I have added a new freeware on my website.
It is a free plug-in created in VB.NET 2005. Use ADTListDefinition to import, create and export ListDefinitions quick and easy.
Tip. ListDefinition is the command to start the Style Manager with only the List Definitions.
There is a lot XML usage going on. I use it in an application for ADT 2007 I'm developing in Visual Studio 2005 and will export to Fi2xml. AutoCAD Palette Auto-hide Speed freeware modifies fixedProfile.aws (an xml file) that AutoCAD based applications uses.
The Mars Project from Adobe Labs with an XML-friendly implementation of PDF syntax with the new file format Mars (.MARS file extension).
Microsoft .NET 3.0 Framework includes DWF (.dwfx) Viewing Capability based on the XML Paper Specification (XPS) from Microsoft. But even the existing DWF format uses a lot of XML in it. AutoCAD's .CUI, AutoCAD Standards Check File (.CHX), Autodesk Project Information (.APJ) files used by ADT as many others are XML files.
XML Marker - A free XML Editor that uses a synchronized table-tree-and-text display to show you both the hierarchal and the tabular nature of your XML data.
XML Notepad 2007 - A free XML editor from Microsoft. Version 2.2 published 11/27/2006.
3D PrintScreen that can grab a 3D model from any OpenGL based application and save to 3D XML and the 3D XML Player are free from Dassault Systemes.
When developing and debugging using Visual Studio 2005 you might end up not being able to debug. Instead of a filled red dot 
For me the solution has sometimes been to right click on the project in the Solution Explorer and go to Properties>Compile>Advanced Compile Options...>Generate debug info: Set the value to Full. Make sure the Configuration is the correct one as well.
Another solution can be that the active solution configuration does not include the project to build that you have the breakpoint in or the StartUp Project is not the correct one.
If your Internet access support high bandwidth and you want to establish more concurrent connections than two, perform the following steps:
With this registry tweak I can download 10 files concurrently. This works with all Windows Internet applications that use the standard API, including Internet Explorer. More can be found on this at Microsoft's KB.
Or the following four rows can be saved to a text file using Notepad and with the .reg file extension. For example MaxConnectionsPerServer.reg. Then just run (merge) this file.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings]
"MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server"=dword:0000000a
"MaxConnectionsPerServer"=dword:0000000a
Often when you search a HTML help file (.chm extension) you find that the words you search for are highlighted and sometimes it can be too cluttered. A quick way to get the highlights removed is to click in the window part where the actual help shows up press F5 to Refresh (or right click and Refresh) the page just like in Internet Explorer. In Options there is also Search Highlight Off or Search Highlight On.
But in the AutoCAD 2007 Help file acad170.chm that is powered with AnswerWorks there is no way to see the search words highlighted. But there is a workaround. If you want to search in the users guide you can open that specific help file directly. In this case C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 2007\Help\acad_aug.chm. Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2007 Help file adt2007.chm for example is not updated to use AnswerWorks either.
An ADT 2007 and ABS 2007 help file related tip. You might have noticed that you cannot set favorites in the Help file in the 2007 products any more. Here is the workaround described. Open C:\Program Files\Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2007\Help\ADT.chm or ABS.chm directly from Explorer.
Sysinternals Process Monitor v1.0 announced via Sysinternals Site Discussion.
Process Monitor, a system monitoring tool that not only replaces Regmon and Filemon by including file system and registry monitoring, but adds process, thread, and DLL monitoring as well as advanced filtering, event information, and basic data mining capabilities.
Bookmark this useful site! http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx
Microsoft Office 2007 User Interface Ribbon can be licensed. Microsoft is offering a royalty-free license to use the Office UI subject to a very few restrictions. You're not allowed to make a word processor and competing with Word. Will Ribbon be used in applications like AutoCAD in the future? We'll see.
BTW. http://www.microsoft.com/ was the other day updated with a new look.
Just as Robin Capper I have started using the latest Beta of RSS Bandit. "Feed items appear in wrong feed folders" was one thing that irritated me most before. Now I just got that problem again. Only in one feed so far though. So the bug fix didn't solve it fully. But you might want to try using it anyway.
Adobe Reader 8 is released as well as Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard and Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional. Reader has new user interface, 2D GPU acceleration ("NVIDIA® GeForce® and NVIDIA Quadro® GPUs let users do more with PDF files, and faster," said Pam Deziel, director, platform product marketing, Adobe Systems Incorporated. "Panning, scrolling, zooming…Virtually every major function in Adobe Reader 8 that takes advantage of the GPU will receive a tangible boost in performance. Things people may have avoided in the past, such as deeply detailed zoomable maps, are now easily displayed."), loupe tool, start meetings and collaborate with Acrobat Connect (Free web conferencing for the rest of 2006), link to Create PDF Online (Note that Create Adobe PDF Online only supports AutoCAD DWG files saved as versions Release 2.5 through AutoCAD 2002! Since AutoCAD 2002 there has been 2 new file formats.)
Technorati tags: Adobe Reader 8, Adobe, PDF
Download it here. More about it here. (includes SP1 updates for Standard, Professional, and Team Editions of Visual Studio 2005)
I first got this error message when trying to install:
The upgrade patch cannot be installed by the Windows Installer service because the program to be upgraded may be missing, or the upgrade patch may update a different version of the program. Verify that the program to be upgraded exists on your computer and that you have the correct upgrade patch.
Then I remembered that I installed the beta of SP1 so I had to uninstall it first. Make sure to select Show updates in Add or Remove Programs. I forgot that first and could not find it.
The install really takes looong time as you are informed about when the install starts.
Great collection to tour Frank Gehry's Architecture using Virtual Earth or even the embedded Virtual Earth 3D that needs to be installed if you click on 3D.
Mozy is as I said before the online backup solution I use but I've tried some more and wanted to let you know that ProtectMyPhotos is a great and non intrusive program but limited to mostly images or photos and some other file types like most common document types like Word and Excel. If you want other file types you have to wait and see if it's added in the future.
A commenter to a previous post said:
There is an excellent website for online backup and storage information, news and articles. It is: http://www.BackupReview.info
This website lists more than 400 online backup companies and ranks the top 25 on a monthly basis.
I see that Mozy is going up the ladder. Now on place 20.
Are you using VBScript, CMD or BAT? Are you using the old Command line using cmd.exe? Then Windows PowerShell is worth looking at. Windows PowerShell™ is a new Windows command-line shell.
Take a look at the VBScript to Windows PowerShell Conversion Guide. See Windows PowerShell Team blog and download from the homepage for Windows PowerShell.
You can run Windows command-line programs and start Windows graphic programs in Windows PowerShell. In Windows PowerShell, script files have a .ps1 file name extension.
Support for Tab-Completion. Start with for example get- and press tab several times and find cndket's like Get-Acl, Get-Alias, etc.
Windows PowerShell is built on top of the .NET common language runtime (CLR) and the .NET Framework, and accepts and returns .NET objects and you work with methods and properties.
Windows PowerShell has syntax features and keywords that are very similar to those used in the C# programming language.
A cmdlet (pronounced "command-let") is a single-feature command that manipulates objects in Windows PowerShell. You can recognize cmdlets by their name format -- a verb and noun separated by a dash (-), such as Get-Help, Get-Process, and Start-Service.
Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is supported with the cmdlet for accessing WMI objects, Get-WmiObject and is one of the most powerful ones.
You can reference COM objects like WScript.Shell.
$WshShell = New-Object -ComObject WScript.Shell
You can use the Win32_Product class to install Windows Installer packages, remotely or locally.
In addition to the familiar file system drives, such as C: and D:, Windows PowerShell includes drives that represent the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (HKLM:) and HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU:) registry hives.
If you want to use one of the free PDF printers or writers that are available hyperlinks does not always convert correctly when the Word document is printed to PDF. Typically this is when they are wrapped on two or more rows or have very long paths.
I've tried CutePDF Writer, Pdf995 and PDFCreator among others and they all had this limitation.
To solve this using CutePDF there is no free solution. You need to buy ($49.95) CutePDF Pro (Commenting -> Link Tool) to add those links back onto created PDF document.
PDF995 had the solution with the Word toolbar addin that comes with pdfEdit995 that also is free.
PDFCreator could not solve this at all.
Both the support for CutePDF and Pdf995 where quick to answer my questions.
There is a Field name introduced in AutoCAD 2007 named LispVariable. When selected it shows all Lisp variables available at that moment. Cool! But how useful is it. If you open the drawing and not have that variable and updates the field it will show ####. Have you found any use for LispVariable?
Here's the latest new stuff in Mozy:
In-Windows Restore Files in Folder (just right click in Windows Explorer) and a new virtual folder directly in My Computer to the backup files. 
I've used Mozy for some months. I feel safe and I like it a lot. It can even backup my Outlook data files when Outlook is running.
Update: For $4.95 a month, users may now backup unlimited amounts of data. Mozy now also offers consumers the option to order a copy of their data on DVD, shipped next-day air via FedEx.
I started to make sure my products work in Windows Vista as well as with Office 2007. During earlier betas of these versions there where a lot of incompatibility but now with the final versions Microsoft have managed to solve these problems so without any changes to JTB FlexReport it work fine in my tests with both Windows Vista + Office 2007 and Windows XP + Office 2007 .
A start-up, non-profit company, geared towards increasing the performance of the A/E/C Industry of Asia Pacific intend to create a special software, or group of software's, and distribute it to the public through open source. Functionalities included would be 2D, 3D, design computations, process optimization, virtual simulation, Quantity Breakdown, Import/Export to data library.
If you would like to participate feel free to contact josepaolocalma@yahoo.com. He is right now looking for a competent Project Manager for this project.
Most batch programs for AutoCAD and its verticals can only run script files (files with the SCR extension). SmartPurger can also run AutoLISP files (files with the LSP, FAS or VLX extension) directly among all other useful things. Here is one reason why it can be useful.
If you want to redefine a block definition without inserting a new block in a drawing you can insert a file using = as this example shows.
(command "insert" "blockname=c:\\path\\filename.dwg"))
(command)
The row (command) cancels the insert command but still the block is updated. But if this is run by the script command (command) stops the script from executing any further. It doesn't help to load a lisp file from the script file. But this can work when running a lisp file using SmartPurger like this sample below. The last to rows are needed for SmartPurger to continue and process the next drawing.
; The name of the block to redefine
(setq blockname "Tag - Metric")
; The path and name to the block use for redefining
(setq blockfile "C:\\temp\\Tag - Metric.dwg")
; Insert the new block and cancel using (command)
(command "insert" (strcat blockname "=" blockfile))
(command)
(command "QSAVE")
(command "_QUIT")
Click here to download the free trial of SmartPurger. It also for the AutoCAD 2007 platform where you might have trouble to get ScriptPro to work. The trial is fully functional except that you can only batch 3 drawings at a time. The fully functional version can be purchased from 25 USD. Since it has ability to close dialog boxes like the one for missing shapes it can almost run forever without interruption.
I got WLW working again after migrating to Blogger Beta. WLW didn't post at all and could not load the style template.
I got this tip by email from Joe Cheng at Microsoft that solved the problem. I initially posted about it to the msn Groups.
Find this registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Windows Live Writer\Weblogs\2e27accf-425c-4996-9c2d-a075aad9307a
Rewrite BlogId and PostApiUrl to use "beta.blogger.com" instead of "www.blogger.com" (leaving the rest of the URL the same). Then restart Writer and try again.
Since IE7 beta and the recent IE7 final release I was a bit worried that it took so long but here it is. See this post on Beyond the Paper blog or at Autodesk support site. "Autodesk has a Hotfix for Autodesk Design Review 2007 and Autodesk DWF Viewer 7.0 that addresses compatibility issues with Microsoft Internet Explorer 7."
Companies all over the world uses JTB FlexReport, the FLEXnet/FLEXlm license report solution to keep better control on their licenses, usage and costs.
Some of the new customers are:
Arlington County DES Eng. Div., Virginia, US
TU Ilmenau Universitätsrechenzentrum, Germany
BC Consultants, Inc., Virginia, US
TDC, Denmark
BOOTH HANSEN, Illinois, US
Dürr Systems GmbH, Germany
Sandis, California, US
Coomes Consulting Group Pty Ltd, Australia
Vulcan Materials Company, Alabama, US
Aker Kvaerner, Norway
SHW Group LLP, Texas, US
South Tyneside Council, UK
Benchmark Group, Alabama, US
Coperion Werner & Pfleiderer, Germany
HWS Consulting Group, Inc., Nebraska, US
Guardian Life, New York, US
Woodward, Illinois, US
PÖYRY TECNOLOGIA, Brasil
STS Consultants, LTD., Wisconsin, US
George Kelk Corporation, Canada
Royal Huisman Shipyard b.v., The Netherlands
GF KONSULT AB, Sweden
Johnson, Mirmiran and Thompson, Baltimore, US
Gunnar Karlsen a.s, Norway
Alfa Laval Lund AB, Sweden
Universitaet Karlsruhe, Germany
Kleinschmidt Associates, US
JTB FlexReport is 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 least can be reported on as well as graphical reports as seen below. This is done for applications like ARM, Rational Rose, SoldWorks, AutoCAD, MagiCAD, Novapoint, Mathcad, ProE, Matlab, ESRI ArcGIS, Intergraph GeoMedia, SpeechWorks and others.
JTB FlexReport has support for consolidating several version of one application. If you have Autodesk subscription you are allowed to have for example AutoCAD 2007, AutoCAD 2006 and AutoCAD 2005 available for the users as long as you don't use more licenses as you have subscription for. JTB FlexReport can group these licenses together in one graph.
Read more about JTB FlexReport and ask for a free fully functional trial.
I tried the new Google Code Search and it looks promising including support for regular expressions. But it seems to not find things as I wish it would find.
Does the code really need to be in an archive like zip?
Take a look at this search for some code I have in an AutoLISP file:
http://www.google.com/codesearch?hl=en&lr=&q=%5C%28vlax-ename-%3Evla-object+area&btnG=Search
It finds one in a newsgroup that is zipped. Why could it not find this file I wonder that is not zipped:
http://www.jtbworld.com/download/HATCHB.LSP
Another wish is that it could find code snippets on web sites and blogs.
...improving upon a number of features within the product, some of which include, Construction Lines, Doors,Inserting DXF Files, Multi-View Blocks, Project Management, Properties Palette, Reference Keynote Legend, Roof Slabs, Spaces, Stairs, Style Manager, Tool Palettes, Windows while also addressing early customer feedback.
Performance is also improved in some areas. Project-based callouts will no longer make plot preview that slow. File open time has also been somewhat improved. This is true if FIELDEVAL is set to update when plotting or opening. The use of Project Standards will no longer have a significant effect on file open time.
Notice also the hotfixes:
Borrow and return licenses from within the Autodesk product you have is the way to go.
In AutoCAD it is found in the Tools menu but for products like ADT and ABS it is hidden in Help>About>Product Information and then you can select License borrow.
A bit nostalgic see that the Turbo development products from Borland are back. I used Turbo Pascal and later Delphi quite a lot many years ago. Great products.
Now Turbo C++, Turbo Delphi, Turbo Delphi for .NET and Turbo C# are released and the Explorer versions are even for free competing with Microsoft's Visual Studio Express products.
Great initiative by Autodesk. One thing I wonder is what software's are available. Something in the back of my mind says that I've seen a list of the included software's and that Architectural Desktop is not included but Revit is. Another setback for ADT? Let me know if this has changed or if I'm wrong.
Technorati: Autodesk
Some days ago I mentioned that Open Design Alliance supports DWG 2007. Now it seems to be used by SolidWorks an ODA member. The beta for DWGgateway that works for AutoCAD 2007 can be downloaded. Notice that this link must be used to get the beta.
According to their email:
DWGgateway 3.0 (beta) now works with AutoCAD 2007
If you’re an AutoCAD® user who occasionally has issues sharing files with colleagues, DWGgateway™ can make your life easier than ever now that it reads files created with AutoCAD 2007 and converts older AutoCAD file formats to 2007 format
Try DWGgateway 3.0 beta
Use DWGgateway to:
* Open files from any version of AutoCAD.
* Create Adobe PDF documents.
* Eliminate the need to upgrade your AutoCAD licenses.
Notice the following. When I installed the software and started ADT 2007 I got a dialog box forcing me to activate the product using name, email, title and country.
It still forces me for example to plot both the model and the layout to PDF even though I just want the layout. It uses the saved page setup and does not use the AutoCAD plot interface.
Uninstalling DWGgateway does not clean up fully from CUI. The menu and toolbar show up as unresolved.
For some DWGgateway can be useful no doubt. But if you want PDF files I recommend CutePDF instead and if you want to convert between different DWG versions I recommend DWG TrueConvert 2007.
Here is what I said about DWGgateway almost a year ago.
Technorati: Open Design Alliance, DWG, AutoCAD 2007, AutoCAD, DWGgateway, PDF, CutePDF
I was almost sure RSS feeds would be added when I found out that Randall Newton and also Martyn Day where behind the new site TeamDWF, "a specialty portal devoted to the use of Autodesk's DWF publishing technology for AEC, GIS, and manufacturing". Thanks to both a comment on RobiNZ CAD Blog and AECnews.com I now know more. Feed now subscribed using RSS Bandit. I'm looking forward to read more about DWF. As of now some older articles have been added so there is already a lot to read.
Technorati: DWF
The Open Design Alliance (ODA) now have DWG 2007 (file format used in AutoCAD 2007 based products) support including Trusted DWG functionality. Evan Yares will probably let us know more. I wonder if ADT 2007 objects are supported yet.
Update 2006-09-12 - I read at AECnews.com that DWGdirect is released to all members supporting DWG 2007.
Technorati: Open Design Alliance, DWG, AutoCAD 2007, AutoCAD
I'm trying to find an online remote backup service. I found mozy and tried it a few days and so far I'm really happy about it.
It seems to be good priced. 2 GB of 100% free backup space and 30GB - $4.95/month.
Features I like are:
Please use the referral code VWW637 if you start using mozy and I'll get another 256MB of free backup space.
If you have other alternatives you like and would like to suggest please add a comment including reasons why you like it.
Technorati: backup
LSharp is available on http://lsharp.sourceforge.net/
"L Sharp .NET is a powerful Lisp-like scripting language for .NET. It uses a Lisp dialect similar to Arc but tightly integrates with the .NET Framework which provides a rich set of libraries."
Tony Michniewicz at Autodesk confirms in the Discussion Groups "that a beta of the ADT service pack is now available, for details visit myfeedback.autodesk.com". All I can say at this point is that if you want to help out trying the beta for Architectural Desktop 2007 SP1 register at myfeedback.autodesk.com and select that you use ADT.
Technorati: ADT, Architectural Desktop, ADT 2007
A new website TeamDWF has launched according to Beyond the Paper. My first though was, where's the feeds? My second though, if Autodesk is sponsoring, who is behind it. Looked pretty anonymous at first. A quick look and I found Randall Newton as the owner of the site. He is also Editor-In-Chief for AECnews.com. I also recognized some articles like Q&A with Autodesk's Amar Hanspal that was published first in AUGI HotNews. What's your thoughts?
Technorati: DWF
Now you have hardly no excuse to not install AutoCAD 2007. AutoCAD is now more stable than ever. Based on my experience of SP1 my recommendation is: INSTALL IT.
The problems fixed I like most are:
Technorati: AutoCAD 2007
A time ago I mentioned that ObjectDCL (an interactive replacement of the DCL language for developing dialog boxes within AutoCAD using AutoLISP) was about to be open source and now it is.
364 files and 7740KB source code in C++ available right now at http://sourceforge.net/projects/objectdcl/
I will give Steve Dunn's free Code Formatter Plugin for Windows Live Writer a try here. This is really a great plugin. One problem I run into is that I'm not able to use the word wrapping. It looked OK in the Normal Layout but in the Web Layout it was not nice. The width was just a hand full characters and could not be resized. Another thing is if editing the code use CTRL+Enter to add a row since Enter will trigger the OK button.
Below is a modified VBA subroutine from AutoCAD developer documentation on the FileDependency object that can be used to see information about file references in a drawing. For example FullFileName will give the absolute path of a relative xref and IsModified will show if the file has been modified.
Sub Example_AcadFileDependencies() ' Note! ' The drawing has to be saved first to reflect ' recent changes to the file dependencies ' If you attach an xref and then run this code ' without saving the added xref will not show up ' If a modified xref has been reloaded and you ' run this code without saving it will show as modified ' Another way is to use UpdateEntry before as showed Dim objFDLCol As AutoCAD.AcadFileDependencies Dim objFDL As AutoCAD.AcadFileDependency Set objFDLCol = ThisDrawing.FileDependencies Dim strTemp As String For Each objFDL In objFDLCol If objFDL.Feature = "Acad:XRef" Then objFDLCol.UpdateEntry objFDL.Index strTemp = "FileName: " & vbTab & objFDL.FileName strTemp = strTemp & vbCrLf & "FileSize: " & vbTab & _ vbTab & objFDL.FileSize strTemp = strTemp & vbCrLf & "FullFileName: " & _ vbTab & objFDL.FullFileName strTemp = strTemp & vbCrLf & "Modified?: " & _ vbTab & objFDL.IsModified MsgBox strTemp End If Next End Sub
Update for Steve. Here is an image showing the problem in the Web Layout. The problem also showed up when published. In the normal view it's possible to adjust the width but it's a narrow column when published as well as in the web preview.
2006-08-26 Update again. I found out that "pre" had a fixed width in the blog template that gave this problem. pre{color:maroon;background:#e4e4e4; padding:5px; width:100px; font-size:85%;} When I removed the fixed width the problem disappeared.
tags: Windows+Live+Writer, VBA, AutoCAD, freeware
If you are interested testing the Beta for Autodesk Plant P&ID application take a look at Peter's comment in the previous post.
tags: Autodesk+Plant, P&ID
At Autodesk University 2006 there are several classes on Autodesk Plant. Seems like Peter Quinn, Derry Vaughan and the Autodesk team is getting close to a release of this new P&ID application.
PD11-1: Introduction to Autodesk® Plant: The New P&ID Solution from Autodesk
Learn how to use Autodesk Plant to draw intelligent Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&IDs) At the end of the session, you will understand how Autodesk Plant leverages standard AutoCAD productivity tools with user-customizable symbols to quickly and easily create and edit drawings in a way not possible using base AutoCAD...
PD12-1: Getting More from Autodesk® Plant: Reports, Leveraging External Databases, & Change Control
Most companies need to reuse and distribute the information on the P&IDs to other departments and engineering disciplines This class will show you how to create company-specific project reports that can be automatically generated from the information contained on the drawings...
PD13-1: Autodesk® Plant P&ID Project Setup and Customization: Managing Projects and Creating New Project Standards
Learn how to customize Autodesk Plant to suit your own company standards You will receive detailed step-by-step instructions on how to configure Autodesk Plant to suit your own company or site standards...
PD25-1L: A Quick Spin on the New Autodesk® Plant
We invite your input to help refine the user experience of Autodesk Plant, Autodesk’s new product for P&IDs...
tags: Autodesk+Plant, P&ID
Update based on Peter's comment below.
I'm not using 2003 much nowadays, 2005 is so much better, but I installed SP1 anyway that was recently released.
The extensive list of bugs that are fixed in Visual Studio NET 2003 Service Pack 1.
tags: Visual+Studio
So soon I'll see how this will look like when published.
tags: Windows+Live+Writer
For those of you new to databases. Here is a word definition that is useful to know about. Database persistence is one of these words many working with databases seem to use but for someone not knowing what it means it can be hard to understand. It's pretty easy actually. If you persist something you save it permanently (to a file or a database) so it's still there if your restart the computer. Persistence is about saving and also retrieving data.
The words persist and persistence are used in different contexts like talking about a persistence layer, persist the recordset, making persistence operations, manipulating persistent models, persistent references, persistence strategy, persist the business objects or persistence object. Would memorizing this post be considered having it persisted?
Speaking about database terminology. SQL Server 2005 Everywhere Edition is a soon to be released for free by Microsoft and useful if you want to persist to a relational database that has a compact footprint and is embedable in applications. The CTP is so stable that it can be used for production.
tags: persist, persistence, database, SQL+Server+2005+Everywhere
Here is a sample AutoLISP code that shows how to identify xclipped blocks.
(defun xclippedblocks (/ lst ss i ent ed xc)
(if (setq ss (ssget "X" '((0 . "INSERT"))))
(progn
(setq i 0)
(while (setq ent (ssname ss i))
(setq ed (entget ent))
(cond
((setq xc (member '(102 . "{ACAD_XDICTIONARY") ed))
(setq xc (cdr (cadr xc)))
(cond
((dictsearch xc "ACAD_FILTER")
(setq lst (cons (cdr (assoc 2 ed)) lst))
)
)
)
)
(setq i (1+ i))
)
)
)
lst
)
tags: AutoLISP
A question I get quite often is why can I not double-click on my text or mtext and edit it or why can I not double-click on a block and edit it or something like that.
In AutoCAD there are a lot of variables that together make this work one way or the other or not at all.
Why does the setting change suddenly. It can be a program that changed the value and didn't restore it correctly or you might without knowing the consequences change the settings.
Here is what you should look for to get it working again.
The DBLCLKEDIT system variable must be on and the PICKFIRST system variable must be on (set to 1, the default) for double-clicking to work.
Tools menu>Options>Selection>Noun/verb selection changes the PICKFIRST system variable. Controls whether you select objects before (noun-verb selection) or after you issue a command.
Tools menu>Options>User Preferences>Double click editing selection changes the DBLCLKEDIT system variable.
Double click actions can be customized using the Customize User Interface (CUI) editor. In the CUI editor>Customize tab>click the plus sign (+) next to Double Click Actions to expand it. The double click actions are object type sensitive, allowing you to set up a specific command to use for a specific object type. Take a look there and see if this is the problem. The CUI file can be restored or reset if you have messed up with it and cannot recover the problem.
BLOCKEDITLOCK can affect if you are not allowed to double-click a block and edit it. When BLOCKEDITLOCK is set to 0 the Block Editor can be opened. When BLOCKEDITLOCK is set to 1, double-clicking a dynamic block in a drawing opens the Properties palette. If the dynamic block contains attributes, double-clicking the block reference opens the Enhanced Attribute Editor.
In some older versions of the Express Tools DCPROPS could interfere with the double-click behavior.
[Related posts: Double-click blocks in AutoCAD 2007 | Lock the users from messing with your dynamic blocks]
Did you know that a specific set of regular expressions can be used in the Find what field of the Visual Studio Find and Replace Window. But look out there are syntax differences between the regular expressions that can be used in Find what strings and those that are valid in .NET Framework programming. There are also some bugs that might make this not that useful as you first think. The Lead Program Manager makes comments on this blog post about it.
[Link: MSDN]
tags: Visual+Studio, regex
The following tip is only for those that understand Swedish so here we go.
Om du använder Autodesk Inventor så rekommenderar jag dig att ta en titt på Skandinavisk inventorforum. Använd forumet för att ställa frågor eller besvara dem. Dessutom finns det en hel del annat användbart som nyheter, länkar, bildgalleri och part-bibliotek. Det mesta är på Norska men är för de flesta inget problem att förstå.
Here are some free Microsoft software's that you maybe didn't know about and that you too might like or see a need to use. I'll add them here as a reminder for myself anyway. If you have any free Microsoft software you would like to add please make a comment.
Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP including SyncToy (copy, move, and synchronize different directories), ClearType Tuner (tune the ClearType settings to fit your eyes the best), Open Command Window Here, Tweak UI (gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more), Power Calculator (you can graph and evaluate functions), etc.
Windows Defender (Beta 2) is a free program that helps you stay productive by protecting your computer against pop-ups, slow performance and security threats caused by spyware and other potentially unwanted software.
FolderShare allows you to create a private peer-to-peer network that will help you to synchronize files across multiple devices and access or share files with colleagues and friends. Share files up to 2 GB in size. No limits on quantity or size or type of files transferred.
Microsoft Time Zone conveniently runs in the system tray and allows you to easily view the date and time in various locations around the world. You can also quickly and easily add your own personal locations to customize Microsoft Time Zone the way you want.
Calculator Plus a better Calculator that also performs many different types of conversions.
Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel for Windows XP allows image files (ISO) to be mounted virtually as CD-ROM/DVD-ROM devices. Useful if you don't want to write the image to a CD/DVD-R using software's with ISO image file support. Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit includes the DVDBURN.EXE command line tool useful for writing ISO files to CD-R or DVD-R.
Tweakomatic utility that writes Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) scripts.
Windows Deployment and Resource Kits including among many other useful tools Robocopy.exe - Robust File Copy Utility
Virtual PC to run multiple operating systems at the same time on the same physical computer. Switch between virtual machines with the click of a button.
Agent components for animated characters that can be useful in your applications. With interactive personalities in the form of animated characters you can make them move, talk, listen and react and more. I've used it for guiding users through lengthy installations using VBScript for applications like Autodesk AutoCAD and ADT.
GroupBar is lightweight desktop tool that offers enhanced window management capabilities in a Windows taskbar-like setting.
Scalable Fabric is a task management system for the Windows desktop. Download here.
User State Migration is used to migrate user data and application configurations for a user's current client computer to a new client computer.
Windows Media Encoder including Windows Media Encoder Studio Edition and Windows Media Encoder 9 Series. Use it to capture, compress and encode audio and video content.
And much more...
Update: Road to Know Where! has the Ultimate List of Free Windows Software from Microsoft and the Ultimate List of Free Office Software from Microsoft
I just checked with McAfee SiteAdvisor that both www.jtbworld.com and http://jtbworld.blogspot.com are tested and OK.
McAfee SiteAdvisor is a free tool that works with Internet Explorer. As you search or browse, SiteAdvisor's safety button changes color based on our test results to let you know if the website is Safe, needs Caution or needs Warning. More about it here. Their blog has also interesting articles like the one about clone detection.
Update. For some reasons the blog shows as not tested but it is if you check here: http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/jtbworld.blogspot.com
tags: McAfee+SiteAdvisor
Here is a small Windows Explorer tip. How many times have you copied or moved files and got the dialog box Confirm File Replace saying "This folder already contains a file named 'whatever.ext'." and asking if you "Would like to replace the existing file" "with this one?"?
Now you want to say No for all the rest of the files for some reason. If you have many files it can take a while and you don't want to wait for the process to be interrupted by this dialog box.
The tip in this case is to hold down the Shift key on the keyboard and press No. That way no existing files will be replaced.
tags: Windows+Explorer, tips
I made this image a time ago and now there is a knowledge base article describing the solution if you think Ceiling Height property in Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2007 not available to be scheduled. "The Ceiling Height property that is visible on the Properties Palette when a space object is selected is equivalent to the Height automatic property in Property Set Definitions that apply to space objects."
tags: ADT, Architectural+Desktop
I recently learned from "Stiff asks, great programmers answer" that Peter Norvig Director of Research at Google has Lisp as one of his favorite languages. Linus Torvalds (behind Linux) also comments how "Visual Basic" did more for programming than "Object-Oriented Languages" did.
The questions he asked where the following and for the fun of it and for your curiosity I added my answers too.
- How did you learn programming? Were any schools of any use? Or maybe you didn’t even bother with ending any schools :) ?
10 PRINT "Hello world!"
Then I used computers in school as much as I could. From computers like ABC80 and ABC800 to Compis (based on the Intel 80186 CPU and with CP/M-86 as the operating system in ROM). I used Compis from 1986-1988 and did my special school work programming in Comal and Pascal. I reverse engineered a database format and provided a user interface to work with the demographic data in it.
- What do you think is the most important skill every programmer should posses?
Be open and flexible to use the tool or method that is best for the specific case. That's anyway one important skill even though I don't think there is only one that is most important.
- Do you think mathematics and/or physics are an important skill for a programmer? Why?
It all depends but if you learn math and physics it might help. I have done several programs that has required both math and/or physic skills.
- What do you think will be the next big thing in computer programming? X-oriented programming, y language, quantum computers, what?
I have no idea.
- If you had three months to learn one relatively new technology, which one would You choose?
Web 2.0 and the like.
- What do you think makes some programmers 10 or 100 times more productive than others?
Concentration and focus does a lot. Some are more "into" programming than others, love programming, logic thinking, problem solvers.
- What are your favorite tools (operating system, programming/scripting language, text editor, version control system, shell, database engine, other tools you can’t live without) and why do you like them more than others?
I use whatever needed to do the job done and sometimes I use the tools that I use the most. Right now it's Windows OS, Visual Studio 2005 and VB.NET, VBScript, AutoLISP, SQL Server and Access. One language that I don't use now but I loved to use was Modula-2. Lisp is really a favorite language.
- What is your favorite book related to computer programming?
Don't have any but one good one is Applying Domain-Driven Design and Patterns by Jimmy Nilsson with a lot of .NET focus.
- What is Your favorite book NOT related to computer programming?
Being a CAD related blog I appreciated reading The Autodesk File. "The history of Autodesk and AutoCAD told through contemporary documents, edited and annotated by Autodesk founder John Walker."
- What are your favorite music bands/performers/compositors?
Level42 / Bryan Adams / Benny Andersson just to mention some that have made a lot of great music.
[Via Coding Horror | stifflog²]
tags: Visual+Basic, Lisp, programming
There are several benefits to participating in the Autodesk® Customer Council.
Join here: http://adtcc.com/
It does matter to participate for both parts. Autodesk want you to keep purchasing ADT and to do that they need to know what you think. You might have ideas that you want to communicate with Autodesk and this is one way.
tags: Architectural+Desktop, ADT
There are a lot of toolbars existing. Microsoft has now updated theirs. I recently made buttons for Google Toolbar and now I've also made one for Windows Live Toolbar. Version 3.0 also supports custom buttons and it was much easier to create the button than for the Google Toolbar. Take a look at the left side of the blog if you want to add this button to Windows Live Toolbar. It makes it easy to access the website, blog and make searches on them.
Onfolio seems like an useful feature. "Easily save, organize and share your online research with Onfolio. Capture copies of pictures, text or Web pages to your PC for reliable access later. Organize your Web research and publish it in emails, blogs and documents. Search through your clippings anytime with Windows Desktop Search." Tabbed Browsing is also of course great for those that don't already have it one way or the other. The integration to easy get maps of addresses that you run into on websites is also a cool feature.
I just run across this. GlobeXplorer now has a comprehensive collection of 1-foot resolution aerial
photography for USA. This tremendous imagery resource is now available to
Autodesk software users as a simple plug-in.
[Via
GlobeXplorer's Earth Mapping Blog]
[Links: www.globexplorer.com | www.autodesk.com/globexplorerdata]
The export to 3D DWF files have changed in AutoCAD 2007 compared to 3DDWFPUBLISH that was in AutoCAD 2006.
In the Export Data dialog box, specify a name and location for the DWF file.
Click the Tools button at the upper right and select Options.
In the 3D DWF Publish dialog box, click Selected model space
objects and then click the Select Objects button.
In the model, select the objects that you want to publish.
Bug note! Here is something you should be aware of. If you have blocks or external references there are some things that doesn't act as they should do. If you select block or xref it looks like it is completely selected but in reality it is only the object within that will be exported. It works to use "all" as a way to select everything in the drawing and then if you want to remove objects it doesn't work as expected either.
Interesting concept that this architecture blog by wits university has taken to combine usage of blogs in the education. The teacher has a blog as well as all the students. They've recently used AutoCAD and SketchUp in the lectures.
Check out the cool EplotView DWF & PDF viewer Palette for AutoCAD by Mark Douglas.
This 6 hour course by Microsoft in for of a 92 page PDF is intended for developers who support and develop Windows Forms applications for Visual Studio 2005 and the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0.
http://www.windowsforms.net/Articles/WindowsFormsToolStripCourse.pdf
External References Palette was introduced in AutoCAD 2007 with some changes as can be seen below.
To open the External References Palette use the commands XR, XREF,
EXTERNALREFERENCES or Tools>Palettes>External References or use the button
To close use the command EXTERNALREFERENCESCLOSE.
To change the path of a DWG reference do like this:
Insert>External References to open the Xref ESW.
In the External References palette, select a DWG reference name.
Under Found At, do one of the following:
Edit the xref path directly.
Click Browse. Select the xref in its new path.
Use CUI to change the behavior of the Xref ESW in relation to your workspace.
CLASSICXREF is a command that displays the Xref Manager with the old GUI.
CLASSICIMAGE is a command that displays the Image Manager with the old GUI.
Related System Variables are:
ERSTATE is used to get the External References palette State.
0 - Not active
1 - Active
XREFCTL controls whether external reference log (XLG) files are
created.
0 - (default value) Does not write log files
1 - Writes log files (Recommendation is to only activate if you really need this
functionality)
The log file is an ordinary ASCII text file with the same name as the current drawing and the file extension .xlg. If you load a drawing with the file name sample.dwg, for example, the program searches for a log file named sample.xlg in the current folder. If the file does not exist, a new file is created with that name.
Once a log file has been created for a drawing, the program continues to append information to it. The program writes a title block to the log file each time the file is opened. If the log file becomes too large, you can delete it.
XREFNOTIFY that controls the notification for updated or missing xrefs.
The value is saved per user and profile.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R17.0\ACAD-5001:409\Profiles\<<Unnamed
Profile>>\General\XrefNotify
0 - Disables xref notification
1 - Enables xref notification. Notifies you that xrefs are attached to the
current drawing by displaying the xref icon in the lower-right corner of the
application window (the notification area of the status bar tray). When you open
a drawing, alerts you to missing xrefs by displaying the xref icon with a yellow
alert symbol (!).
2 - (default value) Enables xref notification and balloon messages. Displays the
xref icon as in 1 above. Also displays balloon messages in the same area when
xrefs are modified. The number of minutes between checking for modified xrefs is
controlled by the system registry variable XNOTIFYTIME.
XREFTYPE controls the default reference type when attaching or
overlaying an external reference. It is saved when changing the reference type
using the XATTACH command.
The value is saved per user and profile.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R17.0\ACAD-5001:409\Profiles\<<Unnamed
Profile>>\General\XrefType
0 - Attachment is the default
1 - Overlay is the default
Several other undocumented settings are saved in the registry below
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R17.0\ACAD-5001:409\Profiles\<<Unnamed
Profile>>\Vault\ESW
LowerGroupMinimized
LowerGroupRatio
LVColumnWidths
Other settings for the palette like both from CUI and from the GUI like List
View or Tree View or Details or Preview are saved in XML format in C:\Documents
and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2007\R17.0\enu\Support\Profiles\FixedProfile.aws\FixedProfile.aws
[Related links worth reading:
AutoCAD 2007
Xref Manager Palette Vs Dialog |
Xref'ing
from Vault]
