Forum usage

[sam74]

This forum doesn't seem to get much usage from its 200 members. Has everyone got this software figured out or is it secret knowledge. I had bits and pieces of the sw for a little over a year now but not enough opportunities to use it other than the water/sewer package which seems to have a few gliches. The site package seems intriguing but I have not used it a great deal. We had a guy with about 5+ years experience with this sw on a government job. He was from a neighboring office and had a lot of the site package figured out. He took the secrets with him when he left a few months ago. The drainage package doesn't seem to hold a candle to say StormCad. Any thoughts. So what's the deal with the lack of prior respones? Job security?

All responses are welcome

 

[weaselpower]

Sorry to hear that the person with all the knowledge left your firm without passing it on. There is no real trick to learning the software you just have to be commited to using it day to day. I am sure the person that left your firm worked very hard to gain his knowledge. In my opinion the drainge package is more then adequate for storm drain design. It is my understanding that Bentley bought Hastead, so I could see that influencing the qualitity of Geopak storm module.

Good Luck

 

[sam74]

Of course I am not saying that the individual involved didn't work hard to gain his knowledge. It is just having the ability to use the software on a day to day basis that I would like to see. Management seems to think everything is done at the push of a button one minute and when you hit the learning curve they seem to think it can be done quicker by hand. Its hard to get any solid experience with that mindset. I also heard about the Bentley/Haested merger. I hope this leads to some sort of pond modeling in the Geopak drainage module. That combined with the profiling ability and interlinks with the water/sewer could make a nice piece of software. I think it would be nice if the drainage set up was more similar to the sewer side of the water/sewer package. Any thoughts out there in this widely used forum? How about some chatter or input from some of the 200 members of this forum?

 

[namdac]

I feel for all my brothers out there that have to answer to management at any given time. I too have to always explain to the higher ups that there are no magical spells that make the software work. We the proud the few the keepers of the sacred orb have to deal with each and every aspect of the program. They break, we fix.

As with all programs default settings are very limited and it is up to certain individuals to expand on these parameters and establish some type of protocals and procedures to make everything run smooth.

Question: Did your person create procedure methods and outline them?

I hope all goes well in your endevour.
Good Luck,
Namdac

If not then you will need to work with it and try to create your own procedures.

 

[sam74]

As far as I know there were no written outlines produced. If there were that is the sort of thing that disappears around here quickly. Although things have begun to change here. I have to give my company credit. They actually had our former guru do some training sessions at different office locations to help some people from each office get their foot in the door. I believe our former guru did recieve some cookie cutter training when he first began using the site package. I think he said it was from some support company that didn't know what a civil engineer did. We also recieved a copy of a basic traing manual that he recieved from them. It has a summary of all the tools and some example design problems. I just don't get a chance to use it often enough.

 

[Granny36]

sam,
I think you'll find many more responses at Bentley's Discussion Forums.

 

[sam74]

Hey Granny36, I've not had much luck Googling the site your referring to. Do you think you could post a web link?