Need a crash course in CAD Management!!!

[bbacker]

:confused:

Well I suddenly find myself in the position of being the official CAD Manager here in the archtectural department. No money with this 'promotion'. All I can say is thank you and ...okay....what now?


The first task is implementing standards. Ha, Ha, with 3 Project Architects here that have their own opinions on how drawings should look. The great debate right now is over the color red. :banghead:

I don't really know what questions I should be asking of you experienced managers. All my tasks are kind of overwhelming me right now.

First we are implementing standards. Then at the end of May, my firm will be finalizing the aquistion of another local A/E firm that will double our size. So I will have another set of people moving in with their own set ways of doing things. After that, we will be beginning our transition into ADT. :::insert hysterical laughter here:::

Any tips, advice, suggestions, starting points, cautions, would by most appreciated!!

:beer:

Many thanks ahead of time! :)

[Wanderer]

Well I suddenly find myself in the position of being the official CAD Manager here in the archtectural department. No money with this 'promotion'. All I can say is thank you and ...okay....what now?
Any tips, advice, suggestions, starting points, cautions, would by most appreciated!!

:beer:
um, congratulations? :confused: I guess. lol. I'd just say peruse this forum, as well as the autodesk cad managers forum (http://discussion.autodesk.com/index2.jspa?categoryID=37)for questions that other cad managers have asked (search out specific stuff like cad standards) to let you know what you're really in for... good luck.

[Tom Dorner]

All I can say is good luck. I have been doing CAD management for 20 years and never came to a consensus in our firm. We too were going to transition to ADT, then made the switch to Revit. With Revit we are able to use it more "out of the box" and since there are no layers or colors that debate in our firm has finally ceased. Before going full steam ahead with ADT, you may want to take a look at Revit since it requires a whole lot less "management". We are extremely happy with our decision to use Revit.

Tom

[bbacker]

Thank you! Yes, I will be using the forums alot. I have found them very useful already! :)

I am sure this will all work out but it is overwhelming right now.

[bbacker]

Thank you!

What has been decided so far is too move slowly. Revit is just too different from the way we operate now that everyone would be frustrated and unwilling to change. So it is hoped that a couple of years of ADT will prepare everyone for Revit. While the programs are very different, the way of using them is similar, (I think). Plus getting the firm to finance the training will be very difficult atleast for the forseeable future.

[Mike.Perry]

Hi

Have a browse of the following thread (hopefully you will find some of the information within helpful / useful) -

New at the job (http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=4435)

Have a good one, Mike

[Wanderer]

Hi

Have a browse of the following thread (hopefully you will find some of the information within helpful / useful) -

New at the job (http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=4435)

Have a good one, Mike
ooh, good link (i'd forgotten that i'd given such great advice before! :lol: ;) )

[Tom Dorner]

Bridgett,

Having used ADT I can tell you that it too takes a ton of training to use it for anything more than walls and door / window insertion. My own personal opinion is that two years of ADT will only put you further behind the Revit curve. I run the Revit users group here in Minneapolis/St. Paul and we have a lot of ADT users show up that are simply blown away by what Revit can do yet cannot convince their managment to make the change. What I tell them is "as my competitor I'm glad they continue to avoid the use of Revit " We are actually winning work away from some of these same firms because of our use of Revit. We can do it faster better and cheaper with Revit.

Tom

[drafting.33933]

Congratulations. :-D

First thing I'd like to say to you is "your the boss". You obviously were chosen for a reason, you know something. I've been "thrusted" into the CAD manager's position about 10 years ago when my boss started hiring more drafting technicians and I had to set/create/update standards quickly. You mention that you've got three Architects that have their own way - use them. I had to set all my standards myself (my boss hired me as his first draftsman) and at times I didn't know whether to go left or right. I started to ask opinions, and even to this day I will listen to others, take in their ideas, but still make my own decisions (some ideas that were suggested I had tried already, but didn't work for our situation). Anyway, enough about me.

Use those three Architects, assign them a different task and give them an actual deadline to come up with ideas. You set yourself a time line to make decisions - you may have to utilize actual projects to test your decisions.

With the others merging, you need to do the same thing. Find their key people and create a committee with yourself as chair, you report to your superiors with the final outcome.

Experience has shown me that you, as manager, will be sought out by your peers and supervisors for assistance and work that needs to be done. I still have a challenge at juggling the work load from my superiors and performing my managerial duties. I find that setting blocks of time during the day, and during the week where your assigned and assigning tasks will be done. If you have an office, use the door. If you don't, just make it clear that you will be available after...... .

I am not trying to scare you, just give you some advice. Some days you feel like your on top of the world because everything is falling into place, other days you may be hitting your head on your desk (and it's only 9:00 am).

Have Fun!

Ted

[Mike.Perry]

Hi

Have a browse of the following thread (contains a link to Robert Green's CADalyst CAD Management E-mail Newsletter, if you don't already receive it, I personally recommend you sign-up) -

Advice... (http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=6405)

Have a good one, Mike

[bbacker]

Thanks all for the advice and links. I am reading them all as fast as I can! Things aren't as overwhelming as they were last week but there is still alot to do and limited time to do it all in.

[JASONM30395]

Don't forget to delegate when necessary and possible. (let someone else do the work and not get paid for it)

[khworley]

I too have recently been given the official "CAD Manager" title even though I was the senior person at my office for a while. Like you, I found years of CAD work that had very little organization or standardization (ever heard of a layer name S3 meaing solid line and color 3, like you can't tell that from looking). Fortunately we have hired some good drafters who understand the concept of CAD flexibility. My philosophy was to initiate a drafting "guideline" instead of a "standard" and hope that just a change in wording would help bring a less rigid feeling of conforming, or assimilation if you will, into a new office. This also reinforced the concept that the drafting can be flexible as long as the finished product is correct. Competent drafters should be able to use any system and still deliver. As far as AutoCAD tricks go, I found the Tool Palatte to be a huge help in ensuring that proper blocks, especially ones with attributes, are used. I placed all the blocks into a single drawing, built the palatte with tabs for annotation, framing, concrete, etc. then located it on the server so that everyone loads the same palatte.

I gathered from your posting that you are currently in an architecture firm and are acquiring an A/E firm which puts you in a unique situation. Not only do you have architectural drafters but also engineeing drafters. If that is the case I would suggest that you take the time (if you don't know already) and understand how the engineers like to use architectural CAD files to complete their structural drawings. This will definately give you some ideas on how to use layers and xrefs to share information effectively between the two disciplines. Good Luck.

[bbacker]

Don't forget to delegate when necessary and possible. (let someone else do the work and not get paid for it)


I figure someone will always know more than I do about AutoCAD, standards, etc...so I ask alot of questions.

Believe it or not, I really don't mind doing this on my own time (for now anyways). It is a challenge and I am learning alot so I am enjoying it. Call me strange. :roll: