AutoCAD Architecture 2008 – final Feature Comments

Final items from the ACA2008 readme file…

Dimensions
Adding a height value to the text style changes the height of text within AEC Dimensions but not AutoCAD dimensions.

It is not possible to summon the Dimension Style Manager dialog via the Display Properties dialog, if accessed through the Display tab of the Properties Palette. To access this dialog, from the Format pulldown menu, select Dimension Style.

Keynotes
Cells in a Sheet Keynote Legend containing sheet keynote blocks may become invalid after using the Block Editor or the Block command to change to one of the block definitions. To correct this problem, save and reopen the drawing.

Updating Keynote Legends in Previous Version Drawings.
Care must be exercised when updating keynote legends that exist in previous version drawings.
If the keynote database that was used to create the Legend is not present when the legend is updated, all data in the legend will change to pound symbols (#). To repair this, load the previous version database in the Aec Content tab of the Options dialog, and then update the legend again. The keynotes will be restored.

Object Viewer
On multi-monitor systems, using Hardware Acceleration and different display settings, dialogs that include the Object Viewer should be kept on the primary display. This is to guard against various system errors that may otherwise occur.

Profiles
When switching between different profiles in the Options dialog, within AutoCAD Architecture 2008, toolbars and pull down menus may not be reloaded correctly. This can be caused by the profile not having been used previously. To prevent this issue from occurring, launch AutoCAD Architecture 2008 from each desktop shortcut once. After that, switching between the profiles in the Options dialog should present all the expected toolbars and pulldown menus.

Schedules
When attempting use CTRL-select to zoom to an object in a schedule table, the Selection Preview Cycling panel may display instead.
Selecting “Don’t show me this again” restores the Zoom to functionality.

Workspaces
When ‘Automatically Save Workspace Changes’ is set, the following will be true:
It will not possible to customize the current workspace in the Customize User Interface dialog.
This can be avoided by setting a different workspace current before starting to customize the intended workspace.

Switching between workspaces with the Dashboard closed may result in the Dashboard losing its list of assigned Control panels. To restore them, right click on the Dashboard, and select the desired control panels.

Again – here is some info from the readme file in ACA2008 – my comments in italics

Spaces
Property Set Definitions

• New automatic property set definitions have been added for spaces.
• Base Perimeter Including Interferences
• Gross Area Minus Interferences
• Gross Perimeter Including Interferences
• Net Area Minus Interferences
• Net Perimeter Including Interferences
• Usable Area Minus Interferences
• Usable Perimeter Including Interferences

Generate Spaces
When using the Generate all option for adding spaces, the following may be observed:

• some spaces may not generated.
• spaces may be created inside walls with wall body/plan modifiers.

To resolve this, manually pick points to generate the spaces.

Spaces created with the Space Generate tool will be associative, whether or not the Associative property is set to No in the tool. The space can be set as non-associative after its creation via the properties palette.

Associative Spaces
Associative extrusion spaces do not automatically update when a wall sweep is added or edited.

Calculation Standard
The boundary offset for curtain walls will be generated according to the following rules:
The net, usable and gross boundaries will be generated as one segment, offset to the base boundary of the curtain wall. In order to produce the correct offset results, the boundaries may need to be manually offset to the preferred location.

• The boundaries for net, usable and gross area may not be offset correctly for curtain walls which reference a base curve.
• When spaces are generated using a calculation standard, the boundaries for usable and gross area may not be offset correctly for walls with sweeps. To resolve this, use the manual offset boundary type and manually edit the boundaries to the correct location.
• When associative spaces, with offset boundary set to By Standard, are mirrored the boundary offset for the net, usable, and gross boundary will be incorrect. To resolve this, the space needs to be regenerated or the offset boundaries need to be edit manual.
• A space object will display a defect marker when the base boundary for an associative space object is out of date, or does not match its bounding objects. When space boundary offsets are generated by an area calculation standard, the space objects need to be up to date with the bounding objects to calculate the correct offset. This means that when an associative space objects base boundary is out of date, any adjacent space objects whose boundary offsets are generated by an area calculation standard will display an out of date defect marker as well.
• To resolve this, edit the bounding objects so that all associative spaces are up to date.

SIS Standard

The usable offset boundary may fail to offset correctly when columns or mass element are located in the corner of a wall connection. To workaround this issue, use the manual offset boundary type and manually edit the boundaries to the correct location.

Legacy datasets – Warning!
In drawings from a previous version, it is possible for spaces to disappear or display a defect marker after turning on the ‘Automatically update associative spaces’ in the Options dialog. This may happen for spaces that have been generated from collinear surfaces, to fix this, select all the associative spaces in the drawing and update them, using the command

From the ACA2008 readme file…

Layers

AutoCAD 2008 Layer State functionality replaces Layer Snapshots, from Architectural Desktop, in AutoCAD Architectural 2008.

To Prevent the Replacement of Layer Snapshots with Layer States, you will need to edit the registry.

Note:You should back up the registry before making any changes to it.

Check the readme in your copy of ACA2008 for exactly how to do this. I get real queasy about posting reg edits.

Viewport Override
It is not possible to create a viewport override for the lineweight of a block set to ByLayer, whose components are set to ByBlock.

External References
Entities in xrefs that have components which use ByLayer linetypes, may not display overridden linetypes per viewport.

The Publish Command

Projects that are located far from the root of a drive, i.e. several folders deep, might not publish correctly. This can be resolved by moving the project closer to the root of the drive.

I do not know how deep you have to go to break this.

I am attending COFES again. (Congress on the Future of Engineering Software)

COFES is a gathering of vendors, users, developers, marketing and even venture capitalists in Scottsdale Arizona. There is an open exchange of ideas and thoughts among the participants that relate to where the various industries are headed and what the future may look like.

So far I have chatted briefly with Evan Yares. He mentioned some software that was still under wraps that he has been collaborating on. He words is as “The easiest software you have ever used”. He described it as “taking all of the notes from your meetings and stickies and getting them down in one place”. It sounds like something that would help many of us.

More Comments from the 2008 ReadMe

IFC Export

• IFC Export will only export the components of objects that are On in the Model Display Set. IFC Export does not use the current display when exporting the file. To verify the visibility of an object open the Display Manager and browse Sets and Representations by Object to control what will be exported.
• Elements within a larger entity, such as a Mullion in a Curtainwall, with zero width dimensions may cause the entire entity to fail to be exported.

• Both wall and slab objects that have overlapping components will be exported without their named components. The components are combined into one called “Unnamed.” The overall wall or slab geometry is maintained to the shrinkwrap or outline extents only.

MasterFormat 2004

Detail Component/Keynote Database Migration utility

• Beginning with AutoCAD Architecture 2008, the US detail component and keynote databases supplied with the software use the CSI MasterFormat 2004 standard. Using the Detail Component/Keynote Database Migration utility to migrate your database customizations from a database that uses the CSI MasterFormat 95 standard (as in Architectural Desktop 2007 and previous releases) is not supported. The migration utility will not properly migrate custom records from the older databases and may errantly overwrite records in the new databases with CSI MasterFormat 95 data.

• The Detail Component/Keynote Database Migration utility can still be used to migrate records from one CSI MasterFormat 95 database to another. Note also that using the Database Migration utility to update an older database with data from the new CSI Masterformat 2004 database is not supported.

Using CSI Masterformat 95 Databases in AutoCAD Architecture 2008

If you want to use a database from Architectural Desktop 2007 or previous releases with the current release of AutoCAD Architecture 2008, you can load it as described under Adding a Detail Component Database to Available Databases or Adding a Keynote Database in the Help.

Note that the older database must be located with its corresponding content, maintaining the folder structure, to function properly. A details database will not function with the new 2008 US details content. Likewise, the previous version keynote database will not function to automatically keynote 2008 US details content, but only detail components inserted using previous version details or details in previous version drawings.

What use to be known as “Known Issues”

Autodesk has published the readme file from AutoCAD Architectural (What used to be known as ADT). In that file are notes on the software about issues that were not fully resolved. They use to call them Known Issues. They now call them “Feature Comments”.

These are things to look out for when using the new software. Things that may not have been totally worked out when the software shipped. Not big issues (from the perspective of Autodesk) that would have stopped the shipping of the software, but issues non the less.

Some of these issues may be show stoppers for you.

Here are a few… with my comments in italics.

Annotation Content

• Updating legacy annotative content is outlined in the AutoCAD Architecture 2008 Help.
• NOTE: To ensure proper scaling, set the current annotation scale to 1:1 prior to updating legacy annotative content.

This is something that I need to investigate. This is a very vague statement.

Scale

• AutoCAD Architecture 2008 has MsLtScale is set to 1 by default. When opening a drawing that uses this value, in a previous release, the LtScale will need to be manually set to maintain linetype scale visual fidelity.
• Aec Dimensions in AutoCAD Architecture 2008 use a DimScale value of 96 by default. If opened in a previous release and viewed at a scale other than 1/8
  

Last time I wrote about preventing problems before they occur. Preventative (or Proactive) CAD Management involves the concept of setting up processes and guidelines in order to prevent things from going wrong.

Reactive management just responds to problems as they come up. This is part of the job, but can often settle you into the rut of responsiveness. Responding to, but not avoiding problems.

Just like changing the oil in your car is a preventative measure, there are some things you can put into place to avoid having troubles later on.

So what steps might you take to set up some preventative measures? Some of them are obvious, some are not. Some of these have links to my web site because I have covered them before.

Here are a few:

1. A solid CAD Standard that is reviewed on a regular basis.
2. A list of approved software tools.
3. Do a mid year checkup on yourself
4. Set up teams to help you manage
5. Narrow your focus
6. Create a Technology Plan or refresh the one you have
7. Blend you standard into your software through custom content and tools
8. Create templates for all your file types
9. Organize your server and all your data and support files

Do you have any more ideas? Leave me a comment.

When thinking of what needs fixing in your CAD files keep in mind that most people don’t care about the small stuff. They care about the big things. They do not fix things that are not broken and their definition of broken may mean something different.

“Broken” to the CAD Manager means it does not match the CAD Standard. To the not so picky user, “broken” means the file is corrupt and fails to open or does not output to the plotter correctly. If they can get the file to plot in a way that reflects their desired print, they are happy.

To the not so picky Cad’er, if they can wrestle the file into a good hard copy then nothing is wrong. Or the things that are wrong are just small things. People don’t fix small things. They think… “If I don’t need to fix it to get a good plot, it is not broken”.

To counteract this line of thinking you should reinforce the need for sharing files with others. When other drafters start looking at the “not so picky” persons work, they start to care a lot more. They see casual layer naming and random aspects of consistency. They find that the files are harder to work with. Productivity declines.

The point is not to wait until everyone agrees the something is broken, it is to practice preventative processes.

(the product formerly known as ADT)

Recommended System Requirements

• Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon™ processor, 3 GHz or greater
• Microsoft® Windows® XP (SP2 or later) or Vista™ operating system
• 3 GB RAM
• 3.1 GB free disk space
• 1280×1024 monitor and display adapter capable of 32-bit color
• 128 MB or greater, OpenGL®-capable workstation-class graphics card
• MS Mouse—compliant pointing device
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 (SP1 or later)

The preceding requirements are recommended for effective use of AutoCAD Architecture.