CADit

AutoCAD Civil 3D Service Pack 1 Released

2008-08-10T09:22:23+12:00

Service Pack 1 for AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009 has just been released.

For more information and to download follow the link below...

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=11687614&linkID=9240698

AutoCAD 2009 Subscription Bonus Pack Download Available

2008-07-26T20:14:12+12:00

The AutoCAD® 2009 Subscription Bonus Pack is now available for download from the subscription web site.

The Bonus Pack provides many useful AUGI (Autodesk User Group International) functionality requests, including:

New measurement capabilities (MEASUREGEOM command)
SPLINE to PLINE
Reverse PLINE edit
Rotating viewport and have the view rotate with the viewport
Erase unreferenced unnamed objects

The Bonus Pack is only available in English, although it can be installed on localized versions of AutoCAD if desired. If it is loaded on a localized version of AutoCAD all new and related commands will be in English only.

Autodesk MapGuide Studio - Evaluation Version Expired

2008-07-23T20:40:50+12:00

Having now installed a number of MapGuide Enterprise and Studio applications, I came across a bit of an installation problem.

It appears that when installing Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise as a "Registered Installation" (not an Evaluation installation), see below...

Then installing the network license manager and obtaining the relevant network license file for the customer installation, occasionally 60 days later the following message appears when attempting to connect to your MapGuide Server from MapGuide Studio...

And, of course, your customers MapGuide Server and therefore applications are no longer accessible!

The following Technical Solution on the Autodesk Support site provides some good information with respect to the problem...

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/item?siteID=123112&id=10707697&linkID=9242178

However, I found it a little confusing!

The bottom line is, I never installed as an Evaluation Installation in the first place, so why the problem? anyway the guide to the resolve the issue works.

You will need to modify your "serverconfig.ini" file, located in
"C:\Program Files\Autodesk\MapGuideEnterprise2009\Server\Bin" on your MapGuide Server.
Locate the following entries under the "General Properties" section in the file and add the following details...

The path to your network license file
LicenseServerPath = C:\Program Files\Autodesk Network License Manager\License\license.lic

The serial number of your software
SerialNumber = xxx-xxxxxxxx
(replace the x's with your serial number)

Restart the MapGuide Server and all should be up and running again.

AutoCAD 2009 Update 1 - Now Available

2008-07-19T22:23:06+12:00

Autodesk have released Update 1 for AutoCAD 2009.

Follow this link to download...
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=11581572&linkID=9240618

Follow this link for full details, readme file...
http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/autocad_2009_and_autocad_lt_2009_update_1.html

AutoCAD Map 3D 2009 - Survey Tools

2008-06-28T12:07:43+12:00

Autodesk have released a Surveying Tools Extension for AutoCAD Map 3D 2009 to assist planners, drafters, engineers, and designers better utilise survey, GPS and LIDAR data to create surface models and use point data in AutoCAD Map 3D 2009

Available for download for Subscription customers

The Surveying Tools provide:

Improved point data support
Surface creation capabilities
Additional Coordinate Geometry (COGO) commands (Bearing/Bearing and Distance/Distance)
Import and export support for LandXML
Preview Application Programming Interface (API)
User documentation including User’s Guide and Developer’s Guide

AutoCAD Map 3D 2009 - Utilities Toolkits

2008-06-28T11:14:25+12:00

Autodesk have released a set of Utilities Toolkits for AutoCAD Map 3D 2009, available for download for Subscription customers.

AutoCAD Map 3D 2009 Water Industry Toolkit
AutoCAD Map 3D 2009 Wastewater Industry Toolkit
AutoCAD Map 3D 2009 Electricity Industry Toolkit

The Toolkits include:

A data model - A set of industry object classes and corresponding data attributes.
A set of pre-configured industry symbols/blocks that are tied to the object classes.
AutoCAD Map 3D drawing (DWT) and Object Classification template (XML) files.
User documentation including User’s Guide, Work-flows and Data Model Schema.
Instructional videos.

The Toolkits are of course generic and have a US flavour, but are a great start to the principle behind using AutoCAD Map 3D's Object Classification to standardise your data, with obvious productivity benefits.

I have produced similar toolkits for AutoCAD Map 3D over the years, more recently for local New Zealand based industries, which include industry and/or company specific standard block libraries with pre-configured object classes, templates etc. using Object Data and External Databases. If anyone is interested, let me know.

The end of Land Desktop and birth of AutoCAD Civil

2008-06-26T10:53:30+12:00

Autodesk has announced that the 2009 release of AutoCAD Land Desktop will be the final release.
In addition, a new program, AutoCAD Civil, will be released next month (July 2008, in the US).
First impressions of the features in the new Civil product would suggest it looks like AutoCAD Civil 3D without AutoCAD Map 3D and the Stormwater extensions.

For details have a look at...
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=8777380

For a feature comparison between AutoCAD Civil 3D and AutoCAD Civil take a look at...
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=11348175

Solid Filled Object Hotfix

2008-05-29T15:29:51+12:00

Autodesk have just released a hotfix which addresses problems with displaying solid filled objects in AutoCAD.

This problem occurs with solid filled objects such as dimension arrows, solid hatching etc., the solid filled objects may not appear when AutoCAD Raster Design 2009 is installed.

Applies to:
AutoCAD® 2009
AutoCAD® Architecture 2009
AutoCAD® Civil 3D® Land Desktop Companion 2009
AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2009
AutoCAD® Electrical 2009
AutoCAD® Land Desktop 2009
AutoCAD® Map 3D 2009
AutoCAD® Mechanical 2009
AutoCAD® MEP 2009

For details and to download...

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=11316517&linkID=9240698

AutoCAD Map 3D 2009 - Bug 1 - Fix

2008-05-22T09:35:34+12:00

Further to my previous posting regarding The case of the disappearing Quick Access Toolbar:

http://cadit.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/05/autocad-map-3-1.html

You may be aware that their is a beta CUI Ribbon hotfix for 2009 currently available for testing, however at this time their is no installable fix to this Quick Access Toolbar issue.

However, when you have created your custom workspace (with the missing Quick Access Toolbar buttons), you simply need to customise the Quick Access Toolbar to add the missing buttons.

Right-click on the "empty" Quick Access Toolbar and select "Customize Quick Access Toolbar..."

In the Customize User Interface dialog select ACAD Commands in the drop down menu (this will narrow the search for your missing commands)

Type "New" in the Search Command List box

Select the "New" command from the list, drag and drop the command onto the Quick Access Toolbar.

Repeat this process for the other missing commands...

Open
Save
Plot
Undo
Redo

(and any other commands you would like to add)

Once you have added the missing buttons within your custom workspace, you will be able to switch between workspaces without losing your Quick Access Toolbar buttons.

Importing Shape files to AutoCAD Map 3D 2009 (2008 problems fixed?)

2008-05-10T13:54:00+12:00

Further to my previous articles regarding the problems with importing shape files into AutoCAD Map 3D 2008. So what's changed with 2009...

As mentioned previously the issues that I had encountered were due to incorrect naming of field names in the DBase (.dbf) part of the Shape data.

Incorrect, in that the field names exceeded the 10 character naming limit, and when truncated to the first 10 characters, resulted in duplicate field names.

So what does AutoCAD Map 3D 2009 do, when I try to import my faulty shape data...

As shown above, AutoCAD Map 3D 2009 now finds the error and provides an error message telling me what the problem is, and which file has the problem...