Revit: 2018.3, Windows 10 and No Material Browser

I discovered today that I was not able to open the Revit® Material Browser (on the Manage ribbon tab, on the Settings panel, selecting the Materials tool). As luck would have it, I am quite a bit behind in reading the Autodesk Revit Architecture Forum, and I just happened to have read a thread about this issue earlier today. In the Materials Dialog Box Doesn't work thread, a post by richard.horner, building off the previous post by stewart.jex, provided the solution that worked for me. I know I will not be able to find that thread when I need it in the future, and since the solution is not at all intuitive (I still cannot figure out why it works), I decided to document it here.

1. In the Revit session in which you discover that the Material Browser will not open, go to the Application Menu (File "tab"), and choose Options.
2. In the Options dialog, choose Hardware on the left side.
3. On the right side, in the Hardware setup area, clear the checkmark from the Use hardware acceleration (Direct3D®) toggle.
4. Select OK to ratify the change and close the Options dialog, and then close Revit. (Changes to hardware acceleration do not take effect immediately.)
5. Restart Revit, and open a project file.
6. On the Manage ribbon tab, on the Settings panel, select the Materials tool. The dialog opens! (Great, but who wants to run Revit without hardware acceleration, right? The next part is the bit that I cannot figure out.)
7. Close the Material Browser.
8. Open the Options dialog again, select Hardware and select the Use hardware acceleration (Direct3D®) toggle to re-enable it. There should be a checkmark in the toggle.
9. Select OK to ratify the change and close the Options dialog, and then close Revit.
10. Restart Revit, open a project file and then try to open the Material Browser again. It works!

While the analytical part of my brain wants to know why the exact same settings that previously failed now work, the "hey, you found a solution, now lets get on with what you were trying to do originally" part of my brain is declaring victory and moving on. And I will be carefully looking both ways crossing streets on my way home this evening, as I have clearly used my luck for the day.

Civil 3D 2018 to ACA 2013

We have started to get drawings from Civil consultants in the 2018 file format. Thanks to our recent move to the AEC Collection, we now have access to AutoCAD^® Civil 3D^®. I have no idea how to use that program, beyond the AutoCAD basics, but I installed the 2018 version of it in the hope that I would be able to export the received drawing to "vanilla" AutoCAD^®. Similar to AutoCAD^® Architecture and AutoCAD^® MEP, you can go to the Application Menu > Export > Export Civil 3D Drawing to export a drawing. There is a dialog, where you can choose between AutoCAD DWG and Microstation^® DGN, and, for DWG export, the Export Settings allow you to select a file format, such as 2013.

I did all of that, and Civil 3D did its thing, and drawings were generated. (I got more than one because I left the Include sheets toggle checked, so a drawing for each layout was also generated.) I fired up AutoCAD Architecture 2016 and opened the exported "Model" file, only to be greeted by this dialog:

What?! I just exported this file to a previous file format - there should not be ANY AEC objects, let alone future ones. I closed the dialog and tried run the WALLADD command. No dice - "Command not allowed because drawing contains objects from a newer version of this application." appeared at the command line. So this drawing, supposedly exported to the previous file format, can be opened, but is otherwise mostly useless. You can externally reference the file and use AEC commands in the host file, saving it from being totally useless.

Still, I expected to have a "clean" 2013-format file that only has non-AEC AutoCAD objects. I tried a Window selection in Model Space to get all the visible objects and then tried to copy them to the clipboard, hoping that if I pasted them in a new file, the future AEC Objects would not come along for the ride. That did not work, as the copy to clipboard failed.

Then I tried to select the Model Space objects and use the WBLOCK command, again hoping that the future AEC Objects would be left behind. That also failed.

Finally, I opened the file in AutoCAD Architecture 2018 and tried to use the AECEXPORTTOAUTOCAD2013 command, in the somewhat desperate hope that might work. I got the following dialog indicating that an error had occurred during the save.

And then this dialog showed up, to rub salt into the wound. I tried "saving" as AutoCAD-only objects!

This was followed by a second showing of the warning dialog recommending the use of the RECOVER command. Opening this file in AutoCAD Architecture 2016 resulted in the same Open Drawing - New Versions of Objects in Drawing dialog as shown in the first image above.

Finally, I tried starting a new drawing and using the INSERT command to insert the originally exported "Model" drawing file. I received the following dialog:

The small-print statement "Newer AEC objects will be disallowed from participating in this operation" gave me hope, as it was not flat-out refusing to do the insertion, and I did not want the newer objects in the file. That hope was confirmed, as it did insert what appeared to be all of the objects that were visible in the exported file, and I was able to add AEC objects to the file. Upon saving and reopening, there were no dialogs chastising me for having a file with future AEC Objects in it. Success! I still think that the original export should have been AEC-object-free, and object to having to go to the extra step of inserting the exported file into an empty file to get rid of the future objects, but at least I have a workaround for providing a "clean" file in the 2013 format that does not require proxy objects or object enablers.

ExportToAutoCAD and Civil 3D Object Enabler

I have not tested this exhaustively, but I had an issue today where I was trying to export what appeared to be a "vanilla" AutoCAD 2018 format file back to the 2013 file format, using AutoCAD Architecture 2018. On my initial attempts, I got a message saying there was an error and that I should try to RECOVER the exported file. I did so, and no errors were reported, but I got the dreaded future objects warning, and I could not add a Wall in the file. I had previously installed the Civil 3D object enabler on AutoCAD Architecture 2018, and suspected that was the reason why there were still future objects in the exported file. I uninstalled the object enabler, and was able to export to the 2013 file format without any errors, warnings or issues.

I am not certain if having the object enabler installed was adding Civil 3D objects, which the AutoCAD Architecture EXPORTOTAUTOCAD2013 command could not export/explode or if the enabler was causing an error that left future AutoCAD Architecture AEC objects in the file, but removing the enabler appears to have fixed things, for now.

Multiple Plug-ins Ribbon Tabs...

...instead of one Add-ins ribbon tab, in AutoCAD^® Architecture 2018. I found this Autodesk Knowledge Network article on the topic, indicating it was for AutoCAD^® Map 3D, 2014/2015, but also applying to AutoCAD^® and other verticals, for the 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 releases. The instructions worked just fine in AutoCAD Architecture 2018.

As noted, I did not need to do Steps 2, 3 and 4, but I did check to see that was all in place prior to proceeding with the balance of the steps. After unloading the partial customization files for the two plug-ins that I had installed and then closing and restarting the program, the individual panels for the plug-ins showed up on a single Add-ins tab. I did have to turn on the display of the Add-ins ribbon tab, but that was easily done by right-clicking on a blank area of the ribbon and choosing Show Tabs > Add-ins from the context menu.

Oddly, it all came in on one Add-ins tab for AutoCAD^® MEP 2018, on the same machine.

AutoCAD Architecture 2018.0.2 Update Released

The 2018.0.2 Update for AutoCAD^® Architecture 2018 was released on Tuesday, August 1, 2017. You can read the full release notes here. This update addresses issues with viewport layers not remaining frozen for Multi-View Blocks, AEC Objects in external reference files with display overrides still plotting and fatal errors caused by an increase in graphic objects during AEC object insertion.

The update is available through your Autodesk Account page or in the Autodesk desktop application.

Ribbon Tools in AutoCAD 2018.1 Update

The ".1" update for AutoCAD^® 2018 for subscription and maintenance customers was released on July 27, 2017. You can see what's new in AutoCAD 2018.1 by reading the AutoCAD 2018.1 and AutoCAD LT 2018.1 Update Preview Guide. According to the Readme, the AutoCAD 2018.1 Update can be installed on AutoCAD-based verticals, such as AutoCAD^® Architecture 2018 and AutoCAD^® MEP 2018.

PLEASE NOTE: The update will overwrite the ACAD.cuix file for your 2018 product. If you have made any customizations to the ACAD.cuix file, be certain to back that file up prior to installing the update.
08/03/2017 UPDATE:  I have been told that the ACAD.cuix file does not get overwritten if you have already run the program at least once, but that the file is updated and the new panel and tool are added.  I would still back the file up prior to running the update if you have any customizations. The ACA.cuix or MEP.cuix file will not be updated.

While compatible with the vertical applications, the update will not update the customization files for those verticals that do not use the ACAD.cuix file as the main customization file, such as ACA.cuix and MEP.cuix. I personally have no problem with that, as I would rather maintain the Workspace customizations I have done in my main CUIX file* and manually transfer any new items I deem worthy. Here is how to get the Named Views panel and Insert View tool added in the AutoCAD 2018.1 update into your vertical's customization file. I will be working with the ACA.cuix file, but the same process applies to the MEP.cuix file, or that of any other AutoCAD-based vertical that does not use the ACAD.cuix file.

The first step is to install the AutoCAD 2018.1 update, which you can download from your Autodesk^® Account page.

With the updated ACAD.cuix file for 2018 in place, you can now use the Transfer tab of the Customize User Interface dialog to copy the panel and the tool to your customization file. The following Screencast shows how to do so.

1. After installing the AutoCAD 2018.1 Update, launch your vertical product.
2. Start the CUI command to open the Customize User Interface dialog. Select the Transfer tab.
3. The left pane of the transfer tab may already have your current main customization file open. If not, open it on this side.
4. On the right pane, use the open tool and navigate to the location of the ACAD.cuix file in your user profile. Mine was located at
   C:\Users\dkoch\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\ACA 2018\enu\Support
   Substitute your user name for "dkoch". Depending upon where you are in the world and what language version you have installed, the "enu" folder may have a different name. If you have your roaming Windows profile files on your network, then look there for the AutoCAD Vertical Product 2018 Support folder. Also keep in mind that the AppData folder is a hidden folder in Windows, so you will have to turn on the display of hidden files and folders if you plan to use the Search feature or navigate to the folder.
5. On both the left and right panes, expand the Ribbon node and then the Panels node below that. Scroll down to find the Layout - Viewports panel in each customization file. Expand that panel's node and then expand the Row 1 node below that.
6. On the right pane (ACAD.cuix), select both the Separator after Sub-Panel 1 and the Sub-Panel 2 node. The Sub-Panel 2 Node contains the Insert View tool.
7. Hover the mouse over one of the highlighted items, press and hold the left mouse button down and drag those two items over to the left pane. Position the cursor just below the Sub-Panel 1 node. When you see the blue bar, release the left mouse button to drop those two items into the ACA.cuix version of the Layout - Viewports panel.
8. If the Separator comes in below the Sub-Panel 2 node in the left pane, drag it up so that it is in between the Sub-Panel 1 and Sub-Panel 2 nodes.
9. In the right pane (ACAD.cuix), scroll to find the View - Named Views panel.
10. Drag the View - Named Views panel from the right pane to the left pane, under one of the nodes under the Panels node and drop it, to copy it to the ACA.cuix.
11. Select the Customize tab in the Customize User Interface dialog.
12. In the upper left pane, under the ACA node (or the node for the main customization file for your vertical product), expand the Ribbon node, and then expand the Tabs node under that.
13. Scroll down to find the View - ACA ribbon tab, and expand that node. You will see a listing of the panels currently assigned to that tab.
14. Scroll down and expand the Panels node under your main customization file. Scroll down to find the View - Named Views panel that you just copied.
15. Drag the View - Named Views panel up toward the top of the list box in the upper left pane. The list box should start scrolling when you get close to the top. Keep scrolling until the View - ACA ribbon tab is visible.
16. Drop the View - Named Views panel into the list of panels under the View - ACA node. I find that it is difficult to drop an item at the very end of a list of things under a node, so I usually drop it just above the current last item, and then drag that item above the item I just dropped, if I want the added item to be the last in the list.
17. Select the OK button to ratify your changes and dismiss the Customize User Interface dialog.
18. If a layout is not already set current, select a layout. The Layout contextual ribbon tab should appear. Select it and verify that the Separator and the Insert View tool were added to the Layout Viewports panel.
    
19. Select the View ribbon tab and verify that the Named Views panel was added.
    

* - To make moving to a new release easier, I try to limit customization of the ACA.cuix file to those things that have to be there, such as Workspaces, and put as much as I can into a separate customization file, loaded as a partial customization file. That keeps my "stuff" mostly separate and I can adopt the ACA.cuix file that ships with the new release.

AutoCAD® 2018 Users Alert

If you have AutoCAD^® 2018 or any vertical built on AutoCAD 2018 installed AND you installed the 2018.0.1 update during the short period of time that was available BUT have not yet installed the 2018.0.2 update, please do so immediately. The 2081.0.1 update included code from the pre-release Beta version that will cause the license to time out on June 1, 2017. Installing the 2018.0.2 update will remedy this situation. If you do not act, you will not be able to run AutoCAD 2018 on June 1.

How Can I Tell if I Have the 2018.0.1 Update Installed?
At the command line, type ABOUT and then press the ENTER key.

• For AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT^®, look at the Product Version line (the only one there).
• For vertical products, such as AutoCAD^® Architecture, pictured above, look at the Built on line.

If you see

• O.49.0.0: You have the shipping version installed, without any updates. You are NOT impacted by the license timeout issue, however, it is recommended that you install the 2018.0.2 update to take advantage of the fixes contained therein.
• O.61.0.0: You have the 2018.0.1 update installed, and you WILL BE AFFECTED by the license timeout. You do NOT need to uninstall anything, simply install the 2018.0.2 update. See the Autodesk Knowledge Network article link below for more information on the 2018.0.2 update.
• O.72.0.0: You already have the 2018.0.2 update installed. You are NOT impacted by the license timeout issue and need do nothing further with regard to this.

The number of people who installed the 2018.0.1 update who have not already installed the 2018.0.2 update is expected to be small, but you do not want to be "that guy." Take a few moments to check your version now, and, if it is 0.61.0.0, install (or have whomever is in charge of updates install) the 2018.0.2 update now, and make June 1 just another Thursday.

This Autodesk Knowledge Network article gives an overview of what the update includes. If you never installed the 2018.0.1 update, no worries, the 2018.0.2 update includes those fixes, too. There are links at the bottom of the article to the full README for the updates, if you are interested in all of the details.

Read more about the 2018.0.1 Update issue in this article in the AutoCAD Blog.

Note: Should your version number be less than O.49.0.0, then you have a pre-release beta version installed. This will timeout on June 1, 2017. Your only recourse is to uninstall it and then to install the shipping version, if you are entitled to do so.

ACA-AMEP 2018: ByLayer Values in Objects in External References

5/30/2017 UPDATE:
On 5/26/2017, AutoCAD^® Architecture 2018.0.1 Update and AutoCAD^® MEP 2018.0.1 Update (in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions) were released, and are supposed to resolve this issue. I have not yet had an opportunity to install this to verify. You can read the full release notes here.

There is a bug in the 2018 release of AutoCAD^® Architecture and AutoCAD^® MEP that affects how the "ByLayer" property value of an AEC object in an external reference is being resolved. If a component is assigned to Layer 0 and then the Color, Linetype, Lineweight, Plot Style, etc. is set to ByLayer, the value assigned to the layer of the parent AEC object should be assigned. When the object is directly in the current file, that works. But if that file is externally referenced into another file, the property value of the layer of the external reference is assigned, rather than the property value of the layer of the parent AEC object. In the image below, the left side shows a Door that has been placed on a layer called A-Door-Demo. The visible components are assigned to Layer 0, with ByLayer Color and Linetype. Layer A-Door-Demo has Color set to 32 and Linetype set to HIDDEN2. On the right side, that file has been externally referenced into another file, and placed on a layer called A-Anno-Refr, which is set to Color 212 and Linetype Continuous. As you can see, the Door components have picked up the Color and Linetype from the layer on which the external reference is placed, not from the layer of the parent Door object.

The suggested workaround, changing "ByLayer" to "ByBlock" works, but would be a major undertaking if you have many components assigned to Layer 0 with ByLayer attributes. We will hold off on deploying 2018 until this is fixed.

As noted in this Autodesk Knowledge Network article, Autodesk is aware of the problem and working on a fix. Keep an eye on that article; I suspect that when a fix is released, the article will be updated to reflect that.

ACA/AMEP 2018: New Features Part 2

File Navigation Dialogs
The dialogs for commands that ask for a file to be selected or a folder for a file to be saved, such as the OPEN, ATTACH and SAVEAS commands, will now retain any column sort order you set from one use to the next. Each "type" of file dialog has a separate sort setting. SAVE and SAVEAS will share the same sort, but ATTACH can be different, and must be set separately. The sorting is remembered across sessions of AutoCAD, also.

Drafting Settings Dialog
This dialog is now resizable.

Quick Access Toolbar and the Layer Control
The Layer Control has been added to the list of tools that can be added to the QAT by using the drop-down list at the right end of the toolbar. It is turned off initially, but is there on the drop-down list, waiting for you to select it, if desired.

System Variable Monitor on the Status Bar
The System Variable Monitor tool will appear in the tray at the right end of the Status Bar when a System Variable that is being monitored is changed from its preferred value. In previous versions, you could left click on this tool, and the System Variable Monitor dialog would open, allow you to review the settings and status, and reset all monitored variables to their preferred values. You can still do that in 2018; new is the ability to right click on the tool to get a context menu with three choices:

• Configure System Variable Monitor: Selecting this is the same as left clicking on the tool.
• Reset System Variables: Reset all monitored System Variables to their preferred values without opening the dialog.
• Display Notification: Balloon notification of changes to monitored System Variables is turned on if there is a check mark in front of this item. Select this item from the context menu to remove the check mark, if present, or to add the check mark, if absent.

Off-screen Selection
If you start a selection window when zoomed in, and have to either pan or zoom out/zoom in to another section of the drawing to select the opposite corner, such that your first corner is now off screen, the off-screen objects encompassed by the selection window will now be selected.

Linetype Gap Selection Improvements
The ability to select objects with a non-continuous linetype, or have the gaps in the linework of such objects be recognized by commands like EXTEND has now been extended to both complex and DGN linetypes. Complex linetypes are those that have text or shapes embedded into the linetype. This feature also now works for all object types, including Splines and Polylines with non-zero width.

Share Design View Enhancements
Introduced with the 2017 release (on the A360 ribbon tab, on the Share panel, select the Share Design View tool to start the process for the current drawing, which must be saved), this feature allows you to upload a drawing file to an anonymous location in the Autodesk A360 cloud, and then share views of the drawing with others, who only need to have a supported browser (Chrome, Firefox and other browsers supporting WebGL 2D graphics) to view the file. The actual DWG file is not made available, just the ability to view it. By default, uploaded files expire in 30 days; newly added is the ability to find previous uploads and to extend the expiration date, if desired.

ACA/AMEP 2018: New Features Part 1 - External Reference Improvements

I usually start out my first "new features" article for a given release by remarking that I have been busy, and apologizing for the delay in preparing the article. While I am indeed busy this year as well, and that has contributed to the tardiness of this article, another contributing factor is my lack of enthusiasm over the lack of new AutoCAD^® Architecture and AutoCAD^® MEP features in the 2018 release. My understanding is that you all (meaning, all of you end users out there) have been telling Autodesk that you would rather have them fix things that need fixing in the existing features, rather than adding new features. While I like fixing bugs or adjusting the design of a feature to better suit typical industry workflows as much as the next person (maybe more so), in my mind most of that effort should be in the province of a service pack or hotfix, unless it truly is a major change from the original feature design and the original feature design more or less worked as designed. This is particularly upsetting given that the pain of a new file format is being inflicted, without any offsetting new features that required a new file format to implement.

So, a number of items that had been reported as not working as expected have been fixed. Support for 4k monitors has been integrated for AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP dialogs, palettes, etc. (I do not have 4k monitors, so I am taking their word on that.) And, all of the wonderful new things added to the core AutoCAD feature set have been integrated into AutoCAD Architecture/MEP. The balance of this article will look at the improvements made to external references.

External Reference Improvements

• Relative path is the new default when attaching an externally referenced file to a drawing. Use the REFPATHTYPE System Variable to set a different default path type: 0 = No Path, 1 = Relative Path and 2 = Full Path.
• Use of a relative path for an externally referenced file no longer requires that the host file be named/saved. Instead, the full path will temporarily be shown in the Saved Path column, with a preceding "*" and, in the Details section, the Pending Relative Path property will show as "Yes". Once the file is saved, any pending relative paths will be resolved and show the relative path in lieu of the temporary full path.
  
• If you save a file to a new location and that file has relatively pathed external reference files attached, you will be prompted as to whether or not the relative paths should be updated for the new location. If you only plan to save this one file to the new location and you want the relatively pathed external references to be found, you will most likely want to update the relative paths. If you eventually intend to move (or copy) the relatively referenced files such that they will be in the same relative location, then not updating the paths may be the appropriate choice.
  
• There are two new right-click contextual menu choices when dealing with an externally referenced file that is "not found".
  
  • Select New Path: This option provides the opportunity to browse to a new location (path) for the "not found" file. If there are additional "not found" external references, you will be asked if the new path should be applied to those, as well.
    
  • Find and Replace: This option allows you to select one or more external references and then specify a target path (Find saved path) and specify a replacement path (Replace with). For ONLY the external references that were selected when you right clicked and chose Find and Replace, AutoCAD will look for any that have the target path and will replace that path with the replacement path.
    
    
    If all of the selected external references currently have the same path, that path will be offered as the initial default in the Find saved path edit box. If you select external references with different paths, you will have to supply both the Find and the Replace paths. Note that if you use the ellipsis button at the right side of either edit box, you will get the full path of the selected folder, regardless of the path type shown in the Find edit box, or the path type used for the selected external references. You can manually edit that path to be a relative path, if desired. If the external reference uses a relative path, providing the equivalent full path in the Find box will not result in a match. In limited testing, providing the full path as the Replace path for an external reference that is currently set to relative path did result in the relative equivalent to that full path being applied.
    
    Find and Replace also appears on the right click context menu when selecting "found" external references and can be used to repath multiple references at one time (provided that the current and replacement paths are the same for all selected external references). Note also that the text entered in both edit boxes has to be an actual path. You cannot just enter the text you want to replace in the Find edit box and the text that you want to substitute in the Replace edit box; the complete path must be used in both (whether a full path or a relative path).


• When right clicking on one or more selected references and using the Change Path Type context menu item, if all of the selected items currently have the same path type, that path type will be disabled in the cascading contextual submenu. If there are multiple path types in the selected references, then all three options will be enabled.
  
• The Open option right click context menu option is no longer disabled for unloaded external references.
  
• If you rename an unloaded external reference on the External References palette, it will no longer automatically be reloaded. You will need to reload the reference in a separate action if and when you want it reloaded. Note: As in previous versions, using the RENAME command, and the Rename dialog, to rename an unloaded external reference will leave the external reference unloaded. New in 2018, if you use the Rename dialog or the CLASSICXREF command's Xref Manager to rename an external reference, that change will show immediately in the Reference Manager palette, without the need to reload the renamed reference.
• There has also been a minor change to the dialog that appears when opening a drawing with external references that cannot be found. Instead of referring to these files as "missing", they are now noted as "Not Found". The text on the button that opens the Reference Manager has also been simplified.