Efficiency :: FunctionSense

Taking CTRL in AutoCAD

August 29th, 2013

Taking shortcuts in life will sometimes come back to bite you. But there are some areas in life where shortcuts come in handy and make you more productive. In AutoCAD there are shortcut keys that you can use to increase your speed and productivity. Many old-time CADD jockeys are very familiar with using shortcut keys either through CTRL keys and Function keys or through the ACAD.PGP file.

If you are one of the newer generations CADD Jedis that were trained in AutoCAD to do 95% of your work with mouse points and clicks – A faster way there is! You may think you’re pretty productive that way, but adding in some shortcut keys can further improve your performance.

In this post I’m going to show the CTRL keys that are probably the most commonly used:

CTRL 1: Toggles the Properties Palette

CTRL C: Copies objects to the Windows clipboard

CTRL F: Toggle running object snaps

CTRL L: Toggles Orthomode

CTRL N: Creates a new drawing

CTRL O: Displays the Open Dialog

CTRL P: Displays the Plot Dialog

CTRL S: Saves the current drawing

CTRL Shift S: Displays the save as dialog box

CTRL V: Paste data from windows clipboard

CTRL shift V: Pastes data from windows clipboard as a block (Use this sparingly)

CTRL X: Cuts objects from the current drawing to the Windows clipboard

CTRL Z: Reverse the last action (UNDO)

Some other shortcuts that are Non-CTRL keys:

F1: Displays help

F2: Toggles the text window (Very helpful when troubleshooting)

F3: Toggles Osnap

F8: Toggles Orthomode

Note that CTRL C, X, and V and F1 should be part of your everyday Windows toolkit. You can use this in all your office apps and most any program that allows copying, pasting and cutting – it is nearly universal. No more sliding up to the Edit menu and selecting copy, paste or cut.

As with the CTRL keys above these are not the only shortcut keys available in AutoCAD but more of a sampling of the ones I think that will help increase your productivity.

If you’re looking for a way to boost your performance try taking CTRL of AutoCAD. In a future post I’ll talk about ACAD.PGP file which takes shortcut keys to a whole other level.

I would be curious to know how many people are already using these keys regularly – drop me an email if you are and which ones you find most useful.

WES

Categories AutoCAD, Best Practices, Efficiency, Personal Development, T&T, Tips - AutoCAD
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Efficiency in Systems

by Walt Sparling

February 8th, 2013

The title of this posts has two of my top three favorite words – “Efficiency” and “Systems”, my third being ice cream, which doesn’t really fit this discussion.

Since I am calling this year “the year of efficiency”, it would make sense to talk about various methods used within our “Systems” to create efficiency. Systems are a part of our every day life, both at home and work. I did a post on the topic of systems on another blog which discussed a DVD by Andy Stanley titled ” “Systems – Liberating your Organization“. Although Andy is a “church” guy and the DVD was about helping church leaders do a better job at running their organization, the concepts discussed work in all aspects of our life. Basically, our world and our life are based on established systems.

Key system statements:

Systems are your approach to getting things done
Systems create behaviors
The system you inherit, adopt or create will eventually impact what employees do
Systems have a greater impact on an organizational culture than a mission statement. (Mission Statements hang on the wall, your systems are happening down the hall).

If we want to change our world or our life we need to change our systems. When it comes to efficiency, there are two methods that come to mind right away that can be used to optimize our systems – “Kaizen” and “5S”.

Both of these methods are commonly used in business, predominantly in manufacturing environments, but can be applied to many areas of work and personal life.

Kaizen:

A Japanese term meaning: “change for the better” or “to become good through change”. The concept of kaizen is one of restructuring and organizing every aspect of a system to ensure it remains at peak efficiency.

5S:

5S is the name of a workplace organization method that uses a list of five Japanese words: seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu, and shitsuke (Sorting, Set, Sweep or Shine, Standardize, and Sustain). The list describes how to organize a work space for efficiency and effectiveness by identifying and storing the items used, maintaining the area and items, and sustaining the new order.

We will get more in to the 5s system in the next post, today we will look at Kaizen.

Kaizen, is a Japanese term and is commonly associated with the manufacturing world in Japan. Although it has probably been made most famous in Japanese culture (think Toyota), the concept was actually taught by Americans to the Japanese after World War II, who embraced it and fine tuned it further.

From Investopedia:

Some of the key objectives of the Kaizen philosophy include the elimination of waste, quality control, just-in-time delivery, standardized work and the use of efficient equipment.

All good things to apply in our work and with the exception of maybe ‘just in time delivery’, also in our personal life. A commonly used term around Kaizen is “continuous improvement” – not a “quick fix” or a “sudden change”, but continuous improvement.

Kaizen is applied with a few simple steps:

Standardize a task or process based on specific requirements
Measure the process
Compare the results to the requirements
Innovate to meet or improve on requirements
Standardize the new, improved process or task
Continue the cycle infinitely

Kaizen allows you to make smaller changes and continually improve on your system because it is not a one time fix or drastic change. You can continue to tweak things to make sure they are as optimized as possible for ongoing changes in your industry or life. So how do you apply the concept of continuous improvement? We will walk through two examples, one from work in this post and one personal in a follow-up post to see how Kaizen can be used to improve a current system or even create a new one.

Work Example:

Let’s say you manufacture and ship products – “Widgets” – an apparent commonly manufactured item from what I have read. So you make these widgets and ship them to customers all over the world. You’re a small company, so the tasks of taking orders on the phone, or over the web, packaging, and shipping is handled by whomever is not already doing something else. This has proven to not be very efficient or consistently handled as you have found out over time. Missed Widget parts, broken Widgets due to bad packaging, late shipped orders and forgetting to bill the customer or update the inventory have been costing you a lot of money. You have decided to fine tune things and figure out how to optimize the whole order to ship process.

To keep things standardized you want to have:

Orders entered the same every time
Widget packaging the same every time
Shipping and tracking handled the same every time
Billing done the same and as an integral part of the process

You have written out a set of steps that each stage of the process requires, some of which you already do and some of what you would like to implement. You post the steps at appropriate workstations and have a company meeting to announce it. Then it is back to work!?

But… You probably should start off a little different and discuss your procedural ideas with your employees first and see if they have any suggestions or see any potential issues. If that goes well, you take what you learn and update your procedures – then hand them out at a company meeting with a discussion and a re-iteration of the point and goals for the new standardized procedures.

Was it a success? Hopefully, but to be sure you need to continually monitor the new procedures and see if they are meeting your desired goals. This will include verifying if all the employees from full-time to part-time are following them. If they are, that’s great, but if not – what do you do? Tell them to get with it!? Maybe, but you definitely need to discuss why they are not following the new procedures and see if there is something that needs improvement. If it seems to be more of a refusal to change, you may want to let them know that you can replace them with one of those newer Automated Widgets you read about! If it is an actual valid reason – like some tasks are taking too long and are slowing part of the process down, then you need to re-evaluate the troublesome procedure and fine tune it.

At some point you will get things running smoothly, hopefully pretty quickly, but keep in mind that there will be a need for changes down the road, so monitoring and leaving it open to employees and even customers to make suggestions will keep you moving forward as efficiently as possible for many years to come. Sometimes you just need to re-evaluate how you have always done it!

This may seem like very logical steps, and they are, but they also follow the Kaizen process.

Standardize
Measure
Compare
Innovate
Standardize the new
Continue the cycle infinitely

Other Kaizen terms you may here in a business environment:

Kaizen Blitz:

A Kaizen Blitz is a rapid improvement workshop designed to produce results/approaches to discrete
process issues within a few days. It is a way for teams to carry out structured, but creative problem
solving and process improvement, in a workshop environment, over a short timescale.

Lean Kaizen:

Lean is a methodology that eliminates waste and boosts efficiency. Kaizen means continuous improvement. Lean Kaizen helps you get rid of waste as part of the continuous improvement process.

Kaizen is a very powerful concept that can be applied to all areas of our life. Although I will likely bring it up again beyond the next post, if you would like to learn more, there have been many books written on the topic as you can see in this link:

http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/kaizen

Are you currently practicing Kaizen in your workplace?

WES

Categories Best Practices, Change, Efficiency
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Macro Mania – Part II

by Walt Sparling

February 1st, 2013

Now that we’ve covered the basics of macros let’s get into some useful applications were macros can further increase your efficiency.

To summarize the steps in the previous post:

We created a new central customization menu on the server
We added a toolbar
We created a new Command macro
We added our macro to the new toolbar
We took a step towards being more efficient

As I said in the previous post Macros can be used for a variety of tasks from auto answering prompts in commands and automating drawing processes to performing CAD management tasks. In this post we will cover some of each. Note that you will see “CTS” used throughout these macros which follows the previous initials setup in our first post on Macros. These initials can be set to something that fits your organization’s naming convention.

Drawing processes:

A nuisance that I see on a regular basis when working with consultants and clients drawings is finding symbols and linework on the wrong layers. It’s very hard to automate a cleanup process if the person who created the original drawings doesn’t put their items on consistent layers. Worse yet are the those that put stuff on the wrong layers then just change the color to the color that it was supposed to be. Although this type of user needs a serious talking to, most of the time when stuff gets on the wrong layer it’s accidental. This accidental step is often caused because clients use a limited number of colors, and when an item is inserted on a layer that happens to be the same color that the symbol is supposed to end up, they assume that they are on the right layer. Some basic macros on their end would easilly fix this issue. Of course these are also ways to increase your efficiency as well.

Defining layers and line-work :

Macro to create a 4-segment conduit run on a specific layer:

^C^CORTHO;OFF;_PLINE;\\’ORTHO;ON;\\’ORTHO;OFF;\;FILLET;P;LAST;

Inserting blocks:

Macro to set the appropriate layer, and insert a 2×4 light fixture (which is a dynamic block). Since it is real scale, the scaling prompts are defaulted and it only asks for rotation.

^C^C-LAYER;M;E-LIGHTING-CEIL;C;R;;;ORTHOMODE;1;^C^C-INSERT;LF2x4;INT;\;;

Macro to set the appropriate layer, and insert a fire alarm device (which is a dynamic block). Since it is not real scale, the scale is determined by the current dimscale and it only asks for rotation. Note: If your Dynamic block has the “Alignment” parameter, rotation can also be removed. (I have found this option a bit quirky for many users and have stopped using it for now).

^C^C-LAYER;M;FIRE_ALARM;C;G;;;^C^CORTHO;ON;-INSERT;FD1;NEA;\(GETVAR”DIMSCALE”);;\

Yet another annoying trend is the use of AutoCAD’s “Standard” styles for use as company standards. The “Standard” styles, just like Layer “0” are in all drawings, and cannot be renamed. The built-in standards should be used as a template to create your own standards. Note although you cannot rename the “Standard” style in the style dialogue, you can with the rename command, which is used in this Macro.

Scenario:

Architect adapts the “Standard” style as their default text style and just changes the font to “Hand1.shx” and sets the width to .8. Our default Standard style uses the “txt.shx” font with a width of “1”. When we block in room names from an Architect’s drawing (so that we can move them around), they change to the standard ugly TXT font. We don;’t use “Standard” styles, we leave them as is. You might think that changing them to the architects font would be a quick fix, and it would if we only worked with one architect that does this common mistake.

The Standard Style Fix: (Do this in their drawing prior to import)

^C^C-RENAME;S;STANDARD;ARCH-STD;

Some other useful Macros to save Keyboard and mouse clicks.

Drawing Setup:

Import all company standard layers via a master drawing and set all settings for a specific scale (this one is 1/4″ scale) and assumes you are not using annotative scales for everything (this all one line – copy and modify for other scales):

^C^C-INSERT;F:/STANDARDS/CTS.DWG;0,0;^C^C-DIMSTYLE;R;CTS-48; _fillet;r;4.5;^C^Cdimscale;48; ltscale;.5;psltscale;1;msltscale;1;DIMASSOC;2;-STYLE;NOTES;;4.5″;;;;;VISRETAIN;1;

Note: the above also sets some commonly changed variables as well as being useful when working on an existing drawing setup by someone not following your standards. (Say it isn’t so!!)

CADD Management:

On the CADD management side another use for a macro is updating your template files and your standard layer states. Many people use template files to start their projects because it allows them to get their standards in place as soon as they start a new drawing. This is good but sometimes you need your standards brought in after your drawing is already in the works or because of purging you need to get your layers back to where they were. Regardless of the reasons, you need to keep various master files up to date, especially early in your standards setup.

To keep these Master files into their Proper locations takes a series of steps. The following macro uses your master drawing to update your master template, master CADD standards file and export out your master layer states. Speaking of layer states, this is another very efficient tool that can be used to automate and control your drawing files. We will talk about this in a future post on efficiency.

^C^C_SAVEAS;S;F:/CUSTOM/TEMPLATES/CTS.DWS;Y;_SAVEAS;T;F:/CUSTOM/TEMPLATES/ACAD.DWT;Y;E;CTS-MASTER;_SAVEAS;2013;F:/CUSTOM/TEMPLATES/CTS.DWG;Y;-LAYER;A;D;CTS;S;CTS;;EX;CTS;F:/CUSTOM/LAYER_STATES/CTS.LAS;Y;;;

If your company has a set of standards that you want implemented in your drawings, macros make typical processes a lot faster and maintain consistency and accuracy. Time is money so faster is more efficient. Keep in mind that efficiency is not just about speed – accuracy is an essential factor. With good accuracy you have less to revise or fix.

Background Cleanup:

If you get a lot of background updates on a project from an architect and he/she uses a consistent Layering scheme macros are a great way to clean up the drawing to meet your needs. It is not uncommon for myself and I’m sure some of you to take 10 to 30 minutes on a background cleanup process. You can whittle that process down to a couple minutes or even seconds with a macro. For instance, the following macro reduced a thirty minute typical cleanup time for a co-worker on a repeat client’s work from 30 minutes to less than a minute – including visual checking. And since it seems like were getting background updates every other day – some last minute, this has become a huge time saver.

The following routine sets our preferred units, sets all changeable items to color by layer, erases what we do not need, purges and prompts for a SAVEAS. NOTE: “WX-D” is the name of the Layer state that we are restoring. This routine took about 30 minutes to write, tweak and test. (This routine can vary greatly by the type of background you are cleaning up).

^C^C-UNITS;4;16;1;0;0;N;-LAYER;T;*;ON;*;UNLOCK;*;;SETBYLAYER;ALL;;YES;YES;Z;E;-LAYER;A;I;F:/CUSTOM/LAYER_STATES/CLIENT/WX-D.LAS;R;WX-D;;;SELECT;ALL;;ERASE;PURGE;A;;N;ZOOM;E;-LAYER;UNLOCK;*;;SAVEAS;

When writing macros be sure to draft them out on paper before you jump into the CUI editor. No matter how fast your machine as it takes time for the CUI editor to launch modify save and get you back to your editing session. The more corrections you have to make the MoreTime your CUI editor takes away on your productivity. Use the F2 key to watch your commands in the text window to verify what your prompts are and what your answers need to be.

Call External Scripts:

Another trick you can use to save time and also make your updates instantly available to others without requiring them to reload their menu, is to create a short macro that calls an external script. You can quickly edit the script on the fly and changes are available as quickly as you select “Save”.

The following macro string calls an external script file called “setvars”.

^C^Cscript;f:/custom/scripts/setvars.scr;

If you’ve written some really cool macros that you would like to share or need help with a macro you’re stumbling with, email me.

In upcoming posts, we are going to get a firmer Grip on efficiency by performing common actions in AutoCAD without actually typing any commands and we’ll look at dynamic blocks as a way to reduce our workload.

WES

Categories AutoCAD, Customization, Efficiency, How To, Standards
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Macro Mania – Part I

by Walt Sparling

January 22nd, 2013

Moving ahead in our year of efficiency, we need to find ways to do more in less time while not reducing the quality of the end product. With AutoCAD being a major tool in our daily workflow, it is a prime target for optimization. In a recent article I wrote (not yet published) I used the following definition for efficiency when working with AutoCAD:

Having and using requisite knowledge, skill, and industry experience to competently perform or function within AutoCAD to create drawings in the best possible manner with the least waste of time and effort.

With this concept in mind, the first post in our two-part series is going to be about creating and using macros in AutoCAD and how they can speed up your work Tenfold. Macros can be very powerful and can be used to perform a variety of tasks, including automating command prompts, controlling CADD standards and even automating CADD management steps. I will cover some examples of each in this series.

No matter what field you’re in, after a while you find yourself doing the same steps over and over again. Some are on a weekly basis, some daily and some even hourly or shorter. Anytime we repeat a step, task, process, or command there are certain questions or prompts that need to be answered like; Yes, No or Return. We are also prompted to pick points, set layers, set styles and choose rotations. These are things that are repeated so much we answer them without much thought, all while caring on a conversation with our cube mate and planning the next two commands and the answers to their associated prompts. Although we can practically enter these choices in our sleep, my question is why are we?

Well I for one am not going to do it anymore and neither are you. Something has to automate this process so we can use our brain for thinking about more important things. “Macros” to the rescue. I do not recall when macros came in to play in AutoCAD, but I know I have been customizing and using them since AutoCAD version 9. No matter your experience level, macros are one of the easiest customization tools you can do to increase your productivity and you are only limited by your creativity. In the current company I work with, 95% of our work is accomplished through Toolbar Macros, including customized replacements of standard AutoCAD commands.

For this exercise we are going to need a toolbar to place our custom macros on, so we need to take a quick look at the CUI editor (I miss the old MNU text editor days). I am currently working in 2013, but some variation of the CUI editor has been around since version 2006. If you’re a visual person, I created a PDF of version of this article with screen shots here.

For a more in-depth look at the CUI editor, check out Melinda Heavrin’s article from AUGI World on AUGI.com labeled:

Understanding the Customize User Interface (CUI)

http://www.augi.com/library/understanding-the-customize-user-interface-cui

Macro Mania – Toolbar Creation:

To keep our customized work separate from the main menu (highly recommended) and make it available to everyone in the company, you are going to want to have this in your central customization file on the company server. Don’t have one yet – let’s get one started (If you already have one, skip past this section):

Central Customization Menu File Creation:

At The command prompt type: “CUI” (no quotes) and when the editor comes up (see below), select the transfer tab. In the transfer tab on the right, you will see the words “New File” and a Save option to the right of that.

Select Save and browse to a shared folder on your server that everyone has access to. This should be in your central CADD standards drive (preferred) or CADD standards folder. If you do not have one, we have some more work to do, but we will have to address that another day. Email me if you need some help on that.

Assuming you or someone else set this up already, under your “Menus” directory save the file with a logical name (other than custom). Precede it with the same thing you preceded your other standards with… I mean if you have them… If you don’t have this type of setup, let’s use your initials to get the ball rolling, we can rename it later once your actual standards are in place. Let’s assume your initials are “CTS” for Carol or Conrad Smith. Save the file as CTS-Custom. Yes I used “custom”, but the trick is to use a prefix that makes it unique. You can call it CTS-Master, or CTS-Standard or whatever you like, but make sure it has the prefix. You will understand as we talk more about this concept in future posts or you can email me if you need to know now.

Now that you have a new customization file, let’s add a toolbar. Right click on the word “Toolbar” in the right hand pane and select “New Toolbar”. Name it “Efficiency” (no Quotes). Now select “OK” at the bottom of the screen and you will be back in AutoCAD. Now type “MENULOAD” (no quotes). Select Browse and browse to the folder where you saved the CTS-Custom menu, which will be called CTS-Custom.cuix. Highlight the file and select “Load” and then “Close”. When you are back at the AutoCAD screen, you will see an empty floating toolbar, and if you roll over it with your mouse it will be called “Efficiency”.

Now on to get the Toolbar populated

Get back in to the CUI editor by typing “CUI” (from here on out, remember “no quotes” unless I tell you). While on the “Customize” tab, on the same line as the “Customizations in All Files” line, pick on the down arrows to show all your customization menus.

Scroll down to “Partial Customization Files” and keeping selecting the “+” signs to get out to your “Efficiency” Toolbar. Now switch down to the bottom pane and select the “Create a new command” symbol.

We are going to address all the important items here.

Command1
This is what your new command OR Macro will be called, and you will replace this with what you want the actual name to be. This will auto-populate the “Name” field to the right.

Source – “ACAD”
This is the current Menu that the command is registered to. Once you add it to your Efficiency Toolbar, this will show up as “CTS-Custom”. (We will do that shortly).

Name
(see Command1)

Description
This is where you will place a description if necessary – Although I rarely do, it is always good practice to describe what your macro does for future folks that may inherit your menu system.

Macro
This is where the action happens and your efficiency increases! To see more specifics about the command options in Macros see “Writing Macros” below.

Element ID
An ID name that you give your macro. I always use ID_name, with “name” being what the tool is.

Small/Large Image
This is the graphic image that shows up on your toolbar that users see and select to run your macro. Typically these are set to the same. If you have a lot of people who use the LARGE icon option, you may wish to create one for each. Starting out, especially if you are not a creative wiz, I would use an existing button image with a splash of color. I.E. use the save button image for a special file save macro, but color the inside red – then ‘saveas’ a new icon.

Writing Macros
At its most basic level, macros are simply automating the prompts that a command throws out to you. Although this is a powerful feature in itself, by stringing multiple commands together, loading and running lisps combined with commands you can do amazing things that will drastically cut back on your keyboard and mouse time. Below are some basics that you will need to know and common issues that you run into when writing macros. Note that this list is not the entire list of macro options, but represents the most commonly needed or utilized.

Basic Macro Options:

^C^C
Cancel and is the default and most common way to start a macro.

;
Equal to a keyboard Return. Note: Spaces can also be used but are easily lost in a macro string. I personally do not recommend their use.

\
Pause for mouse or keyboard input

/
Use when specifying paths outside of AutoCAD. Note that this is the opposite of what you would see at a command prompt or path description. Example: a command prompt to a network share drive and folder would look like this: “F:\MSTRSYMBOLS\BLOCK.DWG” In a script it looks like this: “F:/MSTRSYMBOLS/BLOCK.DWG”

“
Quotes – Encapsulates a group. This comes in handy when specifying paths that have spaces in them. For instance the path above has not spaces, but if there was a space between MSTR and SYMBOLS, the macro would assume that was a return. Putting quotes before and after will cause the whole group to be read as one parameter.

–
Hyphen – this is used to run commands without Dialogue boxes popping up.

^O
Turns ORTHO ON or OFF

.
Period – This allows you to use built-in commands even if they have been undefined. Useful for CADD managers that have undefined commands.

Now let’s do a quick macro to get your feet wet. We will call this “Super Save”. The purpose of “Super Save” is to zoom extents to get a full view image for previewing (which gets updated on saves), purge our file, audit it, purge it again, save and close it. If you type each of the commands out at your command line, you will see what each letter is answering – remember that the “ ; “ symbol is a return. Time yourself by typing this command out manually and then pick the button and see how much faster it is. And this is just the beginning.

As you may have noticed, this routine is for the still common model space users in the group, it would be simple enough to add a switch to PaperSpace before running the “Zoom” and “Save” options – I’ll leave that for you as homework! (Email me if you need help).

Super_Save:

Command1: SuperSave
Source: ACAD (Will become “CTS-Custom” once we drag this to our toolbar)
Name: Super Save
Description: Zoom Extents, Purge, Qsave and Close
Macro: ^C^Cz;e;-purge;a;;n;audit;y;-purge;a;;n;qsave;close;
Element ID: ID_SuperSave
Small/Large Image: super-save

For the Button image, I selected an existing image icon from the Button Image dialogue above and selected Edit (Notice the existing name is RCDATA_16_SAVE) and I chose ‘Both’ for my image option. On the right, color in the center area red, select “Save” and give it a new name, then select “close”.

Select Apply to save your work.

To get the Macro button added to your toolbar, drag it from the left lower window pane to the top left window pane until you see a small arrow next to your toolbar, then, drop it. You should see something similar to the right side graphic now.

Yea!! You are on your way now!

In the next post we can skip the toolbar work and concentrate on some more practical macros.

WES

Categories AutoCAD, Customization, Efficiency, How To, Standards
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2013 – The Year of Efficiency

by Walt Sparling

January 14th, 2013

2013 is a brand new year and thankfully the Mayans were wrong. As is a tradition every new year, people are wanting to change their ways, from diets and fitness to how they handle their work and personal schedules in hopes of being a trimmer, fitter, better organized and all around better person. To help get things moving in the right direction this year I’m going to be doing more, shorter posts on ways you can increase your efficiency both in and out of AutoCAD. These things may cause you to change your ways, but hey change is good! In the end, if you follow through you’ll be more efficient.

I myself am constantly looking for ways to spend less time doing any kind of process. By spending less time, I do not mean taking shortcuts – the end result must be equal to or better than the original in quality. In this constant effort to shorten my time requirements and multitask I must still maintain quality in whatever I do.

An example of one thing that I do to be more efficient is in how I write my posts. The majority of my posts are now written while I’m doing other things, like shaving, dressing for work or actually on the drive-in to work. It may seem like it could get messy or even be unsafe, but it actually works out great. I use voice recognition software on my smart phone and dictate in to a note app. I can either email myself the articles or login to the Cloud and finish the editing there before I post it (as I am doing right now). Thanks to the accuracy of the recognition software my editing time is reduced drastically and I am able to do two things at once. This also allows me t be spontaneous about my thoughts on an article or blog post.

Another area where I spend a lot of time, as i am sure you do as well is AutoCAD. Being efficient in AutoCAD is paramount for Architectural and Engineering design firms that use it. We produce drawings to communicate our ideas and designs to clients, reviewers and ultimately to the actual builders. In a business, profits are the key to survival, and you make profits by being able to produce a desired product quickly and efficiently. And no – quickly and efficiently are not the same. In this production process, speed alone is not what makes us efficient.

As an AutoCAD designer or even a regular CADD technician, profits may not be the first thing on your mind. But keep in mind profits are what pay your wages, your bonuses and any other perks you might receive. The more profitable your company is the better you (should) do. By doing your work more efficiently, you create shorter production times which translate ultimately in to more profits. So how do we go about being more efficient? In the next post “Macro Mania” , I’m going talk about about an old AutoCAD customization tool called toolbar macros and how they can automate many of the steps you do every day. These tools will reduce the time you spend doing manual steps, and in the process, increase your accuracy – increasing your productivity and efficiency.

WES

Categories AutoCAD, Best Practices, Efficiency, Goals, Personal Development
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Autodesk University 2012 – Follow-Up

by Walt Sparling

December 7th, 2012

In my previous article I talked more about my personal experience at AU 2012 and included some whining. I am sure being sick the later half of the week did not help my attitude. I wanted to follow up with a bit more on some specifics of why AU is such a great event to attend and what you can get out of it.

This is only my third time attending AU, but have wanted to go every year for as long as I can remember – it’s just hard to get some companies to foot the bill for the experience, especially when they hear it is in Las Vegas. If you are an Autodesk product user (and that covers a lot of software users), AU is a the mecca of events to learn more about your software and what is coming down the road for your industry. If like me, you have trouble getting your bosses/manager to approve and finance the trip, start working on them early – like now! Let them know what a great event you missed and how other industry folks are raving about the experience and what they learned. Check out Lynn Allen’s video on the benefits of attending AU and get the Convince Your Manager Tool Kit from the AU site and start planning now. Keep in mind, your a professional, and avoid the traps in Las Vegas – there is plenty to do at the event that has nothing to do with the Casinos and the strip. If you do get to go focus on what the event is about so that maybe next year you will get to go again!

So what does AU off that makes it so worthwhile? Below are just a few of the items that I see/saw:

Industry forecasting of what is coming down from Autodesk and where my industry is headed
Tons of classes with experienced instructors on a variety of Autodesk software – way more than you could possibly take
Huge peer networking opportunity to make connections with others that do what you do
Learn about new products from various vendors that are not even on the market yet
Talk directly to the manufacturers about your experiences and questions – not a help desk person from India
- During one lunch I sat with and discussed AutoCAD with a lead Autodesk tester
Tips and tricks from some of the best. I sat in two Tips/Tricks sessions that had over 500 people in each one!
Time away from your job to actually focus on the technology that you use everyday, instead of trying to figure it out during production

The hot items this year that I saw were cloud based work, Revit optimization and coordination and a lot about creativity. I do not know of many folks using the cloud, but it is gaining ground every year. Revit it seems is getting in to more and more offices and is gaining more acceptance. I am even thinking of submitting on a basic AutoCAD to Revit transition course for next years AU.

AU Virtual:

If you couldn’t go or went but did not get to sit in all the classes you wanted (like me), there is AU Virtual. For non AU attenders, sign up for a free account at AU Virtual and check out the keynote videos and and classes from AU 2012 and start learning for free.

Hope to see you next year at AU 2013!

WES

Categories AutoCAD, Business Development, Change, Efficiency, Revit, Standards, Training
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Standards and Best Practices

by Walt Sparling

October 12th, 2012

One again I find myself motivated by a Blog post by a fellow blogger and AUGI cohort the Kung Fu Drafter (KFD) at KungFuDrafter.com on the topic of Standards or more so what they should be called. KFD discussed how one should consider changing the more common name of “Standards” to “Best Practices”. In the post, KFD made some good points about the struggles we face with Standards – like the big one of “those things that your management always tell you that you need but never got around to developing”. One that he did not mention directly, but inferred is that of the frustration some feel with having to follow standards, especially if they do not like them or had no input to their creation. In the post, KFD made the statement that:

“…there is almost nothing good that comes of calling your documented processes standards.”

And to this I agree one hundred percent! I have seen many places where management, business owners or newby CADD managers with a big ego think that they know best on “how” to do something. Sometimes they are right, but often they are wrong. As KFD said in his intro – “…there is more than one way to draw a polyline.”

But two statements that I struggled with the most were that “the difference between “standards” and “best practices” is minimal.” And “A ‘standard’ is a documented process…” I struggled with these because I see them as completely separate things. My view of ‘Standards’ maybe somewhat limited, but I look at them as a production result or something ‘used’ vs ‘done’ to create a desired result. We have standards to create something uniform and consistent. But the processes, techniques, or practices that we use may not be the same.

Standards vs Best Practices

In looking at some definitions of Best Practices on the web I found the following on Wikipedia:

A best practice is a method or technique that has consistently shown results superior to those achieved with other means, and that is used as a benchmark. In addition, a “best” practice can evolve to become better as improvements are discovered. Best practice is considered by some as a business buzzword, used to describe the process of developing and following a standard way of doing things that multiple organizations can use.

Some consulting firms specialize in the area of Best Practice and offer pre-made ‘templates’ to standardize business process documentation.

And on the BusinessDictionary.com:

A method or technique that has consistently shown results superior to those achieved with other means, and that is used as a benchmark.

The first definition mentions ‘standard’ and ‘standardize’ with the first being about “a way of doing things”, while the second usage discusses “templates to standardize business process documentation” i.e. creating a document that standardise how you do things, both of which would follow KFD’s line of thinking.

When looking for a definition of Standards” on Dictionary.com:

Something considered by an authority or by general consent as a basis of comparison; an approved model.
An object that is regarded as the usual or most common size or form of its kind
A rule or principle that is used as a basis for judgment: They tried to establish standards for a new philosophical approach.
An average or normal requirement, quality, quantity, level, grade, etc.

And on BusinessDictionary.com:

General: Written definition, limit, or rule, approved and monitored for compliance by an authoritative agency or professional or recognized body as a minimum acceptable benchmark.
GATT definition: “Technical specifications contained in a document that lays characteristics of a product such as levels of quality, performance, safety, or dimensions. Standards may include or deal exclusively with terminology, symbols, testing and methods, packaging, or labeling requirements as they apply to a product.”

So, my definitions would be that:

“Best Practices” are the best known method, technique or proven processes used to achieve an end goal – a ’standard’.
“Standards: are usually established by an authority (a rule or principle) or by general consent (defacto standards) as a basis of comparison. Typically used to achieve a specific look, quality, quantity, level, grade, etc. or obtain specific results or create a safer environment.

I think every AEC firm company needs some form of ‘Standards’ but where I look at things a little different from KFD is that rather than setting up the processes as the standards, I believe a company needs both a set of ‘Standards’ AND a set of ‘Best Practices’. Things that I would see in a set of Standards include: (Think National CAD Standards)

A Standard set of Layers
Standard line weights used for the Standard layers
Standard Fonts used for standard Company Styles
Standard Title Blocks, drawing Blocks, and annotation Symbology

Basically – A standard looking set of documents for your company.

Now, as to how you get there, i.e. what process you use, I can recommend some ways, by doing certain tasks or steps – kinda like best practices. But, if you want to use scripts or layer states to control your layers, or if you use toolbars in lieu of the Ribbons – I don’t care if it achieves the same results.

CADD managers may document steps to get a result, and may be it is a non-flexible result so that a specific process has to be used, but this may be where some good automation get’s setup. The more arduous things are and the more steps one has to use, the more likely they will find their own way or shortcut to get a result (like exploding in lieu of redefining blocks).

CADD Managers beware – by labeling your company “Standards” as “Best Practices”, I believe you are offering up that the desired result is flexible or has ‘elasticity’ not something I would want too many people interpreting on their own.

Standards are something necessary and need to be defined, monitored and controlled while Best Practices can be taught but may vary by individual. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes what some users may choose to use as a process is less than optimal…. Because there are many different ways of doing things, we can teach “Best Practices” and encourage them to be used, but in the end we require “Standards”.

Thanks to this thought-provoking post by KFD, I have added “Best Practices” as a category to this blog and will start updating my existing post’s categories to reflect it. And this has also prompted me to put together a post dedicated to some useful business “Best Practices”.

Thanks Curt…

WES

Categories AutoCAD, Best Practices, Efficiency, Standards
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T&T – Email Drafts

by Walt Sparling

June 15th, 2012

As I am cleaning up and finalizing everything in preparation for vacation, I created a vacation auto-response message at work – for this I used a template and an Outlook rule (Not on Exchange). Creating this reminded me of some other standard ‘Draft Templates’ I use in Outlook to make my Email life easier and more efficient.

Why do I use Drafts?

I have to send out numerous emails at the end of projects and at the end or beginning of each week and they are the same type and format each time. The subject lines change and the project names and numbers are different, but the rest of the email is the same. So I write up one really good, thought out, detailed email with everything I need to cover for the recipient and format it so that the only changes made are the subject line, the attachments and a short detailed summary area when required on Project Report emails.

How is this helpful?

By creating a master draft, every weekly email I send out always has the pertinent data needed, I do not have to create an email each time from memory, waste time typing the same thing over each time or if I can’t remember the last one, open an old one and copy paste the content. I just open my drafts folder and select “forward” on my specific draft template and change the particulars for this project or report, select who it goes to and hit send. In fact if you send to the same people all the time, their names can already be included in your drafts TO and CC. Keep in mind that you write some of these same emails over and over, spending about the same amount of time on each one – stop wasting your time, write it, save a draft, select forward, change the names to protect the innocent and send!

How do I do it?

As I said above I write up one really good, thought out, detailed email with everything I need to cover for the particular topic I am creating the email for. For project reports, I create standard subject line with text that is meant to be changed that says job# – job name. I replace these with the actual information prior to sending.

Note: The nice thing about this is that I can save this email for others to use for their reports or use in my absence for me and I know the same information is being provided each time. (like fill in the blank)

I include a summary area with changeable title, project name or number, square footage, service size, address, or whatever is applicable. I format it with italics, bold, underlines, colors etc.. spell and grammar check it, make sure my signature is included (depends how you have Outlook setup for signatures), and save!

When I am ready to send out a report or info email, I open drafts, select the required draft, right-click and select “forward”. If the TO and CC lines are already filled out, I just modify the “fill in the blank” info and send it.

Important Note: Always select forward!!! If you open the draft and select, send after your changes – You have lost your draft and you need to re-create it.

If in the future, if I need to add additional recipients, change the formatting or add content, I open the draft, make the changes and resave it. Done!

What are examples of good draft templates?

– Electronic file Transmittals

– Weekly, Daily, or Monthly Status Reports

– Permit, utility, or project coordination notices

Why do this?

– Speed – saves time!

– Consistency – always the same!

– Accuracy – nothing forgotten!

– Green – Recycles your work! : )

Now stop typing the same stuff over and over, type it, draft it, and forward it!

For other good Email habits, make sure you read my Email Etiquette post.

WES

Categories Efficiency, Email, T&T, Tips - Email
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T&T – Different Scales in Model Space

by Walt Sparling

May 31st, 2012

Some people just can’t seem to make the leap to paper space – even though there would be many productivity gains to do so. As I have been told and heard, we are quite content with how we do things now and see no reason to change. Many people resist change as they believe it will slow them down or be too hard to learn. You can usually tell the ones that are natural resistors to changes in AutoCAD software features by the rest of their AutoCAD tools and methods.

–      Older versions of AutoCAD (2004 – 2010 still very common)
–      Working in Model space only
–      Inserting templates DWGs with blocks and layers rather than using Layer states, automated scripts and DWTs.

Although I prefer to convince those to change their ways and learn something new, sometimes it takes and in-between method to boost their productivity and understanding and so, I offer this productivity tip.

Issue:

Working in model space and using different scales:

A common practice I see is for some firms to draw various plans with different scales, all on one sheet and scale it up or down to make it look right.

Example: A building plan is setup to plot at 1/8″ scale with blown up part plans on the same sheet at 1/4″ and 1/2″ scales. The most common problem is the most obvious – they are not drawn to scale. Yes, when plotted they will scale out properly with an architects or engineer’s scale, but while working on it they are not. I.e. you want to draw an air handler, mill work, or represent a piece of equipment that is 2′-4″ off the south wall and 4′-9″ off the east wall. So how do you place it? For a 1/4″ scale blow up, you would double the distance for your offsets – so 4′-8″ off the south wall and 8′-18″ or 5′-6″ off the west wall. The more odd the dimensions, the more math you do and the more chances you have to make mistakes – and trust me – you will make mistakes.

Solution:

This one is pretty easy, but even so, I have made a few assumptions.

The user:

Is familiar with and uses Xrefs and understands clipping. (If you are not using Xrefs yet, WOW… I do not know what to say – except I am here to help and I charge reasonable rates!) – Seriously – you are missing out on so much productivity – use them!!
Knows basic scaling (i.e. if you are working on a 1/8” drawing and you want to attach a 1/2″ drawing, you scale it up by 4)

Process:

Create a separate DWG file for each of the alternate scaled items. (YES – if you have a lot of blow-ups you will have a lot of additional drawings, and if that is the case – are you sure you do not want to consider Paper Space?)
Draw each of these to the scale you want represented and using the xref command, attach them to your 1/8″ scale drawing and scale them up appropriately.
When you need to modify the enlarged plan, just select it, right-click and select open xref. Note: If you choose to edit the xref n place, you will be using the current dimstyle, textstyle, etc. of the 1/8″ drawing and not the enlarged drawing – choose open.

Benefits:

Accuracy – Your drawings are to real scale, not only when scaled on paper, but while your editing them.
Productivity – Multiple people can be working on a sheet – one on the master drawing and others for each of the enlarged details or blow-ups.

If you can’t get over the Paper space hump right now, at least setup your drawings in a way that can be more productive and accurate until you do.

WES

Categories AutoCAD, Efficiency, T&T, Tips - AutoCAD
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What is Change?

by Walt Sparling

May 15th, 2012

Starting with this post I am going to discuss the various aspects of change and will be spreading them out over additional posts to keep them from getting too long. These posts will include the What, the Why, and the How of Change. I will use some examples in each area to make it a bit more real and not just theoretical.

Starting out – “What is change?” – Depending on who you talk to and their specific experience with change, you may get various answers. Most will give simple definitions or interpretations of what change ‘means’ (feels) to them.

Change sucks
Change is hard/difficult
Change is disruptive
Change is important
Change is good
Change is necessary
Change is progress

Let’s look at some of Dictionary.com’s definition examples:

1. to make the form, nature, content, future course, etc., of (something) different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone: to change one’s name; to change one’s opinion; to change the course of history.

2. to transform or convert

Whereas people usually define what they feel about change, the dictionary examples above show the verb (action) tense of change. The feelings about change will typically match up with the actions of change, with each feeling being dependent on how the change was implemented or performed. In each of our personal and business worlds, change is never as simple as a single action or task, it is a series of steps that we take to achieve a purpose. Changing how we feel about ourselves or others, changing how we maintain our health and fitness, changing how we treat our clients, employees or co-workers, etc… does not happen in a single action. Change requires multiple actions and mental exercises with the manner in which you do them typically determining success or failure. And what this all means, is that ‘Change is a process’.

When you are thinking about making a change with anything you do, whether it be at work or home, the most important thing to understand is that change is not an event or an action – it is a process. Ok – you may be thinking that this is a simple concept, ‘so what’s the big deal?’ Many individuals and companies still treat change as a task – one that needs little planning – just action. When change is treated in this manner, no matter what it is – health, finances, bad habits, etc.. without a plan, without really understanding what you are trying to fix, without weighing the pros and cons of your actions, and without considering the people who will be affected by your actions – it will fail. After all, most changes are not instigated by a single event or person – they typically happen after experiencing issues, frustrations or complaints over an extended period of time.

Changes typically happen for us when we are fed up with how things are or have been and we just know ‘something has to change!’ Many will see people issues and process inefficiencies as just inconveniences that can be ignored and hope that they will just fix themselves, while others just assume that the work required to change something is not worth the potential results – so why bother? For some, the concept of a change, even when it is obviously required scares them and they just give up before they even start. More often than not though these procrastinators and resistors to change will come back to the same conclusion – something has to change!

This final desperate realization that things have to change is many times strong enough to be a catalyst for implementing new ideas or practices. Sometimes though it comes so late in the game that in desperation, changes get implemented with little thought or planning. In the business world these situations occur when leaders, managers or business owners realize that something just isn’t right or there are issues that they do not fully understand but know cannot continue. Exasperated, they decide that “some changes need to be made” and “they need to be made now”. With little thought and planning they charge in and make blanket changes that they think are going to turn things around! Typically though, due to their lack of planning and thoughtful consideration they attempt to fix things from ‘their’ viewpoint and this often makes the situation or issue worse than when they started – this is a change failure.

Change fails for two primary reasons, the first is that change is not treated as a process and implemented in a proper manner and the second is people’s natural resistance to change. This resistance to change usually comes from fear of the unknown or past bad experiences with other change failures. In my next post I will address change implementation with some examples and in follow-up post I will discuss overcoming resistance to change.

WES

Categories Change, Efficiency, Leadership, Management, Standards
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