CTC Software has enhanced their licensing model in June 2022, all new licensing is facilitated through Cloud Shared Licensing (CSL) now. This shift to CSL means that moving forward the 2023+ releases of their tool sets will only be available through CSL. It marks a big jump in flexibility and tracking of license sharing and puts CTC ahead of the curve in the industry for license facilitation. All you need is an internet connection and access to their website to use your CTC tools now.
What is Cloud Shared Licensing and how is it different from the Network Licensing or Named User Licensing?
CSL is NOT at all the same as the Named User licensing that most software has migrated to. We can think of CSL as network licensing managed from the cloud. This is preferable to the network licensing because the license manager doesn’t need to be installed on your server and setup time is greatly reduced.
Named User Licensing ties the license of the product (A seat of Civil 3D for example) to a user’s email, this is intended to restrict the use of that product to that single user among other thing. CSL is still a pool of licenses that you would use a login to access. So 100 employees could have logins to access a pool of 10 licenses, but each license can only be used by 1 person at a time.
What does this change mean for my company and me using the tools?
As mentioned above, this will allow you to have access to your CTC tools with a CTC Account login and access to internet. No need to even be connected to your company network to pull a license from your pool of CSL license.
Importantly, CSL will still allow compatibility with the latest 5 versions of your Autodesk software.
On the IT and license management side of thing, CSL is incredibly easy to setup, manage, and report on license usage. Through the CTC website we can access the license portal to set up and assign licenses to user groups, borrow licenses to access offline, revoke licenses, setup auto-renewals, and manage roles & admin rights associated with your CTC products.
How do I manage my licensing now?
Accessing the licensing portal is done through the https://ctcsoftware.com website and clicking on the person icon next to the shopping cart.
After logging in, you will be directed to the portal dashboard where you can navigate to licensing to see all your CTC products.
From here you can invite user, add them to user groups, assign roles, and assign access to your various products.
From within the Autodesk software once the tools are installed on the work station, the user ill just have to click on one of the darker colored tools to bring up the “Product and Licensing Information” dialog box.
Once you click the Cloud Shared and click Apply, it will bring you to the Sign In window to enter your CTC Account credentials. You will only be required to sign in the first time you access the tools and will give you access to all the tools that you are assigned to in the licensing portal.
The new Cloud Shared Licensing is the future for CTC Software and I hope this article has shown you some of its benefits. CTC has done a great job with a couple webinars linked below to explain the picks and clicks in more detail for setup and management of the license portal, so I would encourage you to watch them as well.
Note for their Network and Standalone end of life:
May 1st, 2023: You will no longer be able to buy Network or Standalone Licenses. Only new seats of CSL.
May 1st, 2024: You will no longer be able to renew existing Network or Standalone Licenses. This marks the point where CTC tolls will only be available as CSL.
If you’re an Autodesk Docs/BIM 360/ACC user, this update is for you. A major update is now available. Previous versions were numbered 15.x.x. We are now on 16.x.x.
Here is a feature matrix that compares 15.x to the new 16.x.
Read on to find out what’s new.
It is not recommended to have some users on 16.x and some on 15.x. It is not a requirement to upgrade all users to 16.x, but it is recommended due to workspace and permissions changes.
New Behavior:
Let’s start out by outlining some new behavior that will stump you if you didn’t know. In previous versions, when a design file is dragged into a Docs folder, all reference files would be uploaded automatically. Now, only the design file is uploaded, no references. There are options, however which I will outline next.
Upload Files and References tool:
This is the tool you should be using to upload files. That same design file can be dragged into this new interface and its references will be listed and uploaded. It’s your chance to visualize all file relationships prior to uploading.
Performance:
File saving, opening, locking, and other file access tools are now faster.
Home Screen Changes:
Current processes can be easily viewed after clicking the DC tray in Windows.
Select Projects:
You no longer need to have all your projects displayed and sync’d. Let’s say you’re invited to 30 projects. Previously, all 30 would be shown in Windows File Explorer. Now, only selected projects are shown. Up to 40 projects can be sync’d.
File Explorer:
Autodesk Docs is now in line with “My PC”. Also, the default workspace has been changed to C:\users\USERPROFILE\DC.
File Explorer:
Most of the usual right click options now exist for folders and files. Delete, create shortcut, etc. One new one could be a game changer. Always keep on this device. Folders and files can be selected to automatically synchronize to your local drive without having to open the file or click Sync. When Free Up Space is used, folders tagged with Always keep… are retained.
This is significant for al least one good reason: CAD Resource files. CTB, Blocks, Civil 3D Pipe Catalogs, etc. can now be stored in an ACC folder and forced to be sync’d at all times locally.
File Locking:
Most non-Autodesk files get locked when opened. MS Word DOCX files, for example. Notepad documents and PDFs opened from within a browser window are not locked. PDFs opened from Bluebeam or Adobe are locked.
Free Up Space:
Using a Windows setting, space can be freed automatically. See this document.
Starline Windows’ digital workflow on a connected cloud platform helps enable it to control its entire process, doing all its own assembly, manufacturing, construction, and installation. Courtesy of Starline Windows.
In Vancouver, Canada, window company Starline Windows was an early adopter of digital design and uses lean processes to deliver custom products.
The 2008 recession and COVID-19 pandemic both jumpstarted the company’s digital transformation to compete in a packed marketplace.
The result is a greener, more profitable, and more responsive business delivering more value to customers, partners, and employees.
Starline’s ongoing digital transformation has accelerated the design-to-delivery process by connecting data from various applications.
If buildings were bodies, the exterior would be the skin, blocking wind and rain while keeping everything inside warm and comfy. But in construction, vents, pipes, doors, and windows repeatedly puncture that outer layer. For a building to sustain the environment inside, those elements have to fit perfectly and seal seamlessly.
Defects that measure only millimeters become huge headaches if a window doesn’t quite meet spec. It may need to be trimmed onsite or reordered and replaced. Either way, it amounts to time lost and added expense. To get it right the first time, Vancouver, Canada–area window company Starline Windows has embraced digital design, making it the foundation for great industry relationships, profitable growth, and a more sustainable operating model. Starline has become a supplier of choice for many high-profile construction projects, collaborating effectively with internal and external partners.
Integration for Better Outcomes
Starline designs and manufactures architectural aluminum window systems for residential and commercial buildings. In business since the early 1970s, the company has delivered thousands of projects in its key California and Canadian (British Columbia and Alberta) markets. In fact, Starline Windows is responsible for making and installing the windows and doors in 25% of the high-rise buildings constructed during the past 50 years of the Vancouver, Canada, downtown core—the area most known for the city’s iconic skyline.
Starline’s array of window products includes punched, window-wall, curtain-wall, and balcony door. Unlike many manufacturing businesses that opted to outsource in the 1980s, Starline has stuck with a vertically integrated corporate structure in which most of its supply chain is company-owned, including state-of-the-art, fully automated manufacturing facilities.
“It’s a really special company,” says Catherine Walmsley, virtual construction manager at Starline. “We’re quite unique, and I think that comes down to not just what we do, but how we do it. We own our own supply chain. We do our own assembly and manufacturing. We have in-house IT support, and we do our own installation and construction.”
Starline Windows has made the windows and doors in about 25% of the high-rise buildings constructed in the past 50 years in Vancouver’s downtown core, such as the Modello (pictured) by Boffo Developments. Courtesy of Starline Windows.
When Starline takes on a job, “we work with our partners to meet their needs as well as our own,” Walmsley says. However, even with the level of control afforded by its integrated structure, the company still faces business challenges common to the envelope trades, including a lack of design collaboration with architects and contractors, poor visibility for field personnel when design revisions happen, and limited data sharing between the office and the field. A lack of cross-department collaboration can also get in the way of efficient logistics.
In a highly competitive market, working closely with project stakeholders to demonstrate value can be make-or-break. In its 2022 Pulse Report, Window + Door Magazine found that 62% of contractors were on the hunt for new window suppliers to protect the supply chain and keep up with customer requirements. Issues like flexibility, turnaround time, material availability, and pricing were among the top reasons cited for shopping around.
Traditional Structure, Modern Challenges
“When you’re working on a complicated project, you need to be able to work with others,” Walmsley says. “So it’s important for us to be able to understand the process as a whole.”
Improving end-to-end process clarity benefits every architecture, engineering, construction, and manufacturing business, but rising demand for custom designs makes this goal more challenging. As requirements become more tailored and less standard, better tracking and traceability across the product lifecycle is essential.
The efficiency of Starline Windows’ digital transformation helps make the company both more sustainable and more profitable. Courtesy of Starline Windows.
Working with architects closely at the outset and ensuring design commitments are being met from manufacturing to installation are necessary to meet custom requirements. The COVID-19 pandemic and its increase of remote working have compelled an industrywide rethink of how tighter collaboration and greater visibility can be delivered to clients.
But just as it decided early on to stick with a traditional business structure, Starline also became a digital early adopter. That’s put the company on the right footing to meet today’s challenges.
A Digital Early Adopter
“We do everything from design to manufacturing, installation, and even shipping,” Walmsley says. “That’s a lot of territory to cover, and anything you can do to virtualize construction information is a benefit.”
Starline recognized that issue as far back as the early 1980s, when it started the shift from paper drawings to computer assisted design (CAD).
Starline’s all-digital and cloud-connected design-to-delivery workflow makes it easier to deliver bespoke windows for large projects such as Civic Plaza, Surrey, British Columbia’s tallest building. Courtesy of Starline Windows.
“We were pretty early to embrace CAD,” Walmsley says. “We had an amazing IT guy, and once CAD went open source around 1985, we saw the opportunity to replace paper-based workflow and reuse all the data contained in hand drawings.”
Things really changed in the aftermath of the 2008 recession, when macro considerations forced the company to find new ways to rationalize costs and downsize—without sacrificing quality or delivery.
“We were always fans of lean operating principles, but after 2008, we had to go really lean and find ways to deliver the same number of projects with fewer people,” Walmsley says. “But we also had to enable the ones who stayed to work more efficiently. Our people in the field in the buildings were very attached to their pieces of paper, but when we put an iPad in their hands, it was a huge game-changer. Suddenly we could provide change paperwork on the fly without having to call FedEx and have a ream of paper delivered to the site.”
Along with digitized field operations, the company’s manufacturing facilities are almost completely automated. “Some manual processes remain, but they are few and far between at this point,” Walmsley says. “Most of our manufacturing assembly is now roboticized.”
Starline’s ongoing digital transformation has accelerated its design-to-delivery process by connecting data from Autodesk Fusion 360, Vault, Revit, Inventor, and the Autodesk Construction Cloud. Walmsley says those tools, which integrate information from multiple systems and generate 3D designs, help complete the digital operations picture.
They’ve made it easier to deliver on bespoke design needs for major projects such as Civic Plaza in Surrey, BC. It’s the city’s tallest building and some of its guitar-pick-shaped skylight windows set the bar high for Starline’s capabilities.
“We could do circular shapes, but we had never attempted something so custom,” Walmsley says of the buildings nonstandard skylights. “They are huge—8 feet—so it was just an incredible feat to be able to put it all together and to coordinate. The lead time was extensive, and it was very challenging to get them to the building and installed on time.”
The Civic Plaza’s guitar-pick-shaped skylight windows put Starline’s capabilities to the test. Courtesy of Starline Windows.
Sustainable Benefits
Doing more with less but still doing it better is digital’s core mission. Walmsley says that for Starline, it’s made business planning easier and improved quality control. “Today, I can pull data from Revit, from Inventor, from our ERP and inventory-control systems to track all of the various activities happening and give upper management the information they need. It all adds up so that we know how many windows we can produce, how close we are to reaching project commitments, and when our next sale is due.”
Going digital has also had green benefits. It’s dramatically reduced the reliance on paper, as well as the volume of toner and other printer consumables the company uses. There’s also much less physical waste for disposal because more accurate design and manufacturing means fewer deficiencies and less cutting and trimming at the building site.
When deficiencies do occur, they can be captured and tracked to avoid replicating the same mistakes.
Walmsley says the real test, however, is how well a digital tool helps Starline work more closely with clients, partners, and other stakeholders: “It’s not just about us. It has to be beneficial to the architect, to the developer, and to the customer. In the end, the biggest selling feature is knowing we’re delivering something that’s going to make the building sell, that’s going to make everyone’s life easier, and that’s going to make people want to work with us again.”
In this blogger’s opinion, this is one of the most complete mid-cycle updates in recent memory. Here are some highlights:
Performance
Always welcome!
Up to 60% Improvement During various operations including switching between drawings, corridor rebuild, and editing pipe networks.
Labels
Labels, especially when many exist in a Civil 3D drawing, can affect performance. All these settings are designed to boost performance.
Toggle labels on or off in Paper Space or Model Space If you don’t need to see labels right now, turn them off with a new setting.
Level of Detail on or off As you zoom out, labels will disappear.
Redraw options Choose when and how labels are redrawn.
Corridors
Users have been asking for this one for quite a while.
Transitions Use a tabular interface to define how subassemblies’ parameters transition between stations. For example, the daylight slope can be 2:1 at 0+000, transitioning to 4:1 at 0+050. Bus bays, or any lane widening can be defined this way. We are no longer limited to using polylines or alignments as width targets.
Profile Views
Display additional information about objects and their proximity to a parent alignment.
Point Proximity Band Show the distance between points and the alignment, and labels distances within the alert distance in red:
Alignment Proximity Band Show the distance between an alignment and the parent alignment and use ticks to show alignment segments within the alert distance:
Subassembly Composer
If you create your own subassemblies, these new features will benefit your productivity and help to reduce errors.
Point, Link, and Shape codes Define these codes in a dialog and apply them when and where needed.
Find and Replace Find and replace values almost anywhere in your code.
Dynamic Updates Change the source definition, and automatically update the instances.
Pressure Networks
Since Pipe runs, we continue to get useful features in this area.
Connect to Structures Pressure pipes can now be connect to pipe network structures and labeled.
Appurtenances Don’t Move These objects had the nasty habit of moving when the pipe run was edited. This is no longer the case.
Rail
These updates bring Civil 3D’s rail tool more in line with U.S. standards..
Turnout Blocks Turnout symbols can now be inserted perpendicular to the parent alignments.
Turnout Abbreviations Updated the abbreviation of critical points in the US turnout catalog in line with US regulations.
Project Explorer
Improve your reporting.
Property Set Objects Added support for reviewing property sets in the Project Explorer window.
Property Set Review
Added support for including property sets in object sets, reports, AutoCAD tables, and spreadsheets.
Property Set Values
You can determine the order and visibility of the value, description, and property names. Property set values can be edited.
Grading Optimization
Improve your preliminary grading.
Pathways Objects that represent sidewalks, driveways, and other ingress and egress paths.
Ridge Lines Objects that represent a linear elevation that directs drainage away from its placement.
Isolate Internal Zone Drainage You can now isolate drainage objects (drain lines, low points, and ridge lines) within a zone from affecting optimization outside of the zone boundaries.
Reducing 31200 hours of work annul= $1,872,000 CAD Saving
Remember when the architect sent over a change last week, what was the dimension we had to move that door by? You search through your notes and emails for several minutes before finding the conversation from last week that she’s referring to.
How much of an effect does this drag on productivity have on your day? In a 15-person office, each person can spend up to two hours a day searching for data-that’s $200,000 per year wasted!
Let us do a rough calculation here:
120 minutes X 300 employees =36,000 minutes
2400 minutes / 60 mins = 600 hours wasted each week
600 hours X 52 weeks = 31200 hours
31200 hours per year X $60 employment hourly rate =$1,872,000 CAD
$1,872,000 CAD/ a year of operation is wasted with unproductive work process.
SolidCAD has many successful cases in thriving BIM implementation in various cases. We have a great team of experts supporting individuals and organizations in terms of BIM training and helping them to set up a strong foundation project to reach independence.
Disconnected Workflows: separate tolls being used by project stakeholders and disconnected workflows internally with firms result in the costly duplication of effort and increase work time.
The inability to engage in influence early: This adds risk to securing procurement paths and is made even more difficult with those disconnected workflows and disparate solutions.
Fast-tracked project schedule: Meeting tight deadlines are tough enough with managing and coordinating materials and labour, but it is even more difficult if there is miscommunication and design intent.
A small talent pool: Difficult to hire and retain talent. It is also a problem that older specialists are retiring from the industry and taking their experience with them
SolidCAD has many successful cases in thriving BIM implementation in various cases. We have a great team of experts supporting individuals and organizations in terms of BIM training and helping them to set up a strong foundation project to reach independence.
Feel free to contact us for more information.
#SolidCAD #Digital Collaboration # Increasing BIM Mandates, #Technology Proliferation #Industrialization of Construction #Digital Transformation
75% of a project’s operational costs in the first 10 years are MEP related. Implementing BIM solution can demonstrate a savings of just 8 minutes per employee each week, and a reduction in change order on every projects – Autodesk
Let us do a rough calculation at the operational cost that is wasted:
8 minutes X 300 employees =2400 minutes
2400 minutes / 60 mins = 40 hours wasted each week
40 hours X 52 weeks = 2080 hours
2080 hours per year X $100 employment hourly rate =$208,000 CAD
Therefore, $208,000 CAD is wasted a year with unproductive operation cost.
To have the ability to utilize the best from BIM helps you to save cost and to improve your productivity.
If you want to understand and learn more about BIM Implementation and approach, we have a great team of experts supporting individuals and organizations in terms of BIM training and helping them to set up a strong foundation project to reach independence. SolidCAD has many successful cases in thriving BIM implementation in various cases.
A number of government projects in Canada are requiring BIM data for the last 5 years. It is a new trend for the Land developers and AEC industries to adapt the BIM technology to different stakeholders’ aspects.
If you want to understand and learn more about BIM Implementation and approach, we have a great team of experts supporting individuals and organizations in terms of BIM training and helping them to set up a strong foundation project to reach independence. SolidCAD has many successful cases in thriving BIM implementation in various cases.
Autodesk has released the Civil 3D 2023.1 update. Use the Desktop App to install it or download it from your Autodesk Account. Click here to find out what’s new and what’s been fixed. Please note that you must first install the AutoCAD 2023.1 update.
Most of the enhancements are centered around Autodesk Docs features.
Fixed Issues
Autodesk Trust Center
For the latest information regarding the security fixes in this Update, refer to the Security Advisory:
ADSK-SA-2022-0014
ADSK-SA-2022-0016
Problems Reported Through the Customer Error Reporting Utility
As a result of the detailed information that we received from customers who used the Customer Error Reporting Utility, we were able to identify and fix several defects including the following:
Graphics
Occasional crashes when selecting some objects with BLEND commands under “Shaded (Fast)” visual style.
Occasional crashes when switching to “Shaded (Fast)” visual style in some drawings.
Occasional crashes when launching AutoCAD on some machines with few specific graphic drivers.
General
Occasional crashes when opening and then saving some specific drawings.
Occasional crashes when using PASTESPEC to copy Microsof Excel table into the drawing.
General Update Content
The following defects have been fixed:
Display
When you turn on/off layers, the objects in the drawing are reflected correctly.
The dimension preview now displays under “Shaded (Fast)” visual style.
The 3D objects can rotate correctly on the expected location when orbiting through 3D gizmo under “Shaded (Fast)” visual style.
Bold and italic formatting in MTEXT now works as expected under “Shaded (Fast)” visual style.
Markup Import and Markup Assist
The Markup Assist boundary displays correctly when holding the wheel to pan on one of the locked viewports.
The Markup geometry keeps the uneditable status after using the TRACEBACK command.
Pressing the Esc key now cancels the Markup Import process.
The imported images keep the embedding status after the Markup import is completed.
Performance
Improved performance when plotting a file with the raster image pasted and setting “Background Transparency” to Yes.
Improved performance when orbiting the drawing containing multiple leaders with SHIFT+middle mouse button under “Shaded (Fast)” visual style.
Improved performance on Hatch pattern previews on the ribbon drop-down list.
Trace
The Markup entity can be recognized successfully after undoing the new trace creation.
The “Trace – Name Already Exists” message now displays when there is a duplicate trace name.
Sheet Set Manager with Autodesk Docs
The Edit button on the Sheet Set Manager for Web palette automatically adapts the palette width.
The expand status on Sheet Set Manager for Web palette is now kept when switching the color theme in AutoCAD.
The cloud DST file is now recorded on the Recent documents list.
User Interface
Drop-down lists now display clearly in certain dialog boxes in Windows 11.
The QVLAYOUT thumbnail previews can be hidden automatically when selecting one of the layout previews.
The underscore in the action macro name on the Action Recorder panel now shows in the drop-down list.
The Close button now displays completely on the top-right side of the Start tab.
The scroll bar and icons now show correctly in the Recent tab when setting display scale to certain values.
An error message has been fixed when pressing the Esc key to close “Sort” pop-up list on the Start tab.
Any layer can now be dragged into a Layer group filter in Windows 11.
General
TRIM and HATCH now recognize the edges of Civil 3D objects.
All copied dimensions now appear at their specified locations correctly when associative dimension is copied multiple times.
OLE objects now display correctly in Windows 11.
Commands can now be entered immediately after switching layouts between multiple layouts.
The renaming function in the Sheet View Category on the Sheet Set Manager is now implemented successfully.
The Explode option on the Blocks palette is now retained after relaunching AutoCAD.
The OVERKILL command behavior is now consistent with legacy products.
Some specific STEP files are now imported correctly into AutoCAD.
MLEADER objects converted from multiple text objects can now be set to a correct Z value.
How many tools do you have to use to resolve that change order?
Here are the sources of over-budgeting in operations and late project deliverables:
Poor collaboration
Low productivity
Low quality result
Overtime
Rework loads
Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a powerful technology implemented by many leading countries over the last 20 years. Canada remains the only G7 country without a national BIM mandate. –Government, Technology, Daily Commerical News
If you want to understand and learn more about BIM Implementation and approach, we have a great team of experts supporting individuals and organizations in terms of BIM training and helping them to set up a strong foundation project to reach independence. SolidCAD has many successful cases in thriving BIM implementation in various cases.
