Synchronizing AutoCAD Drawings in Alfresco with AutoCAD

In a previous post, we discussed viewing AutoCAD® drawings in Alfresco.  However, how do you interact directly between AutoCAD and Alfresco such that the design engineers working in AutoCAD can keep their base drawings along with the associated XRefs in sync with what is in the Alfresco repository?

The solution is Formtek’s EDM Connector for AutoCAD. The EDM Connector for AutoCAD is a plug-in installed on each AutoCAD client. It integrates AutoCAD and the Alfresco repository, via the Formtek EDM Module.

 

The EDM Connector for AutoCAD allows users to interact with Alfresco directly from AutoCAD

The EDM Connector utilizes the predefined engineering content model provided by the Formtek EDM Module to provide secure management of engineering drawings directly from the AutoCAD application. You can also configure the EDM Connector to use your own custom content model. 

With the EDM Connector, you can:

• Upload a new engineering drawing or drawing revision to the repository and optionally store the AutoCAD drawing properties and block attributes as repository properties
• Browse the repository to download an engineering drawing from the repository to your local machine and open it in AutoCAD
• View or edit a drawing’s repository properties
• Control versions and revisions between Alfresco and AutoCAD
• View a drawing’s revision history in the repository 
• Lock or unlock a drawing in the repository
• Synchronize your local copy of a drawing by checking the repository for a newer version and downloading it if one exists
• Automatically maintain the integrity of a drawing’s external references.

 Here's a video with more information about the basic functionality of the EDM Connector:

The EDM Connector for AutoCAD works with AutoCAD 2013 through 2017.