Topic: AAARRRGGGHHHHH!!!! RANT RANT RANT....

[hudster]

Why can't people do things right.

I received a drawing today, 5.5 meg in size, I purged it as soon as i got it, and hey presto 500k.

IS it just me or are some people who claim to be cad technicians just chancers.

Not purging drawings is my pet hate, it takes a few seconds and can make a great difference to the file size.

I recently had a spare few days and purged a lot of drawings in one project folder and saved over 100 meg of space on the server.

And another thing, don't make layer names called 01, 02, 03 etc.  People who work with your drawings don't have a clue what they are, here's a clue, make them descriptive.  i.e. _63_lighting or _63 lighting_text.  at least then I'll know what the layers are.

Rant Over, (Calming down now)...

[hudster]

and another thing.

USE SNAPS.  lines of a building are meant to meet, not just finish in mid air.

and keep things on the right layers, it's what they are for, and incidentally 0 is not a layer for drawing on, it's for inserting on, i.e. xrefs, title sheets etc.

[Craig]

And another thing, don't make layer names called 01, 02, 03 etc.  People who work with your drawings don't have a clue what they are, here's a clue, make them descriptive.  i.e. _63_lighting or _63 lighting_text.  at least then I'll know what the layers are.

I understand. We get dwgs from clients all the time with crap like that. The problem lies in "OTHER" CAD programs that export out dwg files. Some of these "OTHER" CAD programs don't give the user the option to name layers what they want. ANd then again, you just have lazy ass CAD'ers that don't care. What irks me is when we get these dwgs from a client, we setup our drawings using their layer names and just adjust colors for our plotting purposes. Well, when the next round of new and improved drawings come around, all the layer names are different! The whole purpose of using their layer names is we can drop new drawings in and all the colors adjust automatically, but when they rename their layers!!!! Better stop before the language gets me going  

[Craig]

and keep things on the right layers, it's what they are for, and incidentally 0 is not a layer for drawing on, it's for inserting on, i.e. xrefs, title sheets etc.

Hahaha, as you mention that, we just got 30 dwgs from a client and all their dwgs contain 1 layer.....0.
Imagine how thats gonna suck to clean up these drawings  

[Keith™]

Imagine having 50% of you own staff who thinks that "green" is the layer and "wall" is some unknown concept that it takes a PhD to understand.

[hudster]

I have a drawing from an architect who shall remain nameless, its is building layout that has all 4 walls constructed entirely of glass, nice looking building, but the killer is it has almost 2000 separate sheets of glass, and each one has two mullions on either side of it, and each one made up of 1400 lines, and the genius who is their CAD operator decided to explode every mullion, the drawing file is huge and it takes me 2 working days to clean up each set of drawing they send us.

We are currently on revision TT, bearing in mind that we started on revision A and have now been through the alphabet almost twice, i have spend over 9 weeks in the last 2 years cleaning up these drawings.

God I HATE that architect.

[Craig]

Sounds like its time to get with your boss and let him/her know the process you're having to go through so at least your company is being paid for the extra work you are going through. That in turn might prompt your boss/owner to contact the architect and get him to fix this problem on his end. When the arch.. finds out he's going to be billed for extra $$$, he might just get the problem fixed.  

[hudster]

He knows, but as we are getting paid a variation fee each time we have to through this, he's happy.

I can't even delegate this as I'm the only person in the CAD department.

[Craig]

He knows, but as we are getting paid a variation fee each time we have to through this, he's happy.

I can't even delegate this as I'm the only person in the CAD department.

Well, It sounds as though your screwed no matter what. Just look at it this way...JOB SECURITY!  BTW, why not contact the arch's drafting crew and discuss the problem with her/him. Maybe they will correct the problem. it's always worth a shot.

Good Luck

[hudster]

Last time I spoke to him was to talk him through the process of binding an Xref before sending out the drawing.

It was one of those moments, when I just knew he was self taught without having to ask.

[Mark]

>I just knew he was self taught without having to ask
Hey now, don't knock the self taught people before you've got to know them. Some of them know a lot about ACAD.

[daron]

Why would you talk him through binding? Just have him send the referenced files too. Although, it wouldn't be a bad idea to explain to him that the explode command is a bad idea and that he shouldn't use it.

[Craig]

Last time I spoke to him was to talk him through the process of binding an Xref before sending out the drawing.

It was one of those moments, when I just knew he was self taught without having to ask.

Hahaha, yeah. Gotta hate it when you call the client and talk to the CAD folk and when you say XREF, they reply, "Whats an XREF?" That's when you just give up and accept what fate has dealt you  

[Keith™]

Hudster, have you thought of some housecleaning routines to "fix" that stuff for you. It sounds like something that a proggie could do in much less time.

[hyposmurf]

Last time I spoke to him was to talk him through the process of binding an Xref before sending out the drawing.

It was one of those moments, when I just knew he was self taught without having to ask.

If he doesn't know how to bind or how to use the explode tool correctly then he's more likely a Architect who's told his boss yeh I can do CAD.Good that he's making the effort,but can you imagine the crap he's issuing to his clients!

[Craig]

Yeah, apparently Hudsters on the receiving end of the crap  

[Keith™]

Which in turn creates MORE opportunity for us ...

[CB_Cal_UK]

Hey now, don't knock the self taught people before you've got to know them. Some of them know a lot about ACAD.

Absolutely right! I think some of these CADers come out of college thinking they've been taught everything they need to know about CAD!

I would say that I know enough about CAD to know that I don't know enough!!!

Most of us who are self taught would probably agree that we had the best teachers as well!

[hudster]

what I was getting at with the self taught comment is, people who open a CAD package draw a line and a circle and think that makes them a CAD operator.

I've been doing this for 13 years and I still don't know it all, but I do know how to draw.  It's the only thing I was ever good at at school.

If you don't know how to set out a drawing, or draw with a good degree of accuracy you aren't a draffie.

I started off on a board with pen and ink and it taught me a good few fundamentals.  But a lot of CAD operators I see nowadays don't know even the basics of engineering drawing.

[CADaver]

what I was getting at with the self taught comment is, people who open a CAD package draw a line and a circle and think that makes them a CAD operator.

I've been doing this for 13 years and I still don't know it all, ...

I've been bangin' at AutoCAD for 20 years next month  (ahhhh... Ver 1.4... beatiful thang, it was)  And I don't know anything, much less "it all".  I gotta laugh at those guys who bootleg a copy to thier machine at home, and POOF, they're CAD Operators.

Just the other day I had a guy tell me he didn't use that "new" paperspace stuff 'cuz he wanted somebody else to check out new features before he tried 'em.  When I told him that the PAPERSPACE concept had been part of AutoCAD for 13 or 14 years he got that glazed-over look in his eyes and said "huh?"  I replied "How about them Panthers?"

[deegeecees]

Yup, I was recently hired for a "contract" job and my first impression was that of a "Fly-by-night" operation with absolutely no clue as to how to make their work easier. My very first drawing, a simple connection for a catwalk, was done using MS/PS. Last saturday they had to have someone come in and redo the drawing using only MS. When they told me of this, I laughed my a$$$ off. I promptly stated that it was not my problem and that I could give all the "CAD" people a class on the subject, and that MS/PS is the right way to do things for various reasons (i.e. Batch process, tblock scales, programming aspects and such). They asked me to leave. stating that I was not a team player. I ask you, would you want to play for a LOSING team? Thus I am out of work and back here to help real people.

[Keith™]

that ain't the one you just told us about was it??

[deegeecees]

I'm afraid so Keith.

[deegeecees]

I guess I had a lesson in humility. I saw the state of their CAD operation and just shook my head. Well, I didn't really JUST shake my head. I let people know exacly how I felt about it, like telling my boss that the current CAD manager is a "Rookie" and that AutoCAD 14 sucks, and if they don't know how to use MS/PS they should go back to using paper and pencils with an abacus. This didn't take very well, and I guess I just let my big-headedness get the best of me.

[Keith™]

Well, heck ... you don't want to work with a bunch of lard heads anyway ....

[deegeecees]

You are CORRECT SIR! HA! HA! HA! ha! ha! ha! haaaa.....

[Keith™]

Confusious once say ... "He who laughs last, laughs best"

I believe that ...

[ELOQUINTET]

i worked for a couple similar companies about 6 months ago deeg. one even had a hand draftsman. i am in custom metal fabrication and this is unheard of because we're constantly revising as field conditions change. anyway you're beeter off man. work should not be a burden it should be a learning experience which enriches your life. hang in there man you'll find your niche...

[deegeecees]

Thanks elo, I got 3 offers today already!

[czech mate]

Confucius say:
"Lady who cooks carrots and peas in same utensile most unhygenic"
"Man who make love on side of hill not on level"