Automated timesheet tracking

[jbortoli]

Does anyone have or know of software which can track the amount of time spent editing drawing files in an autocad session. I am wanting to somehow automate the process of filling in a timesheet on a project basis. Vba or lisp?
Thanks in anticipation
John b

[Wanderer]

Does anyone have or know of software which can track the amount of time spent editing drawing files in an autocad session. I am wanting to somehow automate the process of filling in a timesheet on a project basis. Vba or lisp?
Thanks in anticipation
John b

there's a suggestion here: http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=40020 of just using your log files to track rough time spent on files.

I think this software will record the time spent open and editing files: http://www.cadtempo.com/ I haven't used it myself, but, it's been around awhile.

[duhvinci]

I think this software will record the time spent open and editing files: http://www.cadtempo.com/ I haven't used it myself, but, it's been around awhile.

Thanks for the mention Melanie.

To elaborate, CadTempo maintains a complete history of who opened a drawing and when. A complete history is maintained throughout and day to day activity is recorded. You are able to "travel back in time" to examine any day (or week, etc.) and with one click create an excel spreadsheet reporting those details. It also has a Task Timer that allows you to track job time by assigning project or job names.

It is designed to work with many different CAD applications (AutoCAD, LT, Revit, Inventor...) and acknowledging that many drafters and designers also work with applications like Excel, Word, and other software it will record those files as well.

[dsthilare]

In the end of the day this is almost asinine to try and have AutoCAD figure out what hours are allocated to which project. Major hurdles that I foresee are such;

1) Opening drawings for reference - Many times users will open an old file to steal a detail or annotation notes. Sometimes just opening a drawing for reference for standards (if you are a multi-standard discipline, I deal with numerous municipalities, so this is a major issue).

2) Non-editing time. Many times I might not open CAD for half a day. Usually since I am involved in meetings on the project, working on other aspects of it besides raw file editing. Plotting / publishing time is not always attributed to one project.

3) Convolution and billing - Just because I fire off a set of DWFs for a project doesn't mean I am going to bill the 5 minutes it took to do such. Clients much prefer to have a more substantial billing increments (usually in 0.5 hour increments). By breaking down your timesheet to minimal times, you are just creating time and headaches for your billing department / yourself.

The best way we have found to guarantee time sheet accuracy is to ride the user to make sure it is being filled out as they go, instead of trying to recall hours at the end of the week. We also use a schedule to keep track of all incoming jobs / who they are assigned to / when completed / and time it took. That usually is enough to remind people that management is watching what they are doing.

[duhvinci]

CADApe,

I don't know why I hadn't seen your reply til now but I thought I would mention that CadTempo addresses all of the bullet points you made:

1) Regardless of why a drawing was opened the fact is it was opened and time was spent reviewing it. That time needs to be accounted for.

2) CadTempo has an adjustable Idle Timer to account for this. If you set it up to say 5 minutes then CadTempo considers 5 minutes of idle time as being edit time. For instance a phone call, a rest room break, brief interruptions... Idle time past the 5 minutes are then considered idle time and the editing timer does not continue adding up. If you leave a drawing sitting idle for an extended period, say for a meeting, when you return if you have the Activity Timer engaged you will be prompted to enter an activity such as meeting, lunch, customer visit...

3) As insignificant as it seems every minute is of value and while one minute is not much the accumulation of those minutes across a large organization can be significant. I agree that to burden an individual with documenting those minutes is simply put, stupid. An automated time tracking system can do it with no effort. The built-in timesheet generater in CadTempo can create a final report in literally seconds.

Finally as I mentioned in 3 there is no burden placed on your workers, it is automatic, time recording and prompting for projects, task, and activities is done by the program not the user.

I would be most interested in hearing your thoughts if you happen to give it a try.

[BlackBox]

His has been discussed many times here (recently by some of the same individuals LoL) - in short software is good; [honest, well trained] humans are better.

Case in point:

I hypothetically work in a drawing all day, busy working away, seemngly getting lots o production done, right?

So, my time for the day is allocated to the project. Great... Unless I end my day with "Ctrl+A" then "Delete" (before saving). 100% utilization, +/-0% actual productivity. Just saying.

[duhvinci]

RenderMan,

I'm not sure I understand your point.

Irrespective of the system in place to record that time (manually or automated) what would you suggest should happen to that individual?

Which system has a better chance of management detecting that type of behavour?

P.S. Did you notice the subject line from the OP?

[cadtag]

[QUOTE=duhvinci;1155860]...Irrespective of the system in place to record that time (manually or automated) what would you suggest should happen to that individual?[QUOTE]

perhaps a gentle discussion of the benefits of saving early and often?

True story -- back in the day when 486DX machines were the norm, I had a user in FTL who lost a weeks worth of work. Seems that he had loaded so much information into a single drawing (R12 DOS mind you, probably 768K RAM) that his 4865-66Mhz took close to an hour to open or save the drawing. His plan was to simply keep the drawing open all week, and save when he left on friday. pity the power dropped in the middle of a friday lunchtime thunderstorm.... ya gotta love florida.

You can make it foolproof, but you can't make it damnfoolproof

[duhvinci]

perhaps a gentle discussion of the benefits of saving early and often?

I'm a huge proponent of save early, save often. First thing I do when I create a new drawing is name it. The most accessable button is QSave.

I think what RenderMan was trying to point out is no matter what you do it is all for naught if a user is determined to be useless. This is at odds with the "good; [honest, well trained] humans are better" comment.

My counterpoint is what's an easier way to catch a user that is determined to game the system?

In any event, I would like to mention that is not what I promote using CadTempo for.

[BeKirra]

Hi guys,
Just FYI, in the way of joking or seriously.
For those who are contractors/managers, they may need it.
However, for those who are non-contract based drafters, they do not need this, simply.
Believe it or not...