What’s New for AutoCAD 2022 | In this webinar we shall be taking you through the different toolsets AutoCAD has to offer and summarise what tasks they are best suited for. The webinar is divided into three categories; CAD Automations – looking at how the toolsets can help improve your workflows; Seamless Connections – identifying how your teams can be connected by the cloud and using mobile device solutions; and Continuous Innovation – guiding you through the new features included in AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT.
Learn about the different AutoCAD solutions for desktop, web, and mobile device working
Learn about the new features included in both AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT 2022
Learn how cloud applications within AutoCAD 2022 are driving change
To watch the AutoCAD 2022 webinar, please fill out the form below
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More about Quadra Solutions
Quadra Solutions Ltd specialise in design and data management software solutions for the manufacturing, construction, engineering and PCB design industries. Quadra is a Gold Autodesk Partner, an accredited training centre and specialists in PCB design. Inventor, Revit, AutoCAD,Collections andVault software help our customers to design, visualise, innovate and implement solutions that grow and develop their business.
Our software solutions, consultancy, training and technical support are some of the best in the industry. With a wealth of experience and knowledge, Quadra specialises in helping businesses adopt efficient and effective design workflows. We help them innovate and embed data management solutions. We pride ourselves on our consultative approach to working with customers as their technology partner. For more information about Quadra please contact us.
Download our AutoCAD focused webinar, where we will explore the benefits of Autodesk’s Product Design & Manufacturing Collection
In this webinar, we will be running through the key benefits available today within the Product Design and Manufacturing Collection. The Autodesk collection includes a portfolio of products designed to enhance product performance, increase innovation and shorten overall time to market
AutoCAD 2D design still has a place in many manufacturing companies and throughout this webinar we will take a look at some of the tools which can help us achieve the fore mentioned with ease.
In this webinar you will learn:
How to leverage AutoCAD 2D Drawings in a 3D Workflow
Learn about some of the key theologies available with Product Design and Manufacturing
Understand the need for change
Make Better products faster
Fill in the form below and get access to the On-Demand Webinar
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More about Quadra Solutions
Quadra Solutions Ltd specialise in design and data management software solutions for the manufacturing, construction, engineering and PCB design industries. Quadra is a Gold Autodesk Partner, an accredited training centre and specialists in PCB design. Inventor, Revit, AutoCAD,Collections andVault software help our customers to design, visualise, innovate and implement solutions that grow and develop their business.
Our software solutions, consultancy, training and technical support are some of the best in the industry. With a wealth of experience and knowledge, Quadra specialises in helping businesses adopt efficient and effective design workflows. We help them innovate and embed data management solutions. We pride ourselves on our consultative approach to working with customers as their technology partner. For more information about Quadra please contact us.
Do you have the essentials for good design? Is PDM a priority for your design flow?
Think of all the essentials you rely on daily: your home, your phone, your refrigerator. Now, think about your design and engineering work and all the essential tools you rely on. Is Autodesk Vault PDM on your list? If you’re not using Vault for product data management, it’s likely that you don’t know why you should—because people who use Vault can’t imagine being as productive without it.
Autodesk Vault PDM
During this webinar, you will learn why Autodesk Vault is essential to effective design by helping you achieve such benefits as:
Fewer product errors
Faster processes
Reduction in lost documentation
Faster response times
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More about Quadra Solutions
Quadra Solutions Ltd specialise in design and data management software solutions for the manufacturing, construction, engineering and PCB design industries. Quadra is a Gold Autodesk Partner, an accredited training centre and specialists in PCB design. Inventor, Revit, AutoCAD,Collections andVault software help our customers to design, visualise, innovate and implement solutions that grow and develop their business.
Our software solutions, consultancy, training and technical support are some of the best in the industry. With a wealth of experience and knowledge, Quadra specialises in helping businesses adopt efficient and effective design workflows. We help them innovate and embed data management solutions. We pride ourselves on our consultative approach to working with customers as their technology partner. For more information about Quadra please contact us.
Maximise your business productivity today with an AutoCAD Training course.
AutoCAD Training courses are designed to help you gain maximum benefit from all the software enhancements available within the latest version of AutoCAD and specialised toolsets, whilst providing you with more efficient methods of working. Training can be delivered in-person or online.
Everyone has to start somewhere. Designed for new AutoCAD software users, this training course covers all the features and techniques required for creating, editing and printing drawings within AutoCAD.
Take your AutoCAD knowledge to the next level with AutoCAD Beyond the Basics. Learn about sophisticated techniques that extend your mastery of the program.
Supercharge your AutoCAD skills by learning about the creation of AutoCAD Electrical symbols, circuits and databases. Get to grips with titleblock linking, reporting tools, templates and project files.
Extend your knowledge of Plant Design. This training course provides a comprehensive overview of plant design plus a focus on project setup and administration.
Welcome to the June Flash Sale and this month is a big one!
Get 25% off the following products:
AutoCAD – Get Access to the latest version of AutoCAD with specialised toolsets. This offer is available for both one year and three-year subscription
AutoCAD LT – Get Access to the latest version of AutoCAD with specialised toolsets. This offer is available for both one year and three-year subscription
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Quadra Solutions Ltd specialise in design and data management software solutions for the manufacturing, construction, engineering and PCB design industries. Quadra is a Gold Autodesk Partner, an accredited training centre and specialists in PCB design. Inventor, Revit, AutoCAD,Collections and Vault software help our customers to design, visualise, innovate and implement solutions that grow and develop their business.
Our software solutions, consultancy, training and technical support are some of the best in the industry. With a wealth of experience and knowledge, Quadra specialises in helping businesses adopt efficient and effective design workflows. We help them innovate and embed data management solutions. We pride ourselves on our consultative approach to working with customers as their technology partner. For more information about Quadra please contact us.
Integrating your AutoCAD Electrical data into Vault can save time and money
Did you know you can integrate AutoCAD Electrical with and Autodesk Vault?
Managing your data has never been more important, especially whilst many of us are working from home. In this article, we are going to take a look at managing Autodesk AutoCAD Electrical (ACE) data in Autodesk Vault (Vault) and how this can improve your workflows.
Firstly, why do we want AutoCAD Electrical to integrate with Vault?
Effective Data Management is crucial, ensuring all stakeholders in engineering and business workflows have the most accurate information available at all points in the project lifecycle, reduces costly errors and avoids unnecessary rework.
Autodesk Vault integrates with Autodesk CAD Software including; Autodesk Inventor, AutoCAD Electrical, AutoCAD Mechanical, AutoCAD and Revit, making it easy to manage data associated with your digital prototype from engineering through manufacturing and into the product lifecycle —saving time and ensuring data integrity. Vault is also happy to work with not CAD data for a complete PLM solution, allowing the whole company to leverage design and project data. Click here for more information on PLM
Autodesk Vault supports AutoCAD Electrical workflows and functionality including electrical project files and drawing sheets. Vault manages the relationships between files, files access control, revisions and lifecycle management.
How do AutoCAD Electrical and Vault Play together?
Vault supports drawing previews of current and previous versions of the drawing sheets.
From AutoCAD Electrical, accessing the Vaulted date from the Project Manager is very similar to the usual workflow when working with AutoCAD Electrical this makes it easily adopted by existing AutoCAD Electrical users. When Electrical and Vault are set up correctly most of the Vault work “Just Happens” and Vault deals with much of the background data exchange.
Vault supports and understands AutoCAD Electricals Parent-Child and Cross Sheet referencing systems. Vault Pro also supports extraction of individual item data with the use of Item Master, this allows full BOM extraction at granular levels based on the information in the AutoCAD Electrical Project’s sheet set.
With multi-user access to an electrical project (as AutoCAD Electrical files are checked out, worked on and subsequently checked back in) the user, revision, and version history is logged and archived by Vault. If a previous version is required after an incorrect design change the previous version can be promoted to the current version.
Higher levels of Vault allow for files to go through Release Management to ensure the design goes through all stages required when implementing a diligent and traceable design and manufacturing process.
Setting Up AutoCAD Electrical for Use in a Vaulted System
Firstly, Some Principles on Integrating AutoCAD Electrical and Vault
There are several considerations when integrating AutoCAD Electrical into the Vault workflow.
AutoCAD Electrical will need a “Sandbox” location for the Vault working folder where all AutoCAD Electrical users have full read/write access.
This sandbox location will also ideally be secured in a way that stops all non-AutoCAD Electrical users from accessing the location and inadvertently breaking the CAD files.
This is slightly contrary to the way we set up Inventor and this must be taken into consideration in a mixed Mechanical & Electrical Environment but as a rule, this does not cause any insurmountable issues.
Under normal circumstances, a multi-user AutoCAD Electrical environment with central catalog locations for users is recommended. This is when a central location is created for all electrical environmental data including but not limited to
Catalog databases
Icon information
Panel information
Environmental variable files
Template information
Plot & printing standards
We would also advise having a high-speed network in place.
If the intention is to use the Electromechanical link functionality to bring you Schematic (AutoCAD Electrical) and Physical (Inventor) Design data together, you will need to consider further locations for the files and data sets required to achieve this, this is however outside the remit of this blog but please give us a call if you need information on this.
Please be assured, integrating AutoCAD Electrical with Vault is a very worthwhile process and will save you time and money, this said the process is not for the inexperienced or faint-hearted. What follows is an outline of some of the processes that we at Quadra would go through to get you into the position of having AutoCAD electrical integrate into your Existing or new Vault PLM system. If it is something you are interested in, then please give us a call to discuss the options.
For this article, we are going to assume that you have a working Vault and that you have installed the Vault Add-In for your AutoCAD Electrical clients.
Before you get started…
Make sure you have the following in place.
Add the relevant AutoCAD Electrical users with the correct permissions to your Vault.
Create a group on the domain and add the Electrical engineers to that group
Create a location on the server for the AutoCAD Electrical Vault Working Folder “Sandbox”
g., \\Server\Electrical_VWF
Set permissions for the Above so that only the Electrical engineers (and the Vault) have read/ write access to this folder
This will stop other users from unwittingly breaking the data integrity of the AutoCAD electrical files and database.
Log into your desktop Vault application and set your vault working folder to the above.
Use the UNC path or map a drive. Make sure you do the same on all the AutoCAD electrical machines.
Open a drawing, this can be an existing drawing or a new drawing
One of the quirks of AutoCAD is that the ribbon is disabled until a drawing is open. As a result, you cannot access the vault tab for the next action.
Go to the Vault tab and log into Vault.
Make the project that you want to put into Vault “Activate”
In your Project browser right-click on the active project and select Vault > “Check-In” All…
Select a location for the project and all the sheets to be saved in Vault.
Check the location and the files that you have added to Vault. (Notice that it is not only drawings that are checked in.)
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Now that the data is in the Vault you can work on it as you would in AutoCAD Electrical.
The only difference is that you must open Check out the files you want to work on as this gives you rights to edit the file.
When others want to work on the project or if you want to open another project from Vault you simply use the “Open Project from Vault…” option in the Project browser.
When you are working on a project with multiple engineers, it is best practice to only have the files you are working on open and checked out. Once you have finished editing them, check them back in for others to work on them as required.
In conclusion.
If the information above is of interest and you would like any further information on any aspect, please do not hesitate to get in touch and we will be happy to help you evaluate your current setup and how you can get the most from your Autodesk Software.
How Autodesk software and Quadra Solutions are helping Indusvent with their Continuous Improvement Project.
AUTODESK INVENTOR CASE STUDY
Indusvent is a specialist dust extraction systems and equipment supplier, operating nationally from three strategic locations across the UK. Their aim is to provide the most energy-efficient dust extraction equipment in the marketplace, setting new standards of performance while conserving energy consumption for the end-user. Indusvent has a history of over 50 years in the dust extraction business and has been drawing in 2D AutoCAD® for around 25 of those years.
While delighted with the ease of use and reliability of the AutoCAD software, Indusvent wanted to move away from drawing pieces of ducting and equipment line by line, as well as having to complete multiple iterations of elevations. They wanted a software solution that was 3D-based and would deliver a rapid return on investment (RoI). To facilitate this, Indusvent approached their IT solutions partner of around 15 years, Quadra Solutions.
“I am always keen to find software solutions that enable us to continuously improve.”
Gary Madden, Regional Account Manager at Indusvent
Gary approached the Quadra team for guidance, who asked for a recent dataset and suggested
coming onsite to discover how they operated, understand the business objectives, the challenges
and make recommendations to move forward.
Using Indusvent’s dataset, Quadra advised investing in Autodesk Inventor®, which provides professional-grade 3D mechanical design, documentation and product simulation tools.
“Previously drawing a system ‘line by line’ may have taken Indusvent three or four days. With Autodesk Inventor they can now complete this task in under a day.”
Today, Autodesk Inventor is used across the full spectrum of Indusvent’s D&M workflow. Everything from a simple ducting modification, through to the modelling of a full £500,000 system.
To read the full Indusvent and Inventor Case Study fill in the form below
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Autodesk Inventor Tips
Get our Autodesk Inventor eBook – 15 Top Inventor Tips to Boost your Productivity right now!
Download our Inventor Tips eBook | We are always looking for new ways to help our software users adopt, adapt, and advance! In the last few years, the manufacturing and engineering sectors have seen revolutionary changes and Quadra Solutions has been at the forefront of many of these technological advances.
Quadra Solutions Ltd specialise in design and data management software solutions for the manufacturing, construction, engineering and PCB design industries. Quadra is a Gold Autodesk Partner, an accredited training centre and specialists in PCB design. Inventor, Revit, AutoCAD,Collections and Vault software help our customers to design, visualise, innovate and implement solutions that grow and develop their business.
Our software solutions, consultancy, training and technical support are some of the best in the industry. With a wealth of experience and knowledge, Quadra specialises in helping businesses adopt efficient and effective design workflows. We help them innovate and embed data management solutions. We pride ourselves on our consultative approach to working with customers as their technology partner. For more information about Quadra please contact us.
Need to export a large design assembly, but don’t want to give out all of the detailed information? Want to export the assembly while reducing the file size? Hoping to improve performance in downstream processes by reducing assembly model complexity? Export using Shrinkwrap can help.
Large assemblies can be tricky to work with. Some Inventor assemblies can be as large as 100,000 occurrences and 10,000 unique parts or more. An occurrence is a reference to a part or subassembly from the main assembly. A more typical large assembly probably contains 3,000 – 5,000.
With so many parts and sub-assemblies, it can be tricky to share your assembly with others and provide them with the right amount of information required.
Need to share a design with someone, but don’t want to give out all of the detailed information? The shrinkwrap command can help you model size, load time and details.
Why Shrinkwrap your Inventor Files?
What benefits do simplified parts provide?
Simple to use
Significant reduction in file size for large assemblies and complex parts.
Reduced time to open an assembly using a simplified assembly substitute Model State.
Improved performance when viewing or working with large assemblies and complex parts.
Protect intellectual property by removing features and internal components.
Improved performance as BIM content
So how do you Reduce your Inventor File Size using Shrinkwrap
000 occurrences with 1,000 to 2,000 parts.
Shrinkwrap works by reducing the number of faces in a part or parts within a subassembly. Use Shrinkwrap to create a simplified single part representation of an assembly to improve capacity and performance in downstream assemblies or applications. Shrinkwrap uses the derived component command in the background to create a single part from an assembly.
How to Export with Shrinkwrap
Creating a shrink-wrapped component is simple. The component is created from inside the assembly file, eliminating the need to derive the assembly into a new part. Not only is it all done automatically, but the substitute will normally be much smaller than the original derived part approach.
Select the Shrinkwrap command from inside the top assembly. The following dialog will appear, allowing you to create the shrinkwrap part.
Because you are creating a shrinkwrap from the top level assembly, the command will assume, by default, that you want to shrinkwrap all of the parts and subassemblies that exist at the top level.
As you progress through creating the shrinkwrap – you will be presented with the Derived Assembly dialog box where you can choose which parts and subassemblies will be added into the shrinkwrap.
Once you have accepted the settings in the Derived Assembly dialog and picked OK, not only will the shrinkwrap be created as an individual IPT, but a new Substitute Level of Detail will be added at the top assembly level.
Be absolutely sure to pick Save at this point to ensure that the Substitute Level of Detail is saved in the assembly.
After saving, you will find you can quickly toggle between the original assembly Master Level of Detail and the shrink-wrapped Substitute Level of Detail. During the save, the new shrinkwrap part file will also be saved.
Autodesk Inventor Tips
Get our Autodesk Inventor eBook – 15 Top Inventor Tips to Boost your Productivity right now!
Download our Inventor Tips eBook | We are always looking for new ways to help our software users adopt, adapt, and advance! In the last few years, the manufacturing and engineering sectors have seen revolutionary changes and Quadra Solutions has been at the forefront of many of these technological advances.
Quadra Solutions Ltd specialise in design and data management software solutions for the manufacturing, construction, engineering and PCB design industries. Quadra is a Gold Autodesk Partner, an accredited training centre and specialists in PCB design. Inventor, Revit, AutoCAD,Collections and Vault software help our customers to design, visualise, innovate and implement solutions that grow and develop their business.
Our software solutions, consultancy, training and technical support are some of the best in the industry. With a wealth of experience and knowledge, Quadra specialises in helping businesses adopt efficient and effective design workflows. We help them innovate and embed data management solutions. We pride ourselves on our consultative approach to working with customers as their technology partner. For more information about Quadra please contact us.
We all know the issue; Your licenses have changed and as a result, you need to manage your Autodesk License Type. This is especially tricky when it comes to already installed Products after the contract is changed to Named User (Sign-In) type.
In this simple guide, we will take you through the basics of License Type Management.
Managing your Autodesk License Type for software versions older than 2016
For any versions older than 2016, simply reinstall the product.
Managing your Autodesk License Type for 2017, 2018, 2019 software versions:
Firstly, you will need to delete the following file.
C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\CLM\LGS\Product_Key_Version.0.0.F\LGS.data
Or, simply delete any folder under “LGS”
Finally, open the product.
Managing your Autodesk License Type if you have 2020 & 2021
software versions:
First, open Task Manager and “End/Kill” AdSS0.exe process in ‘Details’ tab.
Next, open Command Prompt (cmd.exe) by entering in Windows Search box.
Once you have done this, copy and paste the following:
Quadra Solutions Ltd specialise in design and data management software solutions for the manufacturing, construction, engineering and PCB design industries. Quadra is a Gold Autodesk Partner, an accredited training centre, and specialists in PCB design. Inventor, Revit, AutoCAD,Collections and Vault software help our customers to design, visualise, innovate and implement solutions that grow and develop their business.
Our software solutions, consultancy, training and technical support are some of the best in the industry. With a wealth of experience and knowledge, Quadra specialises in helping businesses adopt efficient and effective design workflows, innovate and embed data management solutions. We pride ourselves on our consultative approach to working with customers as their technology partner.
One of the lesser-used features of Inventor CAM is creating and using templates. If a component has strategies that can be replicated onto another, irrespective of geometry then creating a template can reduce programming time considerably. It is simply a case of highlighting the required strategies right-clicking and saving as a template.
It’s then a case of opening up the second model, right-clicking on the setup, and selecting create from the template. The entire template can be selected or just individual features if required, those strategies can now be modified by selecting the geometry changing the tools, verifying heights, or changing cutting depth.
A real benefit of this feature is the reduction of the time it takes to create numerous strategies, therefore, improving your workflow.
Autodesk Inventor tips
Get our Inventor eBook – 15 Top Inventor Tips to Boost your Productivity right now!
Download our Inventor Tips eBook | We are always looking for new ways to help our software users adopt, adapt and advance! In the last few years, the manufacturing and engineering sectors have seen revolutionary changes and Quadra Solutions has been at the forefront of many of these technological advances.
Quadra Solutions Ltd specialise in design and data management software solutions for the manufacturing, construction, engineering and PCB design industries. Quadra is a Gold Autodesk Partner, an accredited training centre and specialists in PCB design. Inventor, Revit, AutoCAD,Collections and Vault software help our customers to design, visualise, innovate and implement solutions that grow and develop their business.
Our software solutions, consultancy, training and technical support are some of the best in the industry. With a wealth of experience and knowledge, Quadra specialises in helping businesses adopt efficient and effective design workflows, innovate and embed data management solutions. We pride ourselves on our consultative approach to working with customers as their technology partner. For more information about Quadra please contact us.