AUGI Wishlist System - Go Rank Some Wishes!

The new AUGI Wishlist system is now online!

In the past, the wishlist system relied upon the validation and sorting of wishes by volunteers, which could sometimes lead to delays. The new system was created to allow wishes to move more quickly through the system. AUGI President Dave Harrington wrote an introduction to the system in October's HotNews.

The first thing you need to do is log into AUGI, then go to My Account.

Then click on Membership Details, and tick the box(es) next to the Autodesk products you use and support.

Next, click on the Wishlist Channel in the gray navigation bar.

There are 6 wishlists available (with more to be added later), but, you will only be shown the ones which correspond to the programs you selected in your profile.

Currently active product lists include:

• AutoCAD
• Revit
• Revit MEP
• Revit Structure
• Inventor
• Civil 3D

You will be randomly presented with one wish at a time to rank, which you do with a sliding bar.

Some older wishes still need to be processed, so there is a link to report that a suggested feature already exists in a product.

You'll be taken to another page where you can input details, if needed.

The buttons on the screen are pretty self-explanatory, if you want to discuss any of the wishes, you can do that.

It's easy to submit and edit wishes of your own, too.

So, the thing now... there is a backlog of wishes that still need to be ranked!

After the wishes are ranked, the 30 or so wishes with the highest overall ranking for each product will be put up for a vote (I believe, in the month prior to AU), where the TOP 10 will be decided!

Please log in today and help out by sharing your opinions of some of existing wishes, or add your own!!!

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I haven't heard of this command...

I don't think this dialog box exists in AutoCAD, but, based on some deliverables I've gotten, it wouldn't really surprise me...

(for anyone who is curious, this is a spoof of the Cleanup Tools available in MAP and Civil3D
Edit: here's another blog post describing the tools and how best to use them: BeingCivil)

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2011 AUGI Salary Survey - Additional Salary Resources

It's that time again... the AUGI Annual Salary Survey.

2011 marks the 10th anniversary of the survey!

If you would like to see how much drafters, designers, architects, engineers, project managers, bim managers, cad managers and more earn, check out pages 6-13 of the September 2011 issue of AUGIWorld Magazine.

Additionally, some of you might want to check out the Revit API column in this month's issue. Elizabeth Connor did some research and conducted interviews to put together some insightful commentary on how BIM has affected job prospects and pay in the architectural field in her article "Up Next: Your Architecture Career, 3.0."



Additional resources: 

As always, I encourage everyone to use multiple resources when determining their professional worth. What is a good hourly wage? What is a respectable salary? How does the pay vary between industries, locations, job levels, company sizes and other factors? No one single source is going to give you all of the answers you're looking for, and a single source might not convince your superiors during review time, so, go in well armed with plenty of information.

Just for CAD/BIM types:
AUGI Salary Survey - trade organization polls it's members annually on their current pay and other factors

CAD Manager's Survey - annual survey of CAD Managers conducted by Robert Green and published by CADalyst magazine

General Salary Information:
Indeed - job posting search engine estimates salaries based upon current job advertisements

NACE Salary Calculator - Uses filtering technologies, based on information from the US government sources such as the DOL, BLS, Census, etc.

PayScale Cost of Living Calculator - that one is pretty self-explanatory

Salary.com - I don't tend to like the job titles offered for comparison to my search terms, but, it is a well-known site

CareerBliss - user-submitted salary results by company and job title

Wolfram Alpha - a computational engine that has an answer for just about anything

Seek - "the Great Australian Paycheck Report"

Industry-specific:
EETimes Global Salary and Opinion Survey - annual poll of electronics design engineers, design managers, technologists and business leaders

Architect Annual Salary Survey - magazine of the AIA

Facility Management Salary Database - FacilitiesNet salary filtering for CAFM-related professions

Do you have some industry-specific sources of salary information? Please share them...

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AGC's St. Louis BIM Expo

The AGC hosted a BIM Expo at SIUE last week (I found out about it through the STCCC.).

Pretty good time, I thought. There was an exhibit hall with over a dozen software and hardware vendors. Some folks I had used, some folks I hadn't heard of. (I appreciate all of the vendors, since this was a great seminar, which was offered for free to the approximately 140 attendees, and the food was decent as well.)


I only attended 3 of the 4 sessions I'd intended to, because I'd gotten caught up talking with a lot of interesting people in the exhibit hall.


I saw Tad Fry give a talk 'From the Owner's Perspective' on his experiences with BIM overall, but, as applied at A-B-InBev (this guy was just a really engaging speaker, too, expertise notwithstanding, fantastic.).


I missed Jim Scott (GHG), Donovan Olliff (HOK) and John Limbaugh (Jacobs) discuss legal perspectives surrounding BIM.


Then there were two panel discussions in the afternoon that were quite good, covering many viewpoints:


BIM in the Real World:
Tad Fry - Owner
Mike Hartmann - Engineer
Kevin Cook - Subcontractor
Brok Howard - Architect
Scott Green - Contractor
Chris Gordon - Educator


Future Trends of BIM:
Jason Steele - Autodesk
Andy Dickey - Tekla
Rob Riley - Bentley
John Rodolico - Graphisoft


I did tweet from the event using the hashtag #BIMExpo , but, of course, my ancient phone's battery couldn't make it through to the end of the day.

We were out in the middle of nowhere, so there weren't too many people hanging around chatting afterward.

I've heard they're planning on holding another event next year, and I asked that it be in a more convenient location to allow for an early evening mixer, giving more of a chance for folks to network. I really would have loved to hear more about what people are doing these days with their technology.

(There was also a lot of talk by various attendees about the draw of the RTC - http://www.revitconference.com.au/ )


It was really great to see a lot of folks I hadn't worked with in awhile, and to reconnect with a few folks from GAUG.

If anyone else attended, feel free to share your thoughts, please (here or in the GAUG forum)! I'd love to hear about the session I missed

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Sneak Peak Events for AutoCAD

For those who want to keep up with what's going on, and provide some feedback for the usability (User Experience) folks, see the below announcement from Autodesk:

Get a Sneak Peek at Upcoming AutoCAD Features!

The AutoCAD User Experience Team is hosting its annual AutoCAD Sneak Peek events in late September. These are free half-day events held in a few different locations, and they’re a great way to get hands-on experience with in-progress features and give your suggestions and feedback directly to the team designing those features. This year the team is running two events that focus on different functionality. To sign up, click one of the survey links below.

Web & Mobile Sneak Peek

This sneak peek highlights features for people who work on AutoCAD from multiple computers or different locations -- such as using different workstations, or switching between the office, home, or working out in the field.  CAD Managers and day-to-day AutoCAD users of all levels are welcome to attend.

Locations & Dates: San Francisco (Sept 22), San Jose, CA (Sept 28), and Denver (Oct 4-5)

Sign Up for the Web & Mobile Sneak Peek Here

Model Documentation Sneak Peek

This sneak peek is geared toward people in the Mechanical/Manufacturing industry who use AutoCAD, AutoCAD Mechanical, or/and  Inventor , and who create and annotate model views (such as section, detail, and projected  views) of 3D models (mechanical parts, components).

Locations: San Francisco (Sept 23), Portland/Lake Oswego (Sept 29-30), and Fullerton, CA (Sept 29-30)

Sign Up for the Model Documentation Sneak Peek Here

If you have questions or want to learn more about the events before signing up, contact Shari Nemerovski, shari.nemerovski@autodesk.com.

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We can do better, folks - Salary Survey closes August 19th

http://www.augi.com/surveys/take-the-current-survey/salary-survey-2011/

http://www.augi.com/surveys/salary-survey-results/salary-survey-questions-and-faqs/

As it stands right now, here are the Salary Survey response numbers for the past 10 years.

I realize some participation has probably dropped off due to layoffs, but, with so many AUGI members out there (and people who haven't yet joined), we can surely drum up some more responses before the survey closes tomorrow night.
This has always been a community effort folks, and the 10's of thousands of people who will download these survey results should be participating. As always, results are collected without being connected to usernames, and I am the only person who ever touches the raw data, data will be published in broad groups only.

Here is a snapshot of replies so far, is your industry underrepresented?

Mine is... when I realized how badly, I hit the Facilities Management discussion forums and shot off a few emails, encouraging my peers to take part.

The 10th Annual AUGI Salary Survey closes tomorrow. Please take the survey by tomorrow night (August 19th, 2011) and encourage your peers to do the same.

Thank you for contributing to the community! The results will be printed in AUGIworld Magazine next month.

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10th Annual AUGI Salary Survey

It's already that time again (and I, for one, cannot believe it). The AUGI Annual Salary Survey... and not just any annual... but, our 10th run!

Drafters, Designers, Architects, Engineers, Trainers, Surveyors, etc from all industries can volunteer a little bit of information to give the AUGI community meaningful data for an idea of salaries (pay/wages/rates), benefits, job satisfaction and more.

As reported at the top of the survey form, the results of this survey will be published in the September issue of AUGIWorld Magazine.
If you'd like to know more, please read the AUGI Salary Survey Frequently Asked Questions page.


Click here to take the 2011 survey (sorry, you do need to be logged in, so that we can make sure folks aren't skewing the results by answering multiple times).

Here is a snapshot from the 2010 AUGI Annual Salary Survey , which shows the type of users who participated. Don't think your industry is very well-represented? Please share the link with some colleagues and ask them to take part.

A couple of fast stats from the 2010 survey:

• The number of BIM Managers doubled from 2009 to 2010
• Sadly enough, the number of members receiving a reduction in pay quintupled
• The highest paying industry was Petroleum/Gas/Biofuels
• 74% of respondents felt their job was Secure
• Women make up 16.5% of respondents

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