Reduce Precision of AutoCAD file for insertion into Revit (too many decimals!)

Luke Johnson

Let’s say you have AutoCAD file of unknown origin, and it has some wacky or imprecise units (like the distance between two walls is 8250.092234897). What you need to do is reduce the precision, such that all the decimal points get ‘chopped off’.

To do this:

  • Open the offending DWG in AutoCAD.
  • ‘Save As’ and choose a DXF format.
  • Go to Tools menu – Options (see below)

  • Choose DXF Options, ASCII Format and set the ‘Decimal Places of Accuracy’ to the desired value (choosing 0 will remove all decimal places):

  • Hit Save.

I recommend that you now open the DXF file you saved, and then resave it as a DWG file.Now you can insert your file into Revit, and you won’t have to deal with imprecise units.Please note that this process may result in some ’rounding off’ of values – you may want to double check the resulting file.

I found this process at the following link:
Forum Link

Problems joining VPN with Windows 7?

Luke Johnson

I had a weird issue wherein I could join our office VPN using XP and Vista with no problems, but Windows 7 would not connect to the VPN and would trigger an error. (Please note that I was trying to connect to a Small Business Server 2003 computer).

The following fix worked for me:

  1. In the Windows 7 client, open an elevated command prompt
  2. Type in the following: netsh int ip reset > resetIP.log

Reboot the computer, and see if you can now connect to the VPN.I found this fix at http://thenonapeptide.blogspot.com/2009/09/solving-pptp-vpn-error-720-on-windows-7.html

Multiple Revit Instances when working on the Same Central File

Luke Johnson

You can increase your productivity by opening Multiple Instances of Revit when working on the same Central file. This is particularly useful if you want to set one instance to render a view, and continue modelling or drafting in the other Revit instance.

This is how to do it:

  1. Open Revit, and open a local copy of the Central file. This instance will be using your normal user name (eg. Luke).
  2. Open another instance of Revit. Click the ‘R’ button, and go to ‘Options’.
  3. Under General, type a different Username into the applicable box (eg. Luke-SECOND)
  4. Click OK.
  5. In this second instance, open another local copy of the Central file. This is done by navigating to the Central, and then ensuring that the ‘Create New Local’ box is ticked before opening the Central.
  6. You now have two instances working on the same Central file. You can test this by ‘Synchronizing’ each instance.

If you have Worksharing Monitor installed, open it up and have a look at the two instances. You should see something like that shown below:Please note that you will need a decent PC to take advantage of this ability. It will be particularly useful if you have 4 or even 8 processing cores available.

Windows 7 and Vista advanced mode – very powerful

Luke Johnson

(whispers) There is a secret way to enable a advanced user feature in Windows 7 and Vista, and it is extremely simple.

Just make a new folder, and give the folder the following name:
GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

You will find that when you open this folder, it is like a Super Control Panel.

Apparently this does not work in Vista 64 bit, but it does work in 32 bit.

Thanks to PC User magazine and William Archibald for writing this tip in a letter to the magazine.

Computer Unreachable Using Autodesk Asset Locator

Luke Johnson

While using Autodesk Product Manager, or the Autodesk Asset Locator, you may come across an issue where certain remote computers are ‘unreachable’. Assuming you have the correct permissions, the problem here is that the Remote Registry Service is not running.

Simply go to the Client computer that is ‘unreachable’, open Services (Start – Run – Type services.msc), find the service called ‘Remote Registry’ and Start the service.

When you run a search again, this computer will now be reachable by the Autodesk Asset Locator, and you will see the Autodesk products on this PC in the search results.