Training

[Djordje]

Dear Talkers,

From the recent postings, it is noticeable that a lot of even medium experience users did not have any or a little formal training.

The question is - why?

Please let me have your experiences.

[Anonymous]

At the Univercity. Then read the whole manual for AC 4.5 in English in printed version. There was not an Acrobat manual then, was it? I had to do it in the computer laboratory because the books could not be taken outside.
The first book for AC in Bulgarian was published for AC6 by the professor at the Univercity who thought me as a student. As far as I know it remains the only one.

[Anonymous]

People don't seem to realize that investment in training will pay for its self quite quickly. I am charging half of what trainers in other industries charge and I am still too expensive.

We are part way through a training course for people with a bit of experience, I was quite shocked at what they didn't know. Many of the students where only using 3 or 5 commands and doing stuff the hard way.

When I first started Archicad we had someone from Queensland come over because there was no one training in Perth. The company I worked for was very large (about 80 licences) so the cost wasn't much of an issue. The situation is much better now, our current reseller has managed to get Classes in to the local technical collage and is running courses of his own.

[stefan]

I first learned ArchiCAD (a bit) with the demo version.

Then I bought it and the reseller got me up to speed in a two (short) sessions. The rest is learned by reading the full manuals.

No other, formal training, though.

[Anonymous]

Thrown in deep end with advice from colleagues first off.
Mostly self-taught since with the occaisional Cadimage training session. This forum is a great "resource" too.

[Ignacio Azpiazu]

Distributor training should rather be called 'demonstrations' or 'marketing', in my experience with more than one distributor in more than one country (err, two distributors in two countries).
I read about all the books and just couldn't get the whole picture, until I found
- Eric Batte's templates,
- Lubomir Kulisev's Training Guide,
- ArchiCAD-Talk
and that was it.
I think a consultant would not be cost-effective for the individual user, unless it is a single-person company with a fairly well defined profile that needs to set up his templates and methods --that is he needs not only training but also a CAD manager.

[Anonymous]

After 6 months teaching myself VectorWorks from CD's and manuals I came to work with a one-man firm who had been using Archicad for app. 7 years. There's nothing like day by day working with a pro. It's been a win-win, I've learned to work in Archicad and Gerald's learned to be more patient !

Wally

[__archiben]

started at university with a demo from the CAD guru there on what could be achieved (v3.?). i bought a student license (v4.12) and ran through the step-by-step and have pretty much taught my self ever since by keeping up with the latest advances. i've also taken part in a couple of training days with my previous company's resellers, three 'archiCAD universities' (matthew lohden, dwight, link and DNC all being great and patient educators in their specialised subjects) and of course this forum is a goldmine of information . . .

unfortunately the CAD-education climate in the UK back then was far less 3D orientated and as such (if i'm brutally honest with myself) i think i lack a lot of the basic skills for working straight in the 3D window . . . that's changing now, albeit quite slowly..........

~/archiben

[James Murray]

My firm was fortunately committed to hitting the ground running, and invested appropriately.

Two days of reseller training. (Hi Ransom) Months of working in house with a consultant. (Hi Matthew. Maybe you can remember how many months.) I took DNC's 2-day GDL seminar, which along with the cookbook got me to critical mass in no time.

How did we have a consultant for months? Simple, he worked on projects, and we billed clients for his work. So we had an ongoing learning experience that was also productive. We never lost money on an AC project, not even the very first one.

AC was our first CAD system so we didn't have to battle a lot of ACAD greybeard eye-rolling. Fortunate there too.

My general thoughts on training and learning:

The virtual building approach is radically different from whatever 2D method you used before. To be successful, you have to attack. Accept that the transition will take time and resources and commit to investing them. You probably will lose money on the first project, but if you are committed you will make money on the next one. If you half-commit, you will be constantly backsliding, and getting told-you-so's from flatlanders.

If you're not committed to modeling, you're not really using AC and you can't master it, and experts can't really help you because you're not doing the same thing.

AC is too complicated to learn on your own, IMO. The documentation and the interface don't naturally lead you to mastery. Third-party AC for dummies type books are rare. You have to make personal contact with someone who is proficient, so you know what is possible. Then practice and ACTalk will get you to a high level.

Good question, thanks for asking.

[Anonymous]

James wrote:
My firm was fortunately committed to hitting the ground running, and invested appropriately.

Two days of reseller training. (Hi Ransom) Months of working in house with a consultant. (Hi Matthew. Maybe you can remember how many months.)

About five months (I just checked my records). Thanks for the mention.

I agree that the course you guys took is the best. Of course it helps to have a good trainer like Ransom to start, and a talent like yours to make it fly. As Ingacio points out, some dealers' training programs are less effective than others, and, of course, a good fit with the consultant is important.

I have also had some success with straight up consulting on standards (no project work) when there is enough existing expertise in-house.

As to the original question: I am self-taught, starting in the late 80's with v3.43. Back then there weren't any other options, but the program was much simpler than it is now. An excellent demo from Pal Szabo did help to get me off to a good start.