FLEXnet limitation with many distributed servers

This might be useful for others with many distributed FLEXnet license servers.

Chris Dodge at Microdesk shared the following with me:

Just ran across something interesting with a large client -  Have you heard of this?

They had recently been having a problem where their "Suite" Autodesk products like Land Desktop companion and some of the Revit products could not get a license.    But "Regular" products such as Civil 3D 2008 and Acad MEP had no trouble.

Of course I checked and double checked PLIST – All was fine.

It WORKS if we set FLEXLM_LICENSE_FILE (registry and environment) to a SINGLE server.

The customer finally figured out that the problem started happening when they added a few more FLEXLM servers in the company….

They have a total of 17 servers – He counted the number of characters in his "@server1;@server2…" string, and found that products that need to "CASCADE" for their license don’t seem to like a server list that is over 128 characters.

PS. JTB FlexReport has no limitations on the amount of servers it can report license statistics on.

Max AutoCAD entity handle number

The handle value is stored as a 64 bit number (8 bytes) in the DWG file no matter if you run 32-bit or 64-bit AutoCAD. The maximum value for a handle is: "FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF" as hexadecimal or 6744073709551615 as integer.

If you for example use the LIST command you see the handle listed:
Handle = 1e9

Or if you list the properties using AutoLISP:
(entget(car(entsel)))
that can give a result like this:
(5 . "1E9")

If you with AutoLISP want to delete an object based on its handle ("1E9") this can be used:
(entdel(handent "1e9"))

The last tip can be useful if you have a problem with for example:
*Warning* Multiply owned object, handle "1e9"

Why was not this simple thing fixed or added to AutoCAD 2009?

Don't underestimate the work needed to implement something new for a large company like Autodesk.

Now that AutoCAD 2009 is on your desktop or installed you might wonder why didn't Autodesk fix this or that or add this simple thing that would save my day. Take a look at the newsgroups and you'll see proof of that.

I looked at the list of people behind AutoCAD 2008 that is showing in the hidden easter egg and found the following:

118 Software Development
59 Test Development
7 Integration and Build
18 User Assistance
16 Product Design
15 Product Management & Marketing
9 Project Management
38 World Wide Localization
3 Beta Team
11 Interns
7 Special Helpers
9 Senior Management

The AutoCAD 2009 team is probably in the same size.

So here is one small wish I have listed on my AutoCAD 2009 page:
"Saveall command should respect the Options setting to save in another version."

How much work can it be?

It might look like this in no specific list order:

One developer to spend five minutes implementing the change.

Activate the Beta Team so some guinea pigs can give it a try outside the walls of Autodesk.

One program manager to write the specification.

One localization expert to review the specification for localizability issues.

One usability expert to review the specification for accessibility and usability issues.

At least one dev, tester and PM to brainstorm security vulnerabilities.

One PM to add the security model to the specification.

One tester to write the test plan.

One test lead to update the test schedule.

One tester to write the test cases and add them to the nightly automation.

Three or four testers to participate in an ad hoc bug bash.

One technical writer to write the documentation.

One technical reviewer to proofread the documentation.

One copy editor to proofread the documentation.

One documentation manager to integrate the new documentation into the existing body of text, update tables of contents, indexes, etc.

Eleven translators to translate the documentation and error messages into all the languages supported by AutoCAD.The managers for the translators probably live in in other countries like China and Europe, which are both severely time-shifted from the HQ, so dealing with them can be a fairly complex logistical problem.

A team of senior managers to coordinate all these people, write the cheques, and justify the costs to their Vice President.

Still wondering? Hopefully not that much now.

I was thinking about the post Is Eeyore Designing Your Software? when I wrote this.

LTCCLispWiki a free lisp source code repository

You find the Wiki launched by Greg Robinson at http://lispwiki.com. As the startup page is not much edited click on All Pages on the left side.

Greg Robinson's "LTCC was instrumental in creating the Bonus Tools program extension to AutoCAD release 14, which continues to be part of the core software package as 'Express Tools'"

I contributed with my hatchb.lsp as a starter.

Find blocks and more with Autodesk Seek

Looking for drawings, blocks for AutoCAD or Revit? Autodesk Seek finds DGN, DOC, DWF, DWG, DXF, GSM, LCF, PDF, RFA, RVG, RVT, SKP, ZIP files.

What is Autodesk^® Seek?
It is a web service that allows designers - architects, engineers, students - to search and find generic or manufacturer-specific building products or components and associated design content. This content could include 3D models, 2D drawings, specifications, and descriptions for that product or component.

Which industries are you targeting with Autodesk^® Seek?
Currently, it is targeted at designers working in the AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) industry. We are considering extending the service to include content particularly useful for mechanical designers in the future.

How do I use the browse capability on Autodesk^® Seek?
The browse capability on Autodesk^® Seek allows you to browse for content using AEC industry standard classifications, including MasterFormat 2004, Omniclass 1.0, and Uniformat II.

Senior Software Architect of Autodesk Inc. Mike Haley discusses the company's latest product Autodesk Seek and its business model at FORA.tv. See also The Autodesk Seek Taxonomy System and the Autodesk Seek Search Engine.

Via Between the Lines

Solve uninstall problems with Windows Installer CleanUp Utility

If you fail to install any program this utility can come handy. It is one of the tools you should know about and use in emergency situations. It can be used even with Autodesk products like AutoCAD.

Once you have removed the application using the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility, it is strongly recommended that you follow the steps in solution TS45252 to remove other Autodesk applications and clean up any folders or registry keys left behind.

Download and instructions on Microsoft.com and Autodesk Knowledge Base document: Product uninstall from the Control Panel fails

Silver Peak still significant performance gains with DWG 2007

Head over to the blog post "Riverbed and DWG 2007 file format workaround" and read the comment by Silver Peak on the DWG file format changes and WAN accelerators issue.

"Riverbed is affected by the AutoCAD file format/ISP setting issue more so than rival Silver Peak, and Silver Peak would like the world to know. To be clear, Riverbed will still accelerate AutoCAD DWG files over the WAN, even on a full save, but the data reduction is less than what Silver Peak is able to accomplish." - Infoworld

I'm still wondering how it is with AutoCAD 2009 and verticals like AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009 and there were no word on verticals in the article.

Understanding Floating Point Precision in AutoCAD, Excel, etc.

AutoCAD has had 64-bit accuracy in the 32-bit platform for many years but still with 64-bit accuracy things can go wrong with with "unexpected" result.

Why is 1.320 - 1.3190 not equal to 0.001 when it really is 0.001?

Be careful when you make comparisons like this.

Both AutoCAD, Excel and many other applications are designed in accordance to the IEEE Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic (IEEE 754). The standard defines how floating-point numbers are stored and calculated.

A floating-point number is stored in binary in three parts within a 65-bit range: the sign, the exponent, and the mantissa.

1 Sign Bit
11 Bit Exponent
1 Implied Bit
52 Bit Mantissa

A detailed article that describes this thoroughly is Understanding Floating Point Precision, aka “Why does Excel Give Me Seemingly Wrong Answers?”

Autodesk Design Visualization Award 2008

Congratulations to the students Emil Andersson and David Hultberg that got this award. Autodesk is giving it to students in a building visualization class.

Among the applications used where AutoCAD Architecture, AutoCAD, Autodesk 3ds Max 9, Autodesk Combustion and Autodesk DWF Viewer. (Did they not use Autodesk Design Review?)

This is an interesting project as it is a elevator bridge for ships that go on the famous "Göta kanal" (190.5 km and 58 locks) that makes it possible to sail across Sweden and will now take a jump over a high way.

The Göta Canal was opened back in 1832 and was largely built by 58,000 billeted soldiers from 16 different regiments. During the 22 years building was in progress, about 60,000 men, including a company of Russian war prisoners and a number of civilian workers, worked a total of about 7 million man-days, each of 12 hours.

To keep the men in good spirits, 14 measures of schnapps were included in their weekly rations, since fingers and feet were liable to go numb in cold weather.

The opening of the Göta Canal in Mem, Sweden 1832. Painting by K. Chr. Berger

More on Göta kanal at www.gotakanal.se and the Swedish press release.

 

doPDF another free PDF printer

This freeware has worked pretty good in my small tests and does not require GhostScript, works on Vista and also 64-bit systems.

If you plot from AutoCAD and use TrueType fonts they will be converted to text if you make that change in in the plotter properties.

You need to change the Properties of the plotter (Plotter Configuration
Editor)>Device and Document Settings>Graphics>TrueType Text to "as text". Save this to a PC3 that you use.

Another thing that is great is that it's free even to print to PDF for commercial usage.

Test of the PDF converter was done using AutoCAD 2009.

http://www.dopdf.com/

Add any good or bad comments on your experience of it below.

Measure and markup a DWG without AutoCAD

Autodesk Design Review has the ability to import a DWG or DXF file. It is automatically converted into a DWF and you can use all Design Review's tools.

If DWG TrueView is not good enough as it will only report the distance to the command line and the area command is pretty basic consider using Design Review instead.

Here is what the distance look like in DWG TrueView 2009. It is nice that it's now possible to measure but it's still not that user friendly.

And here is the area reported. Notice that for each point you snap there is no indication on where you snapped previously.

After importing a DWG into Autodesk Design Review 2009 it's a snap to measure, especially areas. Wish this was included in AutoCAD as well.

XCLIPFRAME no plot tip for AutoCAD 2009

AutoCAD 2009 makes it easy to make changes to clipped xrefs or blocks.

XCLIPFRAME controls the visibility of xref clipping boundaries. It is 0 as default and not visible. If you set it to 1 it is visible and you can grab the grips, stretch them and make changes to the boundary. The problem is that if you plot the drawing the boundary also will plot.

A workaround to have it visible but not plotted is to make use of named plot styles (STB). Create one that is invisible by setting Screening to 0. Then use this plot style on the clipped xref object. If you use color dependent plot styles the closest you can come to a workaround is to assign a dotted linetype and set the linetype scale so high that only a few dots shows.

Wish for AutoCAD 2010 is to add XCLIPFRAME=2 that is visible but does not plot. Another wish is to be able to add and remove vertex points on the xref clipping boundary. If you need to make these changes you now have to redo the boundary either by creating it from scratch or generate a polyline and edit it and use it for the new boundary.

If you want to clean out a drawing from objects that are outside the boundary XClipClean is a software that delete and trim to the boundary automatically.

NVIDIA Quadro for AutoCAD 2009

NVIDIA has a website dedicated for AutoCAD users and now I mean AutoCAD 3D users. If you are serious about doing design work in AutoCAD in a BIM or PIM environment I fully agree that a graphic card like NVIDIA Quadro make a big difference so hardware acceleration can be used as fully as possible. When I worked as CAD Manager I made sure IT only purchased my recommended and tested Quadro cards for the CAD users. At minimum they should have an entry-level card and those working with larger 3D models had at least a mid-range card.

An easy way to find what graphic card and driver version you have is to run DXDIAG.EXE (Microsoft DirectX Diagnostic Tool) in Windows. In AutoCAD use

Visit AutoCAD Graphics Hardware website and find out if your graphic card is certified and recommended for AutoCAD 2009 (including verticals like AutoCAD Architecture) and what driver version you should use. Does it support Gooch hardware shader, Full shadow display, Smooth line display, Texture Compression and Per Pixel Lighting or not?

How do I check to see if AutoCAD is using hardware acceleration?

In AutoCAD 2007, AutoCAD 2008, or AutoCAD 2009, enter 3DCONFIG at the command line. In the Adaptive Degradation and Performance Tuning dialog box, click the Manual Tune button. In the Manual Performance Tuning dialog box (shown here), see whether Enable Hardware Acceleration is selected. The Manual Performance Tuning dialog box also indicates the 3D display features that are supported by your graphics hardware.

AutoCAD 2009 certification introduces the following new features:

• Support for per-pixel lighting.
• Hardware acceleration support in 2D drawings when running on Windows Vista.
• The Certification XML file can be updated automatically by selecting Check for Updates.

Why was my card certified for AutoCAD 2007 or AutoCAD 2008 but now fails for AutoCAD 2009?

Newer features and optimizations may require more of the video cards. Because of performance and stability issues, AutoCAD no longer supports cards with 32 MB of RAM or less. Support for some older graphics hardware that manufacturers no longer provide driver updates for has also been dropped.

Why is there no OpenGL option in Windows Vista?

OpenGL® software is currently not supported in AutoCAD 2009 when running on Windows Vista. AutoCAD 2008 uses Direct3D® software to enhance 3D performance.

Is Quadro better than GeForce or Quadro vs GeForce?

If the GeForce card is newer than the Quadro card and has better specs it might be better for CAD work. But in general the Quadro cards are better for CAD work. The Quadro GPU is optimized for 3D CAD, without sacrificing visual quality while GeForce is optimized for high-speed renderings of games. If you have a laptop I would say that in most cases a GeForce card will be good enough compared to the often more expensive Quadro.
This technical brief document describes more about NVIDIA Quadro vs. GeForce GPUs. It is from 2003 but many of the details are still valid even though it would be good to have it updated for 2008 as some of the features not available in GeForce at that time probably are included nowadays.

Why Quadro for AutoCAD Overview (Download PDF 571k)

Recommended Quadro Solutions for AutoCAD according to NVIDIA.
High-End
-NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700
Mid-Range
-NVIDIA Quadro FX 1700
Entry-Level
-NVIDIA Quadro FX 570
-NVIDIA Quadro FX 370

Mobile
-NVIDIA Quadro FX 2500M
-NVIDIA Quadro FX 1600M
-NVIDIA Quadro FX 1500M
-NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M
-NVIDIA Quadro FX 360M

If you have any links for good performance tests feel free to add a comment below.

DWG TrueView 2009 includes measuring ability

DWG TrueView 2009 is Autodesk's free viewer for DWG files and is found here: http://www.autodesk.com/dwgtrueview

The big news are:

• Measure objects with these new inquiry commands: Distance, Area, List, Locate Point, Region/Mass properties, and Object Snaps.
• Enhanced UI with the addition of Ribbon Navigation
• Measure objects with these new commands: Distance, Area, List, Locate Point, Region/Mass properties, and Object Snaps
• Navigate drawings in 2D and 3D with SteeringWheel
• Enhanced 3D view selection with ViewCube
• Restore views and play new "animated" views with ShowMotion

It is quite a big install on almost 200 MB for the 32-bit version and bit more for the 64-bit version.

DWG TrueConvert is available from within the program and can convert from and to different versions of the DWG format.

DWG TrueView 2009 can be installed side by side with for example AutoCAD 2009.

Here is a tip I maybe should keep quiet about as I might sell fewer licenses of SmartPurger because of it. You can with some limitations batch purge drawings using DWG Convert as there is an option to purge included and even "Check and Fix Errors" (When active, drawings are checked for the presence of errors. Drawings are automatically recovered if errors are found).

Silent installation of DWG TrueView 2009 could be done with a VBScript like this:
on error resume next
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
runstring="msiexec /I ""\\DWGTrueViewx86InstallImage\DWGVIEWR.msi"" /qb! " & _
"INSTALLDIR=""C:\Program Files\DWG TrueView 2009"" " & _
"ACAD_SILENT_LICENSE=YES"
WshShell.Run runstring,1,true
msgbox "Ready"

This previous post describes more details on silent installation.

For more important details like how to handle drawings created with a vertical like AutoCAD Architecture or 3:rd party applications that creates custom objects see the FAQ.

Usage of mpt.lsp in AutoCAD

I got the following question regarding the free AutoLISP program mpt.lsp.

"I don't understand the use of these. How do I use them in a way that does not cancel my running command?"

I guess it could be that this user added for example the command MPT to a menu using ^C^CMPT. To have the command running transparently it needs to be 'MPT instead.

Below is a small video showing the usage of the four helper commands:

• MPT - Midpoint of 2 points
• 3PT - 1/3:rd point of 2 points
• 4PT - 1/4:th point of 2 points
• MPT3 - Midpoint of 3 points

First mpt.lsp needs to be loaded and acaddoc.lsp is a good way or the APPLOAD command's Startup Suit.

CUI can be used to create a command that is then added to the Object Snap Cursor Menu.

 

And now it is available on the object snap menu.

I used AutoCAD 2009 in this short demonstration.

AutoCAD history for the AutoCAD nerd, historian or the like

You now find the AutoCAD Release History site on Between the Lines.

You will find that AutoCAD R13 added Tooltips on the toolbars and TrueType Font Support among other things. AutoCAD 2000 added the Properties Window. AutoCAD 2002 added Associative Dimensioning. AutoCAD 2007 was the big 3D release. These are just a few things you can find if you are curious.

Via AutoCAD History from Version 1 to Release 2009 Which is the 23rd Release

PS. For my take on and experience of AutoCAD I have so far AutoCAD 2004 to AutoCAD 2009 covered on my AutoCAD site.

AutoCAD Plant 3D coming this year

It was possible to get a preview of AutoCAD Plant 3D at AU 2007. A few more details in this AECCafé article with indication that AutoCAD Plant 3D might be released in 2008. Not a big surprise that it will be AutoCAD based as AutoCAD P&ID is AutoCAD based. It has probably been a lot of thoughts behind the selection as Revit was the other platform candidate Autodesk has. It shows a firm commitment for AutoCAD and those with AutoCAD Architecture might feel less threatened by Revit.

Will it be AutoCAD Plant 3D 2009 then? If Revit is the BIM platform, is AutoCAD the PIM platform (Plant Information Modeling)? Both can at least end up in NavisWorks.

 

Riverbed and DWG 2007 file format workaround

It has been mentioned on civil3d.com, AECnews.com and SearchStorage how the file 2007 DWG file format used in AutoCAD 2007, AutoCAD 2008 and now also AutoCAD 2009 might affect users of WAN acceleration appliances like Riverbed’s Steelhead appliances. The performance has been a real problem.

Autodesk now has added a Knowledge Base document on this issue: Potential for reduced write performance for Riverbed WAN links when working with AutoCAD 2007 DWG files

Users of Riverbed or other affected WAN acceleration solutions can implement the following immediate workarounds that improve write productivity.

1. Using a feature in AutoCAD called “Incremental Save Percentage” (ISP), and setting it to 50
2. Using a version of the DWG format other than the AutoCAD 2007 DWG format

 

Notice that there are some commands that does not respect this setting to save in another version. Using Saveall and the drawings will be saved in 2007 format.

AutoCAD Automation Tools released

AutoCAD Automation Tools are some tools for AutoCAD that JTB World have released that can be a real time saver if you need to make justifications on hundreds or thousands of drawings.

Typical usages are if you have a template drawing but text in the title block and some attributes or other text needs to be different on each drawing. Use for example Excel to enter or populate all values. Depending on your computer performance and the complexity of the drawing you can generate around 100 drawings in just 60 seconds.

You can change text or attribute values on a lot of drawings. It could update a title block with revision, date or some names for example.

You can add text, blocks or xrefs to existing drawings.

It works with AutoCAD 2000 or later (tested also with AutoCAD 2009) or verticals based on AutoCAD.

The AutoCAD Automation Tools are great for the CAD manager or administrator but also very easy for any AutoCAD user to use.