Evaluation and Training
Cost-effective Orientation and Training
We recommend that you and the staff of your company attend free technology seminars and visit industry trade shows and exhibitions to get as good an overview of ArchiCAD and other systems as possible. The Graphisoft website, resellers' and service providers' websites offer you a large amount of technical and marketing information. Vendors often offer orientation seminars and training courses free or at a nominal price.
Some public ArchiCAD courses are accredited by professional organizations such as the AIA in the United States, and guarantee you professional development credits. The hands-on experience of using the software while taking the courses is more convincing than any product demonstration by vendors, and the pre-purchase training prepares you and your staff for potential implementation pitfalls. Ask your reseller about the availability of ArchiCAD seminars, orientation sessions and training packages in your area.
You should also spend some time talking with ArchiCAD users and ask for second opinions on the performance of the software, or visit a friendly practice to get first-hand experience of how ArchiCAD works in real life. Interview your employees and find out if there is anyone among them who already worked with or saw ArchiCAD at another firm. It could even happen that someone actively uses ArchiCAD at home when moonlighting on private projects. Don't underestimate the value of your staff's comments.
Test a License
While purchasing a single software package may be the entire investment a small firm needs, wants or can afford, when the decision is about acquiring a dozen licenses, buying one and putting it through intensive in-house test before purchasing additional copies is a sensible idea. This solution may not, however, give you a really good overview of how different people in your office respond to and perform using ArchiCAD. Consider spending money on a couple of licenses, and assigning them to staff members of various backgrounds and qualifications.
Hire an ArchiCAD Contractor
A safe scenario could be hiring the services of a freelance ArchiCAD contract designer, technician or draftsperson who can come to your office with his or her own ArchiCAD workstation. While contributing to an ongoing project of yours, the contractor can give ArchiCAD training to your staff, and you can even see how ArchiCAD can be integrated in your existing CAD environment.
It is also favorable if the contractor is familiar with your existing CAD system. If you are satisfied with the services, you can keep the contractor around until you are ready to implement the first group of workstations.
Setting Up the Test Project
Businesses with a running CAD system rarely implement significant new IT components without thoroughly scrutinizing them first. Hands-on testing of a product should be logically integrated in the purchase process as it can provide you with reliable answers to most of your questions. The following section offers you some guidelines to organize a test project.
Points to Consider
In general, test projects are set up in order to get a valuable overview of the following areas:
- Capabilities: Does the software deliver the promised outputs in the required quality?
- Productivity: Can the outputs be achieved by investing an acceptable amount of time and effort of trained users?
- Communication: Can the software sufficiently import and export CAD documents relevant to the practice?
- Flexibility: Can design amendments be carried through an already completed project by investing an acceptable amount of time and effort?
- Changeover time: Can staff be sufficiently trained and put to work on the new system in an acceptable timeframe?
- Assistance: Can you expect an acceptable level of support in implementation and maintenance of the software by your reseller?
The test project is best organized if at completion you have appropriate data to draw satisfactory conclusions with regards to the above areas. In order to achieve this, you must pay serious attention to selecting a suitable project, assembling a project team characteristic of the office, choosing the premises of the test, and arranging pre-test training.
Comparison and Performance Test
Depending on whether a choice must be made between competing software packages or a single system needs to be examined, you must set up a comparison type project or a performance test. The two are not entirely different, and a comparison can quickly evolve into a performance test as the winner system starts showing.
A comparison typically includes two or three similar project teams each using a different software on the same project to achieve the required results. If a substitute CAD system is being sought, one team may be using the software that needs to be replaced. A sensible alternative is to run the test on a current project of the office. This saves the trouble of setting up the "Home Team" because a project team is working on the job anyway.
Due to operational reasons, the number of team members in a comparison is usually limited to two to four. A single performance test involves the same number of people - six to twelve - as a comparison does but they concentrate on one system only. Consequently, a performance test can go into deeper details. A comparison may have to be followed by a performance test to achieve the best test results.
If a comparison does not bring clear results after the first run, you may try and rotate the teams.
The Premises
If you can afford to set aside a test project team for longer than a few days, it is probably best to isolate the required number of workstations within the office. If initial training is to be held inhouse, it is necessary that the team is physically separated so that they are not disturbed by the regular procedures. Physical isolation also prevents the team from being significantly influenced by unsolicited remarks and advice of colleagues.
As it is possible to examine ArchiCAD quite extensively in about a week, it may be best to draw the project team out of the office for the duration of the test. A rented CAD lab or training room at your reseller's office, at a service company or a university provides the perfect test environment. You can run your team through the initial training and the test with full concentration and without being disturbed. A rented lab can also provide you with appropriate hardware in case your current office standard hardware is not acceptable for the software being tested. Before starting the test, make sure all computers and peripherals are in perfect working order and the applications run acceptably fast. Run the test in a networked environment using the same network software you use in your office. This allows for easy file exchange, the testing of file sharing and other workgroup features. Use printers and plotters similar to or identical with those you are using in your office or wish to use with the new software. If you are not sure about hardware models, the software test gives you an opportunity to compare different output devices and peripherals, too.
The Team
Recruiting people who really want to participate in the test is of extreme importance because reluctance and negative attitude can seriously affect test results. Self-motivated people learn faster, spend more time on the project voluntarily to explore things all by themselves.
To get a better overall picture, it is recommended to involve at least one person of each typical staff group of those who would use the software. For a company already using CAD, this usually means CAD operator draftspeople, CAD literate designers and non-CAD user designers.
Depending on the purpose of the test, the proportion of group representatives may vary. When testing ArchiCAD as a possible substitute for the current system, the team composition should be similar to that of the entire office or, rather an average project team. When ArchiCAD is considered as a design front-end solution complementary to a drafting CAD application, the team can be made up of designers only. The ratio of CAD literate staff and non-CAD users should be realistic.
It is important that you involve someone of sufficient ArchiCAD expertise in the project to support the team in exploring the software. Practically, your reseller should assign or recommend capable ArchiCAD users who can maintain a continuity of logic and discipline during the test while helping you get the most out of the project.
The Job
We recommend to make the test project as realistic as possible. The best way to achieve this is by choosing a real project, possibly a current one. You may change the specification slightly to suit the test better but try to stick to reality as much as you can.
A current project offers you a valid comparison with the company's running CAD system. You can test how the new output types complement the usual set of documents, e.g. use ArchiCADgenerated image and animation files in client presentation. You can see how ArchiCAD can complement the current procedures, e.g., by model-based design assessment. Testing design alternatives is easy in ArchiCAD, which can give you valuable help in a project. You can make the whole test exercise serious and motivate your people to achieve presentable results if different outputs generated during the test will be used by the real project team.
The selected project should be complex enough to test ArchiCAD in its entirety but should not be overly complex to confuse members of the project team, especially non-CAD users. A three or four-story regular structure, e.g., a condominium or office building, is a good solution. This type of project allows you to experience not only how plan drawings and visuals are created,but also the story-layer logic of ArchiCAD, the use of layer combinations, the handling of identical or similar floors in a project, file sharing by story, area or layers, and working with Library Parts and Modules.
Working with a relatively large team, you could achieve good comparative test results if there are two or three freestanding structures in the project. Assign each structure to a group of two or three people using TeamWork file sharing to see, for instance, how CAD users and non-CAD literate designers cope with similar tasks in ArchiCAD.
When elaborated in details, the project should also give you a realistic idea of typical ArchiCAD file sizes, the speed of the software in different operations and its stability in a network environment. Include in the test the importing of generic CAD files such as a survey file and symbol libraries.
Training
An ArchiCAD performance test is organized not only to examine the capabilities of the software in terms of productivity and quality but also how quickly and sensibly new users can get familiar with the software, its working logic and features.
Nevertheless, it is recommended not to waste precious time on the very basics during the test but run some courses beforehand. It is especially important if you involve non-CAD literate people in your project team. They should be brought up to intermediate level in fundamental CAD concepts and vocabulary so that they are not frustrated by their lack of experience and that they don't frustrate their more experienced peers with basic questions, either.
The CAD beginners' course should take two or three days. After the session the rest of the team, those familiar with another CAD application, should also join in for another two or three days to make everybody familiar with ArchiCAD.
There is no reason to stretch the pre-test training too long. As ArchiCAD is very intuitive, the majority of its features are best to learn on the test project itself rather than on abstract, hypothetical or disinfected cases in a training room.
It is a sensible solution to send team members to a public ArchiCAD course at a training provider or a university. These courses usually take two or three days at each level, and if your group is large enough, the trainer will customize the course a bit. It is worth considering that whoever trains the project team should also be in charge of supporting the group during the test to ensure a continuity of the whole exercise.
The Achievement Schedule
When setting up the project schedule, it is important that you consider your goals and the planned achievements from a training point of view. The performance test is a learning exercise, and you should always keep a few fundamental things in mind if you want to maintain the integrity of the test project and the team.
People are slow to absorb entirely new things. Also, most of us are capable of retaining only a limited amount of new information. Using ArchiCAD involves understanding some concepts that exceed both the traditional pen-and-paper practice of architecture and the paradigms of conventional CAD. Concepts such as the integrated database or parametric objects turn out to be entirely logical and natural as soon as users get familiar with them, however, they are best introduced step by step and in a repetitive way.
People understand and learn to use new things easier if they are provided with familiar mental hooks or drawers to get new information and concepts organized immediately. Parallels, anecdotes and analogies are usually used to achieve this. In learning ArchiCAD, the best way to ensure that trainees don't get confused is to introduce the "new" as an extension of the "known." However different ArchiCAD features are from the methods the team members are used to, these can be integrated in the learning process without having to kick up the old cans first.
For instance, the creation of a three-dimensional wall with a window in it is normally carried out in the floor plan view of ArchiCAD, which is familiar to everybody with minimum knowledge about architectural drafting. Before jumping to see the 3D view - the brand new thing - dimension the wall and the window first. It is a standard drafting feature with the added benefit of self-adjustment when the wall or the window is changed.
Then call up the elevation view of the wall, which is still a standard architectural document. The added benefit here is that the elevation is automatically created and is linked with the floor plan. Dimension the elevation then change the position of the window. Note how the witness lines and the floor plan are all updated automatically. When it is clear for the trainees how beneficial the integrated database is in the well-known world of practice, only then you are advised to introduce them to the brand new world of 3D.
When planning the training, the test or the implementation, always concentrate on extending the experience rather than throwing new things in everybody's face.
The Project
Although the team should be introduced to the customization of the layer structure, the concept of layer combinations, libraries, the use of pens, colors, line types, composites and other project attributes in ArchiCAD, it is best if the Project Manager sets up all the preferences and attributes for the team as it would probably happen in normal daily practice. The team must be instructed with regards to the required use of layers, libraries and element attributes, and strict discipline during the project must be maintained.
The Project Manager should import the surveyor's 2D file of the project site, and save it in ArchiCAD format. Depending whether the real project team has already started working on the job and the test team will follow suit or the test team will work independently, request the current design information from the real project team or use the project specification, respectively.
You should elaborate a TeamWork scenario, and you can even arrange the environment in ArchiCAD with set user names, passwords and designated workspaces so that when the team starts, members will only need to sign in to the project file. As the project develops, you can change the scenario accordingly at the end of each day so whoever was in charge of landscaping the first day may work on the office layout the next. The rotation should be strictly planned if you reproduce a project, and you should leave enough room for flexibility if you start from scratch.
The development of the project starts with drawing setout lines and landscaping followed by the load-bearing structure. Use empty holes instead of windows and doors to create the sketch model. The building can be completed with detailed Library Parts when there is unanimous agreement on the schematics. In the meantime, keep coordinating with the real project team if appropriate.
Depending on your goals, you can go into details in specific fields, e.g., rendering and animation or creating new library parts, and neglect other areas. It is recommended, however, to carry at least one document of each type - floor plan, section, elevation, element list, detail, perspective, animation, panorama - though to full completion. If relevant, save some documents in exchange formats from time to time and control them in the current office software. You can also practice importing external data, e.g., an electric or structural plan, and integrating them in the project.
Start assembling drawing layouts in PlotMaker early on, and familiarize the team with the HotLink concept of layouts and the ArchiCAD project file.
|
