Advice for New Guy

[BKEn10c]

I am transitioning from REVIT to CA.

If you had a new guy starting in your office - and you wanted to get him up to speed quickly, what advice would you give him?

For example:

1) You need to watch this series of videos???

2) You need to subscribe/buy these libraries???

 

thanks in advance for the advice!

Brian

[Alaskan_Son]

Make heavy use of the Help Files when questions arise.  You can usually find the answers you are looking for within a few minutes  and as a bonus, you will usually learn something else new in the process as well.

 

Pay for some professional training if you were having a tough time figuring things out.   I've seen time and time again where people spends hours, even days trying to muddle through things that could have been easily cleared up in a few minutes in a one on one training session. 

 

After the above two things, I would recommend you watch some good training videos  as the need arises. 

 

Last resort should be this forum.   It's great, but it should not be your go to source in my opinion. 

[dshall]

17 minutes ago, Alaskan_Son said:

..........Pay for some professional training if you were having a tough time figuring things out.   I've seen time and time again where people spends hours, even days trying to muddle through things that could have been easily cleared up in a few minutes in a one on one training session. ...........

 

Absolutely,  have you ever heard penny wise,  pound foolish?  If you are new out of the box,  I would invest in a minimum of 16 hours of training time with an experienced user.  That 16 hours will probably be worth 80 hours worth of your time.

 

And here is the best advice I can give you.  Learn about anno/layer/ref sets and then learn how to use either the TEMPLATE METHOD or the SAM METHOD.  If you do not know what they are,  do a search.

 

 

[BKEn10c]

29 minutes ago, Alaskan_Son said:

Make heavy use of the Help Files when questions arise.  You can usually find the answers you are looking for within a few minutes  and as a bonus, you will usually learn something else new in the process as well.

 

Pay for some professional training if you were having a tough time figuring things out.   I've seen time and time again where people spends hours, even days trying to muddle through things that could have been easily cleared up in a few minutes in a one on one training session. 

 

After the above two things, I would recommend you watch some good training videos  as the need arises. 

 

Last resort should be this forum.   It's great, but it should not be your go to source in my opinion. 

Thanks Alaskan_Son,

I agree with your sentiments. I do not want to 'spam' this forum with new person questions. Thus far, I have done extensive research before posting questions. I am interested in the training. Would a trainer work with me on a real project, thereby helping to defer cost? Is that the best/recommended  method? Thanks again

[BKEn10c]

8 minutes ago, dshall said:

 

Absolutely,  have you ever heard penny wise,  pound foolish?  If you are new out of the box,  I would invest in a minimum of 16 hours of training time with an experienced user.  That 16 hours will probably be worth 80 hours worth of your time.

 

And here is the best advice I can give you.  Learn about anno/layer/ref sets and then learn how to use either the TEMPLATE METHOD or the SAM METHOD.  If you do not know what they are,  do a search.

 

 

Thank you!

Brian

[GeneDavis]

Every time you learn something from the HELP files, a training video, or a trainer, do it yourself in a test model.  And when doing it, if it involves specification dialogs, examine all the alternates in those dialogs and how they affect things.

[HumbleChief]

My advice - run - don't walk to Chieftutor.com pay to join and dive in.

[Kenoeightspot]

Go to "Chiefexperts.com" , Dan goes through step by step about everything you will need.

[BKEn10c]

13 minutes ago, GeneDavis said:

Every time you learn something from the HELP files, a training video, or a trainer, do it yourself in a test model.  And when doing it, if it involves specification dialogs, examine all the alternates in those dialogs and how they affect things.

Thanks for the practical advice to increase retention and understanding!

[BKEn10c]

7 minutes ago, HumbleChief said:

My advice - run - don't walk to Chieftutor.com pay to join and dive in.

I think I will do this, $100 seems fair. 

[BKEn10c]

5 minutes ago, Kenoeightspot said:

Go to "Chiefexperts.com" , Dan goes through step by step about everything you will need.

I will look at this some more. I have come across a couple of his tutorials, just googling things.

[RodCole]

Please provide a bit more background on the type of projects you are interested in using Chief for, and your particular field of interest.

 

I would also recommend Terry Munson's books on Chief Architect.  Check out his web site.

[BKEn10c]

1 minute ago, RodCole said:

Please provide a bit more background on the type of projects you are interested in using Chief for, and your particular field of interest.

 

I would also recommend Terry Munson's books on Chief Architect.  Check out his web site.

Thanks RodCole. This is my website: www.TheRedCottage.com 

I do residential. A lot of higher end work. I have a huge investment in REVIT, it just is not progressive in Residential. 

I will look at Terry's website. Thanks again!

[RodCole]

Nothing wrong with the advice above regarding videos and other tutorials.  It is just that I have found sometimes books such as Terry's can save you some time because they are designed to be both training material and a reference source.

 

I will check out your web site as well.

[DRAWZILLA]

ok ,after all that, just do it.

[BKEn10c]

Just now, DRAWZILLA said:

ok ,after all that, just do it.

[lbuttery]

Last resort should be this forum.   It's great, but it should not be your go to source in my opinion

 

Michael:

 

I agree that asking questions here should be "last resort"

 

however, I do recommend reading "every" post in "every" thread

 

this forum is a great educational tool

 

while you may not understand or need what is being discussed

it is good to make a mental note about it for future needs

 

If time allows I would even recommend going back to the postings starting March 2016 when X8 was released

and skimming most of them

 

I did this prior to buying Chief in 2004

I have been readin "everything" ever since until I retired in 2012

now I pick and choose which posts to read

 

Lew

[DavidJPotter]

I recommend Dan Baumann's Chiefexperts.com as well as chieftutor.com and for personalized help, one on one I recommend me. I would start with your free 
"Users Guide" absolutely first and use the "Help" files and free "Reference Manual"

 

DJP

[BKEn10c]

2 hours ago, lbuttery said:

Last resort should be this forum.   It's great, but it should not be your go to source in my opinion

 

Michael:

 

I agree that asking questions here should be "last resort"

 

however, I do recommend reading "every" post in "every" thread

 

this forum is a great educational tool

 

while you may not understand or need what is being discussed

it is good to make a mental note about it for future needs

 

If time allows I would even recommend going back to the postings starting March 2016 when X8 was released

and skimming most of them

 

I did this prior to buying Chief in 2004

I have been readin "everything" ever since until I retired in 2012

now I pick and choose which posts to read

 

Lew

Thanks Lew - I agree that this forum is a huge learning asset. 

[DRAWZILLA]

"Last resort" can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

[BKEn10c]

14 hours ago, DavidJPotter said:

I recommend Dan Baumann's Chiefexperts.com as well as chieftutor.com and for personalized help, one on one I recommend me. I would start with your free 
"Users Guide" absolutely first and use the "Help" files and free "Reference Manual"

 

DJP

Hi David - I looked up your website- I may take you up on your offer!

[payettedesigns]

Hey Guys:

 

Look Chief Tutor and Chief Experts are incredible I use them both. I am not in the  inner sanctum sanctorum of the Chief Architect Gods Squad but as a business man I would be pretty pissed of if  someone used my forum to promote or sell others products. Does Chief promote Chief Experts, Chief Tutor ( which again are incredible resources for sure) ? What is the relationship here so I understand. I am sitting over here wondering.

 

I  have found that  Chief Help Documents and Videos  are more than enough to learn the program. However Dan Bauman  and Michael's programs are like the icing on the cake and both of them are very passionate at what they do and surprisingly available when you need them the most. They both have unique ways of explaining things which helps immensely . Okay so I just promoted them but should we be doing that here?

 

David

[lbuttery]

David:

 

we have been making those recommendations for years and years

 

if CA had an issue with it the moderators would have done something long ago

 

Lew

[BKEn10c]

1 hour ago, payettedesigns said:

Hey Guys:

 

Look Chief Tutor and Chief Experts are incredible I use them both. I am not in the  inner sanctum sanctorum of the Chief Architect Gods Squad but as a business man I would be pretty pissed of if  someone used my forum to promote or sell others products. Does Chief promote Chief Experts, Chief Tutor ( which again are incredible resources for sure) ? What is the relationship here so I understand. I am sitting over here wondering.

 

I  have found that  Chief Help Documents and Videos  are more than enough to learn the program. However Dan Bauman  and Michael's programs are like the icing on the cake and both of them are very passionate at what they do and surprisingly available when you need them the most. They both have unique ways of explaining things which helps immensely . Okay so I just promoted them but should we be doing that here?

 

David

Thanks for the additional recommendation of these resources. 

I could be wrong - but I believe CA may view these resources as ambassadors for their product, and not as competitors?

 

[dshall]

29 minutes ago, BKEn10c said:

Thanks for the additional recommendation of these resources. 

I could be wrong - but I believe CA may view these resources as ambassadors for their product, and not as competitors?

 

 

I agree.