We Have a Radio Show Now!

by Lucky Balaraman, Executive Director, The Magnum Group

We are proud and excited to announce that we have started having a regular, CAD services related radio show. On it we plan to interview CAD-related people: engineers, architects, CAD software manufacturers and sellers, to name a few.

The show is hosted by BlogTalkRadio.com. The first episode about our HVAC CAD services clearly describes the inputs we get and the outputs we deliver for our marine HVAC projects. This is information hitherto not available in the public domain: catch it and stay ahead of the crowd!

Have a nice day,

© 2006 - 2008 The Magnum Group. Reproduction of our content in any form without prior, specific written permission is prohibited.

Learn more about our Engineering drafting and architectural drafting services

CAD Services: You Have Your Hopefuls List, Now What?

This is the second in a series of posts detailing how to zero in on a good CAD services provider to whom you can outsource your engineering or architectural drawings with confidence.

In our last post, we listed several forums that can offer up service provider names worth checking out. Now comes the task of evaluating the names and choosing the top three. Here’s the first step.

Message Them

Send each provider an email asking for information. Specifically, ask them:

• If they use your favored CAD platform (AutoCAD, Pro-E, SolidWorks, whatever)
• If they have experience in your branch of engineering/architecture
• If they are interested in your type of work. Be specific, e.g., “We are air-conditioning installers and would like our sketches of duct layouts converted to CAD and superimposed on an architectural plan that we will provide” or “We have sketches of architectural plans and elevations that we need drawn in CAD with coordination between plans and elevations”

Wait for a response to this message. If and when it arrives, there is an incredible amount of information about the service provider that you can derive from it. The next post on the subject will tell you exactly how to mine that information. Be sure to grab it!

It’s a pleasure writing for you —

© 2006 - 2008 The Magnum Group. Reproduction of our content in any form without prior, specific written permission is prohibited.

Learn more about our Engineering drafting and architectural drafting services

CAD Services: Finding the Good Ones

Let’s face it, there are thousands of CAD service providers. How do you find one that’s really good?

We now have proven ways
to garner opinions using incomparable technology. I’m talking about the
Internet. To answer the earlier question, all one has to do is go to
good forums related to architecture and either:

• See if anyone has asked the question already and gotten an answer (in which case your work is done) or, if not
• Register for the forum (most are free), ask the question yourself and wait for an answer.

To save you trouble, just before writing this post we searched the Internet for good engineering and architectural forums. Here’s a ready-made list for you:

Engineering forums:

www.eng-tips.com
www.engineeringforum.org
www.engineersedge.com

Architectural forums:

http://architecture.about.com/mpboards.htm
http://arch.designcommunity.com/
http://www.topix.com/forum/business/architecture
http://construction.com/community/forums.aspx
http://www.contractortalk.com/index.php?s=96b878c7ce987d772ed7d7dd75728bba
http://www.archsociety.com/

To search even further
for a good CAD services provider, you might try Yahoo answers. Just ask
your question; answers usually appear in less than an hour.

Once you have some names,
go through due diligence in evaluating the firms. Check communication
capabilities, speed, accuracy, timeliness, prices, CAD platforms used
and track record.

More on each of these in subsequent posts!

© 2006 - 2008 The Magnum Group. Reproduction of our content in any form without prior, specific written permission is prohibited.

Learn more about our Engineering drafting and architectural drafting services