This video will demonstrate an ARES Kudo Cloud CAD user at work with Trinity. ARES Kudo is the first cloud-based CAD solution that offers a full set of features to create, read, and modify DWG drawings online. ARES Kudo runs directly in the Internet browser.

The ARES Kudo user at work with Trinity

ARES Kudo is the first cloud-based CAD solution that offers a full set of features to create, read, and modify DWG drawings online. ARES Kudo runs directly in the Internet browser. There is nothing to install, and therefore nothing to update. The software follows you on any computer — and so do your drawings.

That means you can start working on one computer and continue later on another one. It is therefore very well-suited for users who are frequently out of the office. ARES Kudo enables users to create and modify drawings, like in traditional CAD software, but it offers much more than that.

The key benefit is that it is a very efficient and secure way to work. First of all, the drawings are synchronized across all users and devices. When the design team modifies the drawing, I can instantly access the latest version. The drawings are always up to date.

In addition, collaboration is significantly improved. One example is the email notifications: They help me to follow the progress without even opening the drawing. If I click on the open button, it will also directly open this specific drawing for me. Before looking at the editing features, we can open the comments and markups. You will find the collaboration feed here.

More features in ARES Kudo

Comments and markups can be linked to specific areas of the drawing, so you can zoom to this area and better understand the context. I can reply to this discussion, and even mark it as resolved. But it is not deleted; I can go to the filter and show the resolved comments and markups. Just like in ARES Commander and ARES Touch, I can create markups with voice or with pictures. All these markups represent a very organized and clean way to improve collaboration within the design team. I can also create markups with stamps.

They don’t require any knowledge of CAD, and don’t modify the drawing. Therefore, nobody would need to delete them before printing or sharing, for example. Speaking of which, ARES Kudo also offers a very easy and secure way to collect feedback from external users. If you click on the Share button, you can create a view-only link. This link can be used by a colleague or an external collaborator who doesn’t have a Kudo or Trinity license. With this link, they can view your drawing online for free.

As you can see, this is just a URL to click; they have nothing to install, and they always see the latest version of your file.
It is very secure because in the settings of the view-only link you can revoke access at any time, as well as define an expiration date or password.

Sharing files with ARES Kudo

The truth is that working with ARES Kudo or the ARES Trinity is a very well-organized way to work. In the sharing dialog you can see that users can only access files to which they were granted rights. You can always see who has access, and revoke these permissions at any time.

But the nice thing with ARES is that this security doesn’t come at the expense of flexibility. ARES Kudo is integrated with all the popular cloud storage providers.

When you start with ARES Kudo, we offer some free storage with the ARES Kudo Drive. This helps you to upload some drawings and explore the features.

We also provide a selection of ready-to-use sample drawings. But you can easily connect to other storage accounts, and even use more than one. The file explorer in ARES Kudo works like a hub: You can browse all these storages and even use the Search function across all of them to find a drawing. You can also easily upload drawings from your computer and manage who has access.

If you do a right-click on any of these files, you can access more options. Now, let’s open one of these drawings.
Of course, you need Internet to work with ARES Kudo, but you will never lose your work if your Internet connection goes down, because the file is automatically saved on a frequent basis. You can also access the version history and keep track of who modified the drawing.

Editing features of ARES Kudo

If needed, you can come back to a previous version. Secondly, if another ARES user is working on the file, you will be offered a view-only access to avoid making any conflicting changes. Finally, let’s talk about the editing features. The user interface is very similar to that of traditional CAD software, such as ARES Commander or AutoCAD. Some frequently used features are available in the toolbar on the left.

But you will find the rest of the features from the menu, if you click on the 3 lines at the top of the toolbar.
To begin with, we can find here the dimensioning features. If I use the smart dimension, for example, we just need to pick an entity and it will select for me the most relevant type of dimension.

Next, I can select the dimension and fly over this small icon to call the dimension palette, where I may add some details. On the right of the screen, you will find the Properties palette. I can move this dimension to another layer, and see more options that I can change for the dimension.

Now, let’s go to the Modify menu. Some of the features you see here are also available in the toolbar. But if you know a command by name, such as MIRROR, you can simply use the command bar. Now, I will select the entities and mirror them. ARES Kudo also offers more advanced features that require dialogs. See block insertions, for example. These dialogs are replaced by a palette on the side.

But let’s make an example with the PATTERN command. The name is different than in AutoCAD, but it is not a problem because I entered the array and Kudo understands what I want to do. Even when the command has a different name, Kudo will still find it.

Drawings in ARES Kudo

Finally, let’s draw something new. I will first delete these entities and use the polyline command. While I am designing, you can see that ARES Kudo offers all the design assistance that you would expect, including entity snaps, tracking, ortho mode, or options when you do a right-click.

As we are working in an Internet browser, printing will also be different. To begin with, we can see at the bottom the tabs to switch from model space to the different layouts. In the bottom-left corner, you will find the Sheets Manager, where you can modify the settings of each sheet or create a new one.

When you are ready to print, there are two options to consider: First, you can use the view-only link to share your drawing instead of printing it. This is a better approach if you want your contact to always see the latest version of your drawing. The alternative would be to Print to PDF, which you can do from this button you will find in the toolbar. The advantage of this approach would be to capture the current state of the project.

The PDF will be generated, taking into account the views and formats configured in the sheets and this, as an example, is the PDF we generated from our drawing. Depending on your use case, ARES Kudo can be purchased separately or together with ARES Commander and ARES Touch when you buy a Trinity license.