AutoPREP - Any users, reviews?

[Jack_O'neill]

Most of the jobs I draw don't take 20 hours to do, much less that much clean up time.

I hate xrefs, so I rarely use them. When I do a revision, I archive the old one in an appropriately named folder and rename the original file so that I know it's an archive.

all of this is easy for me to say, since there's only one of me, but we didn't have all that much trouble with stuff like that even when I worked at the dinosaur, and there more than 100 of us then.

[Lee Roy]

"At my old job..." we didn't have these issues either.

I don't think I've really ever run into issues where this program would help me (from what they demonstrate it does).

[Lee Roy]

They want $1k per seat for it.

...per year.

Yeah, I argued down everyone. Looks like we might get a few seats for 1 year for free with purchase of AutoSPRINK upgrade, but I think the software is going to be a huge waste of time.

[Jack_O'neill]

Sounds like your management just wanted you to come up with a justification for a decision they'd already made. I hate it when they do that.

[OTRT]

I was looking for an informed review of AutoPREP and came across this thread, which appears to be a workplace grievance post and not an actual review. I’d like to offer a review since I’m now an actual user of the product. I had been looking for an AutoCAD add-on that would help me deal with thousands of AutoCAD files on our servers. I needed to quickly identify which files were host, xref, missing, corrupt, etc. and have it automatically fix hard paths and AEC object issues. This program will sort, re-path, and identify thousands of files in just minutes and give me a report when it’s done. It creates proxy files for the missing or corrupt ones which act as placeholders -I’m not prompted with anything when I open a drawing with xrefs. As for the comment about never using xrefs,most construction projects of notable size use xrefs like mad, so that person would obviously not benefit from this part of the tool. I also needed a way to see the differences between change order versions of drawings, preferably in a batch mode. Another feature (that I haven’t tried yet) is the batch cleanup tool, which sounds like would save many hours. To address one of the concerns in this post, AutoPREP makes a copy of each original file before doing anything to it, so nothing is lost. It amazed me how much this program was trashed in this thread by people who either haven’t tried it or obviously are not in the target market. As for cost, I’m happy to pay $995 per year to save thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of dollars in design labor. I’ve used it for 3 weeks and it’s already paid for itself! The biggest contractor in the US (Tutor Perini) is using this. That has to count for something. I will update my review after I check out the cleanup feature. I will also check out "cookie cutter" as suggested by another too-serious member of this site. Cheers

[Lee Roy]

WALL OF TEXT FOR 23950674 DAMAGE!!!!

I was looking for an informed review of AutoPREP and came across this thread, which appears to be a workplace grievance post and not an actual review

Grievance? I just re-read my thread and I didn't see anywhere that I'm complaining about my workplace. Merely that I was being pushed to evaluate software that didn't appear to be of any benefit to us, so I was asking if anyone had any real-world experience that could provide a review.

This thread was asking for reviews. Nowhere in the title am I claiming this to be a review.

What was said by others was said by them. Please don't confuse their opinions with the intent of the OP (Original Poster : Me).

Again, it was determined that our use of Project Navigator and meticulous file structure and naming standards, deemed this software to be of little value or use to us.

[OTRT]

WALL OF TEXT FOR 23950674 DAMAGE!!!! .


Grievance? I just re-read my thread and I didn't see anywhere that I'm complaining about my workplace....

.

Hey, as Nacho Libre would say, "Take it easy". Lighten up.

Mildly amusing obscure gaming reference. Receive 4 quintillion damage. Lose a turn.
I just re-reread it and I guess I took your comments the wrong way:

“I find nothing spectacular”
Your review of the website info?

“it looks to me like a waste of time”
Again - sort of a review / opinion

“ Ok, so it's not just me...They want $1k per seat for it.”
It saves me many hours in design time - that’s no joke.

“IMHO if a drawing requires that much "cleanup", someone needs to review their drafting practices.”
You should get out more often. Really.


“-Manage x-ref's without opening the drawings (We use Project Navigator, makes this fairly simple)”

I’ll have to check that out!

“-Clean up drawings (They're not dirty?)”

Ha.

“-Compare changes (Why are there multiple copies of the same drawing??? That's asking for trouble)”

Seriously? There are large projects out there that have thousands of “copies of the same drawing” otherwise known as 'revisions'. Maybe you were kidding here.

“I think the software is going to be a huge waste of time”
It sounds like it would be for you.
Most importantly:

“All your base are belong to us”
Prodigious use of emoticons - I win!
Semper Fi

[OTRT]

...per year.

Yeah, I argued down everyone. Looks like we might get a few seats for 1 year for free with purchase of AutoSPRINK upgrade, but I think the software is going to be a huge waste of time.

Arguing? At your workplace? :-o

[Lee Roy]

Hey, as Nacho Libre would say, "Take it easy". Lighten up.

This is "easy" and "lightened up".

“I find nothing spectacular”
Your review of the website info?
Nothing in their presentation of info stands out.

“it looks to me like a waste of time”
Again - sort of a review / opinion
Opinion. It cannot be a review as I clearly stated that I have not used the software.

“IMHO if a drawing requires that much "cleanup", someone needs to review their drafting practices.”
You should get out more often. Really.
That response doesn't make sense. If a drawing is drawn efficiently from the get-go, there should be little need for "cleanup" much past audit and overkill.

“-Manage x-ref's without opening the drawings (We use Project Navigator, makes this fairly simple)”
I’ll have to check that out!
There's things I hate about it, and things I like, but it does its job pretty well.

“-Clean up drawings (They're not dirty?)”
Ha.
Go up two responses...

“-Compare changes (Why are there multiple copies of the same drawing??? That's asking for trouble)”
Seriously? There are large projects out there that have thousands of “copies of the same drawing” otherwise known as 'revisions'. Maybe you were kidding here.
Ever thought to put the revisions on a layer? It saves disk space and makes searching the file system a lot easier.

“All your base are belong to us”
That meme's been dead for a couple years.

"Arguing? At your workplace? :-o"
*GASP* I know! Holding different opinions NEVER happens in the workplace!