• SolidCAD announces new Commander-in-Chief, Marcus Tateishi

    Posted on by SolidCAD

    Marcus Tateishi, new President of SolidCAD being congratulated by former President, Michael Kugan at SolidCAD’s Head Office in Richmond Hill, ON.

    TORONTO, ON, January 31, 2020 – Today, the Board of Directors of SolidCAD, Canada’s largest Autodesk Platinum Partner and provider of technology and professional services, announces the appointment of Marcus Tateishi as the company’s new president.

    Marcus is no stranger to the Autodesk business having worked with SolidCAD as their Senior Partner Manager at Autodesk for over 14 years.  In his role as Partner Manager at Autodesk, Marcus developed a strong relationship with the entire SolidCAD team and is very familiar with the organization’s internal procedures, sales processes and strategic goals.  Once he assumes his responsibilities as president, Marcus will focus on generating increased revenue, profitability and productivity in client design processes.

    “This is an exciting time for our company and our partners,” states Marcus Tateishi. “I am thrilled to be taking on the role of president. SolidCAD has been aiding Canadian clients in the design industry for 25 years. Over these past 14 years, I’ve witnessed the company, our employees and customers all experience incredible growth. We have become the clear leader in providing Autodesk, Bluebeam and a host of other technology solutions to the Canadian design market. I look forward to leading this dynamic team as we enter our next chapter. We will continue to provide great products and services helping our customers design, construct and manufacture a more connected and sustainable world.”

    Michael Kugan, who established SolidCAD in 1996 and has been the company’s president until now, will step down and assume the position of Corporate Director starting February 1, 2020. Michael will work closely with Marcus to ensure that his transition to the presidency is seamless.

    “Over the years that Marcus has been our Autodesk Senior Partner Manager, he has long been considered a member of the SolidCAD team and a valued resource,” states Michael Kugan. “With his familiarity of our brand and strong relationships with our employees, Marcus proves to be a perfect fit for SolidCAD that will help maintain our company culture, strong foundation and devotion to client success. His expertise and knowledge in the technology industry, and specifically Autodesk, will bring us a new perspective that will help our clients deliver better productivity results through collaboration.  We are excited to officially welcome him onboard as part of the SolidCAD family.”

    Michael Kugan, Marcus Tateishi and Alexandre Laporte, Vice President of Sales, will serve on the Board of Directors of SolidCAD. The organization will focus on continuous growth through their quality services, training and support for the technology industry.

    BING Images Won’t Appear

    Posted on by Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    Have you ever turned on background BING imagery inside AutoCAD products only to find they don’t appear?  There could be a few reasons for this:

    • No Geolocation or coordinate system is set.
    • You’re not logged in with your Autodesk account.
    • You’re zoomed into an area compatible with the geolocation you’ve chose.

    These two are the pre-requisites for using images from BING, but there is one more which has many of my customers stumped.  Have you ever seen this message?  You almost certainly have.

    If you choose Yes, then you will see your images.  If you choose No, you won’t.  If you check that little button on the bottom left, you’ll never see this message again.  Good, right?  Well, if you chose Yes, then yes.  If you chose No, well…you’ll never receive this message again and you’ll never see images!

    There is a saviour, however.  There are other message like this in AutoCAD.  Toggles that prevent that box from appearing in the future.  These are called “Hidden Messages” and they can be turned back on by opening AutoCAD’s Options dialog box [OPTIONS].  Then opening the hidden message settings in the System tab.

     

    I hope you can use this to avoid any unnecessary frustration in your day.

    Keeping Your Revit Model Healthy by Utilizing CTC Express Tools

    Posted on by Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    Many firms struggle to fully keep their Revit models healthy. There are manual, and tedious workflows that can be error prone.

    Do you want to do a thorough health check of your model prior to sending it out? Exhausting time checking to ensure information is correct, accurate and consistent across the project team, and projects can be tedious. Let’s look at a few tools from CTC Software that can help you make this process quicker and more effective project to project.

    1. BIM Manager Suite – Dimension Checker, Project Cleaner*, Type Swapper, Shared Parameter Manager, Family Processor, Import Link Manager
    2. BIM Batch Suite – Family Loader*, Family Exporter*, Plotter & Exporter
    3. BIM Project Suite – Model Compare, Spreadsheet Link

    Problems We Face

    1. We need to have, and should have standards
    2. Standards can be hard to maintain
    3. Standards can be cumbersome and tedious
    4. Consistency can be hard to track manually

    Workflow Process with 3 CTC Tools

    Shared Parameter Manager – Much easier way to manage your shares parameters compared to the out of the box method. Browse your master shared parameters file and compare to a source file. Filter differences between the master and source file, and add, modify, delete, move, duplicate, and find/replace.

    Family Processor – Able to make multiple changes to multiple families in batch to ensure the content’s schedules are consistent and accurate. Powerful when you are building a library, adding new content, or downloading content from manufacturers. Builds a summary health check file of each family so the BIM Management team is able to track new or changed content.

    Family Loader* – Once the content is up to date and standardized by using Shared Parameter Manager, and Family Processor, you can batch load those specific fixed or new families in a project.

    *For Free Tools, contact SolidCAD to discover and evaluate your current workflow in Revit and let us find the right solution for you. 

    Bluebeam: ESTIMATING BASIS

    Posted on by Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    A lot of people are still estimating on paper plan to quote their job on a project. So, why should they use Bluebeam for doing it? In fact, we’ve got the answer from the same people; faster, direct export to Excel, more precise than ever with the calibration integrated in the document (from Bluebeam or directly from the drawing software where the plan came from) and finally (maybe the most important) no printing.

    So, what do you need to know about Bluebeam to start estimating?

    In this article, we will see tools to be used in order to give you the basic knowledge to begin quoting on your PDF plans within Bluebeam.

    (1) Calibrate your plan

    The first step is to calibrate your plan. In order to be able to quote lengths and areas, you need to make sure your plan has been calibrated correctly and accurately to avoid any mistake (or at least, limit those mistakes)

    For this purpose, we will have to set the calibration by selecting Measurements and then, Calibrate.

    Then, we will use a measure already indicated in the drawing to calibrate our plan by using the side line as our guide.

    Then, we will use a measure already indicated in the drawing to calibrate our plan by using the side line as our guide.

    When you finish tracing your calibration line between the 2 extremities of the side line, click again and a Calibrate menu will appear. Now, write the same length as indicated in your side line and you’re done. Your plan has been calibrated. Pretty simple, isn’t it?

    You are now ready to start.

    Note from the author: I always double check after calibration by measuring another sideline length to be sure the date I used was correct. It could happen a drawer changed manually a length to have a rounded number in place of the real length.

    Most user rather use the calibration within Bluebeam instead of the scale indicated on plan because it’s more accurate.

    (2 ) The Measurement tools and their purpose

    Bluebeam has 13 default tools to do measurement. It’s more than what we need to estimate. I am personally selecting 3 of them to create my own tools set for estimating. You are free to choose depending of your need. In addition to those 3 tools, I also often use Dynamic Fill, but we will see that later.

    Linear estimates (imperial / metric)

    To be able to do precise estimates, we’ve got 2 choices: Length and Polylength.

    I prefer to use Polylength  for 2 reasons: I’ve got more custom choices that I can apply to my length and, above all, I can take of sidelines in extremities to be more readable and smooth (and you can’t do that with the regular Length tool)

    Now that we choose our estimating tool for measuring length, we will need to think about what we need to quote. Usually, an estimator doesn’t quote on a single product or job. So we will use our Polylength standard tool to create our different custom tools set of products/jobs we will need to quote on.

    On this purpose, trace a standard Polylength  on your plan (picture below).

    Then, in the customization quick menu above your drawing, you will be able to change color, width, line type… and finally, give a name to your custom Polylength and save it in a custom Tool Chest (you should have created before, obviously or select an existing one). For example, in steel estimating, people use to call their length as the type of beam they need to quote. This allows them to estimate on measurements AND count them at the same time. MEP sub-contractor are doing the same for HVAC duct or general pipping.

    Once you finish customizing, save your custom tools by clicking on Add to Tool Chest and select the one you have been created.

    You can now use the same line to create all products / jobs you need to quote and populate your tool chest by changing name, color, type of Polylength and add it to the right Tool Chest. It will not overwrite your first custom tool already created.

    Note from the author : This stage can be a bit long but once you’ve created all needed tools, your job will be really more easier than ever. The more developed your tools are, the less time you will spend after to organize your data and get your result. But, if it is your first bunch of tool, don’t overthink it too much. The more time you will use Revu, the more you will know and the more custom your tools will be.

    3. Area Estimate (square feet / square meters)

    For this part, we will use exactly the same process than previously done for Ploylength but we will do it by using Area standard tool.

    On a similar way, we will create areas to represent what we want to quote and name them. For example: Floor, Concrete Slab…

    Then we will customize them with different colors, fills and even being able to include hatch in them. Finally, we will save them in a tool chest the same way you did with Polylength.

    This is the conclusion of the first part of Estimating with Bluebeam. In the next post, we will see how to create layers and how to use them smartly and how to create, customize and use columns in Markup List to create quick and easy estimates.

    Design better Pipe Networks with CTC Software

    Posted on by Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    While Pipe Networks are a great toolset in Civil 3D, they fall short as a true design tool. With CTC Software, we can edit pipe runs through a design-oriented, dynamic interface. We can swap multiple parts, both pipes and structures, in plan or profile. We can also auto-populate properties across multiple parts at once, aiding in proper labeling or tabling.

     

    For more click here

    Do you know about Adaptive Clearing?

    Posted on by SolidCAD

    Hey CNC’ers!

    Do you know about Adaptive Clearing? It’s the intelligent roughing strategy at the heart of HSM CAM that has changed milling forever. Increase your profitability by getting to near-net-shape in a single, highly-efficient, tool-sparing operation.

    To learn more about the advantages (as well as pitfalls) of this game-changing technology, download the following article: https://www.solidcad.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/A-few-words-on-Intelligent-Roughing-by-Louis-Martineau-.pdf and visit here.

    You can also watch the video down below:

    Curious about the hype around Autodesk’s HSM CAM?

    Posted on by SolidCAD

    Hey CNC’ers!

    Curious about the hype around Autodesk’s HSM CAM? And now you’re looking for more information and possibly a demonstration? Well, you’ve come to the right place! SolidCAD is not only Canada’s biggest reseller of Autodesk manufacturing solutions, but also the only Canadian Autodesk reseller with a dedicated team of CAM specialists.

    HSM CAM is the comprehensive and powerful CNC programming add-on for Inventor (Inventor CAM – included with a subscription to the Product Design and Manufacturing Collection ), Fusion 360 (Fusion 360 Manufacturing – built into Fusion 360), and even SolidWorks (HSMWorks – included with a subscription to Fusion 360).

    Please visit our HSM CAM page to read about all the advantages of this integrated CAD/CAM solution and to find lots of technical resources: https://www.solidcad.ca/partner-products/hsm-cam/

    Also, try our SolidCAD universal milling post-processor, compatible with a wide variety of 3-axis, 4-axis, and 5-axis machines that accept FANUC-style G-code. This open-source post-processor generates nicely-formatted NC code, and is chock-full of features to make it as flexible as possible. These features include:

    • Safe restart feature after M00 program stops
    • Automatic date and time stamp function
    • Tool table feature in header
    • Operation name, tool name, and cycle time at top of each operation
    • Activation of accumulated pecking depth feature for G73-style drilling
    • Activation of the Manual NC code pass-through feature
    • Property to toggle between 3-axis / 4-axis / 5-axis configurations
    • Property to set maximal spindle speed
    • Property to toggle tool preload on/off
    • Property to toggle rigid tapping on/off
    • Property to assign an M-code for rigid tapping
    • Property to toggle between G54-G59 and G54.1 P1-P300 work offsets
    • Property to toggle between G28 and G53 retracts
    • Properties to set M-codes for 4th and 5th axis brake lock/unlock functions
    • Property to toggle on/off the output of rotary axis positions at every operation
    • Property to toggle on/off the output of M01 optional stops at tool changes
    • Property to toggle on/off automatic spindle gear changes
    • Property to set a spindle gear change crossover speed
    • Property to toggle between French and English for the output of comments and messages
    • Property to toggle on/off lowercase support for comments
    • Property to set the rapid rate used for operation time calculations
    • Property to toggle on/off the automatic creation of sub-programs for patterns
    • Property to toggle between 4 digit and 8-digit program IDs
    • Property to toggle on/off the output of the tool list in the program header
    • Property to toggle between relative or absolute coordinates for IJKs
    • Property to toggle between automatic tool changer or manual tool changes
    • Property to toggle between M30 and M99 for program termination
    • Property to toggle between returning to home or going to parking position at program end
    • Properties to set X- and Y-coordinates for parking position
    • Property to convert from feed expressed per min. to feed expressed per second
    • Property to inverse Z direction convention
    • Property to disable output of all coolant codes

    This post processor is available here: https://www.solidcad.ca/solidcad-generic-post-processors-download/

    AutoCAD FLATTEN

    Posted on by Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    AutoCAD has a command contained within the Express Tool named FLATTEN.  It is designed to remove any non-zero elevations from selected objects within a drawing.  It does an excellent job with this, but there is some behavior that may not be obvious to all users.  This command works very well with many objects such as TEXT, LINES, and some BLOCKS.  However, unexpected behavior results when flattening Dynamic and Annotative blocks, even blocks with embedded non-zero-elevation linework.

    Annotative Blocks:  For example, an annotative block with a name of Arrow, is inserted 3 times.  Regardless of the attached annotative scales, the result after the FLATTEN command will be 3 blocks with 3 different names; Arrow-flat-1, Arrow-flat-2, and Arrow-flat-3.  Further, they will no longer be annotative.

    Dynamic Blocks:  After the FLATTEN command, each dynamic block will no longer be dynamic and will become an “unnamed block” with a name similar to “*U63”.

    Blocks:  A typical block will FLATTEN adequately.  A block which contains elements which have non-zero elevations, will also flatten adequately.  Understand that the FLATTEN command will make changes to block definitions in this example to set all elevations to 0.

    So what can be done?  Here are two options.

    • Download and run a LISP command from this discussion group post.
    • Be selective when flattening.  Flatten objects which have no deleterious results afterwards.  The AutoCAD FILTER command can be configured to easily select compatible objects.  The filter can be saved for future use.

     

    Customizing the Inventor Marking Menu

    Posted on by SolidCAD

    A few years ago, Autodesk introduced context-sensitive radial menus called Marking Menus, in Inventor. These menus provide a quick and visual way for users to select the most commonly used commands in each environment. Over the years every-day users have no doubt become quite familiar with these menus and the available commands, but did you know you can customize it?

    By default, Autodesk has placed what they believe to be the most common commands in this radial menu however, you know as well as I do that from company to company and even desk to desk, everyone uses Inventor differently. The following are the quick and easy steps to customize this menu.

    How to do it:

    On the Tools tab in the Options pane, the “Customize” button will open the dialog box that lets you modify the 8 commands in the radial menu for a given environment and associated sub-environment. From 2D Sketch to Weldment and everything in between, you can put your favourite commands right at the tip of your mouse pointer.

    Choose the environment and sub-environment you wish to customize the menu for. Next, select one of the eight radial menu options that you want to change (in this example we are changing the “Pattern Component” command in the standard Assembly environment).

    In the menu on the right, search or scroll down to the command you want to add and simply click on it to replace the selected option (iProperties, in this example). It’s as easy as that!

    A

    lso; starting in 2018 Inventor began giving users the option to migrate these (and all other) custom user interface settings when you upgrade to newer releases. So, you no longer need to worry about starting from scratch!

    Why is it called the “Marking Menu”?

    In addition to customizing where your favourite commands are on the right click menus, did you know you can also right-click-drag to the command, without ever actually seeing the menu? The pointer will create a “mark” as you drag your mouse to the location of your desired command, as shown below. This will require some practice but could become quite handy over time when the location of the commands in the radial menu becomes second-nature.

    Revit Data Corruption

    Posted on by Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    Let’s talk about data corruption in Revit. In this post I will look at these 4 points:

    1. File crashes before opening
    2. Crashes when opening a new view
    3. Looking for corrupt families
    4. Higher level investigation

    As always you should make sure you save a copy of your file for testing while trying to resolve corruption issues.

    File crashes before opening

    Sometimes a file cannot open because of a simple issue that can easily be overcome. Each of the following actions have the potential to get past a different issue. If your file crashes when you try to open it ask yourself:

    • Can the file be opened with or without audit checked?
    • Will the file open without the worksets loaded? Can I narrow it down to a specific workset that keeps the file from opening?
    • Can I open the file in a different build, or a newer version of Revit?
    • Sometimes new name allows you to bypass the issue, copy-paste file to new location
    • Isolate the file from the network save to a location where the links cannot be accessed.

    Crashes when opening a new view

    If your file crashes when you try to open or create new views, try these suggestions:

    • Turn off hardware acceleration and try each location one at a time.
    • Reset Revit settings
      • Customized settings are stored in the app data folder, when removed from this location the defaults are regenerated.
    • Repair the installation
      • This won’t change any user setting.
    • Open Revit without add-ins
      • Locate the following folder: C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Revit\Addins\[Version].
      • Temporarily move the add–in files from the folder above to another location.

    If any of these work for you take note, this is where the issue resides and you’ll want to know the exact cause whenever possible.

    Looking for Corrupt Families

    Sometimes the behavior you see in a file is caused by corrupt families follow this process to identify corrupt families.

    • Save a copy of the corrupt file
    • Open and save all families as a library, this process will fail when it reaches the 1st corrupt family.
    • Record the family named on the bottom left hand corner of the screen & delete the family and run again, repeat until the process completes successfully.
    • Open the original corrupt file and reload all the families on your list with versions that predate the corruption. If you’ don’t have a previous version of the family, you’ll need to recreate them.

     

    Higher level investigation & troubleshooting

    Many issues can also be fixed by returning to Revit’s original settings.  Try these steps one at a time, testing the file after each change.

    • Rename the .INI file (_old) which is in the AppData Roaming folder.
    • Rename App Data Folders (_old)
      • C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit 201x
      • C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit 201x
    • Rename Workspace in the registry editor

    When these folders/files don’t exist, they are recreated the next time the user opens Revit. Be sure rename and not remove these files/folders, as they will server as backups for the user original setting including keyboard shortcuts and font maps.

    Happy Reviting!

    Be sure to check my other videos in this series for more information.

    While you wait why not follow us @SolidCAD on Twitter, check out our other videos on YouTube, and see what our experts have to say on our BIM Blog!

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    Additional Reading

    AKN: Revit – What Causes data Corruption

    AKN: Revit – Alternative Uninstall Directions