Cadalyst - December 2007 - (Page 36)

cadmanager Will it meet your Internet needs? What type of Internet support, if any, will you need today and in the future? Can the DM system work in your current environment and deliver documents efficiently? What is the user experience when locating documents via the Internet? Is it usable and friendly? Trust your gut when evaluating software and remember that ease of use is what users want. If software seems complicated to you, it certainly will to everyone else! Get user opinions, bring users to software demos, have your boss try the system, and ask around. And always remember that if software isn’t easy to use, people won’t use it. tation haven’t been addressed. Sometimes it makes more sense to wait while continuing to hone your system requirements and build managerial support for funding a system. Trust me when I say that waiting to install the right DM system is more tolerable than installing the wrong system today. Summing Up I hope that this month’s “CAD Manager” column has put document and file management back on your CAD management radar screen where it belongs. Although analyzing and shopping for DM solutions takes some CAD management time, very few other things can have a more positive impact on your CAD work environment. Go back to square one and consider your document-management problems, analyze my checklists, and check out some of the company Web sites listed in the sidebar. I think you’ll find the experience will refocus you on the basics of controlling your CAD environment. And that, my fellow CAD managers, is a very valid pursuit. c Robert Green performs CAD programming and consulting throughout the United States and Canada. Reach him via his Web site at www. cad-manager.com. The Waiting Game After you’ve carefully compiled your needs and started shopping for DM software, you should find something that fits your needs and budget. But what if you don’t? Should you scale your expectations back and buy less of a system or should you argue for more budget dollars to purchase a high-end system? These questions require some mental preparation on your part. My experience tells me that if people think they’re going to be unhappy with a DM system, they will be. I personally believe that even the most well-crafted DM software can fail in almost any environment if the criteria of performance, cost, and expec- SOLUTIONS MCAD Customer Support Disasters AEC Managing Digital Assets PLM International Production CADALYST LABS REVIEWS TurboCAD Pro 14 SimEnterprise R2 CADopia 6.2 SP3 Professional MANAGEMENT Programming Tools for CAD Workplaces www.cadalyst.com Graphics Cards Pack Power for Today’s Hottest Designs What you’ll ﬁnd at Cadalyst.com www.cadalyst.com/reviews + Architecture in the Virtual World www.cadalyst.com/tutorials Subscribe to Cadalyst Magazine www.cadalyst.com/code www.cadalyst.com/newsletters • • • • • • 36 December 2007 | cadalyst | www.cadalyst.com http://www.cad-manager.com http://www.cad-manager.com http://Cadalyst.com http://www.cadalyst.com http://www.cadalyst.com/reviews http://www.cadalyst.com/tutorials http://www.cadalyst.com/code http://www.cadalyst.com/newsletters http://www.cadalyst.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cadalyst - December 2007

Cadalyst - December 2007 Contents Editor's Window Cad Central Autodesk Gets Digital Top Honors - Saluting Outstanding CAD Products NX 5, Part 2 — CAD/CAM/CAE Software Autodesk 3ds Max 2008 —3D Modeling, Animation, and Rendering Software Document Management: Is It Still Valid? Standardizing 3D Modeling Nomenclature Share and Share Alike Cad Cartoon Issue Indexes Cad Fidential

Cadalyst - December 2007

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