Peer-to-Peer Learning Resources
We live in an amazing time—a wealth of knowledge lies at our fingertips. Sometimes that can feel like attempting to take a sip of water from a blasting fire hose. Likewise, we run the risk of missing great resources because we just do not have the time to seek out everything available. Lucky for us, the AUGI website contains a vast store of information and industry experience. When many people could be intimidated by trying something new, or lack the inclination for industry research, you can be the one who investigates and shares something progressive with your coworkers. If you think of the Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) you have known over the years, you can rest assured that they are always seeking enlightenment and growth from excellent resources such as their peers at AUGI.
AUGI Forums
AUGI’s mission is to help users help one another, so it is no wonder that the peer-to-peer forums are the most active part of the AUGI site. Here people ask questions, share resources, and debate best practices.
From the AUGI Home page, you an easily search on any topic.
Near the top of the English-speaking forums, you can see a subsection called Conferences. This holds course handouts from both Autodesk University (AU) and the Revit Technology Conference (RTC). Just about every industry and software product is covered by the in-depth tutorials here, as well as those for overall skills such as CAD/BIM Management and Programming/Customization. Did you miss mastering a new feature from a release awhile back? This is a great place to check for comprehensive coverage and suggested applications.
Further, forum subsections are broken down by specialty and software package. You can subscribe to different forums and receive an email whenever someone posts a question or updates a thread for an area of interest. For example, I have a subscription to Facilities Management – In Practice. It does not see a lot of traffic, being such a niche field, but with my email subscription, I know that I will receive notice of any activity from my fellow users on the post-occupancy side.
One of the busiest places is the AutoLISP forum, where folks help one another solve problems with programming. Those who want to learn to program with the Revit API can head over to the AEC>Revit area. The Revit forums might get the most traffic, but they are spread out by industry flavor and some major features, such as families and worksharing, to help you narrow down what you need.
AUGI does not allow any sales or spam in the forums, so the signal-to-noise ratio is not a concern for those who need to find answers and don’t want to sort through a lot of fluff.
Searching the Forums for Answers
When searching the forums, the first thing you should be aware of is the character limit. The minimum is 3 characters, and the maximum is 84. What if you are searching for a really short word? If you bracket the term in asterisks, it will work—*FM* for example. You can find more tips on the operators available in this thread: http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?74505-AUGI-Forums-Search-facility-now-uses-MySQL-Full-Text-Search
There is a search box at the top of the forums, where you can input a search term at any time. To conduct an Advanced Search across the forums, click on the magnifying glass without typing anything.
This allows you to restrict your search to certain users or time ranges, as well as to dictate whether you’re searching through the contents of an entire thread, or just its title. You can also search within each individual forum, to help narrow down your options.
If you’re more comfortable with a Google Search, why not do a site-specific search with https://www.google.com/advanced_search ?
Or you could type in your search term, then enter the restrictor “site:forums.augi.com”.
Bear in mind that the Google search results will not return results from “off-topic” or other non-public forums, because only logged-in members can see those areas.
The only thing we ask of forum users is that they please come back and post the answer or resolution to any questions they have asked, so that the many other people who are searching for answers know whether or not the offered solution(s) worked.
And if you see someone who has taken the time to come back and share with everyone, feel free to use the forum reputation or useful thread/post tools to recognize that. The more green squares you see above someone’s avatar, the more they have been thanked by their fellow users.
Have you searched the forums throroughly and not yet come up with a solution to your problem? It is time to post your own question. You want to ensure you get helpful answers, right? See this AUGI Library article for some sound advice on how to write an effective question in the forums, which will get you the best answer with the least amount of effort: https://www.augi.com/library/string-theory-nov-2013-how-to-make-a-good-forum-post
AUGI Library
I just provided a link to a resource in the AUGI Library, so you might be curious about what else is available there. This is a repository for many AUGI resources such as AUGIWORLD and HotNews articles, resources, and results from polls and surveys. Your fellow AUGI members share such wonderful information on topics from beginning to advanced.
If you are logged in, you can perform a search to locate articles, either by the author’s name or by utilizing various keywords. Let’s say I really enjoyed a recent article in the Revit MEP column, but cannot recall the author’s name. I can use the Article Categories shortcuts on the left-hand column of the page to narrow down results to find the one I want. All results are automatically sorted with the newest articles on top.
For program-specific entries, you may also narrow down results by clicking on the release number about which content was written. There are also category tags for the Management column, as well as letters from the president and surveys, which are more general in nature.
Other Resources
Although the content your fellow users have generated on the forums and in the library is certainly enough to keep you occupied, there are other sources of information you might not have seen.
Local Users Group Channel
A recent AUGI member poll showed that 76 percent of us have learned or improved important skills on the job. That is a necessity in complex industries like ours, but it can also cause people to fall into a trap of perpetuating bad habits that they learn from their coworkers’ previously established conventions, whether they would be considered a best practice or not.
One cost-effective way to keep your mind open and your skills fresh and applicable outside of your current company is to have regular discussions with your local peers. To see if your area is currently home to a UG or to learn how to start one yourself, go to the User Groups channel. https://www.augi.com/user-groups/local
Search the Local User Group (LUG) List to see what groups are operating nearby, or download the Handbook for a comprehensive guide on how to get a group up and running.
Careers Page
What will you do with all of your improved skills? If you decide that you are in the market for a new job, be sure to check out all of the openings posted on http://www.augi.com/careers/ . You can search for openings by country and state and keyword, and upload your resume for potential employers.
Resources
If you are in urgent need of someone with very specific skills, you can also check the Resources channel: https://www.augi.com/resources/ Your fellow members who have valuable services to offer have registered their industries, software specialties, and other data for those who would like to hire them.
Designers, trainers, consultants, and software developers can be found on the Resources channel. Do you have services to offer, too? Add yourself to the resource listing using the links in the left-hand column.
In Conclusion
We hope you make the most of the available resources on our community’s site, and perhaps become inspired to make your own contributions to the store of knowledge here.
Those of you who were at Autodesk University in 2015 also know that we are in the midst of a revamp of our website, so you know you have even more to look forward to in 2016!
