AutoCAD® Architecture 2010 – UI Changes, Part 5 – The Ribbon, Annotate Tab

Annotate Tab
The Annotate tab is the third static (always available) tab provided in the out-of-the-box ACA.cuix. The image below and all screen captures in this article are based on the shipping version.
Tools Panel
The Tools Panel contains a single button that toggles the tool palettes on and off, setting the Document tool palette group current when toggling it back on.If you would prefer that it simply switch to the Document tool palette group, refer to this previous article for instructions on how to modify the CUIX file.

Text Panel
The Text Panel contains commands related to the creation and editing of text.The Text command button starts the MTEXT command. The Check Spelling command button allows you to run the SPELL command to check the spelling of words in the drawing. The Text Style drop-down button displays the name of the current text style and allows you to set any other text style defined in the drawing current.Select Manage Text Styles... at the bottom of the drop-down to open the Text Style dialog if you need to create a new text style. The Find text button offers an edit box on the left where you can enter the text string for which you want to search/replace and a button on the right that opens the Find and Replace dialog. The previously used Find string will be displayed in the text box after searching or replacing is complete. The final button on the main panel is the Annotation Text Height drop-down, which displays the current default text height, as stored in the TEXTSIZE variable. When you first start up ACA, there is only one value in the list. As you use the TEXTSIZE variable to change the default text height or as you open/start additional drawings that have a different default text height set, the additional values will appear on the list. Note that changing the height of existing MTEXT (on the MTEXT editor bar or on the Properties palette) does not add items to the list.

Selecting the Text title bar will expand the panel to reveal four additional commands. The Scale button runs the SCALETEXT command, which allows you to rescale selected text objects without changing their individual locations. The Justify button changes the justification point of text, using the JUSTIFYTEXT command. The Field button runs the FIELD command. The Update Fields button allows you to manually update field values with the UPDATEFIELD command.

Dimensions Panel
The Dimensions Panel contains commands related to dimensioning (AEC and AutoCAD).The AEC Dimension split button allows you to choose one of three AEC Dimension ribbon tools, each offering a different AEC Dimension style (AEC Dimension Interior, AEC Dimension Exterior and AEC Dimension Exterior R.O.).Note that for this split button, the command that the top half of the button will run directly will change to the last item chosen on the drop-down list. If you have custom AEC Dimension styles for which you have (or can make) tool palette tools, you could customize the ACA.cuix file and add your styles to the list. The top row of the main Dimensions panels features a series of buttons that allow various types of AutoCAD Dimensions to be placed. These should be familiar to anyone who used the old Dimension toolbar in previous releases. Starting from the left, you have the Dimension, Linear button (DIMLINEAR command); a split button with the Continue (DIMCONTINUE, always available on the left part) and Baseline (DIMBASELINE) on the drop-down;the Dimension, Aligned button (DIMALIGNED); the Dimension, Angular button (DIMANGULAR); a split button with Radius (DIMRADIUS) and Diameter (DIMDIAMETER) on the drop-down (Radius is initially featured on the left part, but this split button will change to the last one used);and, at the right end, the Dimension, Center Mark button (DIMCENTER). The second row on the main panel has a single button, AEC Dimension Style, that will open the Style Manager, filtered for AEC Dimension Styles (AECDIMSTYLE). At the left of the third row is the Dimension Style button (DIMSTYLE), which opens the Dimension Style Manager dialog for creating and editing AutoCAD Dimension Styles. The balance of the third row features the Dimension Style drop-down button, which displays the name of the current AutoCAD Dimension Style, and allows you to set a different one current by selecting it from the drop-down list. Selecting the Dimensions panel title bar will expand the panel and reveal four additional dimension-related commands: Dimension Spacing (DIMSPACE), Ordinate (DIMORDINATE), Tolerance (TOLERANCE) and Arc Length (DIMARC).

Scheduling Panel
The Scheduling Panel contains commands related to the ACA Schedule feature.All of the commands in this panel that add a specific Tag or Schedule Table are ribbon tools. At the top of the first column, the Door Tag drop-down button allows you to use either of the out-of-the-box Door Tags, non-project-based or project-based.The Window Tag button adds the out-of-the-box Window tag. The Room Tag drop-down button offers a choice of three tags for Spaces: the non-project-based Room Tag, the Room Tag - Project Based and the Room Tag - BOMA.The second column features tools that allow you to add a Schedule Table to your drawing. The Door Schedule drop-down button offers the non-project-based and project-based Door Schedules The Window Schedule button allows you to add a Window Schedule, and, with the Room Schedule drop-down button, you can add the out-of-the-box Room Schedule, Space Schedule - BOMA or Space Inventory Schedule.Selecting the Scheduling title panel expands the panel, revealing tools to add Wall Tags and Schedules, as well as the Create Tag (DEFINETAG - opens the Define Schedule Tag "wizard" dialog), Renumber Property Sets (PROPERTYRENUMBERDATA - opens the Data Renumber dialog) and Schedule Styles (SCHEDULESTYLE - opens Style Manager, filtered for Schedule Table Styles). The Evaluate Space tool runs the AECSPACEEVALUATION command, which opens the Space Evaluation dialog.

Callouts Panel
The Callouts Panel contains commands related to adding callouts.All of the buttons on this panel are split buttons and all of the tools therein are ribbon tools, allowing you to add out-of-the-box callouts without using the Properties palette directly. See the image below for the various callouts available for each type.
The most recently used command in each drop-down list becomes the featured command on the button.

Keynoting Panel
The Keynoting Panel contains commands related to adding keynotes and "other notes".The three buttons on the main panel are all split buttons and all of the tools therein are ribbon tools, allowing you to add keynotes, keynote legends and text/leadered text/leadered symbols (the "other notes") without using the Properties palette directly. The options are shown in the image below; the most recently used command on each drop-down will become the featured command on the button.Commands on the expanded panel (select the Keynoting title bar) allow you to open up the Keynote Editor (LAUNCHKEYNOTEEDITOR command), select a database to be added to the list of available keynote databases (Select Database - KEYNOTEDATABASERESELECT) and toggle the display of either Reference or Sheet keynotes (Reference Keynote Display - REFERENCEKEYNOTETOGGLE / Sheet Keynote Display - SHEETKEYNOTETOGGLE).

Markup Panel
The Markup Panel contains commands related to drawing revisions.The Markup Set Manager command button (MARKUP command) opens the Markup Set Manager palette, allowing you to manage the DWF markups in the drawing. Draw layer-keyed revision clouds with the Revision command button (ANNOREVISIONCLOUDADD). The Mask split button allows you to add Mask Blocks or Wipeouts.The button portion always displays the Mask command. One additional command is available on the expanded panel (select the Markup title bar), Load Markup DWF (OPENDWFMARKUP), which allows you to load a DWF file which contains markups into your drawing.

Annotation Scaling Panel
The Annotation Scaling Panel contains commands related to annotation scaling.The Currnent Scale split button allows you to add or delete the current scale from selected annotative objects. The most recently selected option becomes the button command.The Scale List command button (SCALELISTEDIT command) opens the Edit Scale List dialog, which allows you to add to, edit, delete from and rearrange the order of the listed pre-defined drawing scales. The Add/Delete Scales command button allows you to add or remove drawing scales from selected annotative objects (OBJECTSCALE). You can align all scale representations of an annotative object (should any individual representations have been grip edited) with the current scale representation (not the original "insertion" point) by using the Sync Scale Positions command button (ANNORESET).

Content Browser i-drop Hotfix Released (Sort Of)

While the Hotfix has not shown up on the official AutoCAD^® Architecture Updates & Service Packs page, apparently is has been sent to at least one person who submitted a support claim related to the fact that installing ACA 2010 breaks the ability to directly i-drop a tool from Content Browser into the Workspace in previous releases. Fortunately, that person was Odin Cary, who has posted the files to his ARCHIdigm website, as I learned in this thread in the Autodesk Discussion Groups. Thanks to Odin for making the files available, and thanks to Pedro Aroso for spreading the word.

If you have installed 2010 but still need to run earlier versions to complete projects already underway (as you are permitted to do if you are on subscription) and the breaking of direct i-drop is cramping your style, you may want to get the files from Odin's site, rather than waiting for the link to show up on the Autodesk site.

Live On-Line Training

Speaking of Paul Aubin, he is now offering live, on-line training sessions. If you are wondering how to get the most bang for what remains of your recession-reduced training budget, you may want to keep an eye on the classes he is offering. So far, these have all been Revit classes, but he has requested input on future topics for both Revit and AutoCAD Architecture. You can pay for one connection and, if you have a projector or a conference room with a large monitor, as many people as you can get in the room (respecting building code occupancy limitations, of course) can watch the session. The initial presentation of each session is live, using GoToMeeting software, and includes the potential for two-way VOIP communication (plus a Chat feature, if, like me, your computer does not have a microphone hooked up to it). There is an option to call in, if you prefer, as well. The software also allows Paul to post occasional polls (and even a quiz on the previous session). The sessions are recorded, and are posted a few days later for review or to allow later watching of the session should you not be able to attend the live event.

The current class is a five-session series on the Revit family editor. As a "late" registrant, I watched the recorded version of the first session, and attended the live presentation of the second session today. The image below shows a screen capture from today's presentation, in mid-demonstration in Revit, to give you a feel for the look of the presentation. (Click on the image to see a full-size version; use the Back button on your browser to return here.)As a relative newbie with Revit (having just finished three days of "essentials" training last week), I found both to be quite informative, and look forward to the remaining three classes in this series. Paul provides a nicely illustrated PDF that includes tutorials covering the examples he shows during the class along with explanatory material. There is also a ZIP file containing a dataset with files related to the tutorials.

If the Revit family editor is something that you have always wanted to know more about, or if you have some experience with it but are interested in how it is done in the 2010 interface, then you may want to consider signing up for this class, even though two sessions have already been presented. You can watch the recorded version of the first two classes and then catch the live presentation of the following three classes, starting next Thursday (August 13, 2009). Having done a session each way, I can say that other than the polling and the opportunity to ask a question at the end of the live session, there is no substantive difference between the two. (I assume that the polls and parts where Paul asked for a show of hands were edited out of the recorded version.) The fifteen-registrant limit mentioned in Paul's blog article has been increased to 200, so there is plenty of room if you are interested.

Full Disclosure: I have known Paul through the Autodesk Discussion Groups, have met him and attended his classes at AU over the years and recently helped him update his Mastering AutoCAD Architecture book for the 2010 release. Paul provided me with a complementary registration for the Family Editor class.

Mastering AutoCAD Architecture 2010

I had previously indicated that I would explain the relative dearth of new posts in the last few months, and now that Paul Aubin has made it public knowledge, I am happy to inform anyone not already aware that there will be an update of his Mastering AutoCAD^® Architecture for the 2010 release.

Over the last two-and-one-half months or so, I have had the privilege and pleasure of helping Paul with the rather substantial task of updating the tutorials in the book to both make use of new features added since 2008, when appropriate, and coordinate with the ribbon interface. That required a large number of the figures in the book to be recaptured to show the current interface.

You can find more information on the new book on Paul's website, and, if you are so inclined, use the link there to pre-order the book from amazon.com.

Now that my contribution to that effort is over, I hope to have time to get back to posting here and pick back up on my ACA UI Changes series.

eTransmit Setups Issue

I am not well-versed in either the Drawing Management system or eTransmit, but in exploring the use of eTransmit with a Project Navigator project, I found a minor issue that I think is a bug. It could be "as designed," but I would not have designed it that way, so I will consider it a bug until enlightened otherwise. Fortunately, there is a workaround.

In Project Navigator, on the Sheet Sets tab with the Sheet Set View current, if you right-click on the Sheet Set node, the context menu includes an eTransmit Setups option.Select that option, and then either create a new setup or modify an existing setup. In the Modify Transmittal Setup dialog, in the lower-right corner, both the Include project information and the Include project default templates options are disabled. The latter should be, until the former is selected, but the former should not be disabled, in my opinion. I could find no combination of other settings in this dialog that would activate the Include project information toggle.
That same context menu, as well as the context menu that comes up when right clicking on a drawing file or folder on the Sheets, has an eTransmit option. Selecting that opens the Create Transmittal dialog, which features a Transmittal Setups button that initiates the same sequence of dialogs as the eTransmit Setups option on the context menu.When you get to the Modify Transmittal Setup dialog through this avenue, the Include project information toggle is active, and checking it activates the Include project default templates toggle, allowing you to make these settings and save them to a Transmittal Setup for later use.

Note that if you save the setup with one or both of the "project" toggles checked, and later reopen it by using the eTransmit Setups option on the Sheet Set node right-click context menu and modifying the saved setup, those options will be disabled (and no check marks will appear). That should not be a cause for alarm; in my somewhat limited testing so far, even if I made a change elsewhere in the dialog and resaved the setup, the check mark(s) were preserved when opening it through the eTransmit/Create Transmittal dialog method.

My guess is that there are times when the Include project information toggle should not be active (when accessed outside of Project Navigator, via AutoCAD Sheet Sets), that the dialog definition has it disabled by default, and enabling it when using the eTransmit Setups option got missed (or accidentally removed).

Apologies

My apologies for the lack of recent posts, particularly since I am still somewhere in the middle of working through the new-fangled ribbon interface. I am currently working on a project outside of "regular" work that is consuming most of my free time (more on that, later). I have taken this week off from my day job, in part to be able to wrap up that project. The following week, I start Revit training in anticipation of using that software on the next project at work.

Once I get the outside project out of the way, I will try to get back to the ACA Ribbon series. And if I find that I have anything that might be of interest regarding Revit, I will post that, too. Chances are it will be a quite while before I can post anything authoritative, however.

Copying a Schedule Table Between Drawings

Fun Schedule Feature Fact of the Day:

If you copy a Schedule Table from one drawing to another via the clipboard, all of the objects that are part of the Schedule Table's selection set also get copied from the source drawing to the target drawing. If those objects happened to be anchored objects (like Doors), then the anchored objects as well as the parent objects also get copied. Schedule Tags, if present, do not get copied. (There is a Tag Anchor that ties the Schedule Tag to the tagged object, but the "come along for the ride" effect is not two-way - clipboard copying the parent object does not bring the child object along, but clipboard copying the child object does bring the parent.)

I was aware that the parent object comes along when clipboard copying Doors, Windows and the like between drawings, but apparently never thought about Schedule Tables, until today. I had a file with several "working"* Schedule Tables in a base drawing file ("Construct" for those of you using Project Navigator - I am not), and someone else needed the file so that it could be processed and bound to a "sheet" file for use by others outside of my firm. I did not want to lose the Schedule Tables (there were some fussy selection sets involved), but knew that they did not belong in the bound file. I made a local copy of the file under a different name and then deleted the Schedule Tables from the original file before handing the files off to the colleague who was preparing the bound drawings. When I got the base drawing back, I tried copying the Schedule Tables from the copied drawing, and was successful, until I realized I now had two of every scheduled item in the drawing. A quick UNDO got rid of the duplicates (and the Schedule Tables). Fortunately, I had straightened out the layering previously and had a good layer filter string for the Schedule Tables, so I was able to quickly remake them in the base files and get the desired objects selected with a window on the first try.

* - By "working" Schedule Tables, I mean Schedule Tables I placed for my personal use in checking and coordinating the scheduled items in the base drawing file. These Schedule Tables will not ever be part of the official documentation, are there to make it easier to find specific items in specific rooms and will eventually be deleted when the task at hand is complete.

AutoCAD® Architecture 2010 – UI Changes, Part 4.5 – Ribbon Tools

If you have not been able to get the "Ribbon Tools" in 2010 to work for you, I made an interesting discovery today that may help. I knew that the ribbon tools that "run" tool palette commands, such as the Schedule Tag or Schedule Table tools on the Annotate ribbon tab on the Scheduling Panel, use the AECRIBBONTOOL command to magically reference a tool from the tool palettes that are loaded into the current workspace. The syntax in the CUIX file can be seen in the image below.
The command takes the name of the tool palette tool to be referenced. I was unclear as to what the " - ribbon" part meant, until my discovery today. I had assumed that you needed to have the out-of-the-box tool palettes loaded into your system (or at least all of the ones referenced by the ribbon tools), but it turns out that Autodesk was not willing to trust that the end users would not modify, fold, spindle, mutilate or delete the referenced tools, and so they created a single tool palette to hold all of the tools referenced by the ribbon. I assume these are copies of the similarly named out-of-the-box tools, with " - ribbon" appended to the name. That tool palette is read only, and while it is installed in the workspace, it does not appear in any of the out-of-the-box tool palette groups. A clever ploy, if your goal is to keep someone from accidentally breaking the ribbon tools.

You can customize your tool palette groups, of course, and add this tool palette to one so you can take a look at what is on it. The image below shows the first eight tools on the US Imperial version, along with the helpful note at the top indicating that it would be unwise to mess with this palette.
Curiously, this palette is not part of any of the tool catalogs that loaded when I installed 2010. I have not had time to look through the various folders to see if there are any catalogs that are not automatically included in the Content Browser library file, but a search of those that were included came up empty when searching for "Ribbon Tools", and "Ribbon" merely returned six Curtain Wall or Curtain Wall Unit tools. So if you have somehow managed to install 2010 without getting the appropriate Ribbon Tools stealth palette (or you did get it but deleted it along with all of the other out-of-the-box palettes), you may have to recreate an equivalent palette and/or edit the ACA.cuix file to point the ribbon tools to tool palette tools you do have installed. If anyone reading this has managed to find a source catalog for the Ribbon Tools palette(s), leave a comment indicating where you found it.

I suppose you could always do a direct-from-the-DVD installation on a spare computer, create a new Tool Catalog in Content Browser and then go through all of the out-of-the-box profiles you get and look for "Ribbon Tools" palettes. Temporarily add each one you find to a tool palette group and then drag-and-drop the palette into your new catalog for safe keeping and sharing with installations that need the palette. But that would only be useful if the content files behind the tools are installed in a place that can be accessed by your production machines and also installed in the same location on the spare computer. My experience with installation is limited to local, standalone installations, so if you have network-based content or use deployments with custom content locations, my suggestion here may not work, or it may be more trouble than it is worth.

AutoCAD® Architecture 2010 – UI Changes, Part 4 – The Ribbon, Insert Tab

Insert Tab
The Insert tab is the second static (always available) tab provided in the out-of-the-box ACA CUI. The image below and all screen captures in this article are based on the final beta version; it is possible that there could be some changes in the shipping version.
Reference Panel
The Reference Panel contains commands related to reference files.The Attach command button allows you to use the Attach command to add an external reference (DWG), image, DWF, DWFx, PDF or DGN to your drawing file. The Clip command button allows you to clip an external reference, image, underlay (DWF, DWFx, PDF or DGN) or a viewport to a user-specified boundary. The Adjust command button allows you to adjust the fade, contrast, brightness and monochrome settings for images and underlays (DWF, DWFx, PDF or DGN). The Underlay Layers command button opens the Underlay Layers dialog, where you can control the visibility of individual layers in an underlay. The Frames command button allows you to choose how image and underlay frames will be seen (and plot).Frames can be hidden, displayed and plotted or displayed but not plotted. Setting a Frame setting will overwrite the current values of the IMAGEFRAME, DWFFRAME, PDFFRAME, DGNFRAME and XCLIPFRAME system variables. You can not directly choose the “Frames Vary” option; but changing any of the individual frame variables to something different will reset FRAME to 3 and activate the Frames Vary setting. The Underlays Snap command button allows you to control the ability to snap to geometry in underlays (DWF, DWFx, PDF or DGN).It toggles the value of the UOSNAP system variable, which, similar to the FRAME system variable, will overwrite the settings in the DWFOSNAP, PDFOSNAP and DGNOSNAP system variables, making them all either On or Off. You can not directly choose the “Underlay Osnap’s vary” option, but by setting one of the individual variables to a different value will reset UOSNAP to 2 and activate the vary option. The Edit Reference command button (first row in the flyout) runs the REFEDIT command. The Xref Fading command buttons (bottom row in the flyout) allow you to set the amount of fading, using either the slider or the edit box at the right, as well as toggle fading on and off, using the button at the left. (Note: You will not see any apparent change if you use the button at the left if the fading amount is set to 0, since there is no fading to toggle off.) Also note the arrow pointing down and to the right at the right side of the Reference panel title. Selecting that will open the External References palette.

Block Panel
The Block Panel contains command buttons for Multi-View Block and AutoCAD block related commands.The Multi-View Block command button runs the MVBlockAdd command; you will need to have at least one Multi-View Block Definition in the current drawing for this to be useful. The Insert Block command button opens the Insert dialog, allowing you to select a block definition in the drawing file or browse to an external drawing file to be inserted as a block. The Create Block command button opens the Block Definition dialog, allowing you to create a new block definition from objects in the drawing. The Edit Block command button allows you to choose a block definition in the current drawing and starts up the Bedit command for that definition. The Block Authoring palettes will open, and the Block Editor contextual tab will appear. The Set Base Point command button runs the Base command, which allows you to specify a point in the current file to act as the insertion base point when the current file is inserted into another file.

Attributes Panel
The Attributes Panel contains command buttons related to the creation, editing and display of Attribute Definitions/Attributes.The Define Attributes command button runs the Attdef command, allowing you to create attribute definitions for inclusion in a block definition. The Edit Attribute flyout offers two options for editing attribute values. Single runs the EAttEdit command, allowing you to edit the values, text options and properties of the attributes in a single instance of an attributed block. Multiple runs the -AttEdit command, which allows for the editing of attribute values individually or globally.The Manage command button opens the Block Attribute Manager (BattMan command), which allows you to edit the attribute definitions of all attributed block definitions in the drawing, including the order of the attributes within a block definition, and offers the option to synchronize those changes with existing instances of the block. The Synchronize command button runs the AttSync command, which allows you to synchronize the attributes of all instances of a block with the current block definition (outside of the Block Attribute Manager). The Display flyout offers the ability to control the visibility of attributes.The Retain Display option displays attributes according to the visibility assigned to each block attribute. Display all will display all attributes, including hidden attributes. Hide All will hide all attributes, including visible attributes.

Import Panel
The Import Panel has two command buttons. The Import command button initiates the Import command, which allows you to import data files, other than DWG files, and have the data translated into DWG data. The Import File dialog lists file types of Metafile (WMF), ACIS (SAT), 3D Studio (3DS) and Microstation (DGN). The Land XML command button runs the ImportLandXML command, allowing you to import LandXML data and convert it to AEC objects.
Content Panel
The Content Panel has a single flyout command button, offering three options.The Content Browser option opens, surprisingly enough, Content Browser. If you are keeping score at home, this is the second opportunity you have to do so (see the Tools flyout on the Build panel of the Home tab for the first one). Building component allows you to import “building components” that have been “published” from another application (*.adsk files) as a Multi-View Block, Block or, if you are running AutoCAD MEP, as a Multi-View Part (ImportBuildingComponent command). Design Center, as you can probably guess, opens DesignCenter (despite that extra space in the command button name).

Seek Panel
The Seek Panel offers the ability to use the Autodesk Seek feature (also available in DesignCenter), which allows you to search for product specifications and design files over the Internet.

AutoCAD® Architecture 2010 - UI Changes, Part 3.6 - Fixing Context Menu Paste Commands

Thanks to a heads up from Kitetsu07 in this thread in the AutoCAD^® Architecture Discussion Group, I can pass on this CUI adjustment to get Paste to Original Coordinates and Paste as Block on the right-click context menu to work in the 2010 release. There is a stray "&" character in the Display Name of these context menu options that results in them being grayed out.
Open up the Customize User Interface dialog (type CUI at the Command prompt, or find it on the Ribbon on the Manage tab, Customization panel), and in the upper left area, under the ACA customization file node, expand Shortcut Menus > Context menu for edit mode > Clipboard. Select the Paste to Original Coordinates item and, in the Properties area (lower right area), delete the "&" in front of "Original" in the Name property under the Display node.
Do the same for the Paste as Block Ctrl+Shift+V item, removing the "&" from between the "B" and "l" of "Block" in the Name property under the Display node.You do, of course, have to have content on the Clipboard that AutoCAD Architecture can paste into a drawing for the Paste as Block option to be active and you need to be in a drawing other than the source file of the objects copied for the Paste to Original Coordinates option to be active. If you would prefer to avoid editing the CUI, you can still type the commands (PASTEORIG or PASTEBLOCK) or use the Ribbon, Home > Modify > Paste flyout on Modify flyout, as shown below.I would rather take the time to fix the CUI, than waste way more than that surfing the Ribbon for these paste options.