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Times are tough, right?  Work is slowing down and there is less to do in the office.  Hear that?  It’s opportunity knocking.  There couldn’t be a better time to get some of that training done that your staff has been whining about.

Now sure, I realize I work for a company that offers training services…but if you think about it, you’ll arrive at the decision on your own: training is a good idea right now.  Here are some points to consider:

1. Is your firm on the verge of transitioning to Civil 3D but busy schedules have kept you from making that final push?  Why not get serious about it now and have the Civil 3D beast tamed before things turn around and get busy again?
2. Training makes a statement to your staff that you’re committed to your business and your employees.  Something you may need since missing end-of-year bonuses and some missing staff members have your folks raising their eyebrows a bit.  A $1000 bonus helps get your employees out of credit card debt from the holidays (no value to you).  A $600 training investment makes a more powerful statement and makes your employees more productive for years to come (a direct value to you).
3. Are there empty seats at your firm that weren’t empty before?  Soon things will turn around and suddenly you’ll be faced with the challenge of doing more with less.  Civil 3D training is going to prepare you for that day.
4. Before that day comes, doing more with less is going to be critical in a competitive environment.  With your staff running efficiently, you can undercut, ahem underbid all those other bidders and still make money.

I’m sure there are other points as well so if your firm is taking advantage of the current market situation by seizing the day and doing some training, feel free to share by posting a comment.

So instead of playing Freecell all day, go out and get yourself a CAD book (like Mastering Civil 3D or Introducing Civil 3D).  If you’re an owner or manager, instead of trying to catch your employees playing Freecell all day, go out and buy them some training (like CivilAccess).  It won’t help them pay their bills but it might help you pay a few.  And when things turn around (and they will), your staff will be lean and mean…ready to take on more work than ever before.

More fun from the Update 1 ReadMe file: How to migrate a Vault project to Data Shortcuts. Since I’m always reminding myself of the process, I’ve put it here. Read on after the jump.

You can migrate Vault-based project XML files to the data shortcut structure using the following process:

1. Download the latest versions of all drawings (log into Vault > set the current project > get the latest version).
2. Open the Data Shortcut Editor.
3. Browse to open the project.xml file located in the local project folder.
4. From within the Data Shortcut Editor, use search and replace. Search for $ and replace this with the local folder name (C:\Civil 3D Projects).
5. Use SaveAs to create a _Shortcuts structure in the local project folder.
6. Remove the old project from Vault.

The migration is completed and drawings that are downloaded from the server will be treated as non-Vault drawings.

Chuck Lamping notes that there’s an option for Delete Source during the SaveAs step, and that this should be turned ON to avoid having duplicate data sources. Good stuff!