Archives for December 2015

CADWorx Speed Tips – Startup

December 15, 2015 by George Montgomery 2 Comments

Hello,

Below are a few CADWorx Speed Tips for starting CADWorx every day in the office:

CADWorx Speed Tips: Palette Locations

Corrections 1/4/2016 : NEWTAB just generates a new tab in the AutoCAD environment – and cannot be set to 0. If NEWTABMODE is set to 0, then the user cannot use NEWTAB. Additionally, for some users – if you “undock” your AutoCAD command window, then at startup this may also remove the palette expansion bug.

Have you ever come across this annoyance when starting up CADWorx in the morning? All of your palettes show up undocked, and blanket the entire model space.

It’s painful to *click* each palette back into place so that you can resume working how your old desktop was set up.

Expanded Palettes when opening a new CADWorx drawing.

Fortunately there’s a quick fix to stop those palettes from coming up undocked forever.

In AutoCAD 2015: set NEWTABMODE to 0, set NEWTAB to 0.
In AutoCAD 2016: set STARTMODE to 0.

What these environment variables do is suppress the “Hi, Welcome to AutoCAD” start screen that you see open in another tab, besides your Drawing1.dwg. When you suppress this dialog, no longer will your CADWorx palettes show up fully expanded.

CADWorx Speed Tips: Faster AutoCAD/CADWorx Startup

Properties Window for the CADWorx Shortcut

Another quick tip to getting CADWorx up in the morning is to suppress the AutoCAD and the CADWorx logos that show up when you start in the morning. It actually does in fact make CADWorx start faster.

Right-Click on your CADWorx shortcut and Select the “Properties” option at the bottom.

Locate the “Target” field? Add in “/nologo” without the quotes to the end of that shortcut. (Leave a space between the slash and 2016, like shown in the picture.) This will allow you to suppress the AutoCAD logo.

To suppress the CADWorx logo, navigate to C:\CADWorx 2016\Plant\Support (Replace 2016 with your version of CADWorx) and find the file CADWorx_Plant_Splash.dll. Simply rename it to something different, like I called it A_CADWorx_Plant_Splash.dll, and you will now avoid the CADWorx splash screen that shows up when you start in the morning.

That’s it! Have a Happy Holidays!

-George

CADWorx Plant Professional Training: January 12-14 in Houston, TX

December 14, 2015 by Bill Vasey Leave a Comment

ECE is holding a 3 day CADWorx Plant Professional training class at our Houston Training Facility on Jones Road.

CADWorx Plant Professional Training: Houston, TX, January 12-14, 2015

The CADWorx Plant Professional classes are designed to teach the effective use and functionality of the latest CADWorx Plant software, applied to plant design work. The User will learn how to make the most of the program’s capabilities, such as quickly building and editing models in a 3D environment and generating 2D drawings and isometrics from them. The course also covers topics that, although not difficult in concept, can be time-consuming to learn on your own, such as specification management, program controls and settings. Although CADWorx Plant is easy to use, there are many methods, tricks and techniques that will improve your productivity and your ability to generate the drawings you need as efficiently as possible. This class is the best of its kind, placing a very strong focus on plant design using well-developed real-world examples.

Course Outline:

General Overview

CADWorx Plant Setup

Tools (Menu, Toolbars, Palettes & Ribbon)
CADworx Plant Setup (working environment)

CADWorx Basics

Piping Basics
Line Numbering
O-Tracking and Point Filters

3D Tools and Techniques

Routing Lines
Point and Shoot UCS
Introduction to specification modifications and custom components
BOM Export

3D Project

File Structure
External References (Xrefs)
Using Autocad 3D objects
3D Equipment
Model Piping: 3D Instruments
Model Piping: Valve Topworks
3D Steel
Optional -3D Ducts/Cable trays

Presentation Drawings

Clipped Views
Basic Sheet Set
Basic Isogen

Specifications

Optional Custom Components

Additional Topics

User Shapes (Specialty items)
Custom Pipe Supports (Graphic & CAESAR II)
Custom Top Works (Actuators, Levers & Handwheels)
Advanced Sheet Set Manager
Network Project set-up (recommended network locations for project files)
CADWorx Administration

Please call or contact us for details and pricing. Discounts available for Multiple Participants from the same company.

Thank you,
Gary Kohlbeck
ECE Design

ECE Ductile Iron Catalog Released

December 10, 2015 by Bill Vasey Leave a Comment

ECE Design has made its initial release of their Ductile Iron catalog available immediately to our current customers. This initial release contains pipe, flanges, fittings and a small assortment of valves among other miscellaneous items. The catalog also includes: mechanical joint, butt-weld, flanged and Victaulic end types. Together, these make a significant start to a full Ductile Iron Catalog solution.

This is our first release to this catalog, so we are seeking feedback on any additional items required and/or changes. Feel free to email us at support@ecedesign.com with any suggestions.

To download the Ductile Iron Catalog, you must be registered on the ECE Design website and be a current CADWorx customer. Once logged onto the ECE Design website, navigate to the Downloads page under the Home tab and click on the Download button next to the Ductile Iron catalog. The install does require a serial number that you can obtain by contacting your Account Representative or emailing us at support@ecedesign.com.

Thanks and we hope that this Catalog can help you generate the Ductile Iron Specifications that you need. If you would like ECE Design to develop these specifications for you or just need some assistance, please contact me at our support email.

Gary Kohlbeck