CADmep & IFC

1 Oct 2018 Darren Young

For CADmep users, IFC has been a good way to get your content to other team members using Revit. While Revit now supports Fabrication Parts, exporting from CADmep to an MAJ for import into Revit hasn’t been a reliable way to share your model with Revit users. There are a couple of key reasons for this…

Not all Fabrication Parts in CADmep are supported
Import of MAJ files into Revit is very finicky and prone to failing.

For this reason, IFC Files have been a good way of ensuring all your Fabrication data gets displayed into Revit. And to be clear, this is by using the IFCE (IFC Export) command in CADmep. Note: AutoCAD MEP has it’s own IFCEXPORT command but this doesn’t handle Fabrication CADmep data well).

While IFC is a good way to get CADmep data to Revit and Navis, over the last couple of releases it’s been getting worse. Since 2018 release of CADmep, *.IFC files no longer import into Revit or Navis, For Revit, you can use *.ifcXML or *.ifcZIP formats but these worn’t help you with Navis which only reads *.IFC. And starting with Revit 2019.0.1 Hotfix, Revit will no longer read *.ifcXML or *.ifcZip either.

*.IFC Export from 2017 and earlier CADmep works in any Revit/Navis version.
*ifcXML export from any version of CADmep work in any Revit version before 2019.0.1
*ifcZIP export from any version of CADmep work in any Revit version before 2019.0.1

To help give you a better picture of IFC support from CADmep, please refer to the following two compatibility charts…

Critical Fabrication 2019 Bug

2 Aug 2018 Darren Young

If you’re running 2019.0.0 versions of Autodesk Fabrication, you should be aware of this critical issue.

When using purging the fabrication database, the command will delete all of the content on your service templates leaving them with no buttons or content.

There are several ways to access this command. In CADmep, PURGEDB is accessed from the toolbar…

You can also type PURGEDB from AutoCAD’s command line.

From ESTmep or CAMduct, the functionality is accessed from the FILE -> Setup -> Manage Database menu.

The Purge Database command itself displays the following dialog…

Again, in version 2019.0.0 versions of fabrication products, this will remove all content from all of your service templates. Do NOT run the command. Want to see for yourself what happens? Watch this Screen Capture…

This will only be a risk if you are logged into your database with Administrative privileges. In the event you have had this already happen, the only way to restore your services is to restore them from a backup of your database or to rebuild them all manually.

Revit Extension for Fabrication 2019 – Released

7 Jun 2018 Darren Young

Autodesk released the Revit Extension for Fabrication 2019 on May 25, 2018. This extension (Add-In) will allow you to Import and Export Autodesk Fabrication MAJ files into or from Revit 2019. You can access the extension from the Autodesk Accounts portal or from the Autodesk Desktop App.

Fabrication Resources Updated

20 Apr 2018 Darren Young

I’ve updated some of the Autodesk Fabrication Resources pages. You can find the links below however you should note that none of the information has changed from 2018 to 2019. Non the less, you can review the links here…

Fabrication 2019.0.0 Released

19 Apr 2018 Darren Young

Autodesk released Fabrication CADmep, CAMduct and ESTmep 2019.0.0 this week. As they’re not primary products for Autodesk, they don’t always show up in the Autodesk Desktop App. The best place to get them is from the Product Downloads section of the Autodesk Accounts portal if you are a contract manager or software coordinator in your account.

For the most part, these are just repackaged versions of last year’s software. Autodesk’s focus is on adding Fabrication capabilities to it’s Revit product. None the less, there’s a couple new things that I’ll reveal in a future post.

Revit 2019.0.0 Released

10 Apr 2018 Darren Young

Autodesk released Revit 2019.0.0 today. At this time, it’s now showing up for me in the Autodesk Desktop App. You may be able to access it from the Product Downloads section of the Autodesk Accounts portal if you are a contract manager or software coordinator in your account.

Revit 2018.3.0 Update

10 Apr 2018 Darren Young

Autodesk released update 2018.3.0 for Revit on 2018.04(Apr).08. Click here to see a listing of the issues fixed in this and previous updates for Revit 2018,

To download and install the update, refresh your Autodesk Desktop App and updates should appear if you have an active subscription (maintenance plan or annual subscription). The Autodesk Desktop App icon is located in your Windows System Tray if it was installed.

You can also access them from the Product Downloads section of the Autodesk Accounts portal if you are a contract manager or software coordinator in your account.

Autodesk Removing Device Management

5 Apr 2018 Darren Young

On May 15, 2018, Autodesk will be removing the Device Management functionality from the Accounts Portal. The idea behind Device Management was a place where you could tell Autodesk’s Desktop App (formerly App Manager) if it should allow access to software and updates on a particular computer system.

In theory, it was a good idea. In practice however, it never worked well. For starters, for Autodesk to have your device listed the Desktop App needed to be installed. That seems obvious. But for this to happen, you had to allow access to all devices or the Accounts Portal wouldn’t see the device.

From an enterprise management perspective, it would be logical that all devices be blocked from application and/or service pack downloads except the systems of a CAD/BIM Manager, IT or Power User tasked with vetting the the update. They could test or choose when to roll-out new versions or updates and when ready, the devices could be allowed access. You may even want to use the Desktop App to install the updates to a certain point for a new system but for that to work, you had to enable it for everybody for it to pickup the new device. Now, all your users see all updates and software even if you didn’t want them to and some of your users may be updating past where you want them. You’d have to then disable everyone again after the new device showed up in the list and re-disable them,

Another problem was that it the Desktop App (or former App Manager) was ever uninstalled and reinstalled, your device would show up again. Uninstall and reinstall 5 or 6 times like I had done over almost 2 years of working with their support team to fix the issues and you would have your device listed 5 or 6 times with no way to remove them short of another support ticket.

Ultimately, I don’t think anyone will care. I don’t believe most companies used this feature. With the move to subscription software, everything is based on the user anyway making device management less important. None the less I do wonder, if Autodesk actually understood what companies really needed to manage their enterprise (especially large enterprises), they may have designed the functionality differently. It just may have had more adoption by customers. I highly doubt they consulted any large or small customers when designing Device Management as it was a dismal failure,

For more information on the retirement of Device Management from Autodesk’s Accounts Portal, click this link to see their support article.

Autodesk Concurrent Usage Restriction

3 Apr 2018 Darren Young

A couple months ago I posted about a “business rule” Autodesk had which restricted a user from using more that 2 titles of their Collection on the same computer at the same time. The original post can be read here. This wasn’t a technical limitation rather a legal restriction. The “rule” essentially stated that you couldn’t run more than 2 products at the same time for the same user on the same computer. This would be like Microsoft saying you couldn’t use Email, Word and Excel all at the same time. I asked several trusted Autodesk resellers, my Autodesk insiders and other industry peers and it seems this restriction wasn’t very well known, In fact, not a single person I asked was aware of the “rule”

Back in January when I first raised the issue, I was in the middle of a contract renewal and it was Autodesk’s fiscal year end. As a result, there were several Autodesk regional reps raising the issue internally at Autodesk. I had hints back then (unofficially) that they were reassessing the policy and would likely remove the restriction. I’m now happy to report that as of March 29th, the policy restriction has been officially removed.

It was reported in the “Moving to Subscription” forum as a followup to my initial complaints and concerns. You can read the entire forum thread here.

If you look at Autodesk’s Collection Licensing support article here, you can see the restriction struck through and updated.

I’m a tough critic of Autodesk’s policies and their sales practices. But I have to admit, this was fairly quick action on their part considering their legal team was likely involved. They historically haven’t made concessions based on customer pressure very often and when they have, it sometimes comes very slow. In the use case I gave them, I discussed how an MEP firm running Fabrication CADmep would need 3 licenses, One license of CADmep, one for the AutoCAD session it was running on and Navis.

The feedback I received through resellers pushing their Autodesk partner managers for answers came back quickly in mid-January exactly how many users globally fell into that scenario. I was impressed how quickly they started analyzing the scope and impact to their company and users. Hats off to Autodesk for squashing this ridiculous rule. For the first time in over 25 years of dealing with Autodesk, their sales and legal teams came together and did the right thing.

AutoCAD 2018.1.2 Update

2 Apr 2018 Darren Young

In case you missed it, Autodesk released update 2018.1.2 for AutoCAD a couple weeks ago. Click here to see a listing of the issues fixed in this and previous updates for AutoCAD 2018,