There is an interesting discussion taking place on LinkedIn in the Civil 3D Workforce group. You can see the whole thread here.
The question posed is:
I was wondering how C3D users implemented C3D. Did you “bootstrap” it by trying to implement and learn C3D on your own or did you take more formal training and classes? Or, did you have a consultant setup C3D and train you at your site? With that said, I guess I also wonder which approach is best? Any thoughts?
My answer is that you need both.
In the long run, in-house power-users are a must. Not every user needs to be a guru, but having a few go-to people just makes great business sense. But how to do you get in-house expertise?
Hire or Create. Hire needs no explanation.
How you Create the in-house Civil 3D power user and get the average user up to speed in the first place depends on how much time you (and your organization) are willing to invest compared to how much money they are willing to spend. Given enough time, almost anyone can become an expert.
But who has the time when other duties call? So rather than spend the time, organizations spend money to hire the consultant. A lot of the value of hiring a consultant is realized when YOU first understand what you don’t know and the tasks ahead of you.
Typically, users have been forced to make a choice between spending a lot of time or spending a lot of money. That typical situation has changed in recent years and now you can get unlimited free training and tech support when you renew your Civil 3D Subscription. Your users still need to invest the time to learn the product (akin to learning to drive) but do not have to reinvent best practices or methods (akin to building the engine)
So, why not do “all of the above”, but at your pace and on your budget terms?
1. Training: Train you and your staff for free. Your users will need training no matter what. Rather than struggle through it on your own, learn from pros at no additional cost. ( http://www.eng-eff.com/freetraining )
2. Setup and Configuration: There is a ton of free information available online at various websites, in the discussion groups and blogs. If your internal staff has the time to spend on the project, it is likely that you can find most of what you need. However, that is a BIG “if” and its almost always more cost effective to bring in a consultant. See the whitepaper on 3 case studies about the benefits of Civil 3D and the use of a consultant, Implementing Civil 3D: Three Case Studies. In addition this whitepaper, also check out these others (some are written for previous versions but still mostly valid):
Cad Managers Guide to Implementation
Civil 3D Moving from Land Desktop to Civil 3D
3. Ongoing Support: There are two types of support you will likely need; 1) everyday, run-of-the-mill tech support for routine questions that, if left unanswered with thwart your attempts to use Civil 3D effectively. You can get this for free with your renewed Civil 3D Subscription ( http://www.eng-eff.com/freetraining ); and 2) mentoring or “over-the-shoulder” support. This is typically more in-depth, focuses on solving specific issues or dives deeper in to the product use and configuration.
Hi Mark,
Great response to the questions, and I do agree with you. When I asked the question it was more to understand how people are implementing AutoCAD Civil 3D and not how I should do it, as that ship sailed for me a long time ago on my “bootstrap” journey to learning AutoCAD Civil 3D.
There’s been a great response to this discussion and I hope that if someone is in the midst of, or thinking about implementing Civil 3D, that they take some of the advice you have shared and what others in the Linkedin discussion have shared, too. I did what was right for me, with the help of a few key books and some elbow grease, but I do think that most Civil 3D users and companies will benefit from a three tiered approach.
If I had it to do over again, I would first dig in and do a little “bootstrap” learning, just to familiarize myself with the software and discover the first hurdles. I would then take a few classes to learn more about how to use Civil 3D and I would third, probably concurrently, get a “hired gun” to do the bulk of the heavy lifting in getting Civil 3D setup and running in my working environment.
Keep up the great posts, I enjoy reading them. Thanks.