Discover the importance of being a proactive CAD manager, constantly identifying problems and possible solutions, as the technology and projects evolve. Understand the common issues CAD managers face, such as the need for better or more-followed standards, project procedures, lack of training, hardware issues, and file organization, and learn how focusing on cost reduction by tackling immediate issues can benefit the company.
Key Insights
- Every CAD manager should be proactive, always noting down their problems and potential solutions, understanding that as technology and projects evolve, the task is never truly done.
- Common issues that CAD managers often encounter include standards either needing improvement or more adherence, project procedures, lack of training, hardware and network problems, and file organization.
- Addressing and solving immediate issues that can save the company time and therefore money, should be a priority. This focus on cost reduction can significantly benefit the company.
Note: These materials offer prospective students a preview of how our classes are structured. Students enrolled in this course will receive access to the full set of materials, including video lectures, project-based assignments, and instructor feedback.
So what I would do—and what I would advise anybody—is, if you happen to be looking at the course guide at the moment, the PDF file posted on the AU site, I’ve actually given you a little space in the course guide where you can do this. Every CAD manager should be jotting down where their problems are, what solutions they would propose to fix them, and do this continually. I don’t think you’re ever done, because as soon as you get your situation working just about right, what’s going to happen? New software, new project, something’s going to happen.
So, you’re never done. That list never goes away. List out the bottlenecks, the problems, the things you’d like to fix, a rough solution, and then we’ll start doing detailed analysis of the exact solution later as we dig in.
That way, at least we’re recording it and walking around with a proactive, fix-it mindset. Now, here’s what CAD managers tend to find: standards.
Either we need better standards, or we need people to follow them. Would you guys in the room agree? Yes. Project procedures—they aren’t necessarily standards—but it’s just like, ‘Folks, can you please get the PDF files in the right folder?’ You know, it’s just things that continue to be a problem.
Lack of training—something I hear from a lot of CAD managers—the inability to do that. Hardware issues, network issues, faster computers—that kind of stuff. File organization, and just the digital structure we have to execute our projects within.
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You know, it’s the kind of stuff that most people will catalog. So it wouldn’t surprise me if your list of items largely mirrors this list. They’ll be unique to your company, but you’ll have unique solutions for them.
What I want you to do is, when you list that, do that homework exercise when you get home from AU, and skim through that list of things you write, and start looking at the ones you can tackle immediately that can really save the company time. Those are the things you go after first. My focus now becomes cost reduction.
Save time, you’ll save money—it goes without saying. So I’ll leave that as a homework exercise for everybody. Now, what we’re going to do is take a brief break to check in on the social media thing, and the video team is going to clip this section, and then we’ll start part two here in just a moment.
So, I’d like to introduce Rick Ellis. Rick’s from Portland. He’s a civil engineering specialist with Autodesk Software, and he’s watching the feeds. Do we have anything to look at? Nope, nothing’s come in? Okay, we’ll go ahead and proceed to part two.
