Thursday, August 31, 2006

Wrong Type of Install

Have you ever accidentally installed a Standalone seat of Autodesk software when you wanted a Network install? Or maybe your company is converting their licenses from network to Standalone. What a hassle. Everyone thinks that you have to uninstall the software and reinstall. But this is not true.

To do this you have to edit your registry, always make a backup copy just in case.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R16.x\ACAD-xxxx:xxx\AdLM] "Type"=dword:00000019

19=network
2a=standalone

This first came to me from Rob Henriksen. Revit works a little different, in Revit go to the Help pull down and select Produce and License Information.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Schedule Tips & Tricks Part 2

Creating a New Property Set Definition for a New Tag:
Open up the drawing that has the standard tag in it.
If you have everything pathed to your C: drive it is probably located here: C:\Documents and
Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\ABS 2007\enu\Styles\Imperial
A word of warning when you open up this drawing: do NOT purge while you are inside of this drawing.
It may appear to be a blank drawing, but it houses a plethora of information.
Go to Format/Style manager/
Under your drawing name expand "Documentation Objects".
Expand "Property set definitions".
You can either right click on one and copy and paste it in here, or just add a new one.
To do either of these functions right click and select the appropriate action.
To edit the property set definition that you have made click once on it.
On the right hand side you can pick from the tabs there and edit as required.
Once you are done click on "apply" and then click on "OK".
Save your drawing.
Now you can apply the property set definition to a schedule tag, see below.

Creating a Schedule Tag:
(If you have the properties already set-up)
Open up the drawing that has the standard tags in it.
If you have everything pathed to your C: drive it is probably located here: C:\Documents and
Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\ABS 2007\enu\Styles\Imperial
A word of warning when you open up this drawing: do NOT purge while you are inside of this drawing.
It may appear to be a blank drawing, but it houses a plethora of information.
Drop in mtext at a 1:1 ratio.
Set the mtext for the proper font and size.
Place the mtext on the "0" layer.
Edit the text as required.
Add in any required linework around the tag.
Go to Format/Define schedule tag.
Select the mtext (and linework) you have prepared.
Give the tag a descriptive name.
Under "type" choose "property".
Under "property set" choose the property set you created earlier (or an existing one)
Under "property definition" choose from whatever was in the property set you choose.
Click "OK".
Click on a point by your mtext for an insertion point.
Save the drawing.
Suggestion:
Drop in grey text (perhaps your company name) over the top of the tag to identify it as a
customized item.
Drag it onto a new temporary palette.
Right click on it on the palette and select properties.
Edit the layer key, scale, and whatever else is desired.
Drop it into the content browser in the desired location.
Erase the temporary palette.
I-dropper in the updated or new palette from the content browser.

Schedule Tips & Tricks Part 1

Here is something I have put together for the others and myself in my group that I thought I would share. I do need to give a nod to the AUGI ATP schedule class that I have been taking. Course # ATP127 has some excellent information on schedules as well. I learned the changing of the lineweights from them.

Creating a New Schedule Style:
Open your standard schedule drawing.
Go to Format/Style Manager/Documentation Objects/Schedule Table Styles
Click on the "New" button at bottom.
Enter in the name and description by clicking in that cell area.
Click "Apply".
In the left hand column double click on the schedule you just created.
Click on the "General" tab, it should be filled in already, but you can edit it if you would like to.
Click on the "Default Format" tab to change the default text information.
This sets the default for all the text in this particular schedule.
Change the text appearance here as required.
Click "Apply" at the bottom when you are done with your changes here.
Click on the "Applies To" tab.
Select the applicable item here. For the room schedule select "Multi-View Block Reference".
Click "Apply".
Click on the "Columns" tab.
Click on the "Add Column" button at the bottom.
A pop-up will appear.
Select the desired item.
Format as required, you can override cells and header columns here by clicking on the
"Override Cell Format" or "Override Header Format" buttons. You can change font style,
alignment, height, gap, rotation, matrix symbol, and cell size here.
You can choose where this new column is located in the schedule at the bottom.
Click "OK".
For additional columns click on the "Add Column" button again and repeat the process.
To modify a column click on the "Modify" button.
To delete a column click on the "Delete" button.
Click "Apply" to apply your changes.
Click on the "Layout" tab.
Edit the title of your schedule and any other desired information.
To format all of the headers and title at once go under the "Format" section.
Click on "Override Cell Format" for each of the desired items and change them as required.
Click "Apply".
Now click "Apply" and "OK" to exit out of this window.

To rotate an individual header text to 90 degrees:
Open your schedule table drawing.
Go to the "Format" and then choose "Style Manager".
Surf down to "Documentation Objects" then to "Schedule Table Styles".
Select the schedule table style you want to edit.
Go to the "Columns" tab.
Click on the column that you want to edit its header.
Click the "Modify" button at the bottom.
You will now have the "Modify Column" pop-up window.
Click on the "Override Header Format" button.
In the "Rotation" field change it from horizontal to "Vertical".
Click "OK".
Now a check mark should show up next to the "Override Header Format button".
Click "OK" to exit out of the pop-up window.
Now click "Apply", and then click "OK" to exit out of the Style Manager.

To get a different line thickness around a schedule table:
Open your schedule table drawing.
Click once to select the table.
Right click on the table.
Select "Edit Object Display".
An "Object Display" Pop-up will appear.
Go to the "Display Properties" tab.
Check the box under the "Object Override" on the far right hand side.
A "Display Properties (Schedule Table Override)-General" pop-up will appear.
Go to the "Layer/Color/Linetype" tab.
Here you can change the color, linetype, and line weights for each component of the table.
For the border adjust the "Outer Frame" color.
Click "OK".
Click "OK".
Your table should automatically show your changes if you have one already dropped in the drawing.
Welcome to my new blog! This is my inaugural post so please bear with me while I learn the ropes of blogging.

I intend to use this blog to post information I learn as I help my company transition from ACAD R14 to ABS 2007 and ADT 2007. Yes, that is a huge generation gap. Luckily I have drafted on ACAD 2000i, 2002, and a little on 2004. This is the first time I am really working in the background to set-up a system.