Just Hit Cancel

It's so easy - just hit cancel. We've all done it, whether it's by accident or to avoid having to enter some information a software program is asking for.

It was a problem for a CadTempo user that was attempting to record time spent by his AutoCAD users for non-CAD activities. As easy as CadTempo makes it to account for this time, it's still easier to just hit cancel.

You see, CadTempo works a little differently than your normal, run of the mill time tracking software. After the CAD operator is away from his or her computer for a predetermined time, CadTempo will prompt the user to account for that time upon return. The idea behind this is interruptions that require immediate attention many times remains unaccounted for. With CadTempo's Activity Logging enabled all that is involved is selecting a choice from a drop-down box (and optionally add a description).

But too often his CAD operators just hit cancel.

 My customer (an engineering manager) had the problem of attempting to discover the amount of time users were away from their CAD station. Upon his request a default term was added to CadTempo. Now, when his CAD operators just hit cancel the time will be recorded and he will gain new insight into the performance of his team. It won't deliver quite the impact of knowing what activities took place but with the proper coaching over time I'm confident better accounting will take place.

Activity settings with new default selection

If you are wondering what type of information is recorded here's an example spreadsheet that CadTempo generated. The document that is open during the activity is recorded along with the selected activity name. The user may also include additional information to further describe the activity.

Do you want to get a better understanding of your CAD work time, or your team of CAD operators? If so then visit the CadTempo website to download a fully functioning 30 day trial.

CadTempo - Creating Project Reports

Creating reports of your designers and drafters project time involvement is easy as pie. Here I'll show you the steps that are involved.

CadTempo is designed such that if your projects are broken into directories and sub-directories, project time totals can be summed easily by navigating to the desired folder and checking the files in that directory.

In the case I am demonstrating, I recently completed a small AutoCAD design and detail project of a tooling package. The project consisted of an AutoCAD assembly model constructed with 3D solids, the detailed AutoCAD drawings, an isometric drawing of the assembly and an Excel spreadsheet of the Bill of Material.

When you open the CadTempo viewer application it defaults to the file listing of the last folder you had open in the viewer. Navigate to the desired project folder and check the files in that directory. You can filter the displayed files by designating a filter mask then checking the Apply Filter box. Only visible and checked files will be included in the report.

Now, click the Folder Contents button.

Navigate to the Reports - Analytics page to view the report.

For a more detailed report return to the Files page and check the Include User Data box, then click the Folder Contents button once more.

Return to the Reports - Analytics page and you will see each user's time is added to a new spreadsheet page.

From the Reports - Analytics page you can print the report - you will need to print each spreadsheet page individually - or save the report to an Excel spreadsheet. Other save options include an html, rtf, and xml file types.

You can continue to add additional projects to the report - simply return to the Files page and navigate to other folders that you wish to include in your reports. Each time you click the Folder Contents button a new spreadsheet page is created.

So there you have it. Did I say it was easy as pie? Perhaps I understated the case.