Cadd Standards from Outside Clients

[tedg]

Ok, I have more "Cadd Standards" (and company policy) questions.
We seem to do allot of work for clients that impose their standards on us.
Some are very detailed and specific and some are simple and "loose".

My questions are these,
Do many companies out there do this too?
How do you handle all the different standards?
Does your company charge extra for complying to them and if so how much more?
Is it wise to "eat it" just to get the work?

I'm the one usually put in charge of gathering and researching the standards and passing along to the other operators what the need to do. This can sometimes take up to a week to do depending on how detailed the standards are a basic library may be.

[philpiper]

I guess it depends on how detailed the standards are and how much they deviate from your own.
We sometimes have a similar situation arise here as well. In the past we have created the information to our own standards as normal and then translated a copy of the finished drawings into our clients layers / colours / filenames / etc, just prior to sending it out of the office.
I don't think you'll get any hard and fast answers from anyone on this one. Like I said it depends on how prescriptive your clients standards are.

[tedg]

I guess it depends on how detailed the standards are and how much they deviate from your own.
We sometimes have a similar situation arise here as well. In the past we have created the information to our own standards as normal and then translated a copy of the finished drawings into our clients layers / colours / filenames / etc, just prior to sending it out of the office.

Some of the standards are pretty close to ours, others aren't even close. It seems to make sense to work within the standards instead of converting them afterwords if we can. That way were not converting a whole set of cadd files at the end of a project. But if means to get the cadd work done quicker and then convert it, that's what we'd do.

I don't think you'll get any hard and fast answers from anyone on this one. Like I said it depends on how prescriptive your clients standards are.

Yea, you're probably right, I'm just wondering how many other companies do this.

[philpiper]

A lot of our work is with the same major clients, so we've been able to set up DWS files that we can use repeatedly to convert stuff. We find it more efficient to work this way, rather than try to get our staff to adopt another set of standards for a period of time. God knows it hard enough to work to our own set!

[tatriest]

I agree with Phil, at the very least you should have a DWT and a DWS file for that client.

I would think about setting up Palettes for the client's work. For example, if using vanilla ACAD, create a "Client X Design" palette with a:

--wall line tool
--window line tool
--line tool, etc.

The nice thing about palettes is it 'layer keys'. The tool retains the layer, color, linetype, etc which the line on on when you drag the line onto the palette. You would not need to set the A-Wall layer current before you drew a wall line. And if the layer does not exist, the tool will create it will the stored information from when you created the tool.

You could also create a "Client X Documentation" palette for dims, tags, note, etc.

Terry

[sschwartz85916]

Ok, I have more "Cadd Standards" (and company policy) questions.
We seem to do allot of work for clients that impose their standards on us.
Some are very detailed and specific and some are simple and "loose".

My questions are these,
Do many companies out there do this too?
How do you handle all the different standards?
Does your company charge extra for complying to them and if so how much more?
Is it wise to "eat it" just to get the work?

I'm the one usually put in charge of gathering and researching the standards and passing along to the other operators what the need to do. This can sometimes take up to a week to do depending on how detailed the standards are a basic library may be.

Ok, ALL the work we do is for outside our office, as we have no architects. We have our own standard blocks pertaining to our own symbols, as well as layering standards. I think you have the wrong idea as far as getting standards "imposed" on you. If you aren't going to follow the standards that they have, then I am sure they will find someone who will. (hint). As far as graphic standards go, like north arrows, plan orientation, titleblocks, font styles, etc. The clients standards should "prevail". From office to office, pen settings always seem to be different, as well as printers.
Basically, it goes on a per-project basis, with certain variations between them, just keeping consistent graphics to match who is paying us (so the entire project looks like it came from the same people). We have one person in charge of each project and they set it up in the beginning.
I don't know of anyone who would pay more to do the work. They should do the job the right way no matter what...
We have a loose idea of how to keep the standards, we have a Master Client folder under each client number on our server. Any standards documentation is copied there. We don't use standards files, but tool palettes, as well as profiles. As long as it is easy for the users and they actually USE it. Good luck!

[tedg]

.... I think you have the wrong idea as far as getting standards "imposed" on you. If you aren't going to follow the standards that they have, then I am sure they will find someone who will. (hint). As far as graphic standards go, like north arrows, plan orientation, titleblocks, font styles, etc. The clients standards should "prevail". From office to office, pen settings always seem to be different, as well as printers....
Basically, it goes on a per-project basis, with certain variations between them, just keeping consistent graphics to match who is paying us (so the entire project looks like it came from the same people). We have one person in charge of each project and they set it up in the beginning.
I don't know of anyone who would pay more to do the work. They should do the job the right way no matter what...

I was referring to the fact that we are a large A&E firm that produces our own work with our titleblocks symbols and standards for our standard fee. Then we take on work from an outside client like another firm or for a government agency. This sometimes requires more work (at least at the beginning) to adapt. So that being said, is it built into your fees for the added work to create your drawings to thier standards or just part of doing business?

BTW, I am assuming it's ALL being done the "right way" per project.

[sschwartz85916]

I was referring to the fact that we are a large A&E firm that produces our own work with our titleblocks symbols and standards for our standard fee. Then we take on work from an outside client like another firm or for a government agency. This sometimes requires more work (at least at the beginning) to adapt. So that being said, is it built into your fees for the added work to create your drawings to thier standards or just part of doing business?

BTW, I am assuming it's ALL being done the "right way" per project.

Oh... ok. I get your meaning now. Well... just a thought, but what if you just had a large symbol type list that was inserted before any work was done? It's rather an old way of keeping the consistency. You could save it as a .dwt, with all of their 'required' standards already in place, then create the new files with that. I believe it is all part of doing business, but I would ask whom is in charge of setting the fees personally, so that they are aware of the extra work (and hours) required, maybe they will make any necessary adjustments. I will agree, if another company has their own standard blocks, it is a major pain and difficult to keep up to date, as every leap in technology may affect what is there.

[tedg]

Oh... ok. I get your meaning now. Well... just a thought, but what if you just had a large symbol type list that was inserted before any work was done? It's rather an old way of keeping the consistency. You could save it as a .dwt, with all of their 'required' standards already in place, then create the new files with that. I believe it is all part of doing business, but I would ask whom is in charge of setting the fees personally, so that they are aware of the extra work (and hours) required, maybe they will make any necessary adjustments. I will agree, if another company has their own standard blocks, it is a major pain and difficult to keep up to date, as every leap in technology may affect what is there.

That's something we need to do, make them all .dwt files. We have all the different standards in a nice directory, but not done consistently. Some are just block libraries and some layers, others are complete "master templates" that have everything in them, layers, blocks, layouts, pen settings etc. It would be nice if everything was set up the same way so "John Q. Cadd Operator" can open a template and run with it every time.

Merry Christmas!

[seven_tech]

just send it to them in pdf. a nice one button problem solver.