Work Smarter, Not Harder

It's the little things that can make the difference when it comes to different CAD packages and the versions changes that can create confusion and slow people down.

One way I work around this is to create custom GUI tools that are portable from version to version. That way, no matter what versions users face, the Company tools remain the same.

For the jump from AECOSIM to Open Building Designer this was a big advantage as the massive interface changes made it confusing for some to find and even define which tools to use.

As an example:

This toolset takes advantages of the delivered Families\Parts and Catalogues so that users can model to the correct settings without having to go through the extra clicks to set things before modelling. Case in point, the Primary Beam button is set to:

Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()

CadInputQueue.SendCommand "place beam Steel Beam"

CadInputQueue.SendCommand "TFPLACEMENT COMPONENT CATALOGNAMESET 01 Primary Beam"

End Sub

The concrete and grating tools have also been designed to use the preferred tools to model each type:

Private Sub CommandButton5_Click()

CadInputQueue.SendCommand "tfplace form 1slabnewDg"

CadInputQueue.SendCommand "TFPLACEMENT COMPONENT CATALOGNAMESET 01 Grating C325"

End Sub

Lastly, links to commonly needed tools means less confusion on which tools to use. This gives us a greater consistency with modelling and a cleaner model outcome:

It's also a great way to deliver any custom tools for users.

The beauty of this sort of GUI is that, being VB based, they are easy to create and deliver and can be created for each app. We also have an additional GUI for view rotation, render and more.

Forms within VB can be a big help and mean we don't need to manage different icon files and more. Give them a go.

Until next time, happy fiddling.