Updating your CAD Standards

[sarah.campden]

Good day all,

I am interested to see how everyone else updates their company CAD Standards/Protocol. I have a system in place, but of course it is the neverending dynamic beast.

What is the best way to get all the information out to the masses? I currently hold a monthly lunch meeting to update people with office/AutoCAD related items via meeting minutes then try to update the CAD Standards and re-issue every few months.

Currently our manual is in hard copy format on everyones desk. I was going to run a poll to see if everyone would rather have a digital version, which of course would make updating much easier.

What does everyone think?
Thanks,

Sarah

[Harold Pei Jr]

Some people would rather have a copy in their hands. I say if it's not more than half the people, then let them print their own copy. We keep ours on our intranet, and when we need to update it, we do. We then inform everyone, through our Sharepoint, that the standards have changed. If there's a template that goes along with it, they can download it off of there... that reminds me, time to go make some changes.

[rkmcswain]

We keep a single copy, on the intranet. It's printable if someone really wants to, but we do not encourage it. Our system is a bit more complex because we have several departments and offices that may be different or the same on a given topic.

[sarah.campden]

Thanks for the help! I love the idea of a web based document. It allows those who need the hands on to print as required.

I was wondering how you update information within the document. Do you create new versions (Version 2.1 etc.)? I am trying to figure out how best to include the information brought up in our monthly meetings. Just adding it to the document and letting people find it on their own, or creating a "What's New" section to the front of it? So far I am just revising the document and re-issuing. I don't know if this is the best way.

Thanks again!

Sarah

[rkmcswain]

We just update as needed - no revisions are kept. The main page is programmed to check the document date and if it's older than 12 months, a different icon for that doc is shown - so that we can visually see when a document needs to be reviewed.

We once tried a Wiki format, which does it's own revisions (2.1,2.2,2.3,2.4, etc) - but it just didn't fit for other reasons - but you might look at a Wiki - it may fit your needs.

[TerribleTim]

I was thinking on this one as well. I like the idea of setting it up as a webpage on the company intranet. Leaves a lot you can do with it, like adding template files and so on. As for revisions, I say don't keep them. If you want your users to use the latest version, don't give them an older one.

[acote]

Convert your doc to htm and set it as a menu item on your enterprise menu.

^C^C_browser Q:/CAD/Standards.htm

ACote

[dgorsman]

I do ours in Word format, and am looking at setting it up under the CAD Manager channel with positive testing results so far. Haven't gotten the notification bubble to pop up yet, but I still think its a good, centrally accessable location.

[michael.12445]

Ours is on the intranet, too, in html format. The nice thing about web pages is that you can add links directly to folders where you keep all your standard blocks, configuration files, etc. Saves a lot of tedious questions about "Where was that file...?"

Michael Evans
Togawa Smith Martin Residential, Inc.