HydroniCAD

[Deleted User]

As long as the other person has HDC, they can open modify and send them back to you. As for conversion to JPEG, no, you have to use the PRINT SCREEN function, then go to MS Paint or other graphic program (windows based), and PASTE the screen shot into the paint program, then SAVE AS a JPEG format. Then you can share it with the world.

ME

Shaun Anderson

HydroniCAD Program

I am trying to talk my boss on investing into buying the HydroniCAD program. Can you wallies help me on why this will benefit my company ?? I feel this could help my contractors understand whats going on in the system.

Thanks

TheFuture

Empire_2

I'm still on the Trial

Still using the trial period, but will order the entire probram after I plug in a few more senarios. Love the auto figures that appear when you change something in the design. It makes the job easier and you can do almost anything you want as far as well,....Anything you can think of. The program is self selling and is what I am looking for.
Buy, Buy, Buy.... and I'm not a paid rep.
Mike T, Buffalo, NY

John Boyer

Hydronicad

I just got mine last week and I love it. What a great way to make your company more professional, especially when your competition is using pencil sketches for their piping diagrams - if they do any drawings at all! It also gives your installers a clear diagram to install the systems propely. -DF

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hr

I think

it can also be used as a troubleshooting tool. Sometimes a CAD layout, done via laptop at the jobsitre, is easier to follow than digital pics. Draw up the system on HydroniCAD and take it back to the office to start running calcs and "fixes"

Rumor has it electricial symbol palettes will be added :)Then you could pipe and wire the entire system at the computer!

Or the techs in the field could draw "as built" CADs to bring back to the office. Rare to find a job that goes in EXACTLY the way an engineer has drawn it

hot rod



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siggy

HydroniCAD

You guys are making my day.

Response to the software has been great considering it's only been on the market for one week.

We're already working on new features that will be added (probably early 2006).

Also, by the end of 2005 we should have freely downloadable drawing files available for HydroniCAD users to download from our website. The idea is to have users keep building a base of standard drawings which can then be opening and modified if necessary.

Thanks for your support.

Siggy

Shaun Anderson

One of the main reasons

I want to pickup this program is the piping layouts. Makes selling our hydronic systems look more professional when we do a heat-calc and quote. Sounds like will help on service calls do to bad installations too. Any info I can get will help me sell this to the big guy.

Thanks wallies

TheFuture

Paul Rohrs_4

A question...

When saving a "File as" on the drop down menu, can I save it as a JPEG or is it only saved as a proprietary file such as the "HDS" suffix on the files in your Hydronic Design Studio?

It really looks like a well thought out program.

Regards,

PR

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Terry

careful

be Careful about handing over schematics.
I've done this and didn't get the sale, but my drawing was used for the competitors to price shop the design.

Now I will show a typical "job-specific" drawing to a customer. But they only get the Actual drawing for "their" system AFTER the sale has been completed.

Just wanted to mention this as I have been burned on these enough to learn my lesson and would hate for fellow wallies to run into the same situation.

regards,
EIN

Empire_2

Careful is true

I have also been burned on design plans and have since learned to repress information that I have gathered UNTIL full contract acception is agreed upon. This goes for part identification for repair, all the way to complete design plans. I DO NOT give spacifics as to what the problem is,.or how I have changed something as far a design to make the system work better or more efficient. Very fine line, but I'll be dammed if I provide the information so someone else can inder bid me off of my own design.....

Shaun Anderson

Thanks

Sounds like thats what I'll do. I'd like to try things my competition isn't doing just yet. I know my contractors would love the way I present my job quotes. Most of the heating contractors I deal with depend on us to a point to help desisn the best system for the heating application.

Shaun Anderson

How are you going to deal with ...............

software upgrades ? Is that more money or will it be a free upgrade to wallies ?? If so, do you have an idea on price just yet ?? Maybe still too new to discuss. Info my boss would like to know.

TheFuture

Jed_2

Siggy

software is great! I am still palying with it to get fluent. I was looking for a way to link for on-line registration. Could not see a way. Do I have to print and fax/mail the registration form?

Jed

hr

Paul

I move the "print screen" to a "paint" program. In paint it lets me convert to a JPEG and put it im "my documants". Then I can post it here on the wall. Is that the correct answer?

hot rod

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ALH_4

PDF

PDF 995 is a pretty decent shareware program that converts anything you can print into an Adobe Acrobat personal document file. Just select it from your printers when you hit print and it creates a pdf for you.

-Andrew

siggy

Answers on HydroniCAD

We are still in the process of getting the online registration ready for HydroniCAD. This capability should be up shortly. In the meantime you can either e-mail us your registration info or print and fill out the last page of the user manual and fax it to us.

Regarding "save as," you can only save to the file format used by HydroniCAD, which puts a .hcd extension at the end of the file name. One excellent piece of freeware that can be used to capture any part of the HydroniCAD screen as a JPEG is called Gadwin Printscreen. Just download it from http://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/ and install. I like to use it in the mode where a selection rectangle can be placed over any part of the screen, then press printscreen and you have an instant JPEG of that area. You can then paste that JPEG into a wall posting or your word processor, or any other software that accepts JPEGS. It works great, and you don't have to go through the extra steps of cutting and pasting into the Microsoft PAINT program.

We will be posting "maintenance upgrades" of HydroniCAD as free downloads. We will also be periodically posting freely downloadable drawing files of piping schematics that user can add to their "library" of drawings. Just keep watching the website for new offerings.

Siggy

Shaun Anderson

Just ordered mine.

The deal is finalized, can't wait to play with the program.


TheFuture

Shaun Anderson

Just ordered mine.

The deal is finalized, can't wait to play with the program.


TheFuture

siggy

HydroniCAD files

One thing I forgot to mention is that HydroniCAD drawing files can easily be e-mailed between users that both have the software. Most HydroniCAD files are relatively small (less than 1 MB). As users develop drawings perhaps they would like to "swap" them with other wetheads. Just attach the file with the .hcd extension to an e-mail and send.

Enjoy.

Siggy

Don Robertson

I love this program

What a sales tool for a wholesaler.

siggy

Nice drawing

Don,

Looks like you're getting into it with HydroniCAD.

A couple of suggstions:

1. When you get the drawing finished go under the settings menu and turn off (uncheck) the "show snap points" item. This will turn off all those little + and 0 symbols called "sticky points" that are there to help you assemble the drawing quickly. It cleans up the drawing for presentation.

2. Go to www.gadwin.com/printscreen
and download a freeware program called Gadwin Printscreen. Set it up so you can draw a selection rectangle around just the portion of the screen you want to capture each time you press the printscreen key. The printscreen program will grab just this portion as a JPEG and save it to your desktop. I've found this is a quick way to grab a drawing image to paste into another program or post on the wall. It's really nice if you just want to grab a certain portion of a schematic without using another program like PAINT or Photoshop.

Keep up the good work...

Siggy

hr

The fillet tool

is a nice feature also. It rounds all your corners to look more like pipe fittings.

Good work. How long did it take you?

hot rod

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[Deleted User]

Fun Program...

I can see some possible improvements, but then again, I'm new to it and it to me...

Here's the final design for my home heating system. Sans pumps of course...(trial version)

ME

Weezbo

Wow ! You guys are having all the fun:)

I have been pumping up one inch 'O's half the day:) i am going to hire me a troll with a thick neck and ears that roll into his shoulders to get into these squeaky spots and pump up the one inch o's thats a great picture Mark you forget the heat collector off the Purple pipe?

[Deleted User]

That's gone Weez...

In order to have enough space for the new 108 gallon solar storage tank, I had to take out the waste heat recovery system. I kept the GFX heat exchanger. THat's connected to the exhaust of the boiler. It will act just like it would if it were in the drain line, except it has a MUCH greater delta T to work with in this application during DHW useage.

Not enough room for all my toys in one mechanical room. Something HAD to go, so it was the least efficient (60%) part.

No purple pipes.

ME

Bob Sweet

Will it be possible to

type in detailed descriptions of individual heat loss and equipment for each zone? After seeing Mark's system ,I guess that option is available.

[Deleted User]

Ya mean...

Like THIS? THe answer is yes, there is an active text capability. Iforgot to tun off the sticky nodes before I screen dumped...

ME

Weezbo

Not gone and Not forgotten

in our world we are all well out beyond the Wave,so have you spun some of your home made panels into the drawings?

hot rod makes so many cool gizmoes he will probably break the thing )) my old man always accused me of busting things apart just to see how they work,when he found me putting the alarm clocks back together he had a change of heart

bob_50

cleaner

Bob Sweet

Exactly like that,

after a little searching on the trial version, I figured it out . Thanks

siggy

Mark, thats got to be

one of the most "diverse" systems ever drawn with HydroniCAD! You've made good use of both the standard symbols and the other "primative" drawing objects for components such as the dual coil tank. Definitely looks better with sticky points off for screen capture.

Here's figure 11-9 of Modern Hydronic Heating text done in HydroniCAD. Screen captured using Gadwin Printscreen utility even with palettes turned on.

siggy

thp_8

Glad to see

1 circ.

[Deleted User]

Thanks John...

Some preliminary suggestions for v1.2 if I may...

The more I work with it, the easier it gets, and the more "features" I will discover.

On MS PAINT, if you hold the SHIFT button down whilst dragging a line, the line goes at perfect straight angles from the drag point, 90 or 45 in either elevation. That would avoid segmented offset lines and save a LOT of time on line alignment.

The ability to set the scale on the page would also be an advantage. Most of my systems would require multiple pages just to fit the distribution piping in. As you can see with my system, I almost maxed the filed out with one of my smaller systems. I'd be off the page with some of my larger commercial jobs.

The ability to generate and save new components to the different categories, i.e. double, triple and quadruple coiled tanks, and atmospheric solar storage tanks with multiple coils wold be an EXCELLENT plus, and would save time. I can do it in Paint, but would prefer to use your click, click program. Which by the way is minorly difficult to get use to when use to doing drag and drops...

I find that it's an excellent tool for giving the "office guys" a great, uniform way of relaying important installation information to "the field guys". Everyone in our office uses a different drawign style as it pertains to generating field drawings. This would make it uniform. I think you need to consider a discount on "multiple seat" licenses as it pertains to small businesses.

The ability to save files in other formats would also be handy.

An eraser or line cleaner upper woud be nice as well. A means of identifying line crossovers as opposed to line intersections could avoid some cornfusion.

All in all, I know that you and your partner have put a LOT of time and effort into this, wonderfully useful tool. Congrats to the both of you, and may the fruits of your labor be plentiful.

ME

hr

I knew Eatherton would

be an over achiever Nice work! I like the use of colors on your drawing, it help keep the multiple systems sorted out and helps with those crossover piping issues.

I'm wondering about the person that owns that home of yours next Future contractors will be doing some head scratching.

Mark Eatherton and Associates???

hot rod

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Wayco Wayne_2

How do I

erase something. I have a drawing that is complete but I want to take out a flow-control valve that isn't really needed. (Drawing the system showed me so. Very helpful) Having a great time with this product. WW

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[Deleted User]

Double click on it, and press DELETE (N.O.M.)

ME

[Deleted User]

HR...

My siblings call me Overkill Bill..

I keep an ongoing O&M manual for my systems so when I pass on, they don't have to try and re-invent the wheel.

Eatherton and Associates is a one man company. I'll let you guess who the officers are:-)

ME

Don Robertson

Thanks for the tips!

I just started and am learning more every day.

Don Robertson

Thanks Hot Rod!

I worked on it a little every day. I would probably say about an hour total. Now that I know some of the copying techniques it should be much quicker.

Jed_2

Don, just a thought

If, and it could be a BIG if,your prospect views HH, or not; or, IF, a competitor views HH, you might want to omit the client info tag on the drawing. Just a thought.

Jed

Jed_2

Wood Boiler

A wood boiler master would be cool, too. But I just copied the OFB, and edited it to make my own wood fired boiler. Not great, but it works. Just copy a master in a drawing, ungroup it, and you have individual sub-groups you can work with to create new masters( Visio term). But I don't know how I could copy/paste those new masters into a new drawing. I'm having fun!

Jed