Building Systems Implementation: Out source or not?

[sperrotto]

I have been a CAD Manager for about 7 years now. I have been around AutoCAD for about 15 years. Our company currently uses plain ol’ ACAD. We are finally taking the leap, albeit cautiously, to ABS. I consider myself to be a relatively talented CAD manager/programmer. I should also mention that I am also an HVAC designer 75% of the time. With that said, just about everyone I talk to and every thing I read, Building Systems is an entirely different beast than plain ol’ ACAD.

I would like to know, from you experienced ABS gurus, when you made the transition, did you out-source the implementation and/or training or did you do it on your own. If you did it on your own, how did it go and do you feel you are using ABS to its fullest capabilities?

Please, any input & advice will be hugely appreciated.

Thanks

[Mike.Perry]

Hi

Done.

Thread moved from the Bldg. Sys. General (http://forums.augi.com/forumdisplay.php?f=115) Forum to this one.

Thanks, Mike

Forum Moderator

[acad]

Building Systems is a different animal and unfortunately there is not much material out there on it - at least not as much as the other products.

I have helped implement two companies with Building Systems (this is in NO way an advertisement for me to help!).

A successful implementation, in any product, involves a lot of homework. I think a lot more information would be needed to give any advice as to whether you do it yourself or hire someone to help you with it. How many users will be using it? How many of each discipline? Will you be having ABS used as ADT & ACAD as well? Do you currently have lots of details, blocks, symbols that you want to incorporate?

There's just a lot to this in a successful setup.

I will be teaching an ATP class in Building Systems to give you a brief overview in November. I also would recommend reading the latest AUGIWorld article on Building Systems as well as some future articles on it.

Ask away and I'll try to help where I can. It's a great program!

[mjfarrell]

I would like to know, from you experienced ABS gurus, when you made the transition, did you out-source the implementation and/or training or did you do it on your own. If you did it on your own, how did it go and do you feel you are using ABS to its fullest capabilities?

Please, any input & advice will be hugely appreciated.

Thanks

This is my thought on this for you to consider. Unless you or someone
at your firm is going to read, all of the white papers, and the entire help file
for this product I would doubt that you or anyone else would be able to use
ABS to it's fullest extent. To the question about outsourcing the implementation
that could be either an excellent or miserable experience. I will say the same
for training. However I would not try to skip training, only ensure that you
quantify and qualify the items you want to know, and that the trainer can address
those needs. Perhaps even 'pre-qualify' the trainer, and have them instruct or
explain some required function to you before you buy any class.

The most common statement I hear from users of AutoDesk's vertical products,
"We just keep using it like AutoCAD". And thus they can not realize the gains
in revenue or productivity these products offer. Sadly many of then have also
been put off purchasing training, because they had a class or two in the past
that fell far short of both their needs and expectations for their investment.

[acad]

I agree. I didn't comment on the training phase.

Items to consider (and not settle for less):

Trainer should be able to use some of your normal drawings as examples and should review them to be able to show you how to use the product to do "your" types of drawings, not some generic textbook drawing.
Don't try to get all the training at once. Using ABS is a whole new process. Work with your trainer to develop a training schedule. I personally like to train 3-4 weeks apart. That way you learn how to use one feature or learn the new interface and can use it and work on that. Once you're successful with one portion then you train on another portion. Avoid week-long "cram sessions".
Insist on appropriate material from the trainer and make a training library or reference area for your users or for you as CAD Manager to use after training.
Is the trainer available after training for questions? Can you call on himi or her a week or a month after the training?
Do you have a preference and is the trainer flexible as to location? Do you need all your people to travel to a class or can the class be held in a conference room at your site with your own computer? Both have advantages and disadvantages.
Best of luck!

[sperrotto]

Thanks for the reply Beth.

We will have approx. 32 users in 3 Cities, 11 Electrical, 4 Plumbing, 17 HVAC. For starters, we will do a pilot project with 2 HVAC, 2 Elec. & 1 Plumber. Our plan is use ABS, and only revert back to ACAD if the pilot group needs to help pick up slack on other projects.

We have hundreds of blocks, details and symbols. How much we want to incorporate is yet to be determined. My thought is that Auto Desk has a pretty good library, if theirs is close to ours, we will just use theirs and only incorporate what ABS doesn't include.

Do you have the date set for the ATP class and how do I sign up?

I am all for outsourcing, but $200 an hour is a tough pill for upper management to swallow.

[sperrotto]

I agree with both of you. I think spreading out the training is an excellent idea. It may even help ease the pain of the fee involved.