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AUGIWORLD October 2021
The Official Publication of the AUGI Design Community
Customize. Create. Develop. www.augiworld.com
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Also in this issue:
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Bluebeam Revu for the Design World HDRI Loader Using Maxscript What Happened to the Digitizer?
AUGIWorld
October 2021
CONTENTS FEATURES 6
Civil 3D
10
Bluebeam Revu for the Design World
6
18
Customizing User Interfaces
Scene Management with Pulze for 3ds Max
3ds Max
Creating an HDRI Loader Using Maxscript
22 Revit
Revit Mapping Customization
26 Civil 3D
Customizing Assemblies with Subassembly Composer
32 The Digitizer
18
What Happened to the Digitizer?
COLUMNS 4
Letter from the President
13 Inside Track 14 Tech Manager
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October 2021 | AUGIWorld Magazine
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AUGIWorld www.augiworld. com
From the President
H
ello AUGI Members!
I’ve been looking forward to the October addition of AUGIWorld. Why? Because I love customization!
I’ve spent a good portion of my career creating customization in AutoCAD, migrating previous customization forward to new versions and discussing various customizations with clients. I think the love for customization is in my blood! Some of the articles this month (from our wonderful authors) are 3DS Max building a custom UI/interface, Subassembly Composer for Civil 3D, and Revit Mapping Customization. I encourage you to find your “sweet spot” in whatever software you are using. Customization can be as simple as rearranging the interface or as complex as writing new code that will save thousands of dollars in design time. With design software there is a lot of customization that falls in between these two extremes. Additionally, if you’re not a programmer, don’t shy away from customization! There is a lot of information available online and many people have willingly shared their own customization to make life easier for others. So don’t hesitate to explore what’s out there! This month I’d like to share several quotes that I found around customization. Some pertain to work but many will make you think twice about your personal life as well. “First you harmonize, then you customize.” by Wilson Pickett
Editors
Editor-in-Chief
Todd Rogers - todd.rogers@augi.com
Copy Editor
Isabella Andresen - isabella.andresen@augi.com
Layout Editor
Tim Varnau - tim.varnau@augi.com
Content Managers
3ds Max - Brian Chapman AutoCAD - Jim Fisher AutoCAD Architecture - Melinda Heavrin AutoCAD Civil 3D - Shawn Herring AutoCAD MEP - William Campbell BIM Construction - Kenny Eastman Tech Manager - Mark Kiker Inside Track - Brian Andresen Inventor Revit Architecture - Jay Zallan Revit MEP - Nathan Mulder Revit Structure - Jason Lush
Advertising / Reprint Sales
Kevin Merritt - salesmanager@augi.com AUGI Executive Team President KaDe King Vice-President Frank Mayfield Treasurer Todd Rogers
AUGI Board of Directors Brian Andresen Kimberly Fuhrman KaDe King Chris Lindner
Frank Mayfield Todd Rogers Scott Wilcox
Publication Information
AUGIWorld magazine is a benefit of specific AUGI membership plans. Direct magazine subscriptions are not available. Please visit www.augi.com/ account/register to join or upgrade your membership to receive AUGIWorld magazine in print. To manage your AUGI membership and address, please visit www.augi.com/account. For all other magazine inquires please contact augiworld@augi. com
“Customize things anytime and people sometimes, not every time.” “What you see in me is a reflection of yourself. My behavior is customized.” by RoZa “Real luxury is customization.” by Lapo Elkann “The degree of customization possible through your Preferences screens is awesome.” by Paul Simon
AUGIWorld is published by Autodesk User Group International, Inc. AUGI makes no warranty for the use of its products and assumes no responsibility for any errors which may appear in this publication nor does it make a commitment to update the information contained herein.
“We’re going from a world of customized software to standardized platforms.” by Aaron Levie
AUGIWorld is Copyright ©2021 AUGI. No information in this magazine may be reproduced without expressed written permission from AUGI.
And to finish it out… “Create your own style. Let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable to others.” by Anna Wintour
All registered trademarks and trademarks included in this magazine are held by their respective companies. Every attempt was made to include all trademarks and registered trademarks where indicated by their companies.
My best regards to all of you, KaDe 4
Published by:
AUGIWorld (San Francisco, Calif.) ISSN 2163-7547
AUGIWorld Magazine | October 2021 augi.com
A Global Community for AEC Professionals to Learn, Grow and Exchange Knowledge. Become a member: www.dbei.org/membership
Civil 3D 2022
by: Oscar Castaneda
Customizing User Interfaces I
n the never-ending expanding world of computer applications, we find ourselves in many occasions trying to define the best ways to make the User Interfaces (UI) we use, as comfortable and efficient as possible (Figure 1). Over the last few months, I have found myself relearning what I thought was set and done in my brain. You see, I have started a transition from Civil 3D and the Autodesk world into the new Bentley OpenRoads environment, an interesting journey so far. Unlike previous versions of Bentley CADD software such as Microstation Select’s series or Power GeoPAK, OpenRoads Designer – ORD, finally makes uses of a Ribbon Interface to allow users access to the tools within the software, which make things easier for “Us AutoCAD users” (Figure 2).
If you are facing this challenge in your career at this moment, I can tell you, you are NOT ALONE. One of the key things I have followed during this transition phase to better understand ORD’s environment was to familiarize myself with the location of various common toolbars and menus. Think of this as a one-on-one comparison about where to find in this new program what I often use while working in Civil 3D. Because it is almost impossible to cover most of these tools in one article, let’s focus on a few key elements that make ORD not such a Bad guy coming from the Civil 3D experience.
WORKFLOW MENU
As within Civil 3D, you can access different workflows available, depending on what you need to accomplish with the task at hand (Figure 3).
Figure 1
Figure 2
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AUGIWorld Magazine | October 2021 augi.com
Civil 3D 2022
Figure 3
Figure 4
There is also a very similar approach (if not the same) to the way how you can access through the ribbon tabs all the individual tools available within the software (Figure 4). One neat feature I have found in ORD is the search box, which allows you to find any tool within the application by just typing the name of what you are looking for in the upper right corner of your screen.
Figure 5
SETTINGS
Settings are a huge component of our personal workflows as well as our day-to-day operations, and on this point, ORD is loyal to the MicroStation Series approach. Nevertheless, the process to configure your workspace is very similar on these 2 platforms, where the main difference is the way how you augiworld.com
Figure 6
have access to it. In ORD from your file tab and then scrolling down to the settings options, you can choose the environment to which you need to make changes, whether is your preferences, toolboxes, database settings, configuration variables and more (Figure 6). October 2021 | AUGIWorld Magazine
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Civil 3D 2022
Figure 8
it would be an impossible task to list everything about customization within these two programas in just one article? This is my first full ORD model after just a couple of months of serious training and practice. I have seen some of my colleagues developing these new skills very efficiently within this application
MODELING
One of the most exciting but also frustrating things we can do with these programs: 3D design. I won’t lie to you; Civil 3D is still in my humble opinion a more solid and stable tool for this purpose. Now with this being said, ORD is not coming short to this challenge, and I can attest that over the last 2 years the improvements are visible when it comes to modeling (Figure 9). Figure 7
Within Civil 3D we have a little more digging to do to access different configuration settings within the software (I like to think that this is because of how much more robust our C3D friend is than ORD). Through the options command we are granted access to key components of our UI such as our File paths, Display options, Plot, User preferences and more.
ORD offers templates, template libraries that work as the equivalent of our assemblies and subassemblies in civil 3D, and even though they look a little bit different from each other they both offer an interesting approach to what they can do when it comes to modeling, defining control points and/or targeting (Figure 10).
In reference to our drawing settings, we need to refer to our main menu in order to access these tools. And wait there is one more that we need to mention, the actual customization UI tool which we can access through our workspace switching panel. I know I am not covering a few C3D options here… remember I told you 8
Figure 9
AUGIWorld Magazine | October 2021 augi.com
Civil 3D 2022 discussion will continue to evolve and develop further as Autodesk and Bentley keep taking these tools further along.
Figure 10
One thing for sure, from my personal experience I have found that the learning curve developing templates for corridor modeling in ORD it has been more efficient that becoming decent within subassembly composer in Civil 3D. Nevertheless, the options to create customized components tailored to your project needs is quite similar in both applications.
The main idea I am wishing to share with you here today is that if you find yourself in front of this challenge, and whether you are coming from an Autodesk Background or viceversa, from a Bentley environment, there are many similarities within OpenRoads Designer and Civil 3D that make the possibility to transition less painful and more productive, and what better way to start that by customizing our screens the way we feel more comfortable with. The options to make these programs look and feel familiar to the way we develop our work are there for us to take advantage of.
Figure 11
There are many more elements we could discuss about how to make these programs look and feel as comfortable and as productive as they can possible be according to our individual preferences. From plan production to drainage modeling, from 3D visualization to Infraworks or LumenRT, from external interactions with 3rd applications, this
Figure 13
Oscar Castaneda, a Professional Engineer for CONSOR Engineers in Orlando, Florida, has more than 15 years of experience in designing and constructing transportation infrastructure for government clients across the US. As a certified airman for small UAVs, he has developed workflows to use these technologies for transportation design. In addition, Oscar is a regular instructor at national, state, and local training events, always willing to help and continue the discussion on how to best use new technologies for the benefit of our industry; he welcomes questions and can be reached at ocastaneda@ consoreng.com.
Figure 12 augiworld.com
October 2021 | AUGIWorld Magazine
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Bluebeam Revu
by: Jim Coppinger
Bluebeam Revu for the Design World B
luebeam Revu is one of the most used software systems in the construction world. It handles QTO, estimating, redlining, as-builts, and even file collaboration between office and field with a simple to use interface. With all those features, you can see why it’s ubiquitous in the construction arena, but in the design world, it’s often overlooked as just a “construction tool” which is a huge mistake. Bluebeam Revu has some incredibly useful features for architects and engineers that can save you a lot of time and make it easier to interact with clients, design partners, and contractors alike. In this article, I want to cover a few of the tools that are focused on making life easier for those of us in the design world. I can’t cover them
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all, because Bluebeam has a host of tools that we all need at our fingertips, but I want to touch base on the ones that can have the largest, and most immediate, positive impact on your daily work process.
Batch Sign & Seal
AUGIWorld Magazine | October 2021 augi.com
Bluebeam Revu BATCH SIGN & SEAL DOCUMENTS
How long does it take you to sign & seal a set of documents? What if you have more than one signer? For most of us, it means printing a set on paper, walking it from office to office, then scanning the signed set (losing both time and resolution!) before printing out copies. This can take hours and cost hundreds, possibly thousands, of dollars each time you need to re-issue or revise a set. With Revu, the entire process can be done on-screen, across your entire PDF set, adding seals and signatures (and yes: both digital and physical signatures) to every document in seconds. You can even apply the seal/signature to multiple locations,
Document Compare
rotations, and on different sized sheets. Imagine being able to approve an environmental report, the survey, traffic plans, and the architectural design set using different signers/licenses, all with a single command. With Revu, the draftsperson just adds digital seals where needed, then the signer logs in and their digitally secured physical signature is added on top of the seal for every sheet in the set. These can even be saved and re-used again for updates and revisions. How’s that for saving time and money?
DOCUMENT COMPARE & OVERLAY
How often do you need to see what the differences are between two files? What about doing conflict resolutions, or just verifying different systems line up where they’re supposed to? Sure, those are things that can be done in CAD, but they take a good bit of time, and you need to know what you’re doing or you risk damaging the design files. Wouldn’t it be better to just use PDF’s and let a system like Bluebeam identify the conflicts and areas of difference within the files? Not only can Revu do that but it can even add rev bubbles and highlight the areas of discrepancy. In terms of overlaying PDF’s, you can compare and color code up to twelve (12) different PDF’s all at once. It’s the easiest way I’ve ever seen to make sure your plumbing, HVAC, structural, and electrical systems work together without going thru extensive CAD gymnastics and that’s assuming you can even lay your hands on the DWG files from the other designers on the job! You can even batch process these tools, so you can compare hundreds of files all at once, and that’s something you just can’t do in a CAD system.
HYPERLINKING DETAILS AND SPECIFICATIONS
Hyperlinking augiworld.com
With Revu, you can make sure builders can easily access and refer to the correct details and sections of your specifications by automatically hyperlinking all your callouts on the plan to the appropriate pages of the construction set. Revu can automate this project to detect all your page
October 2021 | AUGIWorld Magazine
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Bluebeam Revu callouts and link to the specific pages or you can manually create links directly to specific details or notes in any other PDF document. Remove any questions about where/what to refer to on your plans and ensure that your design is being fully understood. The thing I like best about this is that the links work in any PDF viewer, even if your client/contractor doesn’t have Bluebeam themselves. The links use standard PDF code, Bluebeam just makes it much easier to generate them and point people to the important data in your design.
Bluebeam Studio
SHARING FILES AND COLLABORATING ON DESIGNS
How many times a day do you get requests for the most recent version of a file? How often do you get bids, RFI’s, or (worst of all!) installation problems that come from out-of-date construction documents? Your staff can spend hours each day, just searching for and emailing the current versions of the files on your projects. One of the best features in Bluebeam Revu eliminates those issues. Bluebeam Studio is included with every Revu purchase. Studio is a cloud-based file hosting and collaboration site with unlimited (yes, you read that right) storage so you can simply print all your PDF’s out to that location and share the link to all parties on the job so there’s never a need to email files ever again. People you invite to view/share the files don’t even need a licensed version of Bluebeam to access and work with your documents, they can just install the free versions and have the full set of Revu tools while they’re accessing your Bluebeam Studio account. Bluebeam Studio will host files of any type, not just PDF. That means you can host entire projects with specs, bids, contracts, and anything else you want in Studio. On top of all that, Studio has built-in collaboration tools so that up to 500 people can work on a document(s) simultaneously from anywhere in the world. That means you can see markups, photos, and comments from the field while you’re sitting in your office a hundred miles away and you can respond in kind. Not just that, but Studio will track every comment and change, telling you who did it, when, why, and what the result was. 12
That level of control and issue tracking is vital for those of us working in the design space. We can use Studio as our primary communication and project control tool for dealing with everyone from the client to the trades and even approving agencies. These are just a few of the features that make Revu an ideal system for designers. There are hundreds of others in this system that can really make a big difference in your daily work. Couple these with the fact that over 80% of the construction firms in the world use Bluebeam and you can see that it’s an ideal tool for bridging the gap between design and build. When you’re delivering intelligent, dynamic, information in a format that’s accessible to all stakeholders on the job and the GC and/or trades can easily work with and understand that information using tools they already have, that’s a game-changer. It’s great for traditional D-B-B style projects but if you’re working on integrated project delivery (IPD) jobs, a tool like Bluebeam is invaluable for collaboration and enhanced communication. Jim Coppinger is an owner at ZenTek Consultants, the nation’s premiere technology consultant for the design/build world. Jim is also the host of The CADDle Call podcast, the leading broadcast on all things design and construction technology related.
AUGIWorld Magazine | October 2021 augi.com
by: Brian Andresen
Inside Track
Welcome to the AUGI Inside Track! Check out the latest opportunities to advance your skills, processes, and workflows in your firm with the most current AEC-related software and hardware updates available. CROSSWIRES
https://apps.autodesk.com/ACD/en/Detail/ Index?id=8403098009239569515&appLan g=en&os=Win32_64 Autodesk AutoCAD, AutoCAD Electrical, AutoCAD Mechanical, AutoCAD Architecture, AutoCAD MEP, Civil 3D®, and AutoCAD Plant 3D Versions: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 Autodesk AutoCAD P&ID: Version: 2017 This is a simple plug-in for performing the one thing: create arc at the point where one-line crosses another (analog of line jump for connectors in Visio). It can be very handy for enhancing electrical schemas readability when a lot of crossing wires on one drawing are present.
QR CODES 2016-2022
https://apps.autodesk.com/ACD/en/Detail/ Index?id=7854648785059363913&appLan g=en&os=Win32_64 Autodesk AutoCAD, AutoCAD Electrical, AutoCAD Mechanical, AutoCAD Architecture, AutoCAD MEP, Civil 3D®, AutoCAD Map 3D, and AutoCAD Plant 3D Versions: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 Autodesk AutoCAD P&ID Version: 2017 Make text in your drawings scannable using any mobile phone or tablet with a camera. All you need is one of many available QR code reader applications for your device and this plug-in. QR Codes, also called mobile barcodes, can represent plain text, URLs, contact information, or geographic coordinates (using the FIELD command). Any existing text objects can be converted to QR codes by setting the Optically Scannable (text) property to ‘yes’ in the Property palette.
STYLE COMPONENT FIND AND REPLACE
Civil 3D® add-in application that allows a user to search Civil 3D styles and settings for an Autodesk® AutoCAD® property. If desired, the user can replace usages with a different property. This application is useful for a CAD Manager that is responsible for creating and maintaining Civil 3D templates. Features include: Properties searchable: layers, text styles, blocks, line type, line weight, color and plot style The application searches for usages in styles, object layers, label style defaults and command settings What styles/settings are using a particular property Replace usages of a property with another property Use a wildcard (*) to search for multiple properties for example, to search all layers starting with C-ANNO-TABL, enter search criteria: C-ANNO-TABL-* Use separate command “cmi_c3d_style_bmtoggle” to toggle on or off all Civil 3D background masks
ATTACH TOPOSURFACE
https://apps.autodesk.com/RVT/en/Detail/ Index?id=6309856351517298628&appLang =en&os=Win64 Autodesk Revit: Version: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019 This is a plug-in that allows you to attach toposurface to any edge, any face or floor elements. This could be used in developing site to create roads, sidewalks, etc. The app has the convenience of letting you pick edges faces or elements in a continuous loop until you hit the escape key to exit the command.
AUGIWorld brings you recent developments in Autodesk and related software items
https://apps.autodesk.com/CIV3D/en/ Detail/Index?id=8629213286347851577&ap pLang=en&os=Win64 Autodesk® Civil 3D® Versions: 2018 – 2022 Style Component Find and Replace is an Autodesk®
If you have some news to share with us for future issues, please let us know. Likewise, if you are a user of a featured product or news item and would like to write a review, we want to know. brian.andresen@augi.com augiworld.com
October 2021 | AUGIWorld Magazine
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Tech Manager
by: Mark Kiker
Making The Call S
ometimes decisions get bogged down or become fuzzy as teams and individuals take too long to decide. I have been in many a team meeting where items were discussed and bantered about, but they never seem to come to a conclusion. It seems like some folks are happy just stringing out a decision until it is either too late to make any difference, or the impact of the decision is diluted because the opportunity is lost. Too much thinking is being done. Other times there are decisions that are made too quickly and seem like the whim or dictates of one person in the room. Others are unable or unwilling
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to challenge a selection that was made. The choice is made quickly and some are not sure it was correct or even worse, they don’t even know what was decided. Too little thinking is being done. In December/January of 2015/16, I wrote a two-part article that provided suggestions for how Tech Managers can help others make decisions. Now I turn to helping yourself make decisions when it comes down to you, or you are leading a team. Decision making is a key skill that Tech Managers have to have. If they take too long to make up their minds, it slows things down and derails progress. If they move too fast, they make the wrong call and
AUGIWorld Magazine | October 2021 augi.com
Tech Manager money. They also do not have deep impact or great risk involved when a decision might go wrong. You want to build a solid track record of great decisions, and you probably do a great job at it. But there are times when you just need to make a call and get things moving. So how do you get it right? How do you get things done without moving too fast or too slow? Well… I am no expert, but I do have some ideas about moving faster or slower depending on the need. Read on and see if anything I might suggest will help.
SPEEDING THINGS UP
Sometimes, things get bogged down because people are trying to get the perfect answer and verify that every last detail has been reviewed by every last person. I am all for due diligence (and will discuss that later), but sometimes it gets out of hand. Sometimes it costs you more than the tool you are trying to buy. You may be spending too much money on people’s time. Let’s say that you want to buy the best code writing tool on the market and it is $1200 per year for a subscription. Standard practice is to get approval from your supervisor, their supervisor, accounting and the project manager of the project you are going to use it on. Say it takes an hour per person to convince that it is the right tool, you looked at others, there is nothing else that is better/cheaper and that it is needed now. One or two waffle back and forth so it takes two hours of your time and theirs getting meetings in place and talking it through.
cause troubles for themselves and others. Getting it right is what others expect from a leader. Getting it wrong may get you into hot water. I came across several articles on the web that have been written about the types of decisions that are made in the workplace (and outside of it). They boil down to a mix of categories. Frequent vs infrequent, and high impact vs low impact. The infrequent and high impact decisions can change your firm or derail a project and need a lot of discussion and deliberation. Even the frequent choices that have to be made each week might have broader impact and need special attention. I am really writing about the low impact decisions that tie up your time and augiworld.com
So, a grand total of 8 hours’ time over two calendar weeks (meeting are tough to coordinate), plus, the 4 hours you took to find this tool and prove to yourself it was right. So, we are now at 12 hours. With
DECISION MAKING IS A KEY SKILL THAT TECH MANAGERS HAVE TO HAVE. IF THEY TAKE TOO LONG TO MAKE UP THEIR MINDS, IT SLOWS THINGS DOWN AND DERAILS PROGRESS. October 2021 | AUGIWorld Magazine
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Tech Manager an hourly rate of $125 per hour or so (including their benefits and load), that is $1500 in hourly money that was chewed up to buy a $1200 tool. Making the real cost out of the gate to be $2700 for the first year. That was a long explanation to say that you have to balance the cost of delays and being sure of every last thing in hopes of preventing a wrong decision. Compare that to the savings of not taking up staff hours and getting it done. If they approved it on your recommendation, it would have been only 4 hours of time and the worst case is that you lose $1200 because it does not work (wait, you made sure it would work before you asked for it). I hope you get my point. Somewhere along the approval line, you are spending too much time (and money) to get everyone on board. Don’t have your procedural steps make the decision process cost more than the purchase you make. Opt for getting some guidelines in place that only your approval, or maybe one more, it needed to buy up to a certain level. Define “good enough”. Waiting, refining and perfecting can chew up a lot of time and money. I have found that being 80% sure of a decision you are making is good enough to make the call. That last
I SAY, UNLESS YOU SEE SOME DIRE NEGATIVES, LET THEM LEAD THE WAY. SLIDE UP NEXT TO THEM AND HELP THEM FRAME THE NEXT STEP. THIS GOES ALSO FOR THOSE WHO MAY REPORT TO YOU OR LEAD IN ANOTHER AREA FROM YOU.
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20% takes a long time to resolve. And the last twenty percent usually does not change the outcome. I have seldom seen a decision changing in the last 20% of time used to make the call. Sure, there are times when you find new data or something beyond your research happens, like an unexpected merger or bankruptcy of a vendors. So, when you get close to deciding, most of the time, you already have the right answer. Let others make the call by supporting other people’s recommendations. There may be someone else in the decision process that are closer to the issues and have a greater stake in the outcome. Many times, they will provide great input and seek to get others to agree with their chosen route. I say, unless you see some dire negatives, let them lead the way. Slide up next to them and help them frame the next step. This goes also for those who may report to you or lead in another area from you. If they are recommending a course of action, once you are convinced, accept their recommendations. This moves things along and supports their growth in leadership. I will come back to this topic and discuss slowing things down. Moving at fleet speed is good, unless there is a good reason to slow it all down. You need to do your homework and ponder things for a good period of time. Sometimes things seem rushed and you need to slow it down. Mark Kiker has more than 30 years of hands-on experience with technology. He is fully versed in all areas of management from deployment planning, installation, and configuration to training and strategic planning. As an internationally known speaker and writer, he was a returning speaker at Autodesk University for 20 years. He is a former Board member, President and Executive Director of AUGI. Mark is currently serving as Chief Technology Officer for SIATech, a non-profit public charter high school focused on dropout recovery. He maintains two web sites, www.caddmanager.com and www.bimmanager.com.
AUGIWorld Magazine | October 2021 augi.com
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3ds Max 2022
by: Brian Chapman
Creating an HDRI Loader Using Maxscript
T
his month, we’ll introduce how we can use Maxscript to create an interface to work with HDRI environments and the Arnold renderer built into 3Ds Max. We use HDR images to help achieve realistic lighting in 3D environments for several years. Users often collect several of them to help with look development and final rendering. Having quick access to these files and manipulating them helps users focus on the shot rather than repeating mundane and straightforward tasks.
Let’s begin with the basic elements we’ll need to build our interface. See Figure 1 for a few of the elements we’ll be discussing. I assigned numbers to elements we’ll be discussing throughout the article. We’ll need to set our scene up with the Arnold renderer and HDRI environment for this exercise. Since this is a customization article, which implies more advanced skill is required, we assume you are familiar with those specific processes. So, let’s begin building our interface. The simplest way to review which values we can manipulate with Maxscript for an HDRI image is to review the code used to build the OSL HDRI node. As you can see in Figure 1, the number 1 represents the HDRI node. With the HDRI node selected, we can toggle the options marked with the number 2. This step will allow us to select the pencil icon, which will open the OSL editor to see the code. DO NOT EDIT THIS CODE. Be very careful when working in this environment.
Figure 1
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AUGIWorld Magazine | October 2021 augi.com
3ds Max 2022 The editor displays all the various attributes we will be able to manipulate. I’ve highlighted a few in Figure 2; however, we can manipulate all attributes displayed in the editor (and the HDRI node when we select it) using Maxscript. Figure 3 is the code required to build the interface. I marked number 3 in Figure 1. You are welcome to download the Maxscript file from my google drive location here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dGI3trvcsZELwVGHG a6jjEy6epbO-EVn/view?usp=sharing Let’s step through elements in the code that you will need to modify to customize the interface for your use. Line one is the location of the HDRI files on your drive. Revise this line to match the location on your own drive. Be sure to modify the drive location only while keeping the quotations. Figure 2
Figure 3 augiworld.com
October 2021 | AUGIWorld Magazine
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3ds Max 2022
Figure 4
Line four represents the title of the interface in quotations. You can modify this be anything you want, such as you or your company’s name. Lines 9 through 23 represent the various attributes I selected from the OSL editor and added to the interface that we can manipulate. You can see that these are represented in different forms, primarily spinners and checkboxes in this case. See Figure 4. As you can see, the names I’ve underlined in quotations given to the object are displayed next to them, so you’ll want to be clear and concise. You can also see that spinners require assigned values in the range and scale categories. The ranges displayed in the brackets give the minimum value the spinner can go to, the maximum value the spinner value can reach, and the default value to start with (in that order). The scale represents the increment we want the spinner to adjust when we select it. If we type in 1.00, the values will increment by 1 unit each time we select it. If we select 0.10, the increment will be in tenths. We can assign them as not checked as displayed by the “checked:false” cod for checkboxes.
line 43 says: on rotation_spinner changed i do environmentMap.Rotation = i The letter i represents the value in the spinner box. This code says if the value of i (or the spinner value) is changed, then set the environmentMap.Rotation to that value. This concludes the introduction of how we can manipulate HDRI images using a simple interface we can customize on our own. Additionally, we can use the template provided to learn to guide us in building interfaces for just about anything we want to manipulate in 3Ds Max. Enjoy, and thanks for reading! Brian Chapman is an Autodesk Authorized Developer, 3D Artist, and Application Specialist in Las Vegas, Nevada. You can reach out to Brian at procadman@ pro-cad.net
Lines 28 through 40 ensure the code is setting the HDRI and manipulating the correct one. Lines 42 through 57 represent the code needed for each of these elements to operate. For example, 20 AUGIWorld Magazine | October 2021 augi.com
Revit 2022
by: Eric Wing
Revit Mapping Customization
I
tell ya, in my AutoCAD days, this would be an easy one! So much customization needed to be configured before software was released or templates were created that I could write a book on it! Everything needed to be mapped. For example, take a look at the two images in Figure 1. The one on the left is Revit, the one on the right is AutoCAD. Yikes! The screenshot in Figure 1 isn’t the entire dialog and the categories aren’t expanded. The one on the
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right is pretty much it. The reason for that is the fact that Revit follows more of the windows based rules than does AutoCAD. For example, fonts. Autodesk decided to create custom fonts called SHX, whereas windows based fonts are TTF (True Type). That one decision forces you to map where these fonts are stored. Plotting is another debacle. I can go on and on, but I should stop giving AutoCAD the beat down. I should thank Autodesk for giving me a great career by enabling me to explain this stuff to people.
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Revit 2022
Figure 1
ADDING A TEMPLATE LOCATION IN REVIT
OK, templates. Some people like to call them out of the box (the real nerd’s just use the acronym OOTB). That annoys me, but I can get past it. Instead of calling it out of the box, I like to call it “the samples that come with the software”. I think that’s a little more in line with what it actually is. Sure when I teach I use the samples because I don’t want to trick my students into thinking Revit is more advanced than it actually is. So to add your company’s template locations: 1. In Revit if you are on your home screen, click the little Home button as shown in Figure 2:
Figure 2
2. Now click the blue File tab and go down to Options (Figure 3).
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Figure 3
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Revit 2022 3. Within the Options dialog, go to the File Locations tab. 4. Select one of the sample templates and click the Remove Value icon. 5. Keep doing that until there is only one value left (you can’t have zero values). See Figure 4.
2. Under Products and Services, go to Custom Install 3. For the License type, select your license type.
Figure 7
Figure 4
6. For the one remaining click the Browse button and path it to where your company template is. You can rename the value as well (Figure 5).
4. Select the product you wish to create the deployment for. A dialog will open allowing you to path your content before you create the deployment. You can also chose which “Optional Content” you’d like your people to have installed.
Figure 5
7. Click the Add Value button and browse to the templates you want as the default. Figure 6.
Figure 6
8. With that all set, close out of the options dialog. 9. Click the Home button like you did at the beginning of this article 10. Under Models, click the New… button. 11. Notice now you can select your actual desired template.
CUSTOM INSTALLS
Autodesk has moved from the traditional “download an exe and create a deployment” format. Now they have what they are calling custom installs. This creates an actual .bat file. It’s still a deployment, but it’s just… different. 1. To get started log into your Autodesk account
Figure 8
5. 6. 7. 8.
Click Next Give the deployment a name Click Deploy Copy/Paste your network path
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Revit 2022 9. Agree to the terms 10. Click Download (Figure 9). 11. Once it downloads, run it (Figure 10).
In conclusion, I think I like the new method. One thing I have noticed though is make sure your users consistently are rebooting their computers to get all of the Windows updates that seem to be coming out daily. If they don’t it could affect how the deployments function. Eric Wing lives in Syracuse NY where he is the Director of BIM Services for C&S Companies. Eric is a popular speaker at events around the country speaking on many BIM-related topics. Eric has authored several books including Autodesk’s official training guide for their BIM solution “Revit” called Revit for Architecture No Experience Required. Eric is also an author for LinkedIn Learning where he has authored around 60 full courses on BIM management, Revit, AutoCAD MEP, Navisworks and Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) Eric has truly been a leader in the architecture, engineering and construction industry since the conception of BIM and 3D design, and has specialty skills in BIM coordination, training and development of technical staff along with daily application of these tools on multi scale, multi-disciplinary projects. Eric is also currently a Professor at Syracuse University teaching BIM and Advanced BIM at the School of Architecture, and at the School of Engineering.
Figure 9
Eric has also taught courses at the Rochester Institute of Technology and Clarkson University on the subjects of Analytical tools for Facility Management, BIM, and Integrated Project Delivery.
Figure 10 augiworld.com
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Civil 3D 2022
by: Shawn Herring
Customizing Assemblies with Subassembly Composer S ure, you can turn a polyline into an assembly pretty quick but go to the properties to modify a depth or width and you will quickly learn while Autodesk SAC will quickly find its way into your workflow and hopefully this document will help.
You can add the basic building blocks of a subassembly; points, links, and shapes using SAC.
This can be a very simple process, or these can be extremely advanced, all depending on the needs of your project.
WHAT IS SUBASSEMBLY COMPOSER (SAC)?
Autodesk Subassembly Composer has been available for a while. You may have no idea that it was ever even installed! Or maybe you opened it up once closed it as fast as I did the first time.
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Figure 1
But if you really want to make yourself more productive within Civil 3D, then this is a great start.
THE USER INTERFACE
SAC is a simple interface used to develop subassemblies for use within AutoCAD Civil 3D without the need to learn programming. The user interface is basically drag and drop from a “Toolbox” into the “Flowchart” in order to define geometry.
The Flowchart The Flowchart panel is the workspace used to build and organize the subassembly logic and elements. A flowchart can be a simple straight line of logic, or it
There are 5 portions to the SAC user interface, I will briefly describe the 3 main ones below.
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Civil 3D 2022 can be a complex tree of decisions. The subassembly definition tree always begins with the Start element, shown below as a big green circle. If a problem is found within your subassembly, a small red circle with an exclamation point will be displayed in the upper-right corner of the problem point.
The subassembly name will be the name that is displayed on the tool palette once it’s imported into Civil 3D. If you include a description, this text will appear on the tool palette as a tool tip text. If you provide an image, it will display in the tool palette next to the subassembly’s name. This is not required, but helpful once imported into Civil 3D. This can be as easy an taking a snapshot of the Preview window of SAC.
Figure 3
CREATING YOUR PKT FILE Figure 2
The Toolbox The Toolbox panel is the storage location for elements available for constructing the subassembly. This panel will provide all the elements you’ll use to build your flowchart. At the simplest level, 2 or 3 elements may be used to complete a subassembly. To use any of these elements, click and hold on the desired element and drag and drop it into the Flowchart panel. Settings & Parameters The Settings and Parameters panel consists of several tabs that define the subassembly: • Packet Settings • Input/Output Parameters • Target Parameters • Superelevation • CANT • Event Viewer. Packet Settings On the Packet Settings tab, you can define the subassembly name, provide a description, link to a help file, and link to an image. The only required piece of information is the subassembly name. The name shall contain NO spaces, although it can contain dashes and/or underscores. A name like ConcreteWedgeCurbing, is an appropriate name. augiworld.com
I thought I’d use a fairly simple example for this article, but again, these can get pretty crazy! I’ve spent anywhere from 2 hours to 48 hours building subassemblies in SAC. I always sketch out my intended subassembly, this will be helpful in making sure you meet the standard detail you are looking for. As you draw it out, you may also think of things that may get lost while attempting to connect the dots. A simple sketch will help. Below is an example of one of the subassemblies we will be using throughout this session.
Figure 4
1. If you haven’t already, launch Subassembly Composer. 2. Save your file to the desktop, called ConcreteValleyGutter.pkt 3. We will first start with the Packet Settings October 2021 | AUGIWorld Magazine
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Civil 3D 2022 •
• •
For the Subassembly Name, type in ConcreteValleyGutter. SAC does not like spaces, but you could do underlines. Add a description. Standard Concrete Valley Gutter. User defines width and flowline depth. Leave the help file and image file blank for now.
Set Input/Output Parameters 4. Refer to your hand sketch if needed. This is where we can really use some power of basic modeling within Subassembly Composer. Here we will create several parameters that we will reference as we build the valley gutter. It is best to put as many as you can up front in here, but you can always go back and Add/Remove. • • • • • •
The SIDE parameter is already there. Change the default value to LEFT. To add a parameter, click on CREATE PARAMETER. Rename the parameter to ConcreteWidth Type = Double Direction = Input Default Value = 5
5. Create more parameters based on the image below.
•
Preview Value = 5
7. Now let’s add one for the Elevation. Click on CREATE PARAMETER. • Rename the parameter to TargetElevation • Type = Elevation • Preview Value = 0
BUILDING OUT THE SUBASSEMBLY FLOWCHART
Every flowchart will start from the Start element. From there, the flowchart is builds out with elements from the Toolbox, which are connected with arrows. Every element you add from the Toolbox has at least two nodes: • One node for an incoming connection arrow • One node for an outgoing connection arrow Now let’s start dragging and dropping to see our shape take form!! 1. From the Toolbox, under the Geometry branch, drag a Point element to just below the Start element. The Start element will connect to the new Point element, which has automatically been numbered P1.
NOTE: If you mess up an input, or add additional parameters, all you do is select the row, and hit the DELETE button on your keyboard.
Figure 6
2. Select the P1 point element. Notice in Figure_06, that the properties box is no longer blank. Figure 5
Set Target Parameters We will want to add in a couple Target Parameters, this could be useful when targeting an existing concrete edge and elevation. These are the same target types that you currently use in corridor modeling. 6. To add a parameter, click on CREATE PARAMETER. • Rename the parameter to TargetOffset • Type = Offset 28
•
You will see that it has been placed on the origin. The origin is the geometry point your subassembly will attach to when generating an assembly in Civil 3D.
3. From the Toolbox, drag another Point element to just below the P1 element. This point will be automatically numbered P2 (or P2&L1), and will represent the LEFT edge of concrete, from the top to bottom.
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Civil 3D 2022 4. Define P2 as shown in Figure_06: • •
•
Under the Point Geometry Type, ensure that Delta X and Delta Y is selected Under the Point Geometry Properties, Delta X will remain 0, but Delta Y needs to change. If we were to type in 0.50, we would have a static depth. By using the Input/Output Parameters that we previously set up, this will allow the user to define a depth. So for Delta Y type in – ConcreteDepth (we do – so that the elevation goes down, not up). Make sure, under Link, that ADD LINK FROM POINT is checked ON.
be automatically numbered P4 (or P4&L3) and will represent the width along the BOTTOM of concrete, from left to right. 9. Define P4 as shown below (Make sure to take the negative (-) out of the ConcreteDepth)
Figure 9
Figure 7
5. From the Toolbox, drag another Point element to just below the P2&L1 element. This point will be automatically numbered P3 (or P3&L2) and will represent the width along the BOTTOM of concrete, from left to right.
10. From the Toolbox, drag another Point element to just below the P4&L3 element. This point will be automatically numbered P5 (or P5&L4) and will represent the width along the TOP LEFT of concrete, from left to right. 11. Define P5 as shown below (Begin from Point P1).
6. Define P3 as shown below:
Figure 10
Figure 8
12. From the Toolbox, drag another Point element to just below the P5&L4 element. This point will be automatically numbered P6 (or P5&L4) and will represent the width along the TOP RIGHT of concrete, right to left.
7. Take a look at the Preview window as you build your subassembly. 8. From the Toolbox, drag another Point element to just below the P3&L2 element. This point will augiworld.com
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Civil 3D 2022 13. Define P6 as shown below (Begin from Point P4).
Figure 11
14. From the Toolbox, drag another Point element to just below the P6&L5 element. This point will be automatically numbered P7 and will represent the FLOWLINE along the TOP of concrete. 15. We will choose to do a simple equation. So, for Delta X we want this centered in the valley gutter. We will use ConcreteWidth/2 (For half the total width). 16. Define P7 as shown below (Begin from ORIGIN).
18. Define L6 as shown below.
Figure 13
19. From the Toolbox, drag a LINK element to just below the L6 element. This LINK will be automatically numbered L7 and will connect P6 to P7. 20. Define L7 as shown below.
Figure 14
Figure 12
17. This time let’s add a LINK instead of POINT. From the Toolbox, drag a LINK element to just below the P7 element. This LINK will be automatically numbered L6 and will connect P5 to P7.
21. We will finish our subassembly by creating a SHAPE. This will be used by Civil 3D to compute material volumes. 22. From the Toolbox, drag a SHAPE element to just below the L7 element. This SHAPE will be automatically numbered S1. 23. Select the GREEN box under the Component property. 24. Hover your mouse over the Preview, once inside the shape it will highlight YELLOW. Click to activate the shape. Congratulations!! You just finished your first subassembly. Save your file. This should look similar to the figure shown at the beginning of this article.
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Civil 3D 2022 IMPORTING INTO CIVIL 3D
You’ve created the PKT file, now it’s time to bring it into Civil 3D. I would create a new palette to bring in your custom-built subassemblies onto. Create a New Palette 1. Right click on the “spine” of the Subassemblies Tool Palette and select NEW PALETTE. 2. Name the new palette, SAC – Test, or whatever you want!!
Import Subassemblies 1. Right click on your new palette and select Import Subassemblies. 2. Brows to the file, or files, and select the ones you want to import. 3. On the Import Subassemblies dialog box, make sure you have the correct Tool Palette selected. 4. Select OK (Figure 15).
CONCLUSION
The best way I found to learn Subassembly Composer is to take some examples of a PKT file(s) that others have put together and reverse engineer the data. That got me started and is still helpful to fall back on how these are built. If you shoot me an email, I can send some I have built, along with some more advanced steps in using more of the tools that SAC has to offer. Thank you!
Figure 15 augiworld.com
Shawn has been a part of the design engineering community for roughly 15 years in all aspects of design, construction and software implementations. He has implemented and trained companies across the Country on Civil 3D and other infrastructure tools and their best practice workflows. Shawn can be reached for comments or questions at sherring@ prosoftnet.com.
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The Digitizer
by: Paul Li
What Happened To The Digitizer? T
TWO VERY DIFFERENT ANSWERS
oday, the answer to this question is very different when asking a Graphic Artist vs an AutoCAD Technician. The former will most likely respond with something like: “I cannot live without drawing on my digitizer tablet!” The latter, on the other hand, may respond: “What’s a digitizer?”
THE AUTOCAD TECHNICIAN’S VIEW
For the remainder of the article, I’ll be speaking from the point of view of the AutoCAD Technician since that’s what I’ve been doing for the past 33 years before retirement. I would like to point out the various factors that most likely contributed to the once highly in demand digitizer in our profession to now fade into oblivion.
THE DISTANT PAST
In the late eighties when AutoCAD was still in its infancy with Release 9 (this was when Autodesk still named AutoCAD with a release number), there 32
were no icons on the screen to select commands. Yes, shocking, I know. But that was when AutoCAD ran on Microsoft’s DOS Operating System (OS). To enter commands, first and foremost there was the forever popular “Command Line” used for direct keyboard entry permanently fixed to the bottom of the screen. Then the faithful “Screen Menu” on the right to select additional text commands. Last but not least, if you had one of those elite graphics cards, you would have access to the hidden “Pull Down” menus which would slowly materialize as you hover over the top of the screen. But everything was text based. There were no icons associated with the command selection. The only option to select icons was to use a “Digitizer Tablet.” Back in those days, a typical digitizer tablet measured 12” x 12” square and tilted up on one end (not flat like they are today) with the high end measuring at least 3” tall. The most popular digitizer brands were Calcomp, Kurta and Summasketch. Then, Autodesk still shipped (pre-internet days) the AutoCAD program in a package containing disks, manuals and included was a foldout plastic template to
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The Digitizer be placed on the 12” x 12” digitizer for command selection (see Figure 1).
Figure 1
But today when looking up the word “digitizer” on Wikipedia the definition and use of the digitizer is stated as: “A digitizer is a machine that converts an analog object, image or signal into a digital (i.e., computerreadable) format.” You may say: “This is vastly different than using it to send commands to AutoCAD.” You are absolutely correct. But back in the distant past, AutoCAD actually offered the option for the digitizer to be configured to do both: 1) command entry and 2) analog to digital conversion. For command entry, with Tablet Mode turned off, the digitizer can be configured as 4 Tablet Menu command areas with a 5th area representing the Screen-Pointing area on the computer monitor. Then each item on the digitizer when selected within the 4 Tablet Menu areas can be sent as a command to AutoCAD. When Tablet Mode is turned on, however, the digitizer can now be used to trace or digitize geometry. With the paper drawing or photograph laid on top of the digitizer points can be selected and converted into a digital AutoCAD drawing.
CAD STATION
A fully equipped Computer Assisted Design (CAD) station typically would include not only a powerful computer with a monitor and keyboard but also a augiworld.com
12” x 12” digitizer tablet. What’s known as a “puck” that has a round looking see through area with cross hair lines is used to select locations on the digitizer sending input signals to the computer program. Back then, the AutoCAD Technician mostly preferred the use of a puck over a mouse. (I assume we all started out not as “Team Mouse” but as “Team Puck”, right?) Often, even a mouse with a scroll wheel was just not impressive enough for the AutoCAD Technician to use as the pointing device of choice. A puck provided more precise “absolute” coordinate entry. This means you can actually pick the puck up from a corner of the designated Screen-Pointing area, drop the puck at the opposite corner and the crosshair on the screen would follow immediately. For a mouse, which uses “relative” coordinate entry, you would have to shuffle it back and forth to move the crosshair on the screen from one location to another. Also, a puck typically had a number of buttons (more than 2 or 3 compared to a mouse) for you to program additional AutoCAD commands (see Figure 2). During this time, Calcomp attempted to capitalize on the possibility of marketing a product called WIZ that would attract the AutoCAD Technician (both Team Mouse and Team Puck). The WIZ (most likely Figure 2 short for WIZARD) was a smaller and more affordable digitizer tablet with a puck that looked and felt like a mouse. Calcomp actually came up with a whole new color scheme and “Sun, Moon, Star” logo for the packaging of this WIZ Tablet (see Figure 3). I recall purchasing this smaller and slick tablet that measured only 9.5” x 11.8” x ½” thick (This felt very much like today’s iPad). It was selling at the low introductory
Figure 3 October 2021 | AUGIWorld Magazine
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The Digitizer price of just under $200 which was half the cost of a typical 12” x 12” digitizer. Though it only had a 7.5” x 7.5” active area for digitizing, I could still print AutoCAD’s 12” x 12” digitizer template drawing and scale it down Figure 4 proportionally to fit to the smaller area on the WIZ. Even my boss at the time who had been using his heavy weight Calcomp digitizer was impressed with my smaller and light weight WIZ Tablet. Included in the package was a stylus pen and several very colorful templates to be used with various popular software programs (see Figure 4). Now let’s not forget the very unique puck that came with the WIZ. It was designed to look like a 3-button mouse to cater to customers who love the feel of a mouse but also wanted more than just two mouse buttons to program AutoCAD commands. The major difference with the WIZ “Mouse Puck” was that the 3 mouse buttons actually clicked by rocking backwards and forwards. So, each of the clicks are now programmable with a different AutoCAD command. This gave the AutoCAD Technician a total of 6 commands to send to AutoCAD at their fingertips (I’d give this one to Team Puck, wouldn’t you?) (see Figure 5).
WAS THIS THE BEGINNING OF THE END?
So, from the late eighties as we marched into the early nineties, the AutoCAD Technician relied heavily on the digitizer tablet. But then in June of 1992 Autodesk shipped AutoCAD Release 12 (R12). This was the first time AutoCAD offered
customizable dialog boxes using Dialog Control Language (DCL) programming and icon Toolbars on the screen. This was a huge transformation for the user interface from purely text based to now icon based. The Screen Menu on the right was by default gone. Instead, you now see Toolbars some docked, and others floated anywhere on the drawing screen (see Figure 6).
Figure 6
But at this initial offering the icons shown on the Toolbars were cartoonish at best and still offered no features to include text labels or advanced customization. Still, AutoCAD with this release for the first time, offered two versions of AutoCAD for the price of one: one to run on Microsoft’s DOS OS and the other on Microsoft’s new Windows OS. This meant that Autodesk had clearly started to make its move to soon halt AutoCAD development on the text based and dying DOS OS to focus future AutoCAD versions on the burgeoning graphicsbased Windows OS. But AutoCAD Technicians still favored the use of a puck to select commands on the digitizer rather than selecting icons on the Toolbars with a mouse (Team Puck continued to reign over Team Mouse). The major complaint was that the Toolbars took up important screen real estate. There was a strong need to have as much of the graphics screen cleared and available to see and edit the drawing instead of being cluttered with icons. Also, many of these icons were quite confusing especially when they didn’t include text labels to clarify exactly what AutoCAD commands are represented.
THE FIRST SHOE DROPPED Figure 5
But as DOS faded and Windows became the stable OS for the PC user, after just a couple of more releases (R13 and R14), Autodesk at the turn of the
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The Digitizer century released a Windows OS only version of AutoCAD called AutoCAD 2000 (this was when Autodesk not only dropped the DOS OS but also the release number in favor of the year naming format). This was horrific news for digitizer proponents because many of their digitizers did not work inside the Windows OS. AutoCAD users including myself went to the Autodesk Knowledge forum and read what seemed to be a simple solution but was clearly not. It required manufacturers to develop a WinTab driver in order for the digitizer to continue to function in AutoCAD 2000 now running only on Windows. At this point, many AutoCAD Technicians began to abandon the now useless digitizer. I had to give up my slick WIZ Tablet as well (I reluctantly joined Team Mouse) because Calcomp had already discontinued support for this now 10+ years old device. For me and many others, purchasing a mouse as a substitute was really the inexpensive solution. But of course, there were always the die-hard digitizer users (Team Puck forever) that decided to invest more money in a newer digitizer model. The newer model would typically come with a WinTab driver allowing it to function in AutoCAD 2000.
MORE SHOES DROPPED
Of course, Autodesk continued to develop the graphics user interface (GUI) in their flagship product AutoCAD. With every new release after 2000, the AutoCAD GUI would include even more new, improved and better-looking Toolbar icons. It would also add “Dashboards”, “Palettes” and then the infamous “Ribbon” taking up even more screen real estate (see Figure 7).
Figure 7 augiworld.com
But at this time, hardware technology improved producing not only larger and thinner monitors but also more affordable ones. In fact, all computer users can now easily afford not one, but two larger monitors installed at their station. So, the excuse of not having enough screen real estate faded fast. For myself back in 2016, I even had three 24” monitors setup at my station (see Figure 8).
Figure 8
You may ask: “What about the use of the digitizer for analog to image conversion as stated in Wikipedia?” Well, the ability to take an image on paper and convert this into a digital drawing in AutoCAD became very affordable with the introduction of scanners. Many offices’ copy machines actually came with a scanning feature. So now staff can take letter size up to tabloid size paper, scan them in using the feeder and receive in their email a color multipage pdf attachment. Since AutoCAD 2007 provided support for overlaying of pdf files, the AutoCAD Technician can overlay a scanned pdf file into AutoCAD, scale it up to full size, draw vector objects on top and save it as a digital drawing file. For the last twenty years with “the invasion” of cheap scanners, I’ve never had to again use the digitizer to convert analog paper drawings into AutoCAD. In fact, I even purchased for
Figure 9 October 2021 | AUGIWorld Magazine
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The Digitizer myself a very inexpensive legal size flatbed scanner for home use (see Figure 9). Meanwhile, the cost of leasing office space continued to skyrocket. No longer was it affordable to give everyone a large cubicle station with multiple desktops for laying out drawings. Now to conserve space and fit as many staff as possible into a smaller floor plan footprint there would be no cubicles but only a single 3’x6’ tabletop per station. So, the precious real estate now has transitioned from the digital computer screen to the physical desktop and keeping a 12” x 12” digitizer around would mean losing much needed layout space (see Figure 10).
MOVING FORWARD
To help transition everyone at the last office where I worked to give up their space hogging 12” x 12” digitizers (Go Team Mouse!!!) I developed an app using AutoLISP/Visual Lisp to map the commands from the “Physical Digitizer” on to what I call “Virtual Tablets” on the screen (see Figure 12).
Figure 12 Figure 10
Figure 11
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Finally, though the current AutoCAD version still provides support for digitizer tablet command entry, the days of its use is clearly numbered. The Tablet Menus section where AutoCAD stores the digitizer tablet commands have been labeled and placed under the “Legacy” section in the Customize User Interface (CUI) Editor for a number of years now. Perhaps in the next AutoCAD release, the digitizer command feature would completely be dropped from existence (see Figure 11).
Upon developing this app, I had a number of hurdles to overcome. The first hurdle was dealing with the functional aspects of attempting to show the entire digitizer on the screen. This would make the icons way too small to see. But since the AutoCAD commands on the digitizer is clearly categorized into 8 Tablet Menu sections, I developed the app to call up each as separate Virtual Tablets on the screen for command selection. Listed below are the 8 Tablet sections in alphabetical order: • Draw Tablet • Edit/Snap/Modify/Database Tablet • File Tablet • Insert/Format/Dimension Tablet • Numeric Tablet • Tools Tablet • User Tablet • View Tablet The next hurdle had to do with transferring these 8 Tablets from the AutoCAD template as seen on the physical digitizer to being presented visually on the screen. Since AutoCAD back in 1992 offered customizable dialog boxes using DCL, I used the “image button” tiles and AutoCAD Slide files as the method to accomplish this. Now that AutoCAD is no longer shipped, I first had to get a copy of the AutoCAD digitizer drawing template (designed now for the 2018 dwg formatted version) by downloading
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The Digitizer dialog box. Here’s an example showing the Slide for the Edit/Snap/Modify/Database Tablet (see Figure 13). The last and most important hurdle had to do with developing the AutoLISP/Visual Lisp code to make this all happen. Since each section of the Tablet Menu commands on a digitizer is divided into rows and columns, I also divided the Slide image into matching number of rows and columns. Then I included in the code the corresponding AutoCAD commands for those rows and columns. Finally, the code would grab the row and column position where the user selects on the Slide and return with the matching AutoCAD command (see Figure 14). Figure 13
it from the Autodesk Knowledge forum. But it was not as simple as opening this drawing and start using AutoCAD’s MSlide command to create Slides. Since the MSlide command does not offer a “Window” option but captures the entire screen, I had to device a method to grab only the window area I wanted to create the AutoCAD Slide. The solution was to create a Paper Space Viewport using the MView command to frame each of the 8 Tablet Menus. The Paper Space Viewport allowed me to create a Slide image of only the window area seen inside the Viewport. So, using the MSpace command to switch from Paper Space into Model Space, I successfully created Slides of each of the Tablet Menu sections. Finally, the Slide is retrieved and shown in the image button tile positioned in a
Since each of the Virtual Tablets would basically be made up of one giant image button tile representing that Tablet Menu section, I ended up with a number of common functions that would be shared between them. Depending on if the layout is portrait or landscape, then a particular group Figure 15
of common functions would be called to generate the Virtual Tablet on the screen. Here’s an example showing a portrait lay out of the Draw Tablet (see Figure 15). Figure 14 augiworld.com
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The Digitizer Furthermore, I took advantage of AutoCAD’s many GUI enhancements to provide additional ways for users to quickly call up the 8 Virtual Tablets. Since Toolbars can float and occupy only a small area on the screen, I included in the app a custom Toolbar providing access to the Virtual Tablets with a single click. Also, I took advantage of the Ribbon by customizing a drop-down menu as another option to quickly invoke a Virtual Tablet selection (see Figure 16).
Since they can see very similar layouts now on the screen, transitioning to selecting commands on Virtual Tablets was a no brainer. If you would like to use this app in your office to help transition everyone from the physical digitizer to a virtual one (Team Mouse forever), send me an email. I’ll gladly provide you this app I call Virtual Tablet Navigator (VTN) for free.
WHAT NOW?
When used with AutoCAD especially on DOS the digitizer served its purpose well for more than a decade. But for the AutoCAD Technician (whether you’re Team Mouse or Team Puck) now using AutoCAD on Windows the reality is that the digitizer is clearly a relic of technology past. It now has joined the ranks of the many items found on eBay offered up as collectibles belonging in museums. But don’t mention this to the Graphic Artists because not only will they be in complete disagreement, but they’ll also want to continue to pay the higher price tags on the latest and greatest drawing digitizer tablets.
Figure 16
By the way, in addition to minimizing space occupied on the Ribbon, AutoCAD offers a nice behavior feature when using a drop-down menu. The drop-down menu can be set to float the most recent selection to the top of the list. This most recent selection can then again be invoked with a simple left mouse click followed by hitting the space bar on the keyboard. So, moving forward, the app I customized made it much easier for my fellow co-workers in my last office to forego the use of the physical digitizer. 38
Mr. Paul Li graduated in 1988 from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Architecture degree. He worked in the Architectural field for small to midsize global firms for over 33 years. Throughout his tenure in Architecture, he has mastered the use and customization of AutoCAD. Using AutoLISP/ Visual Lisp combined with Dialog Control Language (DCL) programming he has developed several Apps that enhance the effectiveness of AutoCAD in his profession. All the Apps actually came out of meeting challenging needs that occurred while he worked in the various offices. He has made all the Apps available for free and can be downloaded from the Autodesk App Store. Though he recently retired from the Architectural profession, Paul continues to write articles depicting his past work experience. Some of these articles can be found in AUGIWorld Magazine where he shares his knowledge learned. Paul can be reached for comments or questions at PaulLi_apa@hotmail.com.
AUGIWorld Magazine | October 2021 augi.com
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