How Did We Get Here?
Why did the hybrid CAD environment happen in the first place? From my industry experience, it started because 3D was harder and more expensive to implement than the software companies led us to believe. Turns out that teaching people to abandon their familiar AutoCAD or MicroStation software to learn something totally new required hard work on user’s parts and a lot of training, implementation, and support from CAD managers — not to mention the hardware costs and schedule impacts. It just wasn’t that simple.
How about BIM? Much the same argument as generic 3D before it, BIM required not just new hardware and software but a huge change in mindset and workflow management. BIM isn’t that simple either.
And, the Cloud? Cloud tools can have lots of IT implementation issues and the costs associated with many named user cloud-based tools are now becoming much more expensive than we were led to believe.
Old tools still work. In many cases, companies became so good with their old 2D tools that a move to 3D wasn’t justifiable. Small architectural firms have found the same to be true for BIM.
Long story short — change is hard, new software is expensive to implement, and traditional tools such as 2D and 3D desktop applications still get the work done just fine in many cases. The reality is that software change happens far more slowly than the industry pundits and software companies would have us believe.
What Does It All Mean?
Here’s where we have to draw some educated conclusions on what the current hybrid CAD office environment means for CAD managers. This is not an all-inclusive list by any means, but it does represent the main rules of business that have given us the hybrid CAD office in the first place:
Work dictates tools. If you need to do 2D production drawings, you’ll most likely use an inexpensive 2D application rather than an expensive BIM application because it is the cheapest, best tool for the job.
Workforce also dictates tools. If your company has 90 AutoCAD users and 15 Revit users, you’re not going to be 100% BIM any time soon because your ability to train staff will be the limiting factor.
IT, increasingly, dictates cloud tools. Cloud-based tools eat up bandwidth on networks and require extensive security configurations to setup. In some cases, cloud tools and storage are even expressly forbidden by security sensitive clients. Even if you wanted to go 100% cloud, you’re limited by the realities of IT.
Return on Investment (ROI) dictates change. If going to BIM gets your projects done twice as fast at half the cost, then you’ll go BIM right away because the financial returns are there. Conversely, if your company has been designing single family homes for 20 years using a highly optimized 2D CAD environment, there’s little financial return to change to BIM.
Project completion and schedules overrule everything. You may want to be fully 3D, BIM, or cloud-based, but if doing so delays projects or generates errors, you can bet you’ll be right back to using your old tools.
Your challenge as a CAD manager is to understand these rules and manage the tools at your disposal to get the best project flows and lowest costs. Let’s see how.
How should you best to tackle this multi-tech environment? Answer these next few questions to help solidify your next steps. Read more »
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