DRAWING TIME TRACKING

[orosario]

We're interested in implementing a time tracking system, which will indicate who and when opened a drawing, the REAL time spent on it, etc.

Is there an effective Time Tracking software the anyone can recommend?

Thanks for your help.

Orlando Rosario

[Anonymous]

Well I know you said "most" tools work the way you described. In the case of
CadTempo I attempted to account for many similar scenarios that you described.
Here's how CadTempo works:

When an AutoCAD session is started a timer begins logging "session time".
When a drawing has mouse and keyboard focus editing/elapsed time is recorded for
that drawing. An adjustable "idle timer" will determine if the user has been
idle for a period of time (perhaps a five minute restroom break, or a 10 minute
phone call) and will stop the editing timer but continue with the elapsed timer.
Keyboard and mouse movement within an application is the determining factor.

An example scenario:

You have the "idle timer" set to 5 minutes

Mark starts AutoCAD and the session time begins

Mark opens Plan01.dwg
> the edit/elapsed timer begins for Plan01

Mark works in Plan01.dwg for 12 minutes and opens Elev01.dwg
> the edit/elapsed timer for Plan01 stops
> the edit/elapsed timer begins for Elev01

Mark works in Elev01 for 20 minutes and takes a phone call
after a 5 minute period on the phone
> the edit time is no longer recorded for Elev01
> The elapsed time continues for Elev01

Mark completes his phone call after a total of 8 minutes and begins work again
in Elev01
> the edit timer starts up again

After 4 minutes Mark closes Elev01
Elev01 now has an edit time of 29 minutes (20 + 5 + 4)
Elev01 now has an elapsed time of 32 minutes (20 + 8 + 4) - the total amount
of time Elev01 was open and had focus

Mark is now back in Plan01 and works for 30 minutes
Mark closes Plan01]
Plan01 now has an edit time of 42 minutes (12 + 30)
Plan01 now has an elapsed time of 42 minutes (12 + 30) - the total amount of
time Plan01 was open and had focus

Mark closes AutoCAD after 3 minutes
the session timer stops and Mark has a total session time of 77 minutes (12 +
20 + 8 + 4 + 30 + 3)

If during this period of time Mark uses an non-monitord program, that period of
time is not recorded to the drawings but because AutoCAD is still open the
session time is recorded.

The program will record this activity for all users that access the drawing and
easily displays the logged data in a seperate viewer. Also you can record the
time that is spent simply viewing the drawings in Design Review, DwgTrueView,
etc. My thought on this additional "viewing" of drawings is that time spent is,
well, time spent.

I've tried to cover all the bases with CadTempo.

Your example gives me an idea that it might be a useful feature to add a prompt
after so many minutes of inactivety. When the user returns to the drawing the
user could record a brief description of his time spent during that period. Do
you see any value to that?

--

Patrick Hughes

Engineered Design Solutions
CadTempo: Time Logging for CAD
visit http://www.Cadtempo.com
_____________________________

wrote in message news:6393391@discussion.autodesk.com...
bear in mind that most of these tools merely track the hours the application is
open, not what really going on during that time.

6:00am Open drawing start a command
6:03am phone rings
6:11am head down to meeting to see what the problem is
7:15am sit down at computer and try to remember what I was going to do with a
command that starts with D
7:16am boss needs the budget forecast for next quarter by 9:00am
9:01am "hmmm... D .... what command starts with D ..."
9:02am phone rings ....
....
2:13pm "What happened to lunch ...."
....
6:35pm " D .... ummm ... what drawing is this??"
6:36pm "Yes, babe, I'll working late again tonight."
6:37pm "DML, I was supposed to add some dims to this preliminary model and get
it to the fabrication guys first thing this morning for an estimate, cr4p."

[lsimms1]

As long as everyone remembers time working in the actual drawing is not all time spent on the project. We are constantly looking up info., researching, looking through files, etc. This manual work is not monitored, and the time it would take to log this could be more of a waste of time.

[Anonymous]

That's the reason I mentioned the viewer type application. That time can end up
being substantial and if not monitored, unaccounted for. Monitoring of this and
all time should not impose a burden on any of the users - none whatsoever. Their
time is best spent doing their job not recording what job they are working on.
For this reason CadTempo is completely automated, not a single thing for the
user to do to interact with it, although if the CAD manager wanted to allow the
user to view their time there is an easy way to provide it.

--

Patrick Hughes

Engineered Design Solutions
CadTempo: Time Logging for CAD
visit http://www.Cadtempo.com
_____________________________

wrote in message news:6395410@discussion.autodesk.com...
As long as everyone remembers time working in the actual drawing is not all time
spent on the project. We are constantly looking up info., researching, looking
through files, etc. This manual work is not monitored, and the time it would
take to log this could be more of a waste of time.

[djohnson1976]

I acknowledge that your hypothetical schedule would not do justice under a tracking system.  However, the point is not to track a single day but to see a pattern over time.  If peers are completing similar workloads over the coarse of a year, having the same distractions, then there IS a more objective assessment of productivity.  (In other words, you take the sample across a long period of time, not a short one, and you get better data.)

The point of gathering the information is to have the conversation and find out why things are going so slow.  Some people think their fast is fast when their fast is actually quite slow.  With actual data, it becomes a more constructive conversation.

P.S. at 6:11 the hypothetical CAD expert found out there was a problem...was it his design error?  If so, the manager should know what happened and why...not just assume that the designer is slow.

[deb.messmer]

Terry - where did you find 'manual mode'....this is exactly what I'm looking for 🙂