Well – it still think that must be true for some…

At Autodesk University 2007 Dan Abbott taught the class again.

Dan teaches in the Architectural and Engineering Design department at Southern Maine Community College. In his 12 years of presenting at AU, he has received three Top Speaker awards. Dan is the author of a book, AutoCAD: Secrets Every User Should Know (Sybex press, 2007). Find it on my list of books that you should buy in my bookstore.

Here is the Class Description from Dan’s Class…

If you’re confused about Paper Space, this class is for you. We’ll go through Plotting step by step so you can learn how to efficiently lay out drawings, use annotative scales, solve problems, manage dimensioning, and control layer visibility. This class aims to take the mystery out of Paper Space and demonstrate how any office stands to benefit if everyone understands how to plot from layouts.

If you are a AU Online member you can get the handout. Here is the main page for his class.

I found some other material in PS… I have not reviewed these, so this is not an endorsement like the one above.

From the CAD Classroom site… these are from 2003.

Paper Space Explained – Lesson 1

Paper Space Explained – Lesson 2

Paper Space Explained – Lesson 3

Paper Space Explained – Lesson 4

Paper Space Explained – Lesson 5

Paper Space Explained – Lesson 6

Here is one from AutoCADCentral.com

One from CADTutor.com

Need more – just Google “AutoCAD Paper Space”

Here is the information they provided to me…

Venue/Location: Live and OnDemand Formats
Date: Starting June 23, 2009 through November 30, 2009
Register Now by visiting www.bentley.com/BeConnected

Bentley Systems’ Be Connected online seminar series gives architects, engineers, builders, geospatial professionals, and owner-operators a chance to learn about applying information modelling from some of the world’s leading infrastructure practitioners.

The conference series begins on June 23, is free of charge, in both live and OnDemand formats, and takes the place of this year’s Be Conference.

Be Connected offers two types of online seminars:

1) Best Practices Seminars. Presented by leading infrastructure professionals around the globe, these sessions bring a project perspective on best practices for the design, construction, and operation of specific types of infrastructure projects, including a series of seminars on each of the following: bridges, cadastre and land development, communications, electric and gas utilities, high performance buildings, mining and metals, oil and gas, rail and transit, roads, and water and wastewater.

2) Product Seminars. Presented by Bentley’s product executives and designed for both current and prospective users, these technology-focused sessions demonstrate the latest features and capabilities of Bentley’s comprehensive V8i software portfolio for sustaining infrastructure.

Here it is…

Siemens PLM has also published several Dummies booklets. “Design Logic for Dummies”, “Check-Mate for Dummies” and the latest “Design Freedom for Dummies” (based on Synchronous Technology and written by David Byrnes).

Jerry Sarfati have 20 copies available of the “Design Freedom for Dummies” books in his office, and he’s offering them for free to anyone with a US mailing address. Contact him via his twitter page( www.twitter.com/jsarfati ) with your US mailing address and he’ll send it out to the first 20 who ask for it. One copy per person please, USA mailing addresses only, available while supplies last.

So there you have it… a free book for the asking.  Click here to message him.  Tell him I sent you

Thanks Jerry!

Here are a few that are CAD related…

Google SketchUp For Dummies – By Aidan Chopra

AutoCAD 2009 For Dummies – By David Byrnes

SolidWorks For Dummies, 2nd Edition – by Greg Jankowski, Richard Doyle

AutoCAD 2008 3D Modeling Workbook For Dummies – by Lee Ambrosius

AutoCAD 2009 & AutoCAD LT 2009 All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies – by Lee Ambrosius

You can buy them or just browse them on page 2 of my bookstore.

Often we forget to train ourselves.  Staying ahead of the curve is not easy.  Have you forgotten to keep your skills current?

Table of contents for Four T's of CAD

1. Four T’s of CAD
2. First “T” of CAD – Tools
3. Second “T” of CAD – Talent
4. Third “T” of CAD – Technology
5. Fourth “T” of CAD – Training
6. Four T’s of CAD – Review
7. The Fifth “T” – Time

I came up with another one…

Add Time to the four T’s and you get success. What appears to be failures or stuttering starts end up being success when you add time.

How does this work?  What make bad things into good?  What allows the planning of yesterday become the foundation of tomorrow and the expansion into the future?

Time – just give it some time…

Give Tools time to mature

New and exciting tools are being developed, but they cannot do everything you want them to do.  None of them can.  Because as soon as they do – you want them to do more.  But look backwards and see that the troubles of yesterday are being addressed by the tools today.  Just give the developers time (and let them know what to work on) and they will mature the tools they offer.

Give Talent time to play

Talented people need tools and they need time to play with them.  They need some space to fail and room to experiment.  Allow those who are the best and brightest to just fiddle with new things, try out new software and push the limits of your efforts.  When you do this, they will not always succeed. But they will learn and find new approaches to old problems.  They will help you get past the hurdles of Tools that are not mature yet.

Give Technology time to catch up

When Talented people push technology they attempt things that the developers never thought they would try.  I have heard developers tell me that they never thought users would try to do what they are trying to do.  I have seen the light bulbs turn on in their minds as users mention options that they never thought of before.  This means that the real world of design is always setting the bar higher and the developers are playing catch up.  So give them some time and they usually get the technology focused on your needs.

Give Training time to sink in

Finishing a class does not make someone an expert.  It begins the path to expertise, but the job is not completed.  Add time to training and you end up with a ever increasing level of users who can operate on their own.  Sometimes management thinks that when training is done, the users are up to speed and can do everything needed.  But give them a little time and some project work and they will develop into advanced users.

Table of contents for Four T's of CAD

1. Four T’s of CAD
2. First “T” of CAD – Tools
3. Second “T” of CAD – Talent
4. Third “T” of CAD – Technology
5. Fourth “T” of CAD – Training
6. Four T’s of CAD – Review
7. The Fifth “T” – Time

Tools – Talent – Technology – Training

Keep the four T’s in your mind at all times.  Working all of these four areas together will provide you with a good platform for success.

Select the tools that you will use, seek out the talented people in your firm, give them the right blend of tools and then train them for all it’s worth.

By constantly moving through these areas, reviewing the successes and lessons learned your CAD environment will be making progress.  If you find an area that need attention, spend some time focusing your efforts to make that area stronger.  Working through each of this will provide yu with a roadmap of improvements.

Table of contents for Four T's of CAD

1. Four T’s of CAD
2. First “T” of CAD – Tools
3. Second “T” of CAD – Talent
4. Third “T” of CAD – Technology
5. Fourth “T” of CAD – Training
6. Four T’s of CAD – Review
7. The Fifth “T” – Time

Tools – Talent – Technology – Training

These four T’s can be used to define your efforts in you job. Combine these four and you get a balanced approach to CAD.

Training is how you get everyone there. Provide it and you succeed. Let it laps and your best tools and talent go stale.

Training is the battery pack that gets everything energized.  Firms that fail to pay enough attention to training find themselves behind the curve.  Training is needed for new users. Training can help you avoid the Project Killers I spoke of before in the August Journal.

Here are several posts I have done on Training over the years.  Read up and plan some training.

Here is a good reason that most firms avoid training…

The Quadruple whammy – away from work, not billable, training cost money and you have to pay for their time. This has always been a sore spot for firms that are thinking of earning and saving money (and who isn’t). Since they have to dedicate the time to training it takes them away from being productive and contributing to the project (on the short term). They also are not billable when they are in training since they are not contributing to the project deliverable. It costs money to send them to training.  And finally, you have to pay their salary while they sit in training.  That is four slams on the project and your budget.

Don’t let the negatives stop you from trying.  Securing the training budget is crucial to your team moving forward.

Table of contents for Four T's of CAD

1. Four T’s of CAD
2. First “T” of CAD – Tools
3. Second “T” of CAD – Talent
4. Third “T” of CAD – Technology
5. Fourth “T” of CAD – Training
6. Four T’s of CAD – Review
7. The Fifth “T” – Time

Tools – Talent – Technology – Training

These four T’s can be used to define your efforts in you job. Combine these four and you get a balanced approach to CAD.

Tools relates to the ones that you select. Which ones will you use? What will you use them for?

Talent relates to who is using the tools. Do they have a gut level understanding of how they are used? Do they get it? Do they push the limits?

Technology is your approach to using the tools and the talent. Who gets to use what? What mix can they have? When do they select the tools? When do you push toward the next great tech tool.

Training is how you get everyone there. Provide it and you succeed. Let it laps and your best tools and talent go stale.

I Will expand on these four topics over the next few posts.