AutoCAD Architecture 2013, don’t look back!

May 16, 2012 by Leave a comment

In the Autodesk world DWG versions stay the same for three years. For instance 2010, 2011 and 2012 wrote the same DWG version it was called the 2010 version DWG.

Every 4th release historically has been a file format release and 2013 is no different.  For AutoCAD users, this is no big deal. One can always open previous version and in plain vanilla AutoCAD they can save down to almost any previous version DWG.

When AutoCAD Architecture, or ACA users save their files in 2013 and then save back to an earlier version to share with consultants or clients, those using a previous version of ACA can no longer edit the AEC objects as intelligent objects. The intelligent Doors walls and windows, for example, cannot be saved down to previous version and maintain their intelligence. Upon opening the older DWG in AutoCAD Architecture they will get the following error.

Don’t save . . . or else

This means that the smart objects will be upgraded and not intelligent if downgraded to older DWG formats. Downgrading will make these objects dumb and not editable.

Users will not be able to change a simple door width for example. Also we have seen users getting a ton of errors when opening a DWG that has been saved in a version of AutoCAD Architecture that writes a newer version DWG. for instance; “ARX error — e not of that class”

Options / Workarounds;

  1. Don’t look back. Save all DWGS in the curent versions and ask you consultant to upgrade. ;-)
  2. “Export to AutoCAD”  Command: _AECEXPORTTOAUTOCAD2010 Loading AEC Object Explode… This will explode all AEC objects to linework and blocks.

Hopefully you find this article before you upgrade your entire ACA project to the newest release. If not hopefully your not using AEC objects. Hopefully you will consider Revit.

Please comment or give me a call if I can be of assistance or if there are any other questions or concerns.

Roger

Filed under Architecture Solutions, AutoCAD Solutions, Autodesk, Solutions Tagged with ,

Missing Revit MEP Family Templates in 2012???

May 1, 2012 by Leave a comment

Yesterday I read a couple of blog posts that I must share with my fellow Revit users…

First and foremost, as the MEP guy here at Microsol Resources, I was focusing on MEP-related content and found this MEP Connectors and Revit Architecture post by Doug Bowers last November.  I started reading it, but before I could finish the first paragraph, something caught my eye…”A previous blog post lists each of the family templates installed with the various Revit packages,” so I clicked through and am so glad I did!  The post from October 2011 is entitled Templates Provided with Revit 2012 and contains a link to a PDF that I feel is a very valuable reference for any Revit 2012 user.

As the MEP guy, I was shocked to learn that Revit MEP 2012 does not include many MEP-specific family templates that a MEP user might expect to find in his/her product.  You can review the PDF for a complete comparison matrix, but the following is worth mentioning: Electrical Equipment, Electrical Fixture, Lighting Fixture, Linear Lighting Fixture, Mechanical Equipment, Plumbing Fixture, Specialty Equipment, and Spot Lighting Fixture.

Once I reviewed Doug’s list, I decided to compare the content of all Revit 2011, 2012, and 2013 products.  What I found, and what makes this even more interesting, is that the family templates listed above were included with 2011!  So, what happened in 2012?  I can’t answer that question, but the good news is the templates are back in 2013.  See below for a list of total family templates in each product, at least by my count.  Note that this list does not include Annotation, Conceptual Mass, Titleblock, or Project templates:

  • Revit Architecture 2011 – 64
  • Revit Architecture 2012 – 62
  • Revit Architecture 2013 – 65
  • Revit MEP 2011 – 78
  • Revit MEP 2012 – 43
  • Revit MEP 2013 – 76
  • Revit Structure 2011 – 34
  • Revit Structure 2012 – 35
  • Revit Structure 2013 – 68

If you are a 2012 user and still have 2011 loaded, you can basically copy the 2011 family RFT files from the C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\RME 2011\Imperial Templates folder and paste them into the C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\RME 2012\Family Templates\English_I folder for your 2012 product.  Granted the 2011 templates will need to be upgraded in 2012 when you elect to use them, but that’s no biggie and something that can be done as needed!

Filed under Architecture Solutions, Autodesk, BIM Solutions, Civil & Structural Engineering Solutions, MEP Engineering Solutions, Solutions Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Creating Deployments of Autodesk Revit Architecture 2013 / DFS / Centralized content

April 23, 2012 by Leave a comment

With every release comes a new deployment image so I thought it might be helpful for IT/CAD/BIM managers to see it done first. I’ll be making a deployment image for Revit Architecture 2013 on my Microsol Resources DFS, configuring the deployment image using central location for all templates and content. This way, all my users / Application Engineers (AE) / Support Personal / Trainers & Instructors will all get centralized content. This is especially good for larger firms since standardization is one of the keys to an efficient production environment.

Filed under Autodesk, The IT side

Revit Server 2013 – Revit model collaboration across LAN / WAN

April 23, 2012 by Leave a comment

First with 2011, Revit Server is now in it’s third year and I’m here again showing you how to set it up in your office. Understand the concepts, and then get the servers ready by installing any prerequisites. When you’re planned out and ready to go,  installing Revit Server 2013 in your network and configure your workstations! True Revit model collaboration across a LAN / WAN. Yes, it’s awesome 

Filed under Autodesk, BIM Solutions

FlexLM on Windows Server 2008 R2 virtual machine for Autodesk 2013 & 2012 products

March 27, 2012 by Leave a comment

Got Windows Server 2008 R2? Got virtualization plans? If so, check out the latest video. You can install FlexLM on guests running on Hyper-V or VMware. For this video, I’m going to be installing FlexLM using VMware Workstation, with a Windows Server 2008 R2 guest. It’s always recommended to ‘hard code’ your virtual guests’ MAC address so it doesn’t change. Complete setup and configuration in just over 6 minutes to get your license servers up and running, and your users back to work.

Here are the steps in case you feel like reading and not watching my awesome video:

  1. Load the latest FlexLM on the media of 2013 software. You should be using 11.10.xxxx. Should look similar to:
  2. On the Autocad install DVD (or any other installation DVD)  or the extracted EXE file, the path for FlexLM is named NLM.msi, under folder: C:\Autodesk\AutoCAD_2013_English_Win_64bit\x64\en-US\Tools\NLM\
  3. Note down the existing settings onto notepad and copy the files (especially the license file) off to a backup directory.  You do not want to mess up and delete your license file!!!!
  4. Remove the old version via “Programs and Features” in Control Panel.  You can also stop the service manually and do an “in place” installation.
  5. Click on the MSI file and follow the installation wizard. It’s as simple as clicking next a bunch of times.
  6. Once it’s installed, make sure the initial check box, “LMTOOLS ignores license file path environment variables” is checked. To configure as service, go to the CONFIG SERVICES tab and point/browse to those locations for LMGRD, LICENSE FILE, DEBUG FILE (you have to get the license file from Autodesk and create a debug.log file manually). Make sure the two check boxes are checked and click on SAVE SERVICE.
  7. Go to the Start/Stop/Reread tab and click on the Start Server button.
  8. Once the status shows Server Start Successful, go to the Server Status tab and click on the Perform Status Enquiry button.
  9. VOILA! You’ll see all the licenses available to you in the status window!

Filed under Autodesk, Licensing Solutions, Miscellaneous Solutions, Solutions Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT THE CLOUD, BUT WHAT IS IT, AND WHERE?

March 23, 2012 by Leave a comment

The cloud is many things to many people. Personally, it’s a place for me and my family to keep photos, emails, contacts (phone numbers and addresses) and documents (homework). Professionally it can be so much more. For our clients; architects, engineer’s construction managers, etc, the cloud offers many tools and resources.

The Autodesk Cloud, now called “Autodesk 360”, provides great value by enabling you to extend your desktop with secure and ubiquitous cloud computing capacity and capabilities, helping you rapidly design, visualize, simulate, optimize, and share your ideas. 

This idea of extending your desktop is not an easy concept for everyone to grasp, however having someone else do your work sounds pretty simple to me. If you could delegate a task that normally would take time away from other tasks wouldn’t that be great? Not only does Autodesk 360 have tools that enable advanced processes to be done somewhere else it is a place to store share and collaborate with others.

Do you have an Autodesk subscription? If yes, then you have the cloud already.

CLOUD CAPACITY: All Subscribers have access to: Storage, Sharing, and Viewing, DWG Editing and Mobile Viewing. Your available tools include; Autodesk® Cloud Documents, AutoCAD® WS, and the Autodesk® Design Review Mobile App.

CLOUD CAPABILITIES: If you subscribe to select products or suites, you have an even greater advantage. You can harness the power of Autodesk 360 to perform more compute-intensive tasks, such as rendering, energy analysis, optimization, and collaboration. These offers are; Autodesk 360 Cloud rendering, Autodesk Inventor optimization, Autodesk Revit Conceptual Energy Analysis, Autodesk Green Building Studio, and Autodesk Buzzsaw

Let’s explore and elaborate on this from a few different perspectives.

“I’m not sure if the cloud is for me” or “I have a dedicated machine for rendering or specialists in-house, so I don’t need these cloud services.” Your in-house specialists may find these services useful at times to augment their current process. There may be times when a fast iteration or the ability to run multiple simulations and analysis is useful. Your in-house specialists may choose to use a combination of their current tools and Autodesk Cloud services.

“I don’t know if the service will provide accurate results.” The Inventor optimization service is validated against benchmarks published by respected industry organizations such as NAFEMS (National Agency for Finite Element Methods and Standards).

“I’m not sure that my data will be safe from unauthorized access and available when I want it.” Users of Autodesk Cloud documents have the security controls to define who is authorized to access, view and update the files they have uploaded. These controls allow users to store design documents in the cloud so they can access them anytime, anywhere (when connected to the internet) and securely share them with designated colleagues, clients, and other users. The subscription contract administrator can define who in their organization have access to the cloud services. Autodesk 360 uploads and downloads are securely encrypted using SSL certificates. To ensure the security and availability of Autodesk 360 services, Autodesk strategically chooses stable and reliable hosting providers and locations with the following key concerns in mind; Availability, Replication, Connectivity, Environment Security, Power/HVAC, Hardware redundancy. Please contact us for more detail if necessary.

If any of this sounds interesting or confusing please give us a call or email Support@MicrosolResources.com and we will be happy to explain further or answer any question you may have. Welcome to the cloud.

ROGER LIUCCI | AEC BIM / 3DP SPECIALIST 

Filed under Architecture Solutions, AutoCAD Solutions, Autodesk, BIM Solutions, Civil & Structural Engineering Solutions, MEP Engineering Solutions, Miscellaneous Solutions, Solutions Tagged with

default (vs) local (vs) shared

February 28, 2012 by Leave a comment

So what is the difference between default, local, and shared when you deploy AutoCAD / AutoCAD Architecture? Both default and local stores onto your local workstation; the difference is that you get to pick where you want it to go (local) and keeping content data like AEC styles and DesignCenter Content in the  ProgramData folder (default).

The Shared Mode is where things get a little more interesting, and for larger firms, this is the preferred method since standardization across all workstations is vital for productivity. I mean, you don’t want teams in the same firm using completely different Templates and Layer Standards. Some points to consider:

  • If you specify the same location for subsequent installations (not deployment), you will be prompted to overwrite the existing shared content files.
  • If you create a deployment with shared content, the content files are written to the shared locations when the deployment is created. This “one time deal” installs content for all Content Packs to the shared location so make sure it’s large enough.

Thankfully uninstalling the software from one workstation does not remove the content from the shared location. Imagine the headaches that would’ve happened if that was the case! Craziness!

Filed under Architecture Solutions, AutoCAD Solutions, Autodesk Tagged with , ,

Automate ALL the things!

January 31, 2012 by Leave a comment

Just came back from a client visit and the project this time was helping to upgrade their license server. Pretty straight forward stuff, but I’ve come to realize that what I do as “straight forward” is actually pretty impressive to quite a few people.

We all know [at least you should if you follow my blog] that there are three spots that Autodesk uses to define where the license servers are.

  • Environment variables
  • Registry Entries
  • LICPATH.LIC

These are read that in that order, and when the system finds the key (ADSK_LICENSE_FILE), it will stop and put it to memory. So how does it affect my deployment? Well, if you have a license server (let’s call it OldLic1 and OldLic2) already serving up licenses and you want to upgrade/retire it and move licenses to your new, awesomely robust virtual server (NewLic1 and NewLic2), most people think you need to touch every workstation to update those values so that AutoCAD and Revit will get license from the right servers. NOT!

With the all-powerful Group Policy Management Editor and some nifty GPOs, you can make the change to all your workstations to all your branches… at once. Yes, we did this to well over a thousand machines for this project, even to their branches, WITHOUT having to touch every single machine. Thank goodness too, cuz I would’ve gone crazy!

Wait,… what? What GPOs do I need, you ask? I dropped enough clues; I’ll let your IT group figure that one out 

Filed under Autodesk, Licensing Solutions

Test: Cloud Rendering in Revit 2012

January 7, 2012 by Leave a comment

In a time when ‘to the cloud’ is a common refrain in the techroom, Cloud Rendering is an obvious ‘Duh…!’

Well, it is a reality (finally!) with Revit and other Autodesk Products such as 3D Max Design and AutoCAD. My primary interest being Revit, I was more excited to avoid the drudgery of waiting forever for getting something rendered in Revit.

I’ve made a comparison between renderings produced natively in Revit and those produced in the Cloud – and the results are comparable. The interface is simple and the options are limited, but hey the reason you render anything in Revit is to really understand how the space appears and as a consequence impress the buyer of the space. I love rendering in Revit because it is a WYSIWYG (what you see…is what you get) impression of the model and hence there is hardly any ‘faking it’ unless you are intentionally mis-representing objects.

The interface is pretty straight-forward. You do need to be on subscription to be able to access it (and recently, I am told, you should also own the Building Design Suite Premium or Ultimate). Once you sign in, you get a very simple screen that looks like this:


Read more of this post

Filed under Architecture Solutions, Autodesk, BIM Solutions Tagged with , , ,

Save space & time when applying Revit updates to deployments

October 4, 2011 by Leave a comment

Within a few months, Autodesk has released a second update for the Revit family of products. Download them from the Autodesk website (here). Being a “on the ball” IT guy, I went to update my deployment images for Revit Architecture, Structure, and MEP.

Since I have both standalone and network versions, I don’t want to download the updates twice. The automated method actually downloads the MSP from Autodesk and puts it into the file location \\company.com\deployments\RevitArchitecture2012-64bit\AdminImage\x64\RAC2012, under the file name rac2012ur2.msp. Knowing this, I moved the .MSP file over the the root of the deployment image for the Revit product and modified the deployment to apply that .MSP. One MSP can then be used for both standalone and network deployment. Save server space. Save time. WOOT WOOT! 

Filed under Autodesk, BIM Solutions, Miscellaneous Solutions Tagged with , ,

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