Become a AutoCAD checker?

Hi Guys,

any advice for a aspiring checker, want to specialize in 3d P&ID.

any comments welcome! from setting up a home office to billing advice or even how to lure prospective clients.

thank you in advance.

W.

Are people doing P&ID's in 3D now?

Do you have a strong background in preparing P&ID's because they usually reserve those jobs for people that have a lot of experience in process piping and controls, etc. in a particular industry or industries.

In general - if you have to ask, you are probably not ready yet.

Get experience working for a company and you will know when you are ready to become an independent consultant.

I dont' know much about piping, except that they never seem to get it high enough over the catwalk to keep me from bumping my head.

Home office, I can offer my own experiences and you can see if it holds any value for your situation. When considering the layout of your office, think about every office you've ever worked in before. Make a list of what you liked and what you hated, what worked and what didn't. This is your office...now it the time to have it your way. Try an arrangement, if you don't like it move it around. Don't think you are stuck with something...again, it's your office. Change it. Choices of furniture should also be based on what you want and can afford. A $10 wooden bar stool, a couple of 3 drawer file cabinets and an old door can make a desk, but you'll hate it. Get the best chair you can afford, you're gonna be in it a lot. Look around at auctions, going out of business sales, closeouts...you'll get more bang for your buck. I am sitting in a 20 year old Honn that I bought new. Way back then it was a $600 chair, but I bought it for $125 at a clearance sale. It was a butt-ugly color which is why they had it on clearance. Salesman said he'd had it on the sales floor for 2 years and just wanted it out of inventory. It is ugly but its just now getting to a point where I'm thinking about replacing it. It has one arm that the padding is coming off of, and one of the wheels doesn't want to roll. The upholstery is a bit faded and is beginning to get a little threadbare, but as I said, it's over 20 years old and has had heavy use from me, my wife and two teen daughters over the years.

You can make your office a monument to flea market bargains if that's what you want, or you can take out a second mortgage to furnish it, but the main thing is to get the stuff you want to work with. If you are going to be seeing clients in your office or via webcam, you may want to raise the visual appeal a bit. If you have to struggle with doors and drawers that won't open (or stay closed), computers that will only work if you leave the case open and printers that have to be tilted 45° to keep the paper from jamming, you are going to hate going in there every morning. I started out buying those big packages of ball point pens and pencils from the dollar store. 25 pens for a buck...gotta be a bargain, right? 50 pencils for a dollar...should keep me stocked for a year. Wrong. I found myself going through 3 or 4 of the pens a day. They'd break, or refuse to write, or gob ink all over the page, or gob ink all over me. The leads in the pencils were so far off center it was nearly impossible to sharpen one satisfactorily. Between that and the leads being so brittle that if you broke the lead it would shatter for half the length of the pencil, they weren't such a good bargain. Spent about $20 on a package of good quality pentel pens about a year ago...still using that package. Same for pencils...got some good mechanical pencils and a box of leads. Havent' bought any since.

More than anything else, make your home office a place where you go to work. When you worked for someone else, you were there for 8 or 10 hours, then you got up and went home. Do that with your home office. Make yourself stick to a workday as much as possible. At the end of that day, leave the room, shut the door and go live life. Do what you have to do to make your business work, but don't lose your family and friends in the process.

I tend to make fun of some of the so called "ergonomics experts" that I've seen over the years. These guys with the perfect formula for how high the chair should be, where your monitor should be and so forth, but there is much to consider in this area. The first time you are at your chiropractor getting your head and neck fixed, you'll see the value in spending that extra $10 or $20 for the cordless headset for your phone instead of trying to hold it wedged between your shoulder and cheek. Even if you have a landline phone and one of those odd shaped cushions that glues on the handset, you still have to cock your head over in an unnatural angle to use it. Day after day of that will begin to wear on you.

I did some work from home (very little) and make sure you do exactly as Jack suggested, don't be cheap and skimp out on the things you may not think you need (a headset of a proper chair). The other thing I would suggest investing in is an independent line for your phone as well as a lock on your door if people are at your home during the day (kids are at home or w/e) invest in a lock on the door. I was at home with my parents when I was doing this and there is nothing worse than people barging in to ask you questions which are not business related.

Don't be stingy when it comes to technology either, get a computer with lost of space and computing power if you are expecting to be doing a lot of CAD work or even navigating other people CAD work, keep these as up-to-date as your budget allows.

I tend to make fun of some of the so called "ergonomics experts" that I've seen over the years. These guys with the perfect formula for how high the chair should be' date=' where your monitor should be and so forth, but there is much to consider in this area.[/quote']I've been doing that too, but after a few years of work I have actually adjusted screen height, chair height and even started using a pen tablet to lighten the load on my mouse hand. I hate admitting other people are right.

 

As with everything, keep it simple. Sizes and positions are always personal, but there are a few general rules which usually help prevent problems:

- When you sit straight in your chair with your feet flat on the ground, your upper legs should be horizontal.

- In the position described above, your elbow should just touch either the armrest of the chair if you use that as support or your desk if you use that as support. The lower arm should also always be horizontal.

- Once you have your lower arms properly supported, make sure your elbows are near your chest (upper arms vertical) and then put your mouse and keyboard at the location of your hands.

- Make sure the monitor is at 'eye height', with the center exactly horizontal to your eyes. If you want to save some desk space, you've got a good concrete wall and you're sure where you want the screens, you could mount your monitor(s) to the wall.

I've been doing that too, but after a few years of work I have actually adjusted screen height, chair height and even started using a pen tablet to lighten the load on my mouse hand. I hate admitting other people are right.

 

As with everything, keep it simple. Sizes and positions are always personal, but there are a few general rules which usually help prevent problems:

- When you sit straight in your chair with your feet flat on the ground, your upper legs should be horizontal.

- In the position described above, your elbow should just touch either the armrest of the chair if you use that as support or your desk if you use that as support. The lower arm should also always be horizontal.

- Once you have your lower arms properly supported, make sure your elbows are near your chest (upper arms vertical) and then put your mouse and keyboard at the location of your hands.

- Make sure the monitor is at 'eye height', with the center exactly horizontal to your eyes. If you want to save some desk space, you've got a good concrete wall and you're sure where you want the screens, you could mount your monitor(s) to the wall.

All good advice but I would add a couple things. First of all, when you get your chair height adjusted so your arms are in the right position to match your keyboard drawer or desk height, you may find that you need a foot rest. Horizontal thighs are good, but knees just slightly elevated are better. Will keep the edge of the chair from restricting circulation. Monitor height and distance will be affected by the user's vision and whether or not bifocals or reading glasses are involved. The ergonomics guys at a former employer of mine came round one day insisting on moving everyone's monitor to the calculated optimal position, which would have taken it out of the focal range of my reading glasses. I balked, they fussed, called the manager over. He leaned over and said "let them move it, wait for them to leave and put it back!" Waste of time and effort, but ok, I could do that.