Take the latest Poll…
Someone asked me recently what the ratio of products were in the industry. I did not really have an answer, other than “AutoCAD is the most, by far”. Do any of you have any kind of guess or official number posted by Autodesk? Leave a comment…
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?
Tags: project milestone, maxims, flexibility, principles
I emailed out the latest CADD Manager Journal. You can read the links here
Revit Demands – Part 1 – Think Again
Revit Demands – Part 2 – No Spare Change
January 2008 – What were you before you became a CAD Manager?
If you want to sign up for the journals email delivery click here
We had our monthly Revit User Group meeting (RUGIE) last night. Scott Davis of Autodesk discussed some of the highly possible features that may be in the next release. The official list of included features has not been definitively announced yet, but we got a good sneak peek. What was shown and the list below has not been confirmed as making it into the actual shipping product.
Here is some of what he discussed…
Rendering enhancements with the Mental Ray rendering engine. Much better than Accurender.
Swept Blends – the ability to start a sweep with one shape and end it with another. The software will blend from one to the other.
View Cube and Steering Wheel – additional navigation features that move you around your model easier.
Revision Block enhancements so that you can reorder your revisions in the title block.
Room Tag improvements – Tag all, rotate tags, align tags, and more. Room Volume enhancements, Room tagging in elevations, enhanced tagging of linked models.
Dimension improvements and additional dimension types. Edit dimension strings and add text suffix and prefix.
Misc: Gapped Grid lines, View Depth plans, Surface patterning, Beam Join enhancement, Publish to DWFx, File navigation and interface enhancements…
I am looking forward to this release… It is jammed with goodies.
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…
From a Press Release today…
Revit Architecture 2009 (BIM for architects and designers) allows customers to capture early design concepts with improved analysis and visualization capabilities via:
- Increased sustainable design and energy analysis capabilities through easy exchange with partner applications
- Improved visualization functionality with the new Mental Ray engine for rendering, improving speed, quality, and usability
Revit Structure 2009 (BIM for structural engineers, designers and drafters) has been enhanced with greater modeling and documentation capabilities and is compatible with the newly acquired Robobat solutions. The AutoCAD Revit Structure Suite now includes AutoCAD Structural Detailing, enabling:
- Steel and reinforced concrete detailing and shop drawings
- State-of-the-art formwork drawings
Revit MEP 2009 (Revit for MEP engineering) provides customers with detailed, specified modeling functionalities, including:
- Air handlers, commercial condensing units, packaged rooftop units, and high-efficiency water source heat pumps
SAN RAFAEL, Calif., Feb. 12
Autodesk, Inc. is expanding its portfolio of software solutions to support sustainable design in the architecture, engineering & construction (AEC) markets with the acquisition of technology assets of two energy analysis software companies. Autodesk announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire substantially all the assets of Green Building Studio, an innovative provider of web-based building energy analysis that enables architects and engineers to easily perform whole building energy analysis early in the design process. Autodesk also announced that it has acquired substantially all the assets of Carmel Software Corporation, a developer of HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) mechanical engineering software that enables engineers and architects to analyze their mechanical designs and help ensure sustainability goals are achieved. Terms of the acquisitions were not disclosed.
ACTION NEEDED:
I have noticed that a lot of reader may be using an old RSS feed from the old site.
If you are an RSS reader of my old blog via feedburner or any other RSS feed process you may need to do something to continue getting the new feeds.
1. You need to get the new feed here. This means that even if you have signed up via feedburner before from the old site you need to sign up again.
2. If you are using feedburner you could sign up at the right on this page. You can also sign up at the bottom of any of the posts.
3. If you are not using a feed then sign up at the right on this page. For more info on RSS look here… Video: RSS in plain English
4. If you are using other feed readers, you need to adjust your existing RSS reader so that it points to the new feed.
Thanks for helping make the change. I think this will address some of you that have not gotten the new RSS feed.
Last Friday we completed our meetings. I flew back home on Friday night. Back to work today. All in all it was a very productive time. We discussed a multitude of possible offerings and planned for the next year. We still need to finalize the plan, but we made much progress.
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