For Daniel Booth, founder of PROCADFAB, engineering design has always been grounded in real world fabrication experience. With nearly 30 years in the industry – ranging from hands-on boilermaker work to leading engineering teams – Booth has seen the spectrum of design and production challenges. He launched PROCADFAB to apply this wealth of experience across diverse sectors, from mining attachments and materials handling equipment to stainless-steel, food grade assemblies.
“At PROCADFAB, we focus on solving real-world problems with practical design, responsive support, and a commitment to quality that drives efficiency and long-term value,” said Booth. “My background as a trade qualified boilermaker gives me a very practical edge. I design with a fabricator’s mindset: can I build this? How will it be welded? How will it flow from sales to procurement to the workshop?”
This approach defines PROCADFAB’s consultancy model. The business combines engineering design with production collaboration, ensuring that concepts are not just technically accurate but also manufacturable. Using SolidWorks and advanced scanning technology, PROCADFAB delivers solutions that move swiftly from concept to production, or provides reverse engineering support where needed. The firm’s expertise spans aluminium, stainless steel, mild steel, and quench-and-tempered steels, making it adaptable to a range of fabrication challenges.
The bottleneck before automation
Despite its focus on efficiency, PROCADFAB once faced persistent workflow challenges, with the biggest bottleneck being production packages, Booth said because every PDF, DXF, and eDrawing had to be created manually by opening each file independently, on a project with 100 parts, that alone could take hours.
Booth said traditional tools were slow, unreliable, and prone to errors such as date-format changes or inconsistent metadata. Updating sheet formats and materials across large assemblies became a tedious task, costing team members several hours each week. This manual overhead limited productivity and increased the risk of human error, something Booth knew needed a smarter solution.
This all changed when Booth first encountered #TASK through Central Innovation, the creator of the software, of whom he has worked with for over a decade. Initially available as a free tool for CI customers, #TASK immediately stood out for its practical automation capabilities. The software was developed by Australian engineers as a SolidWorks personal assistant to save hours on file-admin tasks, and it is now used in more than 100 countries. #Task recently upgraded to version 2.5 – an update packed with new macros and available to all users with an active licence.
“We trialled it, it worked, and it quickly became part of the workflow,” Booth said. “CI didn’t need to be heavily involved early on; they were simply an active partner providing access and support if needed.”
TASK 2.5 offers seamless compatibility with SolidWorks 2025, robust web-based licence management, and a suite of built-in macros designed for real-world engineering workflows. Its core value lies in automating repetitive tasks, reducing manual file edits, and maintaining data integrity across complex projects-features that aligned with PROCADFAB’s operational needs.
Gains in efficiency
Since implementing #TASK, PROCADFAB has seen improvements in workflow efficiency. Batch output of PDFs, DXFs, and eDrawings is now reliable and fast, while updating metadata or sheet formats across large assemblies has become effortless.
“On a 100-part design, generating the full production package used to take
around five hours. Now it’s automated – what used to be three minutes per part is done in a single batch process in a matter of minutes,” Booth said.
Custom macros have further enhanced productivity. Booth has developed scripts that copy properties from parts to drawings, create complete production packages, resize revision tables, and remove unintended capitalisation. Combining these multiple processes into a single custom macro has been invaluable for Booth as it reduces rework risk and lets him focus on refining the actual design rather than processing files.
Batch processing is particularly transformative for PROCADFAB’s approach. Tasks that once required manual attention now run automatically in the background, freeing the team to focus on higher-value design work. The built-in licensing portal also simplifies administration, providing real-time visibility of token status and expiry dates – critical for multi-seat and multi-site operations.
Booth points to a recent complex assembly project as a clear example of #TASK’s impact.
“#TASK handled all output generation, which saved around five hours,” he explained. “The ability to integrate custom macros meant the project was delivered faster, more consistently, and with lower risk of errors.”
This approach extends beyond time savings. Automation reinforces
PROCADFAB’s design philosophy, which prioritises accuracy, practicality, and manufacturability. Booth said when you automate a process, you minimise human error and ensure every output is consistent. Rules that you define become rules the system follows, which aligns with a quality-driven workflow. For a small consultancy, this consistency is a competitive advantage, enabling the delivery of more work without compromising quality.
Booth’s adoption of #TASK is not just about speeding up repetitive tasks – it reflects a broader philosophy of integrating technology into design processes. PROCADFAB views automation as a tool to support creativity and problem solving, not replace it.
“Engineering will always be a creative field; you can’t automate imagination,” Booth said. “Designers rely on creativity to solve problems and then apply technical expertise to turn those ideas into reality. Automation helps by reducing processing time and enhancing consistency.”
For small- and medium-sized design consultancies, this philosophy offers an advantage. With growing labour shortages, increasingly complex designs, and tighter project deadlines, tools like #TASK enables leaner teams to produce more output without sacrificing precision or manufacturability.
Central Innovation remains a trusted partner in PROCADFAB’s workflow, with
Booth praising the company’s technical support and responsive service. He said
that over the years, he has built strong relationships with key people at CI, and
their technical support has consistently been prompt and helpful.
“Whenever I’ve needed assistance or clarification, they’ve been quick to respond and genuinely supportive,” he said. “This relationship ensures that PROCADFAB’s adoption of #TASK is both smooth and sustainable, giving the consultancy confidence in the tool’s ongoing reliability.”
Looking ahead, Booth believes that automation will play an increasingly central role in Australian fabrication and design. While engineering creativity cannot be replicated by software, tools like #TASK allow designers to focus on higher-level problem solving and innovation.
PROCADFAB’s journey illustrates how practical, well-supported automation can transform a consultancy’s operations, providing measurable efficiency gains while maintaining high standards of design integrity.