WEKA Manager CE English Version

Simple CE marking with the software WEKA Manager CE

Our interactive software, available in English and German, reliably guides you through the various steps required for a conformity assessment of your machines and systems, reducing your work to a minimum! It couldn’t be simpler.

Here important information for installation.

What’s new?

The WEKA Manager CE guides you through the steps of the CE marking procedure (conformity assessment) for your product in accordance with the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC, the Low-Voltage Directive 2014/35/EU, the EMC directive 2014/30/EU and other CE regulations.

Important new functions in version 4.0 include:

Performance improvement for network customers and VPN operation

The big jump from version 3.9 to 4.0 is mainly due to the fact that we have changed a lot beneath the surface of the WEKA Manager CE in this update. In particular, the database connection and data storage in the network between server and client have been optimized. As a result, significantly higher performance is now achieved in all network constellations. In addition, the network architecture now also has VPN capability. This means that the WEKA Manager CE can now be used efficiently not only in the company’s local LAN network itself, but also in the home office. As usual, the „Important information“ document will tell you which minimum requirements are required for this and which settings the administrators have to make.

Product requirements document template for the start of the project

Getting started is always difficult and unfortunately this often also applies to the start of CE projects. It is often impossible to work efficiently with the WEKA Manager CE because the information needed for a project is not available in time or in full and has to be painstakingly gathered while the project is in progress. To ensure this works better, we have designed a „product requirements document template“ that project managers can use to collect and summarize all the necessary information. To ensure that this template is optimally tailored to your requirements, it is fed from the data of the product description template and the hazard tree. You can also choose which chapters of the product requirements document you actually want to use. Once all questions have been answered, there is nothing to stand in the way of a successful CE project.

Adding your own standard proposals

In the case of the essential requirements and the protective measures, in many cases the WEKA Manager CE offers you standard proposals that match the respective requirement or hazard consequence. These are usually B standards and are listed under the Machinery Directive. A link to C standards is sometimes useful, but it is very product-specific, i.e. we have not been able to anticipate these links in the content. However, you now have the opportunity to become active yourself here: It takes just a few mouse clicks to add the C standards typical of your products and to make them visible for future projects.

Inserting images or graphics with copy & paste and maximum image size

It is getting easier to insert images or graphics in the editors: You can now copy and paste content from the clipboard directly, for example if you want to show specific areas from a larger image separately or include a quote from the standard using an image, etc. The maximum image size is also bigger now: image files can now be up to 10 MB in size. To ensure that the database is not overloaded, the quality is automatically reduced and you do not have to reduce the size of these images in any other way.

Expanding our text module library

It is already possible to create text modules in many places in the software. We have expanded this function again. Now you can also create text modules for ToDos and measures, to explain irrelevant hazards, for warning texts and to comment on standards and the project history. In addition, we have made the administration of the text modules clearer and easier to handle. As usual, text module management can be called up via the options.

Updating the WEKA operating instructions templates

Just as you have to adapt your products to new standards, we also have to take steps when the framework standards for our templates changes. The new DIN EN IEC/IEEE 82079-1:2021-09 has recently come into force for operating instructions. We have made the necessary changes to the templates with this update and have also incorporated other improvements in the individual chapters.

Setting headers for documents on an individual basis

For some time now, you have been able to design the footer yourself when producing documents for output. Now you can do the same for the header. In particular, a logo can be inserted here and placed not only on the right, but also in the middle or on the left. Many other fields can also be selected and placed as required.

Editing ToDos and measures

It sometimes happens that you have just created a ToDo when you realize that you have forgotten an important aspect. Until now, correcting and editing ToDos was still a bit cumbersome because you had to switch to the Documentation tab to do it. We have now found a better solution: Simply click on the ToDo button again and the existing ToDo can be revised or expanded.

Other

Of course this update also includes an updated standards database. We have also moved the hazard tree selection from the master data when creating a project and placed it further back in the Risk Assessment tab. In the Master Data tab, the ToDos can now be set to match the respective limits. For the essential requirements, the software remembers the last position in the tree and displays this automatically when you return to the tab, i.e. the node does not have to be searched for and expanded again. The information on the exposed persons can be updated more easily and the specific groups and consequences created by the user are now shown in italics in the hazard tree.


Important new functions in version 3.9 include:

Managing library projects separately, and applying existing protective measures to library projects
Many users have already been working in what are called template projects or master projects. In other words, they used these projects as templates for similar, new projects – a very effective way to make the CE process manageable, especially in variant construction. Up to now, however, no distinction was made between such master projects and normal projects in WEKA Manager CE. We have changed this, and now have a separate, dedicated area for „library projects“. You can easily copy projects back and forth between the two areas. One advantage of this new separation is that you can now choose whether you only want the library projects to be displayed as sources in all copy dialogues. This makes searching a lot easier! You can also copy protections that you have created in a project to a library project with a single click. Until now, this required multiple steps.

Simple image editing with WEKA Manager CE

A picture is worth a thousand words. That’s why it has long been possible to insert images into the editors in addition to text. The current version also lets you edit these images. This means you can draw arrows or rectangles, indicate hazardous areas or add a small legend as a text block. All of this is possible without leaving WEKA Manager CE. This not only saves time, but also helps to illustrate complex issues. Try it for yourself.

New report: Large Excel data sheet

It is almost impossible to print a complete risk assessment with all the details as a table on a single A4 page. However, such a comprehensive table can be easily accommodated in an Excel data sheet, because there you can scroll to the right as far as you like. And of course you then have all Excel functions available for further editing, such as filtering, sorting and selecting, etc. If you like working in Excel, you will certainly make use of this new type of report more often in the future.

Managing rights for program options and changing passwords

In the past, WEKA Manager CE administrators could assign project read and write privileges to normal users. However, the privileges for the program options were always the same for all users. Yet, perhaps you may not want every user to be able to simply create hazard trees or modify templates for operating instructions. That’s why you can now also control and customise the program options from the user administration. And there’s something else new, too: In order to reduce some of the workload on administrators, users can now change their own passwords.

Save using the key combination Ctrl+S

For many users, the Control key is a tried-and-tested aid to performing standard software functions quickly and effectively. „Save“ is a typical standard function and is frequently required in WEKA Manager CE. The commonly used key combination for this is Ctrl+S, and you can use this combination to save at any point in WEKA Manager CE.

Printing hazard trees

If you have created or need to edit your own hazard tree, you may want to view it without having to click through it step-by-step in the software. For this reason, you can now export hazard trees to Excel and print them from there. This enables you to get a good overview of the entire tree quickly and easily.

New report: Applied CE regulations

Which CE regulations apply to a project? For which regulations do the safety objectives have to be observed? To allow you to include the results of the regulation searches in technical documents, we have expanded the search results report for standards research, and now also list the CE regulations that have been found, if requested.

Assignment of standards by drop-down list

For some time now, it has also been possible to assign specific standards to the individual protective measures. Previously, you always had to switch to the „Standard assignment“ tab. We have made the procedure easier, and now allow standards and associated comments to be added directly from a drop-down list on the „Protective measures“ tab.

Standard warning extended – now also for announced, scheduled deletions

For the standards themselves, we have refined the algorithm for standard warning notifications. This was necessary because for some time now the EU Commission has no longer immediately removed the superseded standards from the „Official Journal List“, instead simply defining a „Date of deletion from the Official Journal“. For example, there are two current standards on the subject of „Safety of machinery – Two-hand control devices – Principles for design and selection“ in the Machinery Directive list: EN 574:1996 and EN ISO 13851:2019. The date of deletion for EN 574 has already been set for 3 September 2022. To ensure that you are warned in good time about such transitions, standards such as EN 574 now also bear the familiar standard yellow warning triangle.

Editing text blocks

Anyone who works extensively with text blocks may have been irritated to find that these could not be formatted uniformly from a central point. We now offer this function in text block management.

Mandatory fields are marked in colour

An asterisk ‚*‘ is no longer used to mark mandatory data-entry fields. This has often been overlooked in the past, sometimes leading to individual hazards or entire projects remaining incomplete in terms of status. To prevent this from occurring, mandatory data-entry fields are initially highlighted in colour, and this colour only changes when the relevant fields have been completed.

Residual risk: This can also be explained if there is no longer any residual risk

With regard to residual risk, there was an understandable wish to be able to explain why a prior residual risk now no longer exists. After all, if questions or discussions arise about this point again later, it can be very helpful to have the original intentions permanently documented in WEKA Manager CE.

Miscellaneous

This update of course also includes an updated standards database. In addition, it is still possible to select a client even after restarting the software. Import folders can now also be assigned directly to clients by renaming them. The footer height is automatically adjusted to the number of footer lines when printed. Hazard trees are now clearly identified during export and import. In addition, in the background, the Firebird database was updated to Version 3.0 and a new license server was linked.

Important new functions in version 3.7 are for instance:

New implementation measures for the ErP directive can be applied soon
The Ecodesign directive 2009/125/EC (ErP directive) and its implementation measures have been a fixed component of the CE regulations now for some time. In October 2019 the EU Commission enacted ten new implementation measures. Eight of the measures are re-modifications (but some are extensions) of valid regulations, such as electric motors, power transformer and electronic displays (including televisions). The product groups cooling devices with direct sales function and welding devices are subject of regulations for the first time, though. These new regulations now go into effect between January and September 2021 and are already implemented fully in the „Legal requirements“ tab.

Improvements for references between main and sub-projects

If you create complex projects with the „WEKA Manager CE“, you have the option to reference between main and sub-projects for hazards. Till now the copying or moving of such projects including the reference information was not possible though. We improved that significantly with the update 3.7. Now, following a move or copy, a careful check is made where references are set, whether these are still targeting properly in the new project environment or if some more editing is still necessary. That is displayed with various colours with the reference arrows. Even if you have not worked with references till now, you should take a closer look at that and consider whether you can design your project management much more efficiently.

New report „Risk assessment in compact form

A print-out of the certification documentation is needed usually not only at the end of the project management for the technical documentation. Also in the meantime a quick and compact overview of identified hazards and the selected precautions is quite helpful in order to have a quick intermediate result of the risk assessment. That is why we have developed the tabular documentations further so that in the print options, a „compact form“ can also be generated in addition to the standard output, that focusses purely on the display of hazards and precautions.

Guide to the Machinery Directive – update 2.2 has been integrated

The texts from the guide for the Machinery Directive, which are displayed at various points in the software, have now been adjusted to the German version of the revision 2.2. The English texts also come from this version now. The German version of the revision 2.2 was published, by the way, by the BMAS in June 2020. It contains a number of clarifications and corrections on the concepts in regards to „safety components“ and „partly completed machinery“ as well as some modifications in order to ensure the compliance with the guide for the Low-Voltage Directive. There are two new added paragraphs on machine control units (§ 417) and safety component which are seen as logic units (§ 418).

Project history – documenting changes completely and conforming to GDPR

The CE process is team work. That is why it is completely normal that several users work on one project. But then it needs to be clearly documented who carried out which editing steps or modifications when. In order to make that possible without gaps and conforming to GDPR, we reworked our project history accordingly. If that is active, a log is kept on which user has called up a project for editing. Furthermore, a brief description of the activity in the project is now indispensable. The history can then be viewed with date, user and comment as usual in the „Master Data“ tab.

Q&A dialogue: Reasons can be given for every step

The selection of the pertinent CE regulations is a core significance for the conformity assessment procedure. Often the classification of products is obvious, but it is important in particular for borderline cases or for implementing interpretation ranges to diligently provide reasons for the selection of a directive or regulation. That is why you can add a comment to every single step as you go through a Q&A dialogue – as a support for your memory or for argumentation towards customers, suppliers or the market supervisory authorities.

New columns in the project overview

You want to design the project administration more clearly or would like to have other parameters in the columns such as model, serial number of company of the manufacturer or supplier. No problem: With this update we provide you with clearly more fields for structuring your individual project management. And of course the search function in the project overview was extended as well in that regards.

Create and manage user-defined standards

In our standards database you will find the data of all harmonised standards, that is standards that have been published in the Official Journal of the EU by the EU Commission and their application initiates the so-called presumption of conformity. In addition to these harmonised standards there are a number of other standards, technical specifications or works standards. Such regulations can also be relevant for your products. You can create and manage such standard now globally in the new „User-defined“ tab.
Tip: Since it sometimes takes a bit longer until a new or modified EN standard is listed in the Official Journal, you can add such standards also in this tab in the meantime. An example for that just recently is the EN 60204-1: The EN standard was completed already in 2018; the German DIN EN appeared in June 2019; but the standard was not listed in the Official Journal until April 2020.

Improved search in the standards database

The search function was also improved in the framework of our standards database. Already while you are typing in a standards number or a key word, the results list is adjusting itself to your search – thus you can see right away whether your search is successful or whether you need to adjust the search parameter.

New functions in the processing modes according to life cycle phases and zones

If you select a different processing mode than group – consequence – zone – life cycle phase for processing the risk assessment, you will not have all copying and processing functions on hand, unfortunately. Several functions are added with this update. You can rename, for example, zones or life cycle phases globally now in the project. Before the „Zones“ or „Life cycle phases“ tab is exited, a check is made now whether all hazards have been processed sufficiently so that they can be written into the database. Furthermore this processing mode allows for a multiple selection and the window sizes can be adjusted individually.

Improvement in the warning library – search and sort

For managing the warnings you can now fall back on new search functions as of this version. Furthermore the designations and the warnings can now be sorted; i.e. alpha-numerically in descending or ascending sequence.

Other

Of course this revision also contains an updated standards database. In addition the error message is intercepted during a second calling up of a single-user version. The project export and import concludes with a message and thereby indicates that it was completed successfully.

Note for network customers

For network and floating versions, the access via Citrix has been thoroughly reworked and improved. No special standard storage paths are needed anymore on the client computers. Here the standard user directory is simply sufficient for the future. A separate update of the client computers is also no longer necessary.


Important new functions in version 3.6 include:

Instructions – adjustments to meet the requirements of EN ISO 20607

The German version of EN ISO 20607 „Safety of machinery – Instruction handbook – General drafting principles“ was published in October 2019. This new standard specifies requirements for the machine manufacturer for drafting instructions. It provides further requirements for instructions given in Machinery Directive Annex I and EN ISO 12100 and deals with the safety-related content as well as the corresponding structure and presentation of instructions, taking into account all phases of the life cycle of the machine. The standard is not currently listed in the Official Journal of the EU, but once it is listed, the application of EN ISO 20607 will also trigger presumption of conformity.
For this reason, we have completely revised the instructions templates in WEKA Manager CE and adapted them to the requirements of this standard. We offer WEKA templates for machines and systems, partly completed machines as well as for electrical equipment according to the Low-Voltage Directive.
In addition, you can now customise the table of contents and the footer to suit your needs. All precautions and residual risks from the risk assessment are stored as templates in a special chapter. New chapters can be easily inserted as necessary.
Furthermore, new symbols can now be copied directly from the symbol catalogue to a chapter in the instructions. Inserting text from the project master data has also been improved.

New product description templates – machinery and electrical equipment

The product description templates are also new. You can now choose whether you want to copy these templates to a new project with or without explanations. In addition, you can choose between a classic template for machinery and a template for electrical equipment.

„Basics“ tab in Master Data

In the master data, there is now a separate tabfor project basics. On this tab you can specify which method of risk assessment you use, how you conduct the risk estimation, which standards you use for the control-related precautions, etc.
If you wish, you can also add graphics to your own templates, such as the risk graph according to ISO/TR 14121-2, or a graph for selection of the Performance Level.

Creating warnings

There is a brand new function for creating ready-to-use warnings using WEKA Manager CE. You generally do this when defining protective measures during the risk assessment process. The highlight of this feature: You can add your ready-to-use warnings to a warnings library to create a comprehensive set of warnings.
You can also copy the warnings directly to your instructions. This can be done either automatically when residual risks and protective measures are copied, or separately when you edit individual chapters of instructions.

Updated symbol catalogue

Warnings can also contain pictograms. We have updated our symbol catalogue once again to ensure that you always have correct and, most importantly, up-to-date symbols at your disposal. The symbols from the latest standards and regulations are now available to you and, as usual, can be easily searched and filtered.

„Rack feeder“ sample project

Our proven „Rack feeder“ sample project has been extensively updated. All functions of the iterative sequence of measures, especially precautions, are now presented as examples. In addition, this example now shows you how you can optimally incorporate references to standards into a project.

Version update (e.g. for master projects)

Regarding updates: In order for your projects to benefit from all the features of the software, they usually have to be created using the latest program version. However, if you frequently use master or template projects, you do not want to have to create them again after a software update. That is no longer necessary because you can now easily update such projects. Except for legislation, all content is then copied to the latest program version.

Copying data from other projects

Copying data from other projects has also been improved and simplified. In the past, you were able to copy hazards and precautions, primarily in the Risk Assessment tab, but now you can also copy project standards or product descriptions from other projects with a click of the mouse.

Generating ToDos for precautions

If you define a protective measure during the risk assessment process, there are usually still certain ToDos associated with it: Either a design measure has to be implemented, a control-related protective function has to be validated or a warning sticker must simply be attached to the finished machine. In other words, in the past you always had to remember to create a task via the ToDo button. Now you can save yourself a click by setting the ToDo window to always open when you have finished working on a protective measure.

Displaying team members in an Excel spreadsheet

To obtain a simple, quick and complete overview of who has worked on your projects so far, you can now create a spreadsheet of all team members in the Documentation area. You can use the Excel spreadsheet to regularly check employee data, for example.

Option of including images in the tabular documentation

The tabular documentation is primarily an internal working document. Therefore, it is kept clear and concise and includes essential content only. However, some users have pointed out that it would be useful to be able to include the attached graphics in this document as well. This makes sense, since pictures are often quite literally worth a thousand words. In response to this request, we now offer the option of including images and graphics.


Important new functions in version 3.5 include:

Saving documents in a separate database

Previously, you were able to assign external files to a project using Documentation -> Supplier documents or other documentation. These files were previously saved in the project directories at drive level. As these project directories may also have existed on client drives, overarching data backup on the network, and rights management as part of WEKA Manager CE user management was only possible on a limited basis.
We have therefore decided that in future these external files will be saved in their own separate database and managed there. This has the advantage of enabling simple, convenient data backup for all external documents as well, and for user rights to these documents to automatically follow the project rights.
The individual chapters of instructions will also be managed through this database in the future.
When editing these external files, you simply have to ensure that the modified files are always checked back in properly. You can do this quite easily with the Save button in the software, meaning it requires just one more mouseclick than previously. And don’t worry: if a document has not been checked back in before the software is closed, you will of course receive an automatic reminder.

Improved Measures wizard

The Measures wizard for risk assessment has been further improved. Firstly, it is now available at the groups and consequences level. This means that – just as with the „Copy hazard group/hazard consequence“ function – you can import entire sections from other projects. The relevant content is either copied into the appropriate group or consequence or created from scratch if it does not already exist in the hazard tree of the target project.
When the Measures wizard is started, a search will not now automatically be launched. You can now start this as a user with one mouseclick – the advantage being that you can adjust the search parameters beforehand. In addition, the „Folder“ and „Project“ parameters have been added, helping to find the relevant protective measures even more quickly.

Essential requirements and hazard consequences

To develop safe products, you must observe the essential requirements from the CE regulations and conduct a risk assessment.
However, while Annex I of the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC specifies the significant requirements, the general methodology for machine safety, as described e.g. in EN ISO 12100, is essentially based on observation of the significant hazards without specifically referring to the essential requirements of Directive 2006/42/EC. The CEN Guide 414 attempts to establish a relationship in this regard. Table D.1 therein provides, to the extent possible, examples of significant hazards, hazardous situations and hazardous events and their relation to the essential requirements.
You can now also find these in the WEKA Manager CE. Among the essential requirements under the Machinery Directive, you will find the hazard consequences which regularly arise for them. And vice versa, among the individual consequences in the risk assessment you will find information as to which EHSR from Annex I can be linked to it.
Anyone who wants more detailed documentation than is contained in the CEN Guide 414 can edit and expand on the link in a separate hazard tree. This make sense, for example, if the hazard tree is created on the basis of a C standard and a specific hazard is directly assigned to an EHSR in Annex ZZ.

Spellcheck in the Editor – adding words to a custom dictionary

Our Editors underline all words not contained in the WEKA Manager CE dictionary in red. These are primarily industry-specific technical terms and special company designations. But these exact words can now be added to a custom dictionary with just two mouseclicks, ensuring that our spellcheck recognises these words as correct.

Managing user rights at project level

Assignment of rights to projects was previously reserved for administrators only. Anyone who created a new project had to call in an administrator if they wanted to grant read or write access rights to other users for this project. That is changing with this update. New projects now get an „owner“. This initially is the person who created the project. The owner can then decide who is to be granted read or write access rights for this project. If required, they can even independently transfer a project to another owner. This makes rights management far more convenient and frees up the administrators.

Adjustments in the Start cockpit

We have divided up the Start cockpit in a new way. All the way over on the right are upcoming appointments and events, as previously. The middle now contains all important information about the WEKA Manager CE, e.g. information about standard updates or patches. The left-hand side now contains all other news about CE marking.

Guide contents – amendment to the German version of edition 2.1

Attentive users will notice: The text from the guide to the Machinery Directive, which is displayed at multiple points in the software, has now been amended to the German version of edition 2.1. The English text is now also taken from this version. The reason that this amendment took somewhat longer – the update to the English version was originally available in July 2017 – is due to the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. It unfortunately needed quite a long time to translate it into German and only published its version in May 2019. This version has now also been checked by the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and agreed with the Austrian Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.

Hazard tree used/product description template used

Up until version 3.4, after the creation of a project it was no longer possible to see which hazard tree and which product description template were used. We have changed this, and for new projects you will now find this information in Master Data -> Project data.

„Risk assessment will be supplied “ is now „Third-party product“

Up to now, when creating a project you could choose whether you yourself were the manufacturer or whether the product had been supplied to you by another company. Up to now, to do this you had to place a checkmark beside „Risk assessment will be supplied“. We have now renamed this more generally to „Third-party product“. A third-party product is a product which you did not manufacture yourself but is instead supplied by a third party, e.g. partly completed machinery that you then integrate into your assembly of machinery.
When you place a checkmark beside third-party product, all you have to do is complete the project data and check in any documents received about the third-party product in the Documentation -> Supplier documents tab.

Substantial modification can be checked in all CE regulations

There was always a Q&A dialogue in the WEKA Manager CE for machinery which could be used to check whether a machine had been substantially modified. A substantial modification generally means that the product must be classified as a new product and consequently the CE process must be gone through again.
It is now also possible to make substantial modifications to products which are not covered by the Machinery Directive. Even if there is no specific interpretation paper such as in the Machinery Directive, there is sufficient information contained in the Blue Guide. We have also created a corresponding Q&A dialogue from this information which will now allow you to check a substantial modification in all CE regulations.

Display exposed persons from all projects

By default, all persons assigned to the hazard tree used in the project are displayed in the exposed persons. If you want to access persons who you have created in other projects, you can now do this easily by removing the checkmark beside „in this project“. Then all of the exposed persons saved in the database will be displayed.

Display overdue ToDos in the overview

You can already see in the project overview whether there are open ToDos in a project. Now you will see in an additional column whether these ToDos have already passed the date on which they should have been completed. These overdue ToDos are generally particularly critical as they may jeopardise the project schedule and therefore require special attention. You should ideally check on a regular basis which projects have overdue ToDos!

Miscellaneous

Improvements have also been made to the printout of the „Essential requirements“ checklist, the renaming of the life cycle phases, the reasons functions for essential requirements, the settings for the individual print directory and the information on available updates for the WEKA Manager CE.


Important new functions in version 3.4 include:

Several protective measures for one hazard

The Machinery Directive and EN ISO 12100 call for an iterative process of risk reduction. This means that several protective measures may be necessary in order to sufficiently minimise a risk.
In the past, you had to summarise all protective measures in the „Description of the protective measure“ text box in the WEKA Manager CE. Documenting a risk evaluation for individual (sub-)measures was not possible. For example, its was not possible to document that the risk index had already been reduced from 5 to 3 through an inherently safe design and that the value was then further reduced to 1 through the use of an additional safeguard.
We have greatly improved this with this new update! On the „Protective measures“ tab you will find a new dialogue that allows you to create and manage as many protective measures as you wish for a hazard.
In the aforementioned case, you can create three separate measures one after the other, and evaluate each individual measure separately. This is also taken into account in the documentation and ensures that the iterative nature of your risk assessment comes through very clearly.
Our convenient measures wizard can also be found on the level of the individual protective measures. This allows you to quickly and easily add individual measures from other projects to a hazard.
By the way: if you want to bring all protective measures together in one description box like before, you can, of course, continue to follow this procedure.

Links to standards for protective measures

Many protective measures originate from a concrete standard. Before you could only establish this link between a measure and its standard in the description of the measure. To make things easier in future, you can now store information as to which standard, and even which chapter of the standard, forms the basis for each protective measure. To do this, simply select the appropriate standard from your project standards. Another benefit: this standard is monitored to ensure that it is up to date, as normal. Changes or additions to standards cause a warning symbol to appear beside the corresponding protective measure.

Free text search in the measures wizard

The measures wizard is the central copying function for transferring content from other projects into a current project. Until now, this was restricted in that it was only possible to find protective measures for the group and consequence that a user was currently editing. We have now completely revised this. Free text boxes now allow the user to search whole groups, other consequences or specific locations or life cycle phases for appropriate protective measures.
Linking of standards with the applicable EHSRs
One specific feature of the Machinery Directive is the requirement set out in Annex VII Part A No. 1, according to which technical documentation must include the following: „- the standards and other technical specifications used, indicating the essential health and safety requirements covered by these standards.“ Information on EHSRs covered is often forgotten in practice. In order to make meeting this requirement easier for you, now you can assign the EHSRs from a list in an extra column under your project standards. This assignment is then documented in the report on the standards used, in accordance with regulations.

ToDo buttons

Distributing specific tasks to team members is very important, particularly when working in larger teams. In order to make this even easier to do in the WEKA Manager CE, we have integrated the ToDo buttons into more windows, therefore ensuring that you can create a task straight away from virtually anywhere.

Managing team members

The administration of team members itself has also been made more flexible. You can now record several members of a department (e.g. mechanical design or electrical), or apply their role directly from the stored person data.
Calling up the editor
Like in many other applications, double-clicking in a text box now highlights an individual word or paragraph. The editor can still be opened using the „Editor“ button or by right-clicking the mouse.

Overall risk

If you do not want to evaluate the overall risk for your projects, you can now deactivate it for new projects. All you need to do is implement the appropriate setting in the options.

Selection list for safety functions

The „Type of safety function“ box has been expanded so that several safety functions can now be entered. You also have text box-based administration available for self-defined safety functions.

Reason boxes for the risk estimation

Decisions are not always easy to make in a risk estimation, and should be well founded in cases of doubt. So that you have sufficient space to do so, we have redesigned the window so that it provides a large reason box.

Declaration of conformity wizard

More options are now available when compiling the declaration of conformity or declaration of incorporation. You can now automatically insert the header and footer that you use on other documents, you can insert the remark „Translation of the original declaration of conformity“ if required, and you can also select whether you wish to create a Word or a PDF document.

Linking of standards

Links of standards to a PDF, a checklist or a web address are now also displayed next to the standards in the „Significant requirements“ and „Protective measures“ tabs.

Other funktions

Other things that have been improved include: the search function in the project management, the size of the modal windows can now be adjusted more easily to individual requirements, the „Significant requirements“ tab can be launched in a separate window within the „Protective measures“ area, and the „Directives“ tab has been renamed „Legislation“.


Important new functions in version 3.3 include:

Improved functions in the status window

A new function has been added to the status window. You can now manually set the points that are not important for a project to „not relevant“. This allows you to set the status of projects that have not been fully processed to „Completed“. This may be useful for projects for which you have not carried out the risk assessment yourself, or for projects for which you have not created the declaration of conformity by using our software.

The status display in the project overview column now also always matches the display in the status window.

Product description templates – several versions are possible

Up to now you were able to store exactly one alternative version of product description templates in WEKA Manager CE. Version 3.3 now makes it possible to manage several template sets. This enables you to create special product description templates for specific product groups, which are then automatically used for new projects.

The selection of the product description templates is made via a drop-down list in the tab Master Data -> Project data when creating a new project.

Archiving projects

Most CE regulations require technical documentation to be kept for at least 10 years. During this time you should not delete projects that you have edited using WEKA Manager CE. However, the number of projects will increase continuously over the years. Unfortunately, a large number of projects – especially those with many images or graphics – inevitably leads to a large amount of data in the database. This may adversely affect the performance of the database and lead to delays when retrieving data or when setting up individual tabs.

To remedy this situation, you can now archive projects that have been completed and are not currently needed. These archived projects are then no longer located in the active part of the database and do not affect the current performance, which significantly improves the access times of the database.

You can, of course, restore archived projects at any time and transfer them back into the active database area. In doing so, the data structures are always adapted to the current software version, enabling you to reuse these projects as templates for new projects.

Linking standards with appropriate checklists

In our technical information module we offer checklists for certain standards. To enable you to access them quickly and easily, we have linked them directly to the relevant standards in the Standards tab. You can immediately see for which standards a checklist is available and you can also open it directly.

Standard hazard consequences for special machine types

In Annex I, Chapter 2 to 6, the Machinery Directive covers some special types of machinery. These machines regularly pose particular hazards to users. In order for you to be able to keep these in view in the context of a risk assessment and edit them accordingly, the hazards are now automatically transferred to the hazard tree for food processing machines, machines for pharmaceutical or cosmetic products, for hand-held and/or hand-guided machines, for portable fixing devices, for woodworking machines and for machines for pesticide application, if you have selected such a machine in the Directives -> Specify product tab.

Changes in declarations of conformity

Products often fall within the scope of several CE regulations. In such cases, the declaration of conformity must include information on which regulations have been applied. Up to now, one regulation was leading in the wizard for generating the declaration of conformity, depending on the path chosen, i.e. the regulation was explicitly mentioned in the title of the declaration. This could convey the wrong impression that this particular regulation is more important than the other regulations applied. To prevent such misunderstandings, all directives are now listed equally in the category for applied regulations while the document is now called „EC/EU Declaration of Conformity“ only.

New document: Functional safety

Previously, the documents in the Documentation tab did not contain a special report on the control-related protection measures provided in the product. The new „Functional Safety“ documentation closes this gap. The document lists which safety functions are provided at which locations and which required performance levels or SIL values have been determined for them. Information on the components of the safety function, on the designation in the circuit diagram, on the operating cycles and other notes can then be further filled in by the editors responsible for functional safety aspects.

Automatically creating users as team members

When you create a new user in WEKA Manager CE, this user usually takes on a role within the project team. Up to now, you needed to specify the user again as a team member. When creating a new user in the user administration, the system now asks whether this user should also be included in the list of team members, thus saving you a step.

Tool tips during icon mouseover

The icons and symbols in WEKA Manager CE have been selected so that their function is as self-explanatory as possible. However, for newcomers to the software we now also explain them by means of brief tool tips that appear when you move the cursor over an icon.

Experienced users can deactivate this function via Options -> Settings -> Other.

Improved right mouse button functions

In addition to controlling the software via the buttons in the respective tabs, we also offer the option of triggering actions via a menu using the right mouse button. With this update we have again extended the offered functions, so that generally all functions for which there is a button are available via the right mouse button.

Text modules – selection window now more user-friendly

Until now, the selection windows for text modules had a default size that could not be changed. This was inconvenient when working with larger text module libraries. The window size can therefore now be freely defined. In addition, several text modules can be selected simultaneously from a list.

Improved graphics quality

Saving graphics to the database occasionally resulted in quality losses for certain graphics formats. With the update to version 3.3, the function for importing graphics into the database has been revised, enabling us to achieve a better quality for photos, images and graphics.

Interactive dialogue boxes guide you perfectly to your goal

  • Limitation of requirements according to the new Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC
  • Risk assessment in accordance with EN ISO 12100:2010 in interactive dialogue
  • Safety of control systems with the new EN ISO 13849-1 and EN 62061
  • Easy search for applicable harmonised standards
  • Automatic generation, from the operating instructions to the declaration of conformity
  • Checking for substantial modifications
  • Protective measures and residual risks from the risk assessment can be inserted into instructions with a single click
  • You can use the data entered to create your conformity assessment documentation at the press of a button.

The WEKA Manager CE guides you through the steps of the CE marking procedure (conformity assessment) for your product in acc. with the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC, the Low-Voltage Directive 2014/35/EU, the EMC directive 2014/30/EU and other EC directives.


Important new functions in Software WEKA Manager CE version 2.6 include:

ToDo list for monitoring of measures

In the course of a CE project, numerous different tasks regularly arise which have to be carried out by different members of a project team. We have extensively expanded the monitoring of measures to create, distribute and manage tasks such as these. Now, you can create special tasks at many points in the software, e.g. in the course of the essential health and safety requirements or the risk assessment. You can conveniently send these tasks to team members via e-mail, with a date by which they must be done. The Documentation tab contains an overview of all ToDos that there are in a project. There, you can also print a corresponding ToDo list.

Question/answer dialog for the Radio Equipment Directive 2014/53/EU

Since 13 June 2016, the Radio Equipment Directive 2014/53/EU must be applied. This CE Directive will become very important for the engineering business as well over coming years, particularly with regard to topics such as Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things. With our question/answer dialogs, you can find out now very straightforwardly whether your products fall within the scope of application of the directive, and whether you have met the requirements imposed by the directive.

Question/answer dialog for the Radio Equipment Directive 2014/53/EU
Software WEKA Manager CE – Question/answer dialog for the Radio Equipment Directive 2014/53/EU

Annex I for the EMC and Low-Voltage Directives

As with the Machinery Directive, Annex I of the new EMC and Low-Voltage Directives also defines the main requirements on products. Our new, interactive checklist allows you to check now which requirements are relevant to your products and whether you have also implemented them.

Annex I for the EMC and Low-Voltage Directives
Software WEKA Manager CE – Annex I for the EMC and Low-Voltage Directives

Linking directives with the hazard tree

In addition to the Machinery Directive, almost all other CE Directives now also demand an appropriate risk analysis and evaluation. As a result, from version 2.6 onwards, the hazard tree based on EN ISO 12100 has been expanded to include additional hazard groups and consequences if not only the Machinery Directive but also other directives have been selected as relevant. You can also use a special hazard tree based on the CENELEC Guide 32 for products that are subject to the Low-Voltage Directive.

Making standards selectable for KE/EE

Not all project standards should automatically also be printed out on the declaration of conformity. We take account of this requirement, and have implemented a function which makes it possible to select precisely those standards which should also appear on the declaration of conformity at the end.

Making standards selectable for KE/EE
Software WEKA Manager CE – making standards selectable for KE/EE

Further innovations as of version 2.6 include:

  • Renaming hazard locations and life cycle phases globally in the project
  • Improved reason boxes in the context of Annex I
  • Improved reason boxes for initial risk and risk estimation
  • Linking project standards subsequently with a standard PDF
  • Displaying all linked and copy documents with sub-supplier documents and other documents
  • Convenient to delete functions for own origins that are no longer used
  • And many other features besides
Produktmanager Stephan Grauer
Produktmanager Stephan Grauer

If you wish to acquire multiple licences or have any questions about the software, please contact Stephan Grauer, our product manager.

E-mail: stephan.grauer@weka.de
Phone: +49 8233 23 7101


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