises hold a lot of weight with people. You may not be making them outright. You may not be saying “I promise…” but people often take your words as promises. Keep this in mind at all times. Even when you are not “promising” anything, some users will hear it as a promise. There is not really much you can do to prevent some people from holding you to promises you never made except to remind them that you never promised anything.

The topic of this post is to discuss the promises that you do make.

When we speak as a CAD Manager, and we “promise” to get something done, people take it as a contract. They hold you to keeping your word and deadlines. We should be keeping our word as a person with character and integrity.

We offer false hope when we tell someone that something will happen by some certain date and it does not happen. We offer false hope when we say that a problem will be fixed by a specific time and it is not fixed. We offer false hope when we talk about how the next release will be better than this one and it is not (which is totally out of our control).

False hope can degrade positive progress in keeping people motivated and moving. Change is part of our workflow. We are constantly moving people to new software, new tools and new methods. Keeping the hope alive is vital to the change process.

Table of contents for BAD CAD Management Habits

1. BAD CAD Management Habits – Jumping to Conclusions
2. BAD CAD Management Habits – Attacking the Person not the Problem
3. BAD CAD Management Habits – Allowing others to make your decisions
4. BAD CAD Manager Habits – Offering False Hope
5. BAD CAD Management Habits – All or Nothing
6. BAD CAD Management Habits – Being Too Flexible

I am a big supporter of teamwork. If you have read my stuff or heard me speak, you know that I believe in working with and through teams. Teams are one of the best ways to make progress and get everyone moving in the same directions.

Teams are not an excuse to pass the buck on making decisions. Letting others make decisions that you should be making is not good for you in the long run. You are called on to decide the overall direction that CAD should be going in your firm. Making decisions is part of that process. I published some tips for making decisions in the last CADD Manager Journal. Give it a read.

Making tough calls can be hard to do at times, but the calls have to be made. Don’t let someone else decide.

Maybe you get tired of taking all the heat so you pass the authority on and allow someone else to make the choice. Then you hide behind that decision so that no one will think you made a bad choice. That is not the way of the Leader. A leader faces the outcome of decisions and is honest when mistakes are made. If you made a bad decision, admit it, think of how to make the best of what you have and then modify the direction and move on.

Letting others make the critical decision instead of making them yourself can lead to stagnation in your career advancement because no one sees you as being decisive.

Table of contents for BAD CAD Management Habits

1. BAD CAD Management Habits – Jumping to Conclusions
2. BAD CAD Management Habits – Attacking the Person not the Problem
3. BAD CAD Management Habits – Allowing others to make your decisions
4. BAD CAD Manager Habits – Offering False Hope
5. BAD CAD Management Habits – All or Nothing
6. BAD CAD Management Habits – Being Too Flexible

When a CAD Manager starts assaulting a persons character or calling in to question the persons abilities to perform any given CAD function, they may have slipped into an area where they do not really want to be.

We assault someones character when we demean them, point out their flaws in public, deride their inabilities or otherwise point out their shortcoming to them or to others. It does not have to be a blatant outspoken comment either. We do it under our breath and by grumbling about them. Correcting character flaws in our users is not part of our job. If someone has difficulty learning a new tool, it is up to use to figure out how to train them in such a way that they get it. This may include repetition, differing approaches and different methods of communicating.

CAD Managers are always encountering users who “just don’t get it”. This may mean that they cannot understand the software, or forget some of the steps in using the software, or just don’t care to learn. No matter what the reason, we slip when we decide that the root of all problems is bad users. They may truly be one of the reasons that things go bad. There are a lot of users out there that can’t get things done in one or two (or more) areas of the software.

But if you find yourself quickly thinking that someone is inept no matter what the problem may be then you might get caught up in writing off their complaints. In my series on BAD CAD, one of the issues was the User, so I am aware of the difficulties that may arise from the users doing something wrong. That does not mean that all problems come from their bad habits.

Take the time to listen to the problem and if it is related to someones lack of knowledge, then apply yourself to getting them up to speed. Even if you have already done it before, or many times before. Our job as CAD Managers is to work on the problem, which may include working with users who do not catch on. We must avoid complaining about someones inabilities and focus on moving forward.

Table of contents for BAD CAD Management Habits

1. BAD CAD Management Habits – Jumping to Conclusions
2. BAD CAD Management Habits – Attacking the Person not the Problem
3. BAD CAD Management Habits – Allowing others to make your decisions
4. BAD CAD Manager Habits – Offering False Hope
5. BAD CAD Management Habits – All or Nothing
6. BAD CAD Management Habits – Being Too Flexible

I have previously done some extensive writing on BAD CAD - files that fail to work the way you expect. Now I move on the BAD CAD Managers. There are a few out there that are easy to spot. They stick out like a sore thumb and everyone tries to avoid them. But before we hack on the other, let’s think of how we may fall into this category from time to time. Each of us has exhibited BAD CAD Management from time to time…

We all may need a little exercise now that the new year is here and the holiday weight is hanging on. Getting rid of those extra pounds is tough. So is getting rid of some bad habits. One of those is jumping to conclusions.

We jump to a conclusion any time we offer an answer before we have all of the information needed to give a good answer. We jump to conclusions anytime we make a generalized statement based on minimal data.

Here is an example:

Susan leaves a note on your desk as she leaves for lunch telling you that she needs a file restored from backups. Susan “always” messes up files and she has often had troubles that others do not. Just last week she corrupted an entire project by messing up the background files beyond repair. So you decide that you are going to fix these files and then “fix” her. You think – this is a no brainer!. You fixed these troubles several times for others. A few quick adjustments to her system and things will be running smoothly. You go to her machine, make the adjustments, spend about 30 minutes cleaning up the file that she thought needed to be restored and then wait for her to return from lunch so you can “train” her in the proper use of the tools. You pridefully return to your desk to wolf down the left over lasagna from last nights dinner out with the family.

Susan returns and asks about the file… “Did you replace that file I asked about?” You launch into the 27 reasons why files get corrupted and the 35 ways to prevent it. Susan does not get a word in while you “adjust her thinking”. When you finally stop for a breath she mentions that the real reason the file needed to be restored is that the client wants to revert back to a previous design. Restoring the file was the best way to get that design restored.

You have egg on your face and you have most likely insulted Susan – why? Because you jumped to a conclusion that was not true. If you had more data and information, you could have restored that file fairly quick and not “wasted” time working on the wrong thing. We all know that we should avoid jumping to conclusions, but we fall into this trap often.

Take the time to ask some questions before you embark on fixing the problems. A few short questions before you dive in can help you avoid a lengthy effort in the wrong direction. Most of the time the first question should contain the word “WHY”.

For AutoCAD customers in the Americas and Japan, you are entitled to 30 days support from your date of registration covering installation and configuration of your new Autodesk software.

Installation support

Installation support is support for installing software on your computer system using the installation process described in the product Getting Started manual. Troubleshooting of installation issues is also included.

Configuration support

Configuration support is support for setting up peripheral devices to work with your Autodesk software. It includes support for setting product and system variables to make the best use of the product on your system.

Up & Ready site
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North and South America (including the Caribbean)

Product Support in English
You are entitled to 30 days of Up and Ready web and telephone support from your date of Registration, in English, covering installation and configuration of your new Autodesk software.

The 30-day support program will automatically be set up in the name of the person registering the product. This registering party will receive a system notification to set up a login to access the support program.

This month:

Creating CAD Support Teams for successful implementation.
Building your Teams – Part 1 and Part 2

Back to School – what you need to learn

August Survey Says!

Quick Tip – Revit 8.1

Go to the September Issue