Navis works not reading acad and Cadworks data.

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone, help or advice please.

I have Navisworks Simulate running with acad and Cadworks for piping models. Normaly when I have Navis open I can select a pipe and all the properties, line no. etc all show. But lately all that is shown is the item and nothing else.

Is there a tick box I have ticked by mistake? I have attached a PDF for a visual refence.

Also I have Navisworks Freedom as a back up, but lately I have been getting the follwing message when I try to open an acad drawing  ``No plug in exists that will open drawingno.dwg``. This worked fine up to a couple of days ago, I may have deleted a file by mistake.

Thanks in advance.

[JeffH_ADSK]

Hi Paul,

Is that PDF showing before & after, working and then not working (on page 1 & 2 respectively)?

If so, it looks like your selection resolution has changed and you're selecting a group entity that probably houses the pipe, vs the pipe itself. To verify this, look around in the hierarchy in the selection tree around the group - an entity above or below in the tree should be the pipe & properties you're looking for. Selection resolution can be adjusted in Global Options/Interface/Selection, and determines at what level in the tree you select when you click on a given 3D object in Navisworks.

I'm not aware of Freedom ever reading DWG files directly. It can read NWD & DWF files at time of writing as far as I know.

Hope that helps,

Jeff

[Anonymous]

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for the reply.

To answer your first question, yes that is before and after.

I am sorry, but after that I am not sure as to what you are asking. Please could you explain in layman`s terms.

Two other points, I can detect all the properties when selecting a vessel or pump which has been modeled using Cadworks Equipment as opposed to Cadworks Pipe. Also I have noticed an OLE icon in the Navis model, please see attached. This was not there when the properties window was working okay and has appeared since I have had problems.

Thanks in advance.

Paul

[Anonymous]

Forgot to say, I have uninstalled and reinstalled twice, but still get the same problem.

Would upgrading to Simulate 2013 help?

Thanks

[JeffH_ADSK]

Hi Paul,

I've not seen that OLE1 issue before. Some simple things to confirm:

If you expand the Selection Tree, does it look the same as before? Do you have all the entities and their various nodes present?

Are there any messages in Scene Statistics hinting at missing enablers or other lack of information?

In the Selection Tree (standard tab), where you would usually find the pipe you're after, usually a DWG imports with several nodes underneath the primary layer node for a given entity. One might be a group, or an insert, perhaps to hold multiple sub-entities of different colours. One in particular will be the node that describes the actual entity itself & should hold the pipe properties.

At first glance, it looks like when you're clicking in the scene on a PIPE, it's selecting the nearest group rather than the node that has the information on it. However, without seeing an expanded Selection Tree, I can't say for certain. To better gauge the issue, it's first best to establish if the information is there in the file, just not being correctly found, or if the pipe properties have genuinely vanished from the file itself. It should be nearby in the Selection Tree from the group you found that is on the pipe layer.

Hope that helps,

Jeff

[Anonymous]

Thanks again Jeff,

The selection tree looks okay, I can pick on a piece of info, for example 4inch pipe, and it will highlight all 4 inch pipe. It will also show the number of items in the properties box, but no data. Please see attached, which also shows the scene statistics tab.

Thanks in advance

Paul

[JeffH_ADSK · Accepted solution]

Hi Paul,

That definitely looks like a selection problem as the properties are there in the main Properties tab, so the Navisworks file has the info you need in it. What I'd suggest is this:

You've been able to find 31 items that have 4 inch pipes from the Properties tab. If you then switch back to the Standard tab, you should see those 31 items shown as selected in the Selection Tree. If you then click on just one of the already-selected nodes, you should get the node that has the properties on. That should get you the data you need as an immediate workaround. It's that node that you want to arrange to be selected when you select as usual.

The next question would be why that isn't occurring. If you go to Options off the App Menu (top left) and then Interface/Selection, there is a dropdown for Selection Resolution. Try changing that and clicking on pipe entities in the 3D view and see what gets selected with each type.

Hope that helps,

Jeff

[Anonymous]

Thank you Jeff,

All sorted (I think).

The problem as you suggested was the  selection resolution.

For future reference should this crop up again, the procedure is....

Options---Interface---Selection----In the resolution tab pick ``Last Unique``

Thanks for your help.