Tag Archives: Autodesk

Repro Products’ 41 Years in Business

June 6th is a very special day for Repro Products – it marks the day our President, Bob Feldberg made his first sale. In the beginning, Repro Products, Inc. (RPI) sold drafting supplies. Later, we became a blue printer and began to sell wide format print equipment.

Recognizing the need to change with our customers and technology, through the years we added products and services to align with advancements that affected our design and construction clients:

  • Our experience as a blue printer provided us with a unique perspective on engineering, architectural and construction industries and facilitated our move from selling drafting angles and tables into selling and supporting Autodesk Software. We have now been an Autodesk reseller for over 25 years and are a Gold Partner and Autodesk Authorized Training Center.
  • Although we still do a lot printing for our clients, our print shop’s production services grew to incorporate digital services including managing plan rooms, metadata entry and data mapping.

In the last decade there was another shift — a larger demand for half-size prints. Although printed on 11×17” paper, a half-size print requires more expertise from a printer than producing a regular office document. Ten years ago, we expanded our decades-long affiliation with Xerox and became the designated metro Atlanta Xerox Agency providing multifunction and production devices that support not only our architectural and construction customers’ drawings but also the office staff and marketing teams (and production printers) of a wide variety of businesses throughout metro Atlanta.

One division of our business works diligently with our clients helping them make better BIM (Building Information Modeling) models. The other part still prints 2D plans. As the two worlds become closer and closer in technology, we changed from meeting in architects’ and engineers’ offices to engaging with our construction clients on their job sites. The experience of being in the field with our clients, working with them on projects they are trying to win and witnessing the end results of jobs they designed and built, we realized there were still some important solutions we needed to provide.

One large hole to fill was accurate building documentation. Our clients need it to bid a project, plan it effectively, ensure it is being built correctly and to provide a more complete deliverable to their clients. Everyone knows that as-built drawings are a myth. And even with BIM-enabled construction sites, the need to ensure what is being built as it is being built is important.

We knew that 3D laser scanning was the answer to getting this vital documentation. We provide 3D laser scanning services across the U.S. for business ranging from architectural firms to general contractors to manufacturing plants.

Just possessing accurate data is not enough, though. We knew we had to own the proper data capture and use workflow. Receiving data that is approachable and usable is vital to our clients’ success. For our Autodesk software users, we train on how to actually use the data in the software. Our non-design clients receive an accurate 3D image file that lets them move around, see and measure virtually but with real, accurate data.

We invite you to join our journey as we venture into the next 41 years, evolving our offerings to meet the next technological advancements.

BIM 360 Design & Autodesk Desktop Connector with Revit

BIM 360 Design & ADC Introduction Video

Check out our latest tutorial video by our lead AEC Application Engineer at Repro Products, Dzan Ta.  In this tutorial he will discuss BIM 360 Design and the Autodesk Desktop Connector.  This is an introduction to working with a Revit model to upload to BIM 360 Design along with how to use the Autodesk desktop connector.

Additional Autodesk Training?

If you are interested in more Autodesk Training, please click here.

 

 

Why we still offer In-Person Open Enrollment Training for Autodesk Products

Having been a Value Added Reseller of Autodesk software for over 20 years, we have experienced the transition of training techniques.  For the type of software we support, newer methods rarely provide clients a level of learning comparable to traditional training.

We still offer open enrollment In-Person training because we understand and value our client’s actual business.

In 1997, all of our open enrollment training classes were always full.  AutoCAD was just integrating with Windows and some of our larger architectural clients were still implementing internal company email.

Through the years, the software has changed.  We have more architectural clients on Revit than AutoCAD.  Our civil engineers and surveyors use AutoCAD Civil 3D.  However, we have a large client base of contractors who still use AutoCAD.

When clients were hiring new employees, they would send them to training.  When clients were making the transition from 2D to 3D, they had full implementation services that included classroom and project-based training.

When intranet bandwidth grew and travel budgets tightened, we saw the evolution of online training.  The next progression was the explosion of pre-recorded online videos.

Business Owners and Managers tend to take the path of least resistance.  This is especially true when it comes to making sure employees are (and stay) trained properly in a software system that accounts for 6-8 hours of use a day.

Investing in training for employees goes beyond work productivity and efficiency.  According to an ASTD study, companies that invest in comprehensive training show:

  • increased income of 218%, per employee than those with less comprehensive training
  • higher profit margins by 24% than companies who spend less on training

Students learn better and retain more when training is in an uninterrupted, scheduled environment.

Clients’ ROI of new software and versions are the poorest when end users are left to their own schedules to watch videos.

Students who attend a live presentation via the web are directly dependent on their own ability to not multi-task during training.  Those in the architectural, engineering and design fields are typically caught up in projects.  When not physically removed from the computer or environment of normal work, the chances of poor understanding and retention exponentially increase.

In-Person training allows the trainer to walk the room during exercises to see if commands being taught are being executed properly.  It also makes it easier for students to ask questions by being truly interactive.

Some clients do not have enough students for a dedicated class of their own.  Or if they do, they cannot afford for all of them to be taking training at the same time.

We still offer open enrollment In-Person training because we understand and value our clients’ actual business.  Training classes for our core products are offered at our training center in Smyrna, GA every 6-8 weeks.

Click here to learn about our in-person software training classes for Autodesk Software.