CAD Managers: Are You Superman or Batman
Growing up in the 1960’s was far different than it is today, and for many reasons. I’ll skip over all the sociological and cultural ones and focus primarily on how the youngsters of my day occupied themselves. There was no Xbox or Sony PS-whatever, no cellphones, nor any social media. Rather, it was board games or toys, a black phone hanging on the wall that you fought over, and if you wanted to talk to someone directly you rode your bike over to see them.
For someone living two miles outside of Smalltown USA, the difference was even more stark. No other kids lived in the area, so most of my leisure time was by myself (this is in no way a handwringing, oh-woe-is-me statement. I had a ball.). I hunted, fished, shot my .22 rifle, built towns and machines with my erector set and Lincoln logs, and had about a million of those little green soldiers, complete with tanks and jeeps. What I really loved was reading – Moby Dick, Treasure Island, all the works of Louis L’Amour, and comic books. I read a lot – a lot – of comic books. Every genre possible – war, science fiction, and most importantly, superheroes.
There were several costumed villain-smackers to choose from – Spiderman, Captain America, the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor – but the two everybody (including myself) took to were Superman and Batman. They were the originals, by the way. Superman – Kal-El, the Man of Steel - first appeared in Action Comics #1 in 1938, so the Caped Crusader was widening the eyes of many youngsters before I came along. (Footnote: In April of this year, a copy of Action Comics #1, the introduction of Superman, was sold at auction for $6 million clams – is that endurance, or what?)
Next came Batman – Bruce Wayne, the Caped Crusader, the Dark Knight – first appeared in Detective Comics (later shortened to DC Comics) Edition #27 in 1939. (Footnote: In May of 2022, a vintage copy of this one sold at auction sold for $1.7 million. Not too shabby, either.)
At this point, you might be wondering what in the name of God’s green earth does any of this have to do with CAD Management?
The answer is simple.
Every CAD Manager (CM) is- at the heart of things- one of these caped do-gooders, and the best part is, you don’t get to choose. The answer doesn’t lie within you, but within those around you. To help you better understand that statement, let’s first have a broad stroke look at the CM of today. I conducted a poll of CM’s that I rub elbows with to get a feel of who you are, and the results were, admittedly, not surprising at all.
Question #1 - Are you a Professional Engineer?
No CM’s I’ve talked to are Professional Engineers. That’s not to say they aren’t educated, though. Their education includes degrees in CAD, Architecture, Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Industrial Technology and Computer Programming.
Their training doesn’t stop there. Additional certifications include BIM Management, Revit Certified Professional, Autodesk Certified Professional and Autodesk Expert Elite, along with courses in Excel, Autolisp, and Bluebeam to name a few.
Question #2 - Are you strictly a CAD Manager, or do you have other duties?
The vast majority are not strictly CM’s. In fact, the CM position is secondary to their main position as civil, architectural and structural designers, GIS technicians, IT professionals, and client managers.
Question #3 - What are your duties as a CAD Manager?
The duties they described as included in their CAD Manager position are:
- IT management
- Purchase and configuration of hardware and software
- Management of software licensure and subscriptions
- Training and mentoring of staff
- Training of company interns
- Management of project filing system
- Software deployment
- Maintenance and updating of the CAD symbol library
- Maintenance and updating of the construction detail library
- Drawing template production
- Construction detail library maintenance
- BIM Management
- New hire orientation regarding CAD standards and protocols
- Maintenance and updating of the company CAD manual
- Keeping abreast of software updates and improvements
Question #4. (Hint: we’re starting to address our above-mentioned heroes)
What importance do you feel your company puts on cad standards?
The answers varied – some stated that they hit a brick wall at every attempt to standardize, some said they got support as long as the bottom line wasn’t affected, and some said they had the full confidence of those upstairs.
Of those answers, the total of each were about equal.
That’s interesting.
If you were to poll the upper management of all the companies which employ CM’s and asked them, in general, how much impact standardized routine and protocols across the spectrum have on their business’s bottom line, I strongly suspect they’d reply a great deal. Yet roughly 67% of those who employ our polled CM’s seem to consider their duties as either barely justifiable, or only justifiable if it saves them money.
Take a look at the list of duties again. Which of those would not save money if conducted – and followed – correctly? By the way, that brings up a point. In my poll, I did not include a question about how good the participants thought they were at their job. That does have a bearing on things, of course, and it’s impossible to measure that impact from afar. If investigated, the answer to that question could explain some of the numbers for this question. Some, but not all.
Hilary Hinton “Zig” Ziglar was one of the most sought-after motivational speakers of all time. He started as a salesman, got into motivational speaking, and before all was said and done, owned a company that trained motivational speakers. His company has produced dozens of audio training sessions, and he himself has written 30 books on the subject. If you never listened to him, go to YouTube and put in his name. Before you do, make sure you set aside a lot of time.
Traffic lights weren’t stop lights to him – he called them “go-lights”. Why? His contention was simple – try going a few days without them.
Try going a few days without that list.
Question #5 – How difficult is it to get co-workers to employ standards you’ve created?
This one is a biggie – perhaps the biggest. After all, if you have the support – even grudging support – of upper management but your efforts to standardize look like someone trying to herd snakes, then management’s outlook doesn’t’ mean much.
Amazingly, many said they don’t have much problem with this. Oh, there are the inevitable strays that like to do their own thing, but most welcome a shortcut to assist with their workload. Interestingly – and not surprisingly – it’s the new hires that respond the best. After all, a new position at a professional organization can be a daunting circumstance, and who wouldn’t like a little help with accomplishing things a little easier?
The ones who have an established methodology and workflow are historically the ones who resist change, and it’s no different here.
Question #6 – Do you operate on your own, or as part of a committee. For either one, what do you feel are the advantages and disadvantages?
This one was unanimous – no one likes committees. Many have been part of an attempt to control standards with a committee, and all said that:
- Everyone had their own opinion and couldn’t come to an agreement.
- Those on the committee weren’t qualified in the areas they were to help regulate and couldn’t add perspective to the efforts.
- People were assigned tasks and rarely had those tasks completed by the time the next meeting rolled around. More often, they were never completed.
- Some said that asking others their opinion of a problem/solution on an individual basis allowed more clarity than – one of the contributors put it this way – being inundated by a tidal wave of information.
All that being said, I’ll point out that the answer to the Superman vs. Batman question has just been answered.
Superman lives in bright, shiny Metropolis, where the citizens are awestruck by his feats of daring-do, pointing at the sky as he rocketed by. They worship him. He is the one who stands between them and the ne’er-do-wells who lurked around every corner. They’d cheer and wave and everything was right in the world when he was on patrol.
Batman is the watchdog for Gotham, a dark city, fraught with evil. Violence and crime are the rule rather than the exception. Unlike Superman, Batman’s kingdom is the dark of the night. But the real difference is the attitude of the population toward him. The citizenry wondered at him too, but the second he did something a little out of bounds – even if it was at least a little justified – it was time to bring out the torches and pitchforks. He was, in a word, tolerated. Even the cops resent him. It was their job to bring justice, and he’s just a vigilante. They have even tried to arrest him on several occasions.
And there we have the three points of view towards Cad Managers, as described in our poll – “Hip-hip-hooray!”, “Go ahead, but watch your step”, and “Why do we need you?” Whichever point of view has, trust me – we’re hard to do without or replace. The job takes a few qualities that are short in supply in today’s world – backbone, grit, tolerance and bulldog determination.
I fear that the Cad Manager position will eventually go away. Most everyone is looking for that sheepskin and the PE license now, and the power and money it can lead to. There’s not much romance in being a rank-and-file worker anymore, even though this county was built by them. Deep down, though, I think we’ll be around for a long while. There’s always going to be somebody that won’t accept the status quo and wants to restore order where chaos exists.
The world is always going to need Superman and Batman.
Author Bio: Tom Schrecengost has 40 years of experience in land surveying and civil engineering, including survey rodman, instrument operator, survey party chief, civil designer, and CAD Manager. He has been a civil designer since 1993 and has been a Senior Civil Designer and the CAD Manager at MJ Engineering in New York since 2014. As CAD manager, he creates and maintains all of the company CAD standards and also trains the design staff in CAD methodologies and company CAD protocols. He is an Autodesk Certified Professional.
