IMAGINiT Manufacturing Solutions Blog

Aligning Attributes in AutoCAD & AutoCAD Electrical

This is a follow up to the Aligning Components in AutoCAD Electrical post a few weeks ago. I ran across this script some time ago that aligns attributes.

The comments show that it was written by Steve Kemp. I just tested this in Electrical 2017 and it still works great. Once the LISP is loaded the command is AATTR. It works pretty much the same as the Align Components command does. Select a master attribute and then select the attributes to align to it.
There is a Horizontal/Vertical option available for selection before selecting the master as well.

 
Here I selected the first terminal number as the Master. Then the terminal numbers two – four were selected as the second selection.


Very slick tool. Well done Mr. Kemp.
Download the LISP here...

AutoCAD Block Attribute Tips

While AutoCAD’s attributes are extremely powerful, they can also be quite confusing. Here are a few tips when working with Attributes inside of AutoCAD blocks.

Synchronize Attributes
Because attributes can be modified per block instance, modifying attributes in existing blocks can be confusing. Even deleted attributes will still be in block instances that were placed before the unwanted attribute was removed. Attributes need to be synchronized to the block instance after changes have been made to the actual block definition. Do this using the ATTSYNC command. This command is on the Block panel after it’s expanded.

 
 
Attribute Order
When creating the block, the order that the attributes are selected is the order they will appear in the Edit Attribute dialog. When simply windowing the entire block, attributes and all, the attributes tend to appear in a random order. If the block is already created and you want to modify the order. Try the BATTMAN command.

This command allows you to change the order of the attributes. Once the order is right, WBLOCK it back out over the existing block and the order will be right the next time you use that block on another drawing.

 
 
Attribute Properties
Attributes can be set to a fixed position, invisible, constant, contain multiple lines, and more. While building the block, select an attribute and then open the Properties Palette. Here you can change all of the properties that make up an attribute.

 

Data Extraction
Attribute values can be extracted to a table on the drawing or to an external Excel file. This requires an addional data extraction file with a .dxe extension. This file can be created using the Extract Data command. It is on the Insert tab on the ribbon.

 
Using these three blocks as my example extraction, I’ll walk through the steps to creating the data extraction file. These blocks contain hidden attributes with random values in them.

 
Starting the Extract Data command will walk you through the steps to extracting only the data you want.
Step 1 creates, or references and existing, .dxe file.
Step 2 allows multiple drawings to be selected in the extraction. The current drawing is automatically added.
Step 3 shows all objects in the drawing. Filter the majority of the objects from the list by changing the bottom options to only show blocks with attributes.

Step 4 allows even more filtering as we remove all properties but the attributes themselves.


 
Finally we see the extracted data in Step 5. Here the table can be edited as needed. Also note that the identical rows can be combined and then counted. The columns can be renamed as well here. Simply right click on a column header and Rename Column is one of the choices.

 
Step 6 has you pick what type of output is desired. The data can be exported to an Excel file or placed on the drawing in a table.
I went with Excel and here is the data hidden in the attributes on the three blocks. Turns out that a small square costs far more than a small egg or tent.

 

Editing Attributes
When the enhanced attribute editor came along it replaced the simple attribute editor. However 99% of the time I only want to change the values of the attributes NOT the justification, layer, color, ect. Also the simple editor allows easy tabbing or shift+tabbing around the cells on the dialog. Where the enhanced dialog require the use of the mouse.

Enhanced Attribute Editor

 
Simple Attribute Editor

 
You can modify this double click preference by typing CUI on the Command Line. That opens the Customize User Interface dialog.
Expand the Double Click Actions and then the Attribute Block line as well.
Then over on the right, remove the E from the Command Display Name and from the Macro fields. Then Press OK.

 
From now on when you double click on an attributed block you will see the ATTEDIT dialog instead of the more complex EATTEDIT one.
 
I hope some of this was of use to you. If you have other attribute questions feel free to comment below.

Active Directory User Accounts in Vault Professional

Vault Professional offers the ability to make use of Active Directory (AD) accounts in your Windows domain.  There are several aspects of this that are worth discussing.  Many companies use local accounts in Vault to manage their users’ access.  One of the drawbacks is that user passwords are not enforced, nor are they required to be updated.  For some, this is not acceptable.  Vault Professional supports using the users’ accounts in Windows Active Directory as a better way to manage this. 

Within Vault’s ADMS console, go to Tools – Administration.  This will open the global settings dialog box and display the Security tab, containing users, groups, and roles.  You can also open the Vault full client and go to Tools – Administration – Global Settings.

       

As I mentioned, you can create user accounts that are internal to Vault and are entirely managed by Vault.  The alternative is to import the accounts from Active Directory.  Use the “Import Domain User” under Actions.  Type in the user account name and use “Check Names” to verify that this is the desired person.  Multiple users can be imported by separating the IDs with semicolons. 

    

A big benefit to this process is that it brings in the user’s ID, first and last name, as well as their email address.  It also reads the user’s Windows password, so that the user does not have to maintain an additional password for access to Vault.  When the user logs into the vault client, his credentials are verified against his AD account.  Changing your Windows password is recognized by Vault, reducing the amount of administrative maintenance needed.  The level of complexity of passwords carries through from Windows, providing the level of security your company requires.

Are there any negatives to this process?  I will offer one.  Some companies set up their Active Directory with user IDs that have no relationship to the user’s name.  For example, a company may assign your Windows account ID as a six-digit number.  This will import into vault as that same six-digit number, so that any reference to my actions in vault will be listed by that same number.  I will recognize it as my number, but my colleagues may not.  I will need to acquire a listing of those employees’ IDs and names to cross reference, so that I can tell who did what in the vault. 

Importing users can be simplified if you set up a group in Active Directory of Vault users.  In the Group section of Vault, use the command “Import Domain Group” to import a group from Active Directory.  This will automatically import all the users within the group.  Take care when using this command.  You can easily import a group of the entire staff at your company, which may import many more users that you intended.  And, once you have created a user account, it cannot be deleted.

Another important concept to address here is promotion and demotion.  I see existing installations that contain multiple accounts for the same user, some local and some AD accounts. While there is a place for a user having a ‘normal’ user account and an ‘admin’ user account, having multiple accounts should otherwise be discouraged.   It is confusing and offers additional security risks.  What you can do, if you already have local accounts in vault, is to promote those accounts to AD accounts.  This is managed individually, but will take very little time to change.  Select a local user account and use the command “Promote to Domain User”.  Again, it will prompt you with the AD lookup dialog, check the name, and you will have promoted the local account to a domain account. 

Conversely, if you find a reason to have a user use a local account, you can select the domain account and use the command “Demote Domain User”.  This will simply switch the account back to a local account, with all the settings remaining intact (first and last name, email address, and password the same as AD).  In this case, a change to your Windows password will not be updated in your local Vault account. 

A last word of warning.  It is unwise to rename local accounts in vault.  If you create an account for a temporary employee, and then try to reuse that account for the next temporary employee, you will find that after changing the account from ‘Tom’ to ‘Mike’ the vault will now show Mike as having performed all the work that Tom had done as well.  I recommend disabling a user’s account when they leave the company and creating a new account for a new employee.  You can sort the employee listing by the ‘Enabled’ column to put all the disabled accounts at the bottom of the list.  

Using your Windows account is easy.  When you reach the login box, set the pull down at the top to “Windows Account”.  You will notice that your user ID and password are disabled (grayed out).  This is because it is reading in your credentials from your domain account, and as such you cannot log in as someone else, only as who you logged in as within Windows.

If you check the box to ‘Automatically log in next session’, it will always reread your Windows credentials and take you right into that vault session.

 

Funtime with Uncle Rusty at Autodesk University - Keeping it R.E.A.L - Reality Enabled Asset Layout

I am teaching a class at Autodesk University this year called "Autodesk Recap and the Factory Design Utilities - A Great Combination"

Using Point Clouds as Factory Assets is just one of the options I discuss in this AU class.  Reality capture techniques are becoming commonplace in many aspects of design. The factory layout process is no different. From the clean-up and orientation of the point cloud to the possibility of using point clouds as factory assets, when it comes to utilizing point clouds with the Factory Design Utilities, there is a lot to consider. Join us in this class as we focus on the various techniques and workflows for capitalizing on point cloud captures in the factory layout process.

If you can't make it to AU this year, look for the class on AU Online.  

Here is a teaser video that covers the process of generating a Factory Asset from a point cloud.

 

 

Change Order Properties in Vault Professional

Some of you out there are using the Change Order module that is included in Vault Professional.  I would like to highlight a feature that has been a part of change orders for a long time but is seldom used.  We are familiar with properties in vault, and that those properties can be applied to files, folders, items and change orders.  Within the change order configuration is another special set of properties, called Linked Properties, which have some unique features.  Linked properties are available to those using items in Vault.

When we look at the standard properties with regard to change orders, the values of these properties are global to the entire change order.  They can have one value.  Let’s start a change order to see how this works and then we will look at how the linked properties are configured.  I start by identifying a required change.  Below, I have identified four brackets in my system that are failing.  They appear to be a bit too weak, so I will start an engineering change order (ECO) for these parts to have them redesigned a bit thicker.

I have assigned items to these parts and then in the item master view, I select these desired items and add them to a new change order.  In my ECO, I fill in the required information.  Notice at the bottom there is the section for what I describe as the global ECO properties.  For each ECO, I can only choose one value or type in information that must apply to the ECO as a whole.  Yes, I can spell out specifically something for each affected part, but that becomes hard to read when there are more than a few.

As I change to my Records tab, I see the items I have associated to this ECO.  To the right are the columns of linked properties. 

In my system I have a property to specify what should be done with the existing stock for each part.  Since each part may be dealt with uniquely, I want a separate value for each.  I also want to specify when each change becomes effective and again, I can assign the same date or a different date for each part.  As you can see, this provides a much easier way of tracking the information that is pertinent to the ECO and specific to each individually affected part. 

Let’s look at how these properties are created.  Within the Tools – Administration – Vault Settings, we select the Change Orders tab.  At the bottom, we see a section for linked properties.

We open the Linked Properties section to display the user-defined linked properties.  Select the New button to create a new linked property.  The process of defining the new property is very similar to defining the global properties.  We specify a name, type of information to store, it defaults to being enabled, specify an initial value if desired, and create a lookup list, also if desired.  

    

You can see I created a test property and disabled it.  Once created and associated with an ECO, you cannot delete that property, only disable it.  Keep that in mind as you create these and put some extra thought into what you need. 

There is one disappointing aspect of this feature.  It is not available for files.  If I do not use items, then I attach files to the records tab of my ECO.  The linked property columns are displayed, but I cannot set values for any of the files.   If you would like this feature enhanced to include files as well as items, please consider following the link below to the Autodesk Vault Ideas forum.  You can vote for your favorite enhancements, which helps prioritize which features Autodesk considers for future releases of Vault. The more votes, the better.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/vault-ideas/eco-link-properties-for-files/idi-p/6622029

Logging in from Autodesk Inventor 2017 into Autodesk Vault Professional 2017 the message appears: " Autodesk Addin, Failed to acquire a license. Please restart the product.”

Issue:

When trying to login to Vault Professional 2017 using Inventor 2017 getting error message: Autodesk Addin, Failed to acquire a license. Please restart the product.

Causes:

Inventor was logged in to the different Vault version (Basic or Workgroup)

Solution:

Following steps solved the issue:

• Launch windows registry with regedit.exe
• Go to folder "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\PLM\Autodesk Vault 22.0\".
  If folder doesn't exist - create it.
• Edit the key "Edition"
• Change the value from "Basic" or "Workgroup" to "Professional"
• Save the changed value with press button "OK"
• Restart Autodesk Inventor 2017 and logging in into Vault

Inserting Decals Into an Inventor Assembly

I ran into a case last week where a user had parts that needed various decals depending on what Autodesk Inventor assembly the parts were used in. Placing the decals on the parts would mean many derived parts with different decals applied. This would create many parts for little benefit. As an alternative, each assembly could have a single decal part in it.
 
The following steps show the workflow for creating a decal part inside of an assembly.

 
Click somewhere in the assembly to place the newly created part.
It may be better if you temporarily turn off the other parts transparency off.

 
Next copy some surfaces into the part that was just created.

 
You can turn the Associativity off if you don’t plan on the parts moving. Leaving the associative on will cause the decals to move with the other parts in the assembly as they move.

 

 
I had to thicken the surfaces so I had something to apply the decal to. I thought I could apply the decal to the surface but then when I turn the surface off the decal went away as well. I thickened the surface (0.01”) into the into the other parts to hide the solid. I then had to change the new solids to a matching color to hide them.
 
Then it’s on to applying the decals. Remember to make sure the Link check box is not checked.

 

 
So only a single part is was created that holds all the decals for the assembly and the original parts can all have different decals this way.
 

Shout out to Vlad Syrkin for the sample model I used here. Download your own copy of this dream pc here https://grabcad.com/library/water-cooled-pc-plumber-s-dream-1

Aligning Components - AutoCAD Electrical

A few days ago I was talking with a customer who had created many LISP routines for performing the daily tasks encountered in the creation of electrical schematics. While looking over their scripts, I kept finding unnecessary custom scripts because the tasks they were trying to automate have been inside of AutoCAD Electrical for years. They simply were unaware of these commands. In this post I’ll look as one of those commands. The Align command.

It's available from the Schematic tab under the Scoot command.

 
And more importantly, it is on the right click menu when right clicking over a component or wire number.

 
When right clicking on an object, that object becomes the master. Simply select, or window, all objects to be aligned to that first master object. Be careful when windowing components. All components on a wire will be stacked on top of each other including non-Electrical components.

 
Once all components are selected, press enter to continue, and the Align tool will finish by aligning all selected objects under the master object.