AutoCAD 2007 på svenska (in Swedish)

I recently had an article about AutoCAD 2007 published in the Swedish CAD magazine CAD&rit-nytt. The article is in Swedish and can also be found among most other published articles found here.

100% JTB World

I'm back from vacation so this is the first post after the silence.

The big news is that before the vacation I resigned after 9 years from Pharmadule Emtunga where I've been working as CAD and Database/Application Development Manager and once in a time Arch/Struct Engineer. There is a 3 month period (by law in Sweden) from I resign until I can end my employment so from September I will focus 100% on the family company JTB World.

This means that I will have more time to do consulting projects, develop software and more. Focus will still be on the softwares. CAD applications like AutoCAD and ADT, databases like Access and SQL Server, VBA, VB, AutoLISP, VB.NET, etc.

If you have a software idea (small or large) you want developed, customization to be done, integration or automation please contact me so we can discuss the details.

JTB FlexReport used in US, Spain, Australia, India etc.

Companies all over the world uses JTB FlexReport, the FLEXnet/FLEXlm license report solution.

The latest version has added support for the groups defined in the license vendor options file (.opt).

Electrolux, Luxenburg
 ARUP, US
FGI Group, Inc, US
 Costain, UK
Hall and Foreman, Inc, US
 Suunnittelukeskus Oy, Finland
Cole & Associates Inc., US
 Kirklees Metropolitan Council Design & Property Service, United Kingdom
HKM Engineering Inc., US
 Universidad Politécnica de Valencian, Spain
Fluke Electronics, US
 Westfield Design & Construction Pty. Ltd., Australia
PWI Engineering, US
 Thales Avionics, France
Clark Nexsen, US
 D.S. Thaler & Associates, Inc., US
White, Sweden
 Exelon Corporation, US
Patni Computer Systems Ltd, India
 Withers & Ravenel, US
BHP Billiton, Canada
 Olsson Associates, US

...are among customers that recently purchased JTB FlexReport as their solution to have better control on their network licenses based on the FLEXlm or FLEXnet technology. E.g. details on what users are using the product most or least can be reported on as well as graphical reports as seen below. This is done for applications like ARM, Rational Rose, SoldWorks, AutoCAD, MagiCAD, Novapoint, Mathcad, ProE, Matlab, ESRI ArcGIS, Intergraph GeoMedia, SpeechWorks and others.

Support for consolidating several version of one application. If you have Autodesk subscription you are allowed to have for example AutoCAD 2007, AutoCAD 2006 and AutoCAD 2005 available for the users as long as you don't use more licenses as you have subscription for. JTB FlexReport can group these licenses together in one graph.

Read more about JTB FlexReport and ask for a free fully functional trial.

Get ready for Office 2007

I read the news about the public beta at the Excel blog a few days ago. You can try it too if you want to prepare for the public release. http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/beta/getthebeta.mspx I've used it for some days now and really likes it so far even though it takes some time to get used to all the news like ribbon. I've found that some of my VBA code in Excel 2007 has to be updated (unless it's something with the beta) to work properly while some other code I have for example to integrate ADT 2007 and different version of Excel using VB.NET 2005 works without any changes. So far all VBA, VB and VB.NET code that I've tested has worked for Access 2007. On the topic of Microsoft Beta I can see that for this month 1.5% of the traffic visiting www.jtbworld.com are using Internet Explorer 7 Beta.

AutoCAD 2007 Network License Activation Utility bug

I used the AutoCAD 2007 Network License Activation Utility and the function to save to an existing license file.

I stopped the service and copied the 4 files adskflex.exe, lmgrd.exe, lmtools.exe and lmutil.exe started the service and noticed that the licenses where not available when checking the server status.

I found that the problem was that a "return" was missing before INCREMENT as in the sample below.

...4C2E A95E"INCREMENT PLIST...

It should be:

...4C2E A95E"
INCREMENT PLIST...

ADT 2006 Hotfix - Project Navigator Performance on a Remote Server

Something I've waited for and even more so all the other ADT 2006 users. This doesn't apply for ADT 2007 and I guess this hotfix is included (correct me if I'm wrong).

I clocked opening ADT with a project and refreshing a project before and after this hotfix.

I saved 70 seconds on opening ADT with this specific project located on another location. Before it took 3:00 minutes opening and now it takes 1:50.

I saved 50 seconds on refreshing this project. Before it took 1:10 minutes and now only 20 seconds.

Add a comment below and describe how the performace has increased for you.

Thanks Autodesk for listening!

This hotfix applies to Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2006 and addresses the performance of the Project Navigator when the project is stored on a remote server. Important: This hotfix should only be applied if you are experiencing performance issues using Project Navigator over a wide area network (WAN). Applying the hotfix will reduce the time it takes for the Project Navigator to open, close and refresh. The time it takes to start a Callout tool when working in a project has also been reduced. Modification of the Project Properties when the project .apj file is either read-only or locked by another user has been stabilized.

MSBee 1.0 on CodePlex

MSBee 1.0 has been posted to the relatively new Microsoft site CodePlex for open and shared source. This free utility is useful if you have or want to deliver code supporting .NET 1.1 but want to work in Visual Studio 2005 and .NET 2.0.

Be the AutoCAD Product Manager for AutoCAD 2008 and beyond

Fire up the communication center in your Autodesk product like AutoCAD or ADT and take the “You’re the AutoCAD Product Manager!” survey. Direct link here. "your answers directly affect the direction of AutoCAD and the Autodesk product line. While we ask for your feedback on a list of features in this survey, it is not an exhaustive list, nor is it the makeup of the next release." Some of it might end up in the next release AutoCAD 2008 if there are compelling reasons from the users to have Autodesk develop it. If you don't like any of the features specified in this survey fill in as comment what you would like to have added. By experience I know Autodesk tries to listen to the users so take the survey.

AutoCAD Brainteaser

Jason Rhymes asked for brainteasers in the cadmanager discussion group. He has posted some at http://www.acadianagraphics.com/Brainteaser.html Here is my contribution.



The DWF can be downloaded here. Feel free to share and use this brainteaser at your company.

HatchB.lsp updated

I noticed a request to HatchB.lsp in the discussion groups:

"For some of the work that I do, HATCHB.lsp is one of the greatest things. I only have one complaint..it only creates the hatch boundary on the current layer. It would be nice to have the boundaries created on the same layer as the original hatch is on. I have drawings with as many as 16 layers; it could take a while to isolate each layer run the lsp one every one separately.Has anyone else worked towards a solution for something like this?"

Well since I though it was a great request and I'm the author of HatchB.lsp I though I could fulfill this wish. Download the latest HatchB.lsp here. Click on the diskette to download the code.

AVEVA's collaboration with Autodesk

I got the Pipeline magazine from AVEVA today and according to it the integration of ADT and PDMS is now available. Looks like something we really have to try at Pharmadule Emtunga where I work as CAD Manager.

Also according to AVEVA "we plan to collaborate with AutoDesk in developing an intelligent P&ID package that will combine the rich functionality of the existing AVEVA P&ID offering (e.g. 2D-3D integration and automated workflow management), with the advanced drafting capabilities of AutoCAD."

I wonder what this is about. I've yet not seen any press release on this.
I know Autodesk has a P&ID package on its way. Is this the same thing or another thing?

ClearType Tuner

While reading the post on DWF display obeys ClearType setting by Scott Sheppard it reminded me of one of my favorite shortcuts I use whenever I reinstall Windows XP. I then use the Windows XP ClearType Tuner to really fine tune the appearance of ClearType for screen fonts.

 

Clear Type can also be activated manually.

 

Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Server 2003

1. Click Start, click Run, type Inetcpl.cpl, and then click OK.
2. In the Internet Properties dialog box, click the Advanced tab, and then click Always use ClearType for HTML under the Multimedia section.

Windows Vista

1. Click Start, type inetcpl.cpl in the Start Search box, and then click inetcpl.cpl in the Programs list.
2. In the Internet Properties dialog box, click the Advanced tab, and then click Always use ClearType for HTML under the Multimedia section.

Detailed FLEXlm usage reports with JTB FlexReport

Do you have applications like MathCAD and AutoCAD using FLEXlm/FLEXnet for network licensing and want better reports than you have today? Here are some detailed sample reports created with JTB FlexReport. Every user is mapped to a group. The group can be a location, division, cost center, it's up to you.

This report is showing how many hours each user has used applications each month sorted with the highest usage first.

How do you want your FLEXlm detailed reports? Contact me to see what can be done. Existing JTB FlexReport customers can request the updates for free as part of the maintenance.

Temporary Override Keys

Temporary Override Keys where introduced in AutoCAD 2006. You can modify the keyboard response time for temporary override keys by changing settings in the Windows Control Panel.

To adjust the temporary override key response time

1. From the Windows Start menu, click Settings > Control Panel.
2. In the Control Panel, click Keyboard.
3. In the Keyboard Properties dialog box, on the Speed tab, drag the Repeat Rate slider to adjust the keyboard response time. Then click OK.