Product Review-the Pogo Plug

The Pogo Plug

The Pogo Plug is a very simple device that is easy to use and inexpensive to run.  It is a device and a service all in one that helps you create a personal cloud.  “Cloud” is a common buzz word these days in technology.  Put simply, “the cloud” is online storage.  Instead of keeping your files on your computer (desktop, laptop, netbook, tablet, mobile device) they are kept in “the cloud.”  This gives you access to your files on any device from anywhere.  The Pogo Plug from Cloud Engines (based in San Francisco, California, U.S.A.) provides this for you.  There are several models each of which provides the same basic cloud service.  Purchase the Pogo Plug model that suits your needs, set it up and start computing in the cloud.  No monthly fees, no service charges, nothing except for the one time purchase of the device.  This was one of the biggest selling points for me.  Yes I have a Pogo Plug and I love it.  It isn’t perfect of course, nothing is, but it does what I need it to and more.

Services

The Pogo Plug provides three main services:  remote access to files, file sharing, and live streaming.  There are a few more services but these are the three main reasons to get a Pogo Plug.

Once set up, the Pogo Plug gives you access to your files through an internet connection.  The Pogo Plug needs to be hooked in to your internet access from home (or small business, church, little league, etc.)  Once installed users can gain access either through an internet browser or through one of Pogo plug’s free downloadable applications.  There are two types of applications; for the desktop and for a mobile device.  You name the operating system and they have an application that applies.  It can be installed on Windows (XP, Vista, and 7 in either 32 or 63 bit), Linux and MAC OS.  They also have it available on mobile devices for iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and WebOS.  Like I said, you name it they make it.  The people at Pogo Plug want you to be able to access your files.



File access

This is the Pogo Plug’s main feature.  It is very simple.  Install your Pogo Plug and add a USB drive to it.  Everything on that drive is shared.  It is shared to whomever you give the username and password to.  Download the software to your computer to access the files as a regular drive.  You can’t assign a drive letter to it, but it seems to typically use the letter P (on windows anyway.)  If you have more than one drive installed on your Pogo Plug you can have the Pogo Plug use one drive letter or have it assign a drive letter to each storage device.  It’s up to you.  Access is a little slow but remember, it’s all happening through the internet.  Your computer has to through it to send/pull files then the Pogo Plug has to do the same, so don’t get in a hurry.  You don’t have to use the downloaded software to access your files.  You can go through a browser to download files to your computer.

File Sharing

File sharing is a nice feature from the Pogo Plug.  You can’t share files unless you go through the web browser on the computer.  Browse to your file, select it, then click the Share This button.  Enter in the email address of the person you want to share it with.  A link to the file is sent to them and they will be able to download it.  You can provide access to single files or to folders.  This is a great way to collaborate with others if you are working on a project together.

Live Streaming

Like music?  Have a big collection?  You can stream your music through your computer or mobile device.  You can also stream pictures or videos.

Other Services

These services are the icing on the cake, for me anyway.  The Pogo Plug has the ability to view PDF and Office files.  It can’t edit them but it can view them.  It also has Social Media integration.  You can upload files from your Pogo Plug to Facebook, Twitter, My Space, etc.  Two of the biggest bonus features are Remote Printing and Active Copy.  Hook up a printer to your Pogo Plug and you can print any files in your Pogo Plug to your printer from anywhere!  If you receive a file via email, save it to your Pogo Plug and print it even from your mobile device.  The Active Copy is the feature that sold me on the Pogo Plug.  It will automatically back up your Pogo Plug files to where ever you tell it to.  You tell it which folders to back up and where to back them up to.  If you are running the Pogo Plug software on your computer it will copy any folder from your computer to the Pogo Plug.  I set up each of my family members computers to copy their My Documents Folders to a folder on my Pogo Plug.  Since I set up two external hard drives on the Pogo Plug we use one for active files and the other as a backup.  It’s a real-time backup that is nothing more than a copy of the files.  Having recently lost files to a hard drive failure this was a win win for me.

Installation

The Pogo Plug is simple to install.  Plug it in to your router/modem and activate it through their website.  Plug in a USB hard drive or thumb drive (up to four devices) and you are good to go.  You can also install a USB connected printer to it as well.  It does not install to your computer at all.  That means you don’t have to have your computer on to run it, just the Pogo Plug itself and any drives you have installed to it.

Cost

What does all of this cost?  Once you purchase your Pogo Plug it’s all yours.  None of the services cost anything.  The only additional cost will be to purchase external drives and your internet service.  There are three types of Pogo Plugs, each with a different cost and each providing slightly different services.  There is the Pogo Plug (regular), Pro and Biz.  The Pogo Plug is $99 (U.S.D.), the Pro is $99 and the Biz is $299.  The regular and Pro Pogo Plugs are identical except the Pro has a built in Wifi Adapter.  The Biz has the ability to add multiple users, customizations, custom email addresses, usage statistics and Web Only sharing.  If you are a business and need these features then the extra price is worth it.

Conclusion

The Pogo Plug is a great device for remote file access and sharing.  It is inexpensive and easy to use.  It has a few drawbacks, like speed and lack of drive letter assignment, but its active copy, remote printing, and file sharing tools may be enough for you to offset these drawbacks.  I would recommend this device to anyone needing a simple and inexpensive means to accessing your files.  Especially for home office use or for small groups that need to share files.

Google Chrome - review

Google has released their very own browser.  It is called CHROME.  With all of the browsers out there why would anyone want to release yet another one?  More importantly, why would anyone want to switch browsers?

I can give one reason-it's better.  Yup.  I have been using Chrome for about a day now and I have to say that it is much better in performance than Windows Internet Explorer.  What has long been the standard method for users to surf the internet is now the worst option that any one can take.  These are strong words I'm sure, but it is my honest opinion.  

Users are much better off using either Firefox, Safaria or Chrome.  I have been a loyal user of Firefox for a long time and I love it.  I have test run Safari for the past several months and I feel it too is a much better solution than Internet Explorer.  It's lacking in a few areas of adons, but give it some more time.

Now enter CHROME!!  That name sounds like one of the stars of the American Gladiator show!  After I downloaded the beta (yes, it's only in beta now) and installed it I ran it.  The screen asked if I wanted to import all of my Firefox or I.E. bookmarks, cookies, passwords, etc.  I said yes and it did!!  Great feature for switching over, and a must in my book.

There are two features that I particularly enjoy about Chrome.  It's simplicity and it's speed.

By simplicity I mean that the interface is neat and clean.  There are no extra frills making more room for screen real estate.  By speed I mean its lightning fast.  I didn't run any benchmark tests, but it is visibly faster.  Try loading this blog on your normal browser, then load it on Chrome.  See what I mean?  WOW!!  That's the very first thing I said when I tried it out.

One short coming when compared to Firefox is Chrome's lack of add ons.  But give it time, with Google's mode of operations, thhey will be here soon.

Anyway, I recomend trying Chrome.  

Google Chrome - review

Google has released their very own browser.  It is called CHROME.  With all of the browsers out there why would anyone want to release yet another one?  More importantly, why would anyone want to switch browsers?

I can give one reason-it's better.  Yup.  I have been using Chrome for about a day now and I have to say that it is much better in performance than Windows Internet Explorer.  What has long been the standard method for users to surf the internet is now the worst option that any one can take.  These are strong words I'm sure, but it is my honest opinion.  

Users are much better off using either Firefox, Safaria or Chrome.  I have been a loyal user of Firefox for a long time and I love it.  I have test run Safari for the past several months and I feel it too is a much better solution than Internet Explorer.  It's lacking in a few areas of adons, but give it some more time.

Now enter CHROME!!  That name sounds like one of the stars of the American Gladiator show!  After I downloaded the beta (yes, it's only in beta now) and installed it I ran it.  The screen asked if I wanted to import all of my Firefox or I.E. bookmarks, cookies, passwords, etc.  I said yes and it did!!  Great feature for switching over, and a must in my book.

There are two features that I particularly enjoy about Chrome.  It's simplicity and it's speed.

By simplicity I mean that the interface is neat and clean.  There are no extra frills making more room for screen real estate.  By speed I mean its lightning fast.  I didn't run any benchmark tests, but it is visibly faster.  Try loading this blog on your normal browser, then load it on Chrome.  See what I mean?  WOW!!  That's the very first thing I said when I tried it out.

One short coming when compared to Firefox is Chrome's lack of add ons.  But give it time, with Google's mode of operations, thhey will be here soon.

Anyway, I recomend trying Chrome.  

Bye Bye Land Desktop - Hello Civil3D!!

How many of you work in a Civil (or AEC) related field? How many of you use Land Desktop? How many of you have moved to Civil3D? How many of you are trying to move to C3D but can't seem to get 'er done? Autodesk has officially announced the long expected demise of Land Desktop. What now?

Don't worry, your license of ALD (Autodesk Land Desktop) is still good and will work just fine. BUT (there's always a but), what if you come to a time when you have to update your software? You won't be able to. If you are on subscription with ALD, then maybe you need to review your contract. I'm not sure how Autodesk will handle that. Keep in mind that your subscription contract does indicate that there is no guarantee of a new release! If you just signed a three year subscription for Land Desktop, then, well, hmmmm.

What if you are in a situation where you don't use ALD but have set up an elaborate customization of routines, menus, tablets, blocks etc. to do your design and drafting work? This means that you need to start looking at Civil3D because your competition will be. Autodesk has reported several times that many Civil3D users see around a 33% (plus or minus of course) reduction in design drafting time. That means Civil3D companies can under bid you by 50%!! Can you compete with that? Where did I get 50%?

Lets say that it take $100 to do a job. If I use Civil3D, then I can do the job for 33% less. That means it will cost me $66 to do the job. $100 minus $66 is $34. $34 is about half (or 50%) of $66. If I do the job for $100 and my competition does it for $66, then I am making a bid on a job that is 50% higher than my competition !! I think that we would loose clients and eventually shut down. The other alternative is to reduce costs by 30%. How do you do that?

My point, even if you don't use Land Desktop, this will affect you.

Bye Bye Land Desktop - Hello Civil3D!!

How many of you work in a Civil (or AEC) related field? How many of you use Land Desktop? How many of you have moved to Civil3D? How many of you are trying to move to C3D but can't seem to get 'er done? Autodesk has officially announced the long expected demise of Land Desktop. What now?

Don't worry, your license of ALD (Autodesk Land Desktop) is still good and will work just fine. BUT (there's always a but), what if you come to a time when you have to update your software? You won't be able to. If you are on subscription with ALD, then maybe you need to review your contract. I'm not sure how Autodesk will handle that. Keep in mind that your subscription contract does indicate that there is no guarantee of a new release! If you just signed a three year subscription for Land Desktop, then, well, hmmmm.

What if you are in a situation where you don't use ALD but have set up an elaborate customization of routines, menus, tablets, blocks etc. to do your design and drafting work? This means that you need to start looking at Civil3D because your competition will be. Autodesk has reported several times that many Civil3D users see around a 33% (plus or minus of course) reduction in design drafting time. That means Civil3D companies can under bid you by 50%!! Can you compete with that? Where did I get 50%?

Lets say that it take $100 to do a job. If I use Civil3D, then I can do the job for 33% less. That means it will cost me $66 to do the job. $100 minus $66 is $34. $34 is about half (or 50%) of $66. If I do the job for $100 and my competition does it for $66, then I am making a bid on a job that is 50% higher than my competition !! I think that we would loose clients and eventually shut down. The other alternative is to reduce costs by 30%. How do you do that?

My point, even if you don't use Land Desktop, this will affect you.

Review-CADsmart-Good for Managers?

I want to talk to you again about CADsmart. I have posted about it a couple of times now (here and here) giving you some information about the software. We first spoke about what it does, generally speaking. Then we took a look at the assessments and how they work. Now I want to look at CADsmart from the manager’s aspect. What can we do with the information we just collected?

CADsmart really excels in the larger firms and for assessing interviewees. It doesn’t perform as well with small firms that have four or five CAD techs. If you are managing only five CAD users, then you already know where they struggle and where they excel. But if you have twenty, fifty, a hundred, or more, then you don’t have the time to know them as well. That’s where CADsmart can help. I also like it when assessing interviewees. It provides a fair environment for the tester, which gives you a more accurate assessment. Many firms have customized their CAD environment and that can intimidate and overwhelm a candidate if they are trying to get a job by taking a test in a place they are unfamiliar with. Sometimes upper management doesn’t understand these types of situations. CADsmart is a fairer assessment process.

Now that we have assessment data on our CAD users, how do we get to it and what do we do with it? Access is easy enough. Go to CADsmart’s website and log in. You will need an account to be able to do this. We will talk about getting an account later on. When you log on there are several options available to you. You can go directly to the performance charts, or go to the assessment results.

The performance charts provide a quick visual guide to the information collected. You can see your scores sorted by group (employee, interviewee, etc.) The charts provide you with a performance spread in one graph and a stage performance in a second graph. This gives you an overall look and a more detailed comparison. There are different color codes to help you differentiate between the groups and the benchmark. Hopefully the benchmark is the lowest set of scores you have! Everything here is online, but you can get the data and print it, transfer it to a PDF, or export it to a spreadsheet. There are many ways to see the data and to get it to use for yourself.

The assessment results tab is where you can go to get more detailed information about the individual test results. You can sort the data by any column and in any order. You can sort it and then resort it by clicking on the headers. You can add and sort your users results by groups. The default groups are Employees and Interviewees. In my test I added groups for our departments; engineering and surveying. This is a nice feature if you need to manage the results from different offices or departments.

The assessment results tab lists each user by name. If you click on the users surname it will open up a window that provides the basic testing data (time, date, CAD platform) and recommendations for training based on the assessment results. If you click on the result score, another window opens up providing a more detailed analysis of each stage. It provides the end score, the time taken, and an analysis. The analysis lets you know what the candidate did incorrectly! This is a great feature because it can better explain to you why they scored the way they did. How useful is an assessment that just says, “You scored an 85%.”? Not very. At the end of the assessment results it compares the score and time with the benchmark letting you know how your skills compare. When you are finished, you can click the print button to print out the certificate (that’s what they call the data sheet.) I was disappointed that CADsmart didn’t provide other output devices as in the Performance Chart Tab like the PDF and Spreadsheet options. That’s how you look at and use the assessment data. It’s very simple to use.

There are other tabs too that you would expect; account details (name, address, password, etc.), resources (this is where you download the assessment software and instruction guides), software settings (turn off testing options like the clock, intro movie, welcome message, and extra candidate labels), booking system (where you can schedule assessment times), support (where to go if you need help), and logout (that one’s obvious!)

You can see that with CADsmart, managers have many tools available to them to better assess the CAD skills of their users. There are many resources to go to for help (like the managers’ video) and more instruction. CADsmart also has some customization features that might help you out too. Overall I feel that CADsmart is a good program and a great service. It is easily used and implemented.

The biggest question is; how much does it cost? CADsmart has two methods, the Premier and the Classic. The premier provides unlimited use and with all the assessment data, recommendations, the whole thing. The Classic level of subscription only provides unlimited use of the Assessment Software and access to your data. This might be enough for some managers. It will depend on you, your needs and your budget.

The pricing varies from the classic to the premier and by the number of users. It seems to me that they are looking for a general usage amount. The website states that you can assess your users as many times as you want including as many interviewees as you have.

The price difference on 1 to 15 users from the classic to the premier was only about $300 (U.S.), ranging from about $1500 to about $1800 per annum. The price on 100 users ranged from about $6300 to about $7500 per annum. You will need to check for yourself as prices may change. They also provide pricing for other countries. The more users you add the higher the price.

Depending on the amount of employees you have, the price will obviously vary. If you have about 100 users, then the cost will be about the same as one license of your CAD software! I think that is a good price and well worth the money spent. I feel that CADsmart is a good investment in your company.

Review-CADsmart-Good for Managers?

I want to talk to you again about CADsmart. I have posted about it a couple of times now (here and here) giving you some information about the software. We first spoke about what it does, generally speaking. Then we took a look at the assessments and how they work. Now I want to look at CADsmart from the manager’s aspect. What can we do with the information we just collected?

CADsmart really excels in the larger firms and for assessing interviewees. It doesn’t perform as well with small firms that have four or five CAD techs. If you are managing only five CAD users, then you already know where they struggle and where they excel. But if you have twenty, fifty, a hundred, or more, then you don’t have the time to know them as well. That’s where CADsmart can help. I also like it when assessing interviewees. It provides a fair environment for the tester, which gives you a more accurate assessment. Many firms have customized their CAD environment and that can intimidate and overwhelm a candidate if they are trying to get a job by taking a test in a place they are unfamiliar with. Sometimes upper management doesn’t understand these types of situations. CADsmart is a fairer assessment process.

Now that we have assessment data on our CAD users, how do we get to it and what do we do with it? Access is easy enough. Go to CADsmart’s website and log in. You will need an account to be able to do this. We will talk about getting an account later on. When you log on there are several options available to you. You can go directly to the performance charts, or go to the assessment results.

The performance charts provide a quick visual guide to the information collected. You can see your scores sorted by group (employee, interviewee, etc.) The charts provide you with a performance spread in one graph and a stage performance in a second graph. This gives you an overall look and a more detailed comparison. There are different color codes to help you differentiate between the groups and the benchmark. Hopefully the benchmark is the lowest set of scores you have! Everything here is online, but you can get the data and print it, transfer it to a PDF, or export it to a spreadsheet. There are many ways to see the data and to get it to use for yourself.

The assessment results tab is where you can go to get more detailed information about the individual test results. You can sort the data by any column and in any order. You can sort it and then resort it by clicking on the headers. You can add and sort your users results by groups. The default groups are Employees and Interviewees. In my test I added groups for our departments; engineering and surveying. This is a nice feature if you need to manage the results from different offices or departments.

The assessment results tab lists each user by name. If you click on the users surname it will open up a window that provides the basic testing data (time, date, CAD platform) and recommendations for training based on the assessment results. If you click on the result score, another window opens up providing a more detailed analysis of each stage. It provides the end score, the time taken, and an analysis. The analysis lets you know what the candidate did incorrectly! This is a great feature because it can better explain to you why they scored the way they did. How useful is an assessment that just says, “You scored an 85%.”? Not very. At the end of the assessment results it compares the score and time with the benchmark letting you know how your skills compare. When you are finished, you can click the print button to print out the certificate (that’s what they call the data sheet.) I was disappointed that CADsmart didn’t provide other output devices as in the Performance Chart Tab like the PDF and Spreadsheet options. That’s how you look at and use the assessment data. It’s very simple to use.

There are other tabs too that you would expect; account details (name, address, password, etc.), resources (this is where you download the assessment software and instruction guides), software settings (turn off testing options like the clock, intro movie, welcome message, and extra candidate labels), booking system (where you can schedule assessment times), support (where to go if you need help), and logout (that one’s obvious!)

You can see that with CADsmart, managers have many tools available to them to better assess the CAD skills of their users. There are many resources to go to for help (like the managers’ video) and more instruction. CADsmart also has some customization features that might help you out too. Overall I feel that CADsmart is a good program and a great service. It is easily used and implemented.

The biggest question is; how much does it cost? CADsmart has two methods, the Premier and the Classic. The premier provides unlimited use and with all the assessment data, recommendations, the whole thing. The Classic level of subscription only provides unlimited use of the Assessment Software and access to your data. This might be enough for some managers. It will depend on you, your needs and your budget.

The pricing varies from the classic to the premier and by the number of users. It seems to me that they are looking for a general usage amount. The website states that you can assess your users as many times as you want including as many interviewees as you have.

The price difference on 1 to 15 users from the classic to the premier was only about $300 (U.S.), ranging from about $1500 to about $1800 per annum. The price on 100 users ranged from about $6300 to about $7500 per annum. You will need to check for yourself as prices may change. They also provide pricing for other countries. The more users you add the higher the price.

Depending on the amount of employees you have, the price will obviously vary. If you have about 100 users, then the cost will be about the same as one license of your CAD software! I think that is a good price and well worth the money spent. I feel that CADsmart is a good investment in your company.

Review - CADsmart 2 of 3

A few days ago I gave you a brief overview of a software program I found called CADsmart. It is a program that you can download and run within AutoCAD (or Microstation) in order to assess your users’ general CAD skills. It doesn’t test programming skills, nor is it release specific, it only looks at general CAD drafting skills. Knowing what areas your users excel in along with the areas they don’t is very useful. It allows you to train them properly and where they need it.

Last time I gave an overview of what CADsmart can do, generally speaking. Now I want to get more specific.

Before you get started using it and before your users test with it, I recommend that everyone involved watches their online videos which let everyone know what to expect and how it works. This is a nice touch. It helps to relieve some of the stress that people have when they are being assessed, especially if they are taking it as part of a job interview or as a personnel review as an employee. People get nervous and they might not perform as well as they normally do when under pressure, so this feature helps.

Another feature that helps the scores be more accurate is that CADsmart runs within AutoCAD (or Microstation). It would be nice if you didn’t have to have AutoCAD to take the review, but this method does have a nice bonus to it. Since the user (if he/she is a current employee) is taking the assessment in a CAD setting that they are familiar with, they will perform better. They perform better because they are being tested in the same environment that they work in everyday. CADsmart also gives the user the ability to arrange the toolbars, pallets, icons, etc. to their liking before the exercise begins. This also helps interviewees test better in a new and different setting. Everyone involved gets better and more accurate scores.

Ten exercises are taken, each one covering different aspects. These ten topics are: Lines, Sheet Set Up/Xrefs, Circles & Arcs, Text, Blocks/Cells, Dimensions, Layers/Levels, Preferences, UCS/ACS. As you can see, these topics cover the general skills needed to be able to work with CAD software. It also breaks them up enough so that we can see what areas we do well in and in what areas need more training.

In order to take the assessment, the CADsmart software must be downloaded and installed on the testing machine. Once it is installed, log on and begin. If the candidate hasn’t watched the introduction movie yet, they will get the option during the set up phase. Some information about the user will have to be filled out in a form. This helps CADsmart identify who you are. They provide a guarantee that says they won’t give out that information to any third party; only CADsmart, you and your company will have access to that data. Once the form is filled out they can begin the assessment.

Each exercise will provide instructions and a preview of what is to be done. It is up to the candidate to figure out what to do and then do it. Be careful when reading the instructions, just as the video says, because if you don’t follow the instructions and do as you are told, your score will be lower than it could be! Once done, the candidate will receive an e-mail where they can go and find out their score. They will also receive an assessment comparing their score to the benchmark as well as recommendations on what areas to improve. This is one of the reasons they had to fill out all of that personal information, so that CADsmart would know who they are.

CADsmart is a simple to use program that provides valuable CAD skill assessment data and comparison. It is easy for users to test with and easy to set up. It is run in a CAD environment that is familiar to the candidate thus giving more accurate scores and skill assessments.

I’m going to stop again so that our minds won’t melt. In the near future I plan on taking a closer look as to what CADsmart offers the manager. We will look at the tools it provides in skill assessment, charts, data management, the benchmark, how to access the data, etc. We’ll also take a look at what managers can do with the information they just collected.

Happy CADDING

Review - CADsmart 2 of 3

A few days ago I gave you a brief overview of a software program I found called CADsmart. It is a program that you can download and run within AutoCAD (or Microstation) in order to assess your users’ general CAD skills. It doesn’t test programming skills, nor is it release specific, it only looks at general CAD drafting skills. Knowing what areas your users excel in along with the areas they don’t is very useful. It allows you to train them properly and where they need it.

Last time I gave an overview of what CADsmart can do, generally speaking. Now I want to get more specific.

Before you get started using it and before your users test with it, I recommend that everyone involved watches their online videos which let everyone know what to expect and how it works. This is a nice touch. It helps to relieve some of the stress that people have when they are being assessed, especially if they are taking it as part of a job interview or as a personnel review as an employee. People get nervous and they might not perform as well as they normally do when under pressure, so this feature helps.

Another feature that helps the scores be more accurate is that CADsmart runs within AutoCAD (or Microstation). It would be nice if you didn’t have to have AutoCAD to take the review, but this method does have a nice bonus to it. Since the user (if he/she is a current employee) is taking the assessment in a CAD setting that they are familiar with, they will perform better. They perform better because they are being tested in the same environment that they work in everyday. CADsmart also gives the user the ability to arrange the toolbars, pallets, icons, etc. to their liking before the exercise begins. This also helps interviewees test better in a new and different setting. Everyone involved gets better and more accurate scores.

Ten exercises are taken, each one covering different aspects. These ten topics are: Lines, Sheet Set Up/Xrefs, Circles & Arcs, Text, Blocks/Cells, Dimensions, Layers/Levels, Preferences, UCS/ACS. As you can see, these topics cover the general skills needed to be able to work with CAD software. It also breaks them up enough so that we can see what areas we do well in and in what areas need more training.

In order to take the assessment, the CADsmart software must be downloaded and installed on the testing machine. Once it is installed, log on and begin. If the candidate hasn’t watched the introduction movie yet, they will get the option during the set up phase. Some information about the user will have to be filled out in a form. This helps CADsmart identify who you are. They provide a guarantee that says they won’t give out that information to any third party; only CADsmart, you and your company will have access to that data. Once the form is filled out they can begin the assessment.

Each exercise will provide instructions and a preview of what is to be done. It is up to the candidate to figure out what to do and then do it. Be careful when reading the instructions, just as the video says, because if you don’t follow the instructions and do as you are told, your score will be lower than it could be! Once done, the candidate will receive an e-mail where they can go and find out their score. They will also receive an assessment comparing their score to the benchmark as well as recommendations on what areas to improve. This is one of the reasons they had to fill out all of that personal information, so that CADsmart would know who they are.

CADsmart is a simple to use program that provides valuable CAD skill assessment data and comparison. It is easy for users to test with and easy to set up. It is run in a CAD environment that is familiar to the candidate thus giving more accurate scores and skill assessments.

I’m going to stop again so that our minds won’t melt. In the near future I plan on taking a closer look as to what CADsmart offers the manager. We will look at the tools it provides in skill assessment, charts, data management, the benchmark, how to access the data, etc. We’ll also take a look at what managers can do with the information they just collected.

Happy CADDING

Review - CADsmart

CAD-a-Blog is about teaching CAD skills, especially AutoCAD skills. With that in mind, I try to keep my eyes open for products or services that can help users (and me too!) better themselves. I feel that I have found such a product.

Consider this scenario; imagine that you need to hire a new CAD user for your company. How do you know if that user can in fact use CAD? How do you know the extent of his or her skills?

Also consider this; how can you measure the CAD skills of your current users?

Well I have come across a product that comes from the United Kingdom. It is from CADsmart.
CADsmart is a company that provides testing software that measures general AutoCAD (and Microstation) skills in users. It has the ability to measure CAD drafting skills, not programming, not customizations, but CAD skills. In a nutshell, the user takes a series of drafting based assessments, each one covering a specific topic. The results are compared to a benchmark that has been developed by CADsmart from thousands of users that have taken the same or similar assessments. The user is scored individually and in comparison to other users. For example, one segments score could state that you scored an 80%. That means that you were 80% correct. Now compare that score to the benchmark and you will have a means to measure your abilities relative to the thousands of users that have already taken the assessment. This software gives you a score for the user and tells you if it is a good score or not.

CADsmart’s benchmark is meant to represent the average user. If you score above that, then you should be a good CAD user. If you score below the benchmark, then there might be some areas for training. The assessments are scored separately on overall accuracy and time taken. These two measurements can be compared to the benchmark or to other employees in your company.

CADsmart’s assessments cover specific topics. Each one consists of a series of steps that the user must complete. It doesn’t matter how the user gets the work done, or how long it takes, only that the end results are what they need to be. This is one of the main reasons that I like this software because every user will work in a slightly different way and what matters is the final drawing, not so much as how it was drawn. I said that time doesn’t matter, well it doesn’t affect the accuracy score, but it is measured and compared to the benchmark. So keep it in mind that you need to be both accurate and quick, just like in real life!

Each category has its own benchmark that you can compare your score with. This is very useful because it provides a means of determining where your specific problems are. This feature is great for managers too because it enables them to find specific problem areas in their users so that they can concentrate their training programs exactly where they are needed. Time and resources are not wasted training the wrong people in the wrong skill sets.

CADsmart is not perfect. It is not cost productive for a single user to buy the software and use it on themselves, though this can be done. It works best in a group environment. You also have to have AutoCAD software on your machine in order to run it. One other thing that I understand, but didn’t like too much, is that while taking the test, I can’t pause it in case my attention is needed elsewhere (That happened to me while I was taking the test. I got a low score in the dimension portion because of it-maybe I’m just bitter!) Playing devil’s advocate, if I could pause the assessment, then I could stop it, figure out the task, then start again. That’s cheating, so I understand the reason behind it, but I want it anyway!!

That’s the gist of it. I don’t want to overload you with information, so I am going to write about CADsmart in smaller bite size parts like this. Check out their website, read about them, and let me know what you think. Later I’m going to get more into the workings of it, what it has to offer managers in terms of assessment tools, charts, and recommendations. CADsmart will test the user, show the assessment data, and provide recommendations on what areas to train the specific users in. It is a very helpful tool in my opinion.

Happy CADDING!

Review - CADsmart

CAD-a-Blog is about teaching CAD skills, especially AutoCAD skills. With that in mind, I try to keep my eyes open for products or services that can help users (and me too!) better themselves. I feel that I have found such a product.

Consider this scenario; imagine that you need to hire a new CAD user for your company. How do you know if that user can in fact use CAD? How do you know the extent of his or her skills?

Also consider this; how can you measure the CAD skills of your current users?

Well I have come across a product that comes from the United Kingdom. It is from CADsmart.
CADsmart is a company that provides testing software that measures general AutoCAD (and Microstation) skills in users. It has the ability to measure CAD drafting skills, not programming, not customizations, but CAD skills. In a nutshell, the user takes a series of drafting based assessments, each one covering a specific topic. The results are compared to a benchmark that has been developed by CADsmart from thousands of users that have taken the same or similar assessments. The user is scored individually and in comparison to other users. For example, one segments score could state that you scored an 80%. That means that you were 80% correct. Now compare that score to the benchmark and you will have a means to measure your abilities relative to the thousands of users that have already taken the assessment. This software gives you a score for the user and tells you if it is a good score or not.

CADsmart’s benchmark is meant to represent the average user. If you score above that, then you should be a good CAD user. If you score below the benchmark, then there might be some areas for training. The assessments are scored separately on overall accuracy and time taken. These two measurements can be compared to the benchmark or to other employees in your company.

CADsmart’s assessments cover specific topics. Each one consists of a series of steps that the user must complete. It doesn’t matter how the user gets the work done, or how long it takes, only that the end results are what they need to be. This is one of the main reasons that I like this software because every user will work in a slightly different way and what matters is the final drawing, not so much as how it was drawn. I said that time doesn’t matter, well it doesn’t affect the accuracy score, but it is measured and compared to the benchmark. So keep it in mind that you need to be both accurate and quick, just like in real life!

Each category has its own benchmark that you can compare your score with. This is very useful because it provides a means of determining where your specific problems are. This feature is great for managers too because it enables them to find specific problem areas in their users so that they can concentrate their training programs exactly where they are needed. Time and resources are not wasted training the wrong people in the wrong skill sets.

CADsmart is not perfect. It is not cost productive for a single user to buy the software and use it on themselves, though this can be done. It works best in a group environment. You also have to have AutoCAD software on your machine in order to run it. One other thing that I understand, but didn’t like too much, is that while taking the test, I can’t pause it in case my attention is needed elsewhere (That happened to me while I was taking the test. I got a low score in the dimension portion because of it-maybe I’m just bitter!) Playing devil’s advocate, if I could pause the assessment, then I could stop it, figure out the task, then start again. That’s cheating, so I understand the reason behind it, but I want it anyway!!

That’s the gist of it. I don’t want to overload you with information, so I am going to write about CADsmart in smaller bite size parts like this. Check out their website, read about them, and let me know what you think. Later I’m going to get more into the workings of it, what it has to offer managers in terms of assessment tools, charts, and recommendations. CADsmart will test the user, show the assessment data, and provide recommendations on what areas to train the specific users in. It is a very helpful tool in my opinion.

Happy CADDING!