Software provider Stardraw.com has announced the addition of the 1,000th manufacturer to its Stardraw Design 7 library of design and documentation software (currently v7.3). This milestone is the result of dozens of man-years of investment in what is the most comprehensive line art symbol resource available to the pro A/V industry.
The Symbols Library, which now contains more than 110,000 symbols of approximately 40,000 products, has been an integral part of Stardraw’s design software since 1992, and has been one of the features that sets Stardraw.com products apart. Uniquely, each symbol is drawn in house by Stardraw.com’s drafting team to ensure a consistent qualitative standard. All symbols are vector-based line art and, thus, resolution-independent.
The addition of new products to the library is prioritised on user requests submitted through Stardraw’s online Product Request Service; this is another feature that is unique to Stardraw and ensures that only products relevant to the user base feature in the library.
‘Since we have an installed user base operating in different industry segments across nearly 90 countries worldwide, it’s impossible for us to guess what particular products might be important for any particular integrator,’ explains CEO, Rob Robinson. ‘Requirements vary hugely from market to market and country to country, so rather than randomly scraping catalogue data for products that may or may not be useful to our users, we encourage our users to drive the process themselves via Product Requests to keep the libraries relevant to their needs. All we require is the manufacturer name and product model number and we’ll do the rest. To ensure that the system remains democratic, we recently implemented a Fair Use policy by means of a Product Request Allowance based on the level of your subscription to ensure that product requests are properly and fairly prioritised. This speeds up the process for everyone and enables requested products to be published even faster.’
Symbols include technically accurate block schematic representations showing discrete inputs and outputs, rack layout and pictorial schematic representations showing, where data is available, graphically accurate front and rear view detail, side view depths and, where appropriate, Panel Layout symbols with high detail front and rear views for creating custom connection plates, and Plan View symbols that conform to the J-STD-710 standard, Audio, Video and Control Architectural Drawing Symbols.
‘We’re immensely proud of our record with the Symbols Libraries,’ Robinson adds. ‘They are key to the intrinsic value of Stardraw Design 7, and we are the only software manufacturer to offer such a comprehensive, user-focused and high-quality service.’
