Monday, June 30, 2014

Autodesk Application Manager version 3

I got a critical notification that Autodesk  Application Manager needs to update.

When viewing details I found that there were a lot of news in this version that are welcome by Administrators (such as CAD, BIM, and IT Managers).

Version 3 includes several enhancements to the update notification and delivery experience, as well as a new set of asset management capabilities for software administrators, now available in the Autodesk Account Portal (accounts.autodesk.com). These are described below.

Please note that the Application Manager client updates to this most current version when you install the Version 3 update.

Client-Side Conditions
Before delivering an update, Application Manager checks to see if the right product files are present on your machine, acting as an extra check to ensure accuracy and reliability of new update notifications.

Check Now
Provides an optional, instant check for availability of product updates, instead of waiting for the next update check interval (a configurable parameter in Settings).

Update Dependencies
Automates presentation and retrieval of pre- and post-requisite packages that may be required for your update(s).

Product Extensions
Product Extensions provide incremental value and functionality to your applications between major releases. When available, Application Manager will notify you of new Extensions, only if your installed applications are on a active Maintenance or Desktop Subscription agreement.

Local Package Cache
Enables retrieval of Update files from a configurable, locally shared resource, rather than from an internet-based download source. This saves on bandwidth.

General Hotfixes
Notification and delivery of Hotfixes that are generally available to all users. Does not include "targeted" Hotfixes, which will continue to be available via the CER (Customer Error Reporting) system.

Update Rollups
Notification and delivery of aggregated Hotfixes, which have not yet been rolled up into the latest Service Pack (SP).

Administrator Tools

Administrators of Autodesk applications can login to Account Portal using their Autodesk ID. For eligible customers on Desktop or Maintenance Subscription, tools are provided for performing common administrative tasks, such as checking for all newly published product updates.

In Version 3, Administrators (such as CAD, BIM, and IT Managers) now have access to these new features, which aid in the discovery and management of product updates. For more information, please refer to the Application Manager Administrator's Guide.

Update List
A single online location for learning about all of the updates currently available for the applications you own and/or manage. This simplifies the process of update discovery.

Entitlement Aware
Account portal integrates to Autodesk business systems, making it possible to display restricted assets (such as Product Extensions only for Subscription customers) in the Portal as well as on the desktops running Application Manager.

Device List
A simple report that displays information about all of the managed systems in your environment running 2015 products on a current Subscription agreement. This list provides the basis for managing the distribution of updates to the users within your organization.

Administrator Preferences
Administrators can selectively (or globally) control the distribution of updates to managed devices that appear in the above List. The List can also edited, make it easy to identify managed users and devices in your environment.

To access the administrative area of Account Portal, your Autodesk ID will need to be assigned or promoted to administrator status within the context of an Autodesk Subscription Program, specifically as Contract Manager or Software Coordinator. If you are a CAD/IT manager who would like to access to the administrative tools in the portal, but do not have the correct status, contact your Contract Manager, or the person in your company responsible for purchasing software, and request to have Software Coordinator privileges assigned to your Autodesk ID.

Once assigned administrator privileges, and provided the Autodesk applications on your contract are currently on an active Desktop or Maintenance Subscription agreement, you will be able to access the administrative features.

About the Administrator's Role

The role of Administrator applies to anyone in your organization who is responsible for managing or supporting design software running on user machines, for example developing and applying CAD standards, creating network deployments, keeping installed applications up to date, and providing technical assistance to end users. This role may vary depending on the size of your organization. In smaller companies, Administrators such as CAD Managers may also have responsibility for other IT-focused tasks such as desktop maintenance, while in larger companies these areas are typically owned by multiple individuals.

In the Account Portal, Autodesk is making available new tools to help Administrators streamline and automate common software delivery tasks. Starting in June of 2014, the portal is being enhanced to provide Administrators with centralized access and control over the distribution of product updates and extensions to managed users in their organizations.

When update was ready it said that the version was 3.0.155.0.

Monday, June 23, 2014

SmartPurger 3.6 - batch processing for AutoCAD

SmartPurger 3.6 comes with support for Autodesk AutoCAD 2015 and the new Orphaned Data purge (remains from MicroStation DGN linetypes)  and support for sharepoint folder locations.

SmartPurger is a batch and script utility for processing multiple AutoCAD drawings with full control. Execute LSP or SCR files on multiple drawings. SmartPurger handles crashes so the AutoCAD batch processing continues to the end and leaves bad drawings to be corrected manually if needed. Many purge and cleanup settings are available.

The free trial is fully functional except that you can only batch process 10 drawings per session to give you the chance to confirm that the program works as expected. When you purchase you can use SmartPurger with no limitations.

Check out more about SmartPurger here.

AutoCAD Architecture 2015 Service Pack 1

Following AutoCAD 2015 Service Pack 1, now it’s time for the verticals that also includes the AutoCAD 2015 Service Pack 1.

AutoCAD Architecture 2015 SP1 download.

This Service Pack can be applied to AutoCAD Architecture 2015 installed as a standalone application as well as AutoCAD Architecture 2015 installed from the following Autodesk Design Suites and bundled product.

  • Autodesk Building Design Suite 2015
  • Autodesk Factory Design Suite 2015

The following defects have been fixed:

Schedules

  • Leading zeros are suppressed in Schedule tables.
  • The number object format does not work in Schedule tables.

Display Themes

  • In the display theme, some colors may not display correctly.

AutoCAD Electrical 2015 Service Pack 1 download.

AutoCAD Mechanical 2015 Service Pack 1 download.

AutoCAD MEP 2015 Service Pack 1 download.

Autodesk AutoCAD P&ID 2015 Service Pack 1 download.

Autodesk AutoCAD Plant 3D 2015 Service Pack 1 download.

Earlier this one was made available too:

Autodesk AutoCAD Map 2015 Service Pack 1 download.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Download page for FlexNet license server managers to close down

The Flexera software download page for FlexNet files will no longer be available after July 31, 2104. After that date, users of FlexEnabled software must contact the publisher of that software to obtain license server managers (lmadmin and lmgrd) and related utilities (lmutil and lmtools).

This is too bad. This means that it will be harder to access updates as the publishers usually make these available several months or more after the FlexNet license server managers and utilities are updated.

If you have FlexEnabled software you want to monitor usage for check out our JTB FlexReport solution.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Autodesk BIM 360 add-in app for Autodesk AutoCAD 2015 R1 Update

I was notified about Autodesk BIM 360 add-in app for Autodesk AutoCAD 2015 64-bit R1 Update and noticed the severity was high and details that said “Updated authentication security” among other things. Seems like reason to install. I clicked on View Details to see more but just ended up on the BIM 360 page.

I had expected to get to a web page with more details about the update as well as download links. I wonder if there is one or not? Is there an update for 32-bit too? As a CAD manager you want to be able to distribute updates like this in a controlled manner. Now the install probably has to be retrieved from the folder “Autodesk Application Manager” found in the Documents folder for the current user.

Monday, June 16, 2014

Align objects in AutoCAD with JTB Align Plus

JTB Align Plus for AutoCAD has commands that will copy and align your text, block or selection of objects at picked point of selected line or curve. Curve can be Arc, Circle, Polyline, Leader or 3D Polyline, in current space as well as nested inside Blocks or Xrefs.

Text will be aligned and placed at an the same offset distance as text in current dimension style. Block will be aligned and fit tangentially to curve.

If you pick on text or block, or on empty space, Match Text Content or Match Block command will run, help you easily manage your drawing's tags and symbol blocks.

Want to know more about what JTB Align Plus can do?
Take a look at the JTB Align Plus page.

JTB Align Plus can be purchased on Autodesk Exchange Apps. JTB Align Plus Trial can be downloaded here.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

AutoCAD 2015 Service Pack 1

AutoCAD 2015 Service Pack 1 is now available to download.

You can see the notification on the New Tab within AutoCAD.

Or you can see it within the Autodesk Application Manager.

AutoCAD 2015 Service Pack 1 can be downloaded here and AutoCAD LT 2015 Service Pack 1 here.

This Service Pack can be applied to AutoCAD 2015 installed as a standalone application as well as AutoCAD 2015 installed from the following Autodesk Design Suites and bundled product.
Autodesk AutoCAD Design Suite 2015
Autodesk AutoCAD with Advance Steel 2015
Autodesk Building Design Suite 2015
Autodesk Factory Design Suite 2015
Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite 2015
Autodesk Plant Design Suite 2015
Autodesk Product Design Suite 2015

First off there is a new system variable added to AutoCAD 2015.

CURSORBADGE (System Variable)

Controls the display of visual aide badges near the cursor like the erase badge in red below.

Type: Integer
Saved in: Registry
Initial value: 2

1 - Turn off all new badges
2 - Turn on all badges (Default)

Badges that will be disabled:

  • Selection - cross and window selection
  • Inspection
  • Deletion
  • Copy
  • Move
  • Rotate
  • Scale
  • Zoom
  • Add vertex
  • Covert to arc
  • Hatch inherit property

Problems Reported with the Customer Error Reporting Utility

As a result of the detailed information that we received from customers who used the Customer Error Reporting Utility, several problems were identified and fixed. Updates have been made in the following commands and features:

DB Connect

  • Occasional crashes when using DB Connect feature on 64-bit machines with 4GB and more RAM.

Status Bar

  • Occasional crashes when opening drawing file when a bubble notification is still displayed.

New Tab

  • Occasional crashes when clicking New in the Quick Access Toolbar or the Start Drawing tile on the New Tab page.
  • Occasional crashes when clicking the New Tab Plus button after adding LayerFilterComboControl or Filter in the CUI dialog box.

Design Center

  • Occasional crashes when inserting a block from Design Center on the second time.

General

  • Occasional crashes when selecting the "Fully open the drawing file" option that displays when opening a drawing that was saved in the partial open state.
  • Occasional crashes when exiting AutoCAD.

General Service Pack Updates

The following defects have been fixed:

3D Modeling

  • Using the ViewCube dropdown for selecting a saved UCS will not accept UCS names that contain a space.
  • The SCALE command is not applied correctly for scale factors less than 1/100th.

Display

  • Cursor trails will display on the screen for users with Optimus or Dynamic Switchable Graphics technology.

Hatch

  • Lineweight is applied and displayed for solid hatch objects.
  • Additional lines display in the selection highlighting for a solid hatch object.
  • Hatch objects do not apply LAYLOCKFADECTL or XDWGFADECTL.
  • The angle of a gradient changes the appearance of that gradient.
  • Solid hatch objects display the edge color.

Plot

  • ViewCube will appear on plots under certain conditions.

VBA

  • Unable to execute SendCommand API in multiple drawings.

General

  • The number of recently used files accepts a maximum of 10. The maximum has been restored to 50.

Security Hotfix

  • This Service Pack includes the Autodesk AutoCAD Security Hotfix. This Service Pack can be applied whether that security hotfix was originally applied to your system or not.
  • If you have Autodesk ReCap 2015 installed together with AutoCAD 2015, please install Autodesk ReCap 2015 Hotfix 1 via Autodesk Application Manager.

When installed the About dialog box will show Product Version: J.104.0.0. AutoCAD 2015 SP1.

More about AutoCAD 2015.

Monday, June 9, 2014

JTB Text Bubble Plus - AutoCAD app

JTB Text Bubble Plus 1.1 and its more basic version Text Bubble have been released. Both are apps for AutoCAD and its verticals.

With Text Bubble Plus you can insert text bubbles to lines, curves, or draw leaders with it, or quickly make a schedule from text bubbles and/or other blocks.

JTB Text Bubble Plus can be purchased on Autodesk Exchange Apps. JTB Text Bubble Plus Trial can be downloaded here. The basic Text Bubble app is also available.

Friday, June 6, 2014

Palette Auto-hide Speed 1.4 with support for AutoCAD 2015

JTB World’s freeware Palette Auto-hide Speed has been updated to work with AutoCAD 2015 and is available via Autodesk Exchange Apps site.

 

With this app you will be able to change the time it takes to show/hide or roll-up/roll-out the palette windows in AutoCAD.

You can see the effect with palettes like Properties, Quickcalc, External References, Sheet Set Manager, Markup Set Manager, and Visual Styles Manager set to auto-hide.