February 25, 2009

Repathing Default Location of Content Browser Library

In this thread in the AutoCAD Architecture Discussion Group, Tony Michniewicz of Autodesk reveals a method for setting a different default folder where Content Browser will look for your library file (CBL):

Create a plain text file called ContentBrowser.ini and save it to the root folder of your AutoCAD Architecture installation, which is the folder where the acad.exe and AecCB.exe files are located. (The default location for Windows XP is C:\Program Files\AutoCAD Architecture 2008; your location may vary.)

Place the following text in the file:
[Files]
Library=C:\ContentBrowserLibraryFolder\ContentBrowserLibrary.cbl


You will want to substitute your path and CBL file name for C:\ContentBrowserLibraryFolder\ContentBrowserLibrary.cbl in the example above. Do not forget to include a carriage return (hit the "Enter" key, for those of you too young to have used a typewriter) after the last line.

Ordinarily, this should not be necessary, but I can think of at least two situations where this would be handy. One I experienced myself, when testing out an early version of a deployment for 2008, in which the Content Browser Library file location was set to a network folder that was read-only to me. This has been corrected, but at the time, I had to manually point Content Browser to a library file on my computer each time I opened it, in order to be able to open/create catalogs other than those set in the network file. I wish I had known that I could have redirected the default location this easily.

I could also see a situation where, in order to cut down on the number of catalogs that have to be waded through to find the one of interest, separate CBL files might be used. The ability to assign types to catalogs and sort/filter them by type would be my first choice if I were using a later version, since that is much easier to manage than editing (or swapping out) the ContentBrowser.ini file.

February 16, 2009

Unable to Execute Tool - Class Not Registered

If you get an error message when trying to use a Tool palette tool, stating that the tool can not be executed due to the class not being registered, the fix is relatively simple. A repair installation generally clears up the issue and restores your tool palettes. It is a good idea to back up any customized files (CUI, modified out-of-the-box style files, etc), just in case the repair installation overwrites any of those with the out-of-the-box version. Of course, you do that on a regular basis anyway (right?), as well as regularly export your profile(s) in the Options dialog, so that you have current, or nearly current files to restore in the event of corruption or other disaster.

In some cases, it may be possible to avoid a repair installation. Matt Stachoni provides the things to check and the steps to take for this "less drastic" option in this thread in the Autodesk AutoCAD Architecture Discussion Group.

One common way for this situation to occur is to uninstall one version while leaving another version installed.

February 09, 2009

2010 Product Launch Press Materials

If you are curious about what the 2010 release holds for AutoCAD Architecture (and other Autodesk products), you may want to download one or more of the press materials ZIP files or take a look at the video archives of the virtual press conferences here.