Improving Speed

[Oscar]

I work in a civil engineering firm and recently my boss told me to pick up my drawing speed. I am looking at every command I do daily and researching how I can do the same but faster.  I will share this one. 

 

There was a markup that I picked up to call out a pipe that would be a CIPP (Cured-In-Place-Pipe). I did a leader that said "CIPP liner" about 50 times. The engineer wanted to call out the existing pipes Diameter afterword so I used the "Find" command and replaced "CIPP Liner" with "42 inch CIPP liner" and done. 

 

In the past I would have gone to every sheet to edit or just copy the right text into the leader.

 

I am looking for more commands that save time like this. can anyone give me some more common ones?

[maratovich]

Tip number 1: stop using tape, use classic panels.

[BIGAL]

Wow a big question.

 

I have spent years trying to improve my ex team (I retired recently), a lot of it is seconds here and there, like CIV3D I stopped using Toolspace to change surface styles its was like 4 picks have a toobar now 1 pick. We had some guys that were guns others How many days ! 

 

We had a 3rd party add on made a lot of the stuff of road design much easier, CIV3D can be a big overhead.

 

A few minutes spent ticking off cross sections not needed for sheet production compared to say an hour rearranging.

 

We just know lots of little tricks. Design is on edge of road but construction want top of kerb levels so we cheat move design up 110mm plot long sections, move back plot crossections, or I have adjust levels in bulk so add 110mm to levels a few seconds fix.

 

Its the little things that save time, we have a bubble lisp it just draws a circle and puts alpha or numeric in it, but increases for every bubble, old way copy and edit, its as fast as you can pick a point. 10 points say 5 seconds.

 

The surveyors were having problems with trees, two items trunk and spread so did something for them, finds them and uses a dynamic block.

 

One of my previous roles was Civil software support so learnt lots of solutions for various problems.

 

Any way I think before we can help you need to tell us where you are struggling, I had a team of 8 so we would bounce solutions off each other, are there other engineers or just the boss ? Is your boss comparing you to some one else ? Go talk to them find out why they are quicker what tricks do they use.

 

My biggest was 88 sheets one dwg 12 roads multi millions. So thinking about how to organise from day one helped so no editing/copying between sheets. Again have a lisp  to put a revised design on the correct sheet.

 

Edited March 12, 2019 by BIGAL

[CyberAngel]

One big time saver is to have standards. There's no back and forth about what a label looks like, you follow the standards you already have. If a pipe needs the diameter in the label, create a style that incorporates that variable. If the diameter changes, you don't have to change the label every time you change the pipe. Ideally, you only have to change a piece of data in one place, and that new value propagates itself through the system.

 

If your example is typical, another problem area is communication. The engineer should have given you the type of label he wanted before you drew it. I realize that designs evolve, and I realize you have no control over the overall workflow, but you can't solve other people's problems without their help. I've been in impossible situations like that, and the best thing you can do is start looking for other employment.

[Oscar]

22 hours ago, BIGAL said:

 

I have spent years trying to improve my ex team (I retired recently), a lot of it is seconds here and there, like CIV3D I stopped using Toolspace to change surface styles its was like 4 picks have a toobar now 1 pick. We had some guys that were guns others How many days ! 

 

Any way I think before we can help you need to tell us where you are struggling, I had a team of 8 so we would bounce solutions off each other, are there other engineers or just the boss ? Is your boss comparing you to some one else ? Go talk to them find out why they are quicker what tricks do they use.

 

 

Hey Bigal, yeah, I believe they are comparing me to the other 2 drafters. One has 25 years experience, the other 45 years experience. I have 6 years exp as a AutoCAD draftsman. This is my first Civil job and I had to learn Civil 3D on the job.

 

So far it has been 6 months and they are talking about my speed (I did 12 hours on a 3 hour job), which sadly has been a constant complaint in every job I have had in drafting. I dont really know for sure why I am slow at it. I dont get on the internet at all while on the job. I do my work, print the pdf, and then I check if I got all my markups.

 

My senior cad manager says everyone has different speeds. 

 

I have a theory on why I am slow.I think I work harder and not smarter. Like the other day I had 3 leaders that needed to go on every sheet of my Plan & profiles (10 pages). I was originally making leaders and typing text as I moved sheet to sheet, then I would start to copy one leader over to the other drawing, and finally it hit me to just copy all three leaders to every sheet and use the "Move" command to put them in the correct location. 

 

I am starting to get the mindset of "Whatever I am doing, there must be a faster way" 

 

one thing that irritates me Al is when I draw a pipe network, tracing my ex sewer line (from surveyor) and snapping my C3D manholes to the surveyors manholes. I have to go back and adjust my flowlines, because they are all over the place. got to be an easier way to create a sewer pipe networks with the right elevations.

[CyberAngel]

On 3/12/2019 at 11:04 PM, Oscar said:

 

...I believe they are comparing me to the other 2 drafters. One has 25 years experience, the other 45 years experience. I have 6 years exp as a AutoCAD draftsman. This is my first Civil job and I had to learn Civil 3D on the job.

 

I know what you mean. I had to learn Civil 3D when it first came out, and there was nobody to teach it, so it was trial and error. During this period, management put in a keystroke counter, so they could "measure our productivity." When you work smarter, you have to pause to plan your work, so you actually end up using fewer keystrokes and getting more done--but when they only count your keystrokes, it looks like you're doing less work. I was lucky, I found another position and quit before they could fire me.

 

I've been using AutoCAD since 1991, and I'm still learning things. One tip is to find a command you don't know and try it when you think it might help. You can always Undo. It's like a "word of the day" calendar--enlarge your AutoCAD vocabulary.

 

Another tip is to adjust your workflow to Civil 3D. It makes certain assumptions about how you do a job, such as the order of steps. If you go against the workflow, you usually have to backtrack and work around and waste time. Ask the other drafters for advice when you get into trouble, or at least look over their shoulders. Surely management can't object if you're trying to increase your productivity.

Edited March 14, 2019 by CyberAngel

[BIGAL]

about how you do a  job, such as the order of steps

 

Many years ago when I did civil software training I would do paper wall charts by hand on an easel as we we did the steps, I went back to an organisation 12 months later and they had them still pinned on the wall as reminders.

 

Try to get the more experienced guys to write down their steps.

 

I can quote very early in my career when training staff, the senior engineer said "I gues we will see something at knock off time", early in the morning. I took a level book survey, hand entered the values, attached to an alignment, created a surface, did a road template, a quick vertical design, plotted 10 cross sections, took to the engineer an hour later, he did not annoy us any more. Its about knowing the sequence and how to do quickly.

 

[Chris Chambers]

Wow, for a random reader browsing the internet, I have just stumbled on this loaded question. But it looks like you are looking for answers in the right places. In spaces like this, you get insight for lot of experienced people that are nice enough to share their experience.

 

First there no substitute for walking the path and find your own shortcuts. I am surprised your boss is putting this much pressure on you. Did he/she gave you formal training. Was there someone to mentor you ? Those are usually the first steps.

 

I am assuming you are using Civil 3D. Once you got the formal training and have a good handle of the steps in civil 3d, you can explore the add-ons that allow you to speedup tasks that are not natively possible in civil 3d. Apps like Sincpac, Redtransit, or many others in the Audodesk App store will help you with specific tasks.

 

My 2 cents.

 

 

 

 

[SAFeSTeR]

Luckily I don't work in an environment where production speed is paramount but I'm always looking to be more efficient. In recent years I've taught myself how to make simple dynamic blocks, these help a lot.

 

I've also started using the MOCORO command a lot, it combines MOVE, COPY, ROTATE & SCALE into 1 easy to use command, extremely handy in some situations, shame it doesn't have a reference option in the version I use. I also find working only with MTEXT and POLYLINES are much more versatile than plain TEXT & LINE. Polar tracking and object snap tracking can cut time too although I find the latter often doesn't work well, if at all.

 

In the past I've worked with some people that weren't aware of some simple shortcuts like:

- undoing mistakes without breaking command.

- selecting all objects as trim / extend lines (not great for every situation).

- holding shift while using trim or extend temporarily switches to the opposite command

- holding shift while drawing objects temporarily switches the ortho mode.

- using negative numbers for length / stretch commands to shorten lines or objects

- grip editing can negate the use of many commands, just pick and place.

- using properties to change some simple parameters on objects or blocks.

[Oscar]

1 hour ago, SAFeSTeR said:

Luckily I don't work in an environment where production speed is paramount but I'm always looking to be more efficient. In recent years I've taught myself how to make simple dynamic blocks, these help a lot.

 

wow, a drafting job where speed isnt a big deal? what industry are you in?

[RobDraw]

1 hour ago, Oscar said:

 

wow, a drafting job where speed isnt a big deal? what industry are you in?

 

It's not the industry, it's the workplace.

[Oscar]

4 minutes ago, RobDraw said:

 

It's not the industry, it's the workplace.

 

Ah ok yeah, I worked as a drafter for a power company and there was really no deadlines. There are jobs out there like this but i say not many haha.

[Jim Clayton]

1. Shortcuts: Use them for the Commands you do know
2. Find commands you didn't know exist.  I came across the SCALETEXT command last week and it's cutting saving me a ton of time of certain things.

3. Lisps....use them.

[Oscar]

1 hour ago, Jim Clayton said:

1. Shortcuts: Use them for the Commands you do know
2. Find commands you didn't know exist.  I came across the SCALETEXT command last week and it's cutting saving me a ton of time of certain things.

3. Lisps....use them.

 

tell me more about lisp? I hear you can make your own? my company has standard ones that I went through and checked and they are really not that powerful, just basic stuff.

[BIGAL]

Where to start ?

 

Yes you can make your own. Sometimes a very simple task that is repeated, I have taken tasks that take about 20 minutes to do manually is now like 30 seconds. 

 

There is millions out there if you can get your google search words correct you will find an answer.

 

Any way because your civil, this is about a 1/3rd of what I have. Its a work in progress did an update two days ago to setout points.

 

Any questions ask.

Lisp files march 2019.pdf