CAD Standards

up to par. When Management started getting wind of this, they began to ask questions.

This was the catalyst that drove everything! The light bulb went on when the current documentation’s state was revealed.

Typically, the companies I worked for were midsized and had a design environment based on CAD documents created by numerous people. These people had varying CAD skills or experience levels. This was usually due to a heavy workload and tight timelines, so it worked well in that situation. I cleaned up drawing formats and set up styles for future work as time allowed.

However, it would not even be considered when I approached management to make this a serious goal. Frustrated, I returned to working on legacy documents without seriously being able to improve the system.

The CAD design process during my time as an employee would change frequently. My workload jumped when people discovered I was more efficient at CAD than untrained engineers. As I worked on drawings, I started incorporating AutoCAD Electrical features previously ignored due to lack of training while having to bury the time doing so in active projects.

No Time For Such Trivialities

As business was booming, the idea of revising the CAD design process was usually entirely off the table. Management would occasionally be reorganized for various reasons. The key players would change with each reorganization, complicating the CAD standards development effort. This, paired with the mindset that things were going ok, so we did not want to introduce a potentially controversial change to the design environment, kept the status quo.

Changes On The Horizon

With changes in the industry and the corporate direction adjusting to them, there was a shift in the mentality at the management level. The competition in the industry was making management more aware of their brand and presence. As part of this new awareness, the product documentation topic was addressed.

Meetings were established with a committee that the company felt would be productive. The sessions got off to a great start. However, there was always some point of discussion that would be a concern by someone on the committee. As time went on, these sessions became less productive. Having 15 people put over an hour on admin time also got the bean counters’ attention.

Eventually, the group stopped meeting. The result was predictable, and the subject dropped with no actual results.

Where To Go From Here

The initial attempt at standardization with my current employer began five + years ago and is ongoing. Management has recently started a deep dive into improving processes and methodologies. This brings up the question of how we get there from here. Management is, in my opinion, going in the proper direction, analyzing current policies and procedures concerning the industry’s current state. CAD standards are now; I am happy to say, a real point of discussion in this process.

Getting there from here in my particular situation is challenging. Engineers are told that they are to create their own drawings. However, I have several engineers I work with that choose not get into the CAD files, or do not have the experience to do so. As an additional hurdle, there has been no real push to conform to a standard design. Management, for their part, has been isolated from this process for so long that, in my opinion, they are out of touch on the issue.

The fact that management-level people are not aware of the current CAD environment is the loose sand that their castle is built on. The foundation of their design process effectively washed away with the tide years ago.