23.6 What Have We Learned?

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23.5 Extra Steps

Asking is only half the battle. Listening to the answer reveals the path to success.

        Anonymous

So, what do you think of Xrefs? When used properly, they can be a tremendous timesaver. But something else is required. Let me tell you a story.

When I was working for one of the big petrochemical companies in Houston a few years ago, a friend of mine (another guru) was assigned to a new project. He was to set up the CAD system for the project.

For some wild reason (wild reasoning isn't uncommon in petrochem), he decided to buck the norm and set up the project the way AutoCAD was designed to work – using things like attributes to track materials and Xrefs to save time. Jim worked diligently for weeks setting up and starting the project.

Then the company fired him. It seemed the project's lead knew nothing about Xrefs and very little about attributes. All he saw was weeks gone with only a few drawings created (remember that proper setup of an AutoCAD project takes time in the beginning but saves time in the end).

The project lead hired a beginning CAD operator, had him teach himself about Xrefs and attributes, and then spent more weeks disassembling, binding, exploding, and so forth all of the drawings and setups which Jim had created.

What is the moral of this story? Jim forgot one crucial fact of CAD operations. That fact involves communication. The majority of supervisors are simply not aware of AutoCAD's potential or proper use (yet). Jim didn't explain to the boss what he was doing, nor did the boss bother to learn Jim's "new" system. He replaced it with something he understood (more expensive and time consuming, but also more comfortable for him).

Your Extra Steps exercise is this: Go to your supervisor (or contact a supervisor in the industry in which you hope to work) and set up an interview. Ask if the company uses Xrefs and/or attributes to track materials. Then ask why or why not. If they're using Xrefs, try to convince them to stop (explain that this is an assignment and don't get too combative) and listen closely to their arguments. If they're not using Xrefs, try to convince them to do so. Again, listen closely to their arguments.

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