Author Topic: Brace Yourself - AddOns Are Coming  (Read 4755 times)

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Offline DotNetTopic starter

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Brace Yourself - AddOns Are Coming
« on: Mar 15, 2019, 17:28:39 PM »
With Fabrication 2019 being out for a while now, much of the AutoCAD based API has finally been fixed and even improved. It has been and will be a lot more work porting all this old code to 2019, and later Revit, but I think the effort will be worth it. Attached is a small example of some things I'm working on porting over.

EDIT:

The VDC CAD BETA for CADmep 2019 & 2020 is live!

Please CLICK HERE for the download page. Simply download, unzip and double click the setup.exe file. Depending on your version of Windows you may need to right click and edit the properties of the setup.exe file. Please see the below image. You can uninstall at any time through the Windows Add Remove Programs Dialog.

Many other features not covered in this thread are present. Please explore everything on the VDC CAD Ribbon Tab. Descriptive Tool Tips have been added for all VDC CAD Commands.

A brief note on the Properties Palette... The API does not currently support setting certain Item Properties to "None". In order to make a "None" value available for things like Insulation Specification, Connectors and Dampers, your database needs to contain a "None" entry for each.
« Last Edit: May 20, 2019, 14:33:39 PM by DotNet »

Offline Dan Christensen

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Re: Brace Yourself - AddOns Are Coming
« Reply #1 on: Mar 15, 2019, 18:16:14 PM »
Love what I am seeing!
Can you change the connectors VIA a drop down menu?
How do I sign up to beta test?

Offline DotNetTopic starter

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Re: Brace Yourself - AddOns Are Coming
« Reply #2 on: Mar 15, 2019, 19:39:06 PM »
Quote
Can you change the connectors VIA a drop down menu?

Of course! Please have a look.

Quote
How do I sign up to beta test?

I'm glad you asked. I have a bit more work to do on the Item Properties and Numbering tools, but I plan to make a beta version available for XtraCAD users as soon as possible.

Offline jimbon

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Re: Brace Yourself - AddOns Are Coming
« Reply #3 on: Mar 18, 2019, 18:25:18 PM »
I hope I am speaking for others and not alone in my confusion, but what exactly am I looking at?  Is it an alternate front end for CADmep in AutoCAD that DotNet has created, or a complementary tool that runs along side?  It's beautiful, whatever it is, but what is its primary purpose?

Forgive my ignorance... I am but a lowly user.
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Offline acad2015

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Re: Brace Yourself - AddOns Are Coming
« Reply #4 on: Mar 18, 2019, 18:48:57 PM »
Looks awesome. Can't wait to try this out.

Offline DotNetTopic starter

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Re: Brace Yourself - AddOns Are Coming
« Reply #5 on: Mar 18, 2019, 20:33:21 PM »
I hope I am speaking for others and not alone in my confusion, but what exactly am I looking at?  Is it an alternate front end for CADmep in AutoCAD that DotNet has created, or a complementary tool that runs along side?  It's beautiful, whatever it is, but what is its primary purpose?

Forgive my ignorance... I am but a lowly user.

It's a bit of both. For the "Item Properties Palette" I am showcasing here, the goal was to have all the data front and center for real time feedback, which I believe is important. Also to help deal with making changes to multiple items without having to drill down in different ways, depending on what data we're after. What we're seeing here is actually only half of the Palette. Status, Zone, Pallet, Notes, Spool, Number, Custom Data etc, will all be there soon. Everything you see in the drop down boxes is pulled directly from your Database, which is part of the reason I need you guys to help break it. It will help me to verify that it's working as intended on all configurations.

CADmep is amazing software, unfortunately it's been basically "feature complete" for a decade, and doesn't have the snazzy UI and "quality of life" features we've come to expect from more modern software.

Offline DotNetTopic starter

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Re: Brace Yourself - AddOns Are Coming
« Reply #6 on: Apr 12, 2019, 17:33:20 PM »
It's been about a month since the OP and things are moving along smoothly. Almost everything you can think of is on the Palette including Dampers, Bought Out, a Tab for Custom Data, Spooling Data etc. I should be updating this thread again soon with a link to download the beta installation file. In the mean time, please have a look.


Offline thejikz

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Re: Brace Yourself - AddOns Are Coming
« Reply #7 on: Apr 16, 2019, 14:34:50 PM »
I am loving the front end. Will you be selling, open sourcing or ?
I have been working on some core code that "could" work between CAD and Revit since we are in both, hoping (like everyone?) to move toward Revit as a more viable spooling and .MAJ tool.
I am excited to see that there are advances in the API, thanks for being on the spear end of things!

Offline DotNetTopic starter

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Re: Brace Yourself - AddOns Are Coming
« Reply #8 on: Apr 18, 2019, 19:02:15 PM »
The Properties Palette is being simultaneously developed for both CADmep and Revit, as is the Numbering Tool shown in one of the posts above. They will likely share many other features, but some will differ. The AutoBreak tool shown below will be a Revit only feature, as CADmep already does this well.

The UI is written in C#/WPF, and both AddOns share that same dll however much of the shared code between them has to filter through a compatibility layer. The Fabrication API for Revit is baked into the RevitAPI.dll and doesn't use the FabricationAPI.dll. Under the hood the Item Class is replaced by the FabricationPart Class, and things like Sections will be replaced by Revit Levels. From what I've seen, you seem to have been working on a hanger utility, perhaps for point loads? Whatever it is I'm sure it will be very useful. While the AutoCAD API uses the Point3d Class to represent points, Revit uses the XYZ Class. One way to develop for both with common code would be to create some sort of home grown Point Class, or use a built in .NET Framework Structure like the System.Windows.Media.Media3D.Point3D.

The betas will be fully functional and free and so will the release versions however there will likely be a paid option to unlock more features.


Offline DotNetTopic starter

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Re: Brace Yourself - AddOns Are Coming
« Reply #9 on: May 06, 2019, 02:02:36 AM »
The VDC CAD BETA for CADmep 2019 & 2020 is live!

Please CLICK HERE for the download page. Simply download, unzip and double click the setup.exe file. Depending on your version of Windows you may need to right click and edit the properties of the setup.exe file. Please see the below image. You can uninstall at any time through the Windows Add Remove Programs Dialog.

Many other features not covered in this thread are present. Please explore everything on the VDC CAD Ribbon Tab. Descriptive Tool Tips have been added for all VDC CAD Commands.

A brief note on the Properties Palette... The API does not currently support setting certain Item Properties to "None". In order to make a "None" value available for things like Insulation Specification, Connectors and Dampers, your database needs to contain a "None" entry for each.
« Last Edit: May 20, 2019, 14:34:49 PM by DotNet »

Offline thejikz

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Re: Brace Yourself - AddOns Are Coming
« Reply #10 on: May 06, 2019, 14:21:49 PM »
Good morning- Congratulations on your BETA release!
Maybe it is a Monday thing, I simply cannot get the Ribbon or anything to show. Are there any custom commands defined, or something I am completely missing? I have it installed, it asked to load the DLL upon starting up CAD, so I know it did *something*.

Cheers!


Offline DotNetTopic starter

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Re: Brace Yourself - AddOns Are Coming
« Reply #11 on: May 06, 2019, 14:26:54 PM »
Confirmed. Sorry about that. Try redownloading, I've updated the link.

Offline thejikz

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Re: Brace Yourself - AddOns Are Coming
« Reply #12 on: May 06, 2019, 15:10:39 PM »
HUZZAH! Fix Confirmed.

First impressions-
THIS IS FAST. The props palette is responsive, part changing is instant. Excellent job on that aspect.

Preference/UI critique-
If possible, color code fields which one can change contrasting ones that cannot change-- though it is obvious you cannot change something like item quantity, just makes it easy to know where you can click or not.

Later Feature? - Ability to change the order and/or hide item data.

Spool Color-
I am sure you are still working on the update portion of this one, it takes clicking the arrows to make it change colors on the selected part currently. Will you be implementing a color palette so anyone can input say 8 specific colors of their choosing to toggle through? (We for instance have set spool colors as standard for our deliverables).

What a solid start. Starting to make a few heads explode in the office already. This truly is a missed aspect of CADmep. Thank you for letting us test it out.

More to come when I can get time to play!


Offline DotNetTopic starter

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Re: Brace Yourself - AddOns Are Coming
« Reply #13 on: May 06, 2019, 15:47:56 PM »
HUZZAH! Fix Confirmed.

First impressions-
THIS IS FAST. The props palette is responsive, part changing is instant. Excellent job on that aspect.

Thank you! I've worked hard to make it so, especially since the FabAPI itself can be extremely slow. In fact I've written a Development Blog Post specifically about that. Selecting 5000 Items will still take up to a second however, given our cpu chip isn't a Dorito. If for some reason a workflow requires us to do this repeatedly, closing the Palette is always an option.

Quote
Preference/UI critique-
If possible, color code fields which one can change contrasting ones that cannot change-- though it is obvious you cannot change something like item quantity, just makes it easy to know where you can click or not.

Later Feature? - Ability to change the order and/or hide item data.

Agreed. I've experimented internally with mouse hover highlighting like the Connector Locks currently do, and changing the mouse cursor when hovering over changeable properties. Palette Settings are also in the works. I'm working on the ability to hide/show/lock certain Palette Fields. I'll definitely look at an order option.

Quote
Spool Color-
I am sure you are still working on the update portion of this one, it takes clicking the arrows to make it change colors on the selected part currently. Will you be implementing a color palette so anyone can input say 8 specific colors of their choosing to toggle through? (We for instance have set spool colors as standard for our deliverables).

What a solid start. Starting to make a few heads explode in the office already. This truly is a missed aspect of CADmep. Thank you for letting us test it out.

More to come when I can get time to play!

I'll look into that. Those Color Arrows exist for the Status Drop Down as well, enabling us to color Items by Status. A Navisworks AddOn is planned to roll those features in as well. Thanks for the feedback. Please everyone, keep it coming.
« Last Edit: May 06, 2019, 18:29:19 PM by DotNet »

Offline Dan Christensen

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Re: Brace Yourself - AddOns Are Coming
« Reply #14 on: May 06, 2019, 15:48:59 PM »
Hello,
Great job on this, love it.
Is there any plan on getting this into Revit Fabrication Parts?
That would be awesome!