Brad, I can't say that I have found that problem but I will acknowledge that I haven't been looking that closely. I found the benefit was that a string of actions gave me an indication as to how the designer would like me to use a certain feature. This is in contrast to the older method of play with it until I get it to work by any means foul or fair ( we all know it was a total waste of time trying to use the manuals in days gone by... )
I would suggest that you forward your observations directly to Altium so that they get the feedback as lately they are very receptive to well structured criticism. I know that they are looking seriously at the video mode of conveying information. Currently the videos are done by the developers and as you would know it is very hard for the developer to write his own manuals as you lose the ability to see the problem from the perspective of the novice. Ultimately the access to comprehensive videos will depend on how the product/update sales go and what the stated demand for training is. I know that I am old enough to happily trade money for training in order to avoid having to sit up to all hours experimenting to work out how to drive a business tool. I have also found that I much prefer the video as a learning tool over a manual ( still need the manual as a fall back ) but this is a purely personal preference. Recently I purchased a video tutorial set for a 3d mech cad system & found it to be a really useful way of getting up to full commercial speed quickly. I have been pressing Altium to do similar as I don't have good access to training courses in my neck of the boonies. Overall I would rather buy a comprehensive video set than go to a course as I have been using the mech cad cd's quite a bit to refresh skills on certain features as they are well segmented and indexed. Having said this, the live online marketing sessions have been useful & may be so as a training format too, particularly if archived. Semiconductor companies have made very good use of webinars for conveying useful information to designers to help them better use their products. At risk of stating the obvious, this is something that any tool provider needs to appreciate. The sales of their products will be heavily driven by the existing customers capacity to use the tool to earn income. The better the documentation and training for existing users, the higher the level of proficiency and sophistication of the user base, the better their chances of selling new seats. This is particularly important now that the software is well out of the range of an impulse buy, it is both expensive to buy into and becoming expensive to maintain. It is drifting into the big guys territory and losing the other end of the market to the plethora of cheap windows cad systems. YMMV So little time, so much work avoidance going on. Time for another public holiday yet ;-) Cheers Don Velander wrote: > Don, > After some of the discussion yesterday I actually went to the Altium > site and watched some of those AD6.0 videos. > Over half of the operations performed in the videos happens by pure > magic, the operator doesn't actually do anything to get the resultant action > or the video doesn't show all of the actions performed. Most of the pages > during an operation are switched through so quickly, you can't even read > which window they are, let alone any of the details/options checked or set on > those pages. Often the pages change without any click or operation being > shown by the screen or described by the operator so you don't know how they > got to where they were going or even precisely where they ended up. The video > is also quite often lagging behind the description (on completely different > pages than those being discussed) by as much as 5 - 10 seconds. > In the video discussing schematic notes I really loved how one mouse > click near a bunch of resistors seemingly resulted in a suitable description > (not any existing text appearing in or around the area of the resistors) to > be added to a note. In other words the videos are little more than pure > marketing fluff. About as far from instructional as one can get, may as well > just read their release notes or feature sheets and take it for granted that > it actually works and is as simple as one can imagine. > > Sincerely, > Brad Velander > Senior PCB Designer > Northern Airborne Technology > #14 - 1925 Kirschner Road, > Kelowna, BC, V1Y 4N7. > tel (250) 763-2329 ext. 225 > fax (250) 762-3374 > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Don Ingram [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2006 8:06 PM > To: Protel EDA Discussion List > Subject: Re: [PEDA] 6.0 ? it is here > > > > If you haven't already done so the videos are well worth watching, there > should > be a few more appearing shortly on Ad6 stuff, if they haven't already. Just > back > from hols so I haven't looked yet. > > Cheers > > Don > > > ____________________________________________________________ > You are subscribed to the PEDA discussion forum > > To Post messages: > mailto:[email protected] > > Unsubscribe and Other Options: > http://techservinc.com/mailman/listinfo/peda_techservinc.com > > Browse or Search Old Archives (2001-2004): > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > > Browse or Search Current Archives (2004-Current): > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > -- Cheers Don Ingram Leading Edge Design Mob: +61 4 1877 5670 Ph : +61 7 4942 5670 SIP: 899 060 4942 5670 Fax: +61 7 4942 5680 23 Daniel St North Mackay QLD 4740 Australia P.O. Box 10326 Mt Pleasant QLD 4740 Australia ____________________________________________________________ You are subscribed to the PEDA discussion forum To Post messages: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe and Other Options: http://techservinc.com/mailman/listinfo/peda_techservinc.com Browse or Search Old Archives (2001-2004): http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] Browse or Search Current Archives (2004-Current): http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
