Autodesk has a fabulous set of  MEP detailing and fabrication software in their stable.  I have been investigating it for the last 2 weeks.  The 3 software packages they have are Fabrication CADmep (for detailers), Fabrication ESTmep (for estimators) and Fabrication CAMduct for manufacturers.

The CADmep  software needs either AutoCAD or Revit to run on.  The ESTmep and CAMduct software are standalone products which have a CAD program embedded in it called Opus.  It looks a little like AutoCAD and does have some shortcut keys that you can use to help navigate through the interface if AutoCAD is all that you are used to.

When I opened up CAMduct it looked like any Autodesk package I had opened.  You have the ribbon at the top and then the usual start page…and then I clicked on Create Blank Job.  Then things started to get hairy.

What was I looking at???

This looked NOTHING like AutoCAD or Revit or Inventor or anything that I had seen.  I started to panic then thought, hey I have learnt software before.  It Autodesk , it will be easy.   As with all new software I just started pressing buttons and this led me very quickly to the realisation that it might not be so easy.

Everything I clicked on would not get any type of visual result which is what I am used to when working in a CAD package.  Job contents (picture above) showed nothing

When I clicked on Item Folders I did get something.  Some HVAC components.  YAY!!

I double clicked on straight HVAC and I got another visual which was 4 views and then some properties info on the right.  Now this was more my style.

But how do I start drawing?  I was totally stumped so I started reading the help files. Oh how I love reading help files….