Welcome to Issue 88/2001 – 11-July-2001 of the VietCAD Bulletin

Autodesk is now shipping AutoCAD 2002 and will soon be discontinuing support for AutoCAD Release 14?. While R14 has been well received, the technical foundation for AutoCAD,for operating

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Welcome to Issue 88/2001 – 11-July-2001 of the VietCAD

Bulletin

Your CAD/CAM update from VietCAD

Please forward this message to someone you know

interested in CAD and automated engineering

*****************************************************************************TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Autodesk news – New Products

a AutoCAD R14 is Going Away: Are You Ready?

b AEC NEWS

c Autodesk products will be compatible with Windows XP

d Architectural Desktop R3

2 AutoCAD Technical Information:

a AutoCAD 2002 technology briefings

b Architectural Desktop 3 - The third way?

c AutoCAD 2002 - What's New?

d Autodesk Inventor Utility

3 AutoCAD Tips & Ticks:

a Closing the Render window in AutoCAD (14/2000)

b Quickly close polylines and line segments in AutoCAD (14/2000)

c Quickly rename named objects in AutoCAD (14/2000)

d Rotate dimension text independent of the dimension in AutoCAD (14/2000)

e Use the COPYLINK command to insert a drawing as an OLE object in AutoCAD

(14/2000)

f Using AutoCAD 2000's Fit Options feature to adjust dimension text and arrows

g What's the difference between the Pasteblock and Pasteorig commands in AutoCAD LT2000?

4 AutoLISP – Visual LISP – VBA Tips & Ticks

a Drawing 2-D structural W-beams using AutoLISP and DCL

AUTOCAD R14 IS GOING AWAY: ARE YOU READY?

Autodesk is now shipping AutoCAD 2002 and will soon be discontinuing support for AutoCAD Release

14 In January 2002 just 7 months from now Autodesk will no longer sell upgrades from R14to

newer releases of AutoCAD (such as AutoCAD 2000i and AutoCAD 2002) New seat sales, upgrades,

and support of R14 will be phased out to give customers time to plan, as well as take full

Why did Autodesk make this decision? R14 is now over 4 years old Our software has undergone 3

major upgrades and a number of updates that were designed to match the evolving business challenges of

Autodesk's customers While R14 has been well received, the technical foundation for AutoCAD,for

operating systems, and for compatible products has changed significantly since its release and it's time

AutoCAD 2002-based solution, or possibly moving to a vertical product

This is also an occasion for your customers to upgrade their versions of your software If you're an

author, it's a chance for you to provide tips and guidance on the latest version If you're a

quick checklist to think about:

1 Are your products compatible with AutoCAD 2002?

2 Do you have a plan to promote the products that you've based on AutoCAD 2002, or the products

you've developed to extend our vertical products?

3 Are you offering incentives to your existing customers? Have you considered a special offer toupgrade from your R14-based product/publication/service to an AutoCAD 2002 version? This is

a great opportunity to help your client base move to the most up-to-date design technology,improve customer service and boost sales

Keep in mind: The cost of supporting Release 14 and Release 14-based vertical products is huge We

believe it is best for our entire virtual corporation and for our customers to focus our people and our

energy in support of current Autodesk products and development of future state-of-the-art technologies

Call VietCAD for more details

it I was told that Autodesk would not support any Softdesk component past ADTR1 or

void

* AUTODESK'S BUILDING SYSTEMS PRODUCTS

Running on top of Autodesk Architectural Desktop 3.3, Autodesk Building Mechanical and Autodesk

Building Electrical provide a model-based approach to design development and constructiondocumentation Features such as the ability to automatically generate 3D isometric

representations of

designs result in more accurate and more coordinated sets of building data Object behavior addsintelligence to building components, and dynamic documentation features help complete the design

process For more information, visit http://www.autodesk.com

-1c)

AUTODESK PRODUCTS WILL BE COMPATIBLE WITH WINDOWS XP

``The launch of Windows XP is the most significant PC industry event in the last 10 years Autodesk

believes that Windows XP is the platform that provides the new computing experiences our customers

have been asking for We are really excited about the Designed for Windows Logo Program because it

provides our customers with the assurance that Autodesk products were built to take advantage ofthe

next generation of Microsoft technologies.''

Intuitive Software for Freedom of Design

Whether you design in 2D, 3D, or both, Autodesk Architectural Desktop gives you a natural, intuitive

way to quickly bring your ideas to life with intelligent building objects Curtain walls, stairs, structural

members, and many other intelligent building objects behave according to real-world properties,

dynamically link objects to schedules for up-to-the-minute accuracy in all project phases So let the

software do the work while you explore different design scenarios

Greater Profitability Through Higher Productivity

With its use of intelligent object technology, Autodesk Architectural Desktop shortens the design cycle

time, which directly translates into dollar savings Especially during construction documentation and

administration, the last thing you want is to spend valuable time making endless drawing

revisions,

plotting loads of paper drawings, and overnight them with an expensive courier service Becausedrawings created in Autodesk Architectural Desktop are dynamically linked, your building modelupdates

throughout all files for fully coordinated, accurate construction documents And when your drawings are

finished, conveniently transmit them over the Web and save all those overnight courier costs

Sharing Information: Compatibility and Connectivity

Sharing design information with the entire project team has never been easier Because AutodeskArchitectural Desktop is built on AutoCAD® 2000i, you get the full benefits of the most widely used

professional CAD product in the world, including perfect compatibility with the DWG file format And

Autodesk Architectural Desktop has all the Internet capabilities of AutoCAD 2000i—Meet Now,eTransmit, Publish to Web, and more So you can post drawings to the Web, connect to design resources,

drag architectural content directly into your drawings, and conduct online meetings—all in real time for

the decisive competitive advantage in today’s fast-paced world

The Vision of Design

As building owners demand more and more true-to-life visualization of architectural ideas early

in the

design process, it is crucial that information be shared across design applications With AutodeskArchitectural Desktop you can seamlessly integrate your drawings with other Autodesk industrysolutions, such as 3D Studio VIZ®, Lightscape®, and Character Studio® For example, you can integrate

a model created in Autodesk Architectural Desktop with 3D Studio VIZ or Character Studio forphotorealistic 3D rendering and animation—a fast way to win, visualize, and market a project

Avatech Solutions is hosting a series of free technology briefings across the U.S to launch AutoCAD

2002 Avatech will host the one-day briefings in sixteen cities nationwide Avatech has

ARCHITECTURAL DESKTOP 3 - THE THIRD WAY?

Autodesk’s Architectural Desktop (ADT) has managed to sell over 100,000 copies worldwide With this

kind of installed base, ADT is probably the most popular AEC specific tool on the market today However, previous versions have been difficult to learn and lacking in features to complete on the Virtual

Building Model Joe Croser reports on the latest release – ADT3.

Eighteen months ago I reviewed Architectural Desktop 2 (ADT2) and I

didn’t like it I pointed out the inconsistencies in Autodesk’s approach to

CAD modeling, how its family of modeling applications could not share

geometry and in particular its method of addressing inter-operability - the

way the geometry created in one application is transferred to another for

reuse

All proprietary-modeling applications suffer from data loss or more

specifically loss of information from data during translation However,

data produced in ADT2 could not even be viewed in native AutoCAD

applications of the same version without a specific object enabler (an extra

mini-application, which is able to read the data from ADT2 and display it

in a format which AutoCAD, will understand) Furthermore the much

loved and well-supported LT could not read the data at all as it did not

have support for object enablers

Thankfully with the 2000i suite of products much has changed LT now supports object enablers and with

release 3 of Architectural Desktop (designed specifically to work with 2000i) many new

and Floor Openings, Ducts, Area Calculations, Display Management tools and Live Sections

I know that Autodesk felt hard-done-by with my review of ADT2, and as it can be very difficult

Rome can easily be built in a day In short it is the perfect subject for this simple test.

Like all new projects we were to start with a blank canvas ADT3 shares the 2000i interface and can start

up with the ‘classic’ AutoCAD interface or with the newer-look web-friendly ‘AutoCAD Today’ page

that has been designed to look like a web page I must say that I do like the latter but it does not sit

comfortably on my meager 800x600-resolution laptop so I am forced down the route of the traditional

classic interface in order to see all of the available options First we created a new Grid file (in theinterests of good practice and collaborative working we decided to split the model down into logical

partitions) and used the grid tools; which had a simple layout and were easy to use, to place the grid In a

flash it was complete and we were ready to move on We saved the file and created a second file for the

ground floor columns

Using the omnipotent X-ref tools we attached the grid file and populated the new file with structural

columns The library for selecting the columns was comprehensive and XML-based (written with text)

making it easy to transport across slow Internet connections for data sharing Whenever columns are

placed they can also be ‘associated’ to the grid so that if the grid spacing should change the columns

change too Unfortunately for us both the grid and the columns have to reside in the same file and

ones that know the application well it is not logical or intuitive to use

Creating windows of varying sizes was a synch Using ‘Window Styles’ for different displayrepresentations (Display Reps) it was easy to create the first and then duplicate and modify it to create all

other iterations This had to be the best bit yet We checked the file size and it weighed in at 428K At

first it seemed a little on the lardy side so we checked the size of the template which registered aconsiderable 385K This meant that the entire model we had created thus far contributed just over40K to

the size of the file Now that IS efficient!

In a world of collaborative working practices where data is shared across both intellectual andgeographical borders ADT3 gets a huge thumbs up for it approach to layer management At any time the

layer names being used can be ‘exchanged’ for others without affecting the integrity of the data

In this

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way your own internal layer standard can be changed to look like any other standard at any time with just

a few button clicks Well-done Autodesk

Placing ramps and stairs proved to be quite an ordeal At first we tried to place ramps as stairs with a zero

riser height, but it didn’t work Then we tried to place it as a slab and rotate it into place Again

right whilst seemingly forgetting about others entirely.

Time, like the tide, was waiting for no man so we cut short the modeling process and proceeded to

extracting plans and sections from the model Over the past 3-6 months I have looked at a numberof

applications of this genre; Model-centric applications from which all construction documentation is

extracted and I can honestly say that when it comes to cutting sections from the model ADT3 comes a

poor last I would not expect it to match the sheer ability of Revit, which makes the section cutting and

manipulation look easy AllPlan from Nemetschek and TriForma from Bentley are also easier to use and

deliver more capable section cutting tools than ADT3

I really wanted to like this version of ADT following my disappointment with the previous one Whilst

some of my earlier concerns have now been addressed it appears that the competition has

AUTOCAD 2002 - WHAT'S NEW?

The introduction of AutoCAD 2002 marks a new marketing and distribution model for the company

Upgrades will now be annual; in order to better manage upgrade paths, and you can buy an annual

subscription for upgrading

In terms of the software, it looks like AutoCAD 2002 takes some common tasks and makes them easier

with features such as true associative dimensioning, the capability to manipulate drawing

full customization of output as well as the addition of new templates and themes

For CAD managers overseeing standards, AutoCAD 2002's new CAD Standards toolset lets you check

and encourage standards compliance, resulting in better coordinated teams, a more efficient and effective

design process, and a higher return on investment in design tools As a part of the expansion of AutoCAD

into data sharing and consumption, they built drop technology directly into the product With drop,

i-you can bring intelligent design content directly from a manufacturer’s website into i-your drawingfile In

addition to an object’s geometry, i-drop allows the content provider to attach important and useful

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information like spec sheets or material costs and drop it into your design This data can then be extracted

using the tools in AutoCAD 2002 to create a bill of materials, for example

If you use AutoCAD Release 14, here is what's new Some of the features are, of course, also new to

AutoCAD 2000 and AutoCAD 2000i

The third release since AutoCAD Release 14, AutoCAD 2002 should improve overall

estimated 24 percent better application performance

Some of the tools available on AutoCAD 2002:

Product training at Authorized Autodesk Training Centers

Tutorials available on the Autodesk store

Recommended books on Autodesk Point A

e-Learning Resources on Point A

AutoCAD Learning Assistance (ALA) is a tutorial-based, multimedia-learning tool available inthe AutoCAD box

Multiple Design Environment: Open several drawings in a single session and copy, move, andpaint objects from one file to another

With Associative Dimensioning, you can modify an object, and its location, orientation, andmeasurement values are automatically updated No more time-consuming manual updates.Visually create and position objects with enhanced AutoSnap and AutoTrack features

The Array dialog box takes the guesswork out of creating arrays by letting you preview andmodify array options

3D Orbit: Create, view, check, and edit 3D models as you go, from any angle, in perspective and

parallel views

Edit multiple polylines with a single command and join multiple objects as a polyline even if their

ends do not meet or they consist of lines and polylines

Extend and Trim combined: When you hold down the shift key, the trim command can extend or

the extend command can trim

Layer States enable you to save a snapshot of the current layer settings in the Layer Manager.Layer states can be restored, exported, and imported, making it easy to change the properties oflayers for plotting or editing

Drag-and-drop hatch: Find hatch patterns in the acad.pat file and drag them onto hatch areas inthe current drawing using the DesignCenter feature

Use the Block Attribute Manager to manage, extract, and modify attributes without having toexplode or redefine the block

The Edit Attribute dialog box makes it easier to edit the properties, text, and general appearance

text (CSV), Microsoft Excel (XLS), and Microsoft Access (MDB) formats

Layer Translator converts drawings from one layer standard or convention to another using anexisting drawing, standards file, or drawing template Translation information can be saved andreused to allow quicker conversion of future drawings

Layer Previous improves UNDO, ZOOM, and Layer operations It operates much like the Zoom

Previous command, and restores the previously used layer state without undoing geometry edits

Powerful Communication and Collaboration Tools

eTransmit saves time and money by securely sending complete DWG files now including theDWS standards file to anyone via e-mail The delivery is fast and virtually cost-free

Use Autodesk i-drop technology to quickly add to your designs by dragging objects from theWeb or your intranet and dropping them into your drawings

Meet Now uses Microsoft NetMeeting technology to provide a way to collaborate with

colleagues and partners in real time over the Internet or your intranet

Publish to Web makes it easy to publish drawing for review on the Web or your intranet.Host critical data and drawing files using the bulletin Board at AutoCAD Today, accessible from

inside AutoCAD

Manage standards easily and accurately

The Standards Manager associates standards with your AutoCAD drawing and makes it easy tosearch for and correct standards violations

Like a spell checker in a word processor, the Standards Interactive Audit checks the activedrawing against the associated standards, reports on any discrepancies, and suggests appropriateresolutions

The Batch Standards Checker performs batch audits on multiple drawings and generates anXML-based, browser-viewable report of standards violations

Summary Report Information includes a listing of all standards violations found for eachdrawing

Some of the powerful tools you get by upgrading to AutoCAD 2002

Powerful CAD Platform

With Associative Dimensioning, you can modify an object, and its location,

orientation, and measurement values are automatically updated No more timeconsumingmanual updates

REGENless tab switching: Eliminates REGENS when switching between

layouts, boosting performance and productivity

Edit multiple polylines with a single command and join multiple objects as a

polyline even if their ends do not meet or they consist of lines and polylines

no 88-2001.doc 10 of 27

Extend and Trim combined: When you hold down the shift key, the trim

command can extend or the extend command can trim

Layer States enable you to save a snapshot of the current layer settings in the

Layer Manager Layer states can be restored, exported, and imported, making it

easy to change the properties of layers for plotting or editing

Drag-and-drop hatch: Find hatch patterns in the acad.pat file and drag them onto

hatch areas in the current drawing using the DesignCenter feature

The Array dialog box takes the guesswork out of creating arrays by letting you

preview and modify array options

Use the Block Attribute Manager to manage, extract, and modify attributes

without having to explode or redefine the block

The Edit Attribute dialog box makes it easier to edit the properties, text, and

general appearance of each attribute

The Enhanced Attribute Editor is a faster and more accurate way of managing

individually selected block attributes

Enhanced Attribute Extract allows the easy extraction of block attribute data to

comma-separated text (CSV), Microsoft® Excel (XLS), and Microsoft Access

Layer Previous improves UNDO, ZOOM, and Layer operations It operates

much like the Zoom Previous command, and restores the previously used layer

state without undoing geometry edits or zoom operations

Powerful Communication and Collaboration Tools

eTransmit saves time and money by securely sending complete DWG files

”including xrefs” via e-mail The delivery is fast and virtually cost-free

eTransmit even includes the DWS standards file associated with the drawing, so

everyone can use a single standard

Use Autodesk® i-drop technology to quickly add to your designs by dragging

objects from the Web or your intranet and dropping them into your drawings

Meet Now uses Microsoft NetMeeting technology to provide a way to

collaborate with colleagues and partners in real time over the Internet or your

intranet

Publish to Web makes it easy to display drawings for review by publishing them

to the Web or intranet using a wizard with predefined and fully customizable

templates

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Host critical data and drawing files using the bulletin Board at AutoCAD Today,

accessible from inside AutoCAD

Manage standards easily and accurately

The Standards Manager associates standards with your AutoCAD drawing and

makes it easy to search for and correct standards violations

Like a spell checker in a word processor, the Standards Interactive Audit checks

the active drawing against the associated standards, reports on any discrepancies,

and suggests appropriate resolutions

The Batch Standards Checker performs batch audits on multiple drawings and

generates an XML-based, browser-viewable report of standards violations

Summary Report Information includes a listing of all standards violations found

for each drawing

Flexible purchasing and licensing options

Subscribe, rent, or host: whatever works best for your business Get the latest

versions of your licensed Autodesk software for an annual subscription fee Or

rent AutoCAD for convenient lease terms of 30, 60, or 90 days You can even

use your hardware and network connections to deploy AutoCAD to multiple

desktops

World-class license management: Maximize your software assets with the market

leader FLEXlm and SAMreport-lite offer increased reliability and better support,

while protecting your existing network license management capabilities

Compatibility

100 percent file compatibility: The AutoCAD DWG format remains unchanged

from AutoCAD 2000 and AutoCAD 2000i, guaranteeing 100 percent file

compatibility So you can seamlessly deploy new software assets, while

protecting existing drawings, LISP, ARX, and VBA scripts and customizations

for maximum return on your technology investments

The Windows environment: AutoCAD 2002 is built for the Microsoft Windows

desktop environment, including Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 98,

Windows ME, and Windows NT 4.0

Elimination of the hardware lock: CDilla Soft Locking technology will be used in

localities and applications where a hardware lock had been used Soft locks are

substantially more reliable, portable, and flexible

-2d)

AUTODESK INVENTOR UTILITY

Inventor Hole Standards is a free utility for Autodesk Inventor that lets you maintain an Excel spreadsheet

of common whole types and their parameters Instead of having to look up hole parameters and type them

into the hole dialog box within Inventor, Inventor Hole Standards will populate the dialog box based upon

the hole type that you select E-mail inventorholes@mymcad.com to obtain a fully functional copy for

free You can see a preview of the utility at

CLOSING THE RENDER WINDOW IN AUTOCAD (14/2000)

When you render a drawing in AutoCAD, the Render window opens You may have noticed that this

window can only be minimized, not closed, therefore adding another item to your taskbar If you already

have more items on your taskbar than you'd like, you can use the ARX command to close the Render

window To do this, simply type arx on the command line At the next prompt (Enter An Option prompt

in AutoCAD 2000), type u for Unload When AutoCAD asks for the ARX filename, type render(acrender in AutoCAD 2000) When you press [Enter], the Render window closes If at some point you'd

like to open it again, repeat these steps but type l for the Load option at the second prompt (Enter An

Option prompt in AutoCAD 2000)

This tip was contributed by Halil Erhan

-3b)

QUICKLY CLOSE POLYLINES AND LINE SEGMENTS IN AUTOCAD (14/2000)

Normally, to close a polyline or multiple line segments, you have to drag the last line to the end point To

help find the end point, you probably first turn on OSNAP However, there's another way to do this that

involves fewer steps When you're ready to close the polyline, simply type c on the command line Then

when you press [Enter], AutoCAD automatically finds the end point and draws the last line to close the

polyline

S Joe Martin of Chevron Phillips contributed this tip

-3c)

QUICKLY RENAME NAMED OBJECTS IN AUTOCAD (14/2000)

You can use the Rename feature to quickly rename named objects, such as blocks, dimension styles,

layers, linetypes, text styles, UCSs, viewports and views, without having to invoke their