Meeting & Agendas

ARCHITECTURAL & ENGINEERING COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN Committee Minutes ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING Meeting Date: November 13, 2009 I. Welcome and Introductions A. Attendance - Present: John Tiede (IBM –Retired), Brett Burke (AECOM), Don Fletcher (LCRA), Doug Smith (A&E CAD), Ashleigh Fuller (A&E CAD), Trang Ong (A&E CAD), Jeffrey Muhammad ((A&E CAD), Erlene Clark (A&E CAD), Matt Wilson (A&E CAD), Marcus Kelley (BAE Systems),Marisa Mejia (High School Tech Prep), Kristen Schmidt (Loomis Partners), Brad Collins (Pump Studios), and Matt Strickland (Parking Planners). B. Meeting was called to order at 11:53 am by Doug Smith and John Tiede. C. Each person introduced themselves and described their backgrounds. a. Meeting is a once a year requirement. b. John Tiede stressed the importance of Advisory Committee role. c. Review & update contact information II. Departmental Overview A. Doug presented department overview and updates. B. Doug explains the important of Advisory Committee existence. a. Advisory Committee decisions effective the lives of our students. b. An increase in our enrollment. c. Awards students received whether a degree or a certificate. III. Civil Certificate Revision A. John Tiede asked Jeffrey Muhammad to present the Civil Certificate revision. a. Jeffrey explained the current Civil certificate: Currently have four courses: DFTG 1405 (Technical Drafting), DFTG 2419 (Intermediate CAD), DFTG 2430 (Civil Drafting), and DFTG 1493 (Advanced Civil Drafting). b. The proposed changes to the Civil certificate: DFTG 1405 (Technical Drafting), GEOG 2470 (Intro to GIS), DFTG 2419 (Intermediate CAD), DFTG 2430 (Civil Drafting), and DFTG 2421 (Topographical Drafting). c. DFTG 1493 is no longer required for Civil certificate. d. The length of the certificate will still be the same; student will complete the Civil certificate in 3 semesters. e. With new changes students will have skills and knowledge for industry f. With the propose changes to the Civil certificate, students will have the skills and knowledge for industry. B. Took Civil advisory committee member (Brett Burke) suggestion to focus on site plan development. C. John Tiede asked for comments & questions. D. Brett Burke’s feedback – adding GIS to Civil certificate will be helpful to student in industry E. John called emotion to change. All members were in favored of the change. IV. Industry Advisory Committee Survey A. What is the primary focus of your organization or industry? a. Land Development b. Teach engineering & architecture at the high school level c. Public Architecture, police stations, courts, fire stations d. Product Design Consultancy e. Architecture with specialty in parking design B. Approximately how many employees in your organization us CAD Tools? a. Local – 45, State – 200+ b. Employees -2, students – 100+. c. 8 out of 9 employees d. 3 e. 6 C. What are the job titles of employees using CAD in your organization? a. Junior Tech, Engineering Tech, Designer, Technical Coordinator, Technical Specialist b. Teachers c. Architects and Architectural Interns d. Partner and Mechanical Design Engineers e. Project Manager, Project Coordinator, Project Design, CAD Technician D. What CAD software package(s) does your organization and industry use? Do you foresee your organization switching to, or adding different CAD software in the future? a. AutoCAD, AutoTurn, Architectural Desktop 2004, AutoCAD Architecture, / BIM b. Pro/Engineering Wildfire 3.4 / Wildfire 5.0 and Solidworks c. Revit 2009 & Google Sketchup d. Inventor, Revit Architecture, AutoCAD e. AutoCAD 2009, Civil 3D 2009, LDD 2009, Microstation, ARC View E. What trends do you see in Engineering Graphics / CAD that the A&E CAD Department will / may need to respond to in the foreseeable future (up to five years if possible)? a. ARC GIS & Civil 3D b. Green / LEED c. 3D animations are becoming more important as well as BIM d. TopDown Design is continuing to get more popular. Learning the proper way to model w/ TopDown is valuable. F. In your opinion, what is the prognosis for CAD jobs in your area of expertise in the foreseeable future? For example, are entry level CAD jobs still more drafting oriented or are they becoming more design driven and/or data management related as CAD software evolves? a. Entry level will still be primarily drafting while using the design tools of Civil 3D & LDD w/ supervisor’s direction. b. Green/LEED movement is growing. Many firms are requiring LEED Certification. c. People start off picking up red-lines. Then move up to interior elevation, doo, & window schedules. Based on their aptitude we move them to wall section, & details. d. Our preference is to have entry level positions jump into design driven tasks. There is still a need for drafting skills, but design related skills are now a requirement for entry level jobs. e. I still see a need for drafting personnel, especially in large firms that have specific groups, project managers, designers, and production. G. Are there types of projects in your area that remain strong despite the recession? Do you see an increase in new projects that may indicate that the economy is getting stronger? a. Public Development and private commercial have been 80% of work performance this year. b. No, we are still seeing a slowdown in the mount of projects out there. c. Medical products remain strong since they require more structure/process and generally stay in the states vs. overseas. Product design market appears to be picking up this quarter. d. Public projects & planning projects are still ongoing. Commercial development remains slow. H. If your organization has hired A&E CAD students (since the last advisory meeting), what is your assessment of the skill levels of these individuals when they were initially hired? What could be improved? a. Haven’t hired A&E CAD students since the last meeting due to the economy. I. Does your organization use AutoCAD? If so, in what capacity? What is the future of AutoCAD within your organization? a. Yes. As the base program for Civil 3D & LDD. Civil 3D on 80% of our projects b. Yes. Teach student AutoCAD, Revit. Engineering students only use Inventor. c. We still buy license for AutoCAD for all employees, but are no longer using AutoCAD on new projects. d. Yes, but only for quick concept sketching & brainstorming. AutoCAD will remain a tool until Pro/E improves their drafting (2D) tools considerably. V. Adjourn