document management

Over time, most large organizations that use CAD software generate unbelievable numbers of drawings, which are typically (but not always) stored on a network file server. Unfortunately, the wealth of intellectual capital present there is seldom utilized to the extent it might be. Partly that's because the drawings have been created by numerous people, and a designer who needs to develop a new widget may be unaware that there's already one the server almost exactly like what he or she needs. Also, it's not usually possible to search through the content of all those drawings. For example, that same designer can't get a list of all the drawings that contain a "widget" block. Wouldn't it be great if that were possible though?

Well, it is, actually. That's exactly the sort of thing DWGraphics exists to do for you. And the benefits you can reap for reusing your existing data can be enormous. You'll no longer have to keep reinventing the wheel. By modifying existing designs, you can shorten your design cycles,perhaps take advantage of potential purchasing and manufacturing economies, and save significant amounts of money in the process.

Vault Implementation Services

The lifeblood of any design engineering firm, regardless of its discipline, is its pool of drawings. And in order to be efficient, to keep design time to a minimum, it’s necessary to be able to find and reuse the wealth of information they contain.

Is the way you are currently managing your drawings working for you or against you?

• Can you find information you need that’s contained in old drawings quickly and easily?
• Do you have trouble identifying the latest version when multiple people work on the same files?
• Do members of your design team ever accidentally overwrite each other’s files?
• Do you ever wish you could retrieve older versions of your files?
• If you use Autodesk Inventor, are you constantly confronted with dialog boxes about missing files?
• Are people in your organization ever working off the wrong version of a drawing?

If the answers to these questions above weren't what you’d like them to be, Autodesk Vault (or perhaps its big brother Productstream) might be an excellent solution for the problems you’re experiencing. And if you use the full version of AutoCAD or Autodesk Inventor, it’s highly likely you already own Vault. DWGraphics can help you get it installed, load your CAD data into it, and teach you how to use it. And if need be, we can also write custom applications to more fully integrate Vault into the overall workflow of your business.

FMDesktop Implementation Services

DWGraphics is currently in the process of becoming qualified to implement Autodesk’s facility management solution, FMDesktop. Because of our extensive experience using AutoCAD, developing database applications, and implementing CAD document management systems, we feel we are well positioned to expand our business into this new arena.

Custom Application Development

When shrink-wrapped document management solutions can't meet your needs, DWGraphics can develop custom applications that will. We have a wealth of experience writing programs that communicate with both AutoCAD and to a lessor extent, Inventor. Furthermore, as members of the Autodesk Developers Network, DWGraphics has access to a vast repository of programming resources for every CAD product Autodesk publishes. The bottom line is this -- whatever your document management requirements may be, we can collaborate with you to meet them.