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    • Month: May 2020

    What’s new in turning? A lot!

    Posted on by SolidCAD

    I mentioned in my last entry that Turning saw some important (and overdue) improvements of late. Indeed, you may have noticed that the Turning/Profiling function has been broken into a dedicated roughing strategy and a dedicated finishing strategy, for much more control and to allow for output of canned cycles. This happened around the middle of last year for Fusion, and a bit later for Inventor CAM.

    What you may not have noticed, however, is a myriad of small but very-welcome improvements everywhere else too. It’s a long list, and I refer you to Marti Deans’ excellent coverage here: https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/turning-updates-fusion-360/

    Also, as I said in my last post, this is apparently just the tip of the iceberg. Turning experts have joined the Fusion development team and are hard at work implementing more functionality and innovative technologies (like Adaptive Turning). I hope to see a lot of the power of PartMaker ported to Fusion CAM!

    Installed fonts don’t appear in Bluebeam Revu | Revu for Windows

    Posted on by Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    This article was originally published by Bluebeam, Inc. in the Knowledge Base.

    Problem

    A font that’s installed on your computer doesn’t appear in Revu.

    Causes

    The font type isn’t compatible with Revu

    Revu supports TrueType (.ttf) and OpenType (.otf) fonts; any other font type isn’t compatible.

    The font file isn’t saved to the correct location

    Revu uses fonts that are saved to the following folder: %SystemRoot%\fonts. If a font doesn’t appear in Revu, it may not be saved to the correct location.

    Solution

    Save the font file to the correct location

    Try this solution after confirming the font type is TrueType or OpenType. You may need administrator privileges on your computer to complete these steps.

    1. Close Revu.
    2. Open the font file location in File Explorer.
    3. Right-click the file and select Install for all users.
      This saves the font file to the the correct folder.
    4. Open Revu.

    The font should now appear in the Font Toolbar.

    Tons of new goodies for Fusion 360 CAM

    Posted on by SolidCAD

    Since I last wrote here, there have been big, big changes to Fusion CAM (excuse me: “Fusion Manufacturing”). These changes range from completely new (and it needs to be said, very useful) machining strategies, to significant progress in the implementation of probing technology, to new love for turning, and to subtle but much-appreciated improvements to the user-interface.

    The biggest changes are contained within the Manufacturing Extension, a new subscription add-on for Fusion CAM. The idea is that while Fusion CAM (and Inventor CAM and HSMWorks, for that matter) is a modern and very competent CNC programming solution that can make short work of most jobs at a VERY attractive price, there are some customers that require still more power and that are willing to pay a little extra for it. Mold makers are a good example. In the past, the limited multi-axis toolpaths of Fusion CAM did not quite meet their needs. With the new Steep-and-Shallow strategy as well as toolpath trimming / direct editing (both technologies gifted from PowerMill), that has all changed. The Manufacturing Extension also opens the door to surface inspection and on-machine verification, a very hot button for anyone trying to increase efficiencies and get an advantage. Throw in automatic hole recognition technology (thanks, FeatureCAM) and a new Rotary multi-axis 3D milling strategy (this one is all Autodesk), and there is something for everybody. How much for these new goodies? 125 Cloud Credits ($125 USD) per month, month-to-month.

    And those other improvements? How about a new tool library interface? The old one definitely was a little clunky. And for those of you who make extensive use of user-templates to capture their best practices (why isn’t everybody?), how about a new interface that will allow you to sort and better manage everything?

    I haven’t talked about turning yet… It can be said that while Fusion CAM  / HSM CAM has traditionally been a competent turning solution, most of the R&D over the years has gone into making it a premier milling solution. But a dedicated turning team has now been brought into the development team, and turning is now getting the love it has always deserved. In my next blog, I’ll list all the recent changes (it’s a very long list of small but significant changes). What’s more, we are promised many more such improvements throughout the year, including something called Adaptive Turning that sounds very promising.

    Please note that the Manufacturing Extension is free to use right now through June 2020. So, by all means, give it a spin! Several of the other new features are available through the preview mode: just activate what you want under Preview Features in your Preferences; everything is quite stable.

    Now, it is quite apparent that Autodesk is turning Fusion into its premier CAM solution. That’s great news and we welcome all the improvements to an already-great CAM. However, if you are a user of Inventor CAM (or HSMWorks), don’t hold your breath for things like Steep-and-Shallow. Instead, Autodesk would rather you fire up the Fusion 360 entitlement included with your CAM. And to make it easier to use two platforms in parallel, recent changes now allow Fusion to play extremely well with Inventor and even SolidWorks.

    SolidCAD announces a strategic alliance with Magestic Technologies

    Posted on by admin

    TORONTO, ON, May 19, 2020 – Today, SolidCAD, a leading technology and professional services company in Canada announces its newest partnership with Magestic Technologies, an Autodesk Authorized Reseller and Developer. As a leader in the competitive manufacturing landscape, Magestic Technologies focuses on providing the most advanced digital manufacturing solutions leveraging technologies in Genetics, Machine Learning, and AI to improve manufacturing processes and efficiency.

    With over 30 years experience, Magestic Technologies has been working closely with one of the world’s largest technology innovators, Autodesk, to develop digital manufacturing solutions that improve and automate the aerospace, energy, transportation and automotive fabrication processes. Through their various solutions, including TruNest, TruComposites and SE Nesting, manufacturing firms can better collaborate, optimize and integrate real-time production data to streamline design and manufacturing workflows.

    “Our partnership with SolidCAD provides a great opportunity to bring to the Canadian market innovative and cost saving solutions leveraging the technologies and expertise of both companies. Our mutual commitment to customer success, along with our vast experience in seamless design to manufacturing workflows, ensures solutions required to be successful in today’s competitive manufacturing environment,” states Greg Mac Lean, President, Magestic Technologies.

    “At SolidCAD, we pride ourselves in helping customers increase their profitability and gain a competitive edge through the streamlining of their engineering, manufacturing and data management processes,” states Mark Gartner, Director of Manufacturing at SolidCAD. “We are very excited to have this partnership with a best-in-class manufacturing solutions provider. At SolidCAD were always looking at additional ways to help our customers get to the next level of productivity improvement. This is precisely why we have partnered with the experts at Magestic Technologies.”

    SolidCAD and Magestic Technologies will be working together to provide consulting, implementation and support services to Canadian manufacturing firms. To learn more about Magestic Technologies’ best-in-class solutions, join SolidCAD for a webinar and demo to view their products firsthand on Tuesday, June 2, 2020 at 1:00 PM ET. To register, click here.

    About Magestic Technologies

    Magestic Technologies was founded on the same principles as its founder’s former company, Magestic Systems, and that is to provide the most advanced manufacturing solutions for process and efficiency improvements. Our solutions are built on over 30 years of experience implementing sophisticated solutions leveraging some of the most innovative technologies in Genetics, Machine Learning, and AI.

    https://magestictech.com/

    CTC 2021 Revit Product Updates!

    Posted on by Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    CTC Software was actively preparing to release updates to our AEC tools for Revit 2021. This release took place on May 4th and affected all of our AEC offerings. HIVE has undergone a massive update, streamlining all aspects of user interaction and management. Our software suites have all been built to work on the new Autodesk 2021 platforms, and the SuperDoor Configurator and Casework Configurator content packs have been upgraded for 2021 as well.  All of these tools will continue to support the 2017 versions of Autodesk products and newer, so they will also fit into your workflows for any version from the last 4 years.  Additionally, the Mechanical Electrical Plumbing Productivity Pack content files have been upgraded to 2019, containing hundreds of updated families and a lot of new features and improved workflows.  These tools are purpose-built to support your entire workflow from beginning to end, putting the right tools in the right hands so all team members gain efficiencies every day.

    Contact CTC or one of our partners for more information about the 2021 updates to our tools!

    HIVE

    HIVE specifically has had major changes to the user interface of the content management system (CMS).  Many of you have provided feedback after extensively using the currently released HIVE system.  We listened!  The new HIVE has a major facelift, and the HIVE management portal on the web has been overhauled to make management easier, and to provide you with analytics for organization-wide use of CTC tools, project performance metrics and insights into how your teams are searching for content in the CMS.  As always, we strive to develop our tools alongside you, so you and your teams can work efficiently.  Feel free to share your experiences and ideas for how we can continue to improve.

    The other productivity tools in the software suites are all updated to work on the Autodesk 2021 platforms as well. This year we have decided to make sure that we support 5 version of Autodesk products, since we know many of our clients have projects with long lifecycles.  While Autodesk may not officially support 2017, we felt that we should continue to make our tools available for that release since some of you have let us know that your projects are still being managed in that version.  This new 2021 release of our tools will have the ability to communicate with the HIVE management portal so you can have a better understanding of the return on your investment this next year.

    CTC has 3 major Revit-based content packs.  The two that install into the ribbon are the SuperDoor Configurator and the Casework Configurator.  These, like our other suites, will be supported on Revit 2017-2021.  The other content pack, the Mechanical Electrical Plumbing Productivity Pack (MEPPP), has been heavily updated in its latest version. It will be supported on Revit 2019-2021 with the actual content delivered in Revit 2019 format.  We made this choice since most of the projects starting fresh in your firms will be on 2019 and later.  We did not see value in building on older versions, as existing projects in production do not see huge benefits in transitioning standards mid-production.  This MEPPP update has seen further standardization of the parameters used to help align our pack with metric users.  The first release will be in Imperial units of measure, but a metric pack will be coming soon.  This release saw heavy formula updates and further removal of unit dependencies.  The lighting fixtures, electrical equipment and mechanical equipment have seen major updates, improving face-based and level-based hosting in a single family, and general ease of use.  Many other categories have been touched as well, to ensure a uniform workflow and general consistent use.

    As always, we encourage you to contact us or our partners for more information on these workflow-improving tools.

    In the United States you can contact Applied Technology Group (ATG) at sales@ATGUSA.com. If you are are based in Canada, please contact:

    Mughees Altaf
    Account Manager — AEC Productivity Tools
    mughees.altaf@solidcad.ca 

    This article was created by CTC Software