I noticed there is a manufacturing forum (should I post there as well?) Looking for CAD software that works well/easily with Navisin Financials 2.0 This can get rather hard to explain, in words, hence the need for CAD software. I work at manufacturing coy. We make custom designed products with materials our customers supply (we supply some things but not an issue/concern) So our customers need to know not only how much money to send [:)] but also how much material. How much is a “simple” area calculation, so much wide, by length by depth. (Gets a little complicated in deciding the how long, how wide part, which is what my code figures out, along with a set of parameters stored in tables) I have been trying to write routines in C/AL to do that, but am running into a couple of “glitches”. Say, I get it up and working, until it is debugged, can’t trust numbers, so I want users to question and poke around in the results. I could (and do) have it spit out a bunch of numbers, but that is hard to interput without going through everything in detail. Also, these are the same “numbers”/data the first step in manufacturing process needs, which they currently calculate by hand. But often get wrong as need visualization tool. So, I am thinking that instead of spitting out numbers, if I could dump the numbers in a CAD program which would render a drawing it would be a lot easier to debug, to use and be easier in manufacturing (at all stages). On the other hand the drawings do not have to be complex 3-D animated, 4000000 million color type drawings. Basically need some simple 2-D, stick figures, simple geometric shapes. I am not familiar with CAD software so do not know terms, companies, software out there. Have been getting bogged down in researching what to get (go to website and they talk about features/functions of which I have zero or little understanding). Also, our people who deal with customers and manufacturing people are not computer savy, so the last thing I need is complicated CAD software were I would have to spend 3 months showing themhow to use it (if only to do a stick drawing) and it would take them 3 weeks to produce a drawing. I would also like it to go the other way: People could draw the stick figures, see if it corresponds to customers’ specs and then dump the data into Navision. Any help, advice, suggestions would be enthusiastically appreciated. Right now I joke with boss "OH yeah program runs fine - when really what it does is just tell me there is a new order and I figure out by hand and type in results - nobody is the wiser - Chinese Box[;)]
Mike, We specialize in both Navision and CAD software from Autodesk and we have integrated CAD solutions for our clients to Navision. We would be happy to speak with you about this in detail if you are interested. tbone@csbsystems.com
Surprised you can use Navision for complex applications like CAD… i am taken a back…[:0]
Actually, right now I can’t as I have not found stuff. Basically need program (don’t care if CAD or 2 trained gophers) that takes parameters (coordinates) from Navision and spits out drawings.
How about using automation to pass the parameters from Navision to Visio to construct the drawing? I’ve not tried it but the principle is sound. Have a look at that download which maps database relations in Visio because that does that sort of thing. Cheers, John
JohnP Having heck of time getting info out of Microsoft. Do you know much about Visio or have it?
for more info than you could possibly want on what we are trying to do: http://www.blueorbwise.net/project1/proj1intro.html
Michael, Even though I’m sure some sort of interface could be written between Navision and a CAD product (ie: AutoCad), I’m not sure this is really what you require. John is correct, why not use Visio. You say you’re having a “heck of a time getting info out of Microsoft” - isn’t this the joy and challenge that you need? [:D] Automation can be a pig of solution, but when you do it more than once, you get use to it and it’ll become easier. And the other point is it should be the best solution as Navision themselves use to say, the interfaces between Navision & Microsoft products is practically seamless! [:p] Seriously, try searching about automation and Visio on this site and find out what you can about Visio. Good luck [;)]