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RE: What shall I do when faced with this situation
Subject:RE: What shall I do when faced with this situation From:"Al Geist" <al -at- geistarts -dot- com> To:"'Simon'" <wingman1985 -at- yahoo -dot- com -dot- cn>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Mon, 8 Jul 2013 09:30:43 -0400
Talk with the design engineers and see if they can send you copies of their
Solidworks or AutoCad drawings. Solidworks has an eViewer that will display
the 3-D images from both programs and allow you to rotate and hide
components. This is really helpful, especially when combined with SnagIt to
capture images for the manual's illustrations.
Get friendly with the prototype technicians as they have gobs of useful
information on how the thing really works and how you really install it. I
ran a publications department for a company developing robot controlled
wafer processing systems and spent many hours working with the
technicians/engineers putting the modules and systems together, then testing
them with customer product. The information I gleaned was of tremendous use
developing the Operation and Service Manuals. I also worked closely with the
field service reps to help develop the Site Preparation and Installation
Guides, and with the programming group for the programming manuals.
If you have a training department, get to know the training for the product
and work closely with him/her to ensure what you say in your documents
coincide with their training.
Make sure you get a review process for your material. I ensured that each
manual had to be reviewed by the lead engineer (or his/her designee) before
it could be released. It seems that when they have to sign their name to
something, they do a better job of ensuring it is accurate. (This does not
mean you can be sloppy with your material. They're QA and not your editor.)
Hope this helps.
Al Geist-Geist Arts, LLC
Fine Art Photography
Mobile: 231-301-5770
E-mail: al -at- geistarts -dot- com
Website: www.geistarts.com
Blog: www.gooterschmeltz.com
Facebook: Geist Arts
See Also:
Technical Communication, Help, Documentation Management
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used to
create them." (Albert Einstein)
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+al=geistarts -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+al=geistarts -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of
Simon
Sent: Monday, July 08, 2013 12:49 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: What shall I do when faced with this situation
I have been asked to attend developers meeting(non-software industry) and to
help with their documentation effort(They are also responsible for producing
manual which is much of an annoyance to them). I collect as much information
as I can(their meeting memo and everything I can get such as drawings and so
on) .
For those who work in the manufacturing side of technical doc world, can you
offer some advice on how I can collect necessary input and "help" (verbatim
from the engineering director)with the doc.
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