CAD Mgmt Toolbox: AU Virtual

AU Virtual – see streaming content from Autodesk University this week. Register today at http://au.autodesk.com/?nd=e_register_login&attendee_type=AUv

CAD Mgmt Toolbox: Autodesk Object Enablers

Autodesk Object Enablers provide a way to access, view, and manipulate object data from one application in another. For example, you can install Object Enablers in AutoCAD to view Plant 3D objects, AutoCAD Architecture objects, or AutoCAD Civil objects. You can view the entire list of Autodesk Object Enablers at www.autodesk.com/oe. Select the software you are using and then select and install the Object Enabler you need.

CAD Mgmt Toolbox: Autodesk Updates & Service Packs

By now I hope you've heard about Service Pack 1 for AutoCAD. Here is a quick list for several Autodesk update and service pack pages. Please let me know if you know of others.

AutoCAD www.autodesk.com/autocad-updates
AutoCAD LT www.autodesk.com/autocadlt-updates
AutoCAD Raster Design www.autodesk.com/rasterdesign-updates
Autodesk VIZ www.autodesk.com/viz-updates
AutoCAD Map 3D www.autodesk.com/map3d-updates
AutoCAD Civil 3D www.autodesk.com/civil3d-updates
AutoCAD Land Desktop www.autodesk.com/landdesktop-updates
AutoCAD Architecture www.autodesk.com/archdesktop-updates
Revit Architecture / AutoCAD Revit Architecture Suite http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/index?siteID=123112&id=2334435&linkID=9273944
or go to www.autodesk.com/revitarchitecture, select “Product Download” and then select “Updates”
AutoCAD MEP www.autodesk.com/buildingsystems-updates
AutoCAD Revit MEP Suite www.autodesk.com/buildingsystems-updates

You'll notice the "pre-2008" names are used in several of the URLs, but these pages do include 2008 updates.

CAD Mgmt Toolbox: Autodesk Trial Downloads

Most Autodesk software is available as a 30 day trial which you can request from your Autodesk Reseller, but many of these same trials are also downloadable. So if you need a few weeks to get under the hood and take one of these products for a test drive, then here you go (just make sure you have a wide lane on the information superhighway because some of these are monster truck sized downloads). FULL DISCLOSURE: Once again, these links are personalized for the Autodesk Reseller I work for, so if you are in our territory you will probably be contacted by them.

AutoCAD Civil 3D
AutoCAD Architecture
AutoCAD MEP
Revit Architecture
Revit MEP
Revit Structure

CAD Mgmt Toolbox: Resource Center Tutorials

There are a lot of tutorials for Autodesk products on the web. I hope you are already taking advantage of many of them. I'm not going to get into a learning style debate here. Nor am I going to try to list all of the tutorials available. But I wanted to make sure you add the following tutorials to your toolbox. These are all from the various Resource Centers I described previously. FULL DISCLOSURE: Please note that these links are personalized for the Autodesk Reseller I work for, so if you are in our territory you will probably be contacted by them.

AutoCAD Civil 3D Tutorials by Lucy Kuhn

AutoCAD Architecture Tutorials by Amy Fietkau

AutoCAD MEP Tutorials by Armundo Darling

Revit Architecture Tutorials by Amy Fietkau

Revit MEP Tutorials by Armundo Darling

Revit Structure Tutorials

P.S. And for you subscription customers - don't forget to have your designers work through the Subscription Center tutorials.

CAD Mgmt Toolbox: Autodesk Resource Centers

Autodesk has created Resource Centers for several of their Infrastructure and Building Solutions products. These Resource Centers include FAQs, Whitepapers, Customer Stories, Tutorials, and Trial Downloads/Requests. Here are some quick links:


AutoCAD Civil 3D www.autodesk.com/experiencecivil3d101


AutoCAD Architecture www.autodesk.com/aca-resource


AutoCAD MEP www.autodesk.com/amep-resource


Revit Architecture www.autodesk.com/ra-resource


Revit MEP www.autodesk.com/rmep-resource


Revit Structure www.autodesk.com/str-resource

CAD Mgmt Toolbox: VIZ 2008 Essential Skills Tutorials

There is a nice online tutorial for Autodesk VIZ 2008 at http://download.autodesk.com/us/viz/Essential_Skills/index.html. Please note that there is a recommendation at the bottom of the menu to use a resolution higher than 1024x768.

When I first ran the tutorials I saw a pleasant introductory screen and waited for something to happen...

...nothing happened.

I tried running it again and got the same non-results. I was running at 1280x800, but apparently that wasn’t good enough. So, if you want to view these tutorials, you’ll need a higher resolution or you can use the following workaround.

Look in the lower right hand corner of the screen. See that “100%” with the magnifying glass next to it?

Select the down arrow to open the menu and select “Custom…” A value of 90 worked well for me.

Happy VIZ tutorialing!

CAD Mgmt Toolbox: Autodesk Design Review Free Download

Celebrate Autodesk's fiscal new year (Feb 1) with a gift from Autodesk.

Autodesk Design Review (formerly DWF Composer) is now a free (formerly US$99-199) download from Autodesk.

View, Measure, and Markup your 2D and 3D designs with Design Review.

Go to www.autodesk.com/designreview and select "Download" from the menu on the left.

CAD Mgmt Toolbox: Notebook

Get a notebook and carry it with you everywhere. I’m not talking about a notebook computer (though that would be nice). I’m talking about a good, old-fashioned, spiral notebook with lined paper. You can invest in a nice Day-Timer® or similar system, but if you are innately a “problem-solver” you will feel “restricted” by this type of system. To you, any system eventually needs to be improved. So a Day-Timer or similar system may not work for you right now. And stop using sticky notes, “while you were out” pads, backs of envelopes, etc. That system isn’t really working either, is it? Get a notebook that is easy for you to keep up with and write in anywhere. And when I say carry it everywhere, I mean everywhere. I’ve actually had a people follow me into the restroom and start talking to me about a project.

You’re going to use your notebook to list the tasks that need to be done, track the things you do, and summarize meetings and conversations. Let me get really specific. Every night, make a task list for the next day on one half of the page (imagine the page has two columns, draw a line, whatever – I’m not going to get that specific). Prioritize the top three things that have to be done. Now, during the day, keep track of what you actually do in the other column. Keep looking at those top three priorities for the day and use whatever time you can to accomplish them.

Okay, so far, all I’ve told you is how to use up more of your precious time each day making lists and taking notes. Now let me talk about why you want to do this – because you don’t know what you don’t know. If you are going to be successful in accomplishing your goals, you need to know what they are and head toward them with your daily tasks. If you want to spend time accomplishing those goals, you will need to identify how your present time resources are spent. Once you know what the largest time wasters are you can work toward minimizing or eliminating them. The daily task list and time tracking takes discipline, but the result is more focus (and at first, more frustration) on your priority tasks and more information for defining improvements. For example, if you are daily restoring files from backup media, you probably have some training and procedure issues to do. If you are clearing paper jams in the plotter every two to three days, you probably need to make a support call, etc.

Tell me about your time management tools. Let me know what you’ve tried, what’s worked, and what hasn’t worked.

CAD Mgmt Toolbox: LinkedIn

I registered at LinkedIn.com recently. Guy Kawasaki had a couple of great posts about them so I decided to give it a try.

Fellow CAD Bloggers and CAD Managers, please get connected at LinkedIn.

Guy's posts about LinkedIn :
Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn
LinkedIn Profile Extreme Makeover

CAD Mgmt Toolbox: Two Essential Skills

Most CAD Managers I know have (or had) very good technical skills. They could draft well, design well, and somewhere along the way they learned to “tech” (i.e., troubleshoot) well. So in the infinite wisdom of the Peter Principle, they were promoted, reassigned, advanced, laterally moved, sworn in, knighted, christened, or duped into the official or unofficial role of “CAD Manager” (see Typical CAD Manager). Now, in addition to the skills which brought them here, they must develop two essential skills not covered in a drafting class or a users’ guide.

Back in 1991, Bob Keefer, AIA and I spent some time observing the “state of CAD.” We presented our observations at the NAAUG Conference that year (anyone remember NAAUG?) We titled our presentation “CADvantage or CADastrophe” and proceeded to describe the advantages and disadvantages of CAD at that time. Tom Conti of Walt Disney Imagineering took the stage and summarized our message as “educate management” and “train users”. Well, that was succinct and pretty accurate. We could have saved everyone a lot of time if he had said that before we got on stage, but then everyone would have missed our obligatory 3D spinning logo .fli on the screen.

Some things don’t change very much. The two essential skills are the same; I just refer to them in different terms today. Have you ever tried to “educate” your manager? You might succeed once or twice, but don’t make a habit of it. Generally your effort to “educate” someone higher in the company org chart will not be well received. Instead, consider the term “negotiate”.

You’ll need negotiation skills for more than your next budget discussion with your boss. You’ll need negotiation skills when purchasing hardware and software. You’ll need negotiation skills when introducing Layer Guideline changes. And you’ll need negotiation skills whenever your attempt to innovate.

Now what about that second essential skill? “Train Users” needs some revision as well. Elsewhere in this blog I have referred to the tendency to use the term “user” as profanity. Drop the term – the “us vs. them” mentality it provokes with those “users” isn’t worth the hassle. Remember, these people are either your “coworkers” or, if you are a consultant, they are your “associates”.

It only takes teaching one class to quickly realize that you aren’t going to “train” everyone. Some adults refuse to be trained and, in my opinion, some adults (brace yourself for a totally politically incorrect statement) can not be trained. Your second essential skill is to “facilitate”. You create an environment where adults can choose to learn. You offer classes, seminars, and documentation to facilitate their education.

So your two new essential skills are “negotiate” and “facilitate”. Where are you going to develop those skills? They aren’t something you can learn in a day. You can’t simply proclaim “I am now a negotiator and facilitator”. These skills are studied and they are practiced. So, as I hope I’ve asked before – what books are you reading and who are you hanging around? The answers to those two questions will assist you in determining your next step in developing these two essential skills.

CAD Mgmt Toolbox: Autodesk Online Store

As I have mentioned before, Autodesk's fiscal year begins in February. Around this time each year you can expect to hear news from Autodesk resellers - territories change, product authorizations change, new offices or mergers are announced, and some resellers are even dropped (remember the reports about long time reseller Robert McNeel & Associates earlier this year?)

If you find yourself re-evaluating your Autodesk reseller(s) now or any other time during the year, don't forget that many Autodesk products and upgrades are available directly from Autodesk through the Autodesk Online Store.

CAD Mgmt Toolbox: CAD-e-Corner

Be sure to add Ward Romberger's CAD-e-Corner blog to your reading list. I'm glad he's entering the blog world. He has a great knowledge of CAD, a great sense of humor, and was great to work with for several years at Benham. That said, I expect him to have a great blog.

http://cadecorner.blogspot.com/

CAD Mgmt Toolbox: Free Autodesk File Viewers

Here is a quick list of free viewers from Autodesk:

Autodesk DWG TrueView views and prints Autodesk DXF and DWG files
www.autodesk.com/dwgtrueview

Autodesk Inventor View views and prints Autodesk Inventor assemblies, parts, and drawings
www.autodesk.com/inventorview

Autodesk DWF Viewer views and prints Autodesk DWF files
www.autodesk.com/dwfviewer

And the free convertor:

Autodesk DWG TrueConvert converts between AutoCAD Release 14, 2000 (i.e. 2000, 2000i, and 2002) and 2004, (i.e. 2004, 2005, and 2006) DWG file formats.
www.autodesk.com/dwgtrueconvert

CAD Mgmt Toolbox: Autodesk Blogs

In my interview with Shaan Hurley of Autodesk (Interview: Shaan Hurley of Autodesk), Shaan said that other Autodesk blogs were on the way. The latest is from Scott Sheppard.

Here is the new list of Autodesk blogs from http://autodesk.blogs.com/:

“Between the Lines" AutoCAD Blog
http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/
Hosted by Shaan Hurley

"Between the Walls" Architectural Desktop Blog
http://blogs.autodesk.com/adt
Hosted by Chris Yanchar

"Between the Poles" Geospatial Blog
http://geospatial.blogs.com/
Hosted by Geoff Zeiss

"In The Machine" Autodesk Inventor Blog
http://blogs.autodesk.com/inventor
Hosted by: Amy Bunszel, Pete Lord, Andy Palioca, Jeff Wymer

"Beyond the Paper" Autodesk DWF Blog
http://dwf.blogs.com/
Hosted by Scott Sheppard

Lynn Allen's Blog
http://blogs.autodesk.com/lynn
Hosted by Lynn Allen

AutoCAD Insider
http://heidihewett.blogs.com/
Hosted by Heidi Hewett

March 14, 2006 UPDATE:
"Between the Poles" by Geoff Zeiss was added to the list above (but for some reason it doesn't show up on http://autodesk.blogs.com/).

CAD Mgmt Toolbox: TenLinks.com

TenLinks.com
TenLinks.com is a great resource for CAD Managers.

I like this quote from their website: "Roopinder [Tara] founded TenLinks.com based on the simple principal that ten links picked by experts is far more valuable than ten thousand picked by the typical search engine." We've all been there. Next time you are researching something CAD related go to TenLinks.com first.

TenLinks Daily
TenLinks also does an incredible job of keeping CAD Managers updated through their "TenLinks Daily" email of CAD related news.

CADdigest Weekly
TenLinks also owns CADdigest.com where you will find a HUGE list of CAD related articles. You can also subscribe to their "CADdigest Weekly" email to receive a list of new articles each week.

__The Bottom Line__
Your tasks as a CAD Manager include research. Your goals as a CAD Manager include professional development. Increase your effectiveness in both by adding the resources from TenLinks to your CAD Management Toolbox at:
TenLinks.com - Ultimate Directories for Technology Professionals