To create an AutoCAD 2004 profile in Architectural Desktop 2004 you can make a new profile and reset it and there you go. The loaded menu will change from ADT to ACAD. But it will not completely behave as AutoCAD 2004. The saveas command cannot save as 2000 for example. CUSTOMIZE command is missing the Palette tab. To solve this you also have to DEMANDLOAD=2 (this means 'Demand load of ObjectARX apps' set to 'Command Invoke') and make a startup icon with a command line that might look like this: "C:\Program files\Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2004\acad.exe" /p "AutoCAD 2004". The only problem is that rtext objects and other object like this doesn't load automatically so you have to add (arxload"rtext.arx") or what else you need to a startup-lisp like acad.lsp.
How can I change the roll up speed on the tool palettes? Look at lines 4 and 5 or search for PaletteRollupDelay in the following file in Notepad or an XML editor (it's in milliseconds): C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Autodesk\Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2004\R16.0\enu\Support\Profiles\FixedProfile.aws
By loading AecLMgrLisp40.arx you have access to a number of LISP routines to access the ADT Layer Manager funtionality.
There are some bugs that are related to having the Command line floating. If you have problems try to dock it and see if the bug goes away.
; Force bit 16 for draw order to working properly for all drawings. Can be added to acaddoc.lsp to be loaded for all drawings just to make sure it set correct.
(setvar "sortents" (boole 7 (getvar "sortents") 16))
Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2004 Readme
Installation Issues
· Switching to a directory other than the default offered will take about a minute to continue operation. This is nothing to be alarmed about. Just be patient, you only need to do this once.
· If you choose the Repair option, the installer will seem to hang. You may even see the installer report "Not Responding". The installer is doing a file compare for all the files necessary for your install, please be patient.
· Uninstalling ADT3.3 after ADT2004 is installed may cause the Structural Member Catalog to cease to function properly. Reinstalling ADT2004 will restore proper operation.
· To install the Express Tools, navigate in file explorer to ADT\Support\Express in the install package and run Setup.exe. Please refer to the separate ReadMe item available in the Express folder which provides details about the known issues regarding the use of Express tools in ADT.
· Details will not run on Windows NT unless you are running it as the user who installed it.
Network Install
· Launch from an advertised shortcut does initialize the install, however toward the end a warning message appears: "No profile name exists: Architectural Desktop will create Profile with default settings" this happens despite that you may have specified a profile while when creating an Admin Image. After accepting the warning message, Architectural Desktop will launch with the acad.mnc. It is necessary that you then go to a Profile tab in Option dialog and manually set ‘Architectural Desktop’ to Current profile.
· Uninstalling as an Administrator does not delete current user values for other users in the Registry. These users will need to delete the profile from the registry: (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R16.0\ACAD-201:xxx where xxx is a locale code, such as 409 for English US). This forces a reinstall to occur for the user when Architectural Desktop is launched again.
Export to AutoCAD and Plotting Issues
Export to AutoCAD
· Global Cut Plane. When a drawing using the global cut plane feature has xrefs or blocks inserted at levels other than world Z=0, the Export to AutoCAD command will produce graphics that do not match the appearance in ADT. The workaround to this problem is to explode the xrefs to blocks, then explode the blocks to ADT objects.
· Export to AutoCAD drops Scheduled items in a Schedule table. When exporting a drawing with schedules using Export to AutoCAD it is necessary that you first explode the schedule itself using the Explode command. If you are working in a Drawing Management project and the schedule is in a View xrefed into a Sheet, then it is recommended that you first Bind all the xrefs, explode the schedule, and then Export to AutoCAD.
· Exporting 3D Views with Materials. When using materials that contain very complex hatch patterns, such as CMU_Screen_Stacked_C and Roofing_Shingles_DeepShadow, you should be aware of that there is a risk that your computer may not have enough memory for the export.
· Crash when drawing contains Express Tools RText proxy object. When using Export to AutoCAD or Explode to AEC Objects, the Xref bind operation will fail if the drawing contains an RText object. The solution to this issue is to bind the drawings prior to Export to AutoCAD.
Plotting
· Plot Preview of a Rendered Viewport. In order to render plot ADT materials in a paperspace viewport, first render the objects in modelspace and then set the viewport to As Displayed in Shade Options of the Plot dialog or in the Properties Palette for the Viewport.
�� Canceling of Full Plot Preview. Canceling a Full Plot Preview of a shaded viewport can lead to a crash.
· Plotting Xrefs with Overridden Display Configs. The new ability to override an xref with the display configuration of the xref’s drawing, as opposed to the current display configuration in the host drawing, is usable for viewing purposes only. When plotted, the display configuration of the host drawing will be used as was the case in previous releases.
Last Minute Documentation and Workflow Notes
Walls
· Wall autosnap does not support walls in xrefs. Use normal object snaps to draw walls to xref walls.
· Adding an endcap to walls converted from a body can cause a crash. As an alternative workflow, Boolean mass elements with the body either before or after converting to the wall.
Opening Endcaps
· Renaming an opening endcap style will not be saved for openings (doors, windows, openings, door/window assemblies) that do not have a "By Wall Style" opening endcap. Instead of using ‘Edit Opening Endcap Style…’ from the opening’s context menu and renaming on the General tab, you will need to make the name change through Style Manager.
· Changes to Opening Endcaps in-place may require ObjRelUpdate
Slabs
· When adding a projected Slab or Roof Slab, setting the Run field to 0" in the Properties Palette will have the affect of zeroing out the Rise and Angle fields and they will no longer accept user input. Simply change the Run to value other than 0 and the Rise and Angle field will again be editable.
AEC Dimensions
· Global Cut Plane. AEC Dimensions do not respect the Display Configuration Global cut plane. You will encounter unexpected dimensions when dimensions spanning objects such as walls and curtain walls. For example, whether the wall display props are using the global cut plane or not, the AEC Dimension will use the cut height set for the wall itself. If you encounter these conditions, AutoCAD dimensions are an alternative workflow.
· AEC dimension objects will be lost if an Xref is overwritten or replaced. If a user is dimensioning across xrefs and one of the xrefed dwgs is replaced by a dwg of the same name, the dimension objects will be lost. You also run into problems like this when you wblock out a drawing to "clean it". This will issue new handles causing the cross database relationships will be lost.
· Dimensions of Previous Drawings. Due to changed functionality in wall intersections, there might be problems with removed dimension points when opening drawings created with previous releases of ADT. The removed points are displayed as if they where not removed in certain cases. Also a situation might occur where the intersecting points are dimensioned differently from how they were when opened in an earlier release.
Stairs and Railings
· Stair Project with Multiple AEC Objects. To project a stair edge to multiple AEC Objects, either project to them one at a time, or first create a polyline to project to, then use the Customize Edge > Project option on the stair context menu. QuickSlice can be used to create a polyline from connected AEC Objects.
· Assigning Materials to Railing Styles. When assigning materials to railing styles, switching to another tab in the Railing Styles dialog will cause the component to revert to the previous material. Please click OK after making material assignments before making subsequent changes on other tabs for the railing style.
· Add Selected on a Railing Anchored to AEC Object. The Add Selected functionality for a railing anchored with "Railing Anchor to Object" will inherit the anchor from its parent object. You will have to release the railing and reposition it. Railing anchored with "Railing Anchor to Stair" functionality works fine.
Tools
· Structural Member tools cannot have the type of member they create changed in the Tool Properties worksheet. If you drag a Member style from the Style Manager to a Tool Palette, a Beam tool will be created. In order to create a Brace or Column tool that uses a style in an external drawing:1 - Copy and Paste an existing tool that creates the desired type of Structural Member2 - Edit the properties of the tool and select the desired Style location and Style3 - Orient the member as desired in the tool properties viewer4 - Right-click on the tool image and select Refresh Image5 - Set the name of the tool as desired > OK
Drape
· For best results, it is recommended that you create a rectangular polyline for the outer boundary of the linework to be draped over, matching the corner selection points used for the mesh. If an irregular shape is desired for presentation purposes, you can use a Boolean subtraction.
Drawing Management
· Regeneration of Views. Save all component drawings of a project with UCS equal to WCS. Otherwise, there may be unexpected shifts in positions and orientation of constructs and elements of a view. If this occurs, open the constructs that have been affected, save them with the UCS set to World and regenerate the View or Sheet.
CAD Standards and Architectural Desktop 2004
· Using CAD Standards automatic notifications (either the alert or status bar icon) is not recommended when Dynamic Dimensions are enabled. Doing so will cause numerous spurious warnings about violations. The linetypes, text style, dimension style and block that are created for the dynamic dimensions cannot be included in a dws file, so they will always be considered non-standard. If the CAD Standards automatic notification is necessary, it is recommended that you disable Dynamic Dimensions (uncheck "Use Dynamic Editing" in Options > AEC Editor tab).
Windows NT Issues
· Context menus are out of order on NT machines. Due to limitations in the NT operating system, the object-specific context (right-click) menus do not show up as intended. Please keep this in mind when working with a mixture of users who have other operating systems and NT users who may be curious as to the seemingly random order of their context menus.
New Layer Keys
The following layer keys have been added to those provided in AecLayerStd.dwg:
ANNELKEY Elevation marksANNMASK ADT Masking ObjectsANNMATCH Match LinesANNPROFILE AEC ProfilesANNSXKEY Section marksDIMMAN Dimensions (AutoCAD points)FINE Details - fine linesHATCH Details – hatchingMED Details - medium linesTHIN Details - thin linesTITSCALE Graphical ScalesTITTEXT-DWG Drawing title textWALLABOVE Wall elements above WALLBELOW Wall elements belowWALLCOMP Wall internal componentsWIDE Details - wide lines
Shortcut Links
The shortcut links found in directories under the Autodesk Architectural Desktop installation directory display the incorrect topic in online Help. However, the correct topic is highlighted in the Table of Contents. Click on the highlighted topic to display the correct information for Autodesk Architectural Desktop. The affected shortcuts are found in the following directories:
Data LinksPlot StylesPlottersTemplateTextures
VBA
Context help in the VBA IDE does not work for some of the new objects, methods, and properties in Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2004. In many instances, the Help file is displayed, but opens to the wrong topic. If this happens, use the Index in the Help file to find the topic you are interested in.
ActiveX Automation Index
Index entries for ActiveX Automation topics do not appear in Autodesk Architectural Desktop Help. To view the index for ActiveX Automation topics, open the adtauto.chm file in your Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2004\Help folder.
Drawing Migration Issues
· Migrating previous version drawings to the new display settings:
ADT 2004 uses a simplified setup for the display system in the provided templates. In order to migrate previous version drawings to this new display setup please follow this three-step process.
1. Use the Display Manager to Import the desired Display Configurations, such as High Detail and Low Detail from the template.
2. Import the associated Display Sets, Model High Detail and Model Low Detail, and overwrite the existing sets.
3. Use the Style Manager to import the Standard Material and overwrite the existing Material.
· Promotion of Previous Version Drawings. When opening previous version drawings you will be alerted that the objects will be promoted to ADT 2004 format. If you open a drawing by double-clicking in Windows File Explorer, the alert message might be hidden behind the drawing making ADT appear to be hung; clicking anywhere on the application to give it focus will make the alert dialog come to the foreground.
Graphics Card Testing/Issues with Architectural Desktop
The following is a list of the Graphics Cards that were tested and drivers used with Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2004 using Hardware Acceleration and their known issues.
3DLabs
· Wildcat 7110
o Driver - w2k - 05.06.00.35Known Issues:-No known issues.
o Driver - xp - 06.06.00.35Known Issues:-No known issues.
· Wildcat 6110
o Driver - w2k - 05.05.05.16Known Issues:-No known issues.
o Driver - xp - 06.05.04.51Known Issues:-No known issues.
ATI
· Fire GL X1
o Driver - w2k - 6.13.10.1030Known Issues:-No noticable performance improvement over software acceleration. Working with ATI to resolve this issue.
· Fire GL E1
o Driver - w2k - 5.12.2195.3054Known Issues:-No known issues.
o Driver - xp - 6.12.10.3054Known Issues:-No known issues.
· Fire GL2
o Driver - NT - 4.00.138.2088Known Issues:-No noticable performance improvement over software acceleration.
o Driver - W2k - 5.12.2195.2088Known Issues:-No noticable performance improvement over software acceleration.
nVidia
· Quadro4 900 XGL
o Driver - w2k - 6.13.10.4104Known Issues:A Crash will occur when the following conditions are met:
§ Using material style "Finishes.Plaster and Gypsum Board.Gypsum Wallboard.Painted.White."
§ In an Isometric view.
§ Shademode set to Gouraud Shaded or Gouraud Shaded, Edges On.
§ Calling and then dismissing a dialog box.
§ Followed by switching view to Plan.
· Quadro2 Pro
o Driver - w2k - 4.1.0.9Known Issues:A Crash will occur when the following conditions are met:
§ *Using material style "Finishes.Plaster and Gypsum Board.Gypsum Wallboard.Painted.White."
§ In an Isometric view.
§ Shademode set to Gouraud Shaded or Gouraud Shaded, Edges On.
§ Calling and then dismissing a dialog box.
§ Followed by switching view to Plan
Additional Notes About VIZ Render
Installing VIZ Render
You can run a standalone copy of VIZ Render by double-clicking the VIZ Render desktop icon, or by choosing VIZ Render from Start menu > Programs > Autodesk > Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2004.
VIZ Render is installed with all installation options of ADT 2004 except for compact.
Viz Render will run in 30 day trial mode. After the 30 days you will need to register and authorize ADT 4.
In a rare case where VIZ Render will not launch, or if VIZ Render crashes while the splash screen is being displayed, the user should try suppressing the splash screen by adding an environment variable named "NO_3DSMAX_SPLASHSCREEN"
Notes About VIZ Render Features
Camera Match
Camera Points can be created directly in the User viewport. However, you cannot create Camera Point in a converted User viewport. A converted User viewport has a modified construction plane. This plane is perpendicular to the User viewport wherein viewport coordinates cannot be converted to world coordinates.
Data Transfer File Linking
It is suggested that to improve performance in data handling that dwg file’s are purged prior to Linking to VIZ Render.
It is suggested that ADT files be purged to clear extraneous data in the DWG file prior to Linking to VIZ Render. This will increase the performance of the data transfer into VIZ render.
The components of certain wall styles are doubled when transferred into Viz Render.Components of wall styles with Brick and CMU materials will come into VIZ Render split into two components that have identical names. The geometry is not doubled though. This will not affect the stability of wall styles.
There are double component names with certain wall styles.Wall styles with Brick and CMU materials will come into VIZ Render with double component names. This will not affect the stability of wall styles.
ADT objects that are nested in blocks will not link to VIZ Render when there is an enabled Live Section. When there is an enabled Live Section, blocks that contain these objects will have to be exploded before linking, if it is desired that these objects be part of the VIZ Render file.
ADT objects that are nested in blocks will not link to VIZ Render when there is an enabled Live Section. When there is an enabled Live Section, blocks that contain these objects will have to be exploded before linking, if it is desired that these objects be part of the VIZ Render file.
ADT files that are to be brought into VIZ Render should have a Display Configuration of medium detail and higher. If the Display Configuration is set to low detail, no materials are brought into VIZ Render.
A file that has been bound in VIZ Render can't be reloaded from ADT.
Performing a reload from ADT will keep VIZ Render in the background. Once the reload command is executed in ADT, ALT+TAB will bring VIZ Render up and continue with the reload.
Transferring Massing Groups together with the objects they group from ADT 2004 into VIZ Render, will produce overlapping geometry in VIZ Render and this can lead to rendering artifacts due to the coplanar faces of the overlapping objects. It is recommended that the Massing Groups and their operands (objects they group) are placed on different layers in ADT 2004 and turn off or freeze the layer with the Massing Groups or the operands before transferring the drawing to VIZ Render.
Display
VIZ Render supports Direct X Display. You can download the latest version of DirectX from: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.asp.
In some instances, Refresh Thumbnail will not update the material icon in the palette. To do so, you will need to change a parameter in the material.
Some dialogs may be occluded or misplaced when running VIZ Render on monitors with a resolution less than 1280x1024. Both the Render Scene dialog and the Materials Editor will appear larger than the screen. To fit them in your screen, resize both dialogs and move them to see the controls that were occluded.
In D3D display mode, turning off the display of the home grid will improve viewport performance.
Exposure Control
The Pseudo Color Exposure Control image will not be rendered when Anti-Aliasing is off.
Light Lister
Changing the properties of a luminaire using the Light Lister will not always update the properties of the luminaire displayed in the Modify panel. To see the updated properties in the Modify panel, you must de-select and re-select the luminaire object.
Lights
Adding a new light to the scene does not invalidate a Radiosity Solution. Reset the solution and hit start again to consider the new lights.
Layer
Undo (Edit Menu/Undo) does not undo a Layer On/Off operation.
Live Section
Live Section will not operate on xref'd data in VIZ Render. An Xref/Bind operation should be performed before importing this type of data into VIZ Render if Live Section functionality is desired.
When using Live Section (and the Sectioned Body component is set to be displayed), a render material has to be assigned to the Sectioned Body component in ADT 2004 before it will be properly recognized by VIZ Render.
Materials
Assigned materials in VIZ Render are overwritten by ADT materials. Assigning a material to a component in VIZ Render, then changing the material in ADT overrides the VIZ Render material when Reload Geometry Only is executed. One way to remember this is to consider material assignments made in VIZ Render as temporary, such as when testing out different ideas for the materiality of a design. Once a more permanent material decision has been made, you should make the material assignment in ADT.
The Automatic Material Propagation feature does not propagate materials assigned to the sub-objects of one object instance (faces, polygons, elements) to the other instances of that object.
Print
If you open a bitmap that has an alpha channel and a background and try to print it, the background will not be printed. To make sure the background is printed, re-save this bitmap without the alpha channel and then open it to be printed.