How to develop a CAD training program

[cparvez]

I'm developing a CAD training program for my company got any ideas about a good place to start... Everyone has good basic CAD skills, but nothing in depth. My boss says that I need to give people a step by step hand book for tools, but I'm afraid that the stuff I am creating is too juvenile. Attached is an example. Feed back would be greatly appreciated

[Baghera]

I'm developing a CAD training program for my company got any ideas about a good place to start... Everyone has good basic CAD skills, but nothing in depth. My boss says that I need to give people a step by step hand book for tools, but I'm afraid that the stuff I am creating is too juvenile. Attached is an example. Feed back would be greatly appreciated


You can never be too simplistic (juvenile is such a childish word ;) ) The best manuals are written assuming the user knows nothing. (unless your specifically looking for advanced material) You could hire someone fresh out of school tomorrow who might not have "good" CAD skills, (defining "good" basic skills is another conversation altogether).
and then you'd want the training to cover the basics as well. But even in the more advanced training, getting too technical, too fast will probably loose all but the "gurus". One thing I do once a month is "analyze" my drafting sequence for a day. Copy down every step you make to do a certain function. Not only will this help you write a good manual, it will help you find ways to be a better CAD operator.

My suggestions: (as such)

Tier your training modules so that you're teaching things you (or your company) feel are relavant to the level of the operator.

K.I.S.S. Keep It Sweet and Simple

Shorter modules will be absorbed faster than trying to stuff too much information into there brains at once. (If the're that good you can feed them more than one module at a time.) Break down each command into as many parts as possible. ex. a chapter on hatching, then paragraphs on; inserting, modifying, associativity,etc,etc...

Group sessions as well as individual "assignments". It's amazing what happens and how much information gets shared when 5-6 people are talking about the same topic together.
(Sell it to management by telling them that your 1/2 hour session will save them 7-8 hours drawing time over a month and you should get a monthly (or even weekly) session no problem.

[Robert.Hall]

Start with Cad tip of the week emails, and then work your way up.
I would just find some really great books, scan some pages, and send
them to all your co-workers. As for tool palletes, just make one up and
put it out there for everyone to use.....costs the company too much cash
to have everyone screwing around with creating tool palletes for half the day.
Let them make suggestions for what needs to be added and make the
changes as necessary. Spend time with people one on one....it makes
you look like the expert.

[cparvez]

Thanks for the help! We have a weekly meeting with most of the drafters so I think I can cover a short topic there weekly. Maybe a common system variable like pickadd or mirrtext. Then I could probably schedule a monthly meeting with each group and present more complex commands then. I have been working with the group leaders to see what would most benefit their teams. Basically I have found that they don't know what they don't know. But talking to them and defining their issues is a good place to start.