Sharing cadd knowledge within the company?

[mom of 3]

Wherever I go I just keep my ears open. When someone asks someone else for help and the someone else is unable to give the help, I volunteer information.

with only 2 of us in this office & the rest in another office, it doesn't work out that well.

- you need to be there at the time a problem arises.

see my above statement. the issue I ALWAYS encounter is that when I have a situation, I call the person I'm supposed to call, they don't feel they need to be bothered with my issue unless it's causing me to be non-productive, which is generally the types of issues I seem to have. they link onto my computer from theirs, & instead of helping me or explaining what is causing said problem, they just fix it themselves, get back off my computer & say "there ya go".........what good is that to me? that doesn't help me out, that doesn't tell me a solution, that doesn't give me an easier way or trick of doing things. lunch & learn has seemed to work the best for us because of our situation.
if John's suggestion will work in your office, great, but for multiple offices, I don't see how it can work that way.

[jaberwok]

.... they link onto my computer from theirs, & instead of helping me or explaining what is causing said problem, they just fix it themselves, get back off my computer & say "there ya go".......

Yeah, that's a different situation. Your "helpers" really need some education as to what is actually helpful versus what is merely expedient.

[CADNate]

We have two groups that do lunch and learns, one is successful one is not so much.

The successful one is set up by quarters and involves engineer department and engineering students.
If you are going to attend the L&L you will have to teach at least one class on a subject that is assigned to you so that from week to week the topics build.

The un-successful one is for the AutoCAD users, designers/drafters and engineers. Where the formate is supposed to be an open forum where we will have a topic and we will throw out a sucjestion and some new ways of doing things. What usually happens is no one adds anything of value during the discussion, then over the next couple of days some of the olde timers will say, there's an easier way of doing that. Or I will get calls asking the same questions over and over, "how did you do that."

We have stopped the AutoCAD L&L for now because it seemed that the only ones coming where coming for a free lunch.... except for me

[Maverick91]

I searched the threads and didn't see anything about this.
Does anyone out there work at a place where you have some advanced AutoCAD users with allot of knowledge, tips and tricks and some not so expereienced users who really need some help?

Well I do, and I was wondering if anyone has ever created a system or forum for sharing knowledge at the workplace so newbies can be brought up to speed and the advaced users can share advanced stuff?

I'm referring to the many ways to do things, (tricks, etc.) not necessarily within the company's cadd standards.

I was initially thinking of a weekly (or monthly) meeting for the cadd operators to discuss problems and solutions. Mostly I'm thinking of those inexperienced users that only know of one way of doing something, or maybe not at all. I consider myself an advanced user, and I'm still learning new ways of doing things as well as re-discovering old commands I forgot about.

Any thought on this?

Thanks

I worked for a large engineering company before. We tried to do a brown-bag meeting once in a while, but it never really got organized. Other tips and tricks were shared for one during the orientation time for new hires if specifically a CAD tech, and then in an informal, as needed basis. It never really worked.

[jaberwok]

How many drafters have a problem, make notes about it and then bring it up at a meeting days or weeks later?
If they do, can they answer all the questions about exactly what they were doing before and at the time of the problem?

[Bobby C. Jones]

I've tried a number of things unsuccessfully: an email help desk composed of myself and a number of other managers and senior cad staff, an intra-net based discussion forum, and a weekly tips -n- tricks section of the intra-net.

The biggest problems that I've run into are users having problems or questions and not saying anything, it's hard to fix and train on what you don't know about, and the lack of interest of the power users to share. I'm trying one more direction this next month, weekly training.

It will be short, 30 minutes at the longest, and focused on one single item. I'll start the process and will be the organizer, but I will ask, or recruit if necessary, others to lead some of the future discussions. I'm going to vary the training from CAD tips -n- tricks, to standards compliance, to construction knowledge, to the company health insurance policy, anything to keep it fresh and the interest high.

[seven_tech]

Yea, we have one or two of those too!
I get to hear "well I've been doing like this for over ten years...blah, blah blah!"

I guess they'll get out of it what they put into it. It shows in thier work too!

thanks

The easiest way I have found of making them convert was when I told their project manager and the owner of the company I could cut 20-30% off of their design time. It didn't take long before they came around to my way of thinking. Sometimes, instead of fighting with the user about tips and tricks that will save them time, you need to talk to the project manager or owner about making the company more money.

The way I look at it is this, if you can convince the user that the less time they spend designing the more money the company makes. which, in turn means they get a bigger bonus or raise at the end of the year it makes their ears open a little faster.

[zoomharis]

I searched the threads and didn't see anything about this.
Does anyone out there work at a place where you have some advanced AutoCAD users with allot of knowledge, tips and tricks and some not so expereienced users who really need some help?

Well I do, and I was wondering if anyone has ever created a system or forum for sharing knowledge at the workplace so newbies can be brought up to speed and the advaced users can share advanced stuff?

I'm referring to the many ways to do things, (tricks, etc.) not necessarily within the company's cadd standards.

I was initially thinking of a weekly (or monthly) meeting for the cadd operators to discuss problems and solutions. Mostly I'm thinking of those inexperienced users that only know of one way of doing something, or maybe not at all. I consider myself an advanced user, and I'm still learning new ways of doing things as well as re-discovering old commands I forgot about.

Any thought on this?

Thanks

If it is possible, the best way is to link them to online resources like AUGI. Inside office / Intranet, there are only a few people to solve problems or share ideas. But in places like AUGI, there are 100000+ users to answer you. I am pretty sure that they will get the best answer from there.

The idea is simple. Instead of picking them and droping at the destination, show them the way and educate them how to reach the destination. They will find new destinations themselves in the future.

And you will defenitely learn from them too.

[robert.1.hall72202]

i do the same thing. we have a small firm (5 in the office currently) so its pretty easy to just get up and walk over and ask how to do something, or to just call someone over to show off the newest trick i found. i have also created a pdf of useful tips / tricks that i mail out once in a while, and update semi-regularly.

In addition, I also have a copy of the Finkelstein's 07 AutoCad Bible.
My intention is to digest a chapter a week and write down any tidbit of information
that I thought would be of use to someone in my office. Sometimes it feels
like a cardio workout, I just got to find time to do it!

[tedg]

If it is possible, the best way is to link them to online resources like AUGI. Inside office / Intranet, there are only a few people to solve problems or share ideas. But in places like AUGI, there are 100000+ users to answer you. I am pretty sure that they will get the best answer from there.

The idea is simple. Instead of picking them and droping at the destination, show them the way and educate them how to reach the destination. They will find new destinations themselves in the future.

And you will defenitely learn from them too.

I agree, I've gotten allot of help here!
I usually get questions as a problem arises, which helps me help them.
If I figure out what's going on, I'll fix it, and explain to them what caused it, and how to avoid it next time (while trying not to be condiscending).

Plus, I do get allot of tips and tricks from my fellow cadders too. I'm always trying to learn from everyone. Even the newest cadder can show you something!

Great stuff!