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Ascad 2.0 Standards-Assistant for Civil Engineering Released
CADCOM CADD Services inc. announces the release of it's award winning ASCADc 2.0 an automated-drawing standards-assistant for Civil Engineering computer aided design. Designed by CADCOM engineers and draftsmen for CAD users of all levels, ASCADc 2.0 software is an application that automatically implements the ASCAD (Automated Standardization for Computer Aided Design) standard. The ASCAD standard is a set of production rules (governing layers, blocks, colors, text styles and linetypes) for laying out civil engineering drawings in a standard way such that they are visually and structurally uniform. This means that the electronic data files have the same layer names, with the same colors, line-types, and block definitions. It is intended for use by civil engineers, land-surveyors and all other professionals who use CAD as applied to the field of civil engineering. The ASCAD standard manual describes the ASCAD Standard and includes the blocks, sheets and linetype definition files. The ASCAD standard manual and files are free and can be downloaded from the Internet site www.cadcom.ca. ASCAD 2.0 Software is the companion software that automates the implementation of these standards. What does it do? ASCADc 2.0 software automates the application of the ASCAD standard. The objective of ASCAD 2.0 is to automate the production of standard drawings, which will result in a uniform drawing product. This uniformity facilitates the exchange of computer generated drawings among AutoCAD users, and the linkage of drawing data to GIS (Graphical Information Systems) applications. History and Needs for a Standard ASCAD was developed in response to the need for a standard drawing file format, to be used both within an organization, and throughout the civil engineering industry. In coordination with Canadian municipal agencies, and civil engineering companies, CADCOM developed the ASCAD standard in 1994, and released it as a free shareware standard that same year. Shortly after it's release, the ASCAD standard was recognized by municipal agencies by being awarded the 1994 Municipal Engineering 'Constructo' Prize in Quebec, and the 1995 Willis Prize for Excellence in Innovation. Since then the ASCAD standard has been implemented by municipal agencies, and private companies across Canada as their civil engineering file format standard. Now CADCOM is releasing the new ASCAD 2.0 software to assist organizations to implement automatically this highly beneficial standard. Benefits When a company adopts ASCAD as their internal drawing file standard they automatically benefit through: · Internal standards that are being used by all engineers and drafters; · A drawing file structure immediately familiar to all staff; · A more highly automated drawing production process; · Decreases production time; · Reduces errors, facilitates quality control processes; · Quicker and easier modifications to drawings; · Simplified extraction of some or all of the drawing data; · Easy linking with GIS databases. · Aids in the implementation of ISO 9000 in the CAD department. ASCAD and ASCAD 2.0 Software offer the same benefits on an industry wide basis, and insure the easy transfer of drawing elements between companies, easy extraction of drawing data into GIS systems, and common standards by all engineering and drafting personnel. Use as a New Standard, or with Existing Office Standards ASCAD 2.0 Software allows a company to quickly implement ASCAD as a new standard, or easily adapts to a company's existing internal standard via a simple two-way conversion table. Mastered quickly without formal training, the software enables the user to spend more time on the designing aspects of a project, rather than on traditional AutoCAD drafting practices. The ASCADc 2.0 software contains all the components required for drawing standardization and the programming to automate their use. It includes a list of more than 400 PCODs integrated with the Autodesk Survey module. The insertion of the blocks and the generation of figures according to the ASCADc 2.0 standard are already programmed. The tool contains nomenclature supplements for more than 500 possible layers; the handling of the layers is made in a transparent and easy way, no need to remember the names of layers. Included in ASCADc 2.0 is a block library with more than 100 standard blocks distributed over several pop-down menus, icons and toolbars as well as standard title-blocks. Each block is inserted automatically on the proper layer, at the correct scale; these same blocks are integrated into the PCOD definitions. There are more than 50 line-types. Product Specification ASCAD 2.0 Software runs with AutoCAD R14, AutoCAD 2000, AutoCAD Map R3, AutoCAD Map 2000, AutoCAD Land Development Desktop R1.02. System requirements are the same as AutoCAD. Company Profile Founded in 1988, CADCOM is a leader in the fields of CAD and GIS. As the only AutoCAD Authorized GIS Reseller in Quebec and the Ottawa area, CADCOM sells and supports a wide range of civil engineering and GIS applications. CADCOM is the inventor and developer of ASCAD Standard, and the ASCAD 2.0 Software application. |