At the CADWorx & Analysis University held September 19 – 21, there was a lot of knowledge shared by expert piping designers and engineers. The CAU-2011 forum was held at the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in The Woodlands, TX. There were 30 CADWorx Plant Professional classes, and approximately 40 classes on the CAESAR II® and PV Elite® design systems.
This annual event always creates a buzz of excitement. I was able to sit in on a few classes and really enjoyed hearing from the top designers from around the world about how they utilize the software in real situations. It’s a high level, informational power packed three days. At the end of the day, everyone mingles and gets to know each other. This is a great way to network and make friends with others in the piping design industry.
At Intergraph’s invitation, I presented a couple of sessions on eLearning systems for CADWorx, and I was able to show the design issues I considered in building my online system: http://www.PipingDesignOnline.com. In preparing my presentation, I realized just how important it is for our industry firms to invest in training. We benefit from improved productivity (better speed with less errors), we’re investing in the career development of our key people (which increases their company loyalty), and we’re sharing our knowledge with the next generation of young designers. Within five years our industry will see over half of the workers being born after 1981! What an amazing statistic!
The conference attendees met with the Intergraph® representatives in charge of the various product lines, and they shared with us their plans for their next releases. One thing I particularly liked was the new Specifications Editor for the next generation of CADWorx. When I saw it last year I was a little taken aback, but after attending a training session with Mark Bross, the President of Kahuna Design in Colorado, it completely changed my mind. Mark made it look easy, and I think the new editor will be a great tool and an improvement in how we organize our specifications data. Soon we’ll be building specs from drop down lists of choices, branch tables, and many other easy to use options. I’m looking forward to it.
There were many other great classes and teachers – too numerous to mention. There were enough options for every attendee to leave there with more knowledge about Intergraph software and piping design.
So it was a great three days – if you have a chance next year, don’t pass it up!
