CADDManager on March 22nd, 2006

I am in the habit now of shredding my outdated financial files at home. I am concerned about identity theft and think it is a good idea to not place old bank and credit card statements in the recycle bin intact.

The shredder is a great thing when used to slice up files that you don’t want anyone to use again. When it happens to your CAD files – it is not good.

CAD Shredders attack your files when a project team is not consistent with the application of the CAD Standard. I call them shredders but no one may have done it on purpose, but the files get twisted into a knot of random applications of the standard. Either the Standard was not followed or it was totally ignored.

Here are some reasons that it happens:

1. Lack of understanding of what the CAD Standard says. No one has read it. No one remembers what it says. No one goes back and checks.

2. No time to check the Standard. Production deadlines are looming and the #1 job is to get the hard copy out the door.

3. Grabbing content from other projects. This may be the number one way of gathering scattered standards. One project is following a client standard and the other is following another standard.

4. Not knowing how to use entities that others have created. When someone else passes a file on to you, and you don’t know how they made it or what tools they used to create the data, so you explode, break apart, edit, disassociate, and otherwise obliterate the data.

5. Users who are not trained in all the tools that are being used in your office. Not all users have the same knowledge. Those that lag behind are hurting those who have pushed ahead. (check out my blog on How differing levels of CAD expertise infect your files)

Don’t be a CAD Shredder!

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