Space Generation in ACD-A 2009 with AutoCAD® Object Boundaries

Several recent posts in the AutoCAD^® Architecture Discussion Group have asked why AutoCAD objects can no longer be used as boundaries when automatically generating Spaces, as they could in previous releases. The good news is that you can still use AutoCAD objects, and now you have more control over which objects are seen as Space boundaries. The "bad" news is that you have to tell ACD-A 2009 which AutoCAD objects are space bounding; this is done by setting the newly added Bound space property of the AutoCAD object, found in the Advanced category on the Design tab of the Properties palette, to "Yes".
If the drawing file in which you are working has no AutoCAD objects set to bound Spaces and has no AEC objects that are capable of forming a Space boundary, you will be presented with this helpful dialog, which allows you to either make all visible objects capable of bounding Spaces, or to select the objects you want to have capable of bounding Spaces.
So you can still quickly add Spaces to any "old" file (or any new file you get from someone using vanilla AutoCAD) - just remember to set the Bound spaces property of the linework you want to use as boundaries to Yes.

Review: CADaptation’s AecBatchStylesEditorTM 2008

On April 15, 2008, CADaptation released AecBatchStylesEditor^TM 2008, an application that runs inside of either AutoCAD^® Architecture 2008 or AutoCAD^® MEP 2008. The AecBatchStylesEditor greatly enhances the user’s ability to work with styles and definitions in these host applications, particularly when the same, or very similar, settings are required for multiple styles or definitions.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I “know” the two main people at CADaptation, Corey Layton and Brian Winterscheidt, from our mutual involvement with the Autodesk AutoCAD Architecture Discussion Groups. I served as a beta tester for AecBatchStylesEditor 2008 and received a complementary copy of the application for doing so.

AecBatchStylesEditor 2008 allows the user to perform batch edits on the Property Sets, Materials, Classifications and Display Properties associated with multiple styles or definitions. Very often, these settings are the same, or very similar, across multiple (if not all) styles/definitions of a particular object type. With AecBatchStylesEditor 2008, you will still need to create/attach the first instance of one of the previously listed items in the host program the way you do now, but you can then copy that from the style/definition where you created it to as many other styles/definitions of that object type as you like. This frees you from the drudgery of manually making the same edits over and over to multiple styles (and then checking what you did to make certain you really did the exact same thing multiple times). If you do need some minor variation between styles, AecBatchStylesEditor 2008 can get you 90% done very quickly, leaving only the variations to be manually edited. Many operations also allow you pick and choose settings from what you are copying, so you can copy just the subitems that are the same.

The following example should give you and idea of what this application can do. The CADaptation website offers a free trial version that only works on Mass Elements if you want to see the program in action for yourself.

Suppose you were working with the “new” out-of-the-box Space Styles, with their fancy colored fills in Medium Detail, but needed to have those same fills display when the Low Detail Display Configuration is set current. Unfortunately, while the color and layer set for the Low Detail Display Configuration is the same as that for the Medium Detail, the out-of-the-box settings when the Low Detail Display Configuration is chosen display a series of lines at 45 degrees, rather than the solid fill. And then, when you go to check just how those color fills were assigned, you discover that it is all done as style-level overrides! That means changing the hatch type for the Plan Low Detail Display Representation for every Space Style used in the drawing. AecBatchStylesEditor 2008 can make quick work of this tedious task. This is one of my favorite features in the application, and not just because it is the result of a suggestion I made during the beta process.

AecBatchStylesEditor 2008 provides a number of ways to start the application:

• Tool Bar Button.


• Tool Palette Tool.


• Pulldown Menu


• Typing AecBatchEdit at the Command: prompt.

In the AecBatchStylesEditor dialog, I have selected the Display Properties tab, as the change I want to make is to the Display Properties of Space Styles. The first step will be to select Space Styles in the Object Type to Edit in the upper left corner. You can also choose an object type and set a source style by using the Pick… button on the left side. If the task at hand is copying the settings from a specific style to one or more other styles, this would be the way to go. Since the sample task involves copying settings from one Display Representation to another Display Representation within each selected style, I will use the tree window to select Space Styles, under the Architectural Objects node (just like Style Manager!). This populates the rest of the tab with data and options, based on the object type selected and the styles of that object type available in the current drawing. In order to quickly select all styles as styles to edit, I entered an “*” in the Enter Selection Filter edit box (without the quotation marks). This conveniently happens to be the initial default when left clicking in the box. Select the Go button to register the filter, and all of the Space Styles within the drawing will be checked in the Styles to Edit list box at the lower left. If you wanted to, you could uncheck any that you did not wish to edit.

In the Source Display Options area in the upper right of the Display Properties tab, I checked the Copy between Display Reps within each Style to Edit. This grays out the Source Style option on the left side, because instead of one style serving as the source, the values of the source Display Representation of each individual style will be copied to the Display Representation(s) to be edited in that same style. I then chose the Plan Display Representation as the Source Display Rep, using the drop down list isn the Source Display Options Area. Doing this automatically checks the Plan Display Representation in the Display Rep(s) to Edit list. The final step is to check the Plan Low Detail Display Representation in that same list, as this is the one to which I want to copy the settings from the Plan Display Representation.

Since I want to copy all settings between the corresponding Display Representations and I want to maintain them as style-level overrides, I am done with making settings. If I wanted to be more selective, I could use the other areas on the right side of the dialog to narrow down the settings to be copied or to set up a custom mapping of settings. Selecting OK tells the application to make the selected changes, and after processing all of the Space Styles in my test drawing file, the AecBatchStylesEditor Log dialog appears, as I have the logging option enabled, on the Preferences tab. This dialog displays a listing of the changes that were made, and I can save it to a text file if I wish, for later examination. Closing the log dialog returns me to my drawing file, with an offer to save the drawing, since I also have that option enabled on the Preferences tab. More importantly, my Low Detail Display now shows solid hatches, just like the Medium Detail Display, and all 38 of the Space Styles that were in this drawing have had the Low Detail Display Representation Style-level Display Override edited to match the Medium Detail Display Representation in just a few minutes.

If the out-of-the-box Display Settings are not exactly to your firm’s liking, but you have been putting off making changes because of all of the repetitive editing that might need to be done, or if you have wanted to create new Display Configurations with new Display Representation Sets and new Display Representations, but were overwhelmed by the enormous task of making all of the settings (particularly if they are the same as the settings for an existing Display Representation for all but a few object types), then you will definitely want to take a look at what this application can do. If you make use of style-level display overrides (whether out-of-the-box or custom), you can also use this application to push any drawing-default level changes you make to components that were not the reason for the override, without having to edit each override manually. Unless you are extremely underpaid, one or two uses on what would have been complicated or repetitious tasks will save you enough time to recoup the cost of the application, and every use after that is gravy.

Another Step Closer to Eliminating Printed Documentation

The last several releases of AutoCAD^® Architecture/Autodesk^® Architectural Desktop have not been accompanied by printed manuals, but you could, if you so desired, order one manual per license, which would be shipped to you at no charge.

In previous years, the options were to choose between the AutoCAD manual, the Imperial Tutorial for AutoCAD Architecture/Autodesk Architectural Desktop or the Metric Tutorial. I was disappointed that a printed manual for AutoCAD Architecture/Autodesk Architectural Desktop was not a choice, but was glad to have access to a printed version of the AutoCAD manual.

For the 2009 release, there are still three choices, but the AutoCAD manual is not one of them. Instead, in addition to the usual Imperial/Metric tutorial options, the other choice is to get a copy of the ACA Getting Started manual. At first, I was thrilled to see that an ACA manual was available, but something about the name seemed familiar. A quick check of the box in which the disks for AutoCAD Architecture 2009 were shipped revealed the source of that familiarity: the booklet included with the disks is called "Getting Started" and the part number on the back, 185A1-050000-PM01A matches that on the website ordering page. (Click on any image to see a larger version; use the Back button to return here.) So unless you want additional copies of the sixty-nine page Getting Started booklet that comes with the disks, you may want to consider one of the other choices.

Given the major change to the user interface, the AutoCAD manual would have been useful. While I love being able to search the electronic Help, I am sufficiently old-school (and sufficiently old) to still value a printed manual, that I can use without having to sacrifice screen space with the application running (does everyone but me have dual screens now?) and can also peruse when I am away from the computer.

I wonder if vanilla AutoCAD users still have the option to get the full manual, or just a "getting started" booklet.

Property Set Tools

While this feature was added way back in the 2006 release, I suspect that many are not aware of its existence. As you may recall, that release added Schedule Tag tools, providing an easier way to create and use Schedule Tags. Mastery of the AEC Content Wizard was no longer required!

One of the abilities of Schedule Tag tools is that you can specify additional Property Sets to be attached when tagging, even if those sets are not referenced by the Schedule Tag itself. Not only that, but you can also have the tool only add Property Sets, and dispense with the Schedule Tag altogether. An external source file can be specified to serve as the source of the Property Set(s), if the set(s) is(are) not already defined in the target file.

If you have ever wanted a tool that would attach Property Sets without adding a tag, simply make a copy of an existing Schedule Tag tool and edit the tool's properties. For example, in the 2008 release, I copied the out-of-the-box non-project-based Door Tag tool and pasted it on an editable tool palette.Right clicking on the tool and choosing Properties... from the context menu...
...opens the Tool Properties dialog, as shown below. This tool is a "Tag" type tool that currently does not add any Property Sets other than those referenced in the Schedule Tag, since the Property data property is empty.
If you left click on the Type property, you will get a pulldown menu with two choices: Tag and Property set data, as seen below. Change this from Tag to Property set data...
to have the tool attach Property Sets without adding a tag.
The tool you copied may point to a source file other than the one where your properties are kept. If so, simply left click on the Property def location property, and choose Browse... from the pulldown list.
This will open a standard file selection dialog that will allow you to navigate to the folder holding your source file and select that source file. With the proper source file chosen, left click on the Property data property, and choose the property or properties you wish to have the tool add from the Add Property Sets worksheet that displays. You can choose from both object-based and style-based Property Sets, keeping in mind that if you add a style-based set to an object, all objects of the same style will also have that Property Set added.
Select OK to register your choice(s), and then OK again to save the changes you made to your tool. Its as simple as 1, 3, 2 - and your tool is good to go. For a truly professional look, you may want to create a custom image file for your Property Set tool and add that to the tool (right click on the image in the Tool Properties dialog and choose Specify Image... from the context menu to specify the image file you created). Unlike tools that reference visible drawing objects, there is no "automatic" image for a Property Set only tool; the tool will retain the original image from the tag you copied unless you manually replace it with another image.

One feature I would like to see added is the ability to drag and drop a Property Set from Style Manager onto an editable tool palette to create a Property Set tool. Unfortunately, that is not possible in the 2008 release. Sounds like a good addition to the Wish List.

Help Pick AU 2008 Courses!

In his BLAUG blog, Autodesk's Joseph Wurcher has posted a link to a survey where you can help select the courses offered at AU this year. They have uploaded all of the course proposals and divided them up into categories. You can vote for up to 15 courses that you would like to see at this year's AU. You can vote in more than one category, but the overall limit of 15 courses applies.

But hurry - voting closes on Saturday, May 3, 2008!

ACD-A Display System - Part 3, Viewing and Editing Display Settings

First Article in the Series: ACD-A Display System - Part 1, AutoCAD^® Basics
Previous Article in the Series: ACD-A Display System - Part 2, Big Picture Overview

Before getting into the details of the Display System, a discussion of the ways in which display settings can be viewed and edited is in order. There are five ways to gain access to the Display System and its settings. Which one to use will depend on the task at hand and, where more that one will do, with your preferred means of working.

• Display Tab of the Drawing Setup Dialog.
• Display Manager.
• Display Properties Tab of a Style or Definition Properties Dialog.
• Display Properties Tab of the Object Display Dialog.
• Display Tab of the Properties Palette.

Display Tab - Drawing Setup DialogYou may not have noticed this tab before, especially if you do not open this dialog very often now that you can set the drawing scale on the Drawing Window Status Bar. (You can access this dialog through the Open Drawing Menu - found on the left side of the Drawing Window Status Bar, the left pointing arrow in a circle icon, or from the Format pulldown menu.) Those who have been using AutoCAD^® Architecture long enough may recall that prior to Release 3, this was the only way to view and edit the Drawing Default display settings of any object, without having an instance or a style/definition of an object type in the drawing. The interface here is not as slick as the Display Manager, but if you find this more to your tastes, then by all means use it. Most, however, will consider this an interesting relic and will prefer to use the Display Manager for Drawing Default editing.

Display Manager
The Display Manager gives you access to the Drawing Default settings for Display Representations, as well as to the settings for Display Representation Sets and Display Configurations. Anyone who is serious about making significant changes to the Display System needs to be very familiar with the Display Manager, which can be opened by choosing the Display Manager... item on the Format pulldown menu.It is also available via a button on the CAD Manager toolbar button if you have the CAD Manager CUI loaded as a partial CUI.The Display Manager Dialog has File and Edit pulldown menus, a tool bar, two main panes, left and right, and the usual OK, Cancel, Apply and Help buttons. Most of the action will take place in the left and right panes. The left pane is a tree view pane, that allows you to navigate the various parts of the Display System. Since the 2006 release, all open drawings are shown in the left pane, and you can use the Open toolbar icon or File > Open drawing... from the pulldown menus to open a file in Display Manager that is not open in AutoCAD Architecture. Earlier versions will only give you access to the display settings of the file that was currently active when the Display Manager was opened.

Configurations: Use the left pane to find the part of the Display System you want to examine or edit, then view the settings and make any desired edits in the right pane. The information shown in the right pane will vary, depending upon what is selected in the left pane. For example, selecting the Configurations node for a particular drawing shows a matrix in the right side with the Display Configurations (Configurations) in that drawing listed in the rows and the Display Representation Sets (Sets) in that drawing listed in the columns. An icon appears in the matrix to indicate that a particular Set is active in a particular Configuration. The icon displayed varies with the view direction to which the Set is assigned. A "see-through" cube indicates that the Set is assigned to the Default view direction, while a cube with a "solid" top face indicates the Set is assigned to the Top view direction. A key of all of the icons used for Configurations in the Display Manager can be found in the 2008 Help, by navigating through the following on the Contents tab: AutoCAD Architecture 2008 Help > AutoCAD Architecture User's Guide > Workflow and User Interface > Display System > The Display Manager > Viewing Display Configurations (other versions likely have a similar page).Expanding the Configurations node in the left pane will reveal a list of the Display Configurations in that drawing (the same ones that were listed in the rows of the matrix above). Note that one of these will be in BOLD type, indicating that it is the currently active Display Configuration. This graphic convention carries through for Display Representation Sets, making it easy to know whether the edits you are making will affect the current display. Selecting one of these will display several tabs in the right pane. The General tab displays the Configutation name, description and allows for adding notes, if desired. The Configuration tab shows a list of the standard view directions and the Display Represenation Set assigned to that view direction for that Display Configuration, if any. The Display Representation Set assigned to the Default view direction is used for all view directions that are not one of the six standard orthogonal view directions, as well as for any of those six that is not assigned a Display Representation Set.The Cut Plane tab allows you to set the cut plane height for the Display Configuration, as well as the above and below ranges.The Version History tab is used in conjunction with Project Standards (a subfeature of the Drawing Management/Project Navigator feature). Expanding a specific Display Configutation node in the left pane will show a list of the Display Representation Sets assigned to that Configuration. Selecting one of these displays the same set of tabs that display when selecting a Display Representation Set under the Sets node (shown below). Just keep in mind any changes made here will affect all uses of that Display Representation Set, not just its use in this particular Display Configuration.

Sets: Selecting the Sets node in the left pane displays a list of the Display Representation Sets defined in that drawing, with the description of each and the ability to set whether or not a give Display Representation Set should be ignored during Standards Synchronization.Expanding the Sets node in the left pane displays a list of the Display Representation Sets (BOLD type indicated the currently active one). An explanation of the icons displayed next to the Display Representation Sets can be found in the 2008 Help: AutoCAD Architecture 2008 Help > AutoCAD Architecture User's Guide > Workflow and User Interface > Display System > The Display Manager > Viewing Display Sets. Selecting one of the Sets displays several tabs in the right pane. The General tab offers the same options as the General tab for Configurations. The Display Represenation Control tab, which offers a matrix of Objects on the rows and Display Representations on the columns. On each object row, a toggle appears in the column for every Display Representation that is defined for that object type. If a check mark appears in that toggle, then that Display Representation for that object type is active in the selected Display Representation Set. A left mouse click on a toggle will change the status - checked (active) or unchecked (inactive). A right mouse click on a toggle offers a context menu with three options: Select All (make all Display Representations for that object type active), Clear All (make all Display Representations for that object type inactive) and Edit... (edit the display settings for that particular Display Representation/Object Type. Display Representations can also be edited as noted below under the Representations by Object node; keep in mind any edits made here will affect all uses of that Display Representation.The Display Options tab offers the ability to fine-tune your display settings based on Classifications (if any are defined in the current drawing) and control live sections and materials.The Version History tab serves the same purpose as it does for Configurations.

Representations by Object: Selecting the Representations by Object node in the left pane displays a matrix of Objects on the rows and Display Representations in the columns. In this matrix, an icon is displayed where the Display Representation of a given column is defined for the object type of a given row. An explanation of these icons (also used in the list of Display Representations below each object type - see below) can be found in the 2008 Help here: AutoCAD Architecture 2008 Help > AutoCAD Architecture User's Guide > Workflow and User Interface > Display System > The Display Manager > Viewing Display Representations. Right clicking on an icon displays a context menu with various options, including Delete (only works if the Display Representation for that object type is not referenced by a Display Representation Set), several options related to Project Standards (these may be grayed out if the selected drawing is not part of the current project, or a project is not set current) and Edit..., which allows you to edit that Display Representation for the given object type.Expanding the Representations by Object node in the left pane shows a list of the AEC object types in the drawing that interact with the Display System. Selecting one of these shows a matrix in the right pane, with a list of the Display Representations defined for that object type on the rows and the Display Representation Sets defined in that drawing on the Columns. A toggle occurs at each row/column intersection; a check mark indicates that the Display Representation of a given row is active for the Display Representation Set of a given column. A left mouse click changes the toggle status. A right click on a toggle displays a context menu that offers several choices: Duplicate (make a copy of the Display Representation), Delete (the Display Representation, will only work if it is not referenced by a Display Representation Set), Rename (only available for Display Representations that are not hard coded into the program), several Project Standards options (see note above under Sets), Select All (set Display Representation active for all Sets), Clear All (set Display Representation inactive for all Sets) and Edit Drawing Default... (edit the display settings for the Display Representation).Expanding the object node in the left pane displays a list of Display Representations defined for that object in that drawing. Selecting one of the Display Representations in the left pane displays tabs in the right pane related to the display settings for the selected object type. Some object types, such as Anchor Free, do not have any user-editable display settings, and the right pane will remain blank when selecting a Display Representation under these (note the grayed-out Display Representation icon in the left pane in these cases). We will get into more detail on the various tabs and settings in a future article.
Display Properties Tab - Style/Definition Properties Dialog
When editing a style or definition, the Display Properties tab will give you access to the display settings for that object type. On this tab, you can edit the Drawing Default level settings, if the override column toggle for that Display Representation is not checked. If the toggle is checked, or you add a check to that toggle, you can edit/create a style-level override for that style/definition/Display Representation.You can edit the display settings by selecting a Display Representation and then selecting the edit button in the upper right of the dialog. Setting an override will also open the Display Properties dialog for that Display Representation.

Display Properties Tab - Object Display Dialog
Selecting an object in your drawing and right clicking displays a context menu which includes Edit Object Display... as an option.Choosing this opens the Object Display Dialog; the Display Properties tab offers the same access to the Drawing Default display settings as seen when editing a style/definition, only here any override is applied at the object level, so it only affects the selected object.
Display Tab - Properties Palette
This is the new kid on the block, and it gives you the option to see changes "live". It also allows you to select the component you want to change in the drawing, without having to wade through a lot of dialogs to get to the setting you want. That can be something of a double-edged sword, however, in that the ease of making changes can result in ill-considered changes that could make a mess of the display settings in relatively short order, particularly when used by someone who does not fully understand the Display System. For that reason, I am going to defer any detailed discussion of this method until after I have covered the Display System in detail, using the methods of access noted above.You can also initiate the select component feature by selecting any object, right clicking and choosing Select Component from the context menu. You are not restricted to selecting components of the originally selected object.

AutoCAD Architecture 2009 - Part 4

First Article in the Series: AutoCAD Architecture 2009 - Part 1
Previous Article in the Series: AutoCAD Architecture 2009 - Part 3

Drawing Management
There have been a number of improvements to the Drawing Management feature in the 2009 release. I do not use this feature at work, and while I have some limited experience with it, I can not pretend to be intimately familiar with it, particularly with regard to what features were added when. So bear with me as I try to convey the new features.

One item that I know has been on the wish list of many people for some time is the ability to make use of Project Browser and Project Navigator without first having to have a drawing file open. As you can see in the series of screen captures below (click on any image to see a full-size version, then use the Back button to return here), both can now be opened and used with no drawing file open.

Project Browser... in the File Pulldown, Zero-Doc State

Project Browser Open, Zero-Doc State

Adding a New Project, Zero-Doc State

New Project Set Current, Zero Doc State

Project Navigator Open, Zero-Doc State

Here is another oft-wished for feature. There is now a button at the bottom of the Project tab of Project Navigator that will allow you to close the current project. Opening Project Browser is no longer necessary to close the current project. You will, however, need to use Project Browser to set a project current, as Project Navigator will close when the current project is closed.

Close Current Project in Project Navigator

When closing or switching projects in 2009, you now have the option to close all project files from the project being closed.

Close All Open Drawings in Closing Project

That might put you back in a zero-doc state, but that is not a problem in the 2009 release.

Yet another item is removed from the wish list: you can now open a file "read-only" from Project Navigator.

Open File Read-Only in Project Navigator

There are a number of other file-related enhancements in Project Navigator. Files that are open are now indicated graphically by the addition of a small lock in the lower right corner of the file icon. In the image below, the 00 Core, Stairs and 01 Interior Constructs are open, and show the lock icon. If you have multiple files from a project open, you are now given the opportunity to bring a particular file that is not current to the front on the right-click context menu in Project Navigator. You can also close an open file from that same context menu.

Right-click Menu Options for a Construct in Project Navigator

The External References Worksheet, accessed from that same right-click menu, has been enhanced in 2009. Instead of merely showing a list of the externally referenced files in a given Project Navigator file, you can now also see the saved path and found location for each of the external references.

External References Worksheet

The Project Properties Worksheet has gotten a makeover, making it easier to find the particular item you want to edit. Of particular interest, note that the last item, Project Tool Palette Group, is set to None. Project Tool Palettes are now optional.

Project Properties Worksheet

Drawing tooltips in Project Navigator are now available, paralleling those available in the Sheet Set Manager in AutoCAD^®. In Project Navigator, the tooltips are available for all files types, not just Sheets.

Drawing Tooltips in Project Navigator

The tooltips combine the information on the Detail and Preview options of the Detail area at the bottom of Project Navigator; you may find that you can close the Detail area, expanding the file viewing area, and using the tooltip when you need to see that information.

There are a number of other Drawing Management enhancements. If these sound like a solution to one or more pain points for you, be sure to check them out in 2009:

• Double-click on APJ file enhancements.
• Commas in Sheet file names (and therefore sheet drawing titles).
• Who-has information
• Recovery from failed, cancelled or missed repathing.
• Reference file repathing queue worksheet.
• Use layout name for sheet name.
• Improvements to the Attach Elements to Constructs Worksheet
• Project Templates installation location improvements.

Additional Features
The context menu for external references has been improved, with the addition of several new options. You can now unload, reload, detatch or bind an external reference from the context menu.

External Reference Right-Click Context Menu

Support for gbXML has been added to the 2009 release. Those of you interested in green building and extracting information from the building model will want to look into this more deeply. You can find an overview at the gbXML.org website.

IFC import and export has been improved to provide greater control over the IFC process.

Material tools now allow you to apply a material directly to a component of an AEC object or to an AutoCAD object. When a tool is active, hovering over a component will highlight the component and give you a tooltip identifying the component and listing the material that would be applied. The tooltip will also let you know if the highlighted component can not accept a material. For AEC objects with styles, the assignment can be made at the style or object level.

Applying a Material to a Door Panel with a Material Tool

Here is another one that many have asked for over the years - all dialogs in ACD-A 2009 are resizable. I have not personally opened every single one to see if this is true, but I do not recall any that could not be resized.

The Match Properties command (MATCHPROP) now also allows you to copy the style of an AEC object to other objects of that type. Look for the new icon on the Standard toolbar.

Match Properties Icon

The Display tab of the Properties palette has also been improved. The "light bulb" icons on the components list that formerly only indicated whether or not the component was on or off can now be used to toggle the on/off status of the component.

Toggle Component Visibility with Light Bulb Icon

All of the Display Properties of an object, including properties that appear on additional tabs like Cut Plane and Other in the Display Manager, are now available through the Display tab of the Properties palette.

All Display Properties Accessible Through Display Tab

AutoCAD Features
There are also a number of improvements to AutoCAD 2009 that will also be available in ACD-A 2009. Many of these have been covered in detail by other bloggers of greater stature than I, and I will defer to their postings. If you have not already read these articles, you may want to take advantage of the following links.

General Overview
Heidi Hewett

Quick Access Toolbar
Lynn Allen
Heidi Hewett

Steering Wheel
Lynn Allen

ViewCube
Lynn Allen
ACD-A 2009 users will also see the ViewCube in the Object Viewer.and the Components tab of a Wall Style, among other places.
Action Recorder
Lynn Allen
Heidi Hewett

Show Motion
Lynn Allen

Quick Properties
Lynn Allen
Heidi Hewett

Quick View Layouts
Lynn Allen
Heidi Hewett
Shaan Hurley

Status Bar
Heidi Hewett

Menu Browser
Heidi Hewett

I hope this series on the new features in AutoCAD^® Architecture 2009 has helped whet your appetite for the coming release and shown that there are features in the new release that make the effort to install it worthwhile.

AutoCAD Architecture 2009 - Part 3

First Article in the Series: AutoCAD Architecture 2009 - Part 1
Previous Article in the Series: AutoCAD Architecture 2009 - Part 2

Spaces
There have been several improvements to the Space object. Curved surfaces of freeform spaces are now displayed as one surface, rather than as a series of segments, as they were in previous releases. The freeform spaces shown below are from 2008, on the left, and 2009, on the right.
AutoCAD^® linework, such as lines, circles and polylines, now have a "Bound spaces" property, in the Advanced category.When this is set to "yes" and you are calculating Space areas from a standard, the AutoCAD linework will affect the calculation the same way as an AEC Object that is set to bound spaces. For the BOMA standard, Base and Net areas will exclude the area of bound items within the Base and Net boundaries, respectively, while Usable and Gross areas will include the area of bound items. For AutoCAD linework, it appears that the linework needs to be entirely within the Base Area boundary, while AEC Objects can straddle a Space edge and still have their area included in the Usable and Gross area. In previous versions, when AutoCAD linework formed the boundary of a Space, the Space would still be associative to it, but the area within the AutoCAD linework would not be included in any of the areas.

The associative interaction of Spaces with objects in external references is improved. In a test file, I found that reloading the external reference with changes to the walls forming the boundaries of a space would automatically update the Spaces in the host file in 2009; a manual updating of the Space geometry was necessary in 2008.

Multi-line Attribute Text in Schedule Tags
One of the cool things added in the 2008 release was the ability to set a width for an attribute in a block, and have the entered text wrap to multiple lines if it exceeded that width. Unfortunately, that ability was not supported in Multi-View Blocks, and therefore, not in Schedule Tags. The 2009 release extends that functionality to Multi-View Blocks and Schedule Tags. One common use for this will be in room tags. You will no longer need to have multiple attributes in your view block, one for each line to be supported, and either separate Manual properties for entering the lines, with a Formula property to knit them together for use in a Schedule Table, or a set of fancy Formula properties to take the value entered into a single Manual property and chop it up into smaller pieces for use in the tag. It will also make it much easier to use List Definitions for room names.

When selecting a Schedule Tag, you will now see two or three grips. The square cyan grip is the old, familiar location grip, used to move the entire tag. If the Schedule Tag is annotative, and more than one scale is assigned to the tag, then there will be a square, yellow grip for relocating the tag graphics for the current drawing scale. New to 2009, there is now a round, gray grip that is the trigger grip for editing attributes.Selecting the edit attributes grip will enable a number of grips that allow you to edit the attributes, as shown in the composite image below. (Click on any image for a full-size version, then use the Back button to return here.)As the tooltips indicate, the two triangular cyan grips allow you to set the width of the attribute (and the tool tip lets you know the current width - 0 will display the entire text on one line). The upper circular gray grip triggers another set of grips (not shown) where you can change the justification of the attribute. The square cyan grip allows you to change the location of the attribute and the diamond cyan grip allows you to change the rotation of the attribute. The lower circular gray grip allows you to exit the attribute edit mode.

After using the left width grip (either will do) to offset the width by 3'-6", the attribute will have a total width of 7'-0"...... and result in a three-line display for the featured room tag.So easy, even a project manager could do it.

Additional Annotation Improvements
You can now associate a Display Configuration with a particular scale. Changing to that scale will also set the associated Display Configuration current. These settings are on a drawing-by-drawing basis, starting with whatever may be set in the template file, so you could have different assignments for different drawing types. For example, the imperial default setting of Medium Detail for scales from 1/8" = 1'-0" through 3/8" = 1'-0" may be appropriate for a regular plan drawing, but you will want to reset the assigned Display Configurations for a reflected ceiling plan drawing, unless you are working in a single scale. Set or change the Display Configuration assigned to a particular scale on the Scale tab of the Drawing Setup dialog.
Multi-leaders are now supported for the leader and keynoting tools.
There are new tool types for inserting various types of annotation. (Out-of-the-box DesignCenter content for imperial and metric annotation is down to Chases and Elevation labels.) These include various symbols (Bar Scale, Datum Point and North Arrow, although you could customize an instance of this tool type to insert any symbol),various polyline symbol tools (fire-resistance-rating lines - line only - and match lines and revision clouds - line and symbol)and a Column Grid Bubble tool..
The Stock Catalog's Command Tool now also features the ability to specify a Layer Key or Layer Key Overrides! This tool type is now used to provide Dimension tools and a Shrink Wrap tool that are not dependent on AEC Content.
I hope to wrap up this overview of the new features in the 2009 release in the next installment.

Next Article in the Series: AutoCAD Architecture 2009 - Part 4

AutoCAD Architecture 2009 - Part 2

First Article in the Series: AutoCAD Architecture 2009 - Part 1

Here is a quick look at the improved edit-in-place feature for wall endcaps. I must confess that my attempts at using edit-in-place for creating endcaps in previous versions were somewhat half-hearted, as I had become reasonably proficient at creating them by drawing polylines, and the "calculate automatically" feature made creating endcaps from polylines almost painless, for wall styles without stacked components. Perhaps if I had applied myself to the task more diligently, I could have mastered edit-in-place in previous versions, but my few forays generally met with disaster, and I never had time to work out what I was doing incorrectly.

So I approached this feature with low expectations in the 2009 beta, and ended up being very pleased. As previously, I dove in without first trying to read up on the process in the Help - the only "training" was a very short video that was posted, showing the feature in action. I think most people will find the improved feature much more intuitive.

The out-of-the-box CMU-8 Rigid-1.5 Air-2 Brick-4 Furring comes with an endcap style that turns the brick component back into the wall, butting into the rigid insulation, as shown below.

I created a new wall style, based on the CMU-8 Rigid-1.5 Air-2 Brick-4 Furring style, called CMU-12 Rigid-1.5 Air-2 Brick-4 Furring. As you might guess, the only difference is that the CMU component is 1'-0" wide, rather than 8" wide. This will cause the CMU-8 Rigid-1.5 Air-2 Brick-4 Furring (End 1) endcap to do strange things, as it scales things to suit the increased width of the CMU. I could have tried to edit that endcap in place, but chose instead to change the endcap to "Standard" to show just how easy it is to build a similar endcap for the CMU-12 Rigid-1.5 Air-2 Brick-4 Furring wall style "from scratch."

Selecting the wall and right clicking brings up the context menu for walls. Choosing Endcaps > Edit in Place starts the WallEndcapEdit command, and results in a prompt to select a point near the endcap.

After selecting a point near the top end of my wall instance, the GWB component's endcap was hightlighted, so I chose to start with that component. Vertices are represented by round, magenta grips; edges by rectangular ("hyphen-shaped") grips. Hovering over the edge grip at the top of the GWB component yields a tooltip that indicates the options available for that grip. For our endcap, the default Offset option will do what we need.Selecting the grip and offsetting it vertically by four inches gives us the endcap profile we need for this component.This same technique was applied to the Stud, CMU and rigid insulation components. Simply select a component to activate its endcap grips.

The Air Space component does not require an offset, as the Brick component will wrap across the top of it. The creation of the Brick component is a two-step process. The first step involves offsetting the component the same four inches vertically the same way as the other offset components were done.The second step involves using the edge grip on the right side of the now extended Brick Component, and offsetting that edge by two inches, to bring it to the face of the rigid insulation. Note that you can use object snaps when offsetting components - the edge grips will only offset perpendicular to the face, so you can snap to the endpoint of another component, even if it does not line up with the edge grip in the perpendicular direction.

At this point, having performed a total of six edge grip edits, our endcap is built. Select the save all changes button on the In-Place Edit toolbar to save the changes.The Wall Endcap Style dialog will appear, prompting you for a name for your new endcap, and offering the option of making this new endcap the wall style default, or an override for this one location. Since I was building a new endcap for this modified wall style, I chose to make this the default endcap for the wall style.

The CMU-12 Rigid-1.5 Air-2 Brick-4 Furring wall instance now sports the new wall endcap style, and the brick returns to the rigid insulation, just like its out-of-the-box cousin.

In addition to the grip edit features shown here, the right click context menu available during endcap edit-in-place allows you to add and remove vertices, hide and show edges (hide is the equivalent of drawing a polyline segment with a width, that edge will not be visible in the endcap), replace or remove the endcap, save all changes, save as a new endcap style or discard all changes. The AEC Modify tools are also available to aid in creating more complex profiles. Whether you create a lot of custom endcaps or have met with such frustration with endcaps in the past that you avoid them entirely, the improved edit-in-place of wall endcaps in the 2009 release is a feature you will want to investigate, learn and make use of in the future.

Next Article in the Series: AutoCAD Architecture 2009 - Part 3

AutoCAD Architecture 2009 - Part 1

The NDA has been lifted (as if you were not already aware of it), and Betaprogram participants can talk about the features in the soon-to-be-released 2009 versions of Autodesk products. See Shaan Hurley's Between the Lines blog for several articles filled with links to all sorts of 2009-related articles.

There seemed to be more than the usual grumbling in the AutoCAD^® Architecture Discussion Groups in the last few days regarding the lack of compelling new or improved content in AutoCAD Architecture 2009. Or maybe the nasty head cold/fever that persists in ignoring my requests for it to go away has simply made me more sensitive to it this year. The few things I have seen written about 2009 so far (I have not had time to visit all of Shaan's links) have been brief descriptions, which may not be doing the new things justice. I know I will not be able to convince those who start out certain that the new release is not worth the effort to install it, but perhaps the following will be able to convince those with a more open mind that there are some exciting new and improved features that will make the new version worth a more detailed look, in person. If I had more time, this would be better organized, but if I wait until I get it organized to post it, those on subscription will have the DVD in hand first. So please bear with the stream-of-consciousness approach.

User Interface
Let's get the most obvious thing out of the way first. Yes, the interface has been redone, again. This seems to annoy quite a few people, who think the effort should go into the program. I am not certain I can or want to argue with that philosophy, except to note that after I uninstalled the previous Beta in anticipation of installing the final one, I opened each of the other versions of AutoCAD Architecture/Autodesk^® Architectural Desktop that I have installed, to make sure nothing got broken in the uninstall, and was reminded of just how painful the old 3.3 interface (so cool when it was new) now seems. And while the default look, colors and icons have changed a bit, it is not the radical change that the introduction of "palettes" in 2004 brought.

The Design Workspace (click on image for a larger view)

If you are going to use this "as AutoCAD," then the Ribbon thing may take some getting used to - but only the Visualization Workspace for AutoCAD Architecture is ribbonized. The other workspaces still have the old, familiar drop down menus, etc. Ribbonization of those workspaces was deferred to a future release, to avoid releasing a less-than-fully stable product prematurely. I do almost no visualization myself, so I have another year to make that transition. And you can always create your own workspaces, with just the features you want.

The Visualization Workspace

One other nice feature in the new interface is the enhanced tool tips that are available when hovering over a button, tool, or object. For example, hovering over the Layer Manager button on the Layer Properties toolbar initially displays the tooltip shown in the image below.Continuing to hover over the button expands the tooltip, with the following, more detailed information.Not earth shattering, but it does give you the name of the command and a brief description. For experienced users, those tooltips will come in handy until you adjust to the new icons; for the newer user, they can provide easy access to help without having to navigate through the Help. And they are not restricted to commands - you can now quickly find the layer, style name and style description of AEC objects, simply by hovering over them.Detail component information will also be included, for Detail Components and the keynote will be included, for Keynotes.

64-bit Support
Those of you with 64-bit machines will no longer have to jump through hoops to use a 32-bit version of ACD-A; 2009 will be available in both 32- and 64-bit versions.

Wall Cleanup Improvements - Say Goodbye to the Red Circle of Death
Wall defects have not been solved 100% (and there are some things, like coincindental walls, that are more a user defect than a program one). But 2009 will clean up many more conditions than earlier versions would have, including the often wished for cleanup between walls with baselines at different elevations. In the image below, the wall running from lower left to upper right was drawn with its baseline at Z = 0; the other wall's baseline is at Z = 2'-0".In previous versions, these walls would never have cleaned up, but switching to a top view......shows that these two walls do cleanup. So long as the baseline of one of the walls falls within the height of the other (and the projection of the graphlines onto a horizontal plane cross or touch - OR - the cleanup radius of one crosses the baseline of the other), cleanup will occur. Notice the dashed lines connecting the outer face of the vertical wall, which happens to be the lower wall, at Z = 0. This is the Below Cut Plane component, which is turned on in the out-of-the-box Plan Display Representation for Walls. I tweaked the settings, adding a linetype to make it easier for me to identify the linework in my description - you would see a continuous line here, as an indication that that wall runs through below the other wall. If you do not want that line, you would need to turn off the display of the Below Cut Plane component.

Modified Linetype and Lt Scale Settings on Below Cut Plane Component

Cleanup between external references has been improved. Walls in copies of the same external reference (attachment or overlay) will cleanup, when moved or rotated. This also applies to nested external references. The only condition not supported in 2009 is mirrored external references.

When defects do occur, the infamous defect marker of old, often affectionately referred to as the "Red Circle of Death" has now been replaced with the kindler, gentler "Orange Triangle of Elucidation". While still providing a visual clue that things are not quite right, if you hover over the marker, a "solution tip" will appear, giving you some help in trying to resolve the issue. In the image below, I intentionally overlapped two walls of the same style to generate a defect marker.Had I been unaware of the reason why the defect occurred, reading the solution tip gives me both the cause and a possible solution. How many times in the past would you have loved to have that? If you draw a wall that is too short to display the assigned endcaps, or place a Door, Window or Door/Window Assembly without leaving enough space for the opening endcap, the solution tip will tell you that is the problem. I expect to see far fewer Discussion Group posts asking for help with that issue in the future. In addition to Walls, solution tips apply to the following objects: Stairs, Slabs, Structural Members, Roofs, and Mass Elements.

Wall Drafting Improvements
How many times have you started drawing a Wall, with the desired justification set, but picked the first point without thinking about whether the Wall would fall on the proper side, and picked what should have been the endpoint, not the starting point? Yes, you could grip edit it after the fact, but now you need only hit the CTRL key after selecting the first point to flip the wall, while maintaining the desired justification. In other words, you can now draw from end to start.

If that justification was not properly set, no more moving the mouse over to the Properties palette to change it. The SHIFT key will toggle between Left, Center, Right and Baseline justifications, as shown below.
If the standard justifications for walls will not get the wall placed where you would like, you can take advantage of the new on-screen options in the OFfset option of the WALLADD command. In addition to entering a distance (by typing or picking a point on-screen), you can now graphically select any of the following "lines":

• Face of any component (solid line on screen).
• Center line of any component (dashed line on screen).
• Center line of wall (center line on screen).

If all that proves too much new stuff to remember, the Communication Center has "Did You Know" balloons to remind you of new features when particular commands, such as the WALLADD command, are executed. These do close after a short period of time. Once you have absorbed the information, you can choose not to see a particular item again, using the link on the balloon. The down arrow expands the balloon to show a small graphic image.
The final major improvement for Walls is in-place endcap editing. That is a whole article in itself, and there are additional new features for other objects to be discussed. My head cold/fever is starting to get the better of me, so I will conclude Part 1 here.

Next Article in the Series: AutoCAD Architecture 2009 - Part 2