& Construction
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Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
& Manufacturing
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Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
In this lesson, we’ll walk you through how to install the Upchain CAD connector, launch and log in to the CAD plugin, and explore its user interface.
Let's learn how to download and install the CAD connector, which is used to manage the Upchain CAD plugin for your preferred CAD software.
Transcript
00:05
In this video, we show you how to install the CAD Connector, launch the CAD Connector, and explore the CAD Connector user interface.
00:13
So, let's take a look.
00:17
The Upchain CAD Connector is a hub for all of Upchain's dedicated CAD plugins.
00:21
You use this application to manage and launch the plugins for your preferred CAD system.
00:27
You'll use the plugin to capture, manage, and share CAD data through Upchain without leaving your CAD environment.
00:34
The Upchain web application is where you access your projects, as well as download the necessary plugins that integrate with your everyday software.
00:42
However, as a CAD power user, you will not need to access Upchain in the browser often.
00:47
You will be able to complete your routine tasks all within the context of your CAD software.
00:53
To log in, go to live.upchain.net and enter your credentials. Then press enter or click the login button.
01:04
To download the CAD Connector, select your user profile button in the top right corner, then select plugins from the drop-down menu.
01:14
From the plugins page, navigate to the CAD Connector, and select download.
01:23
Once the CAD Connector installer is downloaded, launch the installer from its downloaded location.
01:30
Follow the installation instructions on the installation wizard.
01:34
If you do not have an updated version of Java 64 bit installed, you may be prompted to install that as well.
01:46
Once the installation is complete, you will have a launcher on your desktop.
01:53
Double click the launcher to open the CAD Connector.
01:56
The CAD Connector detects all supported CAD systems installed on your computer and provides a launcher for each one.
02:04
The CAD Connector also includes a generic plugin to allow non-CAD users to register and interact with items.
Video transcript
00:05
In this video, we show you how to install the CAD Connector, launch the CAD Connector, and explore the CAD Connector user interface.
00:13
So, let's take a look.
00:17
The Upchain CAD Connector is a hub for all of Upchain's dedicated CAD plugins.
00:21
You use this application to manage and launch the plugins for your preferred CAD system.
00:27
You'll use the plugin to capture, manage, and share CAD data through Upchain without leaving your CAD environment.
00:34
The Upchain web application is where you access your projects, as well as download the necessary plugins that integrate with your everyday software.
00:42
However, as a CAD power user, you will not need to access Upchain in the browser often.
00:47
You will be able to complete your routine tasks all within the context of your CAD software.
00:53
To log in, go to live.upchain.net and enter your credentials. Then press enter or click the login button.
01:04
To download the CAD Connector, select your user profile button in the top right corner, then select plugins from the drop-down menu.
01:14
From the plugins page, navigate to the CAD Connector, and select download.
01:23
Once the CAD Connector installer is downloaded, launch the installer from its downloaded location.
01:30
Follow the installation instructions on the installation wizard.
01:34
If you do not have an updated version of Java 64 bit installed, you may be prompted to install that as well.
01:46
Once the installation is complete, you will have a launcher on your desktop.
01:53
Double click the launcher to open the CAD Connector.
01:56
The CAD Connector detects all supported CAD systems installed on your computer and provides a launcher for each one.
02:04
The CAD Connector also includes a generic plugin to allow non-CAD users to register and interact with items.
We'll log into the CAD plugin and explore its user interface to help you get started.
Transcript
00:05
In this video, we'll show you how to log in to your appropriate CAD Plugin and explore its user interface to help you get started.
00:13
So, let's take a look.
00:17
The Upchain CAD Connector is a hub for all of Upchain's dedicated CAD Plugins.
00:22
You use this application to manage and launch the plugins for your installed CAD systems that Upchain supports, and a few examples are listed here.
00:32
To launch the plugin, click the launch button beside your desired CAD system.
00:40
This opens that CAD system if it was not already open, as well as its corresponding CAD Plugin.
00:52
Once launched, you'll use the plugin to capture, manage, and share CAD data throughout Upchain all without leaving your CAD environment.
01:01
To log in, click the log in button.
01:05
This launches a browser window.
01:08
If you are not already logged in elsewhere, such as the web application or the productivity plugins, you'll need to enter in your credentials here.
01:17
And then click the login button.
01:19
If you were already logged in elsewhere, this would be the window you would see right away, and you wouldn't have to log in again.
01:26
Once logged in, you can close that window.
01:33
And you're now logged in.
01:35
After logging in, you will be directed to my workspace.
01:39
This is like a dashboard in the CAD Plugin, that shows you information related only to you, but is a cross project view.
01:50
You can include information here such as your projects that you're a team member of, your assignments, and any items you may have locked to you.
02:03
Beside each section is a number that summarizes how many objects exist in each of these sections.
02:12
You can expand any of these sections to view more information,
02:16
and hover your mouse over any of the objects to see a tooltip with more information for that object.
02:25
By default, my workspace page is blank, but you can configure your workspace in the plugin settings.
02:32
So, to set up my workspace, click the settings button, to open the plugin settings window.
02:38
This window shows you information your login information, your license and role, some default settings.
02:48
The location on your computer where files get downloaded to.
02:53
To set up my workspace, scroll down to user settings.
02:56
And here, you can see all the available sections to include on your My Workspace Page.
03:04
Tick the box beside any of the sections you wish to include.
03:07
So, for example, you may want to include favorite projects.
03:11
This is a list that you can control and keep as long or as short as needed.
03:17
After a while, you may start to be added to more and more projects and so the projects assigned to me list might be quite lengthy,
03:24
whereas you can keep your favorite projects list as short as needed for quicker access to specific projects.
03:33
You may want to include my locked objects.
03:36
This provides a summary of everything you currently have locked to you that you might be working on across all projects.
03:44
And you may want to include my assignments as this provides you again a cross project view of all assignments that you have been tasked with,
03:53
to give you a nice summary of the work you need to complete.
03:59
So, once you have your settings configured to your liking, scroll down to the bottom, and click the save button.
04:07
This is important to do. Otherwise, your settings will be lost.
04:13
You can then close the settings page.
04:17
And now my workspace will show all the sections that you chose in the settings.
04:25
Upchain is a project-based system, which means that any data you add or edit, must belong to at least one project.
04:32
Typically, a project represents one product to be designed and produced for a customer, but it could contain many different products,
04:40
it could also simply be a standard library of parts or a standard library of documents to be shared amongst your engineering teams.
04:49
In any case, when in the plugin, you should be working within the context of a project. So, let's navigate to a project now.
04:60
To select a project, click the context selector at the top of the window.
05:08
If you've previously selected projects, these will also be listed here for quicker access. But if not, select my projects.
05:18
This section contains three subsections, favorite projects that you have been assigned to,
05:24
and all projects that you have access to in Upchain.
05:30
Once you've located your project you want to work in, click on it,
05:34
and that will take you to that project's main dashboard and set the context for the plugin.
05:42
It also enables additional sections along the left-hand side that we'll explore shortly.
05:49
So, the project dashboard is where you can view information about the project such as its name and number, creation date at the bottom.
05:58
This is where you can favorite and unfavorite a project to add or remove it from your favorite project list.
06:07
It also contains information about how many assignments you have within this project,
06:13
how many items there are in this project and what their status is,
06:17
how many documents there are in this project, and a summary of how many team members there are in this project as well.
06:30
Along the left, the home button will always bring you back to the project dashboard when you're working within the context of this project.
06:39
The item view and the BOM views are really only useful when you have something open in your CAD system.
06:46
So, we'll come back to those in a later lesson.
06:51
The documents tab is where you can view and access documents that have been associated with this project.
06:58
You can download them from here if you need to refer to them when completing your work.
07:08
The My Assignments tab lists all assignments that you have been assigned within this project.
07:15
A list of all of them appear at the top, but they also are sorted by their status at the bottom and task type.
07:25
The Cart is where you send items from to a change request, and a change request is what's used to move an item into a released state.
07:37
The teams tab is where you can view a list of your team members.
07:41
That you can use if you need to refer to somebody to complete a certain task.
07:50
The Recent attribute changes window lists any attribute changes that you've recently made to items.
07:58
And this is just used to confirm for you that the attribute changes have been committed into Upchain.
08:07
The Help button is where you can access the help content for the CAD Plugin, as well as the rest of Upchain.
08:15
This opens that content in a web browser.
08:24
The Notifications tab is where you can view information,
08:28
if an item has suddenly been made obsolete within the items that you're working in.
08:34
It will highlight if you're not working with the latest versions of items, and it will highlight if you've been assigned any new tasks within Upchain.
08:44
We've already explored the CAD Plugin settings, and lastly, as a sign out button, Again, because Upchain is a single sign on system,
08:53
when you log out of the CAD Plugin, you will log out from everywhere else as well.
Video transcript
00:05
In this video, we'll show you how to log in to your appropriate CAD Plugin and explore its user interface to help you get started.
00:13
So, let's take a look.
00:17
The Upchain CAD Connector is a hub for all of Upchain's dedicated CAD Plugins.
00:22
You use this application to manage and launch the plugins for your installed CAD systems that Upchain supports, and a few examples are listed here.
00:32
To launch the plugin, click the launch button beside your desired CAD system.
00:40
This opens that CAD system if it was not already open, as well as its corresponding CAD Plugin.
00:52
Once launched, you'll use the plugin to capture, manage, and share CAD data throughout Upchain all without leaving your CAD environment.
01:01
To log in, click the log in button.
01:05
This launches a browser window.
01:08
If you are not already logged in elsewhere, such as the web application or the productivity plugins, you'll need to enter in your credentials here.
01:17
And then click the login button.
01:19
If you were already logged in elsewhere, this would be the window you would see right away, and you wouldn't have to log in again.
01:26
Once logged in, you can close that window.
01:33
And you're now logged in.
01:35
After logging in, you will be directed to my workspace.
01:39
This is like a dashboard in the CAD Plugin, that shows you information related only to you, but is a cross project view.
01:50
You can include information here such as your projects that you're a team member of, your assignments, and any items you may have locked to you.
02:03
Beside each section is a number that summarizes how many objects exist in each of these sections.
02:12
You can expand any of these sections to view more information,
02:16
and hover your mouse over any of the objects to see a tooltip with more information for that object.
02:25
By default, my workspace page is blank, but you can configure your workspace in the plugin settings.
02:32
So, to set up my workspace, click the settings button, to open the plugin settings window.
02:38
This window shows you information your login information, your license and role, some default settings.
02:48
The location on your computer where files get downloaded to.
02:53
To set up my workspace, scroll down to user settings.
02:56
And here, you can see all the available sections to include on your My Workspace Page.
03:04
Tick the box beside any of the sections you wish to include.
03:07
So, for example, you may want to include favorite projects.
03:11
This is a list that you can control and keep as long or as short as needed.
03:17
After a while, you may start to be added to more and more projects and so the projects assigned to me list might be quite lengthy,
03:24
whereas you can keep your favorite projects list as short as needed for quicker access to specific projects.
03:33
You may want to include my locked objects.
03:36
This provides a summary of everything you currently have locked to you that you might be working on across all projects.
03:44
And you may want to include my assignments as this provides you again a cross project view of all assignments that you have been tasked with,
03:53
to give you a nice summary of the work you need to complete.
03:59
So, once you have your settings configured to your liking, scroll down to the bottom, and click the save button.
04:07
This is important to do. Otherwise, your settings will be lost.
04:13
You can then close the settings page.
04:17
And now my workspace will show all the sections that you chose in the settings.
04:25
Upchain is a project-based system, which means that any data you add or edit, must belong to at least one project.
04:32
Typically, a project represents one product to be designed and produced for a customer, but it could contain many different products,
04:40
it could also simply be a standard library of parts or a standard library of documents to be shared amongst your engineering teams.
04:49
In any case, when in the plugin, you should be working within the context of a project. So, let's navigate to a project now.
04:60
To select a project, click the context selector at the top of the window.
05:08
If you've previously selected projects, these will also be listed here for quicker access. But if not, select my projects.
05:18
This section contains three subsections, favorite projects that you have been assigned to,
05:24
and all projects that you have access to in Upchain.
05:30
Once you've located your project you want to work in, click on it,
05:34
and that will take you to that project's main dashboard and set the context for the plugin.
05:42
It also enables additional sections along the left-hand side that we'll explore shortly.
05:49
So, the project dashboard is where you can view information about the project such as its name and number, creation date at the bottom.
05:58
This is where you can favorite and unfavorite a project to add or remove it from your favorite project list.
06:07
It also contains information about how many assignments you have within this project,
06:13
how many items there are in this project and what their status is,
06:17
how many documents there are in this project, and a summary of how many team members there are in this project as well.
06:30
Along the left, the home button will always bring you back to the project dashboard when you're working within the context of this project.
06:39
The item view and the BOM views are really only useful when you have something open in your CAD system.
06:46
So, we'll come back to those in a later lesson.
06:51
The documents tab is where you can view and access documents that have been associated with this project.
06:58
You can download them from here if you need to refer to them when completing your work.
07:08
The My Assignments tab lists all assignments that you have been assigned within this project.
07:15
A list of all of them appear at the top, but they also are sorted by their status at the bottom and task type.
07:25
The Cart is where you send items from to a change request, and a change request is what's used to move an item into a released state.
07:37
The teams tab is where you can view a list of your team members.
07:41
That you can use if you need to refer to somebody to complete a certain task.
07:50
The Recent attribute changes window lists any attribute changes that you've recently made to items.
07:58
And this is just used to confirm for you that the attribute changes have been committed into Upchain.
08:07
The Help button is where you can access the help content for the CAD Plugin, as well as the rest of Upchain.
08:15
This opens that content in a web browser.
08:24
The Notifications tab is where you can view information,
08:28
if an item has suddenly been made obsolete within the items that you're working in.
08:34
It will highlight if you're not working with the latest versions of items, and it will highlight if you've been assigned any new tasks within Upchain.
08:44
We've already explored the CAD Plugin settings, and lastly, as a sign out button, Again, because Upchain is a single sign on system,
08:53
when you log out of the CAD Plugin, you will log out from everywhere else as well.
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