CAD Managers Wish List

[heath.simone]

I know there is a wish list for most products but i haven't seen one that is for CAD Management the sort of items i'm things of are:

1) Software Management: We currently have the CAD Manager Control Utility which requires that version of the software to be installed onto the machine (i.e. if you want to "Manage" Revit Arch 2010 it needs to be on the machine). Also you can't install the Revit install version and try and control Autocad products.

It would be fantastic if we could have something that we could select the products we are using with in the company and have the client machines with a small application that will report back the products on that machine, then using the system account install the updates/patches/SAP/etc... that the CAD Manager has approved for use in the company using the system account so users do not need admin rights. I'm thinking it could work similarly to how Symantec Endpoint Protection works.

2) Combined 32/64-Bit Network Deployments: We have a mix of 32-Bit and 64-Bit machines with in the company and we are having to create 2 basically identical deployments to support these machines. A combined 32-Bit and 64-Bit would reduce server storage space requirements considerably - We are currently looking at roughly 80gb of network deployments for just the 2011 Autodesk products.

3) NO UNC pathing within the Deployments: It wouldn't be so much of an issue for smaller companies single server sites but we have to deploy the software to over 15 servers using SCCM (software deployment program) which uses a single source image and then deploys that to the network nodes (servers) for software installation in that site. It's files like Revit's content.rcl files use full paths for their content which forces us to use mapped network drives for our deployments which can cause issues with users potentially having that drive mapped for various reasons. This has caused content to be installed via the international link between sites previously.

UNC pathing for network image creation/hosting is fine it's when it's used to refer to installation locations within the package.

4) Add-on Integration: It would be nice to have the ability to integrate things like Revit MEP Space Naming Utility, Global Link, etc... into the network deployment and not have to run it as part of a deployment script after the main program has installed.

Anyone else got anything that spans all Autodesk products or from a CAD Manager perspective, i find the support for this side of things very lacking.

[Ed Jobe]

That is because 'Cad Management' isn't software. You should submit your wishes to the appropriate product's wishlist. If none of those suffice, then you might try the new wish list for Autodesk Labs.

[rkmcswain]

That is because 'Cad Management' isn't software.

I took Heath's opening paragraph as recognition of that fact.

You should submit your wishes to the appropriate product's wishlist. If none of those suffice, then you might try the new wish list for Autodesk Labs.

The type of items Heath is talking about could apply to multiple products. Putting something on the AutoCAD wish list for example doesn't expose it to users of Civil 3D, Revit, Inventor, etc. when it could apply to all of those products. I also don't think these fall into the category of Labs projects. Improvements to existing tools certainly don't.

[heath.simone]

[SIZE=2]

That is because 'Cad Management' isn't software. You should submit your wishes to the appropriate product's wishlist. If none of those suffice, then you might try the new wish list for [Autodesk Labs].

Yes and No...

Autodesk have provided CAD Manager Control Utility which is software for CAD management, so which Autodesk product would that apply too? Because it needs a massive overhaul...

As rkmcswain stated I recognise that CAD Management isn't software so to speak but this wishlist was more for issues that span multiple software products. I find it exceptionally annoying the silo effect at times as many of the problems relate to multiple products especially AutoCAD based products when it could also be relevant to Civil3D, P&ID, Plant3D, AutoCAD MEP, etc... This is even more evident when looking issues related to installation, network deployments/image creation, or management of the software.

The items I’ve listed in my opening thread - can you tell me which software product they should apply to or which lab project they should apply too and I'll happly post it there or should i post it in every wishlist?

[sobdeijn]

1) Software Management: We currently have the CAD Manager Control Utility which requires that version of the software to be installed onto the machine (i.e. if you want to "Manage" Revit Arch 2010 it needs to be on the machine). Also you can't install the Revit install version and try and control Autocad products.

It would be fantastic if we could have something that we could select the products we are using with in the company and have the client machines with a small application that will report back the products on that machine, then using the system account install the updates/patches/SAP/etc... that the CAD Manager has approved for use in the company using the system account so users do not need admin rights. I'm thinking it could work similarly to how Symantec Endpoint Protection works.

For the first part of your question could you not use Autodesk Asset locator?
It generates a report of all the software installed on the computers in a network. And also includes the version number of the software installed.

[heath.simone]

sobdeijn: The Autodesk Asset Locator doesn't like our network we are a little too big for it and it tends to fall over, currently we have over 2400 employees and 20 offices internationally (not including small site offices).

We use SCCM (http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/configuration-manager/cm-overview.aspx), for all software deployments in the company and we can easily find out all that information via reports from the system.

The process I’m thinking about would work more along this sort of lines:

Application get installed on employees machine along with small app for reporting back to a central server where it checks against a list/database/??? of approved hotfixes/Service Packs/Subscription Advantage Packs/Add-on's and then using the system account of the local machine then installs this for the employee.

Currently we have to create a install that gets sent out and installed automatically via SCCM (http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/configuration-manager/cm-overview.aspx), this is a very robust and a great tool for doing the deployments, it's setup to deploy from a single source image which it copies to nodes (other deployment slave servers) where it then installs from for that local area... That’s great unless you need to update/modify the deployment as it means redeploying the complete package (think about Revit which is 3+gb per version) to all nodes which equals lots of network traffic.

We could create separate deployments for each service pack / hot fix / add-on but then it starts to just get messy. It would be much nicer to have an application that CAD Managers could fire up and go... Yes i would like that hotfix, this add-on, and this service pack applied to Autodesk Product X or Y or Z...

I guess I’m not thinking so much for a company that is the size of mine, but smaller companies that don't have ability or money to use a system like SCCM but would like the ability to manage the products from a single central location.

[seven_tech]

my Cad Managers wish list item...an arm that would come out of the computer and slap somebody upside the head whenever they violated a CAD standard....

[rkmcswain]

my Cad Managers wish list item...an arm that would come out of the computer and slap somebody upside the head whenever they violated a CAD standard....

If you can locate the hardware, we can probably come up with a driver to make it work....

[Ed Jobe]

Autodesk have provided CAD Manager Control Utility which is software for CAD management, so which Autodesk product would that apply too? Because it needs a massive overhaul...

While it may apply to several vertical products, you would put it in the AutoCAD wishlist because the AutoCAD product team would develop it and then all vertical apps would have it. And while the network issues could be looked at separately, they do deal with installing AutoCAD, and that is their flagship product.

The items I’ve listed in my opening thread - can you tell me which software product they should apply to or which lab project they should apply too and I'll happly post it there or should i post it in every wishlist?

What I was referring to was not an existing Labs project, but you can propose a new Labs project in the Labs>Wishlist forum.

While RK and yourself may have some valid points, I can't change the way Autodesk works. We established a whislist here, it may not recieve the attention you desire.

[TerribleTim]

. . .What I was referring to was not an existing Labs project, but you can propose a new Labs project in the Labs>Wishlist forum. . .

That's probably a great idea.