Formal training ensures faster take up

Tom Shelley reports on the importance of formal training when embracing new software Although CAD software is vastly easier to use than when it first appeared, its ever increasing scope and complexity means that training is still essential if best possible use is to be made of it. When CAD was a new idea, ease of use was secondary to getting it to work at all within the limits of the computing power available. Autodesk "Technical Evangelist" Lynn Allen recalled to us that when she started with the company as a trainer in 1982, "AutoCAD 2.18 was described as easy to learn - but It wasn't!". She said that the challenge at the time was to keep students from giving up and leaving the room and persuading them that they could indeed master it. AutoCAD, its 3D counterpart Inventor, and other mainstream CAD packages have become vastly easier to learn since, because it is now possible to allocate computing power to the man machine interface. But formal training is still very beneficial. If one searches for "CAD training on Google", it is noteworthy that most of the responses concern training on how to use AutoCAD and other Autodesk products. This is partly because AutoCAD and other Autodesk products are so widely used, and because their re-seller and training network is so well established. Land Instruments International in Dronfield is an Autodesk Inventor user with 10 seats and a greater number of users. When we met Drawing Office Manager David Leadley at an Autodesk event and asked him whether he had employed formal training as part of the rollout, he responded that, "it was one of the best returns on investment that we could get. We used to use Euclid, which was pretty hard, so we understood the need to be taught a new CAD package properly. We therefore adopted a structured approach to training, establishing what type of training we needed to be able to get to point 'A' and then what type of training we needed to get to point 'B'." As a result of the training, the engineers were quickly brought up to speed, and Leadley told us that, "All our new products are now designed in Inventor." Training was provided by Autodesk reseller Trionics, which is based in Derby. John Bartle from Trionics complained to us about companies who bought software without proper implementation or training plans: "We see a lot of part implementations with the result that the software that has been purchased becomes shelfware." Somebody asked David Leadley whether he measured the improved productivity and how he did so. Her replied that prior to implementation, he had undertaken an analysis of effective and non effective designer time. He had looked at time spent on drawing, time spent on re-drawing items found in catalogues, and time spent looking for things. He said that the results had been, "Pretty horrendous." As well as taking on the training, he said, that, "We have tried to put all parts into a structured library," and, "We prefer to use catalogue items that have 3D models associated with them that we can import." He also said that the availability of a downloadable model or not was often the deciding factor in purchasing from one supplier rather than another. The company now has an Excel spreadsheet of preferred parts and, "We now make far more effective use of our time." Autodesk Trionics Pointers * Structured training saves time wasted finding out how to do things and ensures that fuller use is made of the software * At least one customer has told us of his formal training that, "It was one of the best returns on investment that we could get."