From Cathy’s Desk

It’s November, and besides preparing for the upcoming holiday season, many of us are also preparing for Autodesk University.  We’re getting excited about the upcoming conference and sessions.  AU is a chance to reconnect with customers and friends, to see how customers are expanding their use of Civil 3D, Map 3D, Topobase, AUD, and other Autodesk products, and to get reenergized about future opportunities.

People ask me about the economic downturn, and how it’s affecting K-TEK, and my answer is “not as much as we have anticipated”.  While in some respects there’s less money available for projects, some organizations are looking at ways to become more efficient, and make better use of their existing software and staff.  In these cases, we’re seeing increased interest in consulting services around standards, efficiency, and process optimization.  There is also increased interest in training to increase staff knowledge, skills, and productivity.

Another big area of interest and growth here at K-TEK is related to two of Autodesk’s advanced products: Topobase and AUD.  Interest in both of these products is at an all-time high, and K-TEK has been investing in these products to strengthen our bench and grow our services in this area.  Of particular note, is that K-TEK is now an Authorized Topobase Training Partner, as well as an Authorized AUD Training and Implementation Partner!

We’ll be at AU this year in the geospatial section.  Please be sure and stop by, learn about our recent projects, check out examples of our training materials, and find out about K-TEK brainpower and how it can help your company or organization.

Focus area – Autodesk Utility Design

While AUD – Autodesk Utility Design – has been available for many years, it is gaining increased attention at Autodesk as a complete solution for electric utilities who must respond to a growing number of distribution design projects.  This growth is expected to continue as the expansion of green power drives change within the transmission and distribution systems.

K-TEK is pleased to announce that we are now an authorized training and implementation partner for AUD.  K-TEK’s training and industry expertise is currently being leveraged to create generic AUD user training. What’s more, we are already developing tailored customer-specific AUD training content for customers who are in the process of implementing AUD.

If you work at or help manage design at an electric utility, be sure to take a closer look at AUD.  And while you’re at AU, be sure to stop by our booth and chat with our AUD experts, to learn more about our services and where we can help you with a successful pilot and implementation.

Project Highlight – AutoCAD Map 3D for Rural Electric Utilities

K-TEK has just completed delivery on a project with a focus on using Map 3D within Rural Electric Utilities.  While Map 3D is not as advanced as AUD or Topobase, it is a powerful tool for managing electric utility information.  Many people are not aware that Autodesk introduced an electric utility toolkit last year, which provided standard blocks, data definitions, and more to “jump start” use of Map 3D within electric utilities.  Our recent project leveraged this capability, providing a series of training vignettes that explain different challenges faced by Rural Electric Utilities, and showing how Map 3D can help meet these challenges.

These vignettes were unique in that they went beyond just Map 3D, and reinforced Autodesk’s push to show how products, working in combination, can provide even more powerful customer solutions.  In addition to the Electric Utility Toolkit, these vignettes also used Design Review, and Raster Design, showing capabilities that ranged from converting legacy paper utility maps, to computer-based field markup of maps, to automated map book production.

K-TEK Forms Advisory Council

K-TEK has formed an advisory council, which will hold its first meeting during Autodesk University.  In Cathy’s words, “We see this as an opportunity to learn from our customers and partners, and understand how to improve our services”.  The K-TEK advisory council includes customer, partner, and consultant representatives.

Visit K-TEK at Autodesk University

Once again K-TEK will have a booth at Autodesk University.  This year we’ll be in booth #407 within the Geospatial area, emphasizing our expanded range of geospatial service offerings.  We’re also rolling out our new theme – Brainpower!  Stop by to find out about our recent projects, or just to say hello to our ever-expanding team!  

New Mailing Address

Please note that K-TEK has a new mailing address and phone number.  Please update your contact files as follows:

K-TEK Solutions
2163 Meeker Avenue, Suite 227
Richmond, CA 94804