Wednesday, July 30, 2008

ABS Needs Coffee?

Ever feel like your ABS isn't a morning person?
Does it need more coffee than you do in the morning (or Dr Pepper in my case)?
Try this out...

ABS Speed: Intermittent Pauses/Long Load Time:
Open the drawing in ABS.
Type “standards” at the command line.
Go to the “Standards” tab.
Remove the associated CAD Standards file.
Save and close out of the drawing.
Open the drawing back up.
Go to the “Standards” tab.
Re-associate the CAD Standards file again.
Save and close out of the drawing.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Speed ABS Up!

To go along with fixing fatal errors, why not tweak ABS to run faster?
As with all changes I suggest you test these out before issuing them to your whole dept/company.

ABS Speed: Connection to Verisign.com/Firewall:
((I found this while perusing various sites...I would give credit, but I can't remember where I got it.))
Even if you disable the Communication Center it may still try to connect to Verisign.com.
This remains active so the Publisher’s Certificate Revocation security option can be verified.
To prevent further communication with Verisign.com:
Go to the Start button.
Select “Settings”.
Select “Control Panel”.
Double-click on the Internet Options icon.
If Windows XP is not set to “Classic View”, you need to click the “Network and Internet Connections” icon in the Control Panel first.
The “Internet Options” pop-up will appear.
Click on the “Advanced” tab.
Scroll down to the “Security” section.
Uncheck/unselect the “Check for publisher’s certificate revocation”.
Then click the “Apply” button
Then click the “Ok” button.
Close out of everything and reboot your computer.
Once rebooted open ABS up.
Type “Options” at the command line.
Go to the “Open and Save” tab.
Set “Incremental save percentage” to “0”.
Uncheck the “Display digital signature information” check box at the bottom left.
Under “File Safety Precautions” click on the “Security Options” button.
Click on the “Digital Signature” tab.
A pop-up should appear stating “No valid digital IDs (certificates) are installed on this system….”
This tells you that it is not using the digital signatures, which is what we wanted to do.
Click on the “Cancel” button.
Click on the “Cancel” button again.
Click “Apply”.
Click “Ok”.

ABS Speed: Communication Center Settings:
While inside of ABS double click on the communication center (satellite icon on the bottom right).
Click on the “settings” button.
Go to the “settings” tab.
Under “country/region” select “United States”.
Under “check for new content” select “On demand”.
Leave the check mark on the “enable balloon notification…”.
Go to the “channels” tab.
Select ONLY the “Live update maintenance patches” box; unselect all other choices.
Click “Apply”.
Click “Ok”.
Close the communication center via the “x” button.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Fatal Errors & Fixes

As we all know Fatal Errors are just about the most annoying errors you can get....not only does what you were trying to do get killed, your entire session of ABS dies with it as well.

Here are some Fatal Errors and FIXES (wahoo) that I have found to work for my dept.

Fatal Error: 3D Orbit or Visual Style Change:
This one I found very very effective.
Either when starting the 3D orbit command or attempting to change visual styles you get a fatal error such as:
AutoCAD Error Aborting
Fatal Error: Unhandled e06d7363h Exception at 7c812a5bh
Type “VIEWRES” at the command line.
Hit “enter” or “y” for yes, when prompted for Fast Zooms.
Enter “100” when prompted for Circle Zoom Percent, and hit enter.
Originally mine was set to 10000.

Fatal Error: Opening or Closing a Dwg:
This one noticeably sped things up on our computers.
Either when opening or closing a drawing file you get a fatal error or an unhandled exception.
One reason may be due to the digital signature feature.
Do not change this unless your drawing is having issues.
Go to Windows Explorer.
Surf to where your drawing is located.
Right click on the drawing file.
Choose “Enable/Disable Digital Signature Icons”.
Uncheck/unselect the “Validate digital signatures and display special icons” box.
Reboot your computer.

Fatal Error: Saving:
Either when hitting the save button, going to File/Save, or Autosave you get a fatal error such as this:
Fatal Error: Unhandle Access Violation Writing 0x7bf6c4c9 exception at 78144d7ch
Right click on the command line.
Choose “Options”.
Go to the “Open and Save” tab.
Go to the “Incremental Save Percentage” and set it to “0”.
Click “Ok”.

Fatal Error: Loading a Dwg:
The drawing takes a long time to load.
Once you get the drawing open go to modelspace.
Select all of the 3D solids/objects in your drawing.
Right click and choose “Properties”.
Go to the “Solid History” drop down list and choose “None”.
Save the drawing.
Also you may try adjusting this system variable:
At the command line type “Solidhist”.
Initially mine is set to “1”.
Change it to “0”. (This will mean that no history is retained).

Friday, July 25, 2008

Make them run better, faster, more effecient

One of the things that I have recently done to help my department is update their computers.
If you have the latest and greatest updates to your software and hardware you will have less problems and therefore a happier user.

There are a couple of things you can do to help their equipment work better for them.

1) Get the hotfixes that will take care of some of their everyday issues. Be sure that you back up everything before replacing/changing anything. Also, don't do a bunch at one time or on everyone's computers. Start with a test computer or two and see how their stuff runs for a week or so, then implement it to the rest of the department. Be sure to get the free Object Enablers if you are working in ACAD or ADT and want to see ABS objects correctly! Here are some links to the hotfixes we have used:
For ABS 2007: (Scroll down to Autodesk® Building Systems 2007)
Hotfixes: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/index?siteID=123112&id=2334435&linkID=9240938

Object Enablers/etc: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/index?siteID=123112&id=2334440&linkID=9240938


For ADT 2007: (Scroll down to Autodesk® Architectural Desktop 2007)
Hotfixes: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/index?siteID=123112&id=2334435&linkID=9240658

Object Enablers/etc: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/index?siteID=123112&id=2334440&linkID=9240658

For Civil 3D:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/index?siteID=123112&id=2334435&linkID=9240698
and http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/index?siteID=123112&id=2334440&linkID=9240698

For LandDesktop:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/index?siteID=123112&id=2334435&linkID=9240778
and http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/index?siteID=123112&id=2334440&linkID=9240778

2) Update their video drivers. This is a graphic intensive program, lots of video card drivers are getting continual updates to function better with upgraded software.

3) Clean their computers. Remove all the .tmp, .bak, .ac$, .sv$, and internet cookies. Defrag....I know there are several schools of thought on this, but I am a huge proponent of doing a disc defrag atleast once a month, if not once a week. Also the disc clean up is a good thing to run as well. There are many freeware programs out there that you can use to help clean up computers. Don't forget to empty that recycle bin...what good does it do to delete it if you don't actually empty out the trash?

4) Investigate freeware tune up utilities that are out there. I have worked with one of our IT guys to find out what are the best programs to use and what our company wants used.

Hope to drop in more tips soon!

Dusting off the cobwebs...

Hi! After a long awaited time, I have been able to get back into my account here.

Just as an update...The company I work for has decided to stay with ABS 2007 for the time being. The respective cad dept reps and myself have been investigating the pro's and con's of making the switch to MEP 2009. It sounds like that will stay on the back burner until atleast the first service pack is issued. At this time we are all still muddling our way through the 07 product and making the switch to the 09 is probably not in our best interest at the moment. (After all it did take them 9yrs to switch from R14 to 07).

Needless to say, my posts will continue to be about ABS07. The nice thing about this is that even in the newer version of MEP alot of these steps and processes are still valid. Also, I am sure there are still those of you out there still working on 07.

Thank you for hanging with me during the "radio silence".