Architecture, Engineering and Construction Afternoon Tea Events - January and February 2013

Thursday 17th January 2013 14:30 to 17:00

iPad for Architecture, Engineering and Construction - FREE with afternoon tea

 

The iPad has changed the way we worked forever but how can you take advantage of the new tools the iPad brings? Solutions inc. will be revealing the secrets of editing drawings on-site, surveying without using a tape measure and keeping in contact with your clients at all times.

No longer do you have to print and carry rolls of drawings and present heavy portfolios.

Software to be demonstrated -

• AutoCAD WS
• Vectorworks Cloud
• MagicPlan
• CAD Faster

……and many more including 3D model viewers!

 

Solutions inc. will also be demostrating the practical deployment of mobile devices through such schemes as salary sacrafice.

 

There will be a suite of iPads available to try out the specialist software.

 

SIGN UP HERE

 

 

Thursday 24th January 2013 14:30 to 17:00

RIBA BIM CPD - £20exVAT per person with afternoon tea

POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

 

BIM – Your Next Step

This talk aims to cover questions such as:

What is BIM and what is design led BIM? 

How does an architecture practice begin in degrees to use BIM? 

How does the integration process work? 

Determining the right level of BIM for the project? 

 

Content learning aims

1. Provide a ‘high level’ overview of the BIM workflow

2. Demonstrate real world case studies

3. Provide practical advice on implementing BIM

4. Carry out a practical exercise on office BIM strategy

 

Content learning outcomes

1. To understand the basic definition of BIM.

2. To understand and to be able to define in simple form the BIM Maturity Diagram.

3. To be able to place the current working methods of the practice within the context of the BIM Maturity Diagram.

4. To understand the difference between Lite BIM and Open (Full) BIM.

5. To be able to state the main advantage of the .IFC openBIM file format.

6. To be able to identify a suitable project within the practice to progress along the BIM Maturity Curve (using the guidelines set out by BuildingSMART).

7. To identify which of the ‘7 Steps to BIM’ you would consider using on your next BIM project.

 

RIBA CPD Curriculum 

In terms of the RIBA CPD Curriculum this talk has covered the following areas Professional Context, Practice Management, Managing Projects & Personal Skills and Development. A certificate will be sent following the event.

 

SIGN UP HERE

 

 

Thursday 31st January 2013 14:30 to 17:00

Vectorworks 2013 -  what's new - FREE with afternoon tea

 

We’re pleased to share with you all the evolutions in Vectorworks 2013.

No matter what design discipline you are in we know your process as a designer is evolving. And we believe as your process evolves, the tools you use to realise your creative visions need to evolve, as well.

Vectorworks is considered to be a leading program in the 2D, 3D and BIM areas. This is an opportunity to see what's arrived in the new version and to see how the software compares to what your currently using.

 

Agenda Overview

Best in 3D

Better BIM

Rendering Tools

Improved Efficiency

Site Design

...and many more

 

Nemetschek Vectorworks Inc won the "One to Watch Company" and came runners up in the "BIM Product of the Year" at this years Construction Computing Awards 2012. Vectorworks also won Construction Computing Awards 2010 "Product of the Year"

 

A suite of iMacs will be available to use at the event to try out the software

 

SIGN UP HERE

 

 

Thursday 7th February 2013 14:30 to 17:00

AutoCAD and LT on Mac - The New Frontier - FREE with afternoon tea

POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

 

Autodesk have now brought your favourite powerhouse drafting tools to the Mac. Providing native support for DWG™ file format, AutoCAD LT for Mac and full AutoCAD helps you efficiently document and share designs. With the powerhouse tools you expect– along with an intuitive Mac OS® X interface – Autodesk's software has made it easier than ever to create design documentation on your platform of choice.

 

Solutions inc. will be demonstrating the software live showing that it is easy to move from PC to Mac.

 

Also being demostrated will be further intergration with AutoCAD WS on the iPad and how you can now use the cloud to share and store your drawings with you colleagues, clients and consultants.

 

---

SIGN UP 

Please fill in all the fields, if you are signing up for the CPD we will call you to take payment

The Power of AutoCAD LT 2013 on the iPad and Mac

Meet our CAD expert

My interests lie in the development of Computer Aided Design which over the years has rapidly expanded into all sorts of industries. Building Information Modelling (BIM) as well as 3D packages have arrived and are making the industry change. For me it's about making a client more competitive in the current climate, enabling them to be more profitable. My role is to provide you with the tools you need and help implement these into your office.

Read my blogs and follow me on Twitter for an insight into my world!

AutoCAD LT for Mac 2013 (we have AutoCAD LT 2013 for Windows too)

REGISTER NOW FOR OUR FREE EVENT

Finally the software we have wanted has arrived! Now the Mac can offer the full AutoCAD product with the added ebenfit of AutoCAD WS on the iPad for the mobile designer.

Have an existing PC license? Then we can move you onto the Mac quickly and easily via an upgrade (if you have an older versions) or via an Operating System Exchange (for a new version)

Have an existing PC subscription? We can move this too.

The Power of AutoCAD LT 2013 now on Mac

AutoCAD LT® 2013 drafting and detailing software delivers the 2D documentation, collaboration, and productivity tools you need, on both Windows® and Mac® platforms.

Now Is the Time

It’s simple. Capture and communicate your design concepts with AutoCAD LT drafting and detailing software and develop precise 2D CAD drawings that you can easily edit, repurpose, and share.

Document ideas - Document your ideas and designs with a comprehensive set of 2D drafting and detailing tools.

Collaborate with others - Create files with genuine DWG technology and share your work with colleagues and clients.

Increase productivity - With a consistent focus on drafting productivity and intuitive interaction, AutoCAD LT is built for efficient design documentation.

Top 30 Apps this Christmas for Businesses and Designers

Getting an iPad? Here's a starter on the best Apps for Business + Design

Firstly a very Merry Christmas from Solutions inc. I have compiled a list of top apps for business and design listed below. 

For more apps visit our speialist app pages HERE

1. Pages is the most beautiful word processor you’ve ever seen on a mobile device. This powerful app has been exclusively designed for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. 

2. Numbers is the most innovative spreadsheet app ever designed for a mobile device.

3. Keynote is the most powerful presentation app ever designed for a mobile device.

4. Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere. After you install Dropbox on your computer, any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, your iPhone and iPad and even the Dropbox website! 

5. Bamboo Paper - Notebook; enjoy the ease of your own natural handwriting as you sketch your thoughts on a neat digital paper notebook.

6. FlipBoard; Named Apple's iPad App of the year and one of TIME's Top 50 Innovations, Flipboard creates a personalized magazine out of everything being shared with you

7. Idea Flight is the only tool you need to share ideas, documents and presentations and direct the experience of an audience easily on iPad.

8. Dragon Dictation is an easy-to-use voice recognition application powered by Dragon® NaturallySpeaking® that allows you to easily speak and instantly see your text or email messages. In fact, it’s up to five (5) times faster than typing on the keyboard. 

9. MBA Learning Solutions 2.0 is the new professional standard for mobile Business Education. Download this dynamic new learning tool to discover the business acumen legions pay tens of thousands of pounds for on our own terms and at a fraction of the same cost!

10. OmniFocus for iPad combines the in-depth task management functionality of a desktop app with the advanced mobile experience of the iPad. With flexible viewing options, location-aware task lists, and on-the-fly task entry with voice notes and image attachments, OmniFocus for iPad is the trusted system you need for managing everything in your busy life.

11. OmniGraffle; Need to create a quick diagram, process chart, page layout, website wireframe, or graphic design? With OmniGraffle, your iPad touch screen is your canvas (or graph paper, or whiteboard, or cocktail napkin…). 

12. Roambi Analytics Visualizer Your Business, On-The-Move. Roambi’s immersive dashboard-style analytics let you tap, turn and swipe to analyze and share up-to-the-minute company information on any iPhone or iPad – keeping you connected to your business, anytime and anywhere. 

13. Invoice2go is the fast and easy way to invoice, estimate, bill, collect and report. With over 20 built-in invoice styles to choose from it's actually fun going through and choosing your template and designing your invoice. 

14. FileMaker Go; DO MORE ON THE GO Tackle any task on your iPhone with FileMaker Go. Close sales deals on the road, manage project status while traveling, organise research notes in the field, or check inventory in the warehouse – all while you’re on the go

15. Evernote turns the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad into an extension of your brain, helping you remember anything and everything that happens in your life.

16. Get Fuze Meeting HD and you’ll be running online meetings from your iPad in minutes.

17. Featured in Apple TV commercials. iXpenseIt simplifies daily expense tracking and monthly budgeting. With iXpenseIt, it's never been easier to stay current on your personal budget or for business users, to get faster reimbursements. 

18. Things is a beautifully focused and amazingly intuitive task manager. Other todo applications either oversimplify or are too difficult to use. 

19. The premier app for Google Analytics, Analytics App, now debuts on the iPad as Analytics HD! Only Analytics app for iPad with Segmentation! See charts and reports like you've never seen them before, and share them in a meeting with full screen charts!

20. iThoughtsHD is a mind mapping tool for the iPad. Mindmapping enables you to visually organise your thoughts, ideas and information.

21. FTP on the Go PRO; An FTP client for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. View and edit HTML/CSS/JS/PHP/ASP, or other files on your server with its built in editor to change your website from anywhere.

22. GoodReader® is the super-robust PDF reader for iPad

23. Use OmniGraphSketcher for iPad to make elegant and precise graphs in seconds, whether you have specific data to report or a concept to explain. 

24. Sign-N-Send makes signing documents has never been easier! Sign any PDF and Microsoft Office document straight from your iPhone or iPad and send it via e-mail! Introducing Sign-N-Send, the universal iOS app that makes signing and sending back email attachments quick and easy.

25. UK Train Times provides real-time journey planning for journeys across the National Rail network and live departure information for all National Rail stations.

26. Skitch; Express yourself with fewer words, emails and meetings…with Skitch for iPad! Use shapes, arrows, sketches and text annotation to get your point across fast. Mark up photos, screenshots, maps, and webpages then share them with anyone you like. 

27. AutoCAD WS; View, edit, and share your DWG™ files with anyone, anywhere. AutoCAD WS mobile app enables you to work with AutoCAD drawings directly on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch.

28. Autodesk SketchBook® Pro for iPad is a professional-grade paint and drawing application. Using the same paint engine as its desktop counterpart, SketchBook Pro delivers a complete set of sketching & painting tools through a streamlined and intuitive user interface designed exclusively for the iPad experience. 

29. Instagram 15 million users love Instagram! It's a free, fun, and simple way to make and share gorgeous photos on your iPhone. Pick from one of several gorgeous filtered effects or tilt-shift blur to breathe a new life into your mobile photos. 

30. GarageBand turns your iPad, iPhone and iPod touch into a collection of Touch Instruments and a full-featured recording studio — so you can make music anywhere you go. Use Multi-Touch gestures to play pianos, organs, guitars, drums, and basses.

There are many more I could list and some overlap but they are considered to be some of the best apps out there. Many I have used but a few I have not.

I hope you enjoy these and many more you discover, if you use an App I haven't listed please get in touch with me.

Merry Christmas and here's to 2012!

For more apps visit our speialist app pages HERE

Professional Font Management for Workgroups of All Types

Benefits

Centralised Font Storage

Keep it Legal

Efficient Access

Usage Insight and Control

Creative Freedom

Powerful and Scalable

Universal Type Server 3 Full Features (Enterprise Edition)

Universal Type Server® Enterprise provides complete font control for any workflow in any organization. The world’s leading client/server font management solution centrally stores, distributes, activates, tracks and enforces how fonts are used in all parts of an organisation’s workflow.

• Complete font license compliance control, analysis and reporting 

• Centralised font management for corporate font libraries

• Fits any corporate or workgroup environment—regardless of size, workflow or IT support

• Collaborative system ideal for workgroups sharing fonts

• Font Sense™ powered, professional font auto-activation

• Configurable font licensing enforcement

• System Font Policies prevent unlicensed fonts from entering your workflow

• Server failover for maximum uptime

• Full integration with Microsoft’s Active Directory and Apple’s Open Directory

• Stable and fast Java-based server with a secure SQL backend

• External SQL database option for even greater scalability and performance

• Automated back-ups for peace-of-mind 

• Cross platform support: Macintosh and Windows servers and clients

• Remote web-based server administration

• Detailed font previews down to the glyph level 

• “Tear-off” font previews that float or create PNG files

• QuickMatch® finds similar fonts fast

• Plug-in based activation for Adobe® InDesign®, Illustrator® and Photoshop®

• Auto activation XTensions for QuarkXPress®

• Cleans corrupt font caches (Mac OS X)

Why Server-Based Font Management?

Design, print and publishing environments face many challenges with managing fonts in their workgroups. These challenges are unique to a workgroup environment and cannot be addressed by stand-alone, desktop font management solutions.

The answer for these challenges is server-based font management, which provides administrators with the control they need to truly manage their fonts across a workgroup environment.

Universal Type Server® is the leading corporate professional font manager. It’s a true client/server system that provides a live, collaborative environment to share fonts across any workgroup. It allows font administrators to manage users and workgroups for compliance and consistency, as well as centrally store, update and control type libraries for ease, efficiency, and security. Universal Type Server is a true cross-platform solution, supporting Macintosh and Windows systems for both server and connecting clients.

About

Quickly Find Digital Media Effortlessly

Portfolio Server is digital asset management software that improves efficiency by helping workgroups and organisations quickly find and use digital media.

 

More detail?

Portfolio Server is web-based digital asset management software that improves efficiency by helping workgroups and organisations quickly find and use digital media. Portfolio Server automatically centralises collections of images, photos, videos, marketing materials and sales literature to provide a single place for locating important files and related information.

 

Markets that use this technology

Which markets and more importantly which of your competitors use this software? A list shows the breathe of industries that can take advantage of the tools on offer.

Education 

Government 

Manufacturing & Engineering 

Charity & Non-Profit

Advertising, Design & Marketing

Business & Financial Services

Healthcare

Printing & Publishing

Travel, Transportation & Tourism 

Architecture, Construction & Property 

Museums, Heritage & Culture

 

Benefits

Save Time with a Centralised Visual Database

Quickly find digital files by searching a single location that immediately provides visual results. No more time wasted searching the network, browsing folders, consulting coworkers, and loading discs.

Leverage File Information

Efficiently manage the information used for finding and using digital assets with a flexible and shared media database.

Guide Others to the Files They Need

Not everyone is intimately familiar with your media collection. Provide guided access for guests and help people get the right files in the right formats.

Expedite Format Conversions and Batch Processing

Less time processing means more time for real work. Offload intensive media processing jobs from your workstation to a powerful Media Engine.

Ensure Correct Access

People will often use whatever files they can find. Help others make the right choice by making it easy to find approved files and formats.

Turn Many Steps into One

Get more done with less trouble. Automate and simplify media processing and data entry using automatic cataloging, intelligent metadata handling, and media scripting.

 

 

Audio/Video Support

• Playback a variety of video and audio file formats in the Web Client and NetPublish.

• Instantly preview video content using automatically generated preview clips.

• Embed XMP metadata into supported video formats for fast location and use outside of Portfolio Server.

 

Ease of Use

• Using the software on the go is easy on the iPad.

• Streamline metadata entry by filtering the fields that appear in the properties panel.

• Easily compare assets online and only show important information by displaying fields in grid and list views. 

• Quickly enter information by tabbing between metadata fields and values. • Instantly access commonly used commands in less clicks with main toolbar “jump lists” and new contextual menus. 

• Keep track of workflow and cataloguing statistics using the AutoSync status display. 

• Take greater control of the visual representation of files by applying custom thumbnails and previews. 

• Quickly locate assets matching a list of file names, part numbers, or any other set of values using Batch Find.

 

Advanced Media Processing

• Generate PDF contact sheets of thumbnails and related file information to quickly share selects with others.

• Process files faster using the media engine’s optimised job queue – Batch convert or rename, generate PDF proofs, and embed metadata in record time.

• Ensure assets are available almost immediately using a new AutoSync architecture which harnesses the power of all available CPUs.

• See consistent information between Portfolio Server and Adobe® applications using the updated XMP toolkit.

 

 

 

Meet our CAD expert

My interests lie in the development of Computer Aided Design which over the years has rapidly expanded into all sorts of industries. Building Information Modelling (BIM) as well as 3D packages have arrived and are making the industry change. For me it's about making a client more competitive in the current climate, enabling them to be more profitable. My role is to provide you with the tools you need and help implement these into your office.

Vectorworks (originally MiniCAD) has been around for a long time and has established itself as the CAD program which offers the ideal flexibility you want as a designer.  This is a breakthrough new version, packed with more features than ever, like our powerful new CINEMA 4D rendering engine and easy-to-use 3D environment. With each of the applications in the Vectorworks® 2011 series, you’ll get versatile, intuitive features—all packaged in a user-friendly interface, making your work easier than ever. 

With Vectorworks you’ll get robust new capabilities that are simple to implement and make your models highly accurate and ready to use in your BIM workflow. Not only did Nemetschek address requests from their users, they have gone far beyond that, with new features and tools to make this the best Vectorworks release ever!!! With all these new features for each design element you’d have to be an idiot not to consider using this in practice. 

Vectorworks - Realize Your Most Inspired Visions

Accelerate Your Designs

Google Friendly

---

Building Information Modelling (BIM)

An award winning product

Vectorworks 2011 won Construction Computing “Product of the Year” award.  In addition to winning the Product of the Year award, Vectorworks 2011 was also honoured as a runner up in two categories: CAD Product of the Year 2010 (Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc. – Vectorworks 2011) and Channel Partner of the Year 2010 (Computers Unlimited).   

To learn more, ask about pricing or get a one-on-one demo in your office please call our CAD team

Dim lights

Dim lights

Dim lights

Dim lights

Mac now a true AutoCAD platform-

AutoCAD for Mac 2012

AutoCAD LT for Mac 2012

AutoCAD WS for Mac

Project Torpedalo - Extreme Machine from Extreme CAD

Project Torpedalo is quite simply the most advanced pedal boat ever created and it is to be used to cross the Atlantic! Madness you say? Well two Design Engineers from Bently Motors: Mark Byass and Mike Sayer have designed and built their own pedalo and they plan to pedal 3,000 miles (naked!) in December 2011. It is important to note this is for charity (also to break the World Record), the objective is to raise £250k for Make-A-Wish Foundation and Motor Neurone Disease Association. So what has this got to do with Computer Aided Design (aka CAD)? Well you can't take this boat on a real test drive, you can't sit and pedal for 30 days just to make sure it works. So what do you do? DIGITAL PROTOTYPING

Digital Prototyping in a Real World

Back to Project Torpedalo

Crucial CAD for a Crucial Design

Charity and the World Record