Next, transfer every drawing entity including text, linework and graphics to layer zero (0). You can keep old layers but it may cause you grief in future if you have to convert a Solidworks drawing back to Autocad. Keeping everything on one layer will make conversions as simple as possible. Make sure you purge Autocad drawing after converting everything to one layer.

Converting everything to one layer may require that you explode certain blocks in your drawing so that you can reset their entities to layer zero. You may then want to reconstruct those blocks or leave them exploded. Solidworks can read your text attributes and blocks if you choose to reconstruct them. If you have any polylines in your drawing border, explode them also. Leave linework simple and adjust line thickness later within Solidworks.

You should now be able to open Autocad drawing in Solidworks and Solidworks conversion wizard will guide you through drawing border creation process. Once your border is visible on screen in Solidworks you can edit copy whole thing, right click edit sheet format and edit paste whole border into Solidworks version of paper space. Then file save as new sheet format and you are ready to go!

You might as well address issue of Backups while you are about it. •Who is responsible person for backing up your databases/s? Who covers for them when they are absent or unavailable? •How frequently are backups to be done? Diarise! •How are backups done e.g. by Grandfather, Father, Son method. •Ensure backups are made on good quality CD’s or whatever format you are using. It’s no good doing a backup, then finding on attempting a Restore that it doesn’t work! It is also a good idea to copy backups onto more than one data format. •Where are backups to be stored? •Are backups secure? This is important for both security and practical reasons.

Once your Data Capture Procedure Document is finished, get everyone to sign it off as READ!

As standard practice, ensure that document is handed to all new employees at your company.

Refer back to this document for possible revision every three months or so.

Try this: select a couple of records - both good and bad - every week, to put on overhead at staff meetings. Make sure you don’t unduly embarrass anybody but watch this become light-relief highlight of your meetings! People learn best when having fun!

What if your database is in one unholy mess? Has rot set in so deeply that your database needs a complete overhaul? Turn this seemingly insurmountable task into an opportunity to you. This is an excellent excuse to re-establish contact with your clients and let them know you care. You can always put lapses down to data crashes but tell them you have fixed problem!

Importantly, help your staff understand what you need from data to facilitate more accurate marketing and reporting and hence success of your business and their careers.

By creating a sense of pride and ownership in company database, you are nurturing essential process of buy-in, necessary for success of your CRM initiative. Don’t compromise this critical tool by allowing your CRM software to be infected by inferior data.