evaluating someones AutoCAD proficiency
Darryl Gillespie
AutoCAD job at our company, Does anyone have an idea of how
I can test them to evaluate their abilities?
Thanks Darryl
Steve M
"Darryl Gillespie" <dar...@dalcoconcept.com> wrote in message
news:3d21ffd0$1...@corp-news.newsgroups.com...
RonB
"test" their proficiency moving through ACAD world.
--
--RonB--
=======================
"God does many things which we do not understand.
Of course, He does. He is God, perfect in wisdom,
love and power. We are only children, very far
from perfect in anything. A true faith must rest
solidly on His character and His Word not on our
particular conceptions of what He ought to do."
--Elisabeth Elliot-On Asking God Why
" Oh the depths of the riches of the wisdom and
knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments
and his paths beyond tracing out!"
Romans 11:33
Michael Bulatovich
"RonB" <ro...@dswebnet.com> wrote in message
news:ui4cunk...@corp.supernews.com...
> I would have them some simple drawings, or I have some simple drawings, to
> "test" their proficiency moving through ACAD world.
In idler moments I have often imagined devising some test that would
determine an applicant's familiarity with many concepts. [demented evil
laughter]
I've never done it but on my wish list would be:
some of the more commonly abused system variables
paperspace
viewports, both kinds
dimstyles
units/accuracy
attributes
filter selection
byblock color and linetype
xrefs
simple customization
I wouldn't expect an entry level person to know about all of these, but a
pattern of familiarity or ignorance might emerge.
BTW, there's an r14 quiz at:
http://www.cadsystems.com/quiz/9911quiz.html
Good Luck
--
MichaelB
www.michaelbulatovich.com
RonB
some of the more commonly abused system variables
paperspace
viewports, both kinds
dimstyles
units/accuracy
attributes
filter selection
byblock color and linetype
xrefs
simple customization<<
Although these facets of ACAD would certianly be revealing the time expended
on both parts wouldn't garner much fruit as far as productive assessment.
Imagine sitting down to an alien computer/graphics combo and a strange ACAD
configuration to "perform" your magic for assessment under pressure.
I would rather see something simple to judge their proficency at the their
thought process in planning "how to draw" rather then bells/whistles.
ACAD is a daunting world, don't confuse the config. setup for the final
product. Speed /accuracy is the final product, the drawing(s) are just the
end result.
Michael Bulatovich
> I would rather see something simple to judge their proficency at the their
> thought process in planning "how to draw" rather then bells/whistles.
>
> ACAD is a daunting world,
...for some...
>don't confuse the config. setup for the final
> product. Speed /accuracy is the final product, the drawing(s) are just the
> end result.
I won't argue with you,(although my personal opinion is that the built
product is the final product, and the drawings but a map of how to get
there) but in my experience people who don't know the tools available to
them are never fast, and rarely accurate.
Dennis Shinn
My first drafting job (1970) was for an entry level manual drafting
'position'. I carried a roll of prints in of drawings I had drafted up
to that time. The interviewer had no way of knowing if I had actually
done these drawings or not beyond my saying so. The proof is in the
output once seated in the driver's seat.
The point is, I guess since this is, as you say, an entry level
position, adking to see somework they've done would be pertinent. Both
hard copy output and in this case, a copy of one or more files they say
they've created. Although this might be a little difficult given the
copyright issue associated with drawing files these days.
I would take issue with those who say the drawing is merely an end
product road map, so to speak, for the manifestation of the larger goal
of completion of the physical project. I'm currently in the process of
trying to make sense out of 7,000+ drawings associated with a project
with the intent of preparing the as-built deliverables to the
owner/client. There have been three design firms, not to mention the
subcontractors' shop drawing input, all of which have to be cataloged
into some semblance of rational organization. The lack of consistency
and overall management throughout all these documents is a real
nightmare. That's by way of saying; I believe there's more to creating
good electronic drawing files than merely producing good looking
drawings, regardless how easy they are to read in printed format.
But this last is your responsibility. The importance with respect to
your employees is that they understand it and maintain whatever
standards you've designed.
RonB
I was ONLY speaking of trying to assess a operator's "proficiency" in the
limited arena of the nuts/bolts of ACAD. There's much more important facets
of engineering/time management. In fact, you can "pick up" CAD by osmosis.
--
Michael Bulatovich
"Dennis Shinn" <hds...@eskimo.com> wrote in message
news:3D2371CA...@eskimo.com...
> I would take issue with those who say the drawing is merely an end
> product road map, so to speak, for the manifestation of the larger goal
> of completion of the physical project.
I hope you didn't infer that because I used the word "but" that I meant
"merely". I was speaking of the position of drawings in the life of a
project only in the fourth dimension, as the original poster spoke of "final
products" in the process.
Of course drawings are themselves a product and the process of making them a
process within a process. As such they are a worthy object for as much
intelligence and care as one can muster.
RonB
a
process within a process. As such they are a worthy object for as much
intelligence and care as one can muster.<<
Agreed. We could spar and trade syntax and yet never "reach" a mutual
satisfaction.
R. Wink
Good Luck
Not to be too much of a pain but..
If your hiring a person to do drafting for your company and you do the same type of drafting on an
ongoing basis, shouldn't you test the person on what you do.
If you're asking the person to be able to customize Acad, is it needed? Does your company have
standards and templates? If so, why would somebody need to know dimstyles if they have any
experience anywhere in Acad?
Test on what you use, not some arbitrary set of standards that may or may not show what the person
knows. If you want the person to design and use their ability to think "outside the box" why force
them "in the box"?
But then again, I may be all wet.
R Wink
Michael Bulatovich
"R. Wink" <rww...@evansville.net> wrote in message
news:d4j8iu02kudu5tkku...@4ax.com...
> Not to be too much of a pain but..
> If your hiring a person to do drafting for your company and you do the
same type of drafting on an
> ongoing basis, shouldn't you test the person on what you do.
> If you're asking the person to be able to customize Acad, is it needed?
Does your company have
> standards and templates? If so, why would somebody need to know dimstyles
if they have any
> experience anywhere in Acad?
As I said I wouldn't expect them to know everything about all of these
areas, but it would show the depth of their familiarity.
> Test on what you use, not some arbitrary set of standards that may or may
not show what the person
> knows.
This would be ideal, of course, but we were talking about an interview
situation.
>If you want the person to design and use their ability to think "outside
the box" why force
> them "in the box"?
All I would hope to establish by such a test is whether they know that there
is 'a box', its approximate extents, and appreciate some of the rationale
for its form. One often gets files from other 'boxes' where BLIPMODE is an
indispensable thing, or SNAPANG just has to be set to 47.25639 degrees, or
HIGHLIGHT is off because some lisp aborted prematurely, or the text in all
the dims has been set to horizontal, etc. Someone who is familiar with such
things need not run around the floor asking everybody "What's wrong with my
computer?" and eat up everyone else's time.
You may be wet, but I could also be wrong on this one.
Michael Bulatovich
> >>Of course drawings are themselves a product and the process of making
them
> a
> process within a process. As such they are a worthy object for as much
> intelligence and care as one can muster.<<
>
> Agreed. We could spar and trade syntax and yet never "reach" a mutual
> satisfaction.
We weren't sparring until you used the word 'spar' ; } As for the second
thing,
I disagree!
Dennis Shinn
<do...@even.try> wrote:
>I hope you didn't infer that because I used the word "but" that I meant
>"merely".
Not at all, Michael. Drawings are considered by many as "merely" a
means to an end. Nor do I consider them an end in themselves. I
believe, as I'm sure you do, that electronic files, much more so than
older manually drafted work, form an integral part of the life cycle
of any project. As such they require more thought in their creation
and organization to be meaningful in that regard.
Darryl Gillespie
Finally, as I had time constraints, I walked the candidate through the
design of
a simple product, and then asked them to interpret a similar workorder,
point out
areas of concern, explain how they would proceed and then asked them to
draft
a part of the order on my workstation.
The untimate question was: Can they do the job? Which in the end comes to
much
more that their AutoCAd skills alone.
The candidate also brought some samples of their work (electronic) which was
very
helpfull in assessing their AutoCAD abilities. As I examined the drawings I
asked how did you do this? How much time did it take to do that? and What
problems did you encounter here?
Basically, as far as the AutoCAd skills go, I wanted to make sure that the
candidate has actually
created the drawings that they are showing, and that they've done it using
AutoCAD! I think that the review of the drawing files with the candidate as
well as the little drafting exercise did the trick.
Thanks to everyone again
Darryl
R. Wink
You are NOT wrong. I misunderstood your intent. I ASSumed that you were trying to devise a test
that was a requirement for the hiring process that would have some boundaries that a person MUST
pass in order to get hired. I have, in the past, hired persons that knew Acad existed and could
move the cursor around on the screen but couldn't draw jack. I then hired a good computer jock to
put this persons idea on the system. He could the edit and red line the drawing.
I get drawings from others that force me to spend 5-10 min's each time to set the var's to
something "normal" for my shop. I'd be nice if drawing coming from another design house were
consistent within the shop.
R. Wink