Don’t know how many of you have received your new software for 2012, either via download or DVD, I have. I had heard some significant changes were being considered for the software on the whole; don’t know if that ever panned out but…. Two things I do know for sure, however; 1.) Acad Elect. 2012 installed much faster than previous versions have, and, 2.) Just like 2009, 2010, and 2011 it has issues right out of the box as it were. I have been told by a number of individuals that I use Acad Elect at an extreme level in relation to its overall flexibility is it true not sure. But I can’t believe that the “strains” that I place on the software would result in the issue that I found after having installed the software, configured it to use our standard blocks, database etc., and drawn one vertical three wire bus. At this point mind you I will admit that the install, and configure process, was done very quickly, more so than in the past, due credit there.
The issue that I found was as follows; I drew, inserted, whichever term you prefer, the vertical three wire bus, then tried to connect a horizontal three wire bus to the vertical one. With snap enabled, set @ 1/16”, the visual “snap on” indicator was lit, essentially everything telling me snap was on and active, the cross hairs floated and as such were not on snap in any way shape or form, end result was the horizontal three wire bus was nowhere near snap. This only seems to occur when one tries to connect a bus to another bus; a single wire in empty space, to the bus, or a three wire bus into empty space, snap seems to works fine.
I have sent this to tech support, which has been able to reproduce the issue and have forwarded it onto the development team. In itself ‘stuff” happens, but I don’t understand how something so fundamental to the software package for years now could just not work. Am I the only one who uses these functions, I can’t believe that to be true however, no one seemingly found this during beta testing. A further puzzlement to me is that virtually every time I have registered issues with tech support with each new rendition of software sooner or later I am told that very few use the software the way I do. This is one thing that I find hard to fathom but if true why, when many Autodesk peoples have suggested that I should be part of the Beta testing process, haven’t they taken me up on my offer to do just that???
Oh well another version of Acad Elect installed and removed within one week because it is of no use to me. It only required one year but eventually 2010 was fixed enough that I could give it to my designers to use. So hope springs eternal for 2012.
Have fun my fellow Acad Electrical gurus once more unto the breach.
I just found the same problem. No snapping when inserting multiwire on another bus.
But did you also noticed that you don't have SNAP when No Command is Active?
When Snap is on in 2011 the cursor "Snaps" when no command is active. Not in 2012.
This seems the same in Mechanical 2012 and Electrical 2012.
Is there a new setting for this in 2012?
John
I have found both these grid snap issues to be true. And also, during the startup loading screen the standard AutoCad 2012 loading screen appears instead of the AutoCad Electrical 2012 screen. Once in cad, it is the electrical package. Has anyone found this also?
The new snap behavior is a new feature implementation from AutoCAD 2012 feature enhancements. We are gathering feedbacks from customers about this. Thanks for reporting this. We are closely monitoring this implementation for ACADE 2012 and revert.
Regards,
Mayuresh
Can you please attach a screenshot for the screen that you are observing ? We have checked and no startup screen issues are observed.
Regards,
Mayuresh
Hi Mathaleka, thanks for responding. I understand that there is a new snap behaviour.
That's great when you work mechanical, but not if you work electrical.
And the thing with the Multibus wire seems to be a little bug?
Grtz, John
I would not call it as a bug. As I suggested above, we are gathering inputs for new snap behavior and will only be able to revert after a while. As you say it is good for Mechanical and not good for electrical to use the new behavior, this is a key input for us to see the workaround or solution that we can provide to customers.
Regards,
Mayuresh
I hope I can put this right, the meaning is that you don't have snapping when no command is active. When you activate a command like "Place wire" snap is on.
Then the command "Multiple Bus". I choose in the dailoog screen "Another Bus (Multiple wires)" with 3 number wires and klik OK. At this moment the snap should be back on, but it isn't.
How can I select a begin point on a wire on snap to begin the Multiwire?
If you want more explanation with screenshots, please let me know.
Best regards, John
Hello evanjensen4116,
For the start screen, it is a change in ACE2012.
You know in ACE2011, when launch the bundled ACAD2011, then the start screen is ACE2011.
but in this 2012 release, we intent to change this behavior, when launch the bundled ACAD2012, the start screen is changed to ACAD2012. There is no impact for other place, only the start screen change.
Thanks,
Robin Shou
Hi Mayuresh
Attached is a screen shot of the startup screen which I am experiancing. After I first installed ACADE2012, I definately noticed a different screen (which had a image similar to the ACADE 2012's product packaging), but after I restarted it reverted to the image attached. It has been loading with this image ever since.
Is there a way to get it back to the original ACADE 2012 startup screen?
When software doesn’t work the way it needs to it is either a bug or an error. Bottom line is the “new” snap approach does not work for AutoCAD Electrical, and should never have been released as such. Until it is fixed the users of this software have a package that, at best, is frustrating to use, or those users give up uninstall it and go back to a version that actually worked, which is what I have done. I am severely unimpressed, for years I associated Autodesk with industry leading product, they were the standard that virtually everyone else seemed to try to emulate. But the last four versions 2009, 2010, 2011, and now 2012, all have had some fairly significant issues right out of the box, and in some case the users thereof have had to wait months, if not a year, for the fixes to make the stuff work right. How many more responses does the development team require; please feel free to use this one for them… “It does not work… so please fix it”.
DBrohm
"New Snap Behavior"
Also affected is Manual Wire Number insertion, Move Wire Number, and Wire Number Copy. All of these commands do not allow precise placement of wire numbers. In my opinion the vanilla AutoCAD developers need to add a system variable to restore "classic" snap behavior.
My 2 cents
I am having trouble opening the AutoCad Help in ACADE 2012. (The AutoCAD Message says "Cannot find help file: acad.chm")
Both the electrical & vault help topics open corrctly. Any ideas?
In my setup both AutoCAD 2012 and AutoCAD Electrical 2012 go to the internet for vanilla AutoCAD help.
http://docs.autodesk.com/ACAD_E/2012/ENU/landing.html
However, there is an index.html file located in C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Acade 2012\Help
From the command line type options and check the Support File path for the Help file.
If you've migrated your settings from a previous version it could be pointed to an invalid reference.
Regards,
David
This new snap behaviour makes it impossible for anyone to do production work using AutoCAD Electrical 2012. The problem is with the Multi-Wire Utility and several Wire Editing tools appear to be "broken" with respect to the way AE should work.
Please return the proper functionality to Electricals tools. This appears to be fine for Mechanical environments/profiles, but not Electrical! REVERT PLEASE!
JCard
For NEW SNAP behavior in 2012, we (both ACAD and AcadE) have noticed this and taking action now, will update the result to you as soon as possible.
Regards,
Kevin Li
As Robin Shou explained, There will be two splash screens that you get,
1. AutoCAD 2012 - When you choose to start AutoCAD 2012 (and the one which you have attached)
2. AutoCAD Electrical 2012 - Which is on packaging box - When you choose to start ACADE 2012
Do you mean to say even when you choose to start ACADE 2012, you get ACAD 2012 screen at startup ?
Regards,
Mayuresh
Hi evanjensen4116,
ACAD2012 will not use CHM file for the online help, it uses online website page for the help. Try to check if checkbox "Use online help from Autodesk website when available" is turn on in the Options dialog box and System tab, see attached image.
Regards,
Kevin Li
Yes Mayuresh, I start ACADE and the ACAD loading screen appears.
How do you choose between either starting in ACADE & ACAD? As there is only the acad.exe,, where would you set this up?
@ Kevin Li, my screen shot differs to yours. I do not have this section of online help (see attached).
I can edit the Help Location search path to add the help index.html instead of acad181.chm, but I think I will use the 2011 acad181.chm file as I prefer the the interface compared to the online help.
Hi,
You can choose between either starting in ACADE & ACAD from the Start -> All Programs -> Autodesk -> AutoCAD Electrical 2011, then select AcadE or ACAD you want to launch, see attached image.
For the screenshot of Options dialog box, don't you use AcadE 2012 ? you should have that option in ACAD2012, does solution "use the 2011 acad181.chm file" resolve your problem ?
Regards,
Kevin Li