TheSwamp
CAD Forums => CAD General => Topic started by: hudster on March 27, 2007, 09:36:42 AM
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I must say i'm impressed, seems a lot faster than 2007, and I love the new annotation option.
I used it to change a drawing scale from 1:100 to 1:50, and all went fine.
the new 2d option on the dashboard is good as well, i might be able to clear some more toolbars from my drawing space.
I like the column text as well, but i don't i'll have too much use for it. very rarely do we have that many notes.
Multiline attributes are great, i might incorporate them into our titleblocks if they are compatible with older cad versions.
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It would make my life easier if they documented ALL changes, I guess, with the book they send out, instead of gathering random stuff from a hundred different places on the internet.... but I guess that'd be a big book!
We do all our annotation in paper space, so the addition of the annotative scaling tools is moot for us, but we all agree that it's a huge and powerfully awesome tool. I recommended installing 2008 and learning it asap to a couple subs that use model space for annotation.
I love that this release is chocked full of all the little fixes for small things that used to annoy the crap out of me before:
*Spell check has been significantly upgraded to include ZOOMING in to where the typo is! (BOOYAH BABY)
*Now, when using multiple layout tabs, all you have to do to rename it is double click on it... and to rearrange them.. just DRAG the tab where you want it to go! (one of my favorite additions)
*Addition of Sun & Sky Background for rendering (apperantly something brought in from their acquisition of 3dsmax) and photometric lighting... these are fluff for me, but hey, a little fluff now and then is all good.
*Changes/upgrades to material application and I spotted various additions to the Adv Render Pref pallet as well that I am going to love playing with (next shot I get to work on my office model, I guess) that I think are going to help me.. especially the shadow intensity controls.
*For those that use toolbars, the addition of the 2D Drafting / Annotation setup seems cool... more customized environments is only better. Personally I'm a keyboard freak and only use flyouts for block library, xref panel, properties, design center, and vis styles... always docked on left or right, minimized with minimal toolbars up top. I likes me clear space.. within reason but I think being able to switch between environments easily for those who haven't already set up custom environments could save a lot of frustration.
*oh man... I had almost forgot... LAYER CONTROL by VIEWPORT! (yeehaw!) You ever get redlines back from the engineer saying "show the rebar and concrete hatching here, but shade it in this detail... focus on the wall anchoring bars only" and you just stare and go "but but but..." and walk away thinking "AW CRAP" well now... BOOYAH you can create layer overriding color and linetype settings in individual viewports. They've also made it VERY clear which layers have overrides to flag you. When the layer manager is showing, any layer with a layer override (color or linetype, w/e) is highlighted in a light muted blue color to show. I was worried about getting a drawing full of overrides and not being able to work with it well, but I think they did a good job making it very clear and understandable.
*Multileaders and the dimension enhancements are very cool. I do love the dimension break for crossing lines... no matter how much you want to avoid it, a lot of times your dimensions simply MUST cross. I hate that, and for a dimension to remain associative, as I prefer, there's no way other than to have crossing, conflicting lines. Now it's solved. I've yet to work with the jogged dimension, but I'm hoping that a jogged dimension will display the ACCURATE value when dimensioning between two viewports... so if I have a drilled shaft that's 120' deep, I can show the last 10', and first 20' (or w/e) in seperate viewports, then dim between them and it be ACCURATE for a change, without having to override the dimension (cue screams and shrieks of horror)
*I think it's cool to be able to "fade" layers for visual purposes only. When you're working in model space and it's all getting so convoluted your eyes are crossing, you can now select what layers you're working with, and all others will (just visually only... not the layer itself) turn to a shaded gray color to make your focal layers stand out while you work. I don't know that I'll use it often, but I know when I do, it'll help. A lot of times you NEED those dense, heavy layers no to snap to, so turning layers off isn't an option all the time.
...
I think I've gone on enough. One thing I have noticed though that I'm curious about is a change to the "hidden" style and how it displays... it now shows tangential lines I think. It's displaying about 5 lines along the length of a fillet on a steel C channel... I'm using the archaic -shademode (H) hidden style, not the new 3d hidden so I don't know why it would change... I may have forgotten to change a setting... I'll have to check...
I have to say though... I haven't found any bugs yet. Good signs!
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I've seen a few posts on forums about the hidded style not displaying properly without a regen.
A minor bug, and i'm sure some more will appear soon.
But all in all it's pretty good
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I've seen a few posts on forums about the hidded style not displaying properly without a regen.
A minor bug, and i'm sure some more will appear soon.
But all in all it's pretty good
Yea i read that too but regen had nothing to do to fix what I was seeing. What I had seen so far was that it was not displaying hidden lines (dashed) properly... I don't show those normally anyways. Not in this case, though, specifically.
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For example:
as you can see, even after numerous regens in model space through this viewport, and in paperspace, it still displays many lines along the fillets of each steel member...
It almost looks like the triangles that make up a face in polygonal solids or something...
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It would make my life easier if they documented ALL changes, I guess, with the book they send out, instead of gathering random stuff from a hundred different places on the internet.... but I guess that'd be a big book!
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I have to say though... I haven't found any bugs yet. Good signs!
Good Write Up. Thanks for letting us know.
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This might just be me... or may be a bug... I'm thinking it's me because if this were a bug, MANY other people would have found this long before now:
I don't see my objects dashed after I click to select them. They are selected... they just don't show it by being dashed... and I have everything set as I did before in 2007 (see attached for current settings)
Am I overlooking something obvious or stupid (I'm sure I am overlooking something... I hope.)
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Check the 'HIGHLIGHT' system variable. Maybe some new options added.
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Check the 'HIGHLIGHT' system variable. Maybe some new options added.
that was it!
Some reason it was set to zero by default...
Man... I couldn't find a reference to that ANYWHERE in the help file searching for selection display and various forms of the terms... thanks!
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<looking in mailbox>
still nothing =:/
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Well here's the first "bug" though I don't know if this really qualified. I think this is expected, but not sure.
When opening a 2007 file, if it has any lights or cameras in it, created in 2007... it'll have errors, but open, not displaying cameras. The light glyphs will show, but if you try to select them, errors occur, and Autocad 2008 will crash with an unhandled exception error.
yay.
Since I had planned on replacing the lighting with the new 2008 stuff, I'm just opening in 2007 and deleting lights and resaving... hopefully that'll do 'er.
*edit*
Opened in 2007... deleted all cameras and lights, purged, saved, opened in 2008 with no problem... I think I remember reading about seperate conversion tools for bring older version lights and cameras into 2007 version, when 2007 came out which makes me think this is "normal" *cough*
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The layer control by viewport is the best new feature for my application and I may even use the dashboard now that I can put stuff I use on it - was able to dump my side toolbars and put them in the flyout and saved some screen real estate. Unfortunately, he autoscaling and rotating text is not as useful as it could be were the insert points not fixed regardless of the view. At least they made it a style option so the feature isn't forced in crowded areas where it is not practical.
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<looking in mailbox>
still nothing =:/
Me too! :-(
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<looking in mailbox>
still nothing =:/
<looking in mailbox>
still nothing =:/
Me too! :-(
haha... i feel bad for you guys... for some reason... we just got a SECOND shipment in the mail, lol.
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<looking in mailbox>
still nothing =:/
<looking in mailbox>
still nothing =:/
Me too! :-(
haha... i feel bad for you guys... for some reason... we just got a SECOND shipment in the mail, lol.
1st dibs...I got 1st dibs... :evil:
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<looking in mailbox>
still nothing =:/
<looking in mailbox>
still nothing =:/
Me too! :-(
haha... i feel bad for you guys... for some reason... we just got a SECOND shipment in the mail, lol.
1st dibs...I got 1st dibs... :evil:
:-D
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<looking in mailbox>
still nothing =:/
Me too! :-(
Me three...not that I get to install it when it gets here, seeing as how we launched 2007 yesterday... 8-)
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Wow!!!
When you people started the posts on 07 there where a lot of complaint... not even one for 08??
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Wow!!!
When you people started the posts on 07 there where a lot of complaint... not even one for 08??
I have minimal complaints about 07.. to be fair, I think a lot of complaints come with the changes. There were the biggest changes done to 07, from a bit of the interface to people even still hating CUIs, and even better yet a whole new file version which causes communication delays at times when you have to find out who has 07... who doesn't... yadda yadda.
08.. nothing's new stuff that you don't HAVE to use. It's not imposing on anyones status quo. There are some changes to existing things, but they are not mandatory. It's all additions, not really (m)any changes.
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I got my notification email on Friday the 23rd that is was shipping. So it should be here soon enough...
Pieter
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I got my notice today. :-)
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Just got mine today and made my first annotative scaling text....pretty cool.
You can also overlay Microstation V8+ drawings now! :-)
Ron
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still got nothin.
just a lump of coal.
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<looking in mailbox>
still nothing =:/
<looking in mailbox>
still nothing =:/
Me too! :-(
haha... i feel bad for you guys... for some reason... we just got a SECOND shipment in the mail, lol.
meh.
'sokay.
I wont even open it till probably June, and install it then. Mess around with stuff for a few weeks, maybe more. Roll out to everyone else in August.
By then y'all will have figured out the bad stuff so I wont step in any poo.
TIA. :)
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I loaded the "official" DVD last night.
I didn't migrate CUI's .. just re-ran partial Menuloads, appended to the PGP and manually loaded the Palette stuff we use.
Piece of cake !!
Chuck Gabriels Hotkeys STILL works great.
Lispy stuff runs.
Dont use VBA, so who cares ..
Jon's ADOLisp Library works
All my doc management stuff runs.
OpenDCL dialogs all work.
My NET stuff has been rebuilt and works without a hickup.
If I drank, I'd go down to the pub for a beer and lunch.
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first annoyance, I use this lisp all the time, so this is not too good for me.
error: no function definition:
VLAX-ENAME->VLA-OBJECT
when using this lisp
;; Function to copy blocks from one point to another
(defun c:RB
(/ ent1 ent2 obj1 obj2 pt1
pt2 x ss index keyw rot
r2d copyobj
)
(while
(= ent1 nil)
(setq ent1 (car (entsel "\n Select block to copy: ")))
(if (= ent1 nil)
(alert "\n You missed, try again...")
)
)
(while
(= ent2 nil)
(setq ent2 (car (entsel "\n Select block you want to swap: ")))
(if (= ent2 nil)
(alert "\n You missed, try again...")
)
)
(setq obj1 (vlax-ename->vla-object ent1)
pt1 (trans (vlax-get obj1 'insertionpoint) 0 1)
)
(setq obj2 (vlax-ename->vla-object ent2)
x (vlax-get-property obj2 'Name)
)
(if
(and
(= (vla-get-ObjectName Obj1) "AcDbBlockReference")
(not (vlax-property-available-p Obj1 'Path))
)
(progn
(if (not *default*)
(setq *default* "Select")
)
(initget 0 "Select All")
(setq keyw
(cond
((getkword
(strcat "\nEnter selection option (Select / All): <<"
*default*
">>: "
)
)
)
(*default*)
)
)
(setq *default* keyw)
(cond
((= Keyw "Select") (setq SS (ssget (list (cons '2 x)))))
((= Keyw "All") (setq SS (ssget "X" (list (cons '2 x)))))
)
(setq
index -1
)
(while (< (setq index (1+ index)) (sslength ss))
(setq obj (ssname ss index)
obj2 (vlax-ename->vla-object obj)
pt2 (trans (vlax-get obj2 'insertionpoint) 0 1)
rot (vlax-get obj2 'Rotation)
copyobj (vlax-invoke obj1 'Copy)
)
(vla-put-rotation copyobj rot)
(vlax-invoke copyobj 'Move pt1 pt2)
)
)
)
(princ)
(command "_erase" ss "")
(princ)
(princ (strcat "\nBlocks swapped - " (itoa index)))
)
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first annoyance, I use this lisp all the time, so this is not too good for me.
error: no function definition:
VLAX-ENAME->VLA-OBJECT
You're not holding your mouth quite right Andy .. try again.
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I loaded the "official" DVD last night.
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Yea, I think I took it for granted, but all my LSP files continued working flawless (well... the ones that were flawless before ;) ) and Al's Steel Mill still works 100% :lol: I guess that's about the only LSP that I would never want to try and trouble shoot, that I use, heh.
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first annoyance, I use this lisp all the time, so this is not too good for me.
error: no function definition:
VLAX-ENAME->VLA-OBJECT
when using this lisp
;; Function to copy blocks from one point to another
(defun c:RB
(/ ent1 ent2 obj1 obj2 pt1
pt2 x ss index keyw rot
r2d copyobj
)
(while
(= ent1 nil)
(setq ent1 (car (entsel "\n Select block to copy: ")))
(if (= ent1 nil)
(alert "\n You missed, try again...")
)
)
(while
(= ent2 nil)
(setq ent2 (car (entsel "\n Select block you want to swap: ")))
(if (= ent2 nil)
(alert "\n You missed, try again...")
)
)
(setq obj1 (vlax-ename->vla-object ent1)
pt1 (trans (vlax-get obj1 'insertionpoint) 0 1)
)
(setq obj2 (vlax-ename->vla-object ent2)
x (vlax-get-property obj2 'Name)
)
(if
(and
(= (vla-get-ObjectName Obj1) "AcDbBlockReference")
(not (vlax-property-available-p Obj1 'Path))
)
(progn
(if (not *default*)
(setq *default* "Select")
)
(initget 0 "Select All")
(setq keyw
(cond
((getkword
(strcat "\nEnter selection option (Select / All): <<"
*default*
">>: "
)
)
)
(*default*)
)
)
(setq *default* keyw)
(cond
((= Keyw "Select") (setq SS (ssget (list (cons '2 x)))))
((= Keyw "All") (setq SS (ssget "X" (list (cons '2 x)))))
)
(setq
index -1
)
(while (< (setq index (1+ index)) (sslength ss))
(setq obj (ssname ss index)
obj2 (vlax-ename->vla-object obj)
pt2 (trans (vlax-get obj2 'insertionpoint) 0 1)
rot (vlax-get obj2 'Rotation)
copyobj (vlax-invoke obj1 'Copy)
)
(vla-put-rotation copyobj rot)
(vlax-invoke copyobj 'Move pt1 pt2)
)
)
)
(princ)
(command "_erase" ss "")
(princ)
(princ (strcat "\nBlocks swapped - " (itoa index)))
)
Hint: (vl-load-com) :)
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Seriously, that means nothing to me, i can use lisp for basic commands only. vl-blah blah is to hard for me to get yet.
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paste this into you command line:
(help "acad_dev.chm" "vl-load-com")
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COOL, so do i have to do that every time or just once?
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Add (vl-load-com) to you acad\doc.lsp and then any routine that uses vl-* functions will work fine.
...or add it to the top of that lisp routine.
Ron
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Might be some useful stuff to someone
The Lowdown on New Autodesk Software from Robert Green (http://management.cadalyst.com/cadman/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=414529)
Those who have 2008, has Autodesk programed an easer way to get to the Layer State Manager directly instead of going thru the Layer Dialog?
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One click good enough ?
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One click good enough ?
Woo Hoo.
I am over on the the Heidi Hewet's site looking at screen shots and noticed they they added FREAKIN 4th way of getting to the Help files.
:ugly: :pissed: :realmad: :x
I one my biggest gripes.
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Just got mine, it looks good.
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I've encountered my first crash in 2008. I have to give it the benefit of the doubt that it may have been a PEBKAC issue as I was pounding the escape key in a furious fit of rage which may have complicated the matters.
Anyways, this post is more to express my love for this new tweak that allowed me to remove the Viewports toolbar from my list of the very few toolbars I kept at the top of my screen. I only had it there to set scale on my vports in a quick accessible manner... but now I can set scale AND lock all in a very similar region!! The annotative scale doesn't apply to this office but I'm glad they used that blank real-estate on the bottom bar there for something usefull...
I'm now down to a single row of toolbars "Layers" "Properties" "Styles" and finally "View"
I'm happy :)
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oh, and I've been doing this often since I installed 2008, but just realized that it's new since 2007... well recycled, not new.
In 2007 they took away the ability for you to move a 3d solid by using a point on itself as the destination point. Meaning, if you select "move" pick the object, and say you pick the left corner of a box as the base point, you couldn't pick the right corner, because the box is dynamically moving with your cursor... it didn't leave a "ghost silhouette" behind that you can snap to. Now 2008 has reverted to the original way, which makes me super-dee-duper-happy.
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Ok, so I'm having a little trouble here... not sure what's going on.
I have FIELDEVAL set to 17, which includes fields updating during a REGEN.
I have an xref'd title block with a field in it for the sheet description set to the "CTAB" sysvar, and the xref'd TB itself in the source file is in model space. I xref that into paperspace.
Now... in 2007 when I set this up, it worked flawlessly. Now in 2008 I find that if I change anything that causes ANY of the fields in the TB to change, they display results as if I had xref'd the TB into model space... as in the "CTAB" sysvar field displays the value "MODEL"
I've found a workaround in that if I do a REFEDIT on the xref'd TB in paperspace, do a regen, then exit with or without saving changes... it maintains the correct setting, including the actual value of the CTAB variable.
Has anyone else noticed odd or unexpected behavior... or am I not thinking of something?
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If it is of any concern... Shaan Hurley's MDIwhatever.arx file for multiple drawing tabs works in 2008 as well.
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hey josh i just wanted to say thanks for sticking up for me (i think) over in the autodesk forums. i posted a wish list and some guy started personally attack my autocad knowledge, nice. I was going over there to ask questions about 2008 as not alot of people are playing with it here and maaaan i wanna come running back to the swamp.
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Ok, so I'm having a little trouble here... not sure what's going on.
I have FIELDEVAL set to 17, which includes fields updating during a REGEN.
I have an xref'd title block with a field in it for the sheet description set to the "CTAB" sysvar, and the xref'd TB itself in the source file is in model space. I xref that into paperspace.
Now... in 2007 when I set this up, it worked flawlessly. Now in 2008 I find that if I change anything that causes ANY of the fields in the TB to change, they display results as if I had xref'd the TB into model space... as in the "CTAB" sysvar field displays the value "MODEL"
I've found a workaround in that if I do a REFEDIT on the xref'd TB in paperspace, do a regen, then exit with or without saving changes... it maintains the correct setting, including the actual value of the CTAB variable.
Has anyone else noticed odd or unexpected behavior... or am I not thinking of something?
Has anyone else been having this problem with AutoCAD 2008? It seems that all of my (getvar 'ctab) fields in my titleblocks do not update (regardless of FIELDEVAL settings). Whichever is the current tab when the drawing is opened, the rest of the tabs display that tab name.
Ron
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hey josh i just wanted to say thanks for sticking up for me (i think) over in the autodesk forums. i posted a wish list and some guy started personally attack my autocad knowledge, nice. I was going over there to ask questions about 2008 as not alot of people are playing with it here and maaaan i wanna come running back to the swamp.
gahhhhhh yea It's ABSURD the way some people act over there... I mean... I can't fathom what motivates some of those people to act in the manner they do.
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Has anyone else been having this problem with AutoCAD 2008? It seems that all of my (getvar 'ctab) fields in my titleblocks do not update (regardless of FIELDEVAL settings). Whichever is the current tab when the drawing is opened, the rest of the tabs display that tab name.
Ron
Is the TB being referenced in? Is it Text, MText, Attribute??!? I'd like to try to recreate the issue here because we use fields quite a bit in our Tb's - xref them in.
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Has anyone else been having this problem with AutoCAD 2008? It seems that all of my (getvar 'ctab) fields in my titleblocks do not update (regardless of FIELDEVAL settings). Whichever is the current tab when the drawing is opened, the rest of the tabs display that tab name.
Ron
Is the TB being referenced in? Is it Text, MText, Attribute??!? I'd like to try to recreate the issue here because we use fields quite a bit in our Tb's - xref them in.
The titleblocks are x-referenced with a field that is either in an attribute...text or mtext (we use client tblocks).
*edit*
I figured out what fixes it....if I insert a field in that drawing, then the xref ctab fields update as they should. :? Before, no fields existed in the current drawing, they all reside in xrefs.
Could someone please test this?
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I just tried it using ADT2008 and got the same thing. It appears to plot correctly - just doesn't show correctly in the drawing.
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Thanks for testing it out....it appears we've found a bug. :-)
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Thanks for testing it out....it appears we've found a bug. :-)
<Homer Simpson> WOO HOO!! </Homer Simpson>
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hey josh i just wanted to say thanks for sticking up for me (i think) over in the autodesk forums. i posted a wish list and some guy started personally attack my autocad knowledge, nice. I was going over there to ask questions about 2008 as not alot of people are playing with it here and maaaan i wanna come running back to the swamp.
I read that whole thread... I only go there when I absolutely, positively need to. The smart-@$$ remarks are getting out of control and there seems to be little to no enforcement by the NG admins. They've probably been beaten down by the constant barrage of "playah hatin'" going on over there.
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hey josh i just wanted to say thanks for sticking up for me (i think) over in the autodesk forums. i posted a wish list and some guy started personally attack my autocad knowledge, nice. I was going over there to ask questions about 2008 as not alot of people are playing with it here and maaaan i wanna come running back to the swamp.
I read that whole thread... I only go there when I absolutely, positively need to. The smart-@$$ remarks are getting out of control and there seems to be little to no enforcement by the NG admins. They've probably been beaten down by the constant barrage of "playah hatin'" going on over there.
probably so! sad, really :(
I'll have to revisit my conundrum and see what I can do... I haven't had to "publish" may drawings in a while, and the drawings that I am working on now, we are using the client's TB, which does not use fields or anything... soooooo..... I'll keep this thread in mind when I get back to working with drawings that have our own TB in it :)
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From the vertical side of things. 2008 AutoCAD Architecture (ADT has gone the way of the dodo as far as branding goes) looks to have some nice additions to what they started with 2007. I still don't get the same functionality with tool palettes that I had with AEC Content, but oh well. Just inspires me to make my own tools.
Question for all you guys, and this maybe should be in a different thread, but we're upgrading from 2006 to 2008 shortly and unlike AutoCAD, you cannot save an ADT drawing back to earlier versions and have it work, and I lost enough sleep over the amount of "previous version" errors I received when opening drawings with xrefs when we went from 2004. Therefore, we're going to have to update every file on our network to 2007 format when the switch is thrown to go to 2008.
What tools have you guys found for doing this in the most expedient and clean manner.
I've messed around with DWGTrueView, but wanted to make sure I wasn't passing by some uber tool that worked faster.
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you MIGHT be able to use the reference editor to mass-update the files, but that seems like a rough road and sloppy solution.
I think Matt W pointed out in the "things I wish I knew yesterday" thread about a batch converter included with (I THINK he said ADT)
I'll try to track that down.
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http://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=14567.75
Sorry, it came with Civil software...
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What about DWG TrueConvert (http://www.autodesk.com/dwgtrueconvert)?
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What about DWG TrueConvert (http://www.autodesk.com/dwgtrueconvert)?
That's DWG TrueView.
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The NEW DWGTrueView contains DWGTrueConvert.
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... I lost enough sleep over the amount of "previous version" errors I received when opening drawings with xrefs when we went from 2004.
What do you mean by "errors"?? Are you referring to the "this drawing was saved in a previous version" message that pops up?
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... I lost enough sleep over the amount of "previous version" errors I received when opening drawings with xrefs when we went from 2004.
What do you mean by "errors"?? Are you referring to the "this drawing was saved in a previous version" message that pops up?
Yeah, errors was a poor choice of terminology. Once we found some obscure registry key to disable the Autodesk Building Systems "AEC objects from a previous version" message, things were better, but it was irritating to have this message popup for every xref being loaded into a sheet whenever the sheet was opened.
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What if you enter the command AECFILEOPENMESSAGE and change it to NO then open a drawing. Do you still get the message box?
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These are the two messages I get, and if I check the box, they'll never show up again (when using
ABS MEP).
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These are the two messages I get, and if I check the box, they'll never show up again (when using ABS MEP).
Good to know. When we went to 2006, there was no such option.