DriveWorks

Home Automation with DriveWorks

As a team we are always looking for cool new ways of using DriveWorks technology and a few months ago when Maria moved to her new house, Rob, Glen and Philip embarked on a very different but exciting project.... a Home Automation  project. 

The new house didn't have any form of heating installed when Maria bought it and as a person who cares about the environment and loves technology, Maria wanted to explore what options might be available for a solution that combined the two.

The ability to regulate for efficiency and automate what goes on in the house were important priorities. The result? A home automation system that monitors and controls the temperature settings in EVERY room of the house individually. And all driven by DriveWorks from anywhere in the world. 

So how exactly does this home automation system work with DriveWorks?

Solar Panels have been installed on the garage roof, wireless temperature sensors placed in every room (and one outside) providing realtime logging to a database monitored by DriveWorks. Through rules-based automation, DriveWorks then reads these values and displays them. Then, depending on what the user has set the ideal temperature to be at for a particular room, an electrical heater will remain off, or turn on to bring the room up to the required temperature.

Rooms can be grouped together using the ‘Group Admin’ button, e.g. placing all reception rooms, or all bedrooms in a group together to be set to the same temperature. The optimum temperature can be varied throughout the day, and for different times of the week.

This particular example has simple controls; changing settings for the week and weekend, or advanced controls giving the ability to change settings for each day.

 

 

Of course, if Maria wants it to be warmer or colder than the set temperatures, it’s really easy to make changes. Using DriveWorks Live Maria can even access the Home Automation Control Panel from anywhere in the world and on any device, eg iPhone, iPad, Android etc.  

So she could be at an airport getting ready to fly home from an international Reseller visit, holiday in Greece or just the DriveWorks office and want to be sure that the her house is the right temperature when she gets back. All she needs to do is just logon to the home automation system and adjust to the ideal temperature, what a perfect welcome home!

Her sons are pretty impressed with it too as they can set the heating in their rooms ahead of time if they decide to come home from university for the weekend!

As DriveWorks is a rules based system, it is easy to see other inventive uses of DriveWorks within the house (e.g. lights, electrical equipment) and beyond.

 

DriveWorks Live Example - Conveyor Project

 

 

 

 

 

As the BRAND NEW DriveWorks Solo Head Start webinar launches this week, featuring a conveyor project, we thought it would be a great opportunity to showcase the DriveWorks Live Conveyor demo.

This DriveWorks Live demo is a great example to present the speed in which the user can receive all the sales documents. It also provides the user with a 3D preview of their model in the form, and sends an image of this with the sales documents.

It’s a really quick and easy form to run through, and is optimised to work on various devices and in any of the most common internet browsers.

Here are the few simple steps I took to configure a conveyor in 3D:

1. Login to the www.driveworkslive.com demo site.

2. Select the 'fixed width example' square.

3. Select the conveyor project.

4. Choose the width, height and whether the conveyor you are configuring is heavy, medium or light duty (i.e. transporting heavy, medium or lightweight materials).

 

 

 

 

 

5. You can then also choose whether you would like raised sides or not - similar to bumpers in bowling!

6. You can then choose how many sections you would like your conveyor to have (1-5).

 

 

 

 

 

7. Then adjust the sections to be as desired - length of the section, whether it is straight or curved, and the angle of the curve.

8. After configuring the conveyor, it's a simple case of entering contact details and clicking submit.

9. Check your emails  for the sales documents! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conveyors are incredibly configurable items, here’s some great statistics from a company in the material handling industry already using DriveWorks:

• 90% reduction in engineering time
• Products now 12-15% cheaper than competition
• Drawings available the next day to customers

Specification Macros Webinar - 23rd May

The next topic in the DriveWorks Webinar Marathon is Specification Macros and will take place on Thursday 23rd May at 4pm (BST).

The webinar will cover how to setup and use Specification Macros with demonstrations of how they can implemented for common situations.

To sign up for this webinar go to:

The DriveWorks User Community - for all DriveWorks customers with a valid subscription
support contract.

The DriveWorks Reseller Community - for all DriveWorks VARs.

BRAND NEW DriveWorks Solo Head Start Webinar

On 22nd May 2013 we will be launching a BRAND NEW DriveWorks Solo Head Start  webinar, which will take place the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month.


With a lot of DriveWorks customers coming from the material-handling industry, we thought it would be a great idea to demonstrate how valuable DriveWorks can be to this industry. Therefore the new DriveWorks Solo Head Start webinar will feature a conveyor project.

This webinar takes you through the quick and easy steps involved in automating your design process with DriveWorks Solo.

You will learn...

•         How to capture the parameters you want to control
•         How to create a good looking and intelligent user interface to specify your products
•         How to build rules that link the form inputs to the captured parameters that control your designs

You will see how you can start automating YOUR designs straight away.

We run the webinar twice a day, to try and cover as many time zones as possible. Choose one of the sessions below and click on the link on the registration page to 'view in your own time zone.'

10am - 11am (BST - British Summer Time)

4pm - 5pm (BST)

Just a few minutes of your time now could save you hours of time every day!

Attend this webinar and get a FREE Little Book of Rules!

DriveWorks Live Example - Entrance Canopy

 

 

 

This DriveWorks Live demo begins by detecting whether the user is running on a Desktop or a Mobile device, as this will change the appearance of the form. The user is also able to choose what font style and colour they would like. This is an excellent way of demonstrating DriveWorks’ Form Technology providing the options to choose from and the rules based technology working behind the scenes that allows these changes to happen seamlessly.

Here are the few short steps taken to configure the perfect canopy, in a form design chosen by the user:

1. Visit the www.driveworkslive.com demo site.

2. Select the Entrance Canopy demo.

3. Choose the font colour and style desired.

4. Select the currency you would like the canopy to be priced in.

5. Then it's time to configure the dimensions of the canopy.

6. Followed by the foundations and frame colour.

 

 

 

7. Then view the summary of the choices that have been made and add (or take away) any extras.

8. Simply add in contact details and click submit.

 

 

 

9. You will then receive an email including all relevant Excel/Word documents and models/drawings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a go yourself and configure an entrance canopy to your exact specifications!

www.driveworkslive.com

Simple Tables in DriveWorks Webinar - 16th May

The next topic in the DriveWorks Webinar Marathon is Simple Tables and will take place on Thursday 16th May at 4pm (BST).

The webinar will cover what Simple Tables are and explain the benefits of using them. It will also cover how to use Simple Tables including: Table Lookups and Exporting to a Simple Table. There will also be a walkthrough example.

To sign up for this webinar go to:

The DriveWorks User Community - for all DriveWorks customers with a valid
subscription support contract.

The DriveWorks Reseller Community - for all DriveWorks VARs.

From DriveWorks Solo to DriveWorks Pro Webinar - 9th May

The next webinar in the DriveWorks Webinar Marathon series is From DriveWorks Solo to DriveWorks Pro and will take place on 9th May at 4pm (BST)

If you already know about DriveWorks Solo and would like to do more, then this webinar is ideal for you. It reveals some of the additional functionality available in DriveWorks Pro and sets out
the steps to using DriveWorks as a Sales Configurator.

To sign up for this informative webinar, just click on the link below!

From DriveWorks Solo to DriveWorks Pro

 

MakerBot Arrives at DriveWorks

Usually Monday mornings are the time when people struggle to get back into the work routine, after a weekend away, people dread this time of the week. However, if every Monday morning was like this week's - we'd all be praying for them to come around more often!

Finally, our 3D Printer arrived!

There was much excitement when the package arrived and within minutes it was being put together by all the technical team. We had Jane, our Operations Manager, reading the instructions to ensure it all went smoothly and was put together correctly. Impressively, after only half an hour we were ready to go into production.

We chose to print the pre-installed demo items, so we could get something as soon as possible, it's amazing how impatient people become when there's a new toy around!

So after time to warm up and around 8 minutes printing time - we ended up with a MakerBot logo pendant. Around 20 minutes later we managed to print a stretchy bracelet.

So after an afternoon of playing around and listening to the magical, futuristic sounds it's now time to get down to business and start testing it with some of the tech team's designs.

 

We'll be keeping you up to date with our creations via the DriveWorks Facebook Page!

Now we just need to decide on a name for it...

  

DriveWorks Live Examples - A Single-Form Project

 

 

 

 

 

This demo is great in showing how clever and logical form design can ensure a large quantity of information can be included in a single-from project, without looking overcrowded or complicated.

This staircase project includes: customer contact information, design and configuration tools and sales contact information on just the one form, giving the ability to configure different staircases and supply sales and manufacturing documents in a matter of minutes.

Here are the few simple steps I took when running through the project:

1. Visit the www.driveworkslive.com demo site.

2. Click on the 'Fixed width example' square.

3. The password and username - Guest and Guest.

4. Choose the Fire Escape project.

5. You can select an exisiting company from the drop down list - the company details, contact and currency will automatically appear. Alternatively, you can create a new company.

6. Then, configure your staircase, choosing: the height and pillar to pillar distance, the number of floors and the step width.

7. Then just enter your details - and when all the blue warning triangles have disappeared - the form is complete and you can click submit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. You will then receive all essential sales and marketing documents by email to complete the order.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This project demonstrates how, once set-up by an engineer that understands the technicalities and rules behind the project, anyone can configure a staircase to their exact specifications on one, very user-friendly form.

Feedback from a staircase company using DriveWorks:

"The use of SolidWorks/DriveWorks practically eliminates the "repetitive" design elements allowing their engineers to focus on the 20% "job-specific" elements and whilst also freeing up time to dedicate to those more creative "one off" feature staircases."

DriveWorks Live Examples - Form Embedded in Existing Website

This demo is great for showing how DriveWorks projects work embedded in an existing website. Although projects can be made to look how the Administrator wants them to e.g. adding branding, some companies would prefer for the project to not navigate the User away from their website.

The other DriveWorks Live projects I have featured have been products that I see every day and understand the purpose of - a chair, a lorry. This time I have chosen a Hydraulic Cylinder. With no engineering background, I do not know what this particular product is used for. However - with the help of DriveWorks - I can ensure that the selections I make for my product are feasible. This proves that once set up by an engineer that understands the ins-and-outs and the rules of the product, any person can run through a project, freeing up engineers to work on innovation and developing new products.

These are the few short steps I ran through:

1. Visit www.driveworkslive.com demo site.

2. Click on the 'Multiple projects embedded in an existing web site' square.

3. Choose an item to configure - in this case a Hydraulic Cylinder.

4. Make selections of how you would like the product to be - technical requirements.

 

 

5. Click on 'preview' to see a 3D Preview of the actual cylinder you have configured.

6. If you want to go back and make changes you can - then click preview again.

7. You can turn the 3D preview round and zoom in and out to ensure that you (or your client) get a true picture of what the overall product will look like when manufactured.

 

 

 

8. Then it is important to enter the correct contact details - you will see the 'warning' triangles disappear when all information has been entered - you can then proceed to click 'submit'.

 

 

 

9. Then the sales and manufacturing documents will be emailed to you.

So, in about 5 minutes, I managed to design a hydraulic cylinder and view it in 3D, make some changes and view it again to ensure it is configured exactly to the required specification. Then, by entering a couple of details and clicking submit, I received all the documents needed to complete the sale and start the manufacturing process - what a time saver!

Feedback from a Hydraulic Cylinder Manufacturer using DriveWorks:

"Without DriveWorks, the design time would be doubled, if not tripled”