Cad Management in the A/E office
Sometimes in engineering offices, Cad departments are treated as unwanted stepchildren. They are a necessary evil whose existence may be justified, yet still perceived as more of an expense than they are worth. Computer support departments say that Cad people always need the latest hardware and software, and push everything to their limits. Upper management is often unaware and untrained in the "intricacies" of the Cad world. Perception is the key word. For example, an uneducated manager "drops by" the designer/operator's cubicle and he sees a building plan painstakingly being poured over. Every line, circle and arc is being "snapped" to, every word in every line of text is being typed out, blocks are being inserted, references attached and then upon seeing the plot take 10 minutes to be produced, he may very well blurt out the now overused line: "I could have drawn that damn thing with a pencil faster than that!" Of course that's not true very often, and the quality wouldn't be there either. What the untrained manager or engineer forgets or is unaware of is Cad's ability to reproduce earlier work with a mere touch of a button, saving hours, days, even weeks of work, especially when it comes to repetitive projects. On the other side of the "perception" is that designers and operators don't communicate with their superiors the limitations of Cad. The computer has drastically enhanced the way we design and construct buildings. However, computerized drafting and design does not always make a drafter a designer or a designer an engineer. Cad operators sometimes believe they can design buildings, HVAC or power systems by using the power of Cad. Sometimes to a degree, engineers and managers expect them to. There is no substitute however, for education and experience in architecture or engineering, and even a super operator cannot become one just because of Cad. The key to both perceptions is efficent Cad management. A Cad manager or Cad "lead" is a must. It's important for them to have good communications with cleints, managers, engineers, designers and drafters. They need to make the best of the hardware and software provided, balancing that with the Cad staff and their abilities. In house Cad seminars on a regular basis is a must, and employees should be encouraged to attend classes offered at local colleges or technical schools. Management must be kept up to date on the latest software versions, and hardware conditions. It might be wise in the long run to replace that old Pentium 100 with 16 MB ram and 2MB video, because older Cad systems can be time wasters. Hardware should match the current software as much as possible, however be careful of buying screaming dual processor 3D stations if you are only doing 2D building plans!
A Cad manual is a must in every Cad office. Not a giant "telephone" book and not just a few pages of pen settings and layers either. Something comprehensive yet inexpensive to produce. All interested parties must be involved in it's development as a Cad manager cannot be expected to develop the standards alone. Solicit input from everyone, from architects and engineers to operators. Have some weekly or monthly Cad manual meetings. Then document the results. Don't rely on the manual to fully implement and enforce standards. One way to set standards is to automate some of the most repetitive duties using AutoCAD customization techniques. (Lisp routines, Macros, etc.) In the long run however, communications has always seemed to work best when dealing with people and standards. At one company I worked for we had a monthly "lunch and learn". As we ate our lunch in the conference room, the Cad manager involved management, architects, engineers, and Cad personnel in standards, tips and tricks, and new software demonstrations. It worked well as we learned the Cad manual, and it became an ever evolving document. Non-Cad people began to have a little more appreciation for designers and operators when they tried AutoCAD themselves. We also developed better communications because many times demonstrations were applied to problems and situations with current projects. Sometimes lunch and learns went on for 2 hours or more.
There is no reason why engineers and architects cannot learn and use Cad programs. Most of the new generation engineering graduates are indeed "Cad literate". However, I have found that the level of "experience" they usually have is less than necessary to avoid being a Cad liability. Others may be great users yet they know they shouldn't spend too much time drafting. I believe that all engineers and such should have a Cad program on their computer. They don't need to produce documents, but it can help out a lot if they can back check, attach a seal, make a date or revision and maybe plot. Today's file linking capabilities between Cad and spreadsheet programs makes it even easier for Cad people to do schedules and tables or text of many types. The Engineer can work together with Cad personnel and have entire schedules filled out ready for importing into Cad.
Another way to "simplify" Cad especially when it comes to larger projects, is to assign a Cad "lead". This is the most effective way to implement Cad standards on a per project basis and is especially helpful when working with outside contractors. All issues go throught one person, usually the most experienced Cad person on the project. They will set layer standards per project agreements and set up "base" type drawings with which all disciplines will work from. In this way all drawings can be set up to use identical title blocks, borders, text styles, linetypes and background information. The idea is: "Never recreate what has already been created!" I see this too often in commercial and industrial design offices. The Mechanical dept. copies the Architectural drawings and then modifies them for "Mechanical" purposes. Meanwhile the Electrical and Plumbing people do the same thing. Independently! Soon there are FOUR different sets of drawings, none of them looking quite the same. This is when the client begins to think that there was little if any communication.
Again, perception. It's usually something we don't see and never realized was a problem.
This is why I think a good habit for Cad departments is frequent Cad sessions just going over the basics. It can save hours of unwitting repetition.