April 21, 2013

ACA 2014: Additional New Features/Improvements

In addition to the features discussed in the previous four posts, there are several additional additions/improvements to look for in AutoCAD® Architecture 2014.

3D Orbit Performance
The full regeneration that takes place after ending the use of the 3DORBIT command in previous releases of ACA (and AMEP) has been eliminated, allowing you to continue to work on your model without interruption. This does not appear to apply to the 2D Wireframe visual style, during which surface hatching is turned off and after which I still get a regeneration while restoring the surface hatching.

Project Information File Backup
If you are using the Drawing Management of ACA/AMEP, you may have run into a situation where your project information file (.APJ) had become corrupted or accidentally deleted. While not a frequent occurrence, rebuilding this critical file can take a significant amount of time from what is likely an already tight project schedule. In the 2014 release, ACA and AMEP will create a backup APJ file which can be used to replace a corrupt or deleted APJ file. A new backup is created each time a project is opened and the APJ file is different from the current backup file. The backup file is stored in the same folder and with the same name, but with an extension of .AP$. All you need to do to restore the backup is to move the corrupt file to a different folder and then change the extension from .AP$ to .APJ.

Combined Deployment
After setting up deployments for both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms, these can be combined into a single, platform-neutral, deployment by using the CombineDeploy.exe tool. This tool can be found in [AdminImageRootFolder]\Tools.

Adding Extension to a Deployment
Additional software can be included in a deployment, provided that it is an installable component, such as an MSI or a setup.exe. You can include this additional software in the section so labeled on the main Product Selection page.

Autodesk Uninstall Tool
A set of Autodesk products can now be uninstalled with one action, by using the Autodesk Uninstall Tool, rather than uninstalling each product, one at a time, through the Windows Control Panel, Programs, Programs and Features.

Annotation Scaling and Unit Scaling
ACA and AMEP have featured real-world units and a means for varying the display of annotation for different scales since their initial releases. The introduction of annotation scaling in AutoCAD resulted in certain low-level conflicts between the two systems when the drawing units were changed. These conflicts have been eliminated.

IFC
Both Column-Grid and Enhanced-Custom-Grid can now be exported to IfcGrid.

No comments: