5 Useful Things Design Engineers are doing whilst Working from Home

As Boris announces phase whatever number we are on now, many of us will be returning or continuing to work from home. And we. at Quadra started to wonder, if a full lockdown occurs, what useful things Design Engineers could and have been doing whilst at home. So we have created a list of our favourite ones.

1. Library Management and Streamlining existing processes

Vault

Library maintenance and organisation is essential for anyone who manages their data through Vault and let’s be honest organising your files and getting rid of redundant data is never a pleasant job. But we found a great article from 2010 which gives you some great ideas for cleaning up your Vault Workspace. Check it out here

AutoCAD

Upgrade your standard AutoCAD blocks to dynamic blocks to aid functionality.

Add attributes for data extraction or add standardise attributes within block for clean data extraction. Invest time in creating tool palettes to ease the distribution and standardisation of block insertion.

Understand and implement data fields, to reduce user input requirements.

2. Take a look at some of the new technologies and tools available

It’s a great time to have a look at some of the newest cloud-based tools out there.

Vault Mobile app

Why not try the Vault mobile app. You can download the app for iOS devices, iPhone and iPad, in the Apple App Store here.

BIM 360

For the Architectural side of life, BIM 360 is helping people design and collaborate, whilst keeping designs on track.

AutoCAD Mobile App

Edit, create and view CAD drawings in the AutoCAD mobile app

Use the AutoCAD mobile app to design on-the-go via iOS or Android devices.

AutoCAD® mobile app has core design and drafting tools. Work on your CAD drawings any time, anywhere – even offline.

• Update DWG™ files in real-time
• Access drawings with your smartphone or tablet
• Get the app included with an AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT subscription or purchase separately

3. Now is a great time to talk Training

We are well aware that squeezing training into your work schedule is next to impossible, in fact, most employers are only able to commit 1% of their employees time to essential professional development. Covid-19 has forced us all to spend more time away from the office and less time commuting, so is now a good time to talk training?

4. Find some great people to learn from

We’ve been very impressed at Quadra with some of the blogs and content that are being generated during Lockdown. Here are just a few of our favourites.

Construction and Built Environment

• The BImsider
• The B1M

Manufacturing and Product Design

• Make it British Podcast
• Vault – Under the Hood
• The Engineering Entrepreneur – Fusion Podcast

5. Make sure you can continue to work at home

VPN

By configuring your workstation to connect to a secure VPN or Virtual Private Network design engineers are able to take it home, connect it to the internet and work as if you are plugged into your network at the office. Your connection to Autodesk Vault and your drive mappings to company servers should work fine (if not a little slow). Remember though if you take your desktop or tower PC home they don’t usually have WiFi so you will need to set up close to your router or use Powerline Adapters*, just make sure you get the ones with Ethernet ports built-in (and take home a network cable).

If you are using network licenses you may need to increase the amount of time your application will wait before it gives up trying to get a license. This involves setting up a system variable on your workstation. See here for instructions. Click here

Inventor Users

For you Inventor users, if none of the options above are suitable and you decide to copy your data to your workstation and take it home please consider the following:-

• Copy your Templates and Design Data folders too.
• You may need to create a new Project (.ipj) file to point to your local hard drive and templates.
• The files you are working on are not visible to other users so stay in touch when working on parts of a model which may influence other parts of the design.

Useful Resources

The Autodesk Resource Center Click here

Guidelines for installing and using Autodesk software in a virtual environment

Best practices for optimizing your VPN

Best practices for accessing Autodesk software while working remotely

Guidelines and help for using Autodesk software at home