grichards

I'm usually pretty forgiving of the SI "quirks" but this i can't deal with.

So, i've finally got 5.5 up and running to discover that SI is going to REWRITE all the layer information in my autoCad blocks?? This is ridiculous.

I don't know how the SI autoCad plugin is running under the hood, but forcing all the layer info within a block to the layer the block is added to seems completely unnecessary.

Forcing autoCad to add a layer just to accomodate a "dTools" block seems completely unnecessary.

autoCad has plenty of functionality when it comes to layer control, so rather than trying to rewrite that or dumb it down why doesn't dTools LOOSEN UP THE GRIP on the drawing programs and, in particular, get out of the layer management business. dTools needs to tie drawings to the PDM... THATS ALL.

We've spent hours and hours setting up our autoCad block library with layer specific color information, and now that get's wiped out with 5.5? Do you know that stuff gets printed by the layer color? Do you know that people use the Defpoints layer in blocks? CHANGE THIS BACK. ITS NOT GOOD

Victorc

As per customers requested, we changed the way layer and color control works, which is the way it is right now in SI5.5. But we appreciate your feedback. Right now the easy way you can handle this, is by inserting your custom blocks and then associate them to any product.

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Vic
D-sonic

grichards

I'm curious as to what the customer requests actually were. this move is a completely bad direction and i urge autoCad user feedback on this issue.

having dTools create a new layer was bad, but if the issue is that layer's color then just use the layer manager to change the color.

your workaround is bad for a number of reason:
- it DRAMATICALLY slows down my work flow because i'll have to pick the product everytime, effectively making all the visualization settings i've spent time on are useless.

-I can't have a consultant put together a product spec and then engineer the drawings. I HAVE to develop the drawings first because i can't add products to a drawing from the PDM.

- how do i add multiple product to a drawing? If i want 20 connectors on a panel detail im supposed to add the block and associate it with the product 20 times? Seriously?

-Replace product is useless.

autoCad users need to chime in here. This is not a feature. This is hijacking autoCad. There are other ways to deal with layer color.

David_Haddad

I am not currently using the AutoCAD version but I can feel grichards frustration. This is the type of stuff that has also caused me to lose it a few times. Changing the way a product works so that it costs existing users countless hours of work is just BAD and when it is justified as being based on user feedback it only inflames the situation. Just my 2 cents. I would guess I have lost over 40 hours of work because find and replace which used to work perfectly became broken in a subsequent release and then once it was fixed still doesn't work as it did/should. It sounds like grichards is in the same boat with this "new feature".

Luckily as a Visio user I have found nothing but improvements with 5.5.

Newman

I too can feel the frustration grichards is feeling. This is only one area where d-tools has removed functionality from AutoCAD. I find the more i try to use Autocad for my d-tools engineering drawings the more dissapointed I am with the "features" they have created. Just my 2 cents.

Newman

NareshN

This issue is getting fixed in the service pack.

Hemanth

This bug has been fixed in 5.5 SP1.

fryeguy

Is that to say that SI no longer modifies properties of blocks?

NareshN

D-Tools in the AutoCAD interface (with 5.5 SP1) will no longer by default change the layer of child entities in blocks. the default implementation is just as your dropped from the Design Center in AutoCAD.
The only block properties D-Tools will change are attributes like Manufacturer, Category etc.

grichards

thanks dTools. much improved.

there's a slight hiccup still:
If you Change Block (context menu > dTools > Block > change block), the newly selected block will lose layer info as it did when the bug was present.

as a work around, one could Insert alt view and delete the original block. but change block should still be fixed.

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Systems Engineer Technician/Crestron Programmer
www.ccisolutions.com