AutoCAD Architecture 2023 - Workspaces?

[BillAllenSE]

When I first started learning 3D in AutoCAD, I did so in bare, ACAD. There, there were several workspaces available including 3D and 3D basic. These don't appear to be available in ACA. Is that because the 3D tools are not compatible with ACA? Can I not union, add and subtract in ACA? I see trim planes, but, so far, those have been difficult to work with. I know I haven't done much modeling and I'm sure experience will help. Also, I liked the Gismo. It helped to rotate 2D elevations to align properly in space with a 2D plan I want to convert to 3D.

Your thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Thank you

[ The subject line of this post has been edited to include the product name by @handjonathan ]

[rwrightWMDSY · Accepted solution]

In you tool palette bar, right click in the blank area for a pull-down menu.  Click on "show tabs" the turn on "solids"  that will give you the 3D modeling tools.  If the "View" tab is not in the tool palette then turn this on as well.  That will give you the ability to add and organize workspaces.

[BillAllenSE]

Thank you

[BillAllenSE]

Thanks for the tip on workspaces. I already added it to my Quick Access Toolbar, but the only workspace that shows up is "Architecture". Before I dealt with the Content Browser issue and reinstalled ACA, I originally installed ACAD then ACA. Then, I had multiple options for workspaces such as "3D Modeling". When I reinstalled ACA, I did not install ACAD first thinking ACA contained ACAD.

What should I do to fix this?

[David_W_Koch]

When you re-installed AutoCAD Architecture, did you include the "as AutoCAD" profile?  If you start AutoCAD Architecture from the "as AutoCAD" shortcut or change the current profile to "AutoCAD" after starting AutoCAD Architecture with one of the ACA shortcuts, you will have access to the same main customization file (ACAD.cuix) and the same workspaces as if you had installed just AutoCAD.

The title bar will still say AutoCAD Architecture, but the interface will be AutoCAD.

[BillAllenSE]

I did not. 

Do I have to do a reinstall to fix or ?

[David_W_Koch]

If you have an AutoCAD Architecture desktop shortcut for the version of AutoCAD Architecture that you want to run "as AutoCAD," you can make a copy of it, rename the copy and then edit its properties.

On the Shortcut tab, you will need to edit the text in the Target line.

• Delete the /ld switch and the entire quoted string that follows ("C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2023\AecBase.dbx" for the 2023 release).
• Edit the quoted string after the /p switch and change it to the name of the profile you want for your "as AutoCAD" profile.  Make certain it is a name that is NOT used by any current profile.  If you do not have an "AutoCAD" profile, "AutoCAD" will do.  I already had one, so I used "AutoCAD23" when testing this just now.

That should leave the string similar to this:  

"C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2023\acad.exe" /p "AutoCAD23" /product "ACA" /language "en-US"

If you are running a version other than AutoCAD 2023, you will need to change the 2023 to the version year you are running.  If you did not install AutoCAD Architecture to the default directory, then the path to acad.exe will need to be changed to where you put acad.exe.

Save the changes to the shortcut, then double-click it.  AutoCAD Architecture should start up, and you will get a dialog that looks like this:

That is what you want because the default-settings profile it creates will run AutoCAD Architecture "as AutoCAD".  Select the OK button and let it do its thing.  You may need to tweak some settings in the profile to get it to your liking.  (I am not 100% certain that the settings match what you would get if you asked for an "as AutoCAD" profile at installation, as I have never taken the time to carefully compare the two - and most likely never will.)