ADT implementation?

[bbacker]

My firm is about too upgrade to ADT 2005. We have ADT 3.3 in the office but only a couple of us have played with it. I decided to take a class at the local community college to get a jump start on the transition. My instructor works for another local firm. He said it took his firm 5 years to fully implement ADT. "YIKES!" is what I said.

Is this typical time line for transitioning from 2D drafting to ADT? How long did it take your office to start using ADT effectively?

Also, what kind of training were you provided with?

Like I said, there are only 2 of us in the office with any familiarity with ADT. And....2005 is quite different from ADT 3.3 (and we have never used it). So basically, it is just going to be me who has any knowledge of this program's capabilities. I am a little daunted by that. We have no assurances from management that we will be provided with any kind of training. So I am a little daunted. I could be the one training my co-workers!!!

BTW, I am not the "official" CAD manager. I am just the poor sap who stuck her neck out to get the training needed.

Many thanks ahead of time for any thoughts, advice or suggestions!

[Mike.Perry]

Hi Bridgett

Please note I've *moved* this thread from the CAD Mgmt. General Forum to this one as I believe it would be better served here.

Thanks, Mike

Forum Moderator

[bbacker]

Not a problem!! Thanks!

[Steve_Bennett]

My firm is about too upgrade to ADT 2005. We have ADT 3.3 in the office but only a couple of us have played with it. I decided to take a class at the local community college to get a jump start on the transition. My instructor works for another local firm. He said it took his firm 5 years to fully implement ADT. "YIKES!" is what I said.

Well, I can understand how it could take 5 years, but I don't think you're getting the whole story. Once it is installed, you can decide what features you want to start using. If you are going to use every feature but want to break it up over time so that it can be transitioned into your workflow, its quite possible.

Is this typical time line for transitioning from 2D drafting to ADT? How long did it take your office to start using ADT effectively?

Check out this thread for some addn'l. info on implementation: http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=13450

Also, what kind of training were you provided with?

Again, look at the thread linked aboved. Also, the gurus got more in depth training than the rest of the office.

Like I said, there are only 2 of us in the office with any familiarity with ADT. And....2005 is quite different from ADT 3.3 (and we have never used it). So basically, it is just going to be me who has any knowledge of this program's capabilities. I am a little daunted by that. We have no assurances from management that we will be provided with any kind of training. So I am a little daunted. I could be the one training my co-workers!!!

This could either be good or bad, depending on how you want to approach it. It could be good in that they would rely on you for making stuff happen. That would be your chance to shine. It could be bad in that you might feel overwhelmed with all thats going on. I highly recommend getting all users some training from your reseller. Otherwise, you will be stuck with creating a large amount of courseware in addition to setting up your system. From an economical standpoint, it would make more sense to do it that way if you are limited in the number of people who can help with implementation. If you have questions as you go on this ride, please feel free to ask in here.

[tatriest]

Up front, I also do not hold the title of CAD manager. I am a structural engineer, and "pioneer" of the implementation of behave of my department............

Since 1992, my firm has used ArrisCAD for the Structural and Architectural departments. We hired M/E/P engineers around 1999, of which they starting using AutoCAD. Over time, we hired Landscape Architects and Civil Engineers, also using AutoCAD products. At this point in time, even the AutoCAD users do not use the same standards -- this will be changing with the firm-wide conversion.

In September 2004, the firm decided to convert to ADT.

In October 2004, the structural department started the implementation of ADT and CADstudio (RAM International, Inc.). As a department of 4 (2 engineers, 2 draftsmen), the implementation was not too cumbersome -- although we are constantly challenged by new hurdles.

In December 2004, a handful (myself and 5 others from our branch offices) were selected to be the PIONEERS of the implementation. My knowledge of the structural implementation helps with the conversion, but there are a lot of integration aspects that need worked out (i.e. layer key styles, xref'ing procedures, wall style modifications, etc.)

The Pioneer team started training with a Autodesk reseller in January, and will be trained once a month for 5-6 months. By June, we hope to have all of standards fine-tuned (fonts, plot styles, procedures, etc.), and the reseller will start training the rest of the company.

Our ultimate goal is total integration to the point of Xref'ing across disciplines, i.e. the structure will be drawn and controlled by the structural department. The architectural department will Xref my structural which will be cut in their building section. If it needs to be adjusted, they will notify me, and I will make the adjustments.

We have a lot of work ahead of us, but as pointed out previously, break it up. Prioritize & Delegate !!!!!

Our top priorities are fonts, lineweights, wallstyles, layer names, and directory structure. Your priorities are probably different.

Another aspect of drafting that we are battling is the dimensioning method for walls. We currently dimension both sides of the wall, which causes problems in the field when the masons lay out the walls. We are going to dimension ONE side of the walls, and our wall styles are going to be developed with EXACT dimensions, not nominal.

Hope this helps.......
Terry

[Kris.Keller]

There is definitely a learning curve in going from regular AutoCAD to ADT 2005. One of the areas that still trip up some of our users and we have been on ADT since it was first introduced, is Display Representation Sets. If you get a good handle on this right up front things will go well for you.

[tatriest]

The learning curve from ArrisCAD to ADT is like a cliff...........


Speaking of Display Representations, I am playing with walls w/ footings and was wondering if this was possible -- hope you can follow......

The Architecture department places walls with footings and they have their display settings to hide the footings. Can I (the Structural department) xref in the plan with wall footings and set the Display Representation so the footings will display correctly in my structural foundation drawing?

Along the same lines, could I xref in the plan and walls in a different roof drawing to display the CMU border as a different lineweight to represent load-bearing walls?

My goal......is to only draw the walls ONCE. Hope this makes sense.

[Steve_Bennett]

The Architecture department places walls with footings and they have their display settings to hide the footings. Can I (the Structural department) xref in the plan with wall footings and set the Display Representation so the footings will display correctly in my structural foundation drawing?
Along the same lines, could I xref in the plan and walls in a different roof drawing to display the CMU border as a different lineweight to represent load-bearing walls?
My goal......is to only draw the walls ONCE. Hope this makes sense.

This not only possible, but rather easy. All you would need to do is copy their display configs & rename them to what you want. Then change what you want to see visible in your dwg in display manager. Then it will just be a simple selection of which display config you want active. That is of course if you can get the arch. dept. to draw the way you want & use the right wall styles.

[tatriest]

I was playing with the settings this morning with no luck. I revisited the issue after I read your post. I was messing with the wrong settings. I'll try the changes after i Xref the plan.

Thanks.

[bbacker]

Thanks all for you help! Now that we are in our third week of classes, I see that there is no way I will be able to train my co-workers for this conversion. We are going to need professional help. As far as standards and all, if we could come to a consensus, I could handle that. And it is definitely going to take time.

I think the idea of a Pioneer team for ADT is a great idea. I am going to suggest that. The architect I work with prefers to work on smaller projects so that would work well.

So far, my class is awesome! I love ADT!!!! And it is a totally different way of thinking from 2d drafting. Wow!