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Working as a freelance consultant I’ve come accross lots of time sheet software. All of it bad. Some of it badder. Sometimes it took so long to fill in what I’d done with my time, I had to allocate an hour in my time sheet for time-sheet time…

Now that I run my own business I can choose what software I use. I did a search on Google for “free time tracking tool” and came accross Cratchit.org TimeTool. It’s just a window with jobs listed in it. You select the one you’re working on. At the end of the week you save a report. Done.

Simple CAD standards will be followed

When setting up CAD standards for your team, don’t fall into the complexity trap. Complexity does not equal quality. Often the more you write the less will be understood. The more you stipulate and legislate the less will be willingly implemented. On the other hand, if you succeed in writing a simple, easy to follow, short manual for your team, you may actually find it increases productivity.

Rendering courses often touch on architectural visuals, but it’s unusual to find training aimed entirely at Arch-Viz. When you do find it, it’s expensive, which is why we’re happy to plug the forthcoming 3DATS training event. If you book before June 15th the two day (18 hours!) course is just £425 including lunch and refreshments!

Check out http://www.3dats.com/london/ for further details.

A word of advice concerning software. Even if you don’t use the particular software used in the training; rendering is basically about lighting, texturing and composition, so most of what is covered should benefit no matter what your favourite software is.

A highly effective way of increasing the productivity of CAD users is to have a training scheme in place. And one of the most effective ways of doing this is to have short “toolbox talks” at regular intervals. The “little and often” approach ensures that a greater amount of information is taken in, and less strain is put upon the trainer or chief CAD user. Try setting up a weekly slot of 10 minutes to demonstrate a few new or lesser used CAD commands. You will soon find that your CAD staff begin to take an active part in suggesting topics, or even presenting toolbox talks themselves.

When deciding to introduce a new CAD package to your team, your biggest worry will be how quickly you can train them to become proficient with it. The largest contributor to doing this successfully is motivation.

A member of staff motivated to learn will do so in their own time; will lap up any formal training you lay on; and will learn on the job through exploration of help files, online forums etc. They might be up and running and productive within 3 months. On the other hand a de-motivated person may take years and never ever get to grips with it.

I was brought in once to train a draughtsman who just wasn’t getting up to speed with Autocad. I soon realised that he had never recovered from the shock of changing over from the drawing boards, even though that was a decade ago. His de-motivation had sprung directly from the way that was handled, and years later made him negative de-motivated in all aspects of his work. So the lesson I learned was that re-training in software has to be done with a great deal of tact and care. If you succeed in de-motivating your staff by introducing new software, you might have a problem on your hands not just confined to CAD productivity!

In general, for CAD staff to be motivated to learn new CAD software they need to know:

• The new software is standard outside the company. In other words, they can get another job using it with better pay!
• It provides a significant step up from what they are currently using e.g. up to 3d from 2d; parametric cad from plain 3d.
• The company / managers fully back the change. They need to see your (genuine) enthusiasm and unwavering belief.
• That there’s no middle ground compromise between the old and new systems, so they can’t revert to their old CAD when the going gets tough.

Actually, fear can often be the best motivator. Management stating “if we don’t switch to the new CAD software and have it fully integrated within 8 mths we’ll be left behind in the market place, leading to significant cut-backs“ for example!