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 Fabrication 2018.2 Update

9 Mar 2018 Darren Young

Update 2018.2 for Autodesk Fabrication

Autodesk just released update 2018.2 for CADmep, CAMduct, ESTmep as well as the lesser used CAMduct Components, Tracker and Remote Entry.

There’s a hand full of fixes for CADmep, ESTmep and CAMduct. If you refresh your Autodesk Desktop App, the updates should appear if you have an active subscription (maintenance plan or annual subscription). The Desktop App says they were released a few weeks ago but they just showed up in the Desktop App today.

You can also access them from the Product Downloads section of the Autodesk Accounts portal.

CAMduct Components, Tracker and Remote Entry did not have any “fixes” and were only updated to keep the build numbers consistent which means there’s really no benefit to updating those.

You can find a complete list of updates and build numbers here.

Here’s the fixed issues…

CADmep

Improved the stability of patterns 1206 & 1207 when adding holes.
Improved minimum straight length size when filling in Design Line.
Improved patterns 2884 & 2051 by relaxing the bad dimension checks.
Improved connector insulation adjustments when insulation parts = Wrap inside.

CAMduct

Improved geometry cuts in NC program for VICON Post Processor.
Improved the stability of patterns 1206 & 1207 when adding holes.
Improved Piercing for Custom NC.
Improved patterns 2884 & 2051 by relaxing the bad dimension checks.
Improved connector insulation adjustments when insulation parts = Wrap inside.

ESTmep

Improved Item List view in Job contents table to auto-refresh when parts are deleted.
Improved the stability of patterns 1206 & 1207 when adding holes.
Improved the estimating information present on the Review Installation Costs, Review Installation Times, and Review Fabrication Time tabs.
Fixed an issue causing hangers to report incorrect costs.
Improved patterns 2884 & 2051 by relaxing the bad dimension checks.
Improved connector insulation adjustments when insulation parts = Wrap inside.

Import/Export Autodesk Fabrication Parts from Revit

9 Jan 2018 Darren Young

Fabrication Parts Import/Export

For those involved in the MEP trades interested in Fabrication Parts in Revit (added in 2016) they often want to import or export Fabrication Parts into or from the other Autodesk Fabrication products like CADmep, ESTmep or CAMduct. In fact, that was one of the interesting part of the Fabrication products for Autodesk, it was a single content stream that supported multiple platforms.

What a lot of users don’t realize is that installing Revit doesn’t give you the ability to Import or Export Fabrication Parts. To get this functionality, you also need to install the Revit Extension for Fabrication.

Revit 2016

For Revit 2016 you can download the Revit Fabrication Extension from the Autodesk App Store free of charge from this link.

Revit 2017-2018

If you’re using Revit 2017 or 2018, you can download the extension from your Autodesk account’s products page. If you personally can’t download it, contact your company’s Autodesk Contract Manager or Software Coordinator.

Alternative Download Option

Yet one other way, is to use the Autodesk Desktop App to install the Revit Extension for Fabrication.

Access from the Revit Add-Ins Ribbon

Once installed, you can access the Import/Export of Fabrication parts from the Revit Add-Ins tab.

A few items to note….

Imports/Exports are done using Autodesk Fabrication’s MAJ file format.
You can Export as many or few Fabrication Part from Revit, as many times as you like.
You can only Import Fabrication Parts into Revit only if the Revit model contains no other Fabrication Parts.
When importing Fabrication Parts in Revit, some things can cause them not to import. The most common are Fabrication Parts that don’t have a material and/or specification assigned.
Not all Fabrication Patterns (CIDs) are supported in Revit. For a list of which Patterns are and are not supported in Revit and be found here.

BIM there. Done that.

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Tag: Autodesk Account