Lessons Learned in Training New Users

bcostlow · January 10

I am being asked to spearhead a training initiative at my company, to help new users (namely, new Support Foremen, Foremen, or Project Managers) form a solid foundation in several of our most used programs/resources. Obviously, since I'm here for this discussion, Bluebeam is one of those programs. I wasn't sure if this belonged in the question forums but I am curious if anyone has any tips, advice, or stories to share about their experience in training new users (especially those with very limited experience with computers or design software in general).

So far, I've created a tracker to identify topics covered and who I trained on those topics. The training program hasn't started yet, so I still have time to fine tune before setting off on this adventure.

The idea of this training came up because our company uses a significant amount of prefabrication in our construction projects and the new field leaders don't really know how to engage the prefab process to make the most of our in-house resources. I mentioned that it may benefit the company to get these folks up to speed and so I was told to tackle the training myself.

One last note: I am not currently a BCI or BCP, but hope to start down that road in the future if this program gains enough traction for me to ask my employer to support me in that endeavor.

Jes Stafford · January 10

Props to your team on recognizing the value on this kind of training program @bcostlow !

I would encourage everyone to save a PDF drawing or set of drawings for their personal sandbox while they are learning. This way they will feel comfortable kicking the wheels without cluttering up an active project.

Also, if Sessions will be part of your workflow, start a similar sandbox Session where the same kind of learning and interaction can take place. That way, once your colleagues get into active projects, they can re-visit the sandbox(es) to test drive their tools before making official markups.

Other than that, I always stress to new users to jump in and just try things… There is not much that will "break" Bluebeam and they can CTRL-Z undo as many times as it takes to get something right.

Good luck!

bcostlow · January 10

Thanks, @Jes Stafford !

Those are some great tips. I was already thinking of having them create a sandbox. I want to start using Sessions more, but right now it's not really a part of our workflow so I was thinking I would revisit that in the future if we decide to move more in that direction.

My supervisor always tells people Esc is their best friend, and Ctrl+Z is their best friends' best friend. He clicks faster than he moves the mouse so he constantly selects the wrong tools and so Esc is his favorite button. I tend to think Ctrl+Z is my best friend, and Esc is my best friend's best friend.

At first, most of the training will be over Teams I suspect, so I won't have any better way to get them involved than with Sessions, but for now I think the personal sandbox approach sounds pretty good. Thanks again.

ElizabethOliver · January 14

We are doing a similar thing with training our field staff in how to use Bluebeam.

What has worked well for us is involving one of our Field Team with the most Bluebeam experience to help draft and review training materials. They are the "go to" person when peers have questions, as they understand the questions/challenges better than office staff.

Our next step is to create videos showing key tasks being performed to pair with the documents.

bcostlow · February 13

I like that, @ElizabethOliver. I tend to be a POC for Bluebeam issues, but having someone else in field to give their insights could be much more valuable than my own. I'll have to bring that up at a future training meeting. I'm going to try using one of those programs that track your actions on the screen to make videos and step-by-step instructions. But really, most of the stuff I'd show them is already available on Bluebeam University so I tend to push it a lot. Their production quality is higher than I can get with my limited time and resources, so it gives a nice professional look to the direction as well.

Doug McLean · February 13

the very first thing to do is change the profile to Advanced. The out of the box Basic profile it just that, basic. Changing to the Advanced profile will open up some eyes because it looks more like AutoCAD.
You're going to have to see what the field workflow is going to be before you can train to it.
I would try to emphasize things like Statuses and how they can be effectively used.
I would also make sure that everyone has their Status Bar and their Navigation Bar turned on. As well as Snap to Markup, Snap to Content buttons engaged. Next make some of the standard line weights smaller, you'll get a more accurate snap. Disable your line weights while you're at it.

Have fun

STR - Kristin · February 13

I was going to say the same thing as @Doug McLean. This will simplify your life a lot having everyone's workspace look the same and having all the right tools easily available to your field staff for future questions and direction, in addition to the initial training.

bcostlow · February 17

@Doug McLean - Does the line weight actually affect snap accuracy? I thought the snap was always to the center of the line, so the weight wouldn't matter. also, we do have a few profiles made up specifically for the roles we'll be teaching, so I was planning on just using the profile with the most tools already on display, but I will look at the Advanced profile and see if it would make sense for our guys. Thanks for pointing that out at the very least.

@STR - Kristin - I agree with that sentiment. As I said to Doug, I may very well switch to that profile. I just want to look it over and see if it has much more than our profiles. If it looks too different it might confuse these guys, so I'll have to see which profile looks the most useful for instruction and for their practical exercise. Thank you!

Doug McLean · February 17

@bcostlow you will get a more accurate snap with your line weights disabled
Its such a simple thing to do to. Will also make viewing easier on tablets

bcostlow · February 17

@Doug McLean - I certainly trust your experience and will probably use your suggestion simply because it seems like a best practice, but I'm just having a hard time understanding the 'why'. Line weight is about the visual representation of the line, correct? Are you saying that drawing the lines will have a higher level of accuracy because the cursor will be smaller? It may seem like I'm being purposefully difficult here, but I'm genuinely interested.

My understanding is that snapping aligns to exact points based on what snaps are active. I don't see how line weight would affect that in any way at all, other than if I'm using the lines to draw free-hand and want to get as close to the actual line without snapping as possible. Grid spacing can get down to 0.01 units if you want that level of accuracy, and if you turn off the grid, and draw lines with reference to anything that can be snapped to, it should be virtually exact in it's accuracy.

Am I misunderstanding something about this? If you look up what the Enhance Thin Lines and Disable Line weights does it doesn't seem to have any effect on accuracy of measurements or anything like that. They can just make lines look thicker than you'd like for identifying intersections or whatnot from a quick visual inspection.

Doug McLean · February 17

@bcostlow
it really boils down to the quality of the drawings. (Don't most things we do?)
I've had snaps be off as much as 1/4", depending on the scale and the line weight, etc.

The other thing that may happen is that you'll have more than one line hidden by a thicker line weight.
Do some experiments 🤔

Its also a 'Set it and Forget it" setting. Once its done, it'll apply to all PDF's.

bcostlow · February 17

Mmm… I definitely see how the hidden lines could be a problem. Ok. That alone is reason enough for me to stick to it. Thanks for the explanation, @Doug McLean I'll do some messing around with it sometime to see if I can create some of those issues for myself in case the question comes up in the lessons I give.

Lessons Learned in Training New Users

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