Autodesk Inventor uses Extensible Mark-up Language (XML) files as a means of storing style information externally from Autodesk documents. Styles have been stored externally using XML since the 2012 release. This is to reduce file bloating on larger assemblies. Imagine if you will, a 10000 part assembly with a different set of styles stored in each individual part. That’s 10000 sets of information in memory when only the styles from the assembly level are being stored in your PC’s RAM. Using external XML information allows the combination of files described above to be much smaller, only calling on the required data at the required time, saving system resource for more complicated tasks.

“Should I create my own styles?” The question is do you need to? In my previous position we had custom fonts, alternative settings, combinations of ANSI and ISO to make the style standards work across three continents. For the most part we didn’t need a custom style, but it made us feel better that we weren’t a “standard” business.

Managing styles for the most part can all be conducted from within Inventor itself.  I would recommend that someone competent conducts the management in line with an agreed and defined company or industry standard.

For example, styles define:

• Line weights and leader styles
• Arrowheads and other terminators
• Dimension and text styles
• Symbols and options available for drawing annotations
• Format welding symbols, caterpillars, and end treatments
• Centre mark style and size
• Hatch pattern choices
• Formats for parts lists and balloons

Styles in parts and assemblies control lighting attributes.

Styles in sheet metal parts control lighting attributes, a sheet thickness, bend, corner, alternative flat pattern representations for punches and unfolding preferences.

Because some styles rely on other styles for formatting, a simple change can ripple through all other styles causing problems, especially if you are not aware of the links so please be careful when editing the styles.

If you chose to modify a style to suit your particular business/industry needs I would recommend copying an existing style and re-naming it as a company standard.

On a final note I would suggest that the CAD manager is responsible for all project files and style editing. This promotes standardisation and consistency across the board and makes housekeeping that much easier.

I would almost certainly recommend a project and styles health check on a quarterly basis, and if not at least once a year to ensure there is limited drift from your company drafting and modelling standards.

If you would like more information on the benefits of managing styles don’t forget you can always contact us, check out the website and for regular updates follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn.

A new Autodesk software release often brings a number of new commands, and AutoCAD 2017 is no different.  To help you all out, I’ve put all of these new commands in one easy to use table where you can see which new commands are in AutoCAD and which new commands are in AutoCAD LT.

I hope this is useful for you, bookmark the page!  If you’d like more information on AutoCAD 2017 training or software, get in touch or visit our brand new website.  For more helpful hints and tips, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

There are a number of reasons you might need to update a serial number for Autodesk software, such as converting an educational license to a commercial license, starting a new subscription after the previous one expired, if you’ve extended the term on an existing license or if you’ve just been issued a new serial number.

Updating a serial number on Autodesk software doesn’t need to be a lengthy process, and at Cadassist we frequently get asked if you need to completely reinstall the software in order to be able to do this.  The short answer is no, and here’s how.

If your software subscription expires or your user permissions change, you may receive an activation screen with one of the following messages:

• Renew your license
• Contact your administrator to request permission to use this product

To renew your license for your Autodesk software you can:

1. Get a new serial number. Individual users can renew their software subscription to replace an expired license. Enterprise users can contact a Contract Administrator to get a new serial number.
2. Enter the serial number in the renew license dialog box and click Activate

You can change the serial number for your Autodesk software from within the Help menu of most products.

To change your serial number from the software menu:

1. Start your Autodesk software.
2. Follow one of these paths in your software Help menu (path may vary by product):

• Help > About
• Help > About[Product Name]
• Help > Autodesk Product Information > About[Product Name]

3. Click Product Information… or Product License Information in the About window, depending on which version you are using.
4.  Click the Update button next to the serial number in the Product License Information dialog box.

5.  Enter your product serial number and click the Activate button.

Please note, in some cases you will need to restart the Autodesk Product in order for the updated serial number to be displayed.

If you want more information on Autodesk software you can visit our new Cadassist website, to keep receiving all of our hints and tips for Autodesk software, don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

All areas of Revit have been updated with the new Revit 2017 release, and you can learn about software improvements for mechanical systems, electrical systems, plumbing systems, (MEP) and the related analysis here on the Cadassist blog.

Revit Fabrication

• Convert design intent to fabrication parts: You can convert generic, design-intent Revit parts to LOD 400 fabrication parts
• Route and Fill: To simplify the process for completing a fabrication model, use the Route and Fill command to step through possible routing solutions.
• Quick Connect: To simplify the process for filling a gap between a fitting and a straight, use the Quick Connect command.
• Trim/extend: To simply the process for filling a gap between two straights, use the Trim/Extend tool.
• Swap fabrication parts: Use the Type Selector to quickly swap fabrication parts.
• Fabrication parts optimisation: To help optimise fabrication ductwork layouts, you can use in-canvas controls to reposition short straight segments and to extend fitting extensions. Additionally, you can review warnings to find fittings that are longer than specification-defined lengths.
• Hanger bearer position: To avoid clashes in the model, use the hanger controls to modify the length and position of the hanger bearer and its corresponding rod location.
• Hanger placement: You can place a fabrication hanger on the straight portion of a fitting extension. Hangers can be placed on other hangers to model trapeze conditions or in free space.
• Tag fabrication parts: To support workflows for construction documentation for fabrication, additional fabrication parameters are available for tagging fabrication parts.
• Fabrication parameters: To improve tagging, scheduling, and filtering capabilities for MEP fabrication modelling, several parameters are now available for fabrication parts.
• Fabrication family categories: To improve annotation, scheduling, and filtering capabilities for MEP fabrication modelling, family categories have been added for MEP Fabrication Containment, MEP Fabrication Ductwork, MEP Fabrication Hangers, and MEP Fabrication Pipework.
• Hidden lines for fabrication parts: To improve documentation, fabrication parts now display hidden lines.
• Insulation and lining: To improve documentation, fabrication parts now display separate sub-components for insulation and lining for duct and pipe elements, allowing more control of display properties.
• Rise drop symbols: This enhancement supports coordination between fabrication models in Revit and the Autodesk Fabrication products (CADmep, ESTmep, and CAMduct). Rise drop symbols for a fabrication run in Revitare defined in the Autodesk Fabrication products, and are mapped to the rise drop symbols used for duct, piping, and electrical containment systems in Revit.
• Tooltips for fabrication parameters in the Properties palette: To support usability, tooltips provide descriptions for fabrication parameters in the Properties palette.
• Fabrication settings: When you specify a fabrication configuration, you can also specify a fabrication profile.
• MEP Fabrication Content for Revit: This fabrication configuration is now available as part of the Revit installation

MEP User Interface and Workflow Enhancements

• New annotation families: To improve annotation for generic and fabrication parts, several annotation families are now available for tagging ductwork and pipework. (Electrical containment is not currently supported.) You can use tags for offset, elevation, spot elevation, invert elevation (pipework only), set up, and set down to tag generic and fabrication elements. Use the Mechanical Settings dialog to customise the labels for the tags.
• Electrical settings: You can specify the load calculation method for how Revit sums electrical loads: Sum True Load and Reactive Load, or Sum Apparent Load and True Load.  When upgrading a model, Revit uses the Sum True Load and Reactive Load method as the default.
• Temperature Difference family parameter type: The Temperature Difference parameter is now available for HVAC, Electrical, and Piping families.
• Calculate pressure drop for taps: To improve workflows when calculating pressure drop in a duct system, you can associate an ASHRAE table for duct tap fittings.

MEP Performance Improvements

• Duplicate marks: To improve performance, the Mark parameter is not populated when placing elements for the following MEP categories: Cable Trays, Cable Tray Fittings, Conduits, Conduit Fittings, Ducts, Duct Fittings, Duct Placeholders, Duct Insulations, Duct Linings, Flex Ducts, Flex Pipes, Pipes, Pipe Fittings, Pipe Placeholders, Pipe Insulations, and Wires.
• Volume calculations: To improve performance, Revit performs pipe system volume calculations as a background process.
• Display of ducts: To improve performance so that views open and update faster, Revit regenerates ductwork only for what is visible in the drawing area. In addition, if duct appears very small in the drawing area, it displays as simplified lines, regardless of the detail level assigned to the view.

For more information on Revit MEP 2017 give our team a call on 0845 872 5555 or email us.  If you want to be kept up to date with Autodesk software and Cadassist news, don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Revit 2017 has hit and there are a number of new features and changes made to enhance a Revit user’s experience; here are some of the architectural enhancements for the Revit 2017 release.

Visualisation

• Depth cueing: Depth Cueing lets you add depth to your elevations and sections to create stunning visuals to better communicate your design. This functionality works with shadows on, realistic, hidden lines, sketchy lines, ambient shadows, anti-aliasing and more.  It works in any view effect.  When you turn it on, you can control where the depth starts, stops, and the limits.

You have control over the effect in order to meet your needs.  Designed for Architects, depth cueing adds pop to your elevations and sections in either architecture or coordination views

• Visibility of point clouds: After importing one or more point clouds into a model, you can now control the visibility of individual scan locations and scan regions in each view. This new functionality enables you to hide point cloud information that is less important or relevant in a particular view, and helps improve performance when working in the model.
• Rendering:
  • Autodesk Raytracer is now used for all rendering functions – you no longer need to select a rendering engine.
  • When you export a walkthrough, if Visual Style is set to Rendering, the Autodesk Raytracer rendering settings specified for the walkthrough view are used for export.
  • Autodesk Raytracer rendering settings are now saved with the view properties.
  • Autodesk Raytracer is used when you render a material preview. You can select draft or production quality.
  • When you upgrade a model, rendering settings that were specified for the NVIDIA mental ray engine are mapped to the appropriate settings for Autodesk Raytracer.
  • A new style is available for Background in the Rendering dialog. Select Transparent to create a transparent background that can be preserved when exporting the image as a PNG or TIFF format.

Analysis

• Energy Analysis: To simplify the settings required to generate an energy analytical model, the following changes have been made:
  • Energy Settings: This dialog is redesigned so that you only need to specify a location for the model. All other parameters use intelligent defaults to provide optimal analysis with minimal input.
  • Advanced Energy Settings: Many parameters that were formerly in the Energy Settings dialog have moved to the Advanced Energy Settings dialog. Adjust these settings after performing an initial analysis when you understand their effects and want to refine the analysis.
  • Many parameters related to energy analysis have been renamed: On the Energy Settings dialog, Analysis Mode is now Mode, Core Offset is now Perimeter Zone Depth, and Divide Perimeter Zones is now Perimeter Zone Division. On the Advanced Energy Settings dialog, Conceptual Constructions is now Conceptual Types, Building Construction is now Schematic Types, and Include Thermal Properties is now Detailed Elements.
  • Help links from the Energy Settings dialog and the Advanced Energy Settings dialog provide direct access to descriptions of the parameters.
  • During energy analysis, thermal propertiesare defined for building materials based on the following hierarchy:
    • Conceptual types are applied by default to all conceptual masses and building elements.
    • More specific schematic types can override individual conceptual types.
    • When the Detailed Elements parameter is enabled, thermal properties defined for room-bounding elements override schematic types and conceptual types.
  • The Export Category parameter in the Advanced Energy Settings dialog no longer relates to thermal properties used during energy analysis.

For more information on Revit Architecture 2017 give our team a call on 0845 872 5555 or email us.  If you want to be kept up to date with Autodesk software and Cadassist news, don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In the Revit 2017 release, there have been some significant changes for structural engineering and analysis.  Here are some of the main changes you will find, and how they’ll be improving your Revit Structure experience in 2016-2017

Structural Workflow Enhancements

• Generic connections: To facilitate the exchange of information between engineers, detailers, and fabricators about a connection between steel framing elements, Revit supports generic steel connections. You can place a generic connection to define the relationship between elements. Use parameters to supply information about the connection, including pictures and links to connection requirements or other information. Generic connections can display in drawings and use colours based on approval and/or code checking status parameters for an easier review/approval workflow. If required, you can later replace generic connections with detailed steel connections created using an add-in.
• Steel Connections for Revit: This Autodesk add-in allows you to view detailed structural connector geometry and to modify additional parameters in the Revit modelling environment.
• Split columns: To improve workflows and extend usability for fabrication models, the Split Element tool can now split vertical columns at the desired points.

Structural Design Modelling and Documentation

• Column base attachment: The Attach Top/Base command can now attach structural columns to isolated foundations and footings. Adjustments to the foundation height cause the length of the column to adjust accordingly.
• Structural foundation parameters: To achieve consistency and use more recognisable terminology, several reporting parameters have been renamed or changed for wall foundations, isolated foundations, and slab foundations.
  • Isolated foundations: The Offset instance parameter is now Height Offset From Level.
  • Slab foundations: The Default Thickness parameter for filters, tags, and schedules is now Foundation Thickness
  • Elevation reporting: Top/Bottom Elevations parameters are now measured in relation to the Project Base Point.
  • Elevation at Top/Bottom Survey: The Elevation at Top/Bottom Survey parameters for filters, tags, and schedules are measured by the shared Survey Point elevation.
• New parameters for slab documentation: To improve tagging and scheduling of floors, 2 new parameters allow you to specify the default (total) thickness and core thickness of floor types. Use these parameters for schedules and tagging. When one floor layer is set to “variable” and the sub-element has a variable thickness, the parameters display the value “Varies.”

Reinforcement Detailing

• Reinforcement connectors: To improve reinforcement modelling and documentation, use reinforcement connectors. Reinforcement connectors are family-based and fully customisable, and each team member can use them according to their needs. Structural engineers can use schematic connectors to define requirements. Detailers can use them to produce shop drawings. Manufacturers can go into full detail, precisely modelling and representing reinforcement connectors to create installation instructions. Rebar connectors interact with the rebar that they connect to, facilitating change management. You can add the connectors to groups, assemblies, and partitions with unique coupler numbering. You can also export connectors to various formats.
• Bent fabric reinforcement: When placing fabric reinforcement sheets, you can now sketch bent sheets to accommodate different shapes of concrete hosts. You can later edit them to adjust to any change.
• Constrained rebar placement: The new graphical constraints manager enhances precise rebar placement. You can place standard rebar shapes that snap to adjacent standard rebar, or you can constrain them to host faces. The user interface highlights each rebar segment that can be constrained, along with available targets. You can modify dimensions to adjust the rebar position. The snap constraint maintains its relationship when you place, move, drag, or copy rebar.
• Graphical rebar constraint editing: To improve the reinforcement workflow, a new in-canvas editor replaces the Rebar Constraints dialog.
• Variable rebar distribution: To fit rebar for complex shapes, you can use rebar sets that vary along inclined faces. Documentation is easy with multi-rebar annotations, customisable numbering settings, and accurate schedules that display varying lengths. You can also define inclined rebar sets.

Structural Analysis for Autodesk® Revit®

Revit – Robot Integration: Using the Revit – Robot link, you can transfer to Revit the new result for required reinforcement: transverse density. You can display diagrams of transverse density using Results Explorer.

Following the post on the general Navisworks shortcuts available, I’ve put together some Shortcuts for TimeLiner Tasks or Simulate tabs.  Keyboard shortcuts can be initiated either by pressing the Functions Keys, the CTRL/Shift or ALT key or a combination of the 4 options for productivity and they’re a great way to save time for those that prefer the keyboard to the mouse.

I hope that you find this useful.  For more information on Navisworks products and training you can go to our new website, and to keep receiving all of our hints and tips for Autodesk software, don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

AutoCAD 360 is a new Autodesk editing and drafting tool which enables CAD users on the move to create, view, edit and share CAD drawings anywhere, any time.  Designed for CAD users working out on site, it negates the need to carry heavy and cumbersome blueprints, and enables a much more user friendly and comprehensive experience, particularly on smaller mobile devices such as tablets or smartphones.

Not only can you access and modify drawings with AutoCAD 360, but they’re also a great way to present to clients; it projects a really fresh modern image for you as a business at the forefront of technology, as opposed to a company still relying heavily on old school paper based formats.

AutoCAD 360 provides a cloud repository for all the tools, but you can also use Autodesk A360, or other external cloud services such as Dropbox or Google Drive.

You also have the capability to work completely offline by downloading files to the device you’re using, and then working without internet capability.  This can be useful for areas where signal is a problem but you still need to be able to make amends on the move.

You can use AutoCAD 360 on laptops, tablets and smartphones, including Apple, Android and Windows devices, but there is also a customised iPad Pro version.  This version gives you a couple of additional features.

The point of AutoCAD 360 is that Autodesk are recognising the importance of technology as part of the ongoing process, and not just something to use at the beginning and end of a project.  Having a tool that can be used anywhere means that there’s no need to transfer changes from paper to AutoCAD.  In addition, all parties involved can see an up to date version at any time.

You can get AutoCAD 360 from all the usual app stores.

For more information on AutoCAD software and training, check out the new Cadassist website or email us.  To keep up to date with Autodesk and Cadassist news, don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In the run up to the Bramhall Duck Race, of which we are proud sponsors, we have taken on a new starter; Mr Quack Assist.  He comes to us relatively inexperienced in all things design and data management, but with his sunny yellow outlook and eye catching presence, we are confident he will rise to the challenge of his key role; raising money for Francis House Children’s Hospice.

Cadassist regularly contribute to Francis House, and as part of the fundraising effort Mr Quack Assist will be racing this Sunday in one of the Corporate Giant Rubber Duck Races.  Last year the duck race raised over £15,000.  This year, Mr Quack Assist is confident we can do more.

“Francis House Children’s Hospice provides much needed help and support for children and their families,” said Mr Quack Assist, new starter at Cadassist.  “We’re genuinely pleased and honoured to help.”

Managing Director Tony Reece is confident Mr Quack Assist will win.  “I know the Cadassist team have worked hard on getting Mr Quack Assist ready, I look forward to seeing the results.”

If you’d like to help Francis House too, you can donate online.  Otherwise, please come and support Mr Quack Assist on the day.  Take a look at Mr Quack Assist’s week.

As you may know the Autodesk applications manager is a content delivery solution for all of your product updates.  It sits in the bottom corner of your PC popping up every now and again with a big list of all of the updates available for your products, which is great.  It kept your Autodesk software up to date with service packs, hotfixes and security updates, unfortunately it lumped everything together in one long list and could be quite frustrating if you only used Inventor from your product design suite but there were updates for all of the other software packages in the list that you had to go through to get to the ones you actually needed.

With the release of Autodesk’s 2017 (and backwards to 2015 releases) product offerings this system is being replaced with the Autodesk Desktop Application. It’s the same thing; content delivery, but different, granular updates for specific products. For people like me who have every level of every product installed, it’s great. I can flick through individual products and only update the ones I want at the time. If I want to update Recap, I go to the Recap product page and all of the updates for that individual product are there.

You can still get all of the updates relating to all of your products in one list if you want them, but now you can search for them by the product type rather than just a big list of updates. Handy.

It’s also got a new look, adding learning videos specific to the product you want to look at with some articles about that product. Subscription and Maintenance users get some exclusive content expanding on the information provided. This helps with the feature you only use once this year, or when you get back to base after training to focus you on a specific area of growth.

We have just been informed that the Autodesk Desktop Application will also deliver full product downloads from May 23^rd 2016 and will become a single destination to access new product releases, product updates and your subscription only benefits, eliminating the multiple areas for this data available currently.

The newly released desktop app is included in all Microsoft Windows versions of 2015-2017 Autodesk products and suites.

So what are you waiting for?  Go download the Autodesk Desktop Application now and get started managing your products in a much more intuitive way.

P.S. Important notice for Software Administrators — how to control who gets access and when:

Autodesk desktop app notifications and installation privileges can be enabled/disabled by device or by release in Autodesk Account. Customers simply follow the on-screen instructions to set this up.

To learn more about the Autodesk desktop app please don’t hesitate to contact us by email.  Don’t forget to check out the new website, and follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter for all the latest new.

BIM is one of the major issues surrounding the construction industry at the moment and Cadassist are championing the education of BIM and the importance of training and software’s such as Revit, at a number of upcoming events in the Manchester area, both sponsoring and presenting.

For more information on these events check out our website blog.

For more information on BIM software and training email or phone us. To keep up to date with Autodesk and Cadassist news, don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Working in Industry can be a nightmare, suppliers use one CAD (Computer Aided Design) system, and customers use another. This can lead to a spider web of 2D and 3D data that has to have multiple versions of the same data.

This isn’t a problem, I mean, storage is cheap now a days and storing all of these format variants doesn’t take up too much space on your server. A Catia file here, a step file there, O’look Native data, thank heavens I don’t have to translate this.

There are a few problems with this type of system, for the full article check out the Cadassist blog.

For more information on AutoCAD software and training, contact us.  To keep up to date with Autodesk and Cadassist news, don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

The following blog is a summary of my presentation at the BIM Level 3 & Beyond Conference (www.biml3.com) at Manchester University on 29th June 2016.  A video link appears at the end of this article.

As we face the move to BIM Level 2 and beyond, design professionals are all being asked to work in a smarter, faster, more efficient, more data-rich, more interconnected way.  We are grappling with new processes, new deliverables, new ways of partnering and sharing data.  It goes without saying that we will need to learn and adopt new skills in order to respond to these challenges.  In order to cope with this change, I believe we need a learning strategy for BIM.

A good way to put this in context is to have a look at this Venn diagram that many of us are familiar with.  It is a definition of BIM, describing it as equal parts technology, process and people.  Certainly we have all spent a lot of time on our technology strategy.  And no doubt on the process side of things too.  But what about the people?  If we are to believe this premise that True BIM is the convergence of Technology and Process and People, shouldn’t we be spending time on our People Strategy?  At least giving it equal attention?  You may say, well, we don’t need a strategy for the people side of BIM.  We just find the best people we can find and put them in the right place.  I would like to suggest that you will need much more than that to transition to BIM successfully.

Component #1:  Multi-level approach

The first part of a learning strategy for BIM should be a recognition that BIM affects all levels of your organisation.  You are changing much more than just the software you are using.  Without the right skills at the operational and strategic levels as well, your move to BIM will be a difficult one.  You need to adopt a multi-level approach for this multi-level change.

Component #2:  Know your outcomes

The second part of your Learning Strategy is all about knowing your outcomes.  What are the skills you need within your organisation to make this transition?

Are there different BIM roles within your organisation?  Absolutely.  Not just the design team, but at all levels.  What do we want our sales team to know about BIM?  What skills should our surveyors have?  Our asset managers?  Our engineers?  Our IT Managers? Our directors?  There are different skills for different BIM roles in your business.  I believe you should write these skills down.  It will take time, but when you are done, you will have a BIM “skills map” for your organisation.  This map will be a very powerful tool for driving the decisions you make about recruitment, promotions within your company, project management, and most certainly training.

At a technical level, you will have a lot of this information already – it should be easy enough for you to identify your lead users, and define their skills.  These are users who have figured out how BIM should work at their level in your organisation.  The challenge is then getting those ideal skills out to a wider audience.  A skills map will help.

Component #3: Know your starting point!

Once you have developed that skills map, you then need a way to determine how your people are aligned to that map.  I am often surprised at how many organisations do not have a skills assessment tool in place.  It begs the question how are they managing what they are not measuring?  How can you chart a course if you don’t know where you are starting?  Early on in a BIM implementation, the odds are that you don’t know what you don’t know.  And that is a very risky position to be in.  Having a tool to identify skills eliminates this risk.  It also lowers the risk when you are adding new people to your team.

Component #4: Understand there are different types of learners

If you are responsible or partly responsible for your BIM strategy, and in turn your BIM learning strategy, it’s critical that you understand this fact:  different people learn in different ways.  Your approach to learning BIM needs to incorporate different approaches for different learners. This is a big topic and probably one for another blog.  But whether you know it or not, your personal approach to learning will fall into one of four “styles” – Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, or Reading / Writing (sometimes also referred to as a Subject Matter Expert).  There are different learner types as well.  Now you may have a fabulous trainer who understands all this.  But please know that one approach does not fit all.  Believe me, if your learning strategy consists of only one approach – such as giving your teams access to You Tube videos – your move to BIM will be a roller-coaster.

Component #5:  A great training function

“The development of news skills is the critical enabler for the transition to more effective working practices enabled by BIM. Investment in high quality training (for clients, suppliers and students) is key to achieving success.”     –  Richard Lane, UK BIM Task Group

What Richard says here is so true.  Nothing will affect your transition to BIM more than user expertise.  What Richard did not go on to say is exactly what high quality training looks like.  Well, in my 30 years in the training business, I believe great training delivery boils down to four things:

1. Expertise with the software. (This can be measured / proven)
2. The ability to share that expertise effectively.  (Not always a given!)
3. The industry knowledge to advise you on how to overcome the problems you encounter on a daily basis.  (The instructor has to have walked a mile in your shoes.)
4. The willingness to tailor the training to meet your needs

Component #6:  The learning begins when the training ends

I believe the two next most important components of your learning strategy are mentoring and support.  Once someone is in a position where they are applying what they have learned, they need mentoring to put their learning into context.  And of course the most important questions don’t come up during training – they come up in the middle of that first project.  That is when a new user is under real pressure to learn.  It’s critical they have support at that moment.  In addition, there is always unstructured learning that is going on.  People watching on-line videos, Googling a term, asking a colleague, “hey, how do I do this?” . . . it’s all learning.  The more of that learning you can capture, the better your move to BIM will be.  How do you encourage a learning culture?  Do colleagues share their knowledge, or do they keep what they know to themselves?  And if it’s the latter, what are you doing to change that?

Some of the most important outside-the-classoom learning that I’ve seen around BIM takes place when you have an independent review – either through a review of one of your building models or a review of your BIM protocols.  The learning that takes place around one of these reviews is a lever you can use to raise your game.  You can then apply these new best practices to every project that follows.

Component #7:  Get a learning platform

Okay, we are taking a big step forward here.  But in order to keep up with the rapid pace of change around BIM, it’s key.  That step is creating a learning management system (LMS) for your organisation.  An LMS is exactly what it says – a system for managing your learning.  It is a platform for you to provide your teams access to on-line training and assessments.  Your LMS should also allow you to track a learner’s progress.  Imagine for a second the impact of your teams being able to learn essential skills anytime, anywhere, at their own pace, and then applying those skills immediately.  And then going back and learning some more.  On demand technical training with minimal employee downtime.  It’s an exciting idea, and one that more and more organisations are turning to.

A commitment to ongoing learning needs to be central to our BIM learning strategy.  We are used to thinking of training as something we do once, when we start to use new software for the first time.  Sometimes we are lucky to get any training at all.  That old thinking puts our move to BIM in jeopardy.  We need to accept that continuous learning is part of this new BIM landscape we are navigating.  This attitude is captured in the Japanese business philosophy called “kaizen” which focuses on applying small, incremental improvements on a daily basis.  Adopting a kaizen approach to learning BIM will serve you well.  And implementing a learning management system will help you deliver on this approach.

Watch the recording of the full presentation:

If you’re interested in time-effective training solutions that better meet your individual needs, get in touch with our training department on training@cadassist.co.uk or visit our new website

What is he talking about? I’m guessing that’s the question on your mind right now?

Autodesk are offering the capability to upgrade from a single product, think Inventor/Revit to an Industry Collection at almost no additional cost. They have decided that the future of products is in offering a wider range of products focused on specific industry segments, with the option to supplement these offerings with cross segment software easily, if needed. They have also decided to make it easier to load and unload products/services as and when you need them.

One benefit for example – If you have a 3 month peak of work, hire in contract engineers, hire the software they need, and once the peak has leveled off, turn off the additional workers, the software and the payments. It’s like adding sky sports to your subscription for the football season and removing it to save money in the off season.

Why Industry Collections over a Product/Suite?

Autodesk are currently working on stabilising their software for the latest Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Until this is completed, we recommend avoiding this update, or rolling back if you have already installed it.

Autodesk’s stance on the Windows 10 Anniversary update. “Windows 10, for us, update 1511 and the anniversary update are just that, updates, we are currently working on stabilizing our program with this new update, but the information provided to you in the article is the official stance regarding Windows 10.”

There have been many reports of problems with Autodesk software after upgrading to Windows 10 Anniversary.

If you’ve already upgraded, we recommend rolling back to an earlier build. Windows will only allow you to do this within 10 days of installing your update. To do this, go to: Updates & Security > Recovery > Go back to an earlier build.

F-Keys not functioning after the upgrade.  

If you wish to persist with Windows 10 Anniversary, we recommend setting TEMPOVERRIES to 0 to resolve this issue.

This will turn temporary overrides on and off for drawing aids

Type: Integer

Saved in: Registry

Initial value: 1

A temporary override key is a key that you can hold down to temporarily turn on or turn off one of the drawing aids that are set in the Drafting Settings dialog box; for example, Ortho mode, object snaps, or Polar mode.

0 = Off

1 = On

Autodesk 2016 software will not activate with the new Edge browser

With the Windows 10 Update, you will receive the new Edge web browser. Autodesk 2016 products will not activate using this browser. You will be able to complete installation, but may have problems activating your software. Wherever possible, we recommend upgrading to the latest 2017 version of your software. If this is not an option for you, we suggest attempting activation through an alternative browser. You may need to set an alternative as your default browser.

Have a defined update strategy for both Windows and Autodesk products to reduce these issues significantly. If you check out this link you’ll find some of the answers that you need for compatibility of your version of Autodesk products. Knowledge Network Article

If you would like more information on the benefits don’t forget you can always contact us, check out the website and for regular updates follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn.

I’ll make this quick.  The answer is a resounding no, a whole hearted, shut the front door, top of my voice, “NNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO” and here’s why.

Kids, not just kids but fully engaged, free thinking, nice, polite, respectful, driven, kids. Bouncing off the walls with enthusiasm and no limits to what they can think or achieve.

Cadassist had the pleasure of sponsoring a Make It event held at Cottons Hotel and Spa in Knutsford, Cheshire along with Croft Filters, Croft Additive Manufacturing and Altimex Electronics. It was one of 5 regional heats of this challenge culminating in a Grand Final held at Old Trafford on the 15th of March 2017.

Make It in Manufacturing

The Manufacturing Institute’s Make It in Manufacturing campaign is helping to create a pipeline of talent for UK manufacturers by promoting the sector as an interesting and rewarding career choice for young people. Over 70,000 Students, Schools and Businesses have taken part so far.  Find out more by following @MakeitUK on Twitter or @MakeItinManufacturing on Facebook.

The Plan

11 teams of year 9 students attended (and 2 teams of teachers).  They were presented with the challenge of building a food business, fully, from scratch, then presenting their results at the end of the day in a ‘Dragons Den’ style pitch to three hungry dragons.

The day started at 9:30am, although Knutsford AC landed well in advance of this (I think the teachers knew about the free coffee and pastries). After everyone had turned up and settled down, Bernie (our wonderful host) welcomed everyone and laid out the health and safety, position of the toilets and the most important part of the day, where to get coffee. Neil Burns and Louise Geekie from Croft then presented a little about Croft and how new technology has improved what they do at their business. Davinder from  Altimex, described how his business designs electronics and optics, and I explained how 3D CAD systems touch every aspect of peoples lives from film to trainers.

Manufacturing isn’t a Victorian work house or working down the pit anymore, it’s advanced technology, high end visualisations and digital prototyping to bring products to the market faster than ever before with higher quality for the customers.

Then the fun started.  The team passed out task books for the day and Bernie explained the task to the room. Make either a Pie Factory or a Ready Meal production service to be sold to a business (the 3 dragons) in a 2 minute pitch at the end of the day.

Now this wasn’t a make something up (Space Ice-Cream Van) then try to sell the idea.  There were well laid instructions to keep people on track, understand your customers, select the right equipment, create a blueprint, think about product flow through the business, deliver on time and on cost, impress the dragons to win the order.

Go………

I have never seen such enthusiasm.  Sure there is the odd kid making weird models that have absolutely no relevance (to my untrained eye) out of the building tools, but all in 80 kids jumped on this opportunity to develop a business. Dragons and facilitators moved around the room offering help and advice to the teams, even to the teachers teams that were taking this seriously, in one case really seriously. (You know who you are Miss. Competitive).

Task 1 was to define job roles; managing director, manufacturing, design, quality, sales, marketing, logistics and finance. Not your typical day for a 13-14 year old student. Then came the business names, what shall we call ourselves?   Lots of time was spent on working out how to have a great impact with this aspect. My key task through this process was making myself available to the questions, soooooooo many questions, brilliant questions and no fear to ask them. “What does a logistics manager do?”, “Can I use spare money from prototyping to spend on marketing?”, “Do I build my factory on this layout or can I make my own layout that’s better?” These are some of the simple asks. It’s amazing to see these minds of the future  work in ways that I can’t even understand. Only once did I hear the same question from two teams.  This was put to Bernie who stopped everyone and explained that segment of the process in more detail. As Bernie spoke, everyone stopped, went quiet, listened then went back into furious work mode directly after.

The best bit for me was watching a team be born. Groups of people from the same school, they may not have worked together before. All of a sudden the MD gets the pack, reads out job descriptions and people own a position. They don’t have it defined for them they actively stand up and take charge of that role. There was some negotiation on some roles, but its done quickly, they get into position and the company is born.

Half way through the day there was a logistics maze game, no pens/paper, just 4 minds and a task to get from point A to point B through a maze, avoiding problems. If you’re wrong, you go back to the beginning of the map and start again, having to remember the path you had already taken to avoid problems. Watching teams start out quiet, tentative steps then building in confidence as they worked together, trusted each others judgement then powering through the problems stage by stage was amazing to see. Now this was the bit that opened my eyes.  One of the student teams had set an alarm on their phone so they were at the game on-time. All of the pupil teams started from the beginning without question every time they hit a bump. The teachers on the other hand, turned up late, contested every issue and in one case tried to not go back to the beginning of the course after a failed attempt.

Lunch Time

Half time break, we all got food and the dragons/facilitators had chance to sit down and discuss what we’d seen so far. Neil from Croft commented “I had 20 years and a great team to build my business to this stage. These kids are doing the same thing in 6 hours, with people they don’t really know?”. I think this was a brilliant quote. All through lunch the teams were popping over asking questions.  They hadn’t stopped.  They had plates of food but they were working, not just one or two people, everyone seemed to be doing something. All of the people involved were echoing the same thoughts.  How polite the kids were, how intelligent they were, how well they worked together just generally how great the future looks with these kids coming through. I thought it was amazing how little input they needed, every now and again we’d get asked a question, then off they popped back to work. I expected to have to micro-manage every team; how wrong I was.

“I had 20 years and a great team to build my business to this stage. These kids are doing the same thing in 6 hours, with people they don’t really know?”. – Neil Burns

After lunch there was more of the same project work, build your factory, make sure you were making money and about 30 minutes to polish your pitch- before long it was showtime. Students took to the tables and corridors as multiple mini-events or practice sessions were being hosted to get the delivery down to the strict 2 minute timing.

The Pitches – “Shock and Awe”

The Dragons are ready.

The teams were called up one by one and expertly presented their products/companies, most teams delivered within the 2 minute target and all teams delivered a coherent story. (Remember that kid I was talking about at the start of the post making a “weird model that had no relevance?” Well, that was a wind turbine to power the plant, what did I know? Just one of the stand out ideas that came through the process).

Others that hit me were:-

1. Mass customisation of your meals, order what you want and they will make it,
2. Eco-Friendly builds,
3. Wheat free, Gluten free, Celiac friendly options,
4.  An actual Instagram page for one of the businesses, up and running,
5. Hat/Apron designs at a high standard,
6. Brilliant Website designs for the business.
7. There are lots more, but I honestly couldn’t keep up.

The best bit.  Teachers singing at the end of their pitch because they had to fill 20 seconds, great job guys. I’ve given them a bit of ribbing here but the teachers were great.  You can tell they loved what they did for a living and had a lot of time for anything that gives the students an engaging experience. Everyone was a great sport and got stuck in knowing that the odds were heavily weighed against them, so I guess I owe them a shout out.

Here are the people training the next generation of Manufacturers, and a great job they are doing.

• All Hallows Catholic College – Ms Remfry
• Beamont Collegiate Academy – Mr Hillidge
• Bridgewater High School – Ms Gaskell
• Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School – Mr Baker
• Knutsford Academy – Ms Wheatcroft & Mr Hughes
• Sir William Stanier Community School – Mr Jones & Mrs Harris
• St Thomas More Catholic High School – Mr Pickett
• The Oaks Academy – Mrs Hinds-Taylor
• Winsford Academy – Ms Harris

All of the kids should be proud to have teacher willing to put themselves in this type of situation for them.

Last but not least, we had some individual and team winners, both of which we will see at the Grand Finals held at Old Trafford on the 15th of March 2017.

In second place was St Thomas More Catholic High School.

1st place, chosen by all 3 of the Dragons as outstanding was Beamont Collegiate Academy.

I can not stress this enough.  Every member, of every school, performed brilliantly (even the teachers), always on task and delivering presentations you could expect to see in the business world. I couldn’t believe that everyone involved was 13 or 14 years old? It was a really tough decision for me as a dragon to pick between the teams with scores ranging from 8.5 to 10 out of 10. What I found most impressive, was the amount of female participants. In a world where manufacturing may be seen as a male dominated environment, the room was weighed heavily towards women ruling the manufacturing world in the future.

My mother is a strong, female engineer/leader, so I should not be surprised by this, but in the manufacturing world I’ve been brought up in, this was the exception rather than the rule. I’m happy to see that this looks to be changing and that the bar is set so very high for students by The Manufacturing Institute, The Careers and Enterprise Company and local businesses like Croft, Cadassist and Altimex to promote the industry I love, in a way that could mould and influence more young adults to join the Future of Manufacturing.

Cadassist are also a sponsor of the Grand Final of the NW-Championship.  Find out more about the MakeITUK program online.

To learn more about Cadassist, please don’t hesitate to contact us by email. Don’t forget to check out the new website, and follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter for all the latest news.

I recently taught Autodesk Inventor Professional to 11 engineers from a new customer – A-Safe from Elland just a little west of Leeds.

In each of my classes, I have a quick section where I show things other than the software being trained to show the other benefits that your Autodesk account has.

One of those benefits is the Idea Station.

Now what is an Idea Station? Autodesk have a virtual wish list for many of the Autodesk products you can find the Idea stations here then navigate to the product that you have an amazing idea for or want to find out if someone else has had an idea that you can help to become a reality.

Now I did a quick calculation, in my head so it may not be correct, but between 60-80% of improvements over the last 4 years in the Autodesk software I use daily have come from either the Idea station or Autodesk Labs, you can read more about Labs or technology previews here. A Great Blog on Autodesk Technology previews by Autodesk employee Scott Sheppard.

This is what The Ideas Forum looks like for Inventor. Big vote button on the left to upvote the ideas you like. Now the highest rated idea only has 647 votes at the time of writing, this is pretty bad, I’ve had more likes on Facebook probably for a picture of my tea. Think about this, a tool that can improve the way you work every day for ¾ of your waking life can be improved significantly just by getting the same amount of votes that you can get for a random post on Facebook. You can help to change the way your Autodesk product works.

Anyway, back to Idea station – Dylan Wilson one of the engineers from A-Safe instantly found an issue with the software that would take up a lot of his time over the long term.  Dylan’s and therefore A-Safe’s problem is that when he creates a family of parts, or iParts, then adds the table to a drawing, the table shows the equations he’s used to create the variants.

Here is a video of what that looks like.

It’s annoying if you have 3-5 things to do but it’s a show stopper if you have 200 variants of one part and then when it’s in an assembly you add that to another 200 variants, that’s 400 lines of excel spreadsheet you have to edit.

Dylan has made a suggestion on the Idea Station and I think it’s a great one, Allow the value to be selected rather than the equation when placing the table into a drawing. It’s not a big change, the data is already there, it’s the addition of a selection option. If you think this is a good idea, go to the link below and upvote it, show Dylan the power of the Idea station and help improve the software for the better.

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-ideas/show-values-in-tables-for-dimensions-created-by-a-formula/idi-p/6842692

Please use the link, login and vote for this improvement, it would come in really helpful for Dylan, but I know at least 5 other companies that could use this to streamline their workflow and stop engineers managing spreadsheets and get back to engineering.

Here is a little about A-Safe from their website which can be found here.

“A-SAFE is the inventor and manufacturer of fixed, polymer safety barriers, used around the world to offer unbeatable, cost saving protection for buildings, personnel and equipment.

Made from a patented polyolefin blend called Memaplex^TM, A-SAFE barriers absorb and dissipate impacts from vehicles or hardware, protecting structures, people and machinery and offering huge cost savings in maintenance, replacement products and down-time.

Rigorously FEA tested using an in-house Research & Development team and independently verified by TÜV, A-SAFE barriers are a giant leap forward for modern health and safety practices and requirements in the workplace.

A-SAFE products have been rolled out as best practice across the world by Nestlé, and other recent clients include Coca-Cola, BMW, 3M, Heathrow Airport, Unilever, Amazon, Heineken and Jaguar-Land Rover.

The company was formed in Halifax, UK in 1984 and now has offices in ten countries (UK, Germany, France, Italy, Scandinavia, USA, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Australia) and re-sellers in over 60 more.

A-SAFE also regularly create bespoke pieces for clients which address individual issues of safety concern and compliance. The company also has systems for testing the performance characteristics of existing barrier systems and are able to suggest best products and procedures should a company’s barriers be unfit for purpose.

A-SAFE won the Queens Award for International Trade in 2014.”

To learn more about Cadassist, please don’t hesitate to contact us by email. Don’t forget to check out the new website, and follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter for all the latest news.

I have to say a massive thank you to Keqing Song from Autodesk, the Fusion 360 Product Manager keeps me up to date with everything that’s going on in the Autodesk Fusion 360 world. Regularly I receive an e-mail with the update notifications from many different products but I find Keqing’s take on getting information out there is refreshing and fits perfectly with the Fusion brand and with me. Where else in a serious product update do you get MEME’s like this to kick off the conversation?

Behind the fun are some serious deep looks at the improvements that have been made week by week but also a look into the future. I would recommend that you have a quick look through all of his past updates as there will be features in Fusion360 that you have missed or not even though about. You can find out more about Keqing and Fusion360 here – KEQING SONG

The whole Fusion 360 team are amazing at getting information into the hands of users, you get a post every 1-3 days. Not just a “hey how’s it going?” but a full in depth post about some new feature or workflow to make your life easier within Fusion360. I suggest you sign up to the Fusion360 Blog here to stay up to date.

 Sheet Metal function

Now a long awaited request in Fusion 360 is a sheet metal function, currently in an invite only technical preview, if you currently design in sheet metal this won’t change the workflow of your designs, sketch, material, bend, cut, fold etc…….. it will however allow you to have one piece of software where your part is 3D designed, 2D drawn, CNC programmed and data managed in one software where all of the processes are linked to an individual design file. If you update the 3D, both the 2D and CNC Program will update to suit, no more switching between software or manually updating your programs for small process improvement changes. I think you’ll agree, this is pretty amazing.

 Branch and Merge

Autodesk has also added a feature to Fusion360 called “Branch and Merge” this is a really simple development process that many people/businesses get very wrong. Branch and Merge is effectively a design alternative version control methodology. Below is a simple example – You have a singular product but 3 ideas on how to improve it. Create 3 (or more) branches of development to test, Design of Experiments (DOE), you kill one, and take the best bits from the other two then merge them together into a better final product. When you do this without branch and merge or a robust methodology to manage and control the variants a lot of the information gets lost in the day to day work. Branch and Merge manages this for you reducing the lost data and giving you the ability to review and roll back at any point.

This visual workflow was created in Autodesk Praxis find out more here and sign up for access to the technical preview here. You could do branches of branches then merge them back into the same final product all the while keeping your version history intact. How do you currently manage your variant workflows and Design of Experiments? Let us know in the comments.

Fusion PCB integration or ECAD (Electronics Computer Aided Design)

Unfortunately this feature is slightly delayed, is still on the cards but not today we will however keep you updated on this development. On the plus-side Autodesk Eagle has made its debut as a subscription offering. Autodesk Bought EAGLE in 2016 and it is now truly part of the Autodesk family. Eagle stands for Easily Applicable Graphical Layout Editor and is a scriptable electronics design application with the capability to create schematics and PCB layouts. It is very popular in the DIY electronics scene with Sparkfun, Adafruit and Arduino all using Eagle to develop new products and share layouts with users. Check out more features of the software here.

To learn more about Cadassist, please don’t hesitate to contact us by email. Don’t forget to check out the new website, and follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter for all the latest news.

When I say Labs you are probably thinking of, either a beloved family pet, or a cold, clinical environment where the Zombie virus is currently being cultivated.

Make your choice, but we all think its one or the other.

Autodesk Labs on the other hand is my third favourite place on the internet, behind Twitter and Facebook. Why? because its the public playground for all things future in the Autodesk world.

Labs is the place where early concept software and add in’s are given to us, “normal” Autodesk users to play with, break and feedback, for the cycle to then start again.

Some of these features die, either from no-one using them or they just don’t make financial sense. Understandable, why develop something just because its cool, if no-one wants it or isn’t willing to pay for it, whats the point?

Some features become parts of the main products (ShareNow Add-in) or stand alone products of their own (Project Photofly looks a lot like ReCap360), and some products hang around in the Labs forever, I’m looking at you 2D to 3D tool, my personal favorite app from the Labs, its been alive in the lab since around 2011 (I think). Watch this video to see how you can take drawing information from an old AutoCAD drawing into Inventor and turn that into a 3D part quickly.

Unfortunately this is the last time the 2Dto3D tool will be revived as Inventor now has some fantastic tools for inserting and linking DWG files directly into your models. I’ll be sad to see it go.

There is a large list of Labs projects and their history here, Labs History. This goes back to 2006 and lets you have a glimpse of what has happened in the Labs to shape the products you use today, and trust me its a significant list of projects, some of which you will instantly be able to reference back to your product, whether Revit, Inventor, AutoCAD or any other Autodesk product. There are improvements there for every piece of software.

Autodesk Labs allows Autodesk to have an alpha test of products and features before getting too deep into the development cycle, but most of all it allows me to try out new technology and improve the way I do things, then feed that back to Autodesk and have them use this data to improve the products moving forwards.

Autodesk Labs can be found here Labs Link and the Labs Blog can be found here Labs Blog Link A very nice man called Scott Sheppard looks after this side of things, I have conversed with him a couple of times through the forums and via e-mail about my favorite tool, he even turned it back on in Inventor 2017 for me because I missed it so much.

This is why I love the Labs, anything can happen, so go play with the new toys and get involved in the future of your software. I highly recommend becoming an active part of the Autodesk Labs community, get behind the projects you like, but also adding your voice to the projects you don’t. At this stage every idea can be edited to create the next big thing. The future of our software is in our hands, lets not waste these opportunities.

If you would like more information on the benefits of managing styles don’t forget you can always contact us, check out the website and for regular updates follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn.

If you hadn’t noticed Cadassist have been running some Fusion360 workshops in conjunction with Trafford Fablab in Altrincham. The way these workshops have worked is that Cadassist offered some training to the staff at Fablabs Altrincham and supported them through the process of learning the software. Fablabs then presented these workshops to approximately 30 of their customers/users over 3 separate sessions with some support from Cadassist.

By all accounts these sessions went really well.

“I would like to thank you again for the training provided on Wednesday.
My mind has been swimming with new ideas and possibilities.

After digesting what was said during the day I have a new idea to re-work a project I completed over 3 years ago. The time saved using Fusion360 with the integration of productions techniques (CAM) would now make this project affordable to any audience.

I am grateful for the spring board you and Simon provided in this workshop.

I have been showing off on Facebook and have had lots of people commenting on how impressive the work I have done so far looks, after only one training session! I am looking forward to blowing their minds when I really get into it.”

Phillip Bradley  (World OF Woodcraft)

Now these were not your usual training session, Simon from Fablabs created his own content with a view that people should leave the building with something in their hands. 2 hours on Fusion360, send to a 3D printer, of which Fablabs have 4, then assemble your personalised product. As you can see its a simple USB memory stick case but each user customised these items to be personal to themselves. Mass Customisation at its best.

Cadassist were there to support the delivery of this workshop, answering questions on advanced features such as FEA analysis tools and computer aided machining (CAM) capabilities. Whilst the 3D printers were delivering the custom products, Cadassist also presented some additional assembly, rendering and 2D drawing demonstrations showing the capabilities of Fusion360.

These demonstrations showed a fully assembled Stirling engine, and a snap together coffee table modeled independently then brought together into a singular design and rendered for photo realism.

Followed by some CNC Programming, assembly instructions and FEA analysis on a simple bar stool.

A tour of the Fablabs was available to anyone who wanted it and the ability to sign up to become a member. This allows you access to their capabilities on Friday and Saturday from 9am to 4pm for free, all you have to pay for is materials. My favourite machine is the 4 ft x 8 ft shopbot CNC router which you can see working here. Second on my list is the Epilog 600mm x 900mm Laser cutter again you can see working here.

Check out Trafford Fablab out for all your personal or commercial needs http://www.traffordfablab.com/ for everything from coding to prototyping they have the people, skills, knowledge and tools to make anything you can imagine.

If you have a project you’d like help with contact @Cadassist or Trafford Fablabs directly.

To learn more about Cadassist, please don’t hesitate to contact us by email. Don’t forget to check out the new website, and follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter for all the latest news.