Cadalyst - August 2008 - (Page 38)

mcadmodeling By Mike Hudspeth, IDSA Do You Need Modeling Standards? Simple guidelines can help ensure quality models and successful downstream applications. M aybe I’m dating myself here, but I remember reading a lot of comic books as a kid. When I ﬁnished the exciting story (and was still disappointed because it was a multiparter), I would usually leaf through the advertisements in the back. You know what I’m talking about — x-ray glasses (guaranteed to work) and Sea Monkeys. Nestled among those ads was a small black-and-white comic about this skinny guy who was doing his best to pick up a bikini-clad babe. He would do pretty well until some big Figure 1. Every modeling program has a way muscular guy came up, kicked sand in to deal with its layers. Some use numbers, his face, and took the girl. The skinny and others assign names. Most let users guy went out and bought an exercise rename layers any way they want. book (the real reason for the ad) and punched out the bully, winning forever the affections of his paramour. Figure 2. This feature tree shows how I’ve All three characters in the comic could use some pany. The probnamed my sketches to be easily identified. improvement. If the bully had learned to play nice with lem comes If I wanted to go one step further, I could others, the ad would have been unnecessary. The skinny when employees name each and every feature. guy could’ve gone along his merry way without fear or don’t adhere to shame. Of course, if the skinny guy had acquired and main- those standards. tained good physical and social skills beforehand, the situSmaller companies, however, might not even have a CAD ation might not have occurred in the first place. I guess the manager. In those situations, it’s up to the designers to set real winner of the story is the girl — who, it appears, just their own standards. Of course, they don’t need to be comwanted the strongest guy. If she had cared for more than plex. Standards just need to state what you are putting muscle, the whole story would’ve happened differently. where. And they need to be practiced. What’s a Body To Do? Do you see where I’m going with this? People seem to fall into doing whatever they are used to doing. They get comfortable with having things their way — so much so that they can become hard to work with. How many times have you complained that one of your coworkers creates files that aren’t up to snuff? You don’t have the authority to tell that person how to model unless you’re the boss. But if you have some form of corporate or departmental standards, everyone has to adhere to them. The downside of the equation is that those coworkers are going to expect you to follow the rules too. It goes both ways. Most big companies have a CAD manager who will create and administer a set of standards for the com38 Write It Down It almost goes without saying that good modeling habits make for better cooperation. If designers model without regard for anything but themselves, they invariably will fall into some bad habits. When the next person comes along and wants to use those models, he or she will have a hard time. So what do you do? One solution is to establish written standards. Standards are a list of things you can expect to find in every file, every time. I know, no one likes to adhere to the letter of the law, but think about it for a bit. Things that are written down aren’t forgotten as easily. They provide a concrete yardstick for measuring whether something is good or bad. Of course, they can be abused, but I’m going to assume for the sake of argument that won’t happen. www.cadalyst.com cadalyst August 2008 http://www.cadalyst.com

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

Cadalyst - August 2008 Contents Editor's Window CAD Central Tech Trends: Rotor Bug Strikes Again Cadalyst Labs Reviews: Digital Dreams — Visualization Software: Make Your Design Visions a Reality Maple 12 — Math Software AutoLINE 2009 — Linetype Management Add-On Deep Access — Digital-Media Asset Management Software View Point: Examining the Autodesk–Bentley Agreement CAD Manager: Managing Multioffice Mayhem MCAD Modeling: Do You Need Modeling Standards? AEC Insight: Modeling Technology for Building Engineers CAD Cartoon Issue Indexes Hot Tip Harry: Better Living with Objects and Smart Entities

Cadalyst - August 2008

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