don what was the 3D mech program ? solidworks? what was the video and what did it cost ?
tx ds _______________________________________________________________________ Integrated Controls, Inc. Tel: 415-647-0480 EXT 107 2851 21st Street Fax: 415-647-3003 San Francisco, CA 94110 www.integratedcontrolsinc.com Don Ingram wrote: > 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] >> > > > ____________________________________________________________ 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]
