New Products: Computer-Based Management Tools for A/Es

-- Consulting-Specifying Engineer, 5/12/2005

• Translation plug-in is said to eliminate the need to upgrade AutoCAD licenses to be able to share work and collaborate with other AutoCAD users. It is claimed to be the first free data translation plug-in that lets AutoCAD users work easily with DWG files created by any version of AutoCAD software, and is being enhanced to allow easy creation of PDF files from within AutoCAD. For more about DWGgateway from SolidWorks, click here.

• Web browser tool is for Mac users who want to make sure they never lose track of a single web page they visit. The program automatically catalogs the websites users visit in a searchable database. No matter what amount of time passes, users can access any page they previously visited, even if they only remember a key word or two from the specific web page they're looking for. For more about PocketMac Safari Scrapbook, click here.

• Project time tracking software keeps track of time billed to different projects. Time can be accurately billed by project, by task and by client. Reports summarize the collected time. The latest versions of the software are made to run on Windows CE compatible devices. When away from their PC, people can easily track their time on their Pocket PC devices. When back at their PC they can import the collected data. For more on time tracking software from CyberMatrix, click here.

• Project management software suite for AEC firms has added several new capabilities, including: resource scheduling features; time-phased budget and forecasting; enhancements to customer relationship management (CRM) proposal generation, as well as Oracle 10g certification as part of the latest upgrade to its industry-leading software suite. For more information on CMiC project management, click here.

• Time billing and project management software offers multiple time and expense capture methods, including a multi-instance timer and managing time and expenses via the Web, cell phone, PDA and email. Microsoft Outlook appointments and tasks can also be converted to time entries. Project management includes billing type (recurring, hourly, fixed fee, percent complete and more), status, project-specific invoice format, project bill rate and custom fee schedules, budgets, budget comparisons, retainers, project dollar maximum and processing rules. For more on BillQuick from BQE, click here.