Thursday, May 29, 2008

Safer landing at the Prague airport with Autodesk GIS


If you happen to come to Prague by plane, remember that the Prague airport infrastructure is managed using a GIS system by CAD Studio (former: XANADU) built on the Autodesk GIS technology.

You can imagine the size of various facilities on an airport - the landing strips, the restricted grounds, the terminals, their luggage handling floors and rentable area, the service buildings and their individual floors and offices and employees, the hangars, trees and vegetation, all the underground electricity, water and communication infrastructure... It's huge.

Plus there are of course very high requirements for security, availability and stability.

All this is managed by a combination of Autodesk applications (MapGuide, AutoCAD Map, AutoCAD Architecture, AutoCAD Civil 3D) and CAD Studio custom software integrating all CAD, GIS, legacy data, document management and ERP data into a single information system - LetGIS ("airport" is "letiště" in Czech - hence the name). LetGIS communicates with SAP sharing geospatial and enterprise data. The Prague Airport company currently uses many additional modules developed by CAD Studio - managing relocations, door keys, shop floor rentals, emergency, fire department, maintenance planning, legal aspects, etc.

Hundreds of airport employees now use LetGIS for everyday tasks.

Full LetGIS material (PDF, in Czech)

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

CAD videos - your software at work

A picture is worth a thousands words. And a video? Much more.

It can be an invaluable opportunity to see a specific CAD function or process explained in a recorded video. You can see immediately what functions are available, how they are used, where you can find their icons, where to click, what reaction times you can expect, what setup is needed to use the function.

Often you don't need any additional description, maybe you even don't need any narration (audio).

That's why many of you may find useful our CAD videos published for Czech users. These CAD videos present current versions and functionality of AutoCAD, Inventor, Revit, and Civil 3D. Even when you do not understand the menu names in the Czech versions of the presented Autodesk software, you will probably understand most of the concepts.

Enjoy the Xanadu videos in the "Training" section of the CADforum.cz web site:
www.cadforum.cz/vyuka

Do you know how to ask questions?

Of course you do. But do you know how to ask questions the smart way? It is not as easy as it may sound.

If you ever happen to find a technical problem when dealing with computers (and I am ready to bet you will), you probably need to find a solution to this problem as quickly as possible. And whether you ask your company technical support, your IT vendor, your collegue or in an internet discussion group, the most important key to the response time and response quality is the way you ask your question.

In your Xanadu technical support team and in the CAD Forum discussion group we often face improperly formulated technical questions. Such questions are harder to answer and the problem takes longer to solve. There are several logical rules for asking technical questions (not only to hardware and software). If you follow these rules, you will get quicker and more precise answers and you will solve your problem more effectively.

A detailed overview of such rules was written by E.S.Raymond in the text
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way. It is worth reading.

Monday, May 19, 2008

XANADU becomes an Autodesk Premier Solutions Provider (PSP)

PSP
XANADU Inc., the leading supplier of CAD, GIS and IT solutions in the Czech and Slovak Republics is a long-time Autodesk partner, regularly awarded as the Top Autodesk reseller since 1994.

Autodesk has now awarded XANADU the highest level of partnership - the Autodesk Premier Solutions Provider.

Autodesk PSP partner provides certified experts for industry solutions and offers the highest level of support for the customers.