Cadalyst - April 2008 - (Page 35)

cadmanager for the money spent to train, he or she will be much more likely to approve your attendance. Programming Prowess The most effective CAD managers I know have the ability to customize their CAD software via programming. I’ve benefited tremendously from my programming background, as it has made it a lot easier to use AutoLISP, Visual Basic Automation (VBA), and menu/toolbar customization. The key to programming is starting your learning curve at an appropriate skill level (so you don’t feel overwhelmed) and then jumping in and forcing yourself to learn. The hard part is figuring out where your starting point should be and then finding the resources to help you get started. to learn — or learn more — about programming as it relates to CAD systems. And I promise that the more you know about programming, the more you’ll be in control of your CAD systems. Tip. Every problem you can solve with your own programming skills is a problem you won’t have to pay someone else to fix. When your management understands that benefit, you’ll be more valuable as a programmer and it should embrace your efforts to learn. Not all PDF and DWF Files are Created Equal Network Terminology I don’t believe that CAD managers need to be IT managers, but I do think they need a working knowledge of networks. Because CAD managers need to deploy software over widearea networks (WANs), local-area networks (LANs), the public domain Internet, and virtual private networks (VPNs), they need to understand how these various topologies work and how they can affect the performance of the software they manage. The first step in building your networking skill set is to understand the terminology so you’ll have a clue when the IT guys start talking. To that end, I recommend spending some time on About.com in the Computing and Networking section (http://compnetworking.about.com). You may want to start out in “Networking Basics,” which has a great summary section to build your IT vocabulary and acronym recognition. After you get beyond the basics, you can spend time in the “LAN Networking” and “Speed Tests and Tweaks” for more information about bandwidth and performance characteristics and how they affect CAD performance. Of course, you can always use Google to find a million resources on the Internet for any given networking topic, but About.com’s content is well organized, well indexed, and approachable no matter your skill level. I find it to be a great starting point in any network topic search. Tip. Your IT department will love that you understand their environment. In fact, you may find that they’ll actually want to learn more about your CAD problems as a result. To serve your company best, you must know your application software backwards and forwards. To this end, I recommend you read my October 2007 CAD Manager column, “Programming Resources for CAD Managers,” and start learning based on the instructions offered. As you progress, you’ll want to explore Cadalyst’s “Hot Tip Harry” column, which contains all sorts of programming routines from easy to complex; they’ll help you solve CAD management problems while you learn. Also check out the “Get the Code!” page on Cadalyst.com for a well-indexed and searchable base of all the code examples published in Cadalyst over the years. Taken together, these resources should get you started in your quest April 2008 cadalyst www.cadalyst.com higher q AutoCAD 2000 - 2008 Compatible Batch Creation of PDF, DWF, or Images Automatic Bookmark Creation Custom File Naming Options Create a PDF from any Windows Application Try it free for 30 days. http://www.cadzation.com http://www.About.com http://www.compnetworking.about.com http://www.cadzation.com http://www.cadalyst.com http://www.cadalyst.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cadalyst - April 2008

Cadalyst - April 2008 Contents Editor's Window Cad Central The Summer of BIM Thin Is In — Large LCD Monitors Caligari trueSpace 7.5 — 3D Modeling Software HP Compaq 8710w — Mobile Workstation Autodesk Design Review 2009 — Design Viewing and Collaboration Software Getting Better — What Should You Learn? Technical Uses for Nontechnical Software AEC on Macs Cad Cartoon Issue Indexes Tips Rain Down on Harry

Cadalyst - April 2008

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