We all get to play phone tag. It happens to me. It happens to you. You know you REALLY need to talk to person A. They know they NEED to talk to you, but the OTHER stuff gets in the way. We finally talk.
Build Me a Standard
I do a bit of AutoCAD Civil 3D Standards consulting for City and County (or Township) government agencies. Well, Da! I've been doing this kind of work for a long time in one form or another.
It's probably the interesting mix of interrelated technical skills coupled with the complex People Skills challenge that appeals to me.
Maybe I like punishment. Some days I wonder about that.
Often in these days of reduced budgets and shrinking staffs, I mentor folks as much as do all the detailed work. This works, and the becomes an affordable, healthy, and self-supporting too. Imagine that.
What the Jump is All About
Just like the rest of us, local government agencies face a challenge with AutoCAD Civil 3D adoption. We all need to deploy, learn and implement Civil 3D. Existing standards (that probably haven't changed in a decade or more) need modification and adjustment to the model-based world that is Civil 3D.
There is More. Somehow, you also have to get other related departments, agencies, and outside consultants to also embrace any new changes you must make.
Beyond "herding cats", this is like trying to herd "herds of cats".
Repeat after me, "Standards are fun!"
Even after you get all the internal "standards" work done, how to you get the new standard "out there"? For most of January, a City CAD Manager and I were playing phone tag about the topic. He had his preliminary budgets to get done and all the rest of the annual "spreadsheets from hell" routine.
Repeat after me, "Management is fun!"
We were in a holding pattern like jets in a blizzard waiting for the runways to clear. More flights were cancelled than took off all month. We got there eventually.
Repeat after me, "Persistence pays!"
He had some specific technical questions about how to get his Tool Palettes to work for outside people. I think that question is worth another a follow up post.
But his bigger question was...
"Can I Use the Jump Packaging Method for My Local Standards"
Of course you can. That's one of the purposes of the Jump Platform and a major reason to embrace it as a basis for your Standard.
I just wanted to be sure that it was OK?
It's OK. Please, include a link to our site and we're happy.
But our Styles and Sets and other stuff isn't all official Jump stuff? We made some of our Styles before we included a some Jump stuff?
It's still OK.
Really?
Really. There's no reason to reinvent the wheel. There are other more important things to get done - like getting your staff and consultants on-board as easily and as quickly as possible. Right?
No kidding.
Use the Jump Project Standards
Go ahead and employ the published Jump Platform Project Structure and even our install docs to package your standards. You can even port the project drawings to your standards. This is a great QA test.
This will save yourself more time for more important things like working on projects in Civil 3D that actually make more jobs on the street.
We all need More of that.
Once you actually start trying to do a standards packaging process for Civil 3D (getting all the resources out there and distributed effectively), you're probably going to end up with something that looks a lot like the Jump anyway.
Handing out a template or two isn't going to solve your problem. Trust me.
Oh, you're probably going to have some different names and maybe you might order things a bit differently in the 00_Resources folder, but you'll need many Jump like resources in the end.
Hey. Now you even have a checklist of what you might forget to include. It is easy to forget the little important things. We even document the folders so you know what goes in there. Amazing.
Standards are all about details that work in the real world.
Who would have thought that the Free Jump included that much More?
There's no reason to play phone tag. Don't circle the airfield.