Edit CAD Sheet Sets without CAD with JTB SSMPropEditor

JTB SSMPropEditor 2020.9.0 has been released and comes with a some improvements and fixes.

• More editing functionality for Label block for views, Callout blocks, Page setup overrides file, Sheet storage location and Sheet creation template.
  
• Silent command line installation is now also uninstalling previous version unattended.
• Chinese localization. 图纸集管理器
  
• Graphical issues fixed that could happen in some systems due to text scaling and DPI.

Are you using Sheet Set Manager in AutoCAD, BricsCAD, GstarCAD or NanoCAD? If you do, then SSMPropEditor will help a lot, save time and effort updating properties across sheets. Free trial of JTB SSMPropEditor available.

JTB FlexReport will help when migrating to Named User licensing by Autodesk

If you have used Autodesk network licenses you might have or will migrate to the new Named User plans. JTB FlexReport will help with your reporting needs as well as to prepare before it’s time to know how many Named User licenses you need. For example by importing old FlexNet debug logs and create reports on them.

JTB FlexReport 2020.9.3 is now ready.

We have added, improved and fixed things in this release. Some of it:

• Added support to import FlexNet debug log usage and denials.
  
• GHSlm improved to handling large logs without interrupting other monitored  license systems.
  
• DS-2 bug fixed to use correct server name.
  
• Fixed a bug where logging could stop in some cases.
  
• Fixed  bug that could result in an empty HTML report.
  
• Raw data list and pinged hosts reports use date filters.
  
• Gridline settings saved and used as expected in future reports, auto reports and favorites.

See the version history for details.

Trial is available if you want to give it a try.

If your maintenance has expired you can try the new version for a few weeks, if you want to keep using it contact us to renew the maintenance. The upgrade is free of charge for customers with active maintenance.

What is JTB FlexReport? JTB FlexReport is a license usage report tool for applications licensed using network license systems like FlexNet, IBM LUM, DSLS, SPLM, Sentinel, LM-X, RLM, EPLAN (ELM), HASP, DPT, Tebis, CodeMeter among others. Track usage over time, hours used and much more.

If you have FlexNet licenses check out our JTB FlexReport LT freeware.

Autodesk user? Take a look at Autodesk Named User usage reporting, Autodesk Network Licenses RIP, New Named User Plans and Prepare for the switch to Autodesk Named User Licenses.

JTB Pline Closure Report for AutoCAD polylines

When you have a drawing where there is a polyline drawn from surveying data around an area, you need to check how the polyline is properly closed. The distance between the start point and the end point of the polyline is the Closure Error Distance. Ideally, it should be zero, but very often it is not. JTB Pline Closure Report will help you to create that Pline Closure Report. Including in the report, it lists the pline's coordinates and closed area. See images below for more details of all values in the report.

Case 1.

Case 2.

Dimensions of a curve.

Polyline enclosure text report.

Trial license of JTB Pline Closure Report is available for 30 days.

JTB FixRefs 2.0 released - fix your external references in AutoCAD

JTB FixRefs 2.0 is now available. Fix paths on your external references. Xrefs, Datalinks, Raster Images, PDFs, DWFs, and DGNs are supported.

Version 2.0 news:

• Retain drawing's thumbnail and xref override properties after saving
• Added option to retain date modified after saving
• Added button to open drawing's folder in Window Explorer

Free trial of JTB FixRefs available.

JTB Tool Palettes for AutoCAD

JTB Tool Palettes app has palettes similar to AutoCAD Tool Palettes but with some unique advanced features useful for companies with a lot of AutoCAD users.

But when you get into the work of creating, editing and distributing the palettes to other users, JTB Tool Palettes has powerful spreadsheets and tools for you as AutoCAD administrator, coordinator or CAD manager.

The Edit Command Window is a very wide spreadsheet of many tool columns.

Unless running in trial license, this window requires admin password to open. Admin password will be sent after you have purchased the license.

JTB Tool Palettes saves all palettes and palettes group to 1 .dat database file. Different set of tool palettes are saved to different dat file. Reference image files default location is the "Image" folder

You can put this Data folder on the network and share it with everyone. Other user can run the JTBToolPalettes_SelectDataFile to browse for it.

Trial license of JTB Tool Palettes is available in 30 days.

BricsCAD customization and programming services

Are you using BricsCAD and need AutoCAD apps migrated or new apps created?

We have extensive experience creating both small simple commands and more complex apps for BricsCAD using LISP, VBA, VB.NET and C#.

We look forward to hear from you. Contact us with your needs.

Some apps for BricsCAD by JTB World:

• JTB SmartBatch aka SmartPurger
• JTB BatchAttEdit
• JTB CAD Automation Tools
• SSMPropEditor
• JTB DST Tool
• JTB Sheet Set Publish
• DWG Columns for Explorer - freeware version available
• JTB Catenary
• JTB Align Plus
• JTB Sort Table
• JTB Layout Palette
• JTB Text Bubble Plus
• JTB Layer Palette
• JTB FixRefs
• JTB FlexReport - license monitoring of BricsCAD license usage

Autodesk Named User usage reporting

Are you considering what Autodesk plan for Named Users you will go ahead with, now that there will be no more network licenses?

Product usage reporting with user details comes with the Premium plan and Enterprise plan for Autodesk Named Users at an extra cost compared to the Standard plan. With it you can see which individuals are using each product and version, and their frequency of use.

If the usage reporting sounds compelling you might find that the price is much higher for the Premium or Enterprise plans than if you stay with the Standard plans and add JTB FlexReport that together with JTB Process Monitor will give you great usage reporting of your named user licenses.

You can even monitor both the total usage time and the active usage time. You don’t want to lock up a license for a user using the license for a few hours per week or month.

JTB FlexReport with JTB Process Monitor works fine with any of Autodesk’s plans; Standard, Premium, Enterprise and Education. You can also monitor other software of your choice.

If you’re interested, try JTB FlexReport and JTB Process Monitor for free.

Other blog posts:

• Autodesk Network Licenses RIP, New Named User Plans
• Prepare for the switch to Autodesk Named User Licenses

AutoCAD THUMBSIZE–DWG thumbnail preview images

Thumbnail previews in the AutoCAD 2013 DWG file format and newer are stored as PNG images and provides higher-quality thumbnail previews in a smaller file size than previous image format did. Image resolution is still controlled by the THUMBSIZE system variable. However, the maximum valid value has increased from 2 to 8. If you do not wish to include thumbnail previews in the drawing you can still use the RASTERPREVIEW (THUMBSAVE) system variable to disable them.

Here is how THUMBSIZE is described in the documentation for AutoCAD 2013: Specifies the display resolution in pixels for all thumbnail preview images. It’s saved in the registry with the initial value 3. Whether preview images are saved in drawings is controlled by the THUMBSAVE system variable.

THUMBSAVE (Save a thumbnail preview image) is also available in OPTIONS dialog box on the Open and Save tab, clicking on Thumbnail Preview Settings. THUMBSIZE is only available on the command line.

The larger thumbnail preview used the longer it takes also to save the drawing so if you really want to optimize size and speed set THUMBSAVE to 0 for off.

The preview size in AutoCAD’s file dialog boxes is only showing max 174x101 in resolution. It’s a pity larger options are not available.

The actual size of the thumbnail also depends on how AutoCAD’s application window is sized. Normally it is much wider than higher resulting in thumbnails that are using max width but less in height.

If the current view is using the 2D Wireframe visual style the max height or width of the thumbnail will be 256 even if THUMBSIZE is higher than 2. I can certainly see a need for a change here in an upcoming AutoCAD version as the preview sometimes makes more sense with 2D drawings.

THUMBSIZE	Resolution	DWG File Size
N/A	N/A	152 KB with THUMBSAVE 0 (only 1 KB less than with THUMBSAVE 1 and THUMBSIZE 0)
0	64 x 64	153 KB
1	128 x 128	155 KB
2	256 x 256	158 KB
3	512 x 512	168 KB
4	1024 x 1024	191 KB
5	1440 x 1440	213 KB
6	1600 x 1600	225 KB
7	1920 x 1920	242 KB
8	2560 x 2560	284 KB

To really see the larger thumbnails I used Windows Explorer’s preview pane.

THUMBSIZE=0

THUMBSIZE=3

Here is a test using a drawing with 3D objects and materials and note how the thumbnail adds up to 9 MB to the drawing. The increase due to the thumbnail depends on how the PNG image is compressed and can in worst case probably be up to 15-16 MB for the largest resolution.

THUMBSIZE	Resolution	DWG File Size
N/A	N/A	1154 KB with THUMBSAVE 0 (1 KB less than with THUMBSAVE 1 and THUMBSIZE 0)
0	64 x 64	1155 KB
1	128 x 128	1186 KB
2	256 x 256	1203 KB
3	512 x 512	1261 KB
4	1024 x 1024	1495 KB
5	1440 x 1440	4472 KB
6	1600 x 1600	5172 KB
7	1920 x 1920	6671 KB
8	2560 x 2560	10277 KB

Here is an example using THUMBSIZE set to 1.

THUMBSIZE set to 2.

THUMBSIZE set to 3.