Year: 2014

AutoCAD Electrical 2013 – What’s new?

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feb_14_bThe addition of marking menu, the easy-to-use tool puts eight tools at your fingertips and is intelligent to the objects within AutoCAD Electrical – giving you only the most important tools for the tasks at hand. Simply create any Electrical object and right click.

The marking menu replaces the linear context menu for AutoCAD Electrical objects. As with context menus, the marking menu contains commands specific to the cursor location, or selected objects. You can perform a selection using one of two basic ways (or modes):

Menu Mode – Right-click in the graphics window over an AutoCAD electrical object. Menu items surround the cursor. To dismiss the marking menu, click once again in the center of the menu display. Do not press the Esc key as this may cancel a command in progress.

Mark Mode (also called gesture behavior) – Draw a mark. To enter this mode, press and hold the right mouse button and immediately move the cursor in the direction of the desired menu item. A trail follows the cursor. Release the mouse button to select and execute the command that corresponds to the direction of movement of the cursor.

If you want to disable the marking menu tools, the system variable AEMM will disable it, OR change the settings to show just the icon, just text, or both. (Zero for off or 1, 2, or 3 respectively).

Another enhancement to Electrical is the ability to add folders to the project manager window. This is a great way to keep complicated drawings organized within a space. Note that the subfolders within the Project Manager do not have to exist within Windows. Simply right click inside the Project Manager and choose Add Subfolder, then drag and drop your files into the space.

Another major change to the interface, which is more related to changes made to AutoCAD than those made in Electrical, is the command line enhancement. It now floats over the drawing area and is transparent when not in use. It also has the ability to click on the sub options within the commands.

For example, if you start the Circle command, the 3P, 2P, and Ttr options can be selected by picking on them. You can still dock the command line by clicking and dragging the left edge to the bottom of the screen where it will revert back to functioning like it did in 2012.

Finally, one of the most common enhancements from version to version within AutoCAD Electrical is the additions to the libraries featuring more than:

18,000 parts for Allen-Bradley

17,000 parts for ABB

21,000 parts for Schneider Electric

71,000 part entries for Siemens.

This allows AutoCAD Electrical users to be more productive, more efficient, and more complete with their designs.

AutoCAD Electrical

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Features That Power

feb_14_aAutoCAD Electrical design software is AutoCAD for electrical controls designers. It includes all the functionality of AutoCAD software plus a complete set of electrical CAD features, including comprehensive symbol libraries and tools for automating electrical design tasks.

AutoCAD Electrical includes all functionality in AutoCAD software, plus electrical engineering features such as symbol libraries, bill of materials (BOM) reporting, and PLC I/O design that make controls design fast and efficient.

AutoCAD Electrical automates common tasks and facilitates drafting productivity. Engineers can dynamically generate rules-based electrical control circuits; extract a list of electrical schematic components for panel layout drawings; run multiple reports with the simple, customizable report generation tool; generate and update customizable reports; collaborate with customers and suppliers by sharing AutoCAD drawings with them.

What makes AutoCAD Electrical more powerful in terms of increasing design productivity are the options to create folders to organize drawings; flexible drag-and-drop file organization; smart electrical panel layout drawings, and rich content library of electrical symbols, among other intuitive software interfaces.

The feature of automatic wire numbering/component tagging helps engineers reduce errors. They can use marking menus to shorten editing time. The best part is the circuit designs generated using AutoCAD Electrical are made available for reuse.

CADD Centre Launches Competency Certification Programs to Boost Your Employability:

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jan_14_ccube The globalized economy has produced millions of people having similar educational backgrounds, and skill sets, making it difficult for students to differentiate by demonstrating their expertise.

In order to give students (and professionals) a chance to express their competence and genuine expertise, CADD Centre has recently launched Ccube, CADD Centre’s online certification program that offers competency certification for students and working professionals in various software and specific software modules for engineers, graphic artists, designers and managers.

The link http://www.ccube.asia carries the complete list of products and software for which examinations are conducted. If you want to evaluate yourself on the knowledge level of a particular software or module and test your competency, you can go ahead and register with your nearest CADD Centre authorized testing centre.

What is a Competency Certification?

A competency certification from Ccube can serve as a key differentiator and help students get jobs. Coming from CADD Centre, Asia’s largest engineering design skill development training centre with 25 years of track record, the certification naturally gets recognized by all industries across India and abroad.

Ccube is different from course completion certificates. A Ccube certificate demonstrates a student’s industry readiness, high degree of specialization and deep expertise in the chosen field. Apart from adding value to resume, the certification highlights the student’s dedication to continuous skill development and gives him/her a head-start in the highly competitive job market.

Ccube certificates are a genuine testament to a student’s expertise in a particular software or software module, as they are awarded only after an extensive assessment of his/her deep insight and industry readiness, the true hallmarks of competency. CADD Centre’s Ccube specifications map to several specific job roles and employers would be confident that certified-students posses the right skills.

How Exams are Structured?

The examination is based on the “Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ)” format. You will need to choose the most appropriate answer from the list of options given. You will be tested on the particular software version or module in which you have decided to obtain certification.

You can undergo training in any of the CADD Centre’s franchisee centres. When you enrol yourself in any course, you will receive the study materials. Passing Ccube’s certification test would certainly require preparation and study of features of relevant software.

Exams are conducted on all days of the week except national holidays. There will be six sessions per day through from 9AM to 6PM. We use a modern and systematic grading system in order to evaluate the competency of the candidates with the highest grade being an “A” grade.

In order to register for an exam of your choice, log to our website or walk into
any of the CADD Centre authorized C3certification centres. The details of
our authorised centres can be found listed at http://www.ccube.asia .
Alternatively, you can e-mail us at contact@ccube.asia
.

Quantity Takeoff : Building Estimation & Costing course at CADD Centre.

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jan_14_Quantity_TakeoffEvery building has its price. Accurately forecasting the cost of future projects is an important skill for civil engineers and cost estimators. As the demand for cost estimators has increased over the years, CADD Centre has introduced an exclusive course on Building Estimation & Costing.

The course is based on Autodesk’s Quantity Takeoff, a software solution that helps engineers perform a takeoff on an entire building information model in just minutes – as opposed to days using traditional methods. The software provides greater ?exibility than typical databases or spreadsheets, enabling a smoother, more accurate work-?ow for cost estimators.

The Building Estimation and Costing course can help engineers and estimators make material costing faster, easier, and more accurate. The course is useful for civil engineering and architectural students and professionals.

Upon completion of the course, students can take advantage of digital property data to automatically or manually measure areas and count or price building components such as walls, doors, and window. They can create detailed materials report much faster than paper-based processes. They can also keep their workflow digital and help ensure that reports, materials quantities, and other data remain up to date. Importantly, they can more efficiently count and quantify building components and their compositions.

Our course will cover all key features of Autodesk’s Quantity Takeoff that are related to:

  • Building estimation and costing from 2D AutoCAD drawings.
  • Creation of synchronized, comprehensive project views that combine important information from building information modeling (BIM) tools such as Revit® Architecture, Revit® Structure, and Revit® MEP software together with geometry, images, and data from other tools.
  • Automatic or manual measuring of areas and counting of building components, exporting to Microsoft® Excel®, and publishing to DWF™ format. Autodesk’s Quantity Takeoff supports the takeoff of JPG, TIF, PDF, and other “nonintelligent” image formats.
  • Latest Autodesk® technology in the areas of drawing, viewing, quanti?cation, and markup capabilities, uniting design data and other vital information within an open and ?uid architecture. So one can better keep track of changing variables without missing a beat.
  • Generating material quantity takeoffs and performing conceptual estimates, regardless of what phase you are in during a project – from design through preconstruction.

More details about the course are available at:
http://www.caddcentre.ws/building_estimation_costing.php

QUANTITY SURVEYING

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jan_14_QUANTITY_SURVEYINGSurveyors work in a variety of different settings including people’s homes, the sea bed, roads and motorways, collectables and large construction sites. They are also responsible for the protection of the environment in which they are working.

Quantity surveying is primarily centered on construction and management of costs and budgets of large projects. From the moment a plan is drawn until a large construction project has been completed, a quantity surveyor is likely to be involved in a legal, technical and financial capacity. The functions of a quantity surveyor are broadly concerned with the control of the cost on construction projects, the management and maintenance of the budget, valuations and any legal matters arising through the course of the project. They are required to make sure that the project remains profitable and efficient.

The Role of the Quantity Surveyor:

A Quantity Surveyor is a construction industry professional who specializes in estimating the value of construction works and can also be referred to as a “Cost Engineer” or “Cost Planner”. The term quantity surveyor derives from the role taken in quantifying the various resources that it takes to construct a given project, such as labour, supervision, plant and materials.

Quantity Surveyors use their skills to determine the cost of building work ranging from small refurbishment works through to assessing the construction value of new multi-million dollar road projects. They are employed on a wide variety of projects covering all aspects of construction such as building, civil, mining, sea defense, retail and infrastructure projects to determine the cost of such facilities.

Quantity Surveyors are involved at various stages of the construction process, typically prior to construction, during construction and following completion of the works. Quantity Surveyors work with accountants, architects, engineers, builders, building owners, developers, financiers, government, insurance underwriters, loss adjusters, solicitors and subcontractors. The detailed knowledge of construction costs of Quantity Surveyors allows them to perform the following tasks:

Prior to Construction:

Preparation of Feasibility Studies

Estimations to define project budgets

Calculating changes in budget due to changes in design

Refining budget as designs continue to evolve

Preparation of Bills of Quantities to assist in the tender process

During Construction:

Provision of cost control services during construction

Assessing claims of work progress

Assessing claims of variations and delays

Procurement of subcontractors and labour to carry out specialist trade works

Negotiation and settlement of accounts

Monthly forecasting and cost reporting

Monthly negotiation and agreement of payments for works carried out

Post Construction:

Determination of the final project cost

Preparation of tax depreciation reports for investors and property owners

Expert witness reports to assist in the settlement of building disputes.