Friday, July 27, 2012

AutoCAD Exchange community site to close

Steve Johnson over at blog nauseam posted AutoCAD Exchange bites the dust notifying us about the closure of the community site AutoCAD Exchange. Will you miss it?

Important News About AutoCAD Exchange!

Thank you for visiting AutoCAD Exchange. In an effort to consolidate our online AutoCAD community efforts to more popular networks, we will be migrating AutoCAD Exchange content and activities to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Through the AutoCAD Facebook page we provide tips & tricks, tutorial videos and opportunities to engage with the employees at Autodesk that have helped build the product from the ground up.
We look forward to interacting with you on our social properties.
AutoCAD  on Facebook
AutoCAD on Twitter
AutoCAD on YouTube

Note: AutoCAD Plant Exchange will continue on this site, providing updates, content packs, and productivity tools. Click the Plant Exchange tab or visit www.autodesk.com/plantexchange.

AutoCAD Exchange - new community site for AutoCAD users
AutoCAD Exchange 9 months later
AutoCAD Exchange redesign

Monday, July 23, 2012

Revit 2013 Update Release 1

Revit 2013 Update Release 1 is now available and this time there is no need to do a full install instead service pack technology is being used. Download links below as well as a list of all enhancements.

Downloads:

Revit Architecture 2013 Update Release 1: DL20121970 (Applies to: AutoCAD Revit Architecture Suite 2013 and Autodesk Revit Architecture 2013)

Revit Structure 2013 Update Release 1: DL20122015 (Applies to: AutoCAD Revit Structure Suite 2013, Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite Ultimate 2013, Autodesk Plant Design Suite Ultimate 2013 and Autodesk Revit Structure 2013)

Revit MEP 2013 Update Release 1: DL20122070 (Applies to: AutoCAD Revit MEP Suite 2013 and Autodesk Revit MEP 2013)

Revit 2013 Update Release 1: DL20121968 (Applies to Autodesk Building Design Suite Premium 2013, Autodesk Building Design Suite Ultimate 2013 and Autodesk Revit 2013)

Improvements made in Update 1 build (20120716_1115):

Autodesk Revit Platform 2013 Enhancements
- Improves stability when opening projects from previous versions of Revit.
- Improves stability during Copy/Paste operations.
- Corrects display of solid filled regions with transparent backgrounds.
- Allows exporting of materials painted on elements to ODBC.
- Improves performance of opening and closing sketch mode in projects with many families.
- Improves stability when setting a Design Option as the Primary.
- Improves stability when Fixed Distance option for a divided path.
- Improves stability while browsing to Revit Server when there is no network connectivity.
- Improves export consistency of Space and Zone elements when multiple elements have the same name and number.
- Allows Raytrace mode to work with DirectX 9.
- Improves stability when using Raytrace mode with Hardware Acceleration disabled.
- Improves Raytrace mode rendering output.
- Improves Surface Transparency override by element for multiple selection.
- Improves printing consistency when tone mapping is enabled.
- Disables Sun and SunPath from being rendered in Raytrace mode.
- Improves stability when using manual exposure in Raytrace mode.
- Improves stability when rendering views.
- Improves stability and performance when using visualization features like Sky, Exposure, and Anti-Aliasing.
- Improves stability when importing IFC data which contains special characters.
- Improves the setting of custom parameter values during import of IFC data.
- Improves stability when importing IFC data which contains an invalid line pattern.
- Allows Markups from DWF to be exported to DWF.
- Improves stability when drag and drop a DWG file into a Revit project.
- Improves stability when importing DXF data.
- Improves dimension fidelity when exporting to DWG with export units set to Meter.
- Improves alignment of hatch and fill patterns when exporting to DWG.
- Improves stability when selecting a new host for an element within an In-place Wall.
- Improves section creation within a project with linked model.
- Improves stability when working with Materials.
- Improves the displayed Pattern Type assigned to an element with the Material Editor.
- Corrects the display of the materials category within the Paint interface.
- Corrects the printed display of fill patterns within perspective views.
- Improves stability of Type editing when multiple element types are in the selection set.

Autodesk Revit Architecture 2013 Enhancements 
- Improves stability when closing a sketch editor, such as slab, site, etc., which create a large number of points. 
- Improves creation of U-shaped winder stairs. 
- Improves stability when editing winder stairs.
- Improves performance when many railings exist within a project.
- Improves stability when support type is not defined for stair. 
- Improves railing representation in coarse view.

Autodesk Revit Structure 2013 Enhancements 
- Improves placement of analytical nodes when in 3D views. 
- Improves stability when enabling “Show Analytical Model Categories in this View” when the Warning dialog is open.
- Improves creation consistency with Physical Wall when coping an Analytical Model Wall.
- Improves stability when editing an Opening within an object which spans to the boundary of an Analytical Surface.
- Corrects the reporting of the “Structural Parameter” on slabs.
- Improves masking of linked files by Mask and Filled regions in Structural Views.
- Improves stability when placing Rebar.
- Improves stability when copying Area or Path reinforcement between projects which have differing value for the Reinforcement Project Setting: “Host structural rebar”. 
- Improves visibility of round rebar when displayed in fine detail level.
Autodesk® Revit® MEP 2013 Enhancements
- Corrects the Slope value on placeholder pipe when slope is greater than 15 degrees. 
- Improves consistency when applying a slope to a layout which contains a transition. 
- Improves stability when splitting pipes which belong to different systems. 
- Corrects visibility of the center line when displaying rise/drop symbols.
- Improves stability when opening a Revit 2012 project which contains a pipe placeholder schedule. 
- Improves consistency of unit formatting within Panel Schedules .
- Improves consistency of adding circuits to equipment that are connected to a pipe or duct system.
- Improves stability when adding a device, which is connected to a wire, to a circuit.
- Improves display of annotation on duct and pipe transitions. 
- Improves stability when inserting duct fittings. 
- Improves stability when viewing Routing Solutions.

There are also several Autodesk Revit API 2013 Enhancements:
- Allows Document.PostFailure to be used to post multiple errors during a single transaction that do not reference an ElementId.
- Improves stability using UIApplication.DoDragDrop when a Revit command (such as the Wall tool) was active.
- Improves stability by disabling keyboard shortcuts (except view zoom shortcuts) when a PreviewControl is active.
- Improves stability in ReferenceIntersector.FindNearest() when no matching target pick is found.
- Corrects validation logic to allow NewFamilyInstance to place face-based families on transformed family instances.
- Dimension.Above and Dimension.Below now update the dimension after their data is changed without requiring any user action.
- The properties MechanicalSystem.SystemType, ElectricalConnector.SystemType,
PipeConnector.SystemType are obsolete in Revit 2013. Instead query the parameter
RBS_DUCT_CONNECTOR_SYSTEM_CLASSIFICATION_PARAM on ConnectorElement.
- Corrects data reported with ConnectorManager.UnusedConnectors.
- Fixes a file corruption that could occur when extensible storage data was added to an element in a central file.
- Improves stability when saving a file with extensible storage data that overwrites an existing file that also contains extensible storage.
- RVT Links created with RevitLinkType.Create will remain loaded when the RVT containing the link is reopened.
- Previously, setting 'suppressBendRadius' to true in method Rebar.GetCenterlineCurves() would cause both fillet bends and user-drawn, parameterized arcs to be omitted from the collection of curves returned by the method.  The method now omits only the fillet bends; the drawn arcs are included along with the straight edges.
- Updates Rebar.GetCenterlineCurves() method with an additional argument: a MultiplanarOption (enum), which should be set to IncludeAllMultiplanarCurves or IncludeOnlyPlanarCurves.  This argument controls whether all curves of a multi-planar Rebar instance are returned, or only those which lie in the primary plane.
- Enables method Rebar.ComputeDrivingCurves().  This method returns a collection of curves that includes the lines and arcs that drive the shape, but excludes fillets and hooks.  It is equivalent to calling GetCenterlinCurves(adjustForSelfIntersection=false, suppressHooks=true,  suppressBendRadius=true, multiplanarOption=IncludeOnlyPlanarCurves)
- Improvements have been made in RebarShape methods that deal with matching RebarShapes to collections of curves: CreateFromCurvesAndShape(), RebarShapeMatchesCurvesAndHooks().
- Corrects behavior ot RebarShape.Create() method to not ignore the out-of-plane bend diameter specified in the RebarShapeMultiplanarDefinition argument object, and always used an internal
default value.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Convert PDF to DWG

I was looking at some options to convert PDF files to AutoCAD formats like DWG and DXF and here is the result using the free online service www.convertpdftoautocad.com. www.pdftodxf.com from the same company should work if you want the result in DXF format but the PDF files I tried did not work (according to the company due to a temporary glitch). As with all online services you need to consider if you can trust to use them or not, no matter if the privacy policy says it should be 100% safe.

This shows part of the PDF I uploaded as a test.

And here is the resulting DWG file that you get a download link to in an email. Some of the text is correctly converted while some other text could not be converted. Geometries seems to convert quite fine even though the result is not circles or whatever objects you started with but instead mostly polylines and some hatch objects. The text comes in on layer T, polylines on layer P and hatches on layer H.

Other methods are to use Adobe Acrobat (depending on version) may have the copy graphics tool to copy the graphics to the clipboard. Adobe Illustrator that can save a PDF in DWG or DXF format. The free Ghostscript & GSView can export PDF to DXF. There are also specific products to purchase for this specific functionality.

Note that if you have raster PDF files instead of linework PDF files you may not be able to convert them. Some text might be linework and will also be converted to lines instead of text.

Finally there might not be a need to convert the PDF. Attaching it as a reference in AutoCAD might even be the best choice.

Monday, July 9, 2012

AutoCAD Automation Tools 4.0

AutoCAD Automation Tools 4.0 is now available.

With AutoCAD Automation Tools many manual drafting tasks in AutoCAD can be automated. Batch create new drawings (.DWG) based on templates. Add objects, blocks or xrefs to existing drawings. Update text and attribute values and much more.

Here are the news in this release.

  • AutoCAD 2013 support
  • Support for multiline attributes
  • Support for table objects
  • Support for multileader text
  • Support for mtext with more than 250 characters can be searched and replaced.
  • Search and replace, replaces not only the first found occurrence now
  • -AutoGen, -AutoInst, -AutoUpd working as command line versions
  • AutoGen has the option to quit AutoCAD when run as the command line version -AutoGen
  • AutoUpd now supports what tabs to be affected
  • More options to determine tabs/layouts to be affected. Thus old Excel or txt templates may not work as expected. AllLayouts* is renamed to LayoutTabs*. "Model space" renamed to ModelTab*. "Paper space" renamed to CurrentLayoutTab*
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes
  • Solved a problem to run on some older AutoCAD versions

Existing AutoCAD Automation Tools customers will be emailed the link to the perpetual version.

Trial version is available at the download section of the product web page.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

DwgNotes - Notes and Comments in AutoCAD

DwgNotes 1.2 has been released. There is support for AutoCAD 2013 and DwgNotes is also available on the the Autodesk Exchange Apps site.

Add notes or comments in AutoCAD DWG files and optionally be notified about the note when the drawing is opened.

One or multiple notes can be added, edited or deleted.

DwgNotes

30-day trial version available for download.

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