Beyond Design

Navisworks Help now also available online

There's a lot of information out there on the internet and sometimes it can be difficult to know where to find the answers you're looking for. With this in mind we recently published our product help online, meaning that you can quickly find all the answers that you're looking for.

You can access the product help using the following links:

Navisworks Manage

Navisworks Simulate

Navisworks Freedom

This online help contains comprehensive information on how to use all aspects of Navisworks, and gives you an understanding of both the features that you use regularly, and those that you may be less aware of.

You can use the Table of Contents to navigate your way through the topics, and find information about the features that you're interested in. Alternatively you can use the help books as tutorials, and work your way through them all to learn about the full functionality of Navisworks – why not teach yourself to be a super-user!

You can also use the Index and the Search tabs to find specific information that you're looking for.

The content is structured in a logical manner that fits in with your workflows. Overviews of concepts are detailed under the Concept tab. Click the Procedure tab and you'll be taken to a list of related procedures. The Quick Reference tab gives you information on items in a specific window, such as buttons, icons or context (right-click) menus.

Using the buttons in the top right of the online help as displayed in this image, you can show the topic you are currently viewing in the contents, save the topic to your favorites which can be invaluable if you use topics regularly, go back to the home tab, or email a link to a colleague.

Let us know what you think about the new online help by adding a comment below.

Auditing a Navisworks model for very distant items

I'd like you all to try something, open a large Navisworks project you are working on, if you press 'Page Up' to zoom out to the entire model, and you can no longer see the model or it looks tiny then you should audit it for very distant items.

This is something we recommend you do as a simple check whenever creating an NWD, large or small, but there are symptoms of models which desperately need this, I've listed a few below: -

• When you render your model through Presenter, only the background shows, or you seem to get holes or triangles missing from a render
• When you navigate the model it looks like you have a section plane in front of you, as described here
• Jerky performance when navigating
• Model disappears when rotating around the model
• When you zoom out the model disappears
• Two faces seem to occupy the same space giving a jagged looking surface

When focused in on the model select an item (not the whole model) and save this as a Selection Set. You will use this in a minute to identify the location of the model in the view, or return to the model at any time.

Press Page Up to Zoom out to the extents of the model. If the model is not zoomed out then the distant objects may be behind the model, rotate the model 90° and press Page Up again to Zoom back out.

Go to the Item Tools toolbar

Select the Move tool, a gizmo should now appear where the model is in the viewpoint.

Use the Selection Box tool to select the areas away from the gizmo and the model, in the image below I made four selection boxes, in the third selection box I found a single item, with the move tool still selected the gizmo shows where this item is. When items are selected, either follow the steps below for each item, or add them to a new selection set(s) for further investigation.

Use Page Down to Zoom in to the selected items.

There is a quicker route to do this by using the selection box to select the main model then inverting the selection, however this may miss multiple instances of the same item and will not give you as much control when looking for the distant items.

Once you have identified any very distant items there are several possible routes to improve the model quality.

1. The easiest method is simply to Hide those items, once they are hidden then the bounding box of the model will be vastly reduced, improving the symptoms listed above, the items however will still be in the model.
2. If this is a whole CAD file in a distant location you may need to apply a transform to place it correctly in the model or change the origin or coordinates in the CAD file so it comes into the correct location.
3. Go back to the native CAD model, use the properties to identify the object
   1. If it is distant from the model or at the origin coordinates in the CAD package then it should be placed correctly or deleted dependent on your model and practices. Save the model and refresh the Navisworks scene.
   2. If it is correctly placed in the model then you need to look more closely into why this part of the model has been translated incorrectly, check the options for reading the file in or look at alternate routes to bring the model into Navisworks. If you cannot find an obvious problem, log a support case with the model data and details of the very distant item (either on the Navisworks Forums or through the Subscription Center), we may also be able to use this to improve Navisworks file handling.
4. Check if the object has any transformation overrides placing it in the wrong place with Right Click > Reset Item > Reset Transforms.

Please let us know if this helps you out by leaving a comment below.

Free Revit File Upgrade plugin

You've upgraded Revit and Navisworks but all your files are 2012 version or earlier. Rather than loading each file individually and having to go for a coffee break whilst you wait for them to upgrade and see the message below, there is a plug available through Autodesk Exchange which will allow you to upgrade them all at once.

You can set this running overnight and come into work the next day to your newly upgraded files, it will also maintain you file structure if you have different disciplines in different folders.

It's a free application available from the link below. You need to load any file into Revit first then you will be able to access it through the Add-Ins tab.

Autodesk Revit File Upgrader

Installation of Autodesk 2013 products, things to remember

I've been getting round to installing the Autodesk 2013 products on my main machine and I wanted to put up a quick post to remind you of a few things to check before going ahead with installation and reduce the likelihood of problems further down the line.

1. Get Administrator Permissions. If you don't have them then speak to your Systems Administrator.
2. Check the System Requirements, can your machine cope with the new software, do you need upgrades, do you need to clear some space. Suites provide lots of useful tools but will need quite a bit of memory. Look at Autodesk System Requirements for more information.
3. If you have beta versions of the software on your machine, UNINSTALL THEM. It's amazing how often problems revert back to this. Beta versions are never intended to be used on production machines; we'd hope that you completely clean your machine first to avoid unintended problems.
4. If you have an intermittent, slow or problematic network connection, don't install from a network location, install from a local drive.
5. Switch off anti-virus whilst installing. This might seem like an odd step but many antivirus packages are constantly monitoring changes to the machine, these can prevent registry keys being registered or files being placed in the correct directory.
6. Make sure your Operating System is up to date, any updates have been applied and the machine restarted.
7. Last but not least, read the documentation. We hope the installation process is easy and intuitive for you, but it's always worth checking the documentation to familiarize yourself with the process and the readme files for issues that may affect you, this is available in the installer and on the relevant product support site.

For more help when installing your software including video guides and lots more detail about deployments and licensing go to the Installation and Licensing support site and the Installation and Licensing forums.

Navisworks Switchback and Navisworks exporters not available in Revit

This can be a frustrating problem that tends to happen when Revit has been installed after Navisworks, it leaves you without the Navisworks exporters or ability to use Navisworks Switchback with Revit.

This process shows you what to do with Navisworks 2013, the process is the same in earlier releases and with the standalone NWC exporters.

Firstly make sure the Navisworks Exporters are installed in Add Remove Programs, ensure these are the correct 32 or 64 bit exporters for your machine, if they are not there then you will need to install them.

Double click "Autodesk Navisworks 2013 32 or 64 bit Exporter Plug-ins", not the Language Packs.

Then select Add or Remove Features

Ensure Revit 2013 is checked, if it is not then check it but you may need to browse to the Revit folder.

Follow the Update process agreeing to any further dialogues.

Restart Revit, if exporters not available then restart machine.

You should now find the exporters available in the Add-Ins menu.

And in Revit 2013 you will also find the exporters under the Export menu.

If you still have problems please use the Navisworks forums to request more help.

Autodesk Navisworks 2013 products released

I've been working with Navisworks products for 7 years, Paul even longer, and I'll be honest, this is the most excited I've been for a product release in that time. I think the features we've added to this year's Autodesk Navisworks 2013 release are the biggest leap forward we have had in all that time.

Here's a quick overview of the main highlights and we'll be covering all of these in more depth in the coming days and weeks with more blogs, tips, videos and more!

• Improved Revit^® Interoperability
  • Native RVT file support
  • Hierarchy representation
  • Category, family, type, instance
  • Improved level association
  • Subparts named by material
• Grids & Levels Support
  • Display of Revit grids & levels in scene view
  • Hover-over intersection for grid reference
  • Head-up-display (HUD) position readout
• 4D / Scheduling Improvements
  • Drag-and-drop sets/selections/objects to tasks
  • Auto-add tasks from sets, respecting folder hierarchy
  • Export task hierarchy to Microsoft^® Project XML
  • Editable task hierarchy
  • Improved user interface
• 5D / Cost Simulation
  • Associate costs with schedule tasks
• Clash Detection Enhancements
  • Clash result locations by level and grid reference
  • Sort results by grid reference, level, proximity, etc.
  • Quick filter results by status, level, assigned to, etc.
  • Undo support
  • Improved user interface
  • Comprehensive API
• Improved Selection Tools
  • New Selection Inspector Tool
  • Improvements to Sets window
  • Support for drag-and-drop
• Additional File Format Support
  • Siemens NX
  • Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks
  • Dassault Systèmes CATIA^®
  • Microsoft Project 2010
  • Primavera^® P6 v8
  • Graphisoft^® ArchiCAD 14 & 15
  • Faro 4.8
• Vault Integration Enhancements
  • Open & append all supported file formats via the vault
  • Vault browser docking window in Navisworks
  • Advanced search tools
• Navisworks Freedom Enhancements
  • Sectioning support
  • Embedded Database property support

Autodesk Navisworks 2013 will be available very shortly from http://www.autodesk.com/navisworks

Tell us which features you'd like to know more about using the comments below, and we'll try to prioritize these first.

Quantity Takeoff 2012 – Hotfix 2 now released

Quantity Takeoff 2012 - Hotfix 2 has been released and is available for download from the Autodesk Website.

Please note: This installer requires that QTO Hotfix 1 is already installed on the system.

This hotfix is designed to resolve some specific PDF file related issues:

• Large PDF sheets consuming too much memory
• PDF sheets not displaying after the project is reopened
• Error message "There was a problem displaying the page"

  

• QTO shutting down after switching sheets

The hotfix can be downloaded from here: -

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=18403022&linkID=10381885

Troubleshooting Navisworks when it doesn’t start up and no error report created

Happy New Year to you all! I thought I'd start this year off with an article to help troubleshoot one of the rarer but most annoying problems some people have with Navisworks.

Most of the time Navisworks closes unexpectedly, a dialog appears asking you to send some details about what happened and an error report, to us at Autodesk. These are then used to improve the product so we strongly recommend you provide details whenever this happens of what you were doing at the point of the crash.

However there are occasions, particularly on start-up where an error report is not created. This blog post should help run through a series of steps to resolve the problem, or at least help us in support to narrow down the issue.

1. If this is a Network installation, you should be running the latest License Manager 11.9. http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Installation-Licensing/Autodesk-Network-License-Tools-11-9/td-p/2988862
2. Delete the Cascadeinfo.cas file. A new one will be created when you start Navisworks again.
   On Windows XP:
   C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\Adlm
   On Windows Vista and Windows 7:
   C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Adlm
3. Delete your Navisworks user profiles under
   C:\Users\**YOUR USERID**\AppData\Roaming\
   C:\Users\All Users\Autodesk Navisworks Manage 2012
4. A Reinstall of Navisworks (not a repair) through 'Add or Remove Programs' in the Control Panel and restart the machine as an administrator.
5. Turn off Hardware Acceleration in the Navisworks Options > Interface > Display, you can access these options through Programs > Autodesk > Navisworks Manage/Simulate 2012 > Options Editor.
   If this resolves the problem then the Graphics Card/drivers aren't interacting well with Navisworks. A first step here would be to update the graphics card drivers from the manufacturer's website and re-enable Hardware Acceleration.

If Navisworks still doesn't start after trying these steps then please post on the Navisworks forum or log a support request through the Subscription Center if you have up to date subscription explaining the steps you have taken, details of the machine this happens on, any error messages and if anything has changed on the machine since this last worked.

Hotfix for HTML Tabular Reports in Navisworks Manage 2012

A hotfix has now been released for HTML Tabular reports. This will resolve issues related to the display of groups in a HTML Tabular report of Clash Detective results in Navisworks Manage 2012.

The hotfix can be downloaded from this link

Interoperability Enhancements for Navisworks 2012

 
The Interoperability Enhancement Pack for Navisworks 2012 is released today, so I wanted to share with you an overview of what this offers.

• Firstly there's an update to the Faro laser scan formats, now supporting version 4.8.
• We've also updated the Exporter for Graphisoft ArchiCAD, now supporting versions 14 and 15 (both 32 and 64-bit).
• More manufacturing models can now be integrated into your projects with New file readers for SolidWorks and NX.
• Autodesk Vault integration has been extended so that you can now access all supported file readers via the Vault (compared to the 2012 release product which was limited to Navisworks formats only).

• You'll find a new Collaborate tab on the ribbon providing access to the Autodesk Bluestreak desktop application. You may already be familiar with Bluestreak through Revit.
• Access to Bluestreak File Sharing via the web is also available directly from the Navisworks ribbon.

I've created a quick video of these enhancements. Take a look:

You can download the Interoperability Enhancements if you have a current Subscription contract on your Navisworks products. Go to https://subscription.autodesk.com, log in with your details, go to Downloads > Product Enhancements > Interoperability Enhancements for Autodesk Navisworks 2012.

To install the 'Interoperability Tools of Navisworks 2012', you will need to have the Service Pack 1 installed on the machine first.

For the 'Exporters Update for Navisworks 2012', there is no need to install the Service Pack 1, this can be installed over the top of other 2012 Exporters/Manage/Simulate installations.

Try them out and let us know what you think.