Tool Issue

[schnefke]

We are currently installing Architecture 2011 on our server for network distribution.  The problem we are having is after it is installed and we select anything under ANNOTATE we get a pop-up that says "The tool cannot be found in the current workspace".  We have changed workspaces uninstalled and reinstalled and it is always the same issue.

Has anyone else come across this? 

Thanks for the assist.

Dan

[tmd218]

Yes, I'm having the exact same issue.

[trichardsoak]

This has randomly occurede in my autocad and I have no idea why although I can still access the same tools from the content browser as opposed to the ribbon. 

It seems like something in the ribbon has lost a link to one of my major autocad files.

Also I am having another issue too that I believe may be related.  One day I reopened a partiicular drawing and all of the sections and elevation marks seem to have duplicated in multiple scales.

[David_W_Koch]

When you say "under Annotate", are you refering to the Annotatte tab of the ribbon (as opposed to a tool palette)?  The ribbon tools that run ACA commands, particularly those that create AEC objects, often run the AecRibbonTool command and work by "running" a tool palette tool.  The ACA.cuix file is set up to reference a number of tools that are on a palette that should get installed into your workspace called "Ribbon Tools - AutoCAD Architecture (US Imperial)" if you installed an Imperial profile and are located in the United States.  I do not see a Metric version, but it could be that the same content works for both Metric and Imperial, as it is all annotation anyway.  If you are outside of the United States, you may have a similar palette under a different name that works with your localized content and version of the ACA.cuix file.  This palette is not part of any of the out-of-the-box Tool Palette Groups, but can be seen if you select "All Palettes" as your group.

If you summarily deleted all of the out-of-the-box palettes or pointed your local workspace to a different directory after installation, your workspace will not have this palette and you are unlikely to have created a tool with the exact name that the CUIX file references.  Since ACA can not find the referenced tool, you get the error message you report.  You will need to restore or recreate the missing palette to get the ribbon tools to work.

You can read more about ribbon tools here, if you are interested:

http://architects-desktop.blogspot.com/2009/06/autocad-architecture-2010-ui-changes.html

If you want  a tutorial on how to create your own ribbon tools that use the AecRibbonTool command, you can find a link to the AU Quarterly Newsletter article I wrote for the December 2009 edtion in this blog article:

http://architects-desktop.blogspot.com/2009/12/aec-content-on-ribbon-au-tech-talk.html

[trichardsoak]

When Im referring to annotate I am referring to the annotate menu on my ribbon.  I used to be able to access these and somehow they quit referencing whatever file they were referencing.  Now, this is just for this menu on the ribbon.  All other tabs and their icons seem to be working perfectly, its just the annotate option.

Iam also located in the US therefore use the Imperial system and have autocad installed on a stand alone computer.

I can still access them (annotation tools) by going to my home menu (on my ribbon) >content browser > and searching for what I need, may it be a title or section mark.

 How can I go about restoring this to a previous state?  I am even unaware of how you show autocad where you keep such a ribbon file....is this thru your options?  I read your article but I am unsure or what the solution is.  I want the ribbon to be restored as it was.  Does this involve a new installation of the autocad 2011?

[tmd218]

Same here--I suspect that this issue of linking to a missing file is what is at play.  How do I restore everything, or find the file and link to it correctly?

[trichardsoak]

Iam still baffeled as to when/why my autocad randomly decided to stop finding this annotate information.  Did I cause this?  I personally dont even want to get my hand dirty with all of the customizing and changing of files in my Cad so I am not sure how this happened. 

It was like one day I had access to the annotate ribbon tool bar and the next, nothing?

[David_W_Koch]

If you deleted the "Ribbon Tools - AutoCAD Architecture (US Imperial)" tool palette from your workspace, either by deleting the tool palette itself or by modifying the tool palette location path(s) and removing the one where this palette was initially installed, then the tools on the ACA Annotate ribbon tab that reference tool palette content will no longer work.

You do not necessarily need to know how to get a ribbon tool to run a tool palette tool, but you do need to be aware that some of the ACA ribbon tools do so and that you need to have the referenced tool somewhere in your workspace.  The ribbon tool merely references a tool name.  ACA will look in your current workspace for a tool of that name, and, if found, will execute it.  Back when these worked for you, you had this tool palette and its associated tools in your workspace.  At some point you made a change that resulted in these tools no longer being in your workspace.

[trichardsoak]

David,

I 100% understand this:

If you deleted the "Ribbon Tools - AutoCAD Architecture (US Imperial)" tool palette from your workspace, either by deleting the tool palette itself or by modifying the tool palette location path(s) and removing the one where this palette was initially installed, then the tools on the ACA Annotate ribbon tab that reference tool palette content will no longer work.

I guess my thoughts are that if I had modified any type of file...would I not know this?  It doesn't seem like something I should be able to modify accidentally or easily.

At anry rate, do you have any specific resolution to somehow get CAD to re-reference the ribbon tools for the ANNOTATE ribbon toolbar?  I have read thru some of your articles and I am still unclear as to what exactlky I can do.

Is a complete re-installation of Autocad necessary? 

[David_W_Koch]

The attached PNG file is a composite image showing all of the tools on the Ribbon Tools - AutoCAD Architecture (US Imperial) in the 2010 release.  You could create a new palette, idrop the equivalent tools from the tool catalog and rename them to match the names shown here (by adding " - ribbon" to the end.  Rather tedious; I suppose you could skip any that you do not use.

I do not believe that this palette is in any of the out-of-the-box tool catalogs in 2010; I was not able to find it, anyway.  I do not know if this changed in 2011 and can not check at the moment.  You may want to check the 2011 catalogs to see if the ribbon palette is in any of them in 2011.  You may want to try a repair installation first, to see if that restores this palette to your workspace.  Be certain to back up any and all customizations you may have made (and export your profile) prior to running the repair installation (just to be safe). 

If you have a spare computer, you could do a fresh installation there also.

Once you have the palette (by manually creating it or through a repair installation or reinstallation), you may want to copy it to a custom catalog and back that up.

[trichardsoak]

After looking into other solutions what ultimately fixed my issue was doing a repair on my autocad installation.

I have windows 7 but your computer could have similar steps to mine:

Go to start

click on control panel and go to programs

Right click on autocad architectural 2011

and go to uninstall/change option

once you click this an autocad window will pop up where you repair or reinstall, uninstall or add or remove features.

Click on the repair or reinstalll.

After doing this I had full access to my ribbon once again !

[nickdoos]

My colleague experienced the same problem when using room tag and the menu pop up 'the tool cannot be found in the current workspace'. I suspected it has to do with being unable to find the path (c:drive) to AEC content or profile got corrupted (under Option). Instead of reinstalling the AutoCad on my colleague's computer, I simply export my profile which works fine on my computer and import the profile on her computer which seem to do the trick.