Friday, April 28, 2017

DimNotes with AutoCAD 2018 support

JTB World’s DimNotes app for AutoCAD is now supporting AutoCAD 2018. DimNotes makes it easy to add dimension notes to dimension objects in AutoCAD.

JTB Change Title now for AutoCAD 2018

JTB Change Title freeware has been updated to work with AutoCAD 2018.

Sometimes there can be a reason why you want to change the application title in AutoCAD based products. It can be that you need to take nice screenshots for documentation for example. Instead of showing "Autodesk AutoCAD 2018 - UNREGISTERED VERSION" or "Autodesk AutoCAD 2018 - NOT FOR RESALE" you want it to show "Autodesk AutoCAD 2018" or something else. With JTB Change Title this can be done.

Before

and after

Batch Publish PDF and DWF now for AutoCAD 2018

JTB World’s Batch Publish app for AutoCAD simplifies the process of publishing (plotting) sets of drawings to DWF and/or PDF. It’s been updated to work for AutoCAD 2018.

Spiro freeware updated for AutoCAD 2018

Spiro is a freeware app can be used with AutoCAD to create Spirograph (TM)- like patterns. The app has been updated to work with AutoCAD 2018.

A variety of polylines created with the Spiro app in AutoCAD and its verticals.

Palette Auto-hide Speed 1.5 released

Palette Auto-hide Speed is a freeware by JTB World. With it you can change the time it takes to show/hide or roll-up/roll-out the palette windows in AutoCAD when you have activated Auto-hide.

Here is when Roll-up and Roll-out are set to 0 to speed it up as much as possible.

In Palette Auto-hide Speed version 1.5 we added testing to see if AutoCAD has been closed before applying the changes as well as added support for AutoCAD 2018.

Thursday, April 27, 2017

SSMPropEditor 6.4 update with AutoCAD 2018 support

SSMPropEditor 6.4 has been updated so the AutoCAD app installer now has AutoCAD 2018 support. So only if you want to run SSMPropEditor from within AutoCAD 2018 there is need to upgrade.

Edit properties on multiple sheets belonging to Sheet Set Manager (SSM) for AutoCAD, GstarCAD and BricsCAD or AutoCAD Architecture's Project Navigator (PN) Sheet Set View with ease. If you want to change properties like a revision, date or name on two or more sheets at the same time SSMPropEditor is for you. Your productivity will increase and you will save time avoiding a lot of manual work.

Sheet Set Properties, Sheet Set Custom Properties, Sheet Properties and Sheet Custom Properties can be edited and bulk updated.

Click to enlarge

If you want to give it a try there is a free trial available.

SmartPurger 4.0 released

SmartPurger 4.0 is released and here’s what’s fixed and updated:

  • Added support for AutoCAD® 2018
  • Fixed error that caused SmartPurger to not complete deletion of files in certain cases
  • "Delete only files older than specified number days" setting did before not delete files as expected. This is not fixed.
  • Fixed error that caused SmartPurger to stop when path or files names were very long.
  • Fixed error that caused SmartPurger to stop when it reached certain folders that could not be accessed by the current user.
  • Fixed a problem related to deletion of files as specified on the Settings>Delete tab where the deletion did not complete search of all folders.

Download the update either as a customer or if you want a trial.

What is SmartPurger? SmartPurger can batch purge CAD drawings as well as run custom scripts (SCR or LSP). Delete old backup and other files you may not want to take up space. Works with AutoCAD, BricsCAD, GstarCAD and possibly other DWG compatible software. And there are more features.

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Workaround for the Ribbon bug in AutoCAD Architecture 2018

After I reported about the bug in the post AutoCAD Architecture 2018 and AutoCAD MEP 2018 New Feature Summary I got a workaround from Autodesk that I wanted to share:

Please see below workaround for the issue, suggested by our engineering team.  You can enable the “Add-ins” Tab in the CUI and all the apps will be installed under this tab.

  1. Uninstall all apps (including Autodesk Apps)
  2. Launch AutoCAD Architecture>>CUI>>Right click on the default workspace>>Customize Workspace
  3. Ribbon>>Tabs>>Enable “Add-ins”>>click “Done” on the Right pane>>OK
  4. Right Click on any tab>>Enable “Add-ins” Tab to be shown in the Ribbon.
  5. Install the apps now and should be seen under Add-ins tab.

Monday, April 24, 2017

AutoCAD Architecture 2018 and AutoCAD MEP 2018 New Feature Summary

It’s a really short one. Even AutoCAD 2018 had a quite short one, at least anything in AutoCAD 2018 is of course included for AutoCAD Architecture 2018 and AutoCAD MEP 2018.

With the new DWG 2018 drawing file format be careful about if and when to upgrade and how it affects others involved, but in your team and customers.

Based on the “news” it seems like there’s only one developer left working for these products. Question is how long AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP will be around?

A bug managed to be introduced. It’s been in AutoCAD Architecture before. In the example below I have multiple apps installed and each app gets one tab named either Plug-ins or Add-ins.

Design Center has not been updated even though Autodesk Seek is no longer available. See image below. Not so much a vertical issue but rather an issue in vanilla AutoCAD.

Here are the “news” and it’s always nice to see some bugs to be fixed:

Content

Approximately 400 new MVBlocks and block references are added to the metric content in the Design Center. The content includes lighting, furnishing, elevators, escalators, and electrical services.

Design Center

High Resolution (4K) Monitor Support

Most AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP user interfaces are now optimized to work with high resolution monitors. As a result, dialog boxes such as the Style Manager and Display Manager dialog boxes, and palettes such as the Tool palettes and Styles Browser, scale correctly when you increase the text size in Windows display properties.

Performance Improvements

The value of the HPMAXLINES system variable has been optimized to reduce the time taken to open drawing files. The occasional crashes that occurred when opening and saving files, as well as when mirroring drawings containing Architecture entities are addressed.

Seamless Updates

Whenever an update is installed on AutoCAD Architecture 2018 or AutoCAD MEP 2018, the ribbon highlights the feature that was updated.

Product Quality Improvement

Projects addressing product reliability have resulted the following improvements:

  • Exporting and converting schedule tables to Excel produces correct results under conditions it would not in previous releases.
  • Transparency values are retained when set through the Display Properties dialog.
  • Isolate Objects now correctly retain divided spaces when one of the spaces is isolated.
  • It is no longer necessary to refresh a project to display new sheets in the Project Navigator.
  • The Manage Content Library dialog is no longer suppressed when launched from the Style Browser, soon after migrating from a previous release.
  • Issues with PDF drawings that did not import correctly in previous releases have been identified and rectified.
  • The EXPORTTOAUTOCAD command no longer results in a system crash when exporting drawing files containing Open Light entities.
  • Product Updates are now visible in network deployment when added through the Add Updates option.
  • 2D block references will no longer participate in section creation operations.
  • You can now split or trim mass elements when using non-default UCS.

System requirements found here.

JTB World’s apps ACA_db and Timber Tool have been updated to work with the 2018 version of AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP.

Friday, April 21, 2017

DWG Columns 3.3 with DWG 2018 support

DWG Columns has been updated for AutoCAD 2018 and the new DWG 2018 drawing file format.

One good news with AutoCAD 2018 is that “The file navigation dialog boxes for operations such as Open, Save, Attach and many others now remember the sort order of the column. If, for example, you sort by file size or reverse sort by file name, the next time you access that dialog box it will automatically display files using that same sort order.”

How it works in Windows Explorer / File Explorer. Show DWG properties like version, what software the dwg was created by and more.

If you only want to see the DWG version there is a freeware version of DWG Columns available as well.

DwgInfoTip 1.6 with DWG 2018 support

JTB World’s DwgInfoTip 1.6 comes with support for the DWG 2018 drawing file format introduced with AutoCAD 2018. Here are the drawing metadata or properties that can be seen.

DwgInfoTip with DWG 2018 support

A freeware version is available that only shows the DWG version.

Autodesk Prerequisite Checker 1.0

Here’s a free system requirements analysis tool by Autodesk that can help to determine if your computer can run a particular Autodesk software product like AutoCAD or Revit.

“The Autodesk Prerequisite Checker analyzes the hardware and software environment of your computer and provides an output to let you know if you will be able to install and run a particular Autodesk product, or if you might run into difficulty.”

Read more about this tool and download it here.

It seems to have some issues though. Here’s what I found running a test on one machine. Obviously a horizontal resolution of 0 is incorrect.

It’s not yet been updated for Autodesk 2018 products.

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

AutoCAD 2018.0.2 Update

The AutoCAD 2018.0.2 Update is now available for AutoCAD 2018 and AutoCAD LT 2018 through the Autodesk Desktop App,

or via the Autodesk Account.

But it’s not available on the Autodesk Knowledge Network site.

Here are the readme details:

The 2018.0.1 Update fixes described in this previous post are included. (This update was withdrawn some time after it was released)

New fixes in 2018.0.2 are:

  • Occasional crashes when editing an undefined hatch pattern no longer occur.
  • Occasional crashes when opening certain DXF files no longer occur.
  • Right clicking in the Block Edit mode no longer displays an error message in the Command window.
  • Certain text styles are no longer upside down when printed to PDF.
  • Self-Intersecting wipeouts in a block will perform as expected when plotted.
  • Fixed a defect that would otherwise have caused the product subscription to expire on June 1st, 2017 with a pre-release product error message.
  • Ability to input values for the Material Editor Palette is restored.
  • Digitally signed AutoLISP files can be loaded as expected.

More about AutoCAD 2018 here.

Autodesk 2018 Licensing News

With the new Autodesk 2018 products the Autodesk Network License Manager does not need to be updated if you have version 11.13.1.2 or newer already installed.

But there are a few other new things that can be worth knowing.

For Collection Multi-User licenses: “Beginning with the 2018 release, package licenses will extend to 4 previous versions back to ease the process of transitioning from previous versions. The list of eligible previous versions and versions available for download on Autodesk account will continue to be the current version plus 3 previous versions.

For example, a package license for AutoCAD 2018 provides access to AutoCAD 2018 through AutoCAD 2014. Running an instance of any one of these versions consumes one license in the package. Running more than one version, even on the same machine, will consume more than one license in the package unless the license consumed is from an Industry Collection. Package licenses created for 2017 and earlier versions of Autodesk software contain current plus 3 previous versions.”

“Due to the new License Cascading behavior, users should launch the higher product first, then the lowest license after (i.e. Open Inventor Professional first, then AutoCAD afterwards). That way, the user would only consume 1 license.” Launching the lower product first will result in 2 licenses consumed.

“A multi-user Industrial Collection license will only consume a single license if the user launches different versions of the product within the collection on the same machine. For example if AutoCAD 2016 is launched with a Collection (multi-user) license and AutoCAD 2017 was also launched by the same user/machine, only a single license would be consumed.”

“If you have a combination of Subscribe and non-Subscribe products, DO NOT combine licenses into one file. They will need to be on different servers/workstations/virtual machines to avoid incorrect licensing count.”

For more details see this document Autodesk Licensing Changes and these links

Our page Autodesk Network License Manager has been updated as well.

JTB FlexReport works fine with the new Autodesk 2018 products. JTB FlexReport can help you to report on your license and product usage. See also our free JTB FlexReport LT product that shows the current usage in a nice HTML report.

Use the Get Feature Descriptions button in JTB FlexReport Config>Features or in JTB FlexReport LT to get the description for the new Autodesk 2018 feature codes that also are on our FlexNet Feature Codes page.

Monday, April 17, 2017

AutoCAD 2018

AutoCAD 2018 was released March 21, 2017. It’s the 32th version of AutoCAD.

There are not so many new features added. Especially if you already got the AutoCAD 2017.1 Update. Here are some of new ones listed:

  • The DWG file format is new: "AutoCAD 2018 Drawing".
  • Save performance is improved.
  • Better performance with low-end devices and high resolution displays, as well as for regen and redraw of hatch patterns.
  • External Reference Paths management is made easier.
  • The file navigation dialog boxes for operations such as Open, Save, Attach and many others now remember the sort order of the column. If, for example, you sort by file size or reverse sort by file name, the next time you access that dialog box it will automatically display files using that same sort order. This is great news for users of DWG Columns for Explorer that want to for example see the DWG version or other DWG file properties.

  • XREFREGAPPCTL is a new system variable that controls whether the registered application (RegApp) records stored in an xref being loaded are copied to the host drawing. By default records are no longer copied.
  • Quick Access Toolbar can show the Layer Control.

AutoCAD LT 2018 and the free DWG TrueView has also been released and are based on AutoCAD 2018.


AutoCAD verticals like AutoCAD Architecture, AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Map 3D, AutoCAD MEP are also now available as 2018 versions.


Surprise, the free Autodesk Design Review is also updated as told by Scott Sheppard’s It’s Alive in the Lab blog. Remember DWF? This update of Design Review includes:

  • Proper support for Windows 10
  • The Design Review toolbar now includes shortcuts to A360, BIM 360, and AutoCAD 360.
  • Design Review now includes InfoCenter, which is a tool that enables you to access to product-related information sources.
  • Design Review no longer supports HP Instant Printing.

If you want to open DWG files with it you need to install DWG TrueView as well.

Autodesk Design Review


AutoCAD 2018.0.1 was made available just a day or so after AutoCAD 2018 was released. A word of warning though. It causes a problem to load certain digitally signed AutoLISP files. You may want to wait for another update or hotfix unless the fixes below are more important for you.

Autodesk AutoCAD 2018.0.1 Update readme.

Download via Autodesk Account page or Autodesk Desktop App. (no longer available)

Fixes:

  • Occasional crashes when ending an AutoCAD session using specific API code no longer occur.
  • Publishing annotative multiline attributes no longer results in incorrect annotative scaling.
  • PFB fonts can now be compiled successfully as SHX files.
  • The border of a mask is no longer plotted in PDFs when "Lines Merge" is turned on.

Introduced problem:

  • Some AutoCAD apps may fail to work.

A problem with Autodesk Desktop App was that even though the update was installed, Autodesk Desktop App notified that the update was not installed.

Just a few days ago this update was withdrawn, probably due to the problems with it. AutoCAD DevBlog posted about the problems with the signed VLX files. Autodesk found the root cause and if all set it may be shipped soon in another update.


For more details see our AutoCAD 2018 page. Other pages updated with AutoCAD 2018 information are:

JTB World’s apps are almost all updated to work with AutoCAD 2018.

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