BricsCAD V25 has been released.

For more details, see:

• https://www.engineering.com/bricsys-unveils-bricscad-v25/
• https://novedge.com/blogs/design-news/explore-the-new-frontier-of-cad-download-bricscad-v25-beta-for-windows-mac-and-linux
• What’s New in BricsCAD® Pro V25 │Breakout Session

An incomplete list. Will be updated.

Civil 3D 2023 Base = 13.5.131.0
Civil 3D 2023.1 = 13.5.211.0
Civil 3D 2023.2.1 = 13.5.1184.0
Civil 3D 2023.2.2 = 13.5.1212.0
Civil 3D 2023.2.3 = 13.5.1222.0
Civil 3D 2023.3.1 = 13.5.1478.0

Civil 3D 2022 Base = 13.4.213.0
Civil 3D 2022.2 = 13.4.2119.0
Civil 3D 2022.2.1 = 13.4.2128.0

Civil 3D 2021.2 = 13.3.2105.0
Civil 3D 2021.3 = 13.3.2535.0
Civil 3D 2021.3.5 = 13.3.2591.0

Civil 3D 2020.2 = 13.2.1758.0
Civil 3D 2020.6.1 = 13.2.3902.0

Civil 3D 2019 Base = 13.0.613.0
Civil 3D 2019.1 = 13.0.863.0
Civil 3D 2019.2 = 13.0.1175.0
Civil 3D 2019.3 = 13.0.1361.0
Civil 3D 2019.3.1 = 13.0.1410.0

AutoCAD 2020 Base = 23.1.47.0
AutoCAD 2020.1.2 = 23.1.104.0

AutoCAD 2019.1.2 = 23.0.162.0

If you would like to automate the enabling or disabling of the Civil 3D setting shown in the dialog below, read on.

Here is some lisp code you can put in one of your startup routines. This example disables the checkbox shown. Change the last “0” to a “1” to check this box. You would only need to do this once, so no need to do it for each document load. Tested with Civil 3D 2019 and 2022.

(vl-registry-write
  (strcat "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\" 
          (vlax-machine-product-key) 
          "\\Profiles\\" 
          (getvar "cprofile") 
          "\\Preferences\\AECBase80")
     "DraftWarningSymbol"
      0
)

With this knowledge, you can probably figure out how to control other items on the AEC Editor tab

In the ongoing quest to keep your Civil 3D drawings clean and fast, you are probably aware of purging items using the standard AutoCAD purge command, and that you can purge C3D styles using the appropriate command.

You’re probably also aware of the 3 big bloat items largely of the past, but that could still be around. Those being extra scale list entries, the DGN linetype madness, and regapp bloat. Presuming you have done all of the necessary cleaning but you still have a drawing that is opening and saving much slower than you feel it should, roughly based on drawing size, then give this command a try: CLEARPHANTOMPARCELS (available in Civil 3D 2017 and later).

We’re not sure how these phantom parcels get created although there are some suggestions in the link above. In any case we have seen Civil 3D drawings with thousands of these objects, and no other way to delete them.

Command: CLEARPHANTOMPARCELS
9620 unused and hidden parcels were found.
4816 unused and hidden parcels were removed.

We have seen some people over the years making the switch from shape based fonts (SHX) to TrueType fonts (TTF) in AutoCAD, BricsCAD, etc.

For the first 12 years of AutoCAD’s existence, you did not have a choice, as SHX fonts were your only option. These are essentially characters defined by vectors. If you zoom in close enough you can see that the letter “O” for example, is composed of 16 line segments (using Simplex.shx). There is nothing curved or smooth about it. But at most plotted sizes, it looks like a perfect “O”, so no worries. Shape based fonts were fast to draw and lightweight.

In 1994, with the release of AutoCAD R13, things changed because TrueType fonts were now supported. Most CAD users were split between DOS (and other O/S) and the graphical Windows where TTF could more easily be used. It took several more years before most users started to seriously consider using TTF due to the slowness with which AutoCAD handled these fonts.

20+ years later, we still see confusion sometimes about the differences between the two font types. Let’s take a look at two important differences.

• SHX fonts honor lineweights
  • Whether inherited through their native property or from a plot style, you can effectively control the “weight” or “thickness” of the font characters (hereinafter referred to as the font lineweight) by merely changing the lineweight property, again either directly or via a plot style, just like you can with any other entity such as a polyline or arc.
  • So, you can have a single text style (say you name it “Simplex”) and you can draw multiple text objects at a given height (say 0.10″) and have the font lineweight vary between very thin, perhaps to indicate something existing, to very BOLD, perhaps to indicate something proposed. All with one textstyle. You can have as many font lineweights for your text characters as you have lineweights defined in the drawing or plot style. (See image below)
  • With TTF fonts, you are limited to two font lineweights (Standard and Bold) for any given text height, and you’ll need a separate text style for each one. TTF font lineweights are scaled relative to the text height. So, want a “thicker” font lineweight? Increase the text height.

• SHX and TTF characters set to the same height may not be… the same height.
  • In the illustration below, The horizontal lines represent the limits of the text height, set at 0.10″
  • Note that SHX fonts “grow” in their font lineweight outwardly from the imaginary centerline of the character definition. The “T” on the far right end is now noticeably “taller” due to how the the extra font lineweight is applied (transparency applied so you can see how it rests on the horizontal line)
  • Compare that to the TTF (Calibri.ttf) characters on the bottom, that stay contained within their defined height. Note that the font lineweight of the TTF characters never exceeds the defined height, also represented by the horizontal lines.

Starting today, December 15, 2020, you will no longer be able to request physical media from Autodesk for your products. All products must now be downloaded digitally.

Most people have probably been downloading digitally for several versions, and may not even realize that a physical media option existed up until yesterday.

I believe this is the last physical media we received.

This page should be updated soon to reflect this new policy.

Starting on November 2, 2020, Autodesk is expanding version access for subscription and maintenance customers, to the latest release and five versions back.

More details can be found here.

On this day in the year 2020, Autodesk joined the Open Design Alliance (ODA). Autodesk Senior Vice President of Design and Creation Products, Amy Bunszel, made the announcement today via this press release.

Amy says “Those of you who know the history between Autodesk and the ODA will understand the importance we put on getting this functionality to our customers at an accelerated pace.” and “Our decision to join ODA is one of the many steps we are taking to continue fostering an open community and strengthen our partnerships across the industry.”

“ODA welcomes Autodesk as its newest member,” said Neil Peterson, ODA President.

What will this mean for Autodesk customers and the industry in general? Stay tuned.

For the last several years, AutoCAD (and verticals, such as Civil 3D) have included a utility to “Reset Settings to Default”

We have seen that in the case of Civil 3D, this does some strange things such as resetting the menu to the AutoCAD menu only and it changes the splash screen to one for AutoCAD only. The latter is cosmetic, although it’s a bit confusing when you launch Civil 3D. The former one though requires someone to put the menus files back in order.

Here is a sure-fired method for resetting the user settings in Civil 3D and/or AutoCAD. It involves renaming 2 folders and 1 registry entry.

Okay, 11 steps seems a bit complex at first, but we can do this in less than 60 seconds. And do it, we do. At least once every couple of weeks for a pool of a few hundred users.

1. Close AutoCAD/Civil 3D.
2. Open Windows Explorer. Make sure Hidden Files are shown.
3. In the address bar, type in %appdata% and press Enter. (This will take you to C:\Users\**username**\Appdata\Roaming )
4. Go to the Autodesk folder inside of here.
5. Find the folder that equates to the product. For example, the folder name for Civil 3D 2019 is “C3D 2019”. The folder name for AutoCAD 2021 is “AutoCAD 2021”
6. Rename this folder by adding a suffix to it, such as “save”

7. Go back to the address bar and enter %localappdata% and press Enter. (This will take you to C:\Users\**username**\AppData\Local )
8. Follow steps 4, 5, and 6 above for this location too.
9. Open the registry editor ( REGEDIT ).
10. Go to HKCU\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD\Rxx.x\ACAD-xxxx:xxx
    1. Note: The Rxx.x is the version of AutoCAD/Civil 3D, but expressed in an Autodesk internal designation. For example: AutoCAD 2019 = R23.0, AutoCAD 2021 = R24.0 — you can find the string here, under the “Version” column)
    2. The ACAD-xxxx:xxx is a more detailed version identifier. If you have multiple products and/or languages of the same numeric version, you may find multiple of these under the Rxx.x key. For example, Civil 3D 2019 English is ACAD-2000:409.
11. After you identify the proper ACAD-xxxx:xxx string, rename it by also adding a “.save” suffix.

11. That’s it. Close the registry editor, and fire up AutoCAD or Civil 3D. You will see the secondary installer dialog briefly letting you know that AutoCAD is starting fresh for this user, just like the first day it was launched.

If you were to go back to that registry location and/or the file locations you modified, you will find that new folders have been created in these locations.

Midwest University 2020, once scheduled for the spring, then moved to August, has now been cancelled out of respect for the health and well being of all involved.

This information was distributed via email to speakers and attendees. The Midwest U website has more details and you can also keep in touch with Midwest U via their LinkedIn page.