In this lesson, we explore several key aspects of ARES Kudo, focusing on its accessibility, user interface, and various CAD tools:

1. Accessibility and Storage: ARES Kudo is a web-based CAD platform, allowing users to access and modify drawings from any computer with an internet connection. It seamlessly integrates with cloud storage, making it easy to access, store, and manage files across different devices.
2. User Interface and Commands: The software features a user-friendly interface, including a ribbon and command line, which are familiar to users of other CAD programs. Additionally, it supports aliases, offering users a smoother transition by simplifying command input.
3. Drawing and Editing Tools: ARES Kudo provides essential drawing tools such as lines, polylines, and splines, along with robust editing features like Trim, Powertrim, Move, and Copy, among others.
4. Blocks and Attributes: The software supports the insertion and management of blocks via the Trinity Block Library, and it also allows for editing block attributes to customize instances within drawings.
5. Other Features: ARES Kudo includes tools for dimensioning, layer management, and importing files like PDFs and DGNs. Users can download drawings in DWG format, print to PDF, and take advantage of collaboration features for team-based projects.

Before delving into the ARES Kudo online course, it is worth watching this video, which shows in just a few minutes the workflow of this program and what we can expect from it. This will help everyone — especially those who are unfamiliar with ARES Kudo — understand how far you can go with this program.

Although this video highlights only some of the points covered during the course, it sufficiently demonstrates that we are exploring a program that will enable you to accomplish everything you expect — and much more. The objective of this video is to provide an overview of ARES Kudo while emphasizing the key points you will learn during this course. In fact, once you finish your training, it is recommended that you watch this video again to see how your first impression of the topics presented has changed.

This video provides a comprehensive overview of these tools, enabling users to efficiently navigate and use ARES Kudo for their CAD projects.

Subtitle in English

Objectives:

• Take a quick look at the many features of ARES Kudo to understand that it is a complete CAD program that works from the cloud.

Functions in buttons and dialogs that you will learn in this lesson:

• Properties palette.
• Layers palette.
• Toolbars.
• User interface for view-only and edit-rights drawings.
• Command line.
• Comments and markups.
• Multiple commands for drawing and editing,
• Editing blocks with attributes.

ARES Kudo is a full-featured online CAD solution for creating and modifying DWG drawings directly within your Internet browser.

0101.01 - An open drawing in ARES Kudo.

The software can connect with many cloud storage providers, enabling you to easily access your drawings from any computer.

0101.02 - ARES Kudo can link up with a range of cloud storage services.

You can also start a new drawing from scratch, or upload existing DWG files from your hard drive to modify them with ARES Kudo.

0101.03 - A) Upload drawing to the cloud. B) Create a directory. C) Create a new drawing.

If you decide to share the drawing with other people, you can manage who can see or modify it, because the drawing is saved in the cloud through ARES Kudo. You can even generate view-only links to provide any collaborator with instant access to a file, as we will learn during this course.

0101.04 - Dialog box that allows you to share the drawing.

After logging into ARES Kudo (see image 0101.05), an initial page is displayed that allows you to view the directories and files (see image 0101.06) located within the storage services that you have linked to your ARES Kudo account.

0101.05 - Website where we log in to Kudo, at www.kudo.graebert.com.

0101.06 - ARES Kudo main page with access to directories, files, and cloud storage.

By default, ARES Kudo offers a limited amount of storage space on ARES Kudo Drive, which allows users to experiment with storing drawings that they want to modify, or saving new drawings that they create. Drawings that other users have shared with us are saved by default in the "Shared files" directory, which makes it easy to locate them.

0101.07 - My Files and Shared files directories within ARES Kudo Drive.

Recent files are displayed at the top of the screen, giving you quick access to the drawings you've been working on.

0101.08 - Recent files are displayed at the top of the main page.

You can even access the directory that contains a file.

0101.09 - Right-click on a recent file with options.

When opening a drawing, or starting a new one (see image 0101.10), we can see the ARES Kudo workspace (see image 0101.11), highlighting the Ribbon (see image 0101.12).

0101.10 - When starting a new drawing, you can choose a template.

0101.11 - ARES Kudo workspace in Model Space.

0101.12 - The ribbon in ARES Kudo.

Alternatively, you can use the command line (see image 0101.13), which will allow you to access many of the commands you are familiar with in ARES Commander or AutoCAD, especially the 2D commands.

0101.13 - Command line in ARES Kudo.

As soon as you start to type a command, ARES Kudo will suggest all the commands that match the letters you type, presenting them in a list for easy access. We can even type an alias, such as "M" to move or "CO" to copy, among others.

As is logical, the commands in ARES Kudo have the same names that they do in ARES Commander and ARES Touch — which in turn, in most cases, coincide with the names of the commands that exist in AutoCAD. If for some reason the name is different in AutoCAD, ARES Kudo has an alias configured that executes the corresponding command (this is true in ARES Commander as well). One example is the command called Pattern in ARES Kudo, which is called Hatch in AutoCAD; ARES Kudo will execute it even when users enter the AutoCAD name (Hatch) or its alias (h). The alias system facilitates the transition for AutoCAD users who are migrating to Graebert products.

ARES Kudo offers Model Space and Paper Space, which can contain multiple sheets set to standard print sizes, and scaled views of the drawing created in model space.

0101.14 - Model Space and Paper Space in ARES Kudo.

You can switch between Model Space and Paper Space easily, and even set up new drawing sheets, or modify existing ones. Furthermore, you can vary the position, or simply change the name of a sheet. (You will already be accustomed to these operations if you are a user of ARES Commander or AutoCAD).

0101.15 - Options for Model Space and Paper Space.

If you want to learn how to work with ARES Kudo, we recommend the specific course we offer about our CAD in the cloud. 

The Model Space can contain a black or white background, depending on your preference. This change is made from the Option dialog box.

0101.16 - Setting the background color for the Model Space in ARES Kudo to black or white.

The Properties palette allows you to view the characteristics of a selected entity (or several at the same time), and to modify their properties in many cases.

The number and type of properties displayed will depend on the type of entity selected. For example, when we select a line, in addition to the general properties such as layer, line type, color, etc., data specific to the selected line is provided.

0101.17 - Properties of a selected Polyline.

Similarly, if we select a block with attributes, the values of those attributes that we can modify also appear.

0101.18 - Properties of a selected block with attributes in ARES Kudo.

When multiple entities are selected, then the palette will show only those properties that they have in common (see image 0101.19). When a property has different values among the selected objects, the message *VARIES* will be displayed. In the event that we change that property, it will affect all the selected entities equally.

0101.19 - General properties when several different entities are selected at the same time.

The Layers palette also offers a full set of features to manage the properties of layers.

0101.20 - Layers palette in ARES Kudo.

If you have a long list, the filter makes it easy to find the right layer.

0101.21 - Filtering layers by name.

All the advanced features for layers are also there. For example, we can isolate a layer, or show all hidden layers.

0101.22 - Commands to work with layers.

When we use basic commands to create and edit entities, the need arises to select objects, as well as determine coordinates that can be relative, absolute, Cartesian, or Polar. In addition to lines, polylines, and variants of these types of entities, we also have the option of creating splines. In addition, we can use editing commands such as Copy, Move, Symmetrize, Trim, Extend, Fillet, Chamfer, etc., which are a tiny sample of those available to us.

Even ARES Kudo offers the PowerTrim command to trim entities on the fly, like we can do in ARES Commander, since this is a feature of ARES CAD software. Blocks can be inserted in a variety of ways, including from the new Trinity Block Library palette, where you can centralize and share your blocks. (This palette can also be accessed from ARES Commander and ARES Touch when you have the ARES Trinity or Mobility Pack license).

ARES Kudo also provides all the dimensioning tools, including the Smart Dimension tool that we know from ARES Commander. The Dimension palette allows you to further customize the dimensions, by adding, for example, text or tolerances. Blocks with attributes are also supported, and we can modify their attributes from the Properties palette. ARES Kudo and ARES Commander both offer the option of editing blocks through the environment called Edit Component, which is similar to the AutoCAD block editor.

Other advanced features of ARES Kudo include the ability to import PDF or DGN files and convert them to DWG. And although the drawings you create are saved in the cloud, you retain the ability to download a local copy. Last but not least, you can save or print to PDF.

As if that were not enough, ARES Kudo allows you to create view-only links to offer free online viewing and feedback opportunities to your collaborators.

• ARES Kudo: A cloud-based CAD software that allows users to create, edit, and share DWG drawings directly within a web browser.
• DWG: A popular file format used to store 2D and 3D design data in CAD applications.
• Cloud storage: A method of data storage where digital information is stored on a network of servers, accessed remotely via the internet.
• Ribbon: A graphical user interface element that organizes commands and tools into a series of tabs and menus, found in many software applications including ARES Commander and ARES Kudo.
• Command line: A text-based interface for inputting commands directly into the software.
• Alias: An alternate name or shortcut for a command, often used to simplify or shorten command input.
• Model Space: The primary workspace in CAD software where users create and edit the geometry of their designs.
• Paper Space: A separate workspace in CAD software dedicated to arranging, annotating, and printing drawings on virtual sheets.
• Properties palette: A window or pane that displays and allows modification of the properties of selected objects within a drawing.
• Layers: A fundamental organizational tool in CAD that allows users to group and control the visibility of objects based on their function or purpose.
• Polar relative coordinates: A method of specifying points in space based on a distance and an angle from a reference point.
• Cartesian coordinates: A system of specifying points in space using numerical coordinates along perpendicular axes (X, Y, Z).
• Polyline: A connected sequence of line segments treated as a single object in CAD.
• Spline: A smooth curve defined mathematically, often used to create organic shapes in CAD.
• Grips: Small squares or circles that appear on selected objects, allowing users to manipulate their shape and position interactively.
• Block: A collection of objects grouped and stored for reuse, allowing for efficient placement of repetitive elements in a drawing.
• Trinity Block library: A centralized cloud-based storage and sharing platform for custom blocks within the ARES ecosystem.
• Array (Pattern): A feature that creates multiple copies of selected objects arranged in a specific pattern (linear, circular, path).
• Dimensioning: The process of adding measurements and annotations to a drawing to convey size and scale information.
• Attributes: Text-based data associated with blocks, allowing for variations in information across instances of the same block.
• Edit Component: A feature that allows modification of a block definition without affecting the attributes assigned to existing instances of that block in the drawing.
• DGN: A file format used by MicroStation and other CAD software, primarily for infrastructure and engineering projects.
• PDF (Portable Document Format): A widely used file format for sharing documents independent of software, hardware, or operating system.

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