• How SaaS EDM Solutions makes remote work effective during Covid-19

    Posted on by Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    Many industries have been affected by the Covid-19 Pandemic including Manufacturing, Utilities, and Transportation. As projects need to stay on track despite today’s challenges, we have all had to assess our normal collaboration strategies to focus on remote work and staying effective.

    Common questions that arise with so many employees working from home:

    • How do we collaborate with both our internal and external partners as we work from home without our usual access to our full suite of tools?
    • How do we confirm the accuracy of information received from external sources?
    • Do we have controls and workflows in place for project document sharing?

    Some companies have adapted quickly to the remote work reality as they have modern SaaS tools in place. They have had little impact on their day to day operations.

    Others are struggling to shift to this new paradigm. They are now forced to look for new collaboration tools to empower their employees and minimize downtime.

    When searching for the right capital project management tool the following questions arise:

    • How do we track project progress and meet compliance standards?
    • Can we control, digitize, and monitor tasks in our typical project workflow?
    • How do we provide access to all technical documentation to various stakeholders?
    • Is there a tool that is easy to learn and to use for rapid user adoption?

    A SaaS EDM application will tick all these boxes and provide the ideal solution to keep your projects on-time and your customers informed.

    Available in either SaaS or Cloud-based offerings, an Engineering Document Management (EDM) suite will provide the following instant benefits:

    • Web-based access to allow maximum flexibility for remote external and internal stakeholders.
    • Bi-directional updates to engineering documents and drawings with full workflow support.
    • Mobile access to all documentation which leads to increased employee collaboration and efficiency.

    A SaaS-based EDM solution will provide an adaptable tool for your remote workforce needs. If you have not implemented an EDM solution, now is the time.

    Accruent’s Meridian Cloud connects Engineering, Management, and Maintenance teams to ensure all documents and asset data are compliant and up to date.

    The SolidCAD Meridian team is available for your EDM implementation needs.

    Property Set Data in Civil 3D

    Posted on by Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    We use the Manage Tab in Civil 3D for some important stuff like data shortcuts, managing styles, and Dynamo. But how often do we look at the panels between those tools?

    So today let’s talk about Property Set Data.

    Property Sets are a great tool to attach additional information to any AutoCAD or Civil 3D objects in your projects. They are pretty easy to use and incredibly versatile.

    Property Set Data can be set up in a drawing (DWG) or in a template file (DWT) so that it can be brought into each new project. The opportunity to have these in a template is often overlooked, but can offer a nice solution for adding data to objects and aiding in the transfer of information throughout a project’s life cycle.

    When you select Define Property Sets in the Manage Tab, it will bring up a filtered style manager window where you can create Property Sets, determine what objects they can be applied to, and add definitions.

     

    While pipes have a lot of meta data behind the scenes, utilities are often drawing using Feature lines or Polylines. Layers absolutely give us some information as to what these lines represent, but property sets can take this transfer of information to a new level. In this case we can ensure consistency across revisions and eliminate dangerous assumptions about existing utilities.

    There are several ways to add definitions to your property set, but all of the definitions above are manual property definitions. The type of definition will restrict the value input options for the user. There are many types of inputs from plain text to True/False options to integers or even predefined lists that we can use to get useful and quantifiable data added to any object.

    In your drawing you can select multiple objects and add a Property Set to them all at the same time in the Extended Data Tab of the AutoCAD Properties window. Likewise, we can remove a Property Set from multiple objects at the same time. Then depending on the data type, you can pick from a dropdown list or enter a year of installation to add important information needed for the project design.

    From the additional information I added, not only can we see what these polylines represent, we also have a better idea of how accurate this information is. Knowing that this utility information was confirmed through daylighting gives me much more confidence that it is 75mm conduit, or that it is even drawn in the correct location.

    This custom meta data stays with these objects and can be leveraged in other applications like NavisWorks or Infraworks.

    Or we can manually code our own label styles to sit in the template with our property set

    <[PS:Property Set:Definition Name]>  Keep in mind this is case sensitive.

    Or we can create a Schedule in the template to show this information in table form. Creating schedules is a little tricky and somewhat hidden in Civil 3D, but using the command < SCHEDULE [Style] > we can create a schedule style. Then < -SCHEDULEADD > we can create a schedule of this data.

    This information can also be linked to Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access for more flexibility.

    Hopefully this example has shown you some of the flexibility of Property Set Data. But this is only the tip of the iceberg when we look at the possibilities that come with creating these customized properties for objects in our designs. So get creative with these tools and use them to streamline communication, minimize errors and assumptions, and create more informative designs.

    Here are a couple useful commands to speed things up when working with Property Sets:

    • AECPSDAUTOATTACH – Automatically attaches all property set data to all the objects they apply to in the drawing. Also allows automatic updates if property sets are edited.
    • PROPERTYSETCLEAN – Use when AECPSDAUTOATTACH is OFF. Updates property set information associated to objects after edits have been made to property set data.

    The Multi Space Dimension of Autodesk Inventor

    Posted on by SolidCAD

    Relativity says we live in four dimensions. String theory says it is 10. What are ‘dimensions’ and how do they affect reality?

    With three axes, we can describe forms in three-dimensional space. And Every point is uniquely identified by three coordinates. A Sphere can be described as:  x2 + y2 + z2 = 1.

    So, a sphere that sit in four-dimensional space can be legitimately described as:

    x2 + y2 + z2 + p2 = 1

    Our human brain can only receive and interpret a 3D world. When it comes to a 4, 5 or more dimension, our Engineering drafting become completely useless. Here are some examples I did with Inventor using its solid bodies Sweep feature:

    1. Colliding 3 dimensions to a common point, Inventor created an object that can be both sphere/cube. Is it a sphere or a cube?

    2.  Inventor can also be used to create a Hypercube frame in which our Engineering Standard CAN NOT present it on a drafting paper.

    These are 6 views of the same object, but why the 3 isometric views are completely different? Inventor showed that the shadow of 4D cube frame is the 3D cube.

    3.  Turn 3D cube frame into a 4D spiral ramp, we can see how De Vinci created a staircase that have the same entrance, but King, Queen, servants, and chauffeurs can never run into each other 😊

    4. My Klein Flower Vase is a 4D object of a 3D möbius loop.

    The log was inspired after watching this fantastic video:  Things to See and Hear in the Fourth Dimension. A great and simple mathematic lecture where it shows how four-dimensional shapes appear in a 3D world in a hands-on talk. Another great reading is this Radical dimensions

    Collaborating with Bluebeam Studio

    Posted on by Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    What is Studio?

    Let’s start from here. Most users are not familiar with Bluebeam Studio although it is becoming more and more useful and popular these days. So, let’s dig into to it and take a look at both Studio Session and Studio Project.

    Studio Session:

    A live collaboration tool that allows you to share and annotate your plan with your team with some restriction.

    Studio Project:

    A document management system that allows you to host, share and manage your document with an organized process and management tools.

    So basically, you host your documents in Studio Project and use them in Studio Session to mark them up with your team. Not that complicated, eh?

    Now, let’s jump in to see how to launch a Session and how to set your Project.

    Creating a Session:

    Go to Studio Icon –> Select Session

    Click on + and select New Session or Join Session

    If you decide to join an existing session, enter the Studio ID of this session and click OK

    If you create a new Session, a dialog box will appear

    From there, name your session, and upload one or multiple plans you need to work with.

    Then, in Options, select what you allow your user to do with this (these) document(s) or even if you want, allowing them to upload documents. You can even set an expiration date and hour for the session.

    Afterwards, your session will launch and this dialog box will appear

    It will be here where you will need to invite users to join in your session. You can even add a message to give them a bit of a context.

    If you are using Studio Project and already set Users groups, you can use them in Studio Session (even if the document is not hosted within project).

    Last option, the Address Book. You can use your own address book to invite people.

    Now your session is started, make sure to work on the right document. To check that, you need to have this icon  before the name of your document in the tab like the picture below.

    From there, you will be able to annotate and communicate within Studio Session. However, remember Sessions do not allow for changes to a PDF’s “core content ». It means you can place Markups and delete your own notes, but editing other attendee’s Markups is not allowed. You can think of this as, you are allowed to do “Surface Level” (adding a markup, editing a markup you added in the Session) changes to the PDF, but anything that goes deeper (form fields, adding pages) is not allowed. This is all to maintain the integrity of the PDF while multiple users are all collaborating in real time.
    Note about sessions: you can be invited or initiate multiple session. To leave a session, click on the icon   and select the session to go back in it.

    Finishing the session:

    You finalized your revision with your team and are ready to go so now, it’s time to finish your session to.

    To do so, click on the icon   (#1) and a Dialog box will open. From there, you can overwrite the existing plan or save as new version of your plan.

    Also, don’t forget to generate the report of the session. It will keep all information that have been produced in this session (from markups to messages written in the chat)

    FAQ’s:

    What happens if I have a new version?

    Close the actual session, export all markups (or only the ones you want to bring to the next session) and then re-upload the document in the session.

    Can I erase markups of other users?

    No. It is part of the process to not be able to erase other user’s markups. Remember, it’s also a tool to help you track every notes and changes on plans.

    You will be able to erase markups outside of the session. But there will always be a trace within the Session log.

    What’s new in Inventor 2021

    Posted on by SolidCAD

    Inventor 2021 comes with many visual changes that continue to modernize and streamline the 3d modeling experience. Several productivity enhancements and one fairly major AnyCAD update round out this year’s release and make it a valuable upgrade for users of any level.

    Here are some of the highlights;

    Dark Theme:

    The most notable visual update is the introduction of Inventor’s Dark Theme. This is available as a setting in the Application Options under the Colors Tab and follows the trend of many other applications as visual ergonomics becomes a more prevalent theme (so to speak!) among tech users. …Also; it also just looks better!

    It’s worth mentioning however, that they haven’t yet got around to making everything follow the Dark Theme. The Home Screen, file transaction, and project dialog boxes are a few examples of items that didn’t quite make it into this release, which is presumably why this is being tagged as “pre-release”. So one can only assume they’re still ticking away at all the different elements. Definitely a good start anyhow.

    Dock-able Property Panels:

    More commands have now been added to the list utilizing this new design first introduced in 2020. Along with Bend, Coil, Combine, Copy, Decal and a few others; Frame Generator and its associated end treatment commands now follow suit. Frequent FG users will likely need a few seconds to re-acquaint themselves with the new interface but once familiar, the streamlined workflow is sure to be a welcome change.

    As with the Dark Theme update, there are a few stragglers out there like the Fillet and Chamfer commands that will still have to wait their turn for a new look.

    File Naming Defaults:

    Mirror & Copy have now been added to the list, allowing users not only to control how these auto-generated files are named on creation, but also use attributes for their standard naming practices.
    As an added update to all three file naming default tabs, users can now manipulate the browser node to display as the filename or use a combination of the available attributes, allowing for some much needed control over the model browser organization.

    Frame Generator:

    In addition to the dialog box face-lift, Frame Generator has had another few minor but noteworthy updates such as:

    • A new Category filter in the dialog box allows the user to narrow down the available options by general shape, making profile selection much more efficient
    • When reusing a frame member users can now choose any previously reused member (rather than having to select the original source)
    • The Trim & Extend tool now supports using a curved face as termination
    • The Notch command now includes two additional custom profiles; Custom C and Custom T
    • Trim to Frame is now more appropriately named Corner Joint

    Revit AnyCAD:

    One of the most noteworthy updates for users who find themselves going back and forth between Revit and Inventor, is the interoperability between the two programs. Revit files can now be inserted associatively into an Inventor Assembly, maintaining a link to the native Revit data. This means changes made in Revit will now update in Inventor simply by clicking the update button.

    Drawing Workflow:

    When creating pre-configured sheet formats for standardized drawings, more options and functionality have been added to further reduce time spent downstream. You can now retain edge settings (ie. edge display) as well as check the “Fit views to sheet” option to automatically scale your views on creation. In addition, flat patterns in the sheet metal environment and parts lists for assemblies are now supported.
    As an added bonus for those of you who noticed it had disappeared; the Measure tool has made a comeback in 2021!

    The full details on these and all other 2021 updates can be found Here.

    The new Rotary machining strategy in Fusion 360 CAM is a thing of beauty!

    Posted on by SolidCAD

    Last month, I wrote that a lot of improvements and new features had recently been built into Fusion CAM. One of these is the Rotary multi-axis 3D milling strategy, which has been a very long time in coming. What this is, is a strategy for mills or mill-turns that makes use of a rotary axis to 3D-machine around a part with a ball-nose cutter. The cutter is always kept pointed towards the center of rotation. Machining can be performed milling-style, with a back-and-forth toolpath along the axis of rotation and successive incremental steps (stepover) of the rotary. Better yet, machining can be performed turning-style, front-to-back (or top-to-bottom) with constant motion of the rotary and a specified stepdown per revolution. The centerline of the tool can be slightly offset (if your machine allows it) so as to stay off the center of the cutter.

    Well, I can say that the wait has paid off. We recently had a chance to put this new strategy through its paces with the help of our good friends at Dery’s Manufacturing of Regina using their big Nakamura WT-300’s mill-turns. The results were very impressive. We confirmed that using this strategy turning-style is particularly efficient, as it allows to take as big a depth-of-cut as needed and to potentially shape the part in a single pass.

    This new strategy clearly fills an important void. It will be appreciated in a variety of settings, including routers with a 4th axis mounted to the side. And it will be appreciated by users who have struggled in the past with “textured” or “3D” revolved parts, including STL models.

    Rotary is available as part of the “Manufacturing Extension” for Fusion 360, which includes other useful additions such as the very-powerful Steep-and-Shallow 3D strategy, borrowed from the all-mighty Powermill. The Manufacturing Extension costs 125 Cloud Credits ($125 USD) per month to access.

    Like many of the other recently-unveiled goodies, Rotary is unfortunately not available for Inventor CAM. That’s too bad since Rotary is an essential strategy that deserves to be included in the base offering of Fusion CAM, as well as in Inventor CAM and HSMWorks. I encourage you to vote for this on the Inventor IdeaStation. That being said, if you are an Inventor CAM user, your Product Design and Manufacturing Collection gives you access to Fusion. If you are an HSMWorks user, you as well now have free access to Fusion 360. And Autodesk has been working very hard of late to improve data exchange between Fusion and both Inventor and SolidWorks, in order to allow you to work with Fusion in parallel with these legacy platforms. Indeed, expect that later this year, Fusion will be able to retrieve CAM toolpaths saved inside an Inventor file.

    Civil 3D 2020.4 Update

    Posted on by Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    Autodesk has released the Civil 3D 2020.4 update.  Use the Desktop App to install it.  Here are the Autodesk release notes for this new update.

    Notables:

    • New SYSVAR “DataShortcutsSourceCheck” to change the behavior of warnings when saving to a mapped drive on a Nasuni Edge Appliance.
    • Improved performance and stability with various features such as:
      • Unloaded XREFs.
      • Corridors.
      • Data shortcuts.
      • Save command.
      • Catchments.
      • Printing multiple sheets.

    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.