CADDManager.com Journal

Vol. 5 Issue 12 --- December, 2005
BAD CAD - The Continuing Story

This month I continue our look at BAD CAD taking a look at the PC your working on.

BAD CAD can have a negative effect on your firm by bringing into question the design capabilities of your staff. Clients think "if they cannot get the CAD files right, what can they get right?"

So we look for ways to find and correct troubles related to BAD CAD files.

Mark W. Kiker, Editor
mark.kiker@caddmanager.com

In This Journal

BAD CAD

Trouble in the Machine

What needs Fixin'

Nov. Survey Says!

On the Website

Take our latest Survey - How is your hardware?

On the Blog

Communication Tips

CAD Liaison Duties

Working with Vendors - Part 1

Working with Vendors - Part 2

See my posts on BLAUGI

Latest CAD News

Quick Tip - AutoCAD 2006

Right next to the layer dropdown is an icon that lets you select an object to set the current layer.

Many of us may have tools like this from the old days that we developed ourselves. I suggest moving to the AutoCAD tools as they are added. If you have older LISP routines that can be replaced by a newer AutoCAD command, I suggest you move toward using them.

BAD CAD - Part Two

Last month we looked a BAD CAD and what to do about it. We continue this month with my list. I look in five areas for my troubleshooting:

The Files - We looked at this last month.

The Machine - After I check out the files, I look to the persons PC. Does the problem only happen on one machine? Is it a machine or system variable that is set incorrectly? Is it hardware troubles? See below for more.

The User - I always talk to the user to find out what has happened, what happened before it broke and how they got to where they are. It is quite often a mistake, a misunderstood tool or a bad click that got them here.

The Server - Sometimes the network or server hardware acts up. Don't forget to look here.

The Software - There are always "bugs" in the software. A tool that is not yet mature, not designed to be used in the way it is used or just not programmed correctly.

I will expand each one of these in the next few Journals, looking deeply into the causes and effects of BAD CAD

BAD CAD - Troubles in the Machine

After you have taken a close look at the CAD files, you need to look at the machine to see if that is what is causing the problem.

First I look at the Options Dialog Box. Is there anything funny in the Files Tab. I look at the Working Files locations to make sure that there is not some stray folder that has somehow gotten included in the search path. Sometimes there are files that get placed in the wrong location and supersede your proper support files.

more on the web...

BAD CAD goes beyond just the graphics in a file

It would include:

Bad Referencing from incorrectly located files
Difficult naming conventions for layers, blocks, hatches, etc.
Essential files (like CTB files) located on local hard drives

and more...

November 2005 - Survey Says

We asked where you went to get help.

The largest percentage 23% and 19% said that you turned to blogs or the web and Autodesk respectively.

Much smaller percentages turned to books, resellers or e-mailing. AUGI topped all of those but came in behind the online help files.

Nov. Results

December Survey - How's your hardware? Let us know what you have under the hood.

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CADD Manager Journal is a publication of the Core Technology Group
Editor: Mark W. Kiker
mark.kiker@ctg-web.com © 2005 by CTG.