New Products for CAD

By Consulting Specifying Engineer Staff April 7, 2005

AutoCAD 2006 versions have been announced. The suite of applications for architects and engineered building systems designers includes Revit Building 8, Architectural Desktop 2006, Building Systems 2006 and AutoCAD Revit Series 8. New features in Building Systems 2006 include: the ability to lay out HVAC systems easier with objects that respond to changes, update and stay connected; improved design accuracy, with easier access to the engineering design data and exporting to third-party applications that now include fabrication and estimating; the ability to directly schedule engineering data without manual editing; and one-click conversion to DWF or to publish to the web. For more information on CAD for engineers from Autodesk, click here .

MicroStation PowerDraft 2D/3D CAD by Bentley Systems can be downloaded at no extra cost by students and educators as part of the “You Deserve Better” upgrade program. The move is said to help prepare future engineers in computer-aided design. For more information on the complete scope of the upgrade program, click here .

Productivity Toolkit is a complete software package for MicroStation shops wanting to increase production workflow and decrease the time it takes to perform tedious and repetitive tasks to design files. The application helps users successfully migrate from 95, SE and J to MicroStation V8, but ensuring migrated design files are corruption-free and in top shape. Other capabilities include FileFixer to fix dormant and apparent design file corruption that inhibits proper design file behavior; Global File Changer to select and change element symbology or manipulate text in V7 files; and Microsoft Office Importer to import huge spreadsheets into your V7 files. For more information on the MicroStation Productivity Toolkit, click here