IMAGINiT Building Solutions Blog

AutoCAD 2015 Recent Hotfix

By Nicholas Bowley, IMAGINiT Building Solutions

 Are you still waiting for a drawing to open in AutoCAD 2015? Does that same drawing open fine on someone else’s computer? Do other drawings open fine on your computer?

Check to see which Service Pack you are using by clicking the down arrow at the top right corner of your screen and then click “About Autodesk AutoCAD 2015” and see if it says “Service Pack 2”. If it does, this Hotfix may help you.

 

Autodesk put out a hotfix to resolve an issue related to Service Pack 2. The problem does not present itself in all files, just some which may contain certain fonts. 

Autodesk® AutoCAD® 2015 Big Font Hotfix Follow this link to the hotfix:

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/downloads/caas/downloads/content/autodesk-C2-AE-autocad-C2-AE-2015-big-font-hotfix.html

Be sure to look at the readme file for instructions.  You will need to find and replace the acdb20.dll file. Back-up the original file just in case you need to restore it.

 

Detaching a Plant 3D Project from Autodesk Vault

By Brandon Anderson, IMAGINiT Building Solutions

There has long been a need to take Plant 3D projects whose databases reside in Vault and convert them to local projects. Now available in the Project Manager under Vault (which is only available if you have the Vault client installed) there is an option called “Detach from Vault”.

If you use this tool, a copy of the Vault project will be saved in the Vault user workspace which by default is located at %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Plant Vault Projects. After selecting this tool from the opened project you want to detach from Vault, you will get this message.

The original Vault-SQL project still exists and the new copied project database is now SQLite and independent from the Vault and its updates will no longer be sync’d with the Vault database. After you confirm the detach, remove the file from your local workspace.

 

The Sustainable Building in ARCHIBUS

A lot of facilities managers are tasked with ensuring their building operations are as 'green' as possible. In this technical whitepaper, our expert goes through some of the ways you can use ARCHIBUS to keep track of (and therefore 'greenify') things like:

• Hazardas Materials
• Environmental Health & Safety
• Waste Management

Knowing what you have is the first step to being able to use what you know. For more help with your facilities management systems, contact the IMAGINiT team.

Edit Isometric Bill of Material (BOM) Text Format in Plant 3D

By Brandon Anderson, IMAGINiT Building Solutions

Something I hear often is “Why can’t I change the text format in the data fields of my Isometric table?” As an introduction to the solution, by default the data fields come in as cyan and are locked. Let’s walk through how to change this.

Start by opening the Project Setup either by right clicking on the project name in the Project Manager and then selecting Properties, or the Project Setup can be located in the Home ribbon tab under the Project Manager Panel drop-down.

Once the Project Setup is open in the selection tree on the left hand side, expand “Isometric DWG Settings” and select “Title Block and Display”. Ensure that the correct iso style is selected in the drop-down at the top of the screen and then press “Setup Title Block…”

 

That will open the iso.dwt file which is the template file of the iso border. Select the BOM data cells, then in the ribbon, click “Cell Locking” and select “Unlocked”.

Now that these cells are unlocked you can now make color and format changes through the Properties Panel.

Important: Once you are done making changes select Cell Locking from the ribbon again and change the cells back to “Content and Format Locked”.

A Room by Any Other Name (or Number)...

Room numbering can be maddening. Ever been to a campus where one building the room numbers alternated even on one side and odd on the other only to find that the next building has letters instead of numbers?

Deciding on how you number is an important step for facilities managers. Given that there are several factors to consider when creating a room numbering system, our team of experts put together this whitepaper on the subject. Registration is required for viewing, but free.

How did you create your system? Tell us in the comments.