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Archive for April, 2009
AutoCAD: Beginnings, Ends and Extensions - Part 1
Thursday, April 30th, 2009
By: Colleen Klein
In the beginning was the DWG. Before you knew it we had dwt, dws, dxf, las, and dng files to name a few. There are enough other file extensions to make your head spin.
Open a Drawing
The array of choices starts when you go to open your first drawing. From the Open dialog box you have the choices as noted below:
DWG - This is your AutoCAD drawing. This is the file that most AutoCAD users know. It’s your default drawing extension.
DXF - This is a commonly excepted drawing file translation extension. This extension is all about interoperability with other programs. You can use it to share the file with another program.
DWT - This is what you would use for your template file. That is, use it for starting a new drawing. This choice has a better workflow than using a DWG as a start drawing. The biggest advantage is that when you save the file, AutoCAD will automatically prompt for a new file name. This takes away that risk of inadvertenlty saving over the original file.
DWS – This a drawing that can be used for your drawing standards. You can save your default settings for layers and styles and compare your other AutoCAD drawings against this one.
Save a Drawing
Things don’t change much when you go to save a drawing. When you use the SAVAS command you see the same variety of drawing extensions as in the OPEN command.
DWG, DWT, DWS, DXF – These are the same as in the Open dialog box, described above. The difference is that you can save back to multiple different versions so you can share your drawings with people on an earlier version of the software.
Import Files
The IMPORT command brings you an entire new set of file extensions. They include the extensions listed below:
WMF - This is a Windows metafile format and used to bring in a vector images. These come in as blocks. Related commands include: WMFOUT , WMFIN, WMFOPTS, WMFFOREGND, WMFBKGND.
SAT - This is a ASCI file. You can use it to export 3D solids, regions, and NURBS. Related command include ACISOUT and ACISOUTVER.
3ds - This is used to import an Autodesk 3ds MAX files. Things that are included are lighting, meshes, mappings, cameras and the materials. Some other tools you’ll want to know include CONVERTOLDLIGHTS and 3DCONVERSIONMODE.
DGN - This is a MircoStation drawing file extension. When you open the file the information is translated to an AutoCAD DWG file.
Other Imports
More Extensions
Hopefully I was able to share with you a few new file extensions that you can now use. There are plenty of additional extensions that AutoCAD works with. Check back later to find the posting of Part 2 where we will look at a few more extensions.
Is Your Autodesk Vault Safe?
Thursday, April 30th, 2009
By Darren Hartenstine
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve gone to a customer site to find that their last Vault backup was a year ago; if they even had one. Sure, they’ve most likely been performing a complete system backup using their company’s standard software, but rarely do I find the correct type of backup. Let me explain…
The server side of Autodesk Vault is called ADMS, or Autodesk Data Management Server. ADMS is comprised of two components, the database and filestore. The database stores information about the file, like the filename, description, when it was checked in, who checked it in, etc. The filestore is the location where the files are stored.
When a backup is performed through purchased software like Symantic’s Backup Exec, it doesn’t have access to the ADMS server. This can cause synchronization problems with the filestore and database.
Think of the Tape backup process like a one-way road and the cars in front of you are the data that needs to be backed up. As you are driving along (performing the backup), cars are on the road in front of you (Files to be backed up). If a car gets on the road behind you, there’s no way to whip a u-turn and get behind them (since you can’t drive the wrong direction on a one-way road – I’ve tried). This would happen if a user checks in a file during the backup process. The backup routine may have already backed up the filestore but not the database. In this event, the file did NOT make it onto the tape backup, but the database would contain a record of it, since that was backed up after the check in.
Whew, I hope that make some sense. The problem really begins if the system fails and needs to be restored. In the analogy above, the file that was checked in late during the backup process does not exist in the filestore, but does in the database. So after the restoration, the user tries to check out his file and he receives an error that Autodesk Vault cannot find it; all of his work is lost.
There are a slew of other problems that can occur by not using the correct method of backing up data contained within Autodesk Vault (ADMS), but I don’t want to make this my epic backup story (yet).
What is the correct way? There are two methods to perform the correct backup: a manual and an automated process. The manual process is performed through the ADMS Console under the tools pull down. This will make sure that the database and filestore are in synchronization. When ADMS is completed, it will create a folder with your databases and filestore nicely organized in one folder. In the event you need to restore the data, the ADMS Console has a restoration function that will pull information from this folder.
Automating this process is a little more complicated, since it entails writing a windows BAT script with a series of commands. This is where MasterGraphics can help. We have an automated backup process that can manage the ADMS backups and even provide email notification of failure or success.
So, take some time and verify that you are backing up your Autodesk Vault (the correct way). The last thing you want to do is test your backup process after a system failure has occurred.
Light Streaks in 3ds Max
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
We’ve all seen it many times, you are inside a room looking toward a lit window with sunlight splashing across the floor, steaks of light hanging in the air giving the room that warm glow. This type of subtle effect can add a lot to a rendered image by adding more feeling and emotion to what might be an otherwise slightly sterile or too perfect image.
Sun streaks, or volume lighting as we call in the vis industry, is quite easy to create in 3ds Max. If you have the time. This is computationally intensive as it requires the deflection of light through a volume, scattering it in multiple directions, not just towards the camera. There is a way to speed this up dramatically, composite the volume light with the rendered image as a post operation. The first image is the raw rendered image of a somewhat simple scene. It is not inherently bad but needs a little more life or emotion to it. So, I decided to add some volume light to it using the Parti Volume shader in 3ds Max.
Activating the Parti Volume shader is quite simple and is done through the Renderer tab of the Render Setup dialog. Open the Camera Effects rollout and go down to the Camera Shaders area, click on the check box to make the Volume shader active, then click on None to open the Material/Map browser and add the Parti Volume (physics) shader. That is the easy part. The hard part is waiting all the extra time for it to calculate the GI and render the final image with this turned on. Is there a faster way? You betcha!
To complete this more rapidly we will need to use Photoshop to do some compositing after generating a volume light image. The crucial elements to capture in the image are the streaks of light and flare of GI caused by the scattering. To do this quickly, we don’t want to be calculating transparency, reflection or textures so we’ll use a material override. I used a very dark gray, about .05 to generate the volume image and place it in the Material Override map under the Processing tab of the Render Setup dialog. This keeps the streaks strong while still capturing some of the GI. Don’t forget to hide your glass layers or you’ll get nothing but black. I adjusted the Parti Volume shader by instancing it from the Volume slot to the Material editor and setting Extinction to .001, r to .12, g1 to -.5 and g2 to .7. You can find more info on these settings in the Max Help files. This image rendered in just a few minutes.
The last step is to open the Render in Photoshop and add the Volume on top. Set the blend mode to Lighten and drop the Opacity and Fill a bit and voila, you have sun streaks and associated GI in your rendering without waiting all the time to generate this in a single pass.
3ds Max vs 3ds Max Design
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
A lot of people wonder what the difference is between 3ds Max and 3ds Max Design. The intent is for 3ds Max to be for the motion picture/gaming style of production and the 3ds Mas Design to be for design visualization, be it manufacturing or architecture/construction related. The truth of the matter at this time is there just really isn’t all that much different about them. True, 3ds Max has the SDK and no lighting analysis while 3ds Max Design has lighting analysis and no SDK. That’s not really that much of a difference.
There are two differences though that may influence which one works right for you and they aren’t things that cannot be corrected or worked around. The simplist of the two is that they ship with different tutorials. This isn’t a big deal for anyone except a beginner who needs to learn a specific production pipeline. The second difference is really more of something to be aware of than anything else.
3ds Max and 3ds Max Design each ship with different environments. They both have all the same tools and toolbars and everything works the same between them but some of their presets are a little different. For example, 3ds Max defaults to Arch & Design materials while 3ds Max defaults to Standard materials. Certainly not a show stopper, but something to be aware of. Each has its own customized color scheme and that’s really a matter of personal choice and really not a show stopper either.
The one thing that is likely to trip up some users is material mapping, and this is the only thing I’ve found that really needs any talking about. 3ds Max Design defaults its materials to use Real World Scale as well as its object tools, so if you create anything, Real World scale is already enabled. This is a feature most visualization artists appreciate. 3ds Max does not default to Real World scale for anything, which is something your film and gaming people appreciate. The only caution is that you need to be aware of this when you switch between platforms as it can cause a little bit of confusion when you apply a new material and it doesn’t automatically map like it did in the other application.
Mechanical Designers can find Happiness in 2d
Friday, April 24th, 2009
By: Colleen Klein
When I started to use 3d parametric design nearly 20 years ago, I fell in love with all the benefits of 3d. One of the biggest side benefits was the built in standards and never thinking about layers. Then I was forced go back into the 2d CAD world and just wanted to cry. I wondered “why can’t 2d AutoCAD be designed for mechanical engineers?” Years later I became acquainted with AutoCAD Mechanical; previously known as Genius. When I met AutoCAD Mechanical, I realized that the 2d designer can be happy and content.
The AutoCAD Mechanical tools that made me happy were many. But you might be surprised which ones are my favorites. You’d think it was the shaft generator, or the chain calculator that got me all excited. You could have assumed it was the built in 2d FEA to see where parts will break, or the beam deflection calculator, or even the humongous library of standard parts. Nope, those things are fantastic; but, those weren’t it.
The things that made me the happiest, when I found AutoCAD Mechanical, were the automatic standards that are built right into the program. It’s amazing how much time I can save because layering and insertion scale being set automatically. This automation happens when placing dimensions, centerlines, section lines, hatch, and mechanical symbols. When I place one of my pre-defined weld symbols and balloons they go on the predefined layers that the CAD manager defined in the template. My built in standardization understands the linking of the information of the balloons and the bill of materials and parts lists. When I change the border size everything updates auto-magically. To top that all off I have automatic details and hide tools that make me sit back and believe that I really can be a productive in 2d.
Today, I work with both 2d and 3d. When working in 2d, AutoCAD Mechanical is the only software I’ll use. Recently AutoCAD Mechanical 2010 has come out with more amazing new tools and a great new way to add my own parts to the standard library. I embrace these new tools; but, I still look back over the years and know that it’s the built-in standardization that I love most because it improves my design speed every minute that I’m doing 2d CAD.
Faded XREF in Civil 3D 2010? XDWGFADECTL
Friday, April 24th, 2009
I made some Plan and Profile sheets in Civil 3D 2010 for the first time yesterday. This is in the Output tab, on the Plan Production panel*.
XDWGFADECTL
Rendering Large Models
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
A common problem in the architectural visualization world is how to render very large model files. The problem with most buildings is the immense number of components required to make the model ranging from walls and glazing to doors, stairs and mechanical components. Add in entourage items like cars, people, trees and furnishings and you are on a fast track to inevitable crashes. There are some steps that can be taken to help reduce crashing of large files and these are really more a mix and match rather than a do this first then this second scenario. The following methods are based on your using mental ray with final gather and they translate to other rendering engines as well.
· In the normal rendering process, a global illumination solution is generated prior to the raytrace pass. This process can leave the system bloated with unnecessary data and can cause the raytrace process to crash unexpectedly. To avoid this, you can lock the Final Gather solution so that it is only read at rendering time rather than created. The FG solution can even be created at one half the size of the final rendering without causing notable distortion, thereby saving you additional memory.
· The bucket width used by the mental ray rendering engine determines the area over which it calculates any single portion of the image. Reducing the bucket width, located in the Renderer tab of the Render Setup dialog, can improve the memory management and help render out larger scenes.
· The trace depth settings for reflections and refractions control how many times mental ray will bounce rays through or off of surfaces with each bounce requiring more memory as it resolves the rays next bounce or deflection. Reducing the reflections, refractions and total number of bounces can conserve memory in larger scenes.
· Autodesk 3ds Max is very good at handling a few entities with very large polygon counts but it is not as efficient at handling a very large number of entities with smaller polygon counts. To maximize efficiency, you can attach like objects into single objects and improve your performance.
These are just a couple of common, quick and easy methods of reducing memory requirements and allowing you to render larger sized scenes with fewer crashes.
When Good Data Goes Bad
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009
By Darren Hartenstine
What is the value of an electronic file? When an electronic file is available to the consumer and can be located with minimal efforts, it is difficult to calculate the value. It’s not until the electronic file is lost or corrupted, when the true value is realized. Once that has occurred, the value of just one file is a compilation of lost productivity of multiple individuals within an organization.
The consumer of the electronic file is the individual within the organization that uses the information in some manner. Typically, this is the first person that is affected by the loss. IT support staff are also affected, since consumers are typically dependant on them to restore the lost data.
So what happens next when the denial and anger subside from a deleted file? Hopefully, the data is backed up in some location, either by the IT department or a personal storage device. This is usually not the case.
Some Electronic data loss scenarios:
1. File doesn’t exist – It’s been moved or deleted
2. Can’t open file – Possible data corruption
3. File is the wrong version – It’s been overwritten with incorrect changes
I’ve experienced each one of these scenarios in my many years working with electronic data. I was a CAD Administrator for a hearing aid manufacturer when I came first-hand to losing corporate data. Back then, we didn’t have trash cans like we do with Microsoft Windows or Mac’s; everything was command line (UNIX). I had made the mistake of executing a command and removing what I thought was an empty folder. It turns out that this folder was linked to another folder with the company’s entire depository of engineering data – nearly 20,000 files in total. When I had made the realization of the mistake, sweat ensued. Luckily, there was a tape backup of the data from the previous night.
What was the value of those files? It was the 7 hours of lost time I had to forgo to restore the data from tape. Additionally, there was the productivity loss for each of the Engineers (20) that could not access their project information for an entire day. Had the data not been backed up, the loss would have been astronomical, considering the years of intellectual property that was stored on the system.
Backing up electronic data to tape, CD, DVD, Hard Disk, etc. seems like such a trivial process. It’s amazing, but even in my current career at MasterGraphics; I still hear horror stories of companies losing electronic data because of poor disaster recovery strategies (or lack thereof).
Is there a silver bullet?
Today, Electronic Data Management Systems play a large part in controlling these losses. The systems can remove the ability to delete files, maintain the historical versions of a file, control access to a file, etc. More specifically, Vault Workgroup, Vault Collaboration and Vault Manufacturing are three Data Management solutions from Autodesk, Inc. that are integrated with their Manufacturing, Architectural and Media/Entertainment product lines.
Besides the obvious functionality of controlling data loss, there are many other benefits from these new Autodesk Data Management products:
- Quickly find design data through searching for basic parameters like Filename and Part Number. Or, utilize more advanced search techniques and locate data using specific file properties like Description, Revision, Material, etc.
- Utilizing core Vault features to selectively copy design data shortens development time and helps avoid rework.
- Automate Change and Release Management through easy-to-use electronic templates and provide detailed email notification to all users of the status of the process.
- Tracking and maintaining all revision information provides historical access to legacy design iterations.
- Secure access is managed through Microsoft’s Active Directory Services enabling administrators to maintain Access Control Lists to folders and files.
- Share design data with other departments and provide easy access to search, view, print or mark-up drawings through a web-based client that runs in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
- Integrated Autodesk DWF technology enables designers to collaborate with vendors or customers and capture changes through electronic mark-ups.
Civil 3D 2010 Installation: Clearing Up Some Confusion
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009
The download area shows the 32-bit version. However it will install and run just fine on 64-bit machines. This is just saying that the program itself isn’t truly 64-bit….yet.
If you are waiting for the DVD to arrive in the mail, that will be starting to ship this week April, 17th 2009.
The second thing I want to mention is for network installs. There is no more Network Activation Utility. You now must either A) login to register.autodesk.com or B) Call 1-800-551-1490 (press 1 para Englais). In either case, you must know your server MAC address and your product serial number/group number.
If you’ve never done an online registration before - registration only takes a moment. You’ll need your company information and e-mail address to create an account.
Lastly, I want to mention the Portable Licence Utility…or lack thereof in 2010 products. All stand-alone license transfers now go through the online License Transfer Utility found in Start > Programs > Autodesk > AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010.
Believe me - this is much easier. You don’t need to have the product installed on both computers at the time of transfer anymore. Nor are there any computer ID numbers to deal with anymore. You essentially upload the license to an Autodesk “holding area” and pull it back down when you need it. Yes, you do need internet access on both machines - just for transferring.
In all cases, if you have trouble with registering your new software or transferring licenses, don’t forget to call your friendly neighborhood reseller for help! We’re here to help you at 1-800-377-6364.
-Louisa
XREFs: Attachment vs Overlay Explained!
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
In Civil 3D 2010 and AutoCAD 2010, XREFs have really gotten good. We can now XREF a whole slew of data types without bonus packs or add-ons.
It seems like civil drafters are the most enthusiastic XREF users, but the following applies to any AutoCAD based product. There are a few nuances that many users don’t understand that are good to know.
When I teach people about XREF’s for the first time I steer them toward using the Overlay type XREF instead of an Attachment.
Funny though it seems at first, this setting doesn’t actually effect the drawing you are currently working in. It does effect any “downstream” drawings that might have your current drawing XREF’d in.
Time for a diagram!
Say you are in drawing Y. You XREF drawing X in using the ATTACHMENT option.
Later in the day you are working on drawing Z. You then XREF Y into Z. The result is you will get both X and Y. When a you XREF drawings that contain attachments - those attachments come along for the ride.
In the case of an overlay, you only get one level of references. (Microstation users will know this as a nest depth set to zero).
In other words, if X is referenced into Y as an overlay, and then Y is later referenced into Z, X does not come along for the ride. When I’m working in Z, I’ll just see Y attached. Overlay is preferable because it is less confusing and avoids the dreaded circular reference.
Now get out there and attach! -Lou
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