AutoCAD network unavailable license alerts

If you wonder what happens to users of AutoCAD if the Autodesk Network License Manager is unavailable for whatever reason, here’s what.

Users that try to start AutoCAD will get the FlexNet License Finder dialog box showing up.

Your application was not able to obtain a license because the FlexNet license server manager could not determine where to find the licensing data it needs. Please choose one of the following: Specify the License Server System or Specify the License File

Pressing Cancel shows the Licensing Error dialog box.

Network License Not Available
Common causes: all licenses are in use, the server is down, or the license has expired. Contact your system administrator or support.
Error [-15.570.0]

Finally this License Error dialog box shows.

The License manager is not functioning or is improperly installed. AutoCAD will shut down now.

But what if a user is already running AutoCAD while the license manager gets unavailable?

After 2 hours this Unavailable License Alert dialog box will show up.

Your license is no longer available.
To re-establish the license, close and then restart this product.

If the user keeps using AutoCAD there is a 2 minutes grace follow by this Network License – Lost Connection dialog box.

A valid license could not be obtained from the network license manager. Please save your work and shutdown.
6 minutes remain before AutoCAD will shut down.
Save drawings and quit – All open drawings will be saved and the application will be shut down immediately.
Continue working – Return to the application to manually save your work during the grace period.
Quit without saving – The application will quit without saving any open drawings.

If the user click on Continue working and does not close AutoCAD the above dialog box will show up when there are 4 minutes remaining and eventually again when 2 minutes are remaining. If still using AutoCAD this final “Network License – Out of Time” dialog box shows up.

A valid license could not be obtained from the network license manager. What do you want to do?
AutoCAD will be closed now.
Save drawings and quit – All open drawings will be saved and the application will be shut down immediately.
Quit without saving – The application will quit without saving any open drawings.

The above is verified to work like this for AutoCAD 2017 and AutoCAD 2018.

If you want to monitor the network license usage see our JTB FlexReport product.

JTB Sort Table 1.1 released

JTB Sort Table 1.1 has been released with a couple of bug fixes:

• Fixed bug in cells with block
• Fixed bug when sorting locked, read-only or linked cells

Sorts data in AutoCAD or BricsCAD tables, ascending or descending in selected columns.

If you are looking for a command on the Table Cell tab to sort data in your table, and can not find it, this app is for you.

There’s a 30 day trial available for JTB Sort Table.

If you need help with any BricsCAD or AutoCAD customization feel free to contact us.

DWG Columns for Explorer 3.2 released

JTB Word's DWG Columns for Explorer has been updated to version 3.2 and got some performance improvements.

We have observed that the performance enhancement is more than 90% for almost all cases. The version 3.1 update could slow down file browsing in Explorer and especially the file selection dialog boxes within Autodesk software.

If you want to see the DWG and DXF properties and metadata in Explorer columns please give the trial a try. No need to have AutoCAD or other CAD programs installed for this to work. After the trial has expired you can still use it to show the DWG version information as long as you like.

DWG Created By (can for example show AutoCAD 2017 or Inventor 2017), DWG id (for example ACAD0001409 making it possible to see difference between a drawing created in AutoCAD or an AutoCAD vertical like AutoCAD Architecture. ODA can show for a DWG created with the Open Design Alliance API), DWG Reg (Version in registry, for example 210 that stands for R21.0) and DWG Build (AutoCAD build number, for example N5200x64).

InfoTip showing when holding the mouse over a file:

If you are also a Revit user our RVT Columns shows the Revit version and Revit build for RTE, RVT, RFA and RFT files.

JTB DST Tool 1.2 released

JTB DST Tool can merge, purge and convert Sheet Set DST files for AutoCAD, BricsCAD and any other CAD software using Sheet Set DST files. For example AutoCAD's Sheet Set Manager (SSM) or AutoCAD Architecture's Project Navigator (PN) Sheet Set View.

• Merge one or more sheet sets.
• The purging is useful for IT or CAD Managers to correct performance problems with SSM Sheet Sets that started to perform badly. Sometimes the DST file can grow unreasonable large and the purging can help.
• Convert to XML for more advanced editing and convert back to DST again.

Version 1.2 fixes a bug in trial mode, related to decimal symbol so if you tried it before and it failed give it a try again.

If you work with the Sheet Set Manager and want to edit Sheet Sets see our SSMPropEditor app or if you want to create Sheet Sets and their properties in an automated manner take a look at our JTB Sheet Set Creator.

JTB Steel 1.3.1 released

JTB Steel 1.3.1 is now released with following changes:

• Fixed US Metric ST section: flange slope column missing
• Added Japanese sections, Russian sections and Taiwan CNS sections

JTB Steel is an app running inside AutoCAD, adding powerful command features to help you draw simple and complex steelwork frames and details efficiently.

You can select and insert Steel Sections from JTB Steel library to AutoCAD drawing just as inserting blocks. You can draw Steel Frames just as drawing lines by 2 pickpoints. All created drawing objects are either blocks or dynamic blocks. Once Steel members are inserted, you can edit these using powerful editing commands located on Tools Palette.

JTB Steel includes advanced automation techniques for modifying dynamic blocks. This means that you can easily manage your drawings and quickly finalize your details. The below example was fully created using JTB Steel (this includes any alignment, rotation etc):

Trial is available for JTB Steel.

JTB Quick Perspective 2.5 released

JTB Quick Perspective 2.5 is released now. JTB Quick Perspective for AutoCAD will transforms Points, Lines, straight Polylines and "landscape" Blocks to perspective view drawing, all in 2D working space. Take a look here what can be done.

Free trial available at JTB Quick Perspective.

What do you want to be automated? We create custom apps. Contact us.