JTB FlexReport 11.1 released

JTB FlexReport 11.1 is released. There are a few new features as well as a bunch of bug fixes. See the version history for details.

The upgrade is free of charge for customers with active maintenance. If the maintenance has expired please contact us to renew.

Free trial of JTB FlexReport is available.

Do you wonder what JTB FlexReport is? JTB FlexReport is a license usage report tool for applications licensed using FlexNet, IBM LUM, DSLS, SPLM, Sentinel,  LM-X, RLM among others. Track usage over time, hours used and much more.

AutoCAD and Controlled folder access

“One or more objects in this drawing cannot be saved to the specified format. The operation was not completed and no file was created.” is an AutoCAD Message that might not be so helpful. In my case I tried to save the drawing to a specific folder.

If you get this message check if you in Windows 10 have activated Controlled folder access. Either turn it off or allow AutoCAD (acad.exe) through Controlled folder access.

There can be a lot of other reasons for seeing this message. Here’s what can be found on the Autodesk Knowledge Network:

Causes:

This error can have multiple causes:

• Corrupt drawing.
• Corrupt user profile.
• Low free disk space.
• File server issues.
• Missing drive (such as a USB drive that is no longer connected).
• Proxy objects (objects created by third-party applications or other Autodesk applications) that are not recognized by AutoCAD.
• The DACH Extension is installed (AutoCAD Civil 3D) and "empty" surfaces and the "DTM Dreiecksbeschriftung" function is present.
• Network adapter settings

Solution:

Enable full saves instead of incremental saves in AutoCAD
On the command line in AutoCAD, type ISAVEPERCENT and set the value to 0 (zero).
Corrupt drawing / low free disk space

• Use the AUDIT command to repair your drawing. This should allow it to be saved.
• Use SAVEAS or WBLOCK to create a new file.
• If the drawing immediately shows the error when you save without making changes in the drawing, insert the drawing into a new drawing created from the acad.dwt template.

Corrupt AutoCAD User Profile
Reset AutoCAD (see How to reset AutoCAD to defaults).
Corrupt Windows User Profile
Login as another user and try again. If this works an administrator has to reset the Windows User profile
File Server issues
If this error occurs when you are saving drawing files inside file management software, set AutoCAD and the file management software to both run as administrator and disable User Account Control in Windows.
Proxy objects
Enable recognition for proxy objects by setting the following variables to 1:

• PROXYGRAPHICS: Saved in drawing (Initial value is 1)
• PROXYNOTICE: Saved in the registry (Initial value is 1)
• PROXYSHOW: Saved in the registry (Initial value is 1)

​Use the command -EXPORTTOAUTOCAD to create a new file that only contains AutoCAD-native objects. Then use that new file going forward.
Remove the German DACH Extension
See Error: "DGM-Beschriftung Wird neu erstellt" Civil 3D 2016.
Windows Search service
Check the folders that contain your drawings to see if they can be indexed by the Windows Search service (right-click > Properties > Advanced). Make sure Windows is not indexing the folders. On occasion, the indexing repeatedly causes this error with AutoCAD drawings.
Network adapter settings
Disable the TCP Offload setting in your network adapter. For instructions on this, consult the manufacturer of your Ethernet adapter. 

JTB BatchAttEdit 2.1 - Batch Attribute Editor for AutoCAD

JTB BatchAttEdit 2.1 has been released. We have added support for AutoCAD 2019, editing multiline attribute and editing of field codes in attributes. Field codes are being used by Sheet Set Manager as well as if you have manually added fields to attributes.

This batch attribute editor app for AutoCAD collects attributes in all blocks of specified name patterns in multiple drawings and display in a wide spreadsheet. Then you can edit attribute texts as easy as working with Excel. Once done, click "Apply Attribute Changes" to update values to drawings.

This makes it a great app to for example edit title block attributes across many drawings instead of having to do it one drawing at a time.

JTB Sheet Set Publish 2.0 with AutoCAD 2019 support

JTB Sheet Set Publish 2.0 comes with support for AutoCAD 2019 as well as some bug fixes and minor UI changes.

JTB Sheet Set Publish is an app for AutoCAD that publishes sheets in Sheet Sets to files like PDF and DWF. The files created are named as you want based on a naming formula that you specify. Use date fields and/or sheet properties of your choice to build up the output filename.

Example after publishing subsets to separate folders:

JTB XClipClean 2.3 released to support AutoCAD 2019

JTB XClipClean 2.3 has been released. It comes with AutoCAD 2019 support as well as some bug fixes.

JTB World’s XClipClean is an Xclip-cutter app for AutoCAD to clean up xrefs or blocks that been clipped so that the information that is outside the clip is removed. This is useful when you need to remove hidden geometry and minimize DWG file size.

AutoCAD allows blocks and xrefs to be clipped using the XCLIP command. Sometimes for different reasons you have to clean up the blocks or xrefs that have been clipped. JTB XClipClean can help you with that by deleting and trimming geometry that is outside the xclip boundary.

Revit does not handle xclipped blocks and xrefs so XClipClean can be useful to run on drawings before taking them into Revit.

EduFinder 1.1 released

Our app EduFinder for AutoCAD is updated again after a few years when AutoCAD had the API needed removed. With AutoCAD 2019 it is back again. To quickly find drawings with the watermark use our app EduFinder.

Here’s what Autodesk tells about the reintroduction of an education watermark for AutoCAD 2019 and AutoCAD 2019 vertical products licensed by student and educators through the Autodesk Education Community.

1. What is changing for AutoCAD 2019 and AutoCAD 2019 vertical products obtained through the Autodesk Education Community?
Autodesk® AutoCAD® 2019 and Autodesk® AutoCAD® 2019-vertical products licensed by students, educators and mentors or competitors in an Autodesk sponsored design competition through the Autodesk® Education Community will produce an education watermark. This change does not apply to multi-user or network software deployed by educational institutions.

2. What AutoCAD 2019 products contain the watermark?
Autodesk® AutoCAD®
Autodesk® AutoCAD® Architecture
Autodesk® AutoCAD® Civil 3D
Autodesk® AutoCAD® Electrical
Autodesk® AutoCAD® for Mac
Autodesk® AutoCAD LT®
Autodesk® AutoCAD® LT for Mac
Autodesk® AutoCAD® Map 3D
Autodesk® AutoCAD® Mechanical
Autodesk® AutoCAD® MEP
Autodesk® AutoCAD® Plant 3D

3. Why has a watermark been reintroduced to AutoCAD 2019 and AutoCAD 2019 vertical products?
The education watermark will support the legitimate use of Autodesk® free education licenses and help ensure students and educators continue to access the same full-product functionality as industry professionals worldwide.

4. Is this a global change?
Yes, this applies to all education licences issued to students and educators for AutoCAD 2019 and AutoCAD 2019 vertical products in all languages.

5. When will the watermark be displayed?
When plotting, or doing a plot preview of a drawing that was created using AutoCAD 2019 and/or AutoCAD 2019 vertical products licensed by students and educators through the Autodesk Education Community, a subtle education watermark will be displayed. A watermark is not displayed on drawings created using multi-user or network educational institution licenses.

6. What does the watermark look like?
When plotting or doing a plot preview of a drawing created using AutoCAD 2019 or an AutoCAD 2019 vertical product licensed by students or educators through the Autodesk Education Community, users will see this watermark:

7. What in-product notification informs users of the watermark?
When using a version of AutoCAD 2019 that displays an education watermark to open a drawing that was created using a commercial license of AutoCAD, the following task dialog is displayed:

When using a commercial license of AutoCAD to open a drawing that was created using a version AutoCAD 2019 that displays the education watermark, the following task dialog is displayed:

8. Does the education watermark display when another Autodesk software product is used to open a drawing?
The AutoCAD 2019 products listed will produce the watermark, and it will persist in other products that consume AutoCAD drawings containing the watermark.

9. Will I see a warning dialog box when opening a drawing created using a version of AutoCAD 2019 and/or AutoCAD 2019 vertical product that displays the watermark in another Autodesk software product?
No. The warning dialog box only appears in AutoCAD based products.

10. If a commercial license is used to copy, paste, insert, or reference operations from drawings created using a version of AutoCAD 2019 and/or AutoCAD 2019 vertical products that display the watermark, does the education watermark follow the parent drawing and display on other drawings in the commercial organization?
No. This “spread” behaviour does not occur with AutoCAD 2019 and/or AutoCAD 2019 vertical products.

11. My college lab has AutoCAD 2019 and/or AutoCAD 2019 vertical products installed. I don’t see a watermark when plotting, or doing a plot preview of a drawing I created using the software in the lab. Why not?
AutoCAD 2019 and AutoCAD 2019 vertical products licensed through the Autodesk Education Community by educational institutions and installed on the educational institution’s computers or devices do not contain an education watermark. Only educational licenses for students, educators and Autodesk sponsored design competition competitors and mentors produce the watermark.

12. May I remove the education watermark in AutoCAD 2019 and/or AutoCAD 2019 vertical products?
It is intended that this watermark promotes legitimate use of AutoCAD software licensed by students and educators through the Autodesk Education Community and any action to bypass the watermark is a violation of your license terms.

13. If I download an older version of AutoCAD and/or AutoCAD vertical products from the Autodesk Education Community, does it now produce a watermark?
No. AutoCAD and AutoCAD vertical product releases 2016, 2017, and 2018 available through the Autodesk Education Community do not produce a watermark.

14. Will Autodesk add a watermark to other Autodesk products licensed through the Autodesk Education Community in the future?
To support the legitimate use of Autodesk software licensed through the Education Community and ensure student access to the same software used by industry professionals worldwide, Autodesk is considering this action.

AutoCAD 2019.0.1 Update

AutoCAD 2019.0.1 Update is available.

According to the readme:

AutoCAD Updates can be applied to AutoCAD installed as a standalone application and AutoCAD-based toolsets and vertical products. You can install this update in addition to any other applicable updates for the following:

• AutoCAD 2019
• AutoCAD Architecture 2019
• AutoCAD Civil 3D 2019
• AutoCAD Electrical 2019
• AutoCAD Map 3D 2019
• AutoCAD Mechanical 2019
• AutoCAD MEP 2019
• AutoCAD Plant 3D 2019
• Advance Steel 2019

After applying this update, the Product Version or Built On Version in the About box will be listed as P.61.0.0 AutoCAD 2019.0.1. [In Windows Installed Updates the version showing is 23.0.61.0. _VERNUM = "P.61.0.0 (UNICODE)"]

As a result of the detailed information that we received from customers who used the Customer Error Reporting Utility, we were able to identify and fix several defects with the following results:

General

• Startup crashes after loading a partial CUIX file after resetting settings to default no longer occur.

Several additional defects have been fixed with the following results:

Display

• The draw order in a block definition is maintained when inserting the block. [This fixed issues with our JTB Steel app.]

Editing

• When grip editing is in progress and dynamic input is turned on, pressing the Tab key cycles between the full distance, the angle, and the extension distance.

General

• The Open from Web & Mobile and Save to Web & Mobile buttons on the Quick Access toolbar in 64-bit versions can now be hidden or removed.

• The division symbol in stacked fractions can now be changed between horizontal and diagonal.

• The tool palette path can now be changed from the default value without being reset when exiting the Options dialog box.

More can be found about AutoCAD 2019 here.

RVT Columns for Explorer supports Revit 2019

RVT Columns for Explorer has been updated to handle the new file format of Revit 2019 files. With this app you can see the Revit Build and Revit Version on RTE, RVT, RFA and RFT files in Explorer as well as any products that shows Revit files in dialog boxes like Revit’s Open file dialog box.

Revit 2019 has got a lot of new features worth exploring. How about the ability to drag views out of the Revit application window to secondary monitors?

AutoCAD Architecture 2019 and AutoCAD toolsets released

More of the AutoCAD 2019 toolsets are now released like the Architecture toolset. Right after installing AutoCAD Architecture 2019 I noticed that AutoCAD Architecture 2019.0.1 Update was available. See readme.

What’s new in AutoCAD Architecture 2019? I don’t think there is anything other than what comes as part of vanilla AutoCAD.

See also the blog post about AutoCAD 2019

JTB Raster2OLE 1.2 - bind attached images in AutoCAD

JTB Raster2OLE has been updated to version 1.2.

• Added support for rotated, mirrored raster images
• Fix undo action

AutoCAD has no Bind option available to bind raster images to a drawing. JTB Raster2OLE app for AutoCAD will help you to bind the attached images.

It even works for some images that IEMBED command in Raster Design fails to embed.

JTB Steel 1.6

JTB Steel has been updated to version 1.6.

• UI fixes
• Added support for AutoCAD 2019
• Network licensing added
• Fixed issue where the frame tag/frame view layers get switched
• Add Australian member schedule files. Enhance the section list to show member schedule.
• Resolve button error in Windows 10 update.

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

JTB Batch Change 1.7

JTB Batch Change has been updated to version 1.7.

• Fix bug in changing text: unexpectedly trim off spaces at text's beginning and end.
• Fix Log report on Text and *Cancel*
• Network license implemented.
• Add support for Drawing Standard file(*.dws)
• Added Autodesk® AutoCAD® 2019 support.
• Fix minor issues.

Batch process many drawings in AutoCAD with the help of Excel. Rename, Find and Replace, import, change and much more.

Sheet Set Manager and Sheet List Table # issues

I was seeing this problem in the Autodesk Forum: Sheet Set Manager "Sheet List Table" has strange contents and thought it made a good blog post.

Note how in the example below only Sheet Number 1 and 5 shows correct Sheet Number and Sheet Title. For the test I use AutoCAD 2019.

Sheet 2 has Sheet title “TEST” and Layout name “1 TEST”.

Sheet 2 has Sheet title “TEST #2” and Layout name “2 TEST #2”.

Sheet 3 has Sheet title “TEST” and Layout name “3 TEST #3”.

Sheet 4 has Sheet title “TEST #4” and Layout name “4 TEST”.

Sheet 5 has Sheet title “TEST ＃5” and Layout name “5 TEST ＃5” and File name “5 TEST ＃5.dwg”.

Sheet 6 has Sheet title “TEST” and Layout name “6 TEST 6” and File name “6 TEST #6.dwg”.

If either of the Sheet title, Layout name or File name includes # (number sign, hash, or pound sign) then you will be in trouble.

• The Sheet Number may be incorrect
• The Sheet Title may be incorrect
• If you click through on the hyperlink you can get the “Hyperlink destination cannot be found.” error.

Why does Sheet 5 work then?

It uses a workaround by using the character ＃ (very similar to #). It is known as the “fullwidth number sign”. It is a Unicode character that is mainly used in Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
Either copy it from here ＃ or press and hold down the Alt key, type on the numeric keypad 065283 and then release the Alt key.

BricsCAD 18 does not have these problems even though it still lack the hyperlink functionality and update of Sheet List functionality.

If you’re reading this you probably are interested in the Sheet Set Manager. If you have not yet looked at our SSMPropEditor app I suggest you do as it will make your life easier working with Sheet Sets and their various properties. Or look at JTB Sheet Set Creator, JTB DST Tool and JTB Sheet Set Publish.

DWG Columns for Explorer 4.1 adds DWG Editing Time

DWG Columns for Explorer version 4.1 by JTB World is now available.

DWG Editing Time column is new and shows how many hours and minutes the drawing has been edited. A lot of other DWG properties can be seen like DWG version and custom properties. See these in Explorer or file selection dialog boxes in your CAD product.

DWG Editing Time is the same thing as Total editing time that the commands TIME or DWGPROPS>Statistics are showing.

The app works with drawing files created or edited with products like AutoCAD, Revit, Dassault Systemes DraftSight, Caddie, CADopia, progeCAD, Bricsys BricsCAD, IMSI TurboCAD, GRAPHISOFT ArchiCAD, GstarCAD, nanoCAD, MicroStation, ZWCAD+ and others.

A 30 day trial of DWG Columns for Explorer is available as well as a freeware version that only shows the DWG version column.

Autodesk Industry Collection concurrent usage policy limitation removed

For some time there was a policy limitation of Autodesk Industry Collection to only two concurrent products being used at the same time.

Finally this limitation has been removed.

Quote from the Autodesk Move To Subscription forum:

Hi all, I have an update to share on this topic... we are removing the Industry Collection concurrent usage policy limitation.  Here are some more details/background:

Overview:

Currently, the Industry Collection concurrent usage policy limits the number of collection products that can be used at the same time to two. The terms and conditions related to Industry Collection concurrent title access stated:

• 2.1.1 Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in the applicable Autodesk License and Services Agreement relating to any Industry Collection software program Benefit, the maximum number of Concurrent Access Titles that You or Your Named User may Access concurrently shall not exceed two (2) Concurrent Access Titles, at any one time.

Effective immediately we are removing this restriction and allowing customers to use as many products concurrently within the collection as they need to support their workflows.

Why we have removed this restriction:

The Industry Collections continue to evolve and are increasingly focused on the support of multi-product workflows.  The restrictive nature of the concurrent usage policy does not support this progression.

If you want to monitor license usage of Autodesk network licenses you may find our JTB FlexReport usage monitoring solution valuable.