JTB World Blog

Password problem with Internet Explorer 7 and solution

info@jtbworld.com (Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 05:19:00 -0600

In IE7 I find that some log in or sign in forms I use like the one for Autodesk forums have, does not automatically add the password that have been specified to be saved. It simply is not remembered. Or is it?

The trick is to place the cursor in the first field and then use the Tab key to move to the password field and now the password is added.

Other sites where I have found this is LinkedIn and Wikipedia.

If it still does not work make sure you have Internet Options>Content>AutoComplete Settings>User names and passwords on forms and Prompt me to save passwords checked.

Then when you enter a password answer Yes to the question “Do you want Internet Explorer to remember this password?”

If the dialog box does not come up you might need to use Tab to enter the Password field instead of using the mouse and click in it.

It might also be that you have answered No to the question before. This choice is saved to the registry.

If you don’t care loosing all your saved passwords you can use Tools>Delete Browsing History in IE and Delete passwords…

If not you can use Regedit.exe and clear this using this solution.

Close Internet Explorer.
Run regedit.exe (you will need administration rights)
Locate this key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\IntelliForms\Storage2
This is the location for AutoComplete Passwords only.
HTTP Authentication Passwords and FTP Passwords are saved at a couple of other places.
Select Storage2 on the left pane. Save Storage2 as backup via File>Export so you can restore it later on. Name it Storage2Old.reg and save it where you want.
Or you can right click on Storage2 and select Export.
In the right pane select all values except (Default), right click and select Delete.

Start Internet Explorer and visit the website in question with the log in form and enter the password you want to save and answer Yes to save it.
Log out and close IE.
Go back to Registry Editor and press F5 to refresh the view.
Now save Storage2 as a second backup but name it Storage2New.reg.
Select Storage2 in the left pane again and visit File>Import and select StorageOld.reg so it can be merged back into the registry.
Now repeat the previous step but select StorageNew.reg.
Close the Registry Editor.
Now you should be able to have the password remembered for the site in question and still have all saved passwords retained. I’ve used Vista but it should work with XP as well.

Then there are some sites where this does not work at all like I found with Feedburner.

There are also some sites where you have to enter the password and save it on multiple places depending on where on the site you log in. Many of Google’s site are like this.

Another solution is before anyone comes with a comment on it to use another web browser like Firefox or Google Chrome. On the other hand I found that both Firefox and Chrome could not save the password on the Autodesk discussion group site but could save it on Feedburner.

On the topic I can also mention that there are some add-on software that can handle form filling like RoboForm and IE7Pro Auto Form Filter. But I know that at least IE7Pro cannot solve the Feedburner log in because it is a unique URL used each time.

Saving passwords in IE7 is something you should only do if you are aware that if anyone else have access to your computer they can find out your password. IE PassView is a freeware that recover lost passwords stored by Internet Explorer. Don’t think that just because the password shows as ***** it is safe, not even in some applications as you can see in the Asterisk Logger.

Lastly there are sites that don’t allow saving the password like online banking sites.

What is your experience in this field?

JTB FlexReport database compression tip

info@jtbworld.com (Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 04:16:00 -0600

Here is a JTB FlexReport database compression tip.

This is from JTBFlexReport.NET.mdb database with real data.

If you compress/compact the database it goes down a bit in size.

I used Microsoft Access for this. Make a backup first and don’t delete it until you are sure the reports and everything works with the compacted one.

If I use JTB FlexReport database administration and compact it and if I also select to delete 0 license usage.

The reason for this is that 2,892,386 rows in the “log” table has 0 used licenses. In a coming version there will be support for the option to not save these rows in the first place.

Another thing that only can be done manually at this point. The table tblDeniedUserLog can after a while contain many rows and after deleting them and compacting the database the size can goes down a lot. This table is populated with data from the FLEXnet debug logs so you would also need to start with empty debug logs at the same time. It can be a good idea to backup the debug logs and start with new ones as it can affect the snapshot time quite a lot if they are too big in size.

Consider also if there are features that you find no reason to log to the database at all and set them to not be logged in JTB FlexReport Config.

PS. Further work to support SQL Server is going on but will still take several weeks until it is ready because of all the work included. .NET Framework 3.5 will also be required at this point meaning that Windows 2000 will not be supported (at least not fully).

AutoCAD Xclip xrefs in 3D tips and tricks

info@jtbworld.com (Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:18:00 -0600

Xref clipping has been around since AutoCAD R14 and is really useful. It has been improved upon last time in AutoCAD 2009 with ability to more easily edit the boundary as seen in this previous post that also shows the invert x-clip boundary that was introduced in AutoCAD 2008.

JTB World's XClipClean can help with the work to clean up the blocks or xrefs that has been clipped by automate the tedious work deleting and trimming geometry that is outside the xclip boundary. This can be useful for as build drawing production if you need to bind the xrefs and want to minimize the size of the drawings. Think of it as an clipped xref purger removing what anyway is not seen.

Did you know that you can clip a 3D model also in Z direction? Here is one solution.

I use the sample 3D House as an example here. I attach it to Drawing1.

Then I clip it from the top view like this.

In this step I have attached Drawing1 into a new drawing and change the view to a front view and clip it again.

And here is the result.

Imagine you work with a large project with multiple disciplines and maybe just want to use a small part of the building as underlay to keep good performance on the computer. This is just one practical usage.

Clipping a 2D xref also works with nested xrefs and can be really useful too.

If you work with clipped external references consider how to use INDEXCTL. Using INDEXCTL set to 3 can improve the performance up to 10 times I have seen, especially in combination with xrefs, xclip and viewports.

Feel free to share your tips in the comments or add a link to your blog post on the topic.

upFront.eZine NEWS Q&A With Jim Quanci of Autodesk

info@jtbworld.com (Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:33:00 -0600

upFront.eZine NEWS #586 has an interesting Q&A with Jim Quanci, director at ADN (Autodesk Developer Network).

upFront.eZine: Some third-party developers tell me they could no longer compete against Autodesk's overwhelming marketing and sales team. As well, they could no longer be members of ADN, I am guessing?

Read the Q&A for the reply.

upFront.eZine: I recall seeing Mechanical demo'ed at AU a number of years ago, and was very impressed what AutoCAD could be made to do through ARX.

Jim Quanci: I suggest you take a look at what AutoCAD has been made to do today with AutoCAD Mechanical, AutoCAD Electrical, AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Architecture, AutoCAD Electrical, AutoCAD P&ID and so on.

Notice also that AutoCAD Plant 3D that is expected this year is based on AutoCAD. AutoCAD will be around for many years ahead.

FLEXnet options file adskflex.opt location

info@jtbworld.com (Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 03:19:00 -0600

In the Autodesk discussion group there was a question how to specify the options file in the license file.

The recommended thing is to name the options file as the vendor daemon and place it in the same folder as the license file.
adskflex.exe is the Autodesk daemon so name the options file adskflex.opt and in this case you don't need to specify it in the license file.

If you really want to use another location and name for the opt file here is how:

Add the path to the options file in the license file on the VENDOR line for the application’s vendor daemon. This example enables the vendor daemon to look at the specified options file:
VENDOR adskflex options=”c:\path\options.opt”

Something you definitely should add in the options file is TIMEOUTALL.

Phillips, JIS, Pozidriv, SupaDriv and other screw drive types

info@jtbworld.com (Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 06:57:00 -0600

When a Phillips is not a Phillips! was an interesting reading. Find out the pros and cons and history about some of the shapes and screw drive type. What makes Robertson square screws better than other square screws and so on.

So, why all the confusion? Why all the damaged screw heads and drivers? Why is this screw and driver thing so awkward? Read on and be amazed while I unravel the mystery of screw drives and present some you may have never seen.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Pozidriv

The largest advantage it offers is that, when used with the correct tooling in good condition, it does not cam out, allowing great torque to be applied. The chief disadvantage of Pozidriv screws is that they are visually quite similar to Phillips, thus many people are unaware of the difference or do not own the correct drivers for them, and use incorrect screwdrivers. This results in difficulty in unscrewing the screw and in damage to the slot, rendering any subsequent use of a correct screwdriver unsatisfactory.

Here are a few more bits that I found on the Swedish Clas Ohlson site.

There is also a Screws category on Wikipedia with a lot of different screws.

2008

info@jtbworld.com (Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 15:44:00 -0600

315,858 visits came from 204 countries/territories to this blog.

Top browsers:

1. Internet Explorer 200,344 63.43%
2. Firefox 99,106 31.38%

A couple of the top 10 blog post: Network license news in AutoCAD 2009 and Kill a process in VB.NET

189,203 visits came from 203 countries/territories to www.jtbworld.com.

Top browsers:

1. Internet Explorer / Windows 128,693 68.02%
2. Firefox / Windows 48,813 25.80%

A couple of the top 10 web pages: the AutoLISP page and the AutoCAD 2009 page

Thanks for visiting in 2008 and welcome back!

Compare PDF, DWF, DWFx, DOC, DOCx files

info@jtbworld.com (Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:28:00 -0600

Further on the topic of the previous post but more on to manual compare. DWF Version Compare was introduced in Autodesk Design Review 2008. You find it on the Tools menu. This can be useful when comparing two DWF files. But be aware that it has its limitations like it cannot find differences on raster objects and the DWF files must be the same sheet size and use the same units.

If you want to compare PDF files Adobe Acrobat Professional have that functionality and works great with large multipage documents. Found on the Advanced menu. It’s a real time saver when you get PDF files like specifications from a customer, client or colleague and don’t want to read through everything a second time just to find the changes. Below you can see some of the result from Acrobat compare.

Microsoft Word also have this functionality to compare two versions of a document. I have found not many are aware of it. In Word 2007 it is on the Review tab.

Automate testing and examination of PDF generation

info@jtbworld.com (Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 19:04:00 -0600

This can also be applied to other formats like DWF (DWFx). Think about the costs if the PDF or DWF is incorrect, missing some important text for example. Say you have automated plotting and even if you make spot checks of the resulting files there is a chance you miss something. We all know that the PDF creation for example is tricky and because of bugs in the software the result might not always be what you expect.

The solution is to create a test automation. Say you produce the files from AutoCAD or Revit. What you could do it to produce two different outputs like plotting to both PDF and to TIFF and then automatically compare the result by first rasterizing the PDF file.

A software that can be automated to compare images is ImageMagick.

Another usage for this is version compare. You can automate a compare of two versions and have that available to the reviewer.

Via Adobe Reader Blog with more to read about this topic.

Videos introducing AutoCAD Subscription Bonus Packs

info@jtbworld.com (Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 16:17:00 -0600

Via BIM & BEAM I learned that there are three videos available describing the AutoCAD Subscription Bonus Packs that have been released for AutoCAD 2009.

Subscription Bonus Packs – An Overview with Lynn Allen and Eric Stover
Subscription Bonus Pack 2: PDF Enhancements with Kathy O’Connell and Eric Stover
Subscription Bonus Pack 3: 3D Printing with Kathy O’Connell and Eric Stover

On the subscription topic I suggest you also check out this post on Stoeckel on Subs (subscription needed) that includes the AutoLISP routine ssinside.lsp with three new commands―ssincp, ssinwp, and ssinf―that allow you to create an inside selection using Crossing Polygon, Window Polygon, or Fence, respectively.

Illusion science

info@jtbworld.com (Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 05:44:00 -0600

Don’t always believe what your eyes see. Below shows the Illusion of shifted gradations.

The gray line is horizontal but appears to tilt down to the left.

Much more at the Akiyoshi Kitaoka’s illusion pages where some of the hundred illusions are explained in a scientific way like the Explanation (the peripheral drift illusion) (PDF file) for the Rotating Snakes.

DWG TrueView object snaps available on the command line

info@jtbworld.com (Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 03:39:00 -0600

Autodesk’s DWG TrueView have some inquiry object snaps available with you want to measure a distance or area. TT (Temporary Track Point), FROM, M2P (Mid Between 2 Points), EXT (Extension), and point filters .X, .Y, .Z, .XY, .XZ, .YZ are only available on the command line and not so obvious unless you know about them.

Image below is from DWG TrueView 2009 with the object snaps available on the Ribbon.

Microsoft Softwear

info@jtbworld.com (Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 04:43:00 -0600

Want a MS DOS t-shirt or some other “softwear”?

Softwear by Microsoft

Disable the AutoCAD InfoCenter

info@jtbworld.com (Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:41:00 -0600

You might want to disable AutoCAD’s InfoCenter with its Help and documentation Search, Communication Center, Autodesk Channels, Balloon Notifications, RSS Feeds and Favorites. One reason is that it can speed up the AutoCAD startup or you just want to hide it. Otherwise it can be quite useful to have there. Here is the solution.

Before

and after

One way is using the CAD Manager Control Utility to control it to some extent or you can use Regedit.exe (or VBScript or a BAT or CMD file) and disable it completely. Just set the LoadCtrls key to 0 in the registry at:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R17.2\ACAD-7001:409\Applications\InfoCenterAcConn

(default value for LoadCtrls is 4c as Hexadecimal or 76 as Decimal value in case you want to enable it again)

R17.2\ACAD-7001:409 is for AutoCAD 2009 English version and needs to be changed depending on what AutoCAD product you use. It works with AutoCAD LT as well but then the registry location will start with: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\AutoCAD LT.
For more about the productID and locateID.

Using Visual LISP here is how:

(vl-registry-write (strcat "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\" (vlax-product-key) "\\Applications\\InfoCenterAcConn" ) "LOADCTRLS" 0)

AutoCAD needs to be restarted to see the effect.

Tekla Structures 14 review

info@jtbworld.com (Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:17:00 -0600

Tekla Structures, one of the best BIM products for structural engineering and steel fabrication got a new release some time ago. Read the review at AECbytes. The new release should be easier to learn and use and if you’re evaluating structural application you should definitely consider Tekla Structures as it is covering everything from design to detailing, fabrication and construction using any material like concrete, steel, precast concrete, and timber.

JTB FlexReport can be used to make assessments of license usage of Tekla Structures 14 (or newer when available) as FLEXnet is now used for the network licenses.

Related post on a lmutil.exe problem and Tekla Structures.

Gwanggyo City Centre competition winner

info@jtbworld.com (Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 04:51:00 -0600

The Daewoo Consortium and the municipality of Gwanggyo announced the MVRDV concept design for a dense city centre winner of the developer’s competition for the future new town of Gwanggyo, located 35km south of the Korean capital Seoul. The plan consists of a series of overgrown hill shaped buildings with great programmatic diversity, aiming for high urban density and encouragement of further developments around this so-called ‘Power Centre’, one of the envisioned two centre’s of the future new town.

Talk about green buildings.

Via designboom and MVRDV

System.IO.IOException: The file exists and GetTempFileName solution and explanation

info@jtbworld.com (Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:20:00 -0600

I was researching a problem in JTB FlexReport that a couple of customers had and the error log gave this error message.

System.IO.IOException: The file exists.
   at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String maybeFullPath)
   at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError()
   at System.IO.Path.GetTempFileName()

It was pretty obvious that the file did not exist as the message said and thanks to this post I got the explanation as there also where “many” empty temp files (0 KB) in the c:\windows\temp folder.

The GetTempFileName method will raise an IOException if it is used to create more than 65535 files without deleting previous temporary files.

The GetTempFileName method will raise an IOException if no unique temporary file name is available. To resolve this error, delete all unneeded temporary files.

Eventually I found the problem and the solution will be included in the next release. It seems to affect very few customers but a hotfix is available in the meantime.

JTB FlexReport 5 beta 2 is available to test drive

info@jtbworld.com (Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 06:23:00 -0600

JTB FlexReport 5 is getting closer to be released. Between Beta 1 and Beta 2 at least 20 bugs has been fixed and 10 features have been added based on feedback. So feel free to take a look at this new beta release.

The new documentation for beta 2 is here: JTBFlexReport5B2.pdf (3 MB).

One new thing is that you can toggle between showing and hiding data labels and markers.

Another thing is the axis controller that allows you to make adjustments on the X and Y axis text orientation, ticks and span.

Here the X time span has been changed as well as the Y numeric span.

You can request a fully functional trial of JTB FlexReport including this new functionality.

Integrated Project Delivery – IPD project in New England

info@jtbworld.com (Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 06:17:00 -0600

Via Gregory Arkin’s blog post on IPD (Integrated Project Delivery) I found that the (bim)x blog has much more about the Autodesk IPD project I wrote about in a previous post.

Two network license manager hotfixes from Autodesk

info@jtbworld.com (Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 15:37:00 -0600

This hotfix repairs a problem with the configuration of the redundant license server causing servers to stop when the master server has been changed twice. This hotfix applies to any 2009 or earlier products that use network licensing.

The version of lmgrd.exe is 11.5.0.5.

Knowledge Base document and download: Hotfix - Redundant License Server

…

This update enables the Autodesk Network License Manager to support IPv6 networks using Microsoft® Windows® Server 2008, Windows Vista® 32-bit and Windows Vista® 64-bit.

Important:

This version of the Autodesk Network License Manager does not support early return of borrowed licenses.
This implementation only supports a mixed IPv4 and IPv6 environment. This implementation does not support network license checkouts in an IPv6-only environment.

The version of lmgrd.exe, lmtools.exe, lmutil.exe and adskflex.exe is 11.5.

Knowledge Base document and download: Hotfix - Autodesk Network License Manager IPv6 Support

Autodesk to Acquire BIMWorld will improve Autodesk Seek

info@jtbworld.com (Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:17:00 -0600

BIMWorld is planned to be combined with Autodesk Seek.

“The vision for Autodesk Seek is to be a leading online destination and one-stop-shop for high quality building product information and design files,” said Jeff Wright, Autodesk senior director of Content Solutions. “By joining forces with the BIMWorld team, we will strengthen the leadership of Autodesk Seek as a powerful marketing solution for building product manufacturers, and by further leveraging our strategic content partners, accelerate designers’ access to a breadth of rich product information and design files for use during the design process.”

See Press release for all details.

Another BIM (Building Information Modeling) related news from Autodesk is that Autodesk Expands BIM Software Offering for Structural Analysis.

"The new Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis Professional 2009 delivers a great value to structural engineers worldwide by incorporating BIM in the structural analysis and design of building, civil and other specialty structures," said Nicolas Mangon, structural engineering business line manager, Autodesk AEC Solutions. It is designed to be collaborative, faster and more versatile. This in turn will help to provide structural engineers with the ability to do analysis and design better by creating digital models that visualize, simulate and analyze their work.

See Press release for all details

See also Autodesk’s BIM site that has a nice intro video.

On the BIM topic I would also like to mention the new BIM Manager blog

AutoCAD 2010 public info

info@jtbworld.com (Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 04:06:00 -0600

As I’m under NDA I cannot tell you much but I’ve put together some of the public information if you are curious on what the next AutoCAD release holds.

One thing you can expect is better PDF output. Interesting to read that according to Shaan’s tests the AutoCAD 2009 Bonus Pack 2 makes smaller PDF files than AcroPlot and Adobe Acrobat Pro 9. If I find the time I will do some tests myself and look forward to read about others testing this.

Companies more profitable in 2009 than 2008?

info@jtbworld.com (Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 04:05:00 -0600

I was entering a poll on LinkedIn and found it interesting to see the result.

The question was: “Will your company make a profit in 2009?”

As you can see owners and small companies see 2009 as a profitable year.

BIM report

info@jtbworld.com (Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 03:22:00 -0600

It sounds interesting to read this 48-page BIM process and adoption report but the registration process halted me at least for the moment. I probably will take a look at it later on but if it is free (in PDF) why would I need to give out my credit card information.

Some of the content in “Building Information Modeling (BIM): Transforming Design and Construction to Achieve Greater Industry Productivity”:

Several case studies
Measuring the Value of BIM
Contractors Creating BIM from 2D Documents
BIM and Green Projects
Value of Using BIM
Interview with Phil Bernstein, Vice President, Autodesk, Inc.
Risks when Using BIM
Understanding BIM Infrastructure
Interview with Dana "DEKE" Smith, FAIA, Executive Director, buildingSMART Alliance

Via IMAGINIT Architectural blog

AutoCAD Automation Tools 2.1 released

info@jtbworld.com (Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 14:26:00 -0600

AutoCAD Automation Tools has been improved to make it easier to add files or folders to automate. Select one folder and all DWG’s in all subfolders are added. Now you can use it to only execute AutoLISP files making most any script work possible. Each drawing you want to automate can call an unique LSP file or the same LSP can be used for all or any of the DWGs.

But you don’t need to know AutoLISP or programming. If you know a bit of AutoCAD and Excel basic usage you can make use of AutoCAD Automation Tools and make wonders.

One example of usage is if you have projects with drawings using absolute paths but want to convert them to relative paths. This can be for xrefs, images or other external references. This is useful if you need to move the project to an archive location or for other reasons don’t want to break the links between the files. This was the user case that initiated this update. If you have an idea you want to realize feel free to contact us.

Other example of usage is if you want to search and replace text among many drawings or prepare your drawings before delivering them to the client. You can use AutoCAD attribute export, make changes to the values and then batch update them. The choice is yours.

Visit the website to find out more and download a free trial including free support.

Price per license is 25 EUR or less.

Existing customers are eligible for a free update.