IMAGINiT Technologies Support Blog

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Our team enjoys providing tips and tricks, beyond what you read here on the blog. Check out our new home on the IMAGINiT Technologies Resource Center.

There you'll find many of our older posts, as well as on-demand webcasts, video tips, ideas for future improvement, and more. 

Content from our amazing technical team will continue! We hope you’ll join us: https://resources.imaginit.com/support-blog.

Design Review Fails to Open DWG Files

By: Heath White | SR. MFG Support Specialist

Issue:
When attempting to open a DWG file in Autodesk Design Review nothing happens and there is no error shown. The image below is what you would see, and the Open command remains available. Other file types open without issue.

Causes:
Design Review by itself cannot process DWG files. It requires an installation of DWG TrueView to process DWG files. The other piece of the puzzle is the fact that for this to work, you not only have to install DWG TrueView, but it must be the same version as your Design Review installation.

Autodesk has not released a new version of Design Review since 2018, which many users are not aware of. That means that to have the capability to open DWG files inside of Design Review, you will need to install DWG TrueView 2018.

Solution:
Autodesk has several KB articles regarding this issue, however, several of the articles involve extensive troubleshooting steps that in many cases are not necessary to resolve this issue. We encourage you to try this simple fix prior to attempting the more complex solutions.

Download the version of DWG TrueView that is the same version as your installation of Design Review. In most cases this will be DWG TrueView 2018. If you have an older version of Design Review, you can download previous versions of DWG TrueView from the following link:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/dwg-trueview/learn-explore/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Where-to-download-previous-versions-of-DWG-TrueView.html

System Requirements for DWG TrueView 2018:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/dwg-trueview/learn-explore/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/System-requirements-for-Autodesk-DWG-TrueView-2018.html

If you have downloaded and installed the compatible version of DWG TrueView and this did not resolve the issue or if your issue involves crashing, please see the following articles for advanced troubleshooting steps:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/dwg-trueview/learn-explore/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How-to-open-a-DWG-file-in-Design-Review-with-DWG-TrueView-2015.html

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/search-result/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Design-Review-does-nothing-when-a-DWG-file-is-selected-to-open.html

If you are using a much older version of Design Review (i.e. DR 2013), please see the following article for additional resources:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/dwg-trueview/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Cannot-open-a-DWG-file-in-Design-Review.html

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.

BIM 360 - Keys to Getting a "Seat at the Table"

One of the more common issues that our AEC customers encounter is a user being unable to access BIM 360 project files in Revit.  While there are a number of potential causes for this behavior, we have found that most of these cases are a result of the user missing at least one of the following four (4) key requirements:

1. A BIM 360 Design license
   
   
2. Revit Update/Hotfix
   
   
3. An accepted BIM 360 project invitation
   
   
4. Permission to folder

You might compare these fundamental requirements to the legs that support a table as illustrated below.  When one of these legs is missing, access to BIM 360 from Revit, represented by the table top, isn't supported and will fail.  Of course, the table itself needs a supporting surface such as a floor.  In this analogy the floor represents Autodesk's Cloud Services.  If there is a service outage, most, if not all customers will be unable to access BIM 360.

Since the purpose of this article is to help customers do some initial troubleshooting by checking that each of the four "legs" are in place, let's assume that Autodesk's Cloud Services are "Fully Functional".  (Service status can be checked at health.autodesk.com).

 

So if you or another person at your company cannot access BIM 360 projects in Revit, start by making sure you can answer "Yes" to these fundamental questions:

1. Does the user have a BIM 360 Design License assigned?
   • This license is assigned by an Admin or Software Coordinator in the Autodesk Account (manage.autodesk.com).
   • See the steps here for a user to check his/her entitlement.
     
     
2. Does the user have the latest Revit update/hotfix installed?
   • Autodesk released Security Hotfixes for several versions of Revit.  These updates are critical for Revit to connect to BIM 360 Cloud Worksharing.
   • It is always best practice to install all available updates for the version of Revit being used.  You can see available updates by version here:  https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit-products/downloads
     
     
3. Has the user received and accepted the BIM 360 project email invitation by clicking on the "Go to your project" link?
   • Note:  clicking on this link changes a user's project membership from "pending" to "active"
     
     
     
4. Are the user's permissions to the BIM 360 project folder(s) containing Revit files set to a minimum of View + Upload + Download + Edit?
   • User permissions are assigned in the Document Management module by a Project Admin.  If they are not set to the level noted above, the user will not be able to initiate a cloud workshared model to the folder or open/sync a cloud workshared model.
   • See:  Folder Permissions

As stated at the outset, there are several other possible causes that could prevent a user from accessing BIM 360 projects in Revit (i.e. anti-virus/firewall settings; incorrect workflow), but you may find in most cases that once you ensure these four critical "legs" are in place, your team members will have a "seat at the table" and successfully access BIM 360 projects in Revit.

 

 

BIM 360 – Cost Management recipient greyed out

By: Roger Weires | Applications Expert 

Issue: BIM 360 Cost Management, clicking on a line item to change the recipient, but the button is greyed out.

Causes: That is not a button. The box is letting you know that you do not have any recipients for this document.

Solution:

1. Go back to just the line items, as shown below.
2. Right-click where the “red” arrow is (Still in-line with the item).
3. Click “Generate Document”
4. A Generate Document screen will appear.
5. Then you can add a “Recipient”

If you require customer to edit the registry, add this prior to the steps:

Working with Plant 3D 2021 Projects on BIM 360

By: Paul Sills | IMAGINiT Technologies Technical Support

Starting with Plant 3D 2021, we are now able to host projects on the BIM 360 Docs site. To work on a project in BIM 360 Docs, you will need to upload an existing project. There are no options when creating a project to have the project created on BIM 360 Docs. When starting a new project, you will go through the normal process of creating the project on your local system or on a network location utilizing either an existing project as a project template or as a new project. You will then proceed through the setup wizard. Once a project is created or an existing project was set current, then the project can be uploaded to the site. A drawing will need to be open to access the Collaborate tab. If not, the command to Share Project will be grayed out.

Open a file that is part of the project or just start a new file.

 
Select the Share Project button, if the open drawing is part of the project the file will be closed, and you will receive this message:

Select Get Started. Next, you will be prompted to select the hub and the project folder in which to place the Plant project and then select Upload Project.

The project is placed in the root folder of Project Files

When the upload process is finished, this message will confirm that.

Now you can start working or invite additional team members to the BIM360 site

How to create a Support Case on the IMAGINiT Website

By: Heather Volk | IMAGINiT Technologies Technical Support

 

Steps:
1. Sign into account
2. Click on Support Contracts, then Submit A Case

3. Fill in all information that is missing:

4. Once submitted it will give you the case number:

Support Levels:
IMAGINiT has different levels of support to cover all customers. Our response time to cases depends on the level of support. For more information on that please review here: https://www.imaginit.com/support/overview

Why Train with IMAGINiT?

Assign Multi-user Products in Autodesk Account

Only Contract Managers or Software Coordinators can manage multi-user product users.
The Autodesk Account website is where you add users and assign them cloud services.

Note: To change the Contract Manager or Software Coordinator see https://blogs.rand.com/support/2020/06/how-to-change-the-contract-manager-primarysecondary-admins-and-software-coordinator.html

Multi-user seat assignment does not give users access to download software or to the network licenses.

• To set up the network license manager:
https://blogs.rand.com/support/2020/06/download-and-install-autodesk-network-license-manager-lmtools-or-flexlm.html
• To generate a license file:
https://blogs.rand.com/support/2020/06/get-an-autodesk-license-file.html
• To download software:
Use the AVA-Autodesk Virtual Agent or download software as the Contract Manager or Software Coordinator.

User Management-Classic View

In Autodesk Account’s Classic User Management, you can only assign Cloud services to multi-user licenses.
• Sign into Autodesk Account.
• In the left panel go to User Management > Classic User Management.

Add Users

1. To add a user click on the +Add button under the All Users list:

2. Fill in the user’s email, first and last name and click Save & Continue.
3. To add multiple users select the Bulk Add option.
4. Enter in a list of users separated by a semi-colon and click Save & Continue.

Note: If the user does not accept the the invitation email within 90 days, resend the invitation.

Classic User Management-Add users:
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/customer-service/account-management/users-software/classic-user-management/add-users-classic-um

Assign services to users

Note: Each multi-user license allows you to assign cloud services to three users.

1. Find the user in the list.
2. Select Edit Access by the user’s name.

3. Put a check mark beside the Assign box at the top right to assign all services or assign individual services from the list.

Classic User Management-Assign product and services to users:
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/customer-service/account-management/users-software/classic-user-management/assign-products-to-users-um

Remove users

To delete users that no longer work for the company:
1. First remove any products, services or benefits assigned to the user by clicking Edit Access and removing any Assign check marks then clicking Save.
2. Click on the X by their name to delete them:

3. If there is no X button the user is a Contract Manager or Software Coordinator.
4. 4. See the link on how to change a Contract Manager or Software Coordinator prior to deleting them.

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 Locate Your BIM 360 Account ID

By: Heath White, SR. MFG Support Specialist

Issue:
In order to renew your BIM 360 Account, you will need your BIM 360 Account ID. You are unsure of how to find your BIM 360 Account ID and/or what the BIM 360 Account ID is.

Causes:
Locating the BIM 360 Account ID may prove challenging for a couple of reasons:

• The Account Admin has not been shown where to look for this information
• Some companies have only been working on projects hosted on another company’s BIM 360 site since purchasing BIM 360 Design licenses, and therefore have not activated their own site and do not have a BIM 360 account ID yet.

Solution:
Important Note: To proceed, you MUST be a BIM 360 Account Admin

Use the following link: https://bim360.autodesk.com/activate/c4r-docs-account/

• If you have an existing BIM 360 which has already been registered, you will choose Step 1 shown in the image below. (Alternatively, you can login to your active site at https://admin.b360.autodesk.com)

 

• If you have just purchased your BIM 360 licenses or have been using another company’s site since your first purchase and have never activated your Account/Site, skip to Step 2 shown in the image below. Keep in mind that there should only be one (1) activation per account. Additional administrators can be added once the account is registered and active.

• If you chose Step 1 AND you are an account administrator, you will see the following once you sign in.
  Choose the “BIM 360 Account Admin” option indicated in the image below:

Once you have logged into the BIM 360 Account Admin, please see the following IMAGINiT KB article for the additional steps to needed find your BIM 360 Account ID:

https://resources.imaginit.com/support-blog/where-can-i-find-my-bim-360-docs-account-id-number

This article also includes troubleshooting steps in the event you have lost your hub access.

• If you chose Step 2 above (Activate you BIM 360 Account), you will see the page indicated in the following image. Please pay close attention to the highlighted areas before submitting the form.

1. “Any firm using Revit 2018.3 or later that does not have an active BIM 360, Collaboration for Revit/BIM 360 Design, BIM 360 (frequently referred to as “BIM 360 Document Management”), Field/Build or Glue account.”
2. “If you use Revit 2018.2 or an earlier version, you’ll need BIM 360 Team for Revit Cloud Worksharing. Set up your account.”

After reviewing the steps above, if you are still unsure of how to proceed or if you have additional questions please reach out to us here at IMAGINiT. Our team is always here to assist you.