CADDManager on July 24th, 2014

I attended a webinar today on the 2015 Autodesk Application Manager presented by Erik Klein.  It seemed pretty promising for the SMB sized firms. Autodesk defines this new tools as : Autodesk Application Manager is a cloud-centric software delivery solution, which includes a desktop software component that self-installs with all Microsoft Windows®-based Autodesk 2015 products […]

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CADDManager on February 17th, 2014

I ended the last series on Critical Conversations about CAD with some quick advice on what to do when you fail.  I wanted to revisit that topic and provide some additional comments on learning from failure. When failure happens you have to review how you got in that position.  How could things have gone so […]

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This entry is part 8 of 8 in the series Critical Conversations

CAD Issues that are brought to you must be addressed.  CAD problems can corrupt CAD files, cripple progress and ruin projects.  This is not a good thing.  Issues have to be dealt with when they arise.  Better yet – tackle them when they are just concerns before they become failures. But failures happen.  They are […]

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CADDManager on January 29th, 2014
This entry is part 7 of 8 in the series Critical Conversations

You notice something.  Then you become concerned.  Then it becomes an “Issue”.  That is the progression…  but how does it move from one to the next? These are the steps of items evolving beyond annoyance, anomaly or abstraction.  These are the items that have others moving beyond concern to very concerned, to an issue.  The […]

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CADDManager on January 28th, 2014
This entry is part 6 of 8 in the series Critical Conversations

When CAD concerns continue without being addressed they become CAD “Issues”. Issues should be fairly easy to identify because someone should let you know about it.  That does not always happen and we will discuss that in the next post.  For now, let’s just identify the Issues. Issues are trouble spots that have impacted workflow […]

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CADDManager on January 27th, 2014
This entry is part 5 of 8 in the series Critical Conversations

Last time I talked about things that you might “notice”.  Now we turn to the things that you have noticed that have become a “concern”. When you “notice” something, you are just perceiving repetitions that might have a pattern.  You are piecing together disparate items that may link to a common thread.   They might […]

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CADDManager on January 23rd, 2014
This entry is part 4 of 8 in the series Critical Conversations

We discussed what to watch for and who to talk to.  Now we move on to how to talk when you have to have a critical conversation. There are three levels that I usually try to frame my discussions with people when something comes up that I have to address.  I frame them under the […]

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CADDManager on January 22nd, 2014
This entry is part 3 of 8 in the series Critical Conversations

We have discussed what might trigger a critical conversation and now we move to who might be involved. When a CAD Manager uncovers a pattern of deviation that might impair the progress of a CAD project, they need to bring it up to someone.  There needs to be a conversation related to what they have […]

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CADDManager on January 21st, 2014
This entry is part 2 of 8 in the series Critical Conversations

Last time we discussed why some detrimental items in CAD may go unnoticed, avoided, uncorrected and worst of all seen by the client.  We encouraged CAD Managers to have these critical conversations with those on the production team and higher. Topics that Might Trigger Critical Conversation You might ask, “What areas should you be looking […]

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