IMAGINiT Technologies Support Blog

BIM 360 Supported Devices

By: Roger Weires | Applications Expert 

Adding AutoCAD Plot Style Tables for use with AutoCAD LT for Mac running in macOS Catalina and earlier

When you receive a drawing that was last saved in AutoCAD and you want to plot it in AutoCAD LT for Mac running in macOS, you will find that you can't locate the Plot Styles folder to add the acad.ctb color dependent plot style table.

With the acad.ctb available, then the plot settings dialog will use the line settings that the drawing last used. In AutoCAD LT, the default color dependent plot style table is named acadlt.ctb so it can't find acad.ctb.

Typically you would browse to the plot styles folder here to add any new plot style tables:

/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Autodesk/roaming/AutoCAD LT 2013 Standalone/R19.0/enu/Plotters/Plot Styles

Note: You can also double click the Plot Style Table Search Path listed in Options/Preferences as shown here:

Starting with Lion, Apple has hidden the Library folder under the current user name, presumably for security reasons. To regain easy access to the subfolders, including AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT's support folders, you can either temporarily gain access to them using Apple's recommended method detailed here: 

 

Unhide the Library Folder, the Apple Way

1. With either the desktop or a Finder window as the frontmost application, hold down the option key and select the Go menu.

1. The Library folder will be listed as one of the items in the Go menu.

1. Select Library, and a Finder window will open showing the contents of the Library folder.
1. If you close the Library folder's Finder window, the folder will once again be hidden from view.

...or you can permanently turn on access to the Library folder using the Terminal application, which is the Mac equivalent of the CMD prompt for Windows. The Terminal app can be found in the Applications folder. If you enter the following command chflags nohidden ~/Library/ in the Terminal it will show the Library folder.

Clicking on a folder of dwgs is seen to lock the drawings

Recently we encountered a case where an AutoCAD user was just opening a network shared drawing folder in Windows Explorer and that temporarily caused the files to be listed as 'opened' by that user. After about 15 seconds the files were 'released' and no longer listed as opened by the user. Before they were released no one else could open a drawing from that folder.

Just by clicking on a folder the .dwg files in that folder (not .rvt or .dgn - just .dwg) become locked.

They tried creating a whole new folder and putting .dwg files in it but received the same result.

The confirmed solution was to turn off the digital signature checker (Start/Run/AcSignOpt). That solved the temporary lock on the .dwg files on the network file share. What was causing the lock was that the digital signature checker was scanning each file to locate and validate any digitally signed drawings and flag the drawing with a Valid Signature icon if a digital signature is valid, or an Invalid Signature icon if the digital signature is not valid.

 

 

Since there were multiple workstations experiencing this issue a method was requested to turn the digital signature checker off in the registry that could be pushed to all workstations.

The registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\Autodesk Digital Signatures was located with the "IconOverlayEnabled" Value name. The valid values are 0, which disables the feature, and 1, which enables the feature. The changes made to this value will take effect the next time the user logs off and back on.

 

Warning! Problems caused by improperly editing the Windows registry could render your computer/operating system unusable. Microsoft provides a wealth of critical information that you need to know about the registry in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.  Use the Microsoft® Registry Editor only at your own risk and only after backing up the registry as well as the system.dat and user.dat files as outlined for your operating system in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.  Additional information about the registry is also contained in the Help topics in the Microsoft Registry Editor.

What are those yellow squares with an exclamation point next to dims in Plant 3D?

Recently an AutoCAD Plant 3D 2021 customer contacted us to remove the numerous instances of a small yellow box with an exclamation point in it next to all his dimensions in a drawing. His drawing had civil engineering information in it that was showing locations for the inclusion of the plant model information.

They looked like this:

A new feature called the Annotation Monitor was introduced in AutoCAD 2013-based products that is shared with AutoCAD Plant 3D 2013 and later that shows dimensions and leaders that have lost their associativity.

When the geometry associated with the dimensions is moved or changed, the dimension values will update when associativity is enabled.

To quickly locate dimensions or leaders that have lost associativity with their geometry, the yellow 'badge alerts' will appear when the Annotation Monitor is turned on. If you hover the cursor over one of the yellow boxes, 'Disassociated Annotation' will appear at the cursor's location.

 

By default, the AutoCAD variable ANNOMONITOR that stores the response for the Annotation Monitor is turned off. But what makes it unexpectedly turn on is when a model documentation edit or update event occurs.

If you're confident the values for the dimensions and leaders are correct, you can turn the display of the yellow alert boxes off by clicking the Plus sign shown above. The yellow alert boxes will not plot when they are on, though.

You can easily locate the affected dimensions and reassociate them with their respective geometry points by click-dragging them to snap to one or both geometry points again, if necessary. If you click one of the exclamation points, that brings up a menu with two choices, Reassociate and Delete.

You can find more details about the Annotation Monitor and the ANNOMONITOR variable in the Help files at the links highlighted.

For more information about how to Reassociate Dimensions, click the highlighted link.

 

Create Color-Contrasting Rows in a Revit 2021 Schedule

By: Roger Weires | Applications Expert 

Issue:
A Revit schedule is so large it is hard to tell what row you are on.

Causes:
The Revit schedules before 2021 only had black and white rows.

Solution:
With Revit 2021 it can change the row color.

1. Open a schedule.
2. In the “Properties” pallet, go to “Other”, go to “Appearance”, Click “Edit..”.
3. Click on the “Appearance” tab.

Slanted Walls in Revit 2021

By: Roger Weires | Applications Expert 

Issue:

Unable to place a slanted wall

Causes:

Before Revit 2021 walls had to stay vertical

Solution:

1. Place a wall
2. Select the wall
3. In the "Properties" pallet, under "Constraints," look for "Cross-Section" in the left column, then select "Slanted" from the right column
4. In "Angle From Vertical," type in the desired angle

AutoCAD Plant 3D Boolean Property Selection Doesn't Work

By: Bob Felton | Solution Center MSD/DM Senior Support Specialist 

Issue:
In AutoCAD Plant 3D's Project Setup, a True or False Boolean property can be added to existing equipment, such as a Horizontal Centrifugal Pump as shown below in the P&ID Class Definitions for Engineering Items, Equipment under Pumps. One common problem is that the Boolean choices for True or False are not available.

Shown is the SampleProject since the reported incident occurred with any project in AutoCAD Plant 3D 2019. This was also reproduced in Plant 3D 2020. A test Boolean property is added to the Horizontal Centrifugal Pump Style.

When the AutoCAD Plant Project Asset's properties are accessed, the True or False option cannot be changed.

But, it can be changed in the Data Manager.

Solution:
The confirmed solution is an uninstall of AutoCAD Plant 3D, then a reinstall from the complete install source, using the Download Now method, with User Account Control set to Never Notify and the real-time antivirus scanner turned off. Then the Boolean choices for the custom property will now appear.

Revit: How to Move a Portion of a Split Cropped Region

By: Jeremy M. Smith | Sr. Technical Support Specialist - AEC

Issue:
A Revit user wants to move one portion of a split cropped region independently of the other, so they can move them closer/further apart but is unable to do so.

Causes:
When a cropped region is split (vertically or horizontally) as shown below, a Revit user does not select the right grip/control when attempting to move one portion independently.

This is often because the control, as represented by this symbol can be difficult to see in the view, especially if it is obscured by elements in the model.

Solution:
The Revit user needs to hover over the control until they see the hint “Move view region”, or temporarily hide elements in the view to locate and select it. This will allow the user to move one portion of the split region closer or further away from the other.

 

Workflow For Publishing From Revit to BIM 360

By: Roger Weires | Applications Expert 

Issue:
The None- Revit User (BIM 360 User Only) is not seeing the newest model.

Causes:
The Revit Users are not publishing the model to BIM 360.

Solution:
Setup BIM 360 to do regular publishings see the link below.
http://help.autodesk.com/view/BIM360D/ENU/?guid=BIM360D_Design_Collaboration_to_schedule_regular_publishing_of_a_package_html

How to Create Vault Workgroup/Professional 2020 Client Deployments Using “Autodesk ID” Activation

By: Heath White | SR. MFG Support Specialist

Issue:
When creating Vault Client deployments for Vault Workgroup or Vault Professional 2020, there is no option to create the deployment with “Autodesk ID”.

 

Causes:
This was not a default option for Vault Client deployments when the 2020 Vault products were released.

Solution:
You will need to navigate to the “setup.ini” file in the install package’s location as shown below. It is recommended that you use the full installer downloaded either via the Autodesk Download Manager or via the Browser Download method.

Once you make a backup of the “setup.ini” as shown above, you will use the following steps to modify the file.

1. Edit the “setup.ini” file in a plain text editor such as Notepad or Notepad++. Avoid applications that apply formatting such as        Wordpad or MS Word

2. Search the file for “[GLOBAL_MSI_PROPERTIES]”

3. Add the following text to the file directly below the text highlighted by the search

[PRIMARY_MSI_PROPERTIES]
ACADLOCKTYPE=2
ACADSTANDALONENETWORKTYPE=0
ADSK_GLOBAL_PROP_LIST=INSTALLDIR;ADSK_LAUNCH_MODE;ACADSERIALNUMBER;ACADSERIALPREFIX;ACADLOCALEID;ADSK_EULA;ADSK_EULA_STATUS;ADLM_EULA_COUNTRY;ACADSTANDALONENETWORKTYPE;ADLM_PRODKEY;ADSK_PRODUCTKEY_VALIDATED;ACAD_LICENSESERVER_DISTRIBUTED;ACADLICENSETYPE;ACADLICENSESERVERTYPE;ACADSERVERPATH;ACADSERVERFMTPATH

4. Save the changes to the “setup.ini”

5. Run the installer again to begin creating your deployment with the “Autodesk ID” activation option as shown below