Autodesk Asset Locator replaces Autodesk Product Manager

The Autodesk Asset Locator tool will find a majority of the Autodesk products installed on PCs and/or servers and generate a list of software assets in order to help customers with their Software Asset Management practices.

AAL will determine the Autodesk software products you have and where it’s installed by locating:

• Product, version, and serial number
• Product language
• Network or stand-alone installation type
• Service pack level
• Installation location

Download the Autodesk Asset Locator.

Via Without A Net

UPDATE: The Autodesk Asset Locator and its follow up product Autodesk Inventory Advisor have both been retired by Autodesk. See also our SAM product JTB FlexReport.

Revit license issues and solutions

Knowledge Base documents:

When launching Revit you are unable to obtain a network license on a specific workstation but other workstations can obtain a license.
Revit network license troubleshooting

After launching Revit 2010 products a license error occurs and the Product and License Information displays an error 17 status.
Revit 2010 error 17 license status troubleshooting

When you launch an AutoCAD 2010-based product it is able to acquire a license but a Revit 2010 product is unable to acquire a network license.
AutoCAD 2010 products are able to acquire a network license but Revit 2010 products cannot

After you reinstall an Autodesk 2010 product redundant licensing no longer functions for Revit.
After reinstalling an Autodesk 2010 product Revit redundant licensing no longer functions

After launching Revit 2009 64-bit products you receive an Unable to obtain a floating license error at the Recent Files page.
Revit 2009 64-bit products display floating license error after startup

Revit 2010 is not able to recover a lost network license when Revit is running. The program switches to Demo mode and any open data files will not be saved.
Revit 2010 License Timeout Workaround - Update 2 and Subscription Advantage Pack Build

Create an environmental variable for FLEXLM_TIMEOUT
Error: A valid license could not be obtained by the network license manager

This can also be useful: Clean uninstall of Revit 2010 products describing what folder, files and registry locations that needs to be removed.

For reports on license utilization and usage see JTB FlexReport.

CAD on the web with Autodesk’s Project Butterfly

Want to edit DWG files on the web? Take a look at Project Butterfly Home Page on Autodesk Labs. Project Butterfly is a Flash based program that allows you to edit, co-edit, and review designs using your web browser. I first tried to use my Autodesk Labs login but it didn’t work so after contacting the Autodesk Labs, Scott made a blog post on how it works to login to Project Butterfly.

Doing some basic drawing and editing works very easily and snap and ortho is available so exact work can be done. There is no distance or area command but dimensions can be added. Zooming can be done with the wheel but panning requires the use of left button and space key. Note also that the zoom tools are at the bottom right and not in the Ribbon menu (where I first looked for them).

I tried to import the Budweiser compatibility benchmark drawing for 2010 and as you can see it worked except that 3D objects were not imported and as you can see most of the tests did not work. One example is that dynamic blocks are not supported. We have to see what direction Autodesk takes with this application and how compatible it will be with DWG and AutoCAD as well as what complexity and feature richness will be added.

Offset is limited to specify the distance in the dialog only. It would be useful to be able to specify it on the screen too just like you can with the Move command.

Layouts, Xrefs and different View Modes are supported.

Plot Styles can be managed.

Fonts can be imported but I think some of the fonts like those missing below should be available by default.

Is this something that started to be developed by Autodesk? No, take a look at this Cadalyst article about VisualTao also known as PlanPlatform that was acquired by Autodesk in December 2009 (Autodesk Acquires Sequoia-Backed Software Design Startup PlanPlatform).

Via It’s Alive in the Lab. Take also a look at the Project Butterfly Blog that showcases this intercity rail car.

Project Butterfly Technology Preview’s Web client application is based upon Adobe Flash and Flex technology. Autodesk is hosting Project Butterfly Technology Preview’s Web servers on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service. The Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) stores application and user data.  Project Butterfly Technology Preview also uses AutoCAD RealDWG technology to read and write DWG files. - Technology behind Project Butterfly

AutoCAD Automation Tools 3.3 released

AutoCAD Automation Tools has been updated to version 3.3 and the most recent updates are:

• Minor fixes to improve export from Excel to better handling the typical Excel problem with empty rows at the bottom of a sheet.
• Minor fixes that for some users might make the commands not working at all.

This means that if you have version 3.1 and experience no problem there is no real need to upgrade. But if you just have installed 3.1 and not used it, consider to get version 3.3 instead.

Existing customers have access to this upgrade at no cost. Contact us to get it.

Others that want to give AutoCAD Automation Tools a try can download a trial directly from the website. Give it a try and see how you can avoid a lot of tedious manual work when you need to update a lot of drawings. Use familiar Excel where you enter the needed data in one of the three templates and you can create new drawings, update existing drawings or insert new objects on existing drawings. Edit title blocks or other blocks, most of your needs can be solved.

AutoCAD Automation Tools works with most every AutoCAD based application and version and for Bricscad 10 there is the CAD Automation Tools.