Register for Autodesk University 2005 on Monday

Registration for AU 2005 will open by August 1, 2005 http://www.autodeskevents.com/au2005/ I'll be there. Will you? http://jtbworld.blogspot.com/2005/07/i-will-speak-at-autodesk-university.html

Vista, Virtual Earch, etc links

Here are some misc links you might want to take a look at:
PC Magazine about Vista - http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,1874,1786052,00.asp
Microsoft Windows Vista Developer Center - http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/
Visual Studio 2005 code snippets FAQ - http://blogs.msdn.com/vbide/archive/2005/07/22/441923.aspx
Visual Basic 2005 Starter Kits - http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/downloads/2005/starterkits/
MSN Screen Saver - http://screensaver.msn.com/
"Escape from YesterWorld" with some fun videos - http://www.escapeyesterworld.com/
For NG nerds - http://netscan.research.microsoft.com/
MSN Virtual Earth - http://virtualearth.msn.com/
MSN Virtual Earth on Channel 9 - http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=91714#91714
Acrylic Beta - http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/default.aspx
DPack is a FREE collection of Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 and 2005 tools. - http://www.usysware.com/dpack/

Google like logo for fun

Make your own at http://www.logogle.com/

Located problem with the Drawing Recovery Manager

Here are some free tools I use often when trying to locate a bottle neck, leak, bug, poor performance or the like.
They and others can be found at http://www.systeminternals.com/

I had a case today with a PC that I run a lot of automated scripts on every night.

I tried to manually start AutoCAD 2006 and noticed that it took an extremely long time to start. I actually thought AutoCAD had locked up. Of course I could reinstall or repair AutoCAD but I wanted to find the reason for this so I fired up Filemon, filtered on *acad* but I didn't notice anything strange. I then run Regmon and found that it was a lot of traffic to some keys in the registry.
I took a look at the keys in question and found the cause. It was related to one of the new features in AutoCAD 2006, the Drawing Recovery Manager.
The locations where:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R16.2\ACAD-4001:409\Profiles\\Drawing Recovery
and
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R16.2\ACAD-4001:409\Profiles\\Drawing Recovery\Unresolved
If where thousands of entries in there pointing to files. Not sure exactly how so many could get in there but since I don't is in need to use drawing recovery manager on that PC I deleted these registry keys and when starting AutoCAD again it was as quick as it should.

It seems like AutoCAD has a hard time to start when there are so many files listed. Not really a bug but something that the developers at Autodesk might take a look at. Especially the reason why AutoCAD thinks that it might need to recover drawings when AutoCAD haven't crashed. I any several users have seen this behavior before. And that looks like a defect to me.

To prevent this from happen again I first though about deleting these registry keys automatically but remembered that there was a new system variable to control this. RECOVERYMODE
Controls whether drawing recovery information is recorded after a system failure.
0 - Recovery information is not recorded, the Drawing Recovery window does not display automatically after a system failure, and any recovery information in the system registry is removed
1 - Recovery information is recorded, but the Drawing Recovery window does not display automatically after a system failure
2 - Recovery information is recorded, and the Drawing Recovery window displays automatically in the next session after a system failure

So I ended up setting it it 0.

Problem solved!

SWECO Grøner AS among others selects JTB FlexReport

SWECO Grøner AS in Norway, FLSmidth in Denmark and DRS Signal Solutions in USA has recently selected JTB FlexReport as their solution to have better control on their network licenses based on the FLEXlm or FLEXnet technology. E.g. details on what users are using the product most or less can be reported on as well as graphical reports as seen below. This is done for applications like SoldWorks, AutoCAD, MagiCAD, Novapoint, Mathcad, ProE, Matlab, Rose and others.

Can DWF files created by DWF Toolkit 7.0 be read by Autodesk DWF Viewer 6.0 and Autodesk DWF Composer 2.0?

In short the answer is Yes. See the explanation that Scott Sheppard at Autodesk posted to the Discussion Group. 2005-07-25 Update: More about it by Shaan Hurley: http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/2005/07/new_dwf_toolkit.html

I will speak at the Autodesk University 2005

I will speak at the Autodesk Univerity 2005 in Orlando, Florida. The event will be held November 28 - December 1, 2005 at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotel.

Multi-discipline CAD usage at an EPC company. (PD12-1, Plant Design, All Levels, Mon. 11/28 10:00 am - 11:30 am)

I'll let you know more about the content later.

See you there!

The offical AU 2005 website Here is what some have said about AU before: Autodesk University from 33,000 Feet Between the Lines Beyond the UI

2005-07-19 Update: RobiNZ: My Autodesk University 2004 Summary Lynn Allen: How to justify AU

Windows search of files with unknown extensions

Since Windows XP Find in Files only searches files with known file extensions you can use this registry file that makes the search work as you want it. This is the content of the file: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ContentIndex] "FilterFilesWithUnknownExtensions"=dword:00000001

MSN Search Toolbar rolls out more international versions

This is a great tool that is now also available in Swedish, my language, among others. The most useful part of it is Windows Desktop Search. http://blogs.msdn.com/msnsearch/archive/2005/07/15/439465.aspx

JTB FlexReport minor updates

There has been some minor updates to the FLEXnet/FLEXlm graphic report tool JTB FlexReport.
-The time on the file name on the HTML backup files is more correct now. It was off 10 minutes before.
-Some special cases of the FLEXnet/FLEXlm status file syntax that generated an error are fixed upon users notification.
-Spaces in the user name are now handled correctly.
-There is a undocumented registry fix so the temporary files can be saved in another folder than %temp%. Contact me if needed.
-There is a separate Access database (JTBFlexReportDetailed.NET.mdb) that helps you with detailed reports on user usage.
-Some issues with grouping of users in the grafic report have been addressed.
The update is free for all existing users.
Backup the installation folder to be on the safe side.
Install the latest version from this location:
http://www.jtbworld.com/jtbflexreport/JTBFlexReportSetup2.1.zip

Free books for VB developers

Here you can find 2 free books in PDF format.
Free Book - Introducing Visual Basic 2005 for Developers
and
Free Book - Upgrading Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 to Microsoft Visual Basic .NET

AutoCAD 2006 and the inluded ADT OE

This is a great tips (Use AutoCAD 2006 to to flatten ADT drawings) by Shaan Hurley for those having AutoCAD 2006 and that receives or uses ADT drawings. Learn how to use the command -ExportToAutoCAD (remember to include the hyphen character) and how to load the AEC OE toolbar. The included Autodesk Architectural Desktop Object Enabler also includes commands to change display configuration using AecDisplayManagerConfigsSelection and AecSetXrefConfig to change it on an xref. AecFileOpenMessage is to enable or disable a dialogbox warning about opening drawings from older ADT versions. AecFileSaveMessage is to enable or disable a courtesy message when saving to a previous version file. AecObjectCopyMessage is to enable or disable a courtesy message when copying AEC objects into a newer version drawing. ObjRelUpdate is almost like the AutoCAD command Regen. AecVersion gives you the file versions of the Object Enabler files. -DwgUnits allows you to specify the drawing units that will be used with the current file. As seen below the command below is only command line based so it's easy to use in script files. This command is also available in ADT.

Command: -EXPORTTOAUTOCAD File format: 2004 Bind xrefs: Yes Bind type: Insert Filename prefix: ACAD- Filename suffix: Export options [Format/Bind/bind Type/Prefix/Suffix/?] <>:

The ADT OE enables some basic AutoCAD commands to work on ADT objects. If you erase a door the hole in the wall heals. You can explode ADT objects into basic AutoCAD objects. Automatic cleanup is done using commands like Move, Copy, Rotate, Trim, Extend and Array. Node osnap points on ADT objects are also available.

AutoCAD network license and 'heartbeat'

If you want to know the meaning of the term "heartbeat", the below comes from the AutoCAD Knowledge Base. I was notified about it by the new RSS feeds.

Meaning of term "heartbeat" Published date: 2005-07-12 ID: TS66065 Applies to: AutoCAD® 2006 AutoCAD® 2005 AutoCAD® 2004 AutoCAD® 2002 Issue The term "heartbeat" is used in reference to a network license. You would like to know what this term means. Solution When AutoCAD is running, it communicates with the license server at one-minute intervals using a communication method known as the "heartbeat." If the heartbeat connection is missed, the server tries to reconnect. If it cannot, it sends a message to the user indicating a license error. Once the user acknowledges the message, AutoCAD starts a 6 minute countdown to give the user time to save his or her work. When AutoCAD stops working because it lost a connection to the server, you must shut down AutoCAD and restart the program. If the problem causing the original loss of the heartbeat signal is resolved, and there are available licenses on the server, the program starts working again. Note: If you are using the redundant server model, this server model also passes heartbeats between redundant servers.

Shareware Starter Kit for VB or C#

The Shareware Starter Kit is a sample application of the common features in all shareware applications. I got to give this a try...free from Microsoft

VB 2005 and code snippets

For those starting trying out VB 2005. Here is from Visual Basic IDE Team Blog Visual Basic IDE Tips & Tricks... Cool Ways to Insert a Snippet into Your Code

Finally 250 MB for my hotmail account

Finally I've too got 250 MB for my hotmail account (jtbworldA!ThotmailD0Tcom). I know many of you already have got it but here in Sweden it's now the space has been increased.

Autodesk Batch DWG Converter Beta / SP1 for AutoCAD 2006

Shaan Hurley at Autodesk talks about a new Batch Drawing Converter that doesn't need AutoCAD. There is also an upcoming SP1 for AutoCAD 2006. If you have problems in AutoCAD 2006 and want to influence Autodesk sign up for the beta at http://myfeedback.autodesk.com/

Microsoft's Windows Marketplace has my applications

I just found that a couple of my applications, SmartPurger and JTB FlexReport has been added to Microsoft's Windows Marketplace.

New ADT blogger

I've just added a new (for me at least) ADT blogger to my blogroll. Vision 1 Architects by Craig Stack. There seems to be some good content about ADT 2006 in this blog. I like these kind of blogs.

MSN Search Toolbar support tabs

Have you started using MSN Search Toolbar and the latest support for tabbed browsing? I was a bit late because I just got back from some weeks of vacation and it takes some days to recover from a full email box as well as everything else that has a tendency to make a large pile. I can recommend it after using it for some time now besides using Maxthon. There are some things that I dislike though. There are some flickering when changing tab and when using full screen mode. Give it a try. If you don't want to use the tabs the Search functionality is great in it self. I've indexed all emails, files on the server as well as local files so finding information is as quick as searching on the internet. Blog post: Tabbed browsing is here! Get it here More about it here.

Property Data Location on Spaces in ADT

Here is a tips if you have added a Property Set to a space so that a Property Data Location is added and later on makes changes to the space the Property Data Location might end up at a non intended location. It can happen if you use any of the AEC Modify Tools like divide. If you for example have a door that inherits part of it door tag number from the room space it can be problem as seen on the image. Remember then to relocate the Property Data Location.

Autodesk adds RSS feeds for product knowledge base

Back from vacation I thought about making a new wish for adding RSS feed support for the Autodesk product knowledge bases. To my suprise I read Shaan's blog entry that this has now been added.
This is great news!
AutoCAD: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syn/rss?siteID=123112&id=2334144&linkID=2475323
AutoCAD LT: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syn/rss?siteID=123112&id=2334144&linkID=2475874
Autodesk Inventor Series: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syn/rss?siteID=123112&id=2334144&linkID=4183228
Autodesk Inventor Pro: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syn/rss?siteID=123112&id=2334144&linkID=4189372
Autodesk Vault: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syn/rss?siteID=123112&id=2334144&linkID=4517338
Autodesk Architectural Desktop:http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syn/rss?siteID=123112&id=2334144&linkID=2476059
Autodesk Building Systems: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syn/rss?siteID=123112&id=2334144&linkID=2476435
Autodesk Civil 3D: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syn/rss?siteID=123112&id=2334144&linkID=3549480
Autodesk Map 3D: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syn/rss?siteID=123112&id=2334144&linkID=2786831
Autodesk Revit Building: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syn/rss?siteID=123112&id=2334144&linkID=3770375
AutoCAD Mechanical: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syn/rss?siteID=123112&id=2334144&linkID=4198944