DwgInfoTip - better infotip for DWG files

If you want to get information from DWG files as a infotip or tooltip take a look at DwgInfoTip. Take a look and see how you can show information from the title block and the drawing properties like properties, revision and revision date and more.

• Enhance Your User's Experience with the New DWG Infotip Shell Extension.
• Show the DWG properties as an Infotip (tooltip) in Explorer or even from file dialog boxes within AutoCAD.
• Use DWGPROPS in AutoCAD and add information in the Summary or Custom tabs and it will show up just hovering above a DWG file.
• The Infotip will show the version of the DWG file, file size, date modified and most property information.
• PROPULATE allows quick, automated population of the Drawing Properties dialog data fields.
• No need to have AutoCAD installed. That means that everyone at your company can see this information.
• No need to open the drawing to know information like revision and other valuable information in the drawing.

Acrobat 3D PDF Contest

"The Acrobat 3D PDF Contest is a great opportunity to win yourself some cool prizes while sharing examples of your great work with the entire Acrobat community."

"Large assemblies are strongly encouraged - the bigger and more complex, the better. Solid models that contain PMI, such as dimensioning, tolerancing, and annotation on the 3D model, are also encouraged."

Full contest details can be found here.

Via Jim Merry: Adobe Sponsoring '3D PDF Contest'

Inventor 2008 Windows Vista support with SP1

Knowledge Base document: Autodesk Inventor 2008 Service Pack 1

Via Inventor 2008 Now Supports Windows Vista - Autodesk reports that Service Pack 1 resolves usability issues and enhances overall performance of the MCAD solution. - CAD Management

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT (HKCR) key description

Here is a tip. Avoid writing, deleting or merging (like .REG files or using regedit.exe) to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.

Why?

Basically because HKCR is a merged view based on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes and it can be confusing as to if this will work for the current user, a new user, the administrator user or so.

The registry system uses the following rules to merge information from the two sources:

• The merged view includes all subkeys of the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes key.
• The merged view includes all immediate subkeys of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes key that do not duplicate the subkeys of HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes.
• Below is a list of subkeys that are found in both HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes. The immediate subkeys of these keys from the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE tree are included in the merged view only if they are not duplicates of immediate subkeys from the HKEY_CURRENT_USER tree. The merged view does not include the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE contents of duplicate subkeys.

The following subkeys are found in both HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes. From the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE tree, the immediate subkeys of these keys are included in the merged view only if they are not duplicates of immediate subkeys from the HKEY_CURRENT_USER tree. The merged view does not include the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE contents of duplicate subkeys.

*

*\shellex

*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers

*\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers

AppID

ClsID

Component Categories

Drive

Drive\shellex

Drive\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers

Drive\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers

FileType

Folder

Folder\shellex

Folder\shellex\ColumnHandler

Folder\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers

Folder\shellex\ExtShellFolderViews

Folder\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers

Installer\Components

Installer\Features

Installer\Products

Interface

Mime

Mime\Database

Mime\Database\Charset

Mime\Database\Codepage

Mime\Database\Content Type

Typelib

The HKCR key contains file extension associations and COM class registration information such as ProgIDs, CLSIDs, and IIDs.

More is found in this MSDN document.

3D modeling by Dassault and Microsoft through Live Search Maps

Google SketchUp is getting an alternative it seems with the latest Virtual Earth 3D from Microsoft.

 

"3D Modelling. We partnered with Dassault to create a new application to allow anyone to create 3D buildings and other objects in Virtual Earth. 3DVIA Technology preview allows you to create textured buildings and save them directly into your map Collections.  This technology preview is the first 3D modeling offering between Dassault and Microsoft. We’re looking forward to community feedback from this release to help shape 3DVIA as it moves from technology preview to a first official release. "

"Through our partnership we've created a new consumer tool that seamlessly integrates with Live Search Maps Collections. To try it out, switch into 3D in Firefox or IE on windows, right click and choose 'Add a 3D Model. You can share your Collections that contain models just like any other and later this year we'll release an update to our javascript map control that will let you integrate your models into web mashups! Much more on this feature area here on the VE blog over the coming days."

Via Virtual Earth / Live Maps: Live Search Maps v2 is out! Gemini Launches.

PDF-XChange Viewer review

If you want something better or want more than Adobe Reader but don't want or cannot justify the quite expensive Adobe Acrobat, Tracker Software Products has made the free PDF-XChange Viewer.

Testing the Viewer I must say it's a great product.

Below is an AutoCAD DWG file I printed to PDF and then annotated as a test.

Here is some of the things this free PDF viewer can do.

• Add Comments and Annotations to any PDF file (subject to security settings) - unlike the Adobe Viewer which requires the PDF creation tool to be 'certified' by Adobe !
• Markup pages with text and objects
• Type directly on any PDF page, not just Adobe enabled forms documents - in Typewriter mode.
• Export PDF pages or entire files to any one of the supported Image formats including BMP, JPEG, TIFF, PNG and many more ...
• Extract text from a PDF page/File
• Make your navigation of large or complex PDF files both simple and enjoyable switch the extended functionality of our 'Loupe' and the 'Pan' Window tools
• Fill and Save Adobe Forms to disk, email or 'post' !
• Full Javascript Engine included
• Updated JPEG2000 Compression support - improving speed.
• And many more features such as Rotate and 'Save',  Email files etc ...

Crop pages and Delete pages are not available in this version even though there are menu items for them. (Version 1.0 Build 0026) It seems like there is a PRO version coming and it might be that you need to buy that one for added functionality.

Notice that if you have added comments, annotations and markups they are still editable from within Adobe Acrobat.

There is also a SDK for the viewer but it's not free.

I've developed using their PDF-XChange SDK Pro API before and it creates the best and smallest PDF you can find. I used it to add text and images to existing PDF's in an automated way after they were approved in a document management system (ProArc from Software Innovation). I also solved so that PDF documents were printed in correct sorted order when printed from ProArc.

DWG trademark dispute continues

In EU (European Union) there is a dispute around DWG as trademark. As a user that used Autodesk products a lot, I do associate DWG most with Autodesk and mainly the DWG file format. On the other hand I know of The Open Design Alliance (ODA) that makes the OpenDWG software library that can create, read and edit DWG files as well as other products that either uses OpenDWG and its DWGdirect or their own solution, some of them for many years. So if it's acceptable or not to use DWG as a trademark in EU time will tell.

Knowledge Base Software (Pty) Limited and SolidWorks Corporation are opposing the registration of DWG by Autodesk, Inc. and Autodesk, Inc. is opposing registration of DWGGATEWAY and DWGEDITOR by SolidWorks Corporation.

Details are found at OAMI-ONLINE where you find about REALDWG and TRUSTEDDWG.

United States Patent and Trademark Office

For DWG™ trademark guidelines, see Paragraph 7, under Guidelines for Use

Related posts: DWGgateway supports DWG 2007 and Autodesk tries to trademark DWG

What is the Blog Action Day?

It's about the environment and how each of us can make a change.

As engineers and computer users here are a couple of tips closely related to Autodesk.

• Don't use the physical printer use an electronic/virtual printer. Use a workflow like this starting and ending with AutoCAD. Print to an electronic format like DWF, make your mark ups with Autodesk Design Review and then take the DWF into AutoCAD again. Recycling the electrons.
• Take a look at Autodesk Sustainability Center

Related news is how the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 is to be shared, in two equal parts, between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.

Here is the action blog and website.

SVCHOST.EXE - Executable file has been changed - Kaspersky

I evaluated the Antivirus Software Internet Security 7.0 from Kaspersky Lab for a time and all in all it worked good but then I kept getting this message and sent Kaspersky support an email about it saying:

"I keep getting this firewall message that Executable file has been changed. It started a couple of days ago and it shows up several times a day. Please advice how to always allow this or what the problem is. The dialog box says: Firewall - Executable file has been changed. File has been modified since last scan. It can be regular update or infection. Should the program be granted network access? Process name: SVCHOST.EXE Process ID: 1600 Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation Version: 6.0.6000.16386. The allow option says: Information about the file will be updated in the existing application rule. In future this activity will be allowed automatically. The problem is that still this warning shows up many times per day."

Three weeks later and still I have not got a response on this other than the automatic emails. "...your response time may exceed 24 hrs.  We apologize for this delay and ask that you visit the technical support site at http://usa.kaspersky.com/support/ for answers to common questions..."

I later also found out that I cannot purchase their product from Sweden. I could not even buy it online.

Jing 1.3 released

Jing is getting better with the version 1.3. Here is one of the news: "When selecting the area to capture, dimensions of the selected area now show up as a mouse tooltip."

   

You can now resize and move drawing objects.

Previous post on Jing.

JTB FlexReport 3.4.3 news

JTB FlexReport has been updated.

The installation package is not updated for this release though. If you want the added features or have had problems with the Concurrent report you can just download the new database or if you don't have Access use the free Runtime.

• JTB FlexReport Detailed Reports.mdb (file ver. 3.4.9) updated with reports that includes User, Host and Server. Host Group Report per year added. Max Min Avg Concurrent Usage reports should work in older versions of Access now. Download here.

• Version that does not require Access is available. It uses Access Runtime 2007. Details here.

Access query too complex to be evaluated and a workaround

This post shows how to identify and workaround a limitation or bug in Access.

This is the error message when opening a specific query directly within Access 2003. Using Access 2007 on the other hand seems to be able to handle this type of query.

"This expression is typed incorrectly, or it is too complex to be evaluated. For example, a numeric expression may contain too many complicated elements. Try simplifying the expression by assigning parts of the expression to variables."

I could also get this message in some cases when using the Access Runtime 2007 (using the file extension .accdr). It seems to happen if Access 2003 is installed and Access Runtime 2007 at the same time.

"Execution of this application has stopped due to a run-time error. The application can't continue and will be shut down."

If I use VBA code like this to open nothing happens at all.

DoCmd.OpenQuery "qryInvoice", acNormal, acEdit

Here is a simplified version of the query when it does not work. The original query was 10 times larger and I removed one thing at a time to find out the cause. I have several checkboxes on a form so it's possible to dynamically query based on selected weekdays.

SELECT invoice
FROM invoices
WHERE (((Weekday([DateTimeField],2)) In (-1*[Forms]![frmInvoices]![CheckMo].[value],-2*[Forms]![frmInvoices]![CheckTu].[value],-3*[Forms]![frmInvoices]![CheckWe].[value],-4*[Forms]![frmInvoices]![CheckTh].[value])));

Removing one of the In list of expressions and it starts working as expected.

SELECT invoice
FROM invoices
WHERE (((Weekday([DateTimeField],2)) In (-1*[Forms]![frmInvoices]![CheckMo].[value],-2*[Forms]![frmInvoices]![CheckTu].[value],-3*[Forms]![frmInvoices]![CheckWe].[value])));

I then tried to use constants in the In operator and it did work.

SELECT invoice
FROM invoices
WHERE (((Weekday([DateTimeField],2)) In (1,2,3,4)));

So I ended up with this workaround by using VBA to build the SQL query string and then the query definition and dynamically so to say updating the saved query. This shows also how an Access query can be created using VBA.

On Error Resume Next
Dim dbs As Database
Dim strSQL As String
Dim strQueryName As String
Dim qryDef As QueryDef
Set dbs = CurrentDb
strQueryName = "qryInvoice"
dbs.QueryDefs.Delete strQueryName
strSQL = "SELECT invoice FROM invoices " & _
"WHERE (((Weekday([DateTimeField],2)) In (" & -1 * IIf(CheckMo.Value, -1, 0) & "," & -2 * IIf(CheckTu.Value, -1, 0) & "," & -3 * IIf(CheckWe.Value, -1, 0) & "," & -4 * IIf(CheckTh.Value, -1, 0) & ")));"
Set qryDef = dbs.CreateQueryDef(strQueryName, strSQL)
DoCmd.OpenQuery strQueryName, acNormal, acEdit

Top Criteria for BIM Solutions: AECbytes Survey Results

An extensive report worth reading if you are into BIM. The BIM survey report is found here.

"Even though this survey was commissioned by Bentley Systems, its results should be valuable to all the BIM vendors as they plan on the future direction of their solutions. It also serves as a very useful benchmark for assessing the current state of the art of AEC technology to which future survey results can be compared to chart the course of change."

Via AECbytes Blog Top Criteria for BIM Solutions: AECbytes Survey Results

Autodesk Impression Technology Preview för Sverige, etc

Very nice to see more countries (including Sweden/Sverige) supported for Autodesk Impression. I wrote earlier of this limitation and the fact that the toolbar made no sense for many.

Australia
Belgium
Canada
Denmark
Finland
Ireland
Luxembourg
Malaysia
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Singapore
Sweden
United Kingdom
United States

Via Inside Hues.