ACA: Unable to execute the tool. Unspecified error.

Had a support request today for the error dialog shown above, from someone working on a file in AutoCAD^® Architecture 2016, who was trying to use a Wall Tool when the error occurred. That was all I was initially told, and "Unspecified error" is not terribly helpful. I asked the user to verify what AutoCAD profile was current and whether the problem was just with one file, or all files. In the course of responding, the user provided additional information. The problem was with just this one file, which had been working properly earlier. The reason the Wall Tool was being used was to fix Walls that were now "faulty." And when opening the file, this other dialog appears:

Bingo! The file had been opened and saved in AutoCAD Architecture 2018. Most likely, SAVEAS was used to set the file format to the 2013 file format, but that left the AEC objects in the file, including the Walls, in the 2018 file format. Those future objects disabled the AEC Commands, leaving the Wall Tool with no command to run. Add that to the list of reasons for getting an Unable to Execute The Tool error dialog.

ACA 2015: Restoring AecCameraAdjust to Ribbon

I do not do a lot of rendering or visualization (changing to a non-orthographic view direction and setting the Visual Style to Shaded is about as far as I usually go), but those who do may make frequent use of the Adjust Camera position dialog.

Since the 2010 release, this dialog was accessible from the Render ribbon tab, on the flyout of the Camera panel, by selecting the Adjust tool, as seen below in its 2014 incarnation.

In AutoCAD^® Architecture 2015, the Camera panel got a makeover, and the button styles of the Create Camera and Show Cameras tools were changed from Large with Text (Vertical) to Small With Text and stacked one above the other instead of being side-by-side. A blank third row was included, and the flyout eliminated, removing the Adjust tool with it.

Seems to me that the blank row is just crying out to have the Adjust tool placed there. The AECCAMERAADJUST command is still available in 2015; only the ribbon tool was omitted. Adding it back is quite easy, as can be seen in the Screencast below. Here is an outline of what I did - watch the video to see the specifics:

1. Open the Customize User Interface dialog. [One way - type CUI and press the ENTER key at the Command: prompt; I selected Customize from the Workspace Switching tool pop-up menu on the Application Status Bar.]
2. In the upper left pane, under the ACA node, expand the Ribbon node.
3. Expand the Tabs node.
4. Scroll down and expand the Render - ACA node. Make note that the actual name of the Camera panel is Render Camera - ACA. "Camera" is the display text.
5. Expand the Panels node.
6. Scroll down to the Render Camera - ACA node and expand it and the subnodes below it to examine its contents.
7. Select the Render Camera - ACA node and verify the panel preview shows the correct panel. [There are often several similarly-named panels; checking for the actual panel name and verifying the preview can help prevent editing the incorrect panel.]
8. In the lower left Command List pane, type adjust in the search box.
9. Select the Adjust command from the list of search results.
10. Verify that this is the correct command [AECCAMERAADJUST].
11. Left-click, hold and drag the Adjust tool from the lower left pane up onto the upper left pane and drop it just below the Ribbon Control - Empty Row Aligner item under Row 3 of the Render Camera - ACA panel. Note that I find if I drag straight up to the upper left pane, the pane scrolls in unpredictable ways as the bottom boundary is crossed. That is why I take a somewhat circuitous route over the right panes, crossing over to the upper left pane from its right side. Also note that as you drag across the upper right pane, you will see blue markers to help indicate when you should drop the command. You want to have a blue line with short vertical lines at either end, right under the Ribbon Control - Empty Row Aligner item when you release the left mouse button.
12. Select the Ribbon Control - Empty Row Aligner item, right click and choose Remove from the context menu.
13. Select Yes when the alert dialog asks if you want to delete the element.
14. In the upper left pane, select the newly added Adjust item.
15. In the lower right pane, edit the properties of the Adjust tool. I chose to duplicate the properties that the 2014 version had. Refer to the image below the embedded Screencast if you do not have a previous version available.
16. Select OK to dismiss the Customize User Interface dialog and ratify your edits.
17. Wait for the program to process your changes, and then select the Render tab. You should see the amended Camera panel, with the added Adjust tool.
    
18. Select the tool and verify that the Adjust Camera Position dialog opens.

Here are the properties of the Adjust tool in 2014.

As always, click on any reduced-size image to see the image full size; use the back arrow on your browser to return here, if necessary.

Unexpected Automatic Offsets?

If you have ever used the out-of-the-box Door or Window tools with the Offset/Center option current, and wondered why the offset amount always defaults to 6" (Imperial tools), read on. My office's standard offset for Doors is 6" and that is usually the default value for me, so I would not have noticed. But thanks to this post in the Autodesk AutoCAD^® Architecture Discussion Group, I discovered that the Door and Window tools on the Imperial Doors and Windows palettes in the Design Tool Palette Group have a "hidden" offset setting of 6". So even if your default offset is set to something else, when using the tool the value will be set to 6".

At first glance, it does not appear that there is any such setting. As shown below, the properties of the Hinged - Single Door Tool do not appear to include a preset offset value.
The Position along wall property is set to "--", which means that the current default value for that property (check the Properties palette after executing the tool to see what that is) will be used. If it is Offset/Center, then the value of the Automatic offset property will control what the offset value will be. But that property does not show up unless Position along wall is set to Offset/Center, in either the Properties palette or the Tool properties. So set the Position along wall property to Offset/Center in the Tool's properties, and the "hidden" Automatic offset property value will appear.
If you do not want this set to 6", set it to a different value, or use the dropdown list to choose "--" to allow the current default value to be the initial value after executing the tool. If you do not want Offset/Center to be the initial value for Position along wall, then reset that to "--" and click OK.

You will need to do that for all of the tools on the Doors and Windows palettes, if you do not want to have the 6" Automatic offset value. The good news is that the tools in the Design Tool Catalog - Imperial do not appear to have a hidden preset value assigned to them. I checked all of the Door tools, and a few of the Window and Door/Window Assembly tools, and the Automatic offset property was set to "--" in each. The generic tools on the Design tab also do not have a preset value.

Users of the US Metric out-of-the-box profile should not feel left out; there is a 125 mm preset offset on the Window tools and all of the Door tools except for the Overhead Sectional tool. I spot checked a few of the Design Tool Catalog - Metric and all of those did not have a preset Automatic offset. I spot checked a few of the out-of-the-box Door tools for the AutoCAD Architecture (UK) profile and none of those had a preset value.

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.

Multi-View Block Tools in AutoCAD® Architecture 2008

In preparing class materials for my class at AU, I discovered an issue with Multi-View Block tools in AutoCAD^® Architecture 2008. The behavior varies and seems partially dependent upon the settings for Drawing Scale and Annotation Plot Size, but what appears to be happening is that instead of respecting the X-, Y- and Z-scale factors set in the Multi-View Block tool's properties, the X-scale factor is being multiplied by the annotation scale factor (a product of the Drawing Scale factor and the Annotation Plot Size) and that scale factor is used for all three scale factors (X, Y and Z). Occasionally, the first use of a Multi-View Block tool results in the annotation scale factor being applied twice. This effect holds true both for Multi-View Blocks whose view blocks are drawn at full size, and were to be inserted with scale factors of 1, as well as for unit-block-based Multi-View Blocks, which were intended to be inserted with X-, Y- and Z-scale factors representing the overall size of that particular use of the unit block, and which were generally not uniform. None of the view blocks associated with these Multi-View Blocks had any attribute definitions or any sort of text included. While this behavior is annoying enough for the Multi-View Blocks that were to be inserted with scale factors of 1, it becomes all but a deal breaker for the unit-block-based Multi-View Blocks, as having the scale factors preset in the tool properties is critical to getting those Multi-View Blocks inserted correctly and consistently.

Even more bizarrely, the scale factors reported in the Multi-View Block tool's properties actually change with no user intervention! You will have to take my word for it, but the Draeger Anesthesia Machine Multi-View Block was set up in the source file with the correct X-, Y- and Z-scale factors and a Multi-View Block Tool created from that source file; the scale factors in the tool are correct with the source file open and the active file. Starting a new file results in the scale factors changing, as shown below.
Placing an instance using this tool results in those same scale factors being applied.


In some tests, I found that eventually the correct sizes would be set, but other times the incorrect sizing persisted for as long as I could be bothered to keep trying. I also found that once a file started behaving correctly, there was no guarantee that after saving and reopening the file (especially if AutoCAD Architecture was shut down and restarted in between), that the correct behavior would continue.

I eventually found the following two options would get AutoCAD Architecture to respect the scale factors set in a Multi-View Block tool's properties. You may need to repeat one of these options after saving, closing and later reopening the file.

1. Manually running the MVBLOCKADD command (I typed in the command at the Command: prompt) and inserting a Multi-View Block resulted in subsequent uses of Multi-View Block tools scaling the inserted blocks correctly.

2. Inserting a Multi-View Block through a Multi-View Block type of AEC Content, either directly from the AEC Content tab of DesignCenter or through a Tool palette tool that references AEC Content (drag the content from the AEC Content tab in DesignCenter onto an editable tool palette) also results in subsequent uses of Multi-View Block tools respecting the scale factors set in the tool's properties.

You could just make AEC Content of all of your Multi-View Block content, but that requires maintaining a separate file for each Multi-View Block Definition, rather than having a single source file, and you can not set Layer Key Overrides on AEC Content tools, whereas you can do so on Multi-View Block tools. Given the hassle of manually typing the MVBLOCKADD command and inserting a Multi-View Block (especially if there are no Multi-View Block Definitions in the file, which would require placing one instance from the tool at the incorrect scale, inserting one instance manually and then probably erasing them both, as the first is incorrectly scaled and the latter may be on the wrong layer and may also not be correctly scaled), I have decided that it would be easier to create a non-plotting Multi-View Block Definition, make an AEC Content file for it and finally making a tool from the AEC Content file. This tool can be placed on the same Tool palette as the other Multi-View Block tools, used once to get the scales on the Multi-View Blocks to be respected, and then that instance erased or left in place, as it will not plot. Dragging and dropping that tool is much faster than manually running the MVBLOCKADD command.

The properties of the tool that invokes the AEC Content file for the non-plotting Multi-View Block are shown below. Note that there is no additional control over the insertion, other than that set in the AEC Content file, which does not allow for Layer Key Overrides.
Using this tool results in inserting the non-plotting Multi-View Block with the scale factors (all 1) set in the AEC Content file.


Once this block has been placed, the properties of the Draeger Anesthesia Machine Multi-View Block tool magically return to the values originally set on the instance in the source file used to create the tool...
...and using the tool now results in a correctly scaled instance of the Multi-View Block being placed.


I did not see this problem in the 2007 or earlier releases, and I hope the problem can be eliminated from the the 2009 release.