How to get management approval to upgrade CAD?

[stephen.lam.1359]

Hi all,

You how to get your boss approve to upgrade the AutoCAD version?

I'm working on a International Telecoms engineering department over 6 years. Up today, they just have one time upgrade it from Ver.14 to 2000. But they haven't any plan upgrade it any more. Pass few years, each time I request upgrade it to latest version. They always say no $$ for that. Even I show the letter form Autodesk say the version no longer technical support and upgrade benefits about that.

You think what's my boss answer for me?
"...We have few station working on Australia and Singapore. They haven't got any problem. Why need to upgrade it? If because the OS upgraded to XP made the CAD software running unstable. Down grade the OS is OK...."

They should know, no one software can running forever. It's a tools for company, not for myself!!!

[jdmc]

Try to get them to comit to the subscription program. That way you don't have to keep asking them for money. The best way to get them to spend the money is to list the productivity gains ie you will be able to do your job 'this' much quicker by using 'these' new features.

[H-Angus]

If you ever need to send/receive your dwg files through email it surely must be annoying (and time consuming) to receive 2004 file formats, only to have to phone up the sender in order to obtain a copy saved to an earlier version.

This alone would be enough to make me upgrade, not to mention the huge productivity gain from all the new features.

Surely: More productive = quicker & higher quality production = more profit for your boss/company?

Just my 2p.

Going off on a slight tangent, would an Acad R11/R12 or earlier user be able to switch to say R2006 without considerable re-training? Possibly but I don't think so. So the same must be true to switch from 2000 to (stepping into the time machine) R2010. Although this would be more of a personal issue for yourself - e.g. if you wanted to change jobs etc.

Guess thats 4p now?

[Mike.Perry]

Hi

Here are a few articles that might help...

CAD Manager: Get Approved (http://management.cadalyst.com/cadman/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=147104)

CAD Manager - The Upgrade Dilemma (http://management.cadalyst.com/cadman/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=165736)

CAD Manager - Basics of Budgeting (http://management.cadalyst.com/cadman/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=174625)

CAD Manager - Convince Management with Benchmarks (http://management.cadalyst.com/cadman/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=262286)

Have a good one, Mike

[robert.1.hall72202]

This shouldn't be an issue these days :-p
Get a subscription service and the cd is shipped to you each year.

May not be economical for everyone, but as an end user I like not
having to beg my boss every year.

Autodesk has added code to the original software over the years.
Most of the same commands that were in Acad R12 still exist and are
used in the more recent versions. Drawings can be created the same way
they always have been, but with the addition of some really useful tools.

[Brian Myers]

The articles Mike posted are a good place to start.

As far as subscription, I'm known as a huge supporter of that... but in this case I don't agree, I think that's asking a bit too much. For one, with seats of 2000 you can no longer upgrade to the subscription program, you must purchase totally new seats of the software anyway. So not only would you be asking to spend more money, but you would also be asking to spend more money every year after that... which will likely kill the benefits from the eyes of management.

Is there a reason you would like to upgrade? Production benefits, employee hiring/retention? I know of many potential benefits, but management is going to want a return on investment breakdown and it's something you'll need to think hard about.

[Brian Myers]

Going off on a slight tangent, would an Acad R11/R12 or earlier user be able to switch to say R2006 without considerable re-training? Possibly but I don't think so. So the same must be true to switch from 2000 to (stepping into the time machine) R2010. Although this would be more of a personal issue for yourself - e.g. if you wanted to change jobs etc.


It depends on what you use it for. If you still use R11/R12 you likely don't use 3D and most of the improvements since those days are not in "drafting commands" but in speed/production benefits. Use of the tool palettes, re-setup of your menus, and learning all the short-cuts are all musts but nothing you can't live without (unless you are the CAD manager) until you have time to set them up/learn it.

I don't believe it would require much re-training outside of learning how to set-up the computers to a way you'll be able to utilize... but to really get all the production benefits it's a big learning curve (that many old-time CAD users have never totally picked up because they've never had to).