Autodesk’s AutoCAD MEP 2010 Product Launch Press Release

Autodesk hosted three virtual press conferences to launch the 2010 portfolio of design software. Detailed information on the 2010 products as well as links to archives of the webcasts are provided below.

Autodesk’s AutoCAD MEP 2010 Product Launch Press Release

What’s New

Enhanced Usability

• New customizable ribbon toolbar is task-oriented with redesigned, intuitive icons.
• Improved workspaces are tailored for tasks such as HVAC and piping systems in
  ready-made formats, which are also highly customizable.
• New application menu helps enable easier access to a list of commands such as
  Open, Save, Export and Publish; also use the application menu to access recent
  documents.
• Gravity based designs for Sanitary Drain, Waste, Vent and Storm/Sewer drainage
  systems can now be drawn more easily with the new sloped piping functionality.
• Pipe routing preferences have been expanded to include parts with male and female
  connections.

More Efficiently Create and Edit Drawings and Drawing Data

• Leverage multiple part catalog support and use individual catalogs for different
  material types, allowing for easier part selection.
• Support and migrate existing customized catalogs with tools to redefine the catalog
  based content in existing drawings; upgrade and add new parameters automatically.
• Import manufactured building components from Autodesk® Inventor® without
  undesirable loss of data.
• Content builder enhancements allow users to create custom parametric parts with
  male, female or a combination of both connectors based on real-world piping
  requirements.
• Enhanced integration with Autodesk® Seek web service lets designers search a vast
  library of 2D and 3D building products and publish customized designs to the service.

More Coordinated Construction Documents

• New part content has been added to help produce construction documents faster.
• Values in the Panel Schedule are automatically updated when regenerating a drawing.
• Improved graphical display of MEP parts provides more accurate representation in
  construction documentation.
• A new DWG to PDF driver offers merge control for plot colors, the ability to include
  layer information and a preview of the plotted PDF.

AutoCAD MEP 2010 Screen Images and Captions

• AutoCAD MEP 2010 Familiar Environment
  Leverage the familiar AutoCAD environment and access all of the commands that you are familiar with from right within AutoCAD MEP.

• AutoCAD MEP 2010 Task-Based
  Whether you are a small or a multidisciplinary firm save your unique individual user interface configurations that are tailored around your specific building systems design task.

• AutoCAD MEP 2010 Multidiscipline Coordination
  Coordinate mechanical, electrical, and plumbing design the interference detection tools within AutoCAD

Fabrication for AutoCAD MEP 2008 with EastCoast CAM

Over the past eighteen months engineering teams from Autodesk and EastCoast have collaborated to develop the first fully embedded fabrication toolset for HVAC and Piping inside. AutoCAD MEP software, the version of AutoCAD software designed specifically for mechanical, electrical and plumbing designers and drafters Working together, AutoCAD MEP has been enhanced with spool drawing, real manufacturer content and duct fabrication. The end-user benefits include 100% software compatibility with Autodesk products, a single design and fabrication user interface, elimination of object viewers and a full life-cycle sustainable design process flow.

Click below to see their video demo
AutoCAD MEP Fabrication workflow demo, Dave Derocher

Click below to see their video demo
Power of AutoCAD MEP for drawing and modification for Sheet Metal, Randy Swaim

Click below to see their video demo
Power of AutoCAD MEP for drawing and modification for Piping, Randy Swaim

Autodesk to Acquire BIMWorld

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/200812150800PR_NEWS_USPR_____SF52141.htm

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., Dec. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Further enhancing its portfolio of solutions for building information modeling (BIM), Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK), a leader of design innovation software and technologies, announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of BIMWorld, a privately-owned business specializing in the production and distribution of branded BIM content for building product manufacturers. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Autodesk plans to combine BIMWorld with Autodesk Seek, its online source for building product design information that allows architects and engineers to search, select and specify building products directly from their design applications. Autodesk Seek is a search-based Web service available in the 2009 U.S. versions of Autodesk’s Revit-based software applications for BIM, as well as AutoCAD, AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP software. Autodesk Seek is also available through standard browsers at http://seek.autodesk.com.

“The vision for Autodesk Seek is to be a leading online destination and one-stop-shop for high quality building product information and design files,” said Jeff Wright, Autodesk senior director of Content Solutions. “By joining forces with the BIMWorld team, we will strengthen the leadership of Autodesk Seek as a powerful marketing solution for building product manufacturers, and by further leveraging our strategic content partners, accelerate designers’ access to a breadth of rich product information and design files for use during the design process.”

Assigning IFC Classifications To AutoCAD MEP Objects

The International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI) has established international standards for common architectural and construction objects in the building industry. In particular, the International Alliance for Interoperability developed an Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) data model to define CAD graphic data as 3D real-world objects. The IFC file format provides interoperability between IFC-certified software applications and reduces loss of information when files are transmitted.

You can export drawings saved in AutoCAD MEP to the IFC format and then import the file into another IFC-certified application like Revit. The dimensions of any 3D architectural objects, including MEP objects, are preserved when exporting to IFC.

Before you can export an MEP drawing file to IFC, you need to map each MEP object to the appropriate IFC classification. This step allows MEP objects developed in AutoCAD MEP to display properly in other IFC-certified applications.

You can assign IFC classifications to the following MEP objects:

• Cable tray
  Cable tray fitting
  Conduit
  Conduit fitting
  Duct
  Duct custom fitting
  Duct fitting
  Duct flex
  Hanger
  Multi-View part
  Panel
  Pipe
  Pipe custom fitting
  Pipe fitting
  Pipe flex
  

The IfcShareBldgElements (MEP).dwg drawing file contains the IFC classifications for these MEP objects. This file resides at \Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\ACD-MEP 2009\enu\Styles. The following IFC object classifications are supported in AutoCAD MEP:

• IfcDistributionChamberElement
  IfcDistributionControlElement
  IfcDistributionFlowElement
  IfcEnergyConversionDevice
  IfcFlowController
  IfcFlowFitting
  IfcFlowMovingDevice
  IfcFlowSegment
  IfcFlowStorageDevice
  IfcFlowTerminal
  IfcFlowTreatmentDevice
  IfcElectricDistributionPoint

Use the following procedure to assign IFC classifications to MEP objects prior to exporting to an IFC file:

To set up IFC classifications in AutoCAD MEP

1. Click File menuOpen to navigate to \Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\ACD-A 2009\enu\Styles directory and open the IfcShareBldgElements (MEP).dwg file.
2. Click Format menu Style Manager.At the Command prompt, enter AecStyleManager.
3. Expand Multi-Purpose ObjectsClassification DefinitionsifcObjectClassification in the left pane.



4. Right-click ifcObjectClassification and click Copy.
5. Click Cancel to close the Style Manager.
6. Click File Close to close the IfcShareBldgElements (MEP).dwg drawing file without saving it.

To map MEP objects to IFC

1. Open a drawing file that contains the MEP objects where you will assign IFC classifications.
2. Click Format menu Style Manager. At the Command prompt, enter AecStyleManager.
3. Expand Multi-Purpose ObjectsClassification Definitions.
   
4. Right-click Classification Definitions and click Paste.
5. Click ifcObjectClassification in the left pane and then the Applies To tab in the right pane to see the applicable MEP objects (as shown below).

   

6. Click OK.
7. Right-click an MEP object in your drawing and click Properties on the context menu.
8. Click the Extended Data tab on the Properties palette.
9. Under Classification, click next to IfcObjectClassification to open the Select Classification dialog.



10. To apply a new IFC classification to the selected MEP object, choose an IfcSharedBuildingServicesElement property from the list and click OK.
    Your selection appears next to IFCObjectClassification on the Extended Data tab on the Properties palette. Repeat this step for each MEP object in your drawing.
    You can also click on the Quick Select icon at the upper right corner of the Properties palette to select multiple MEP objects with the same classification and then classify them on the Extended Data tab. You might be unable to map some MEP objects directly to IFC. For example, you might choose to map an MvPart to IfcFlowFitting if the classification is Junction_Box, to IfcFlowMovingDevice if the classification is Fan, or to IfcFlowTerminal if the classification is Air_Terminal. Alternately, you can also leave the IFC classification as unspecified.
11. Save your drawing file before exporting it to an IFC file.

To export or import IFC files

1. To export a drawing to IFC, click File menu IFC Export to IFC.To export a drawing to IFC, at the Command prompt, enter AecIfcExport.
   Following the export, you can open the new IFC file in Revit. The IFC classifications appear for each object that you defined previously.
2. To import an IFC file back into AutoCAD MEP, click File menu IFC Import from IFC.To import an IFC file back into AutoCAD MEP, at the Command prompt, enter AecIfcImport.
   The imported IFC file is imported as a referenced drawing (xref). You can check that the MEP objects were properly preserved.
3. To edit objects in the imported file, right-click an object and click Edit Xref in-place.

Importing a large IFC file may fail due to the limitations of memory addressing on 32 bit operating systems. In this case the only solution is to use a 64 bit operating system.
Duct, Pipe, Conduit and CableTray elbow fittings in Rise and Drop display as 1-line when using Import from IFC. To allow the fittings to display in Model view, perform the following:
Go to Display Manager>Sets>MEP Design – Plan and activate the Sketch Check Box for Mass Element. Perform the same procedure for other Sets that will be used as the UI Display Configuration.

Content Extension for AutoCAD MEP 2009

Release Date: 2008-10-09

The US Content Extension for AutoCAD® MEP 2009 software provides new pipe and MvParts catalogs for water and wastewater design. By downloading this extension, you will have access to components and parts specific to the water and wastewater design projects, including, large diameter pipe fittings, numerous valves, aerators, centrifuges, classifiers, conveyors, blowers, screens, gates, pumps as well as other equipment.

This new content can be downloaded for free from your Autodesk subscription login.

Parts added via this Content Extension

Below is a list of parts types added to both the US Imperial and US Metric part catalogs.

MvParts\Electrical

• Starter
  Controllers
  Interface Stations

MvParts\Mechanical

• Aeration Disc Diffuser
  Blowers
  Centrifuges
  Classifier
  Conveyors
  Gates
  Heat Exchangers
  Mixers
  Pumps
  Screen
  3-Way Valves
  Air Valves
  Backflow Preventers
  Ball Valves
  Butterfly Valves
  Check Valves
  Cone Valves
  Diaphragm Valves
  Gate Valves
  Globe Valves
  Knife Valve
  Mud Valves
  Valve Actuators

Pipe

• Buttweld Cross
  Buttweld Elbows
  Buttwled Reducer
  Buttweld Tee
  Buttweld Laterals
  Flanges
  Flanged Cross
  Flanged Elbows
  Flanged Reducer
  Flanged Tee
  Flanged Laterals

General Installation Information

Before You Begin to install the content extension, keep in mind to back up all custom parts, including the .dwg, .xml and .bmp files.

Installation Location

The content will be added to the MEP Catalog Content location specified during the original install of AutoCAD MEP 2009.

The Windows XP default location is:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\ACD-MEP 2009\enu\Aecb Catalogs.

The Windows Vista default location is:
C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ACD-MEP 2009\enu\Aecb Catalogs.

Note: If you have moved your catalogs after installation to a new location the Content Extension parts will not be installed to the new location.

After the content extension is installed you will need to go into your options, and add the two catalogs to the MEP Catalog and then Regenerate the Catalogs.

Creating Annotative Tags

Creating Annotative Tags in AutoCAD Archtitecture

I get asked about how to create smart tags in AutoCAD MEP all the time, and I think I wrote an article on it at one time, but my memory fails me sometimes, but I ran across David Koch’s blog in regards to creating smart tags that are annotative. So if you can’t find this information in my search, take a look at Davids’ blog.

Thanks.

AutoCAD MEP® 2009 Update 2 Now Released

autocad_mep_suite_2009_update2_win_32bit.exe

autocad_mep_suite_2009_update2_win_64bit.exe

The following defects have been fixed in AutoCAD MEP 2009 Update 2

Duct

• Duct Sizing should more accurately produce the correct size in metric units.

Electrical

• The Load property on Devices will now schedule the loads of each phase instead of only phase 1.
• Object Snaps on scaled Devices will now behave more consistently.
• Devices which contain annotation will produce an image in the Property Palette which matches the image in the Select a Style dialog

Pipe

• Using grips to modify a Pipe layout during a Reference Edit session no longer causes disconnections in the pipe layout.
• AutoLayout should not produce overlapping pipe segments when connection two existing pipes to each other.

Tool Palettes

• Multi-view Part tools will respect Part Size Name when executed.

Miscellaneous

• Invalid Enum Map String message is no longer encountered when using the MvPartModify command on a multi-view part which does not exist in the active catalog.

The following defects were fixed with AutoCAD MEP 2009 Update 1 and are also fixed in AutoCAD MEP 2009 Update 2:

Catalog editor

• Unable to Write Check Permissions error occurs when copy and paste parts into the same catalog.

Duct

• Duct sizing does not always provide the expected size when using Metric units

Electrical

• Power Totals tool does not always state the correct load.

Pipe

• Pipe segments will be offset from each other when using justification which is not Center/Center.
• Insulation will not be applied to pipe fittings when using the match properties.
• In some instances pipe object are not visible until a regenerate is performed.

MvPart

• Invalid Enum Map String error when using MvPartModify on a multi-view part created via MvPartConvert command.

System

• AutoCAD warning message when saving an External Reference.

General Updates to AutoCAD Architecture

The following defects have been fixed in AutoCAD Architecture 2009 Update 2

Annotation scaling

• Multi-view blocks inserted from user created tools did not scale properly when used in subsequent drawings or sessions.

Drawing management

• Projects created from project templates did not inherit the correct sheet storage location property.
• Projects created from project templates did not inherit sheet subset storage location information.
• The application would occasionally crash when creating project details.

GBXML

• Surfaces belonging to different walls would export with the same CadObjectId.

IFC

• Spaces, railings, footings, and column objects might be exported with an incorrect object type identifier in some localized releases.
• Half spaces would be imported as large modifiers.
• Slab fascias and soffits would not properly export in some localized releases.
• Level and elevation info would be created in reverse order when an IFC file was imported into a project.
• Material sets applied to walls of type “Shared” would not export correctly.

Schedules

• The schedule quantity column evaluated property values without first applying the property data format.

Wall objects and opening endcaps

• Certain endcap configurations might cause walls to disappear in 3d isometric views.
• Some walls might not draw completely at a locked z elevation.
• Using “Add selected” for anchored doors, openings, and windows could cause an application crash in some circumstances.
• Walls might fail to clean up properly across xrefs if the host drawing used different drawing units than the xref.

Miscellaneous

• Tooltips would appear for AutoCAD entities even when ROLLOVERTIPS was set to zero.
• Saving a drawing to the 2004 file format would take an exccessive amount of time.
• Export to AutoCAD might cause an application crash in some circumstances.

The following defects were fixed with AutoCAD Architecture 2009 Update 2:

AModeler

• The application might crash when cutting or refreshing sections or elevations containing certain structural members.

Drawing Management

• For localized versions of AutoCAD Architecture, callouts and labels would occasionally fail to resolve when dropping views.
• The application might crash when viewing the external references of a project drawing that was resaved as a different project drawing type.
• It was not possible to drag a project entity from one file to another when hardware acceleration was enabled, if the host drawing did not use the 2d wireframe visual style.
• The application might crash when plotting immediately after cancelling a previous plot job.

IFC

• Fillet radii would not be imported reliably for certain parameteric profiles.
• Parametric profiles without voids would not be imported reliably.
• Spaces with clipping and holes would not import reliably.
• Wall styles would not be reliably converted and mapped on import.
• Curtain walls might not be import properly on localized versions of AutoCAD Architecture.

GBXML

• gbXMLspan would export a value 1000 times too large for AirChangesPerHour in metric drawings.

OMF

• The application would occasionally crash on shutdown.

Wall Objects

• The face of a wall might not draw correctly in isometric view for certain endcap configurations.

Display System

• Autodesk Civil 3D users could end up with a style referencing a non-existent hatch.

Miscellaneous

• Memory would not be released to Windows when closing a drawing.

General Updates to AutoCAD

The following defects have also been fixed:

3D Navigation Tools

• When you use the ViewCube in some drawings, AutoCAD freezes.
  .NET API
• If you create a wipeout object through .NET API, a fatal error may occur.

Annotation Scaling

• The scale of annotative text changes when you use LISP entmod() to change the properties of the annotative text.

Attributes

• When a drawing contains xrefs, the -ATTEDIT command fails.

Autodesk Buzzsaw

• In the File Navigation dialog box, when you use the Add a Buzzsaw location shortcut option, AutoCAD crashes.

Blocks

• When you copy and paste a dynamic block, associative hatches do not work.
• After you redefine a block definition, associative hatches in dynamic blocks display incorrectly.
• When you open a drawing, a polyline in a block may have a very large width.
• After you open a drawing, some dynamic blocks lose their dynamic properties.

Data Extraction

• Data Extraction cannot finish operations in some cases.
• The Data Extraction Combine Record Mode > Sum values option does not work correctly.

DGN Support

• When you import some DGN files, AutoCAD crashes.

DIM

• If alternate units is on and you edit dimension text, the alternate units text is duplicated.

Export a Layout to Model Space

• If .NET 3.5 Service Pack 1 is installed and you use the EXPORTLAYOUT command on some layouts, AutoCAD may stop responding.

External Reference ESW

• The FIND command performs slowly when you search for text.

Groups

• Rollover highlighting does not go away.

Hatch

• When you bind a drawing with an xref that contains annotative hatches, AutoCAD crashes.

Hide/Shade

• When you use the HIDE command with a drawing that contains text, some objects may not be hidden.

Image

• When you attach a corrupted raster image to a drawing, AutoCAD crashes.

Layer

• When you zoom to a locked viewport, the Layer palette updates

Layouts

• When you attempt to switch layouts in drawings, an Out of Memory crash may occur.

Materials

• When you import a 3DS file with texture, AutoCAD may crash.

Menu Browser

• Some menu macros do not work.

Multileader (mleader)

• Mleader custom arrowheads are not brought over to the drawing from the Tool palette.

Multiline Text (mtext)

• When you edit mtext in a viewport, it may be duplicated in other viewports.

Open/Save

• Osnaps on polylines and mesh objects do not work correctly.

Plot

• When you plot upside-down, an OLE object does not plot correctly.
• A drawing that contains hatches and gradients may plot slowly.
• When plot area is set to View, AutoCAD LT may crash.

Publish

• When you attempt to publish multiple sheets with PUBLISHCOLLATE=1, only the first sheet of the set is plotted.

Quick Properties

• When you edit multiple mtext objects through the Quick Properties palette, AutoCAD crashes.

RECOVER

• When you render some drawings, AutoCAD runs out of memory.

Ribbon

• If the ribbon is displayed and you select portions of a mtext object that contains multiple formats, the mtext object becomes distorted.

Selection

• When you select objects in groups, AutoCAD may crash.

Tables

• When you edit text with space before or after the text within a table cell, AutoCAD crashes.

Text

• When you move text to a new position within a drawing, it disappears.

Tool Palette

• When you attempt to edit the properties of multiple Tool Palette tools, an Out of Memory crash may occur.

Known Issues with This Update

• After installing this update you may receive a “Error Code: 3010” message incorrectly claiming that the update failed. You can verify this by viewing installed updates through the Windows control panel.
• After you apply this update, you may experience the following ribbon customization-related problems:

An Incorrect or Missing Ribbon Tab

• Known Issue: When you display a ribbon tab from a partial or Enterprise CUI file, on the ribbon, the ribbon tab displays incorrectly or is missing.
• Workaround: To correctly display a ribbon tab, recreate the workspace used to display the ribbon tab from scratch. Do not duplicate or attempt to update the workspace. Once you create a new workspace, set the workspace current. The ribbon tab should display correctly.
• For a partial CUI file, before you add a ribbon tab to a workspace, use the Customize User Interface (CUI) Editor to change the customization group name of the file. The customization group name is represented by the uppermost node of the tree in the Customization In pane.

A Blank Image for a Command

• Known Issue: On a ribbon panel, the image associated with a command defined in the Command List pane displays as a blank icon.
• Workaround: To recreate a ribbon command item on a ribbon panel, delete it. Then, from the Command List pane, add the command to the ribbon panel.

HVAC Load Calculation Extension For AutoCAD MEP and Revit MEP

The HVAC Load Calculation Extension by Autodesk, Inc. is a commercial and industrial HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) load calculation software package whose calculations are based upon the ASHRAE 2005 Fundamentals radiant time series (RTS) method. The purpose of this software is to provide you with total cooling and heating loads for a building so that you may properly specify the correct size HVAC equipment (whether it is a packaged rooftop unit or a boiler). This program is geared specifically toward the HVAC engineer, architect, design/build mechanical contractor, and building maintenance supervisor.

The HVAC Load Calculation Extension is available to customers of AutoCAD MEP 2009 and AutoCAD Revit MEP Suite 2009 on Autodesk Subscription and is subject to Autodesk Subscription terms and conditions.

The Extension supports sustainable design by allowing engineers to properly size HVAC equipment without oversizing. Conventional wisdom dictates that it is better to have too much cooling than not enough. Without the ability or tools to accurately calculate heating and cooling loads, oversizing equipment is a common practice. However, oversized equipment wastes a tremendous amount of energy throughout its lifetime. In a BIM-supported workflow, analysis capabilities and calculation tools (such as this Extension) enables designers and engineers to more thoroughly investigate design alternatives and optimize their emerging design for energy efficiency and sustainability.

The HVAC Load Calculation Extension uses formulas from the ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers) Handbook of Fundamentals. This publication compiles the fundamentals of the HVAC, such as methods for calculating peak cooling and heating loads for buildings.

The Extension produces a number of reports including: a summary load breakdown by individual room; a detailed load breakdown by individual load components such as roofs, walls, people, and lighting; and a psychrometric report that includes the properties of the entering and exiting air. Some of these reports include graphs for better visualization of the load breakdowns. Users also have the ability to export custom reports to Microsoft Word or Excel applications.

The Extension is able to import building information from AutoCAD MEP or Revit MEP using the gbXML file format. This means that all pertinent information about the building can be transferred to the Extension so that very little manual data entry is needed. Once the cooling and heating load calculations are performed, the results can be exported back to AutoCAD MEP or Revit MEP for proper duct and pipe sizing.

The HVAC Load Calculation Extension includes the following basic features:

1. Inputs for HVAC system characteristics such as supply cooling and heating temperatures, ventilation rates, fan characteristics, cooling and heating setpoints, duct sizing, and safety factors
2. Inputs for HVAC area (room) characteristics such as wall, window, roof, door, skylight, and partition areas. In addition, there are inputs for # of people, electrical appliances, infiltration, lighting, miscellaneous, exhaust, and plenum loads
3. Weather data from over 800 cities throughout the world
4. A complete u-value database for common wall, roof, window, floor, and door types
5. A complete appliance list for determining internal electrical equipment load contributions
6. Many reports including summary, detailed, psychrometric, wall/window breakdown, 24-hour load breakdown, and graphical reports
7. A feature that allows the user to export all inputs and outputs to custom Microsoft Word and Excel documents
8. Equipment selection
9. Support for both English (IP) and Metric (SI) units

WAN Acceleration 2009 Hotfix

Autodesk finally released a hotfix to improve the performance of saving to 2007 DWG format when running in a WAN Acceleration environment. The problem was an Autodesk problem, and not anything related to any particular Wan Accelerator as some people have thought. This is a Hotfix posted by Autodesk that you can also view from the following links…

2009 Wan Acceleration Hotfix link
2008 Wan Acceleration Hotfix link
2007 Wan Acceleration Hotfix link

Description of Problem
WAN acceleration technology typically relies on data-deduplication as a significant part of accelerating data transfer. The 2007 DWG format is written to disk with a type of error-checking that has the side-effect of nearly every byte of the file changing during full-save, even if little was changed. WAN accelerators fail to deduplicate the 2007 DWG data and must transfer nearly all bytes in the 2007 DWG file. This results in a slow-down during full-save when working over a slow WAN.

This hotfix will make a small change in the way the 2007 format DWG files are written to disk such that WAN acceleration hardware will be better able to deduplicate the 2007 DWG data; this will provide some performance gains for SAVE operations when users are saving across a WAN acceleration environment. The resulting 2007 DWG file will be readable whether or not others have this hotfix, but to achieve the best performance everyone working on the same DWG should install this hotfix.

After intalling the hotfix, you must set the Windows environment variable, ACADCOMPRESSIONMODE to 1 for it to have effect.

Note: For AutoCAD, you can often get performance gains in QSAVE operations by setting the ISAVEPERCENT system variable to 100. Using a value of 100 will maximize the chance that a QSAVE operation will use incremental-save rather than full-save. (WAN accelerator technology is able to show good performance in deduplication of 2007 DWG format files when incremental save takes place.)

Applicable Products
AutoCAD 2009
AutoCAD LT 2009
AutoCAD Architecture 2009
AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009
AutoCAD Electrical 2009
AutoCAD Land Desktop 2009
AutoCAD Map3D 2009
AutoCAD Mechanical 2009
AutoCAD MEP 2009
AutoCAD P&ID 2009
AutoCAD Raster Design 2009
AutoCAD Revit Architecture Suite 2009 (1)
AutoCAD Revit MEP Suite 2009 (2)
AutoCAD Revit Structure Suite 2009 (1)
Autodesk Inventor™ Professional 2009 (3)
Autodesk Inventor Suite 2009 (3)

(1) Apply this hotfix only if the installation includes AutoCAD 2009.
(2) Apply this hotfix only if the installation includes AutoCAD MEP 2009.
(3) Apply this hotfix only if the installation includes AutoCAD Mechanical 2009 or AutoCAD Mechanical Desktop® 2009.

Installation Instructions

To Install the WAN Acceleration Hotfix
You must have administrative privileges on your Microsoft® Windows® operating system to complete the installation process.

This installation requires you to replace the following files:

• acdb17.dll
• AcSignCore16.dll

After you replace these files, you must restart your system in order for this hotfix to take effect.

NOTE: Only apply this hotfix after you have installed an AutoCAD 2009-based product. This installation requires you to modify an installed product, which may cause Windows security warnings to display. For all Windows security warnings that display during installation, click Continue.

To Replace the acdb17.dll File

1. Close all software applications.
2. Navigate to your product installation folder; for example C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 2009.
3. In the product installation folder, right-click the acdb17.dll file and select Properties.
4. Click the Version tab and confirm the file version.
5. If the file version is 17.2.56.0, 17.2.111.0, or 17.2.112.0, proceed with this installation.
6. If the file version is greater than 17.2.112.1, do not install this hotfix.
7. Rename the affected original file.
8. In the product installation folder, right-click the acdb17.dll file and rename it acdb17.bak.
9. Based on the product you have installed and its version of the acdb17.dll file, double click the appropriate file.
10. For AutoCAD 2009-based products with the acdb17.dll file version 17.2.56.0
11. Based on the version of your product, double-click WAN_Accelerator_Hotfix_2009_32bit.zip or WAN_Accelerator_Hotfix_2009_64bit.zip.
12. For AutoCAD 2009 Update 1 with the acdb17.dll file version 17.2.111.0 or 17.2.112.0
13. Based on the version of your product, double-click WAN_Accelerator_Hotfix_2009_Update_1_32bit.zip or WAN_Accelerator_Hotfix_2009_Update_1_64bit.zip.
14. Extract acdb17.dll file to the product installation folder; for example C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 2009. NOTE: Keep the zip file that you used in step 6 open. Without opening other software applications, immediately proceed to the procedure below .

To Replace the AcSignCore16.dll File

1. Navigate to your Autodesk Shared folder; for example: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared.
2. In Autodesk Shared folder, right-click the AcSignCore16.dll file and select Properties.
3. Click the Version tab and confirm the file version.
4. If the file version is 17.2.56.0 proceed with this installation.
5. If the file version is greater than 17.2.112.1, do not install this hotfix.
6. Rename the affected original file
7. In the Autodesk Shared folder, right click the AcSignCore16.dll file and rename it AcSignCore16.bak.
8. Double-click the zip file you used when you replaced the acdb17.dll file. See To Replace the acdb17.dll File, Step 6.
9. Extract the AcSignCore16.dll file to the Autodesk Shared folder; for example: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared.
10. Restart your system.

To set the ACADCOMPRESSIONMODE environment variable

On Windows XP

1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. Click Environment variables.
4. Click New to add a new system variable name and value.
5. Set the Variable name to ACADCOMPRESSIONMODE
6. Set the Variable value to 1
7. Click OK until you return to the desktop

On Windows Vista

1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
3. Click the Advanced system settings link.
4. Click Environment variables.
5. Click New to add a new system variable name and value.
6. Set the Variable name to ACADCOMPRESSIONMODE
7. Set the Variable value to 1
8. Click OK until you return to the desktop

To Uninstall the WAN Acceleration Hotfix

1. In the product installation folder
2. Delete the acdb17. dll file that you downloaded.
3. Restore the file you renamed to the original name. See To Replace the acdb17.dll File, Step 5.
4. In the Autodesk Shared folder
5. Rename the AcSignCore16.dll file to AcSignCore16.dll.hotfix.
6. Restore the file you renamed to the original name. See To Replace the AcSignCore16.dll File, Step 4.
7. Restart your system.

For more information about this issue, I have previous posts around it
WAN war breaks out over changed file formats in AutoCAD MEP
Reduced write performance for Riverbed WAN links when working with AutoCAD MEP 2007 DWG files
WAN Accelerators Part II

Calculation of pipework system volumes and displaying in schedule

This tip will enable the user to automatically calculate the volume of pipework in a system, and display it in a schedule which will update itself to reflect any changes made to the system. First of all you have to make sure that you only select pipes when creating a schedule to calculate volumes, as fittings such as reducers will not allow the formula to work (having two sizes and no actual length specified).This will produce a schedule of just pipes, as expected. You will be presented with a schedule of question marks to begin with so you need to select the schedule, right click and select “add all property sets”. Now you need to add your formula column: select and right click the schedule and select “edit schedule table style”. Then pick on “add formula column”.

You will then see the “modify Formula column” dialogue box as shown:

You will need to set all of the options as shown above, and add the formula as shown. (The highlighted parts of the formula are selected from the “insert property definitions” box below.)

Once done, if you pick OK and then OK again, your schedule should have a column added to it showing volumes (in litres) for all pipes and a total volume at the bottom.

For other units of volume e.g. cubic metres you simply need to change the ratio currently set as 0.000001 in the formula. Of course this will only ever show volumes for the pipework only and not the fittings, so you may need to add a percentage to it for a more realistic figure.

http://www.autodesk.co.uk/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=452932&id=9997264&linkID=10427447