Plotmaker View Links and Subsets

[Anonymous]

I'm in the process of doing an overhaul of our CAD standards and procedures, and the following came up as I was looking through the "Intro to Office Standards" PDF from the AC9 install CD...

On page 66, "View Links and Subsets":

Note: Using a subtractive methodology at the user level for
removing superfluous views is much easier and more reliable then
an additive one which does not require the setup or the attention
to detail otherwise needed; so it is therefore recommended that the
Layout Book be as complete as possible for all project types.

We have been taking the opposite, "additive" approach, wherein our templates are very slim, and the user is provided with instructions about how to populate the templates with content. I am wondering if we should move from this to the other idea.

I would appreciate any thoughts people might have... pros/cons with either approach.

Thanks!

[TomWaltz]

Terry

a couple questions:
How many users do you have and what is their ability level?

[Anonymous]

Tom,

Thanks for your response.... we have 4 advanced users and 6 novice users that are coming from AutoCAD backgrounds.

There has been introductory in-house and reseller training to get these novice users exposed to ArchiCAD, BIM, etc. Beyond simple tutorials and noodling around,however, these users have not had to dive in and use the program in a substantial fashion.

Thanks.

[__archiben]

Terry wrote:
Beyond simple tutorials and noodling around,however, these users have not had to dive in and use the program in a substantial fashion.

therefore make it idiot proof: use the subtractive method so that there can be no error when placing elements, naming, etc, etc . . . remember you may well have new staff coming through as well and every company's set up is different. with the subtraction method everything is defined.

human nature is that somebody will guess what to do rather than get up, walk three paces to the office manual, and search for the conventions they need to follow . .

~/archiben

[TomWaltz]

Terry wrote:
Tom,

Thanks for your response.... we have 4 advanced users and 6 novice users that are coming from AutoCAD backgrounds.

There has been introductory in-house and reseller training to get these novice users exposed to ArchiCAD, BIM, etc. Beyond simple tutorials and noodling around,however, these users have not had to dive in and use the program in a substantial fashion.

Thanks.

I'm with Ben. With more novice than advanced users, it's probably a good idea to have as much as you can preset for them.

Our office has a module placed off to the side on a ghost story with common library objects and wall types arranged in groups for people to match. I've had brand new users just flying using that, since it's more visual than the library search and they know the default settings are not an issue.