Suggestion: Manual

[pmccutcheon]

There seems to be a lot of complaints and hand wringing about the manuals

Suggestion: the old VIA17 manuals were fairly decent. I'm sure at least 90% still applies to AE2006. Why not just post the old manual in PDF format, with a proviso/caveat that this is "old" information.

Helps out the users, easy to do for developer, everybody happy

[Anonymous]

The via WD manuals had their share of shortcomings, but they are still light years ahead of these new help files. One thing that they did that the new files don't was to give you "how to" lessons. secondly, the new help files seem to be the short version of what used to be in the wd books, that is, they seem to go into less detail.

[DStitz]

A PDF would put a smile on my face ... if I need a printed manual I can print it out.

Welcome everyone to the digital age.

[MartinLee]

I can assure everyone who has posted in this thread that the wonderful folks at ACE have heard us load and clear, and are actively working on a solution even as you read this. There are a few possibilities, and I believe that we all will like the end result.

[Tmyers]

I am becoming a new user to Acad E 2006, and I am also concerned about some sort of manual. At least with Autocad there are books out by other authors with shortcuts, explanations, reference index etc. I haven't been able to find any third party books which provide a desktop reference for Autocad Electrical. Does one exist? I find help files extremely cumbersome to navigate through to find exactly what you are trying to do, when a book allows you to page back and forth to different areas to gain the information you need. Training is one thing, however, you may not need to do some of the items you are trained on for months, then what do you do? Hope you took good notes. I have also found in a training situation, the training is usually setup to accommodate the least experienced user. This also creates an issue for those who have been using the product for some time and want to find easier ways to do things versus the people who are using the package for the first time.

If a manual existed with examples, a person could bring themselves up to speed, and be able to talk more intelligently with trainers etc about there specific issues.

I know the trend for not providing print manuals, however, even my programming software packages have pdf manuals which come with the installation.

Just hoping this manual situation gets resolved sooner instead of later, and that Autodesk will take care of the those who have supported the product.

[Alejandro79]

Actually i think that it´s not quite imperative for the manual to be printed, i can read from my pc just fine. But the point is that a manual has a logical order in which concepts are presented, they are grouped by chapters, and usually provide examples. That´s what i really longed for when i was getting started with ACE. For my a PDF would do just fine.

[sgsawdy]

Frankly, I do not look to Microsoft, Autodesk or IBM for the books I need and use to thouroughly educate myself on their products. I go to third party users/writers that have realtime experience with the products. For instance, Ralph Grabowski and Joe Sutphin come to mind as two authors I rely on.

The online tutorials and help files are usually enough to get started, but the different approaches to solving my problems only come from actual end users. Too often (but not always) training classes are by those that teach but do not do. It is difficult to find those few outstanding teachers and even more difficult, sometimes, convincing management and bean counters to spring for the training.

In short, I await useful and inciteful third party books.

Scott

[franklk]

I tend to agree with the idea that some kind of manual would be good, however when we got Acade 07 I got a nice little getting started manual with. Though this version is a little thicker, It was not very helpful, I knew everything in it. Not of much use to me.

I still use the built in help file to this day. I still learn new things from it. I honestly think a "real manual" would still take a backset to the electronic version.

I do appreciate the desire for a hardcopy though, when one is made, I'll take it.

Kevin

[dougmcalexander]

The best tutorial for ACADE is the one from www.ecaddesigner.com. It enhances and expands the standard AutoCAD Electrical Essentials courseware and was actually developed by designers who use ACADE, not software hackers. It has been refined over time by classroom use so there are zero errors in the guide. You can be sure that if you follow the tutorial, you will learn how to use ACADE and you will be productive in record time. I have personally used the Training Companion as a training guide for nearly a year now with great results. I just got back from teaching AutoCAD Electrical to a group of engineers who had already gone through the standard training and felt like they were not as productive as they should be. I used the Training Companion from www.ecaddesigner.com. It takes 3-4 days to go through the entire tutorial. It is that comprehensive. There is no better way to learn ACADE. Ask for a quote at www.ecaddesigner.com.