Component Solutions™ Director™ — Designed Around You
Designed with ease of use and flexibility in mind, CS Director gives you the freedom to choose only the features that fit your business needs, allowing customization for individual preferences. From a single component to a large multi-plan development, CS Director manages all of your projects with convenient features that keep your business running smoothly.
- Access for remote Designers at multiple locations using local and cloud-based software
- Schedule tasks and track project status using integrated calendars
- Create truss libraries and price books
- Create individual components, with or without a layout
- Intuitive workflows for creating and managing master projects
- Submit trusses for component review, and easily access sealed designs
Software Requirements
Continuous improvement based on customer input is a cornerstone of our software development strategy. Our sales and development team will be working closely with users to identify areas where we can expand functionality to increase versatility and efficiency in future releases.
Recommended Operating System
For Desktop
- Windows 7 64-bit edition (Recommended)
- Windows 8.1 or higher (Recommended)
- Windows 10 64-bit Pro Edition
For Server
- Windows 2012 R2 (Required)
- Xeon Processor
Recommended Hardware
- 2.6 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 64-bit (x64) processor
- 64-bit Core i5 or Core i7 Intel processor preferred
- Quad-Core processor preferred
- 16 GB RAM or higher
- 200 GB available hard disk space
- DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver (1 GB of video dedicated memory)
Minimum Hardware
- I5 minimum processor
- 2 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 64-bit (x64) processor
- 8 GB RAM
- 100 GB available hard disk space
- DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver (512MB or higher of video dedicated memory)
Additional Considerations
- 7200 RPM hard drive is recommended for good performance.
- A Hybrid Hard Drive (SSHD) is recommended for better performance.
- A Solid State Drive (SSD) is recommended for optimal performance.
- Gigabit Ethernet is recommended.
- Offsite Backup plan
If you have any questions regarding these requirements, please contact the Component Solutions™ Helpdesk at (866)252-8606 or cshelp@strongtie.com.
Rather than recommend a specific computer that may or may not be readily available, or that may or may not be consistent with your company’s vendor of choice, or that may vary in price making the value more or less great; the following can be used to help select the right system for you.
Other than selecting from the factors below, you also may have additional needs, such as portability (laptop) and/or such as consistency with your company’s IT computer deployment plan. The options discussed below are the options that make the biggest difference for performance of Component Solutions Software. This does not take into consideration any other computing needs that you may have.
Storage
There are a number of factors related to storage selection which can improve performance of file related tasks such as that of SQL database operations.
- Choose 7200 RPM drives on the low end, or Solid State Drives (SSD) on the high end.
- Choose a single drive for OS and data on the low end, to separate drives for your OS and data on the high end.
- Choose no RAID on the low end, to a RAID 0 configuration on the high end. (RAID 0 requires 2x the number of drives).
Additionally, with regards to storage, choosing the amount of disk space desired is a concern. The amount of needed disk space can be very different for various use case scenarios. Choose at least a configuration that allows 100G for data on the low end, or 250G, or even more, on the high end.
CPU
Choose a quad core CPU, ranging from an i5 on the low end, to an i7, or even a Xeon processor, on the high end. Look at the processor’s speed and price to select the processor with the right value for you. The faster, the better, but selecting the latest and greatest usually is not a great value.
Memory
Choose from 8GB on the low end, to 16GB, or even 32GB, on the high end. ECC memory provides for a little added stability, albeit, at an additional cost.
Graphics
Choose integrated graphics on the low end, to a dedicated graphics card on the high end. Always consider:
- Choose 7200 RPM drives on the low end, or Solid State Drives (SSD) on the high end.
- The number of monitors and the resolution desired for productivity.
- The monitor ports (e.g. Display Port, DVI, VGA, …)
| Dell Precision 3620 | Good ($850) | Better ($1650) |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | 7th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-7500 (Quad Core 3.4GHz, 3.8Ghz Turbo, 6MB, w/ HD Graphics 630) | 7th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-7700 (Quad Core 3.6GHz, 4.2Ghz Turbo, 8MB, w/ HD Graphics 630) |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Pro 64bit | Windows 10 Pro 64bit |
| Video Card | Integrated Graphics included | AMD FirePro™ W2100 2GB (2 DP) (1 DP to SL-DVI adapter) |
| Memory | 8GB (1X8GB) 2400MHz DDR4 UDIMM Non-ECC | 16GB (2X8GB) 2400MHz DDR4 UDIMM Non-ECC |
| Internal Hard Drive Configuration | C1 SATA 3.5, 1 HD | C7 M.2 SSD + 2.5 SATA 1-4 HD |
| RAID | None | None |
| Boot Hard Drive | 1TB, 3.5" SATA (7,200 RPM) Hard Drive | M.2 256GB PCIe NVMe Class 40 Solid State Drive |
| 2nd Hard Drive | None | 2.5" 256GB SATA Class 20 Solid State Drive (Additional) |
PLEASE NOTE: These recommendations are a generic specification that assumes hardware manufacturers publish appropriate data to determine compatibility. As we incorporate customer requests to change or enhance the Component Solutions™ software, and in recognition of technology changes, we reserve the right to periodically change and publish updated hardware and operating systems requirements.