|
|
Buzzsaw... 60,000+ Users & Growing!
... Part of Autodesk's commitment to digital data design and collaboration
By GeoCommunity Staff - December 10, 2002
Printer Friendly Version
SpatialNews AU 2002 Home
I've already mentioned that this year's Autodesk University theme was "Sharing Our World". Naturally,
a key point that was presented on numerous occasions was the company's commitment to online collaboration, and the
need to keep digital design data digital [and intelligent]. Integral to this process is Buzzsaw (or buzzsaw.com), Autodesk's professional online
collaboration service.
Autodesk CEO Carol Bartz mentioned in her keynote that she foresees a paperless design process in the future and that
consultants need to get away from their dependance on analog data and paper if they are to be competitive. So how does one
communicate and share digital design information effectively without shuffling papers back and forth? Buzzsaw is Autodesk's solution.
The tool (subscription-based) provides users with a common user interface and access point to centralized project information.
Users enter via a desktop PC that is configured using a central workspace made up of a simple and familiar UI. This facilitates entry to a secure and configurable
point of connection. Key functions are project control, reporting, tracking, and communicating
Key Features of Buzzsaw:
- Communication with standardized forms
- custom forms
- user logs
- track versioning
- advaced search capabilities
- security and user authentication
- create individual project spaces and work groups
The concept is simple. A project manager creates a Buzzsaw Project or workspace. Members are invited to partipate as part of the
project team. The workspace is configured and managed by the project manager(s) and she assigns members appropriate priveledges and levels of access.
Existing users point out that benefits include faster communication, improved quality on deliverables, increased productivity, lower project costs.
What can project members do?
- invite and provide access to team members
- configure access and permission settings
- maintain version information and receive automatic notification of data updates and revisions
- save time and bandwidth by using a centralized DB
- reduce the need for multiple versioning of files
- report on milestones, scheduling, and cost tracking
- view and redline documents
- export all information to CSV (ASCII)
- manage email notifications to team
- store files
The requirements are relatively simple and likely easily met by anoone currently working with digital design data
- Internet connection
- Intel-based PC
- Win 98 or higher
- MS Internet Explorer (IE) 5.0.1+
- 32 MB RAM (64 recommended)
- 70 MB free disk space
- 800x600 VGA display (1024x768 recommended)
Given that the latest Autodesk product releases (Map and Onsite Desktop) now have much better support for various data formats (and projections)
the need to constantly import/export data to and from various formats & projections is greatly reduced. Add to the equation the new
Express Viewer making digital design data available to the traditional non-user and the demand for efficient collaboration tools is
much greater.
Buzzsaw is a subscription service, however, a free 30 day trial period is available.
Users can setup a site in English, German, Japanese and are provided with 500MB storage space. Once registration is completed users need to
install Autodesk ProjectPoint™ software in order to access and manage the demo project.
Typical interface greeting first time users
tools like the Access logs provide comprehensive user stats
Adding files is very easy. In this case, a simple JPG file is added to the project workspace
Project files can be viewed by users, provided they have the required viewing tool configured on locally.
On the surface, I can see Buzzsaw as a very powerful and practical project management tool, particularly for those managers
having difficulty managing large teams and large volumes of digital design data. Of course the perfect scenario would be that all members
are Autodesk users and fluent with Autodesk's standard data formats and terminology. The system is streamlined to manage DWG, DXF, PDF, and likely
DWF format data, however, I didn't notice any reference to the new Express Viewer in the Buzzsaw downloads and I would have assumed
that it would be very useful here - particularly since it can be run as an embedded Active X control. Nonetheless, Buzzsaw appears to have some
strong features and gets very high marks for usefullness. Most important, Buzzsaw enables users to keep their design data digital and intelligent!
Related weblinks:
Are you, or have you used Buzzsaw? Send details of your experiences to editor@geocomm.com
|
|
Sponsored by:
For information
regarding
advertising rates
Click Here!
|
