Topic: CAD Standards - would you pay for them?

[sinc]

I'm just curious...  I'm not connected to the NCS, or the AIA, or any other CAD organization.

I went ahead and made it so each person could enter TWO votes for this poll...  (EDIT: changed to three, I think...)

[TimSpangler]

Standards are great if they are kept in check and are easy to implement.  But to charge for them??  I don't think so.  But then people buy water that is freely availible 

[CADaver]

You missed an option for me:

""NCS and AIA are bloated, heavy-handed over blown standards developed for a small segment of the industry by self promoting, self-appointed spokespersons (completely ignoring the multitude of experience available outside that small segment) that create many more problems than they solve for the rest of the industry.  I wouldn't use 'em if they were free and came already installed with the software. ""

Add that option and I can participate.

[sinc]

You missed an option for me:

""NCS and AIA are bloated, heavy-handed over blown standards developed for a small segment of the industry by self promoting, self-appointed spokespersons (completely ignoring the multitude of experience available outside that small segment) that create many more problems than they solve for the rest of the industry.  I wouldn't use 'em if they were free and came already installed with the software. ""

Add that option and I can participate.

Your wording was too long...   

Did I add an option that will suffice?

[Keith™]

I would not purchase "out of the box" standards as they seldom satisfy all of the needs and concerns of any particular office. I would however, be willing to pay a consulting company to review our drawings, methods, requirements etc. then develop a set of standards that at least do the following:

a) Address drawing techniques for continued productivity enhancement
b) Address compatability and usability with standards from other organizations (i.e. clients)
c) Provide for flexibility in expanding the standards as needed in the future
d) Address current concerns regarding document templates. storage and management of drawings

In the end, I suppose there are lots of other things .. but it is late and I am half asleep ...

[Arizona]

Your company standards should apply to what you do and how you work.
I would never buy someone else's standards because they will never work for the way we do business. Even if they are free, they won't fit and you will spend a lot of time (and money) interpreting the meanings of the standards. This is not a one size fits all.  Cad standards (in my company) is a forever changing/living document. As needs change, software changes, and technologies change, the way we do drafting has to change as well.
Take the time to develop your own Cad Standards based on your business, your business needs and your customers expectations. Good cad standards should be short, concise and easy to understand. In other words, you should simply state "thou shall do this or not do this". Don't write a 10 page paragraph explaining why this standard exists and who approved it, blah blah blah, etc...
Include forward thinking into these standards, such as;
where do you want to be in a year (this is part of the how are you going to get there)
how can you gain consistancies to set yourself up for possible automation in the future
Then make sure that you have training for your users so they understand what the standards are and then hold them accountable for their work. Cad standards almost always fail (in a multi user environment) when no one is held responsible for their own work.

[CADaver]

Did I add an option that will suffice?

Close, considering you've allowed us two choices, add one more that says:

""NCS and AIA are bloated, heavy-handed, over blown standards and I wouldn't use 'em if they were free and came already installed with the software. ""

And we're in business.

[Arizona]

Yep, that ^^ would be my choice too.

[Dilbert]

I agree, I'm not big on standards either if they are required to be purchased beyond just covering the costs of the printed documentation. A universal adoption of standards will likely never take place unless the programs themselves take care of these "Standards" by documenting the data within a database (much like Revit). In this fashion the data can be extracted from the database and utilized/viewed with any office "Standards" required. 

In short, the individual offices will continue to view the data as they see fit and as the data is saved back to the database it would take on the universal data standard. When ever data is extracted from this database each office would be able to view it as they have their Standard view setting setup.

BUT this will not accept a universal adaption as long as programs like AutoCAD are still in wide use. That's not against the AutoCAD way of doing things, it's simply a reason that standards like are being discussed will not take off and achieve true universal adoption as they won't work for each and every type of firm with the way these programs currently control their data.

[sinc]

Your company standards should apply to what you do and how you work.
I would never buy someone else's standards because they will never work for the way we do business. Even if they are free, they won't fit and you will spend a lot of time (and money) interpreting the meanings of the standards. This is not a one size fits all.  Cad standards (in my company) is a forever changing/living document. As needs change, software changes, and technologies change, the way we do drafting has to change as well.

Sounds like you're for yet another option, one something like "The whole idea of a National CAD Standard is a pipe dream foisted upon the gullible" or something like that...   

It seems like this is becoming one of those mish-mash polls, and maybe everyone should be allowed three choices...    But I can't seem to change that option.  I had also tried to make the poll one where people could change their vote, but it went the other way for some reason, and now I can't change it...

[Dinosaur]

I fixed it for you sinc, votes can now be changed and there are now 3 votes available

EDIT

Incidentally, I wouldn't spend a single penny for those standards.

[Slim©]

Incidentally, I wouldn't spend a single penny for those standards.

I wouldn't either.

My company has developed it's own standards over the years and is highly successful with them. To be forced into an industry wide standard would not be productive in our case. I believe this to be true with most companies that have been using CAD for many years.

[sinc]

I fixed it for you sinc, votes can now be changed and there are now 3 votes available

I'm pretty sure that earlier, I saw the option to change my vote, but now it seems to be gone again...  Is there something strange going on in the web software?

[Dinosaur]

That option got disabled again somehow.  You should be able to change it now.

[dtkell]

The standards should be free of charge, unless you are purchasing them as part of software already formatted to exclusively follow them.
If all regulatory agencies adopted these standards, then more people would need to adhere to them. It even seems that separate entities within the federal government have different sets of standards that govern their concerns. Somehow if they were all on the same page, it would be expected that everyone that deals with them would be too.
I have been accustomed throughout my career in accommodating different standards for design, drafting and submissions for whatever agency is being dealt with. If all these aspects were standardized also, everything would flow more easily than keeping track of what each individual governing agency requires.