May 30, 2010

ACA 2011 CUI Glitch

I found a minor problem with the ACA.cuix file that ships with the 2011 release. On the View ribbon tab, on the Navigate panel, the 2010 release had a single command on the expanded panel, to toggle the ViewCube on and off. The 2011 View ribbon added a User Interface drop-down button to the View tab, on the Windows panel that provides an equivalent. While the View Cube control that the 2010 command on the Navigate panel ran has apparently been removed from the 2011 CUI, the Navigate panel still has the non-functional command listed, so the Navigate panel still indicates that the panel can be expanded to show more commands, as evidenced by the triangle icon next to the panel name.Unfortunately, when you expand the panel in 2011, there are no additional commands displayed.If this bothers you and you have editing rights to the ACA.cuix file, you can fix this by running the CUI command. (I usually just type CUI and press ENTER, but you can also find the CUI command on the Manage ribbon tab, on the Customization panel.) On the Customize tab, under the ACA customization file, expand the Ribbon and Panels nodes......and then scroll down and expand the View Navigate - ACA panel node. If you simply want to eliminate the expandability of the Navigation panel, then delete the Row 2 item below the SLIDEOUT listed under View Navigate - ACA. If you want to keep the panel expandable, and add the ViewCube toggle back to the panel, find the ViewCube Display command in the Command List pane (lower left of the Customize User Interface dialog) and drag it up under the Row 2 listing. (I left the old View Cube command - you could delete this.) The out-of-the-box ViewCube Display command shows only a Small icon, with no text. I chose to add a name (ViewCube Display) and change the display to SmallWithText, as shown in step "2" below.The result, shown in the Panel Preview above and in the actual ribbon below, is that the expanded panel once again has a ViewCube toggle command.

May 17, 2010

ACA 2010 Update 2 Now Available

Update 2 for AutoCAD Architecture 2010 (yes, 2010, not 2011) is now available from the Autodesk website. Update 2 includes Update 1, so if you have not yet installed Update 1 (like me), you can just install Update 2.

According to the AutoCAD Architecture 2010 Update 2 Readme, the following defects have been fixed (list includes both Update 1 and Update 2):

AEC Dimensions
Update 1
  • Multiple overlapping windows may lead to incorrect dimensions.

API
Update 1
  • AutoCAD Architecture might crash when trying to define a Display Theme style using .NET API.

Doors/Windows/Openings
Update 2
  • When a custom block is applied to a door, window, or door-window assembly, the block will be visible even if it is not within the cut plane range.
  • Sometimes, you cannot insert an opening in a wall in a certain cleanup group.

Drawing Management
Update 2
  • AutoCAD Architecture may crash when you repath certain projects with no drawings open.
  • Renaming items in the Project Navigator, and repathing the project may cause AutoCAD Architecture to crash.

Export to AutoCAD
Update 2
  • Export to Autocad sometimes causes AutoCAD Architecture to crash.

External References
Update 1
  • Openings in external references with negative Z value are placed at an incorrect position.
Update 2
  • When you execute UNDO command after binding an external reference, AutoCAD Architecture may become unresponsive.
  • AutoCAD Architecture may crash if you unload an external reference, attach it again, and then execute an UNDO.

GBXML
Update 2
  • Duplicate openings are created in gbXML output when walls are slightly off from being perpendicular to each other.

General UI
Update 2
  • Checkboxes are not displayed correctly on the Object Snap tab of the Drafting Settings dialog on Windows 7.

IFC
Update 1
  • Slabs may have the wrong elevation when imported from an IFC file due to an incorrect thickness offset.
  • Exporting a drawing to IFC may create incorrect IFC GUIDs for AEC objects.
  • Importing IFC files that contain certain material settings may crash.
  • Space exported to IFC have the IFC type of IFCTYPEOBJECT instead of IFCSPACETYPE.
Update 2
  • When you import an IFC file, containing a space that uses a negative value for extrusion, the extrusion is in the wrong direction.
  • Importing an IFC file fails if it contains a 3D vector for True North direction.

Layers
Update 1
  • The "New layer from Standard" button doesn't work in localized versions.
  • Layer description fields are not automatically populated in all cases.
Update 2
  • When the Layer Properties Manager is open, opening a drawing sometimes causes AutoCAD Architecture to crash.

Multiview Blocks
Update 2
  • When AutoCAD Architecture and Civil 3D are installed side by side, AutoCAD Architecture crashes on executing MVBLOCKADD command.

Performance
Update 1
  • Response is very slow when using Dynamic UCS and objects are Isolated.
Update 2
  • Sometimes, it takes a long time to complete an UNDO after a COPY.

Property Palette
Update 1
  • Changing an entry to one that is the first characters of the previous entry will not work in some fields.

Save
Update 2
  • When you save a drawing to a previous version, sometimes, you are not warned about possible data loss.

Schedules
Update 1
  • Schedules are not sorted as expected when values are a combination of numeric and alphabetic characters.
Update 2
  • Sometimes, schedule table data is not rounded off as specificed in the property data format.

Sections
Update 1
  • Some objects imported from Inventor display as points in 2D Sections.
Update 2
  • When a window or door window assembly is sectioned, some linework may be missing in the section.

Structural Members
Update 1
  • Custom block based on 3D Solids using Boolean operations are always placed at the start point.

Spaces
Update 2
  • AutoCAD Architecture may crash when a spaced update is triggered for a large number of spaces within an external reference.

Wall Objects
Update 1
  • AutoCAD Architecture might hang when opening certain drawings that contain modified Wall Endcaps.
  • Window openings may not be created due to Wall Plan Modifiers.
  • Using Refedit on a block containing Wall Object may cause a crash.
Update 2
  • When working on a project located on a slow network, the wall and curtain wall tools are slow to respond.
  • Some walls in an external reference display solution tips when the units of the host drawing are different from that of the external reference.
  • AutoCAD Architecture will crash when you delete a component of a wall which is on a locked layer.