CADnection Fuses AutoCAD and SharePoint

By DE Editors

CADnection (Santa Ana, CA) announced an integration product that provides a seamless exchange between AutoCAD and SharePoint, Microsoft’s integrated suite of server capabilities for information-sharing, content management, search and business-process acceleration.

The CADnection solution has been designed to leverage SharePoint’s ability to manage and ensure the integrity of drawings and reference files (XREFS), facilitate search and retrieval based on drawing content, and control access to drawing data internally and externally.

AutoCAD users can check-out/check-in their drawings and reference files to SharePoint from within the AutoCAD interface. Anyone with an Internet browser can access these drawings in the same manner as any other documents managed in SharePoint. Special features allow for a quick search, view, and launch of AutoCAD projects. Optional wizards guide the exchange processes and security measures can be assigned.

SharePoint delivers data management capabilities that complement the needs of engineering and architecture organizations, including access controls, the locking and unlocking drawings and reference files, revision management, and collaboration and workflow capabilities.

Within the AutoCAD application, users can quickly search and retrieve drawings based on metadata and/or content via the SharePoint search engine.

CADnection uses the Microsoft .NET framework adopted by Autodesk. As a result, users maintain the unique functionality and strengths of each application. For additional integration features, visit CADnection.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.