Autodesk NavisWorks NavisWorks Manage - 2011 User Guide

Autodesk Navisworks Manage 2011

User Guide

March 2010

reproduced in any form, by any method, for any purpose.

Certain materials included in this publication are reprinted with the permission of the copyright holder.

Trademarks

The following are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and other countries: 3DEC (design/logo), 3December, 3December.com, 3ds Max, Algor, Alias, Alias (swirl design/logo), AliasStudio, Alias|Wavefront (design/logo), ATC, AUGI, AutoCAD, AutoCAD Learning Assistance, AutoCAD LT, AutoCAD Simulator, AutoCAD SQL Extension, AutoCAD SQL Interface, Autodesk, Autodesk Envision, Autodesk Intent, Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Map, Autodesk MapGuide, Autodesk Streamline, AutoLISP, AutoSnap, AutoSketch, AutoTrack, Backburner, Backdraft, Built with ObjectARX (logo), Burn, Buzzsaw, CAiCE, Civil 3D, Cleaner, Cleaner Central, ClearScale, Colour Warper, Combustion, Communication Specification, Constructware, Content Explorer, Dancing Baby (image), DesignCenter, Design Doctor, Designer's Toolkit, DesignKids, DesignProf, DesignServer, DesignStudio, Design Web Format, Discreet, DWF, DWG, DWG (logo), DWG Extreme, DWG TrueConvert, DWG TrueView, DXF, Ecotect, Exposure, Extending the Design Team, Face Robot, FBX, Fempro, Fire, Flame, Flare, Flint, FMDesktop, Freewheel, GDX Driver, Green Building Studio, Heads-up Design, Heidi, HumanIK, IDEA Server, i-drop, ImageModeler, iMOUT, Incinerator, Inferno, Inventor, Inventor LT, Kaydara, Kaydara (design/logo), Kynapse, Kynogon, LandXplorer, Lustre, MatchMover, Maya, Mechanical Desktop, Moldflow, Moonbox, MotionBuilder, Movimento, MPA, MPA (design/logo), Moldflow Plastics Advisers, MPI, Moldflow Plastics Insight, MPX, MPX (design/logo), Moldflow Plastics Xpert, Mudbox, Multi-Master Editing, Navisworks, ObjectARX, ObjectDBX, Open Reality, Opticore, Opticore Opus, Pipeplus, PolarSnap, PortfolioWall, Powered with Autodesk Technology, Productstream, ProjectPoint, ProMaterials, RasterDWG, RealDWG, Real-time Roto, Recognize, Render Queue, Retimer,Reveal, Revit, Showcase, ShowMotion, SketchBook, Smoke, Softimage, Softimage|XSI (design/logo), Sparks, SteeringWheels, Stitcher, Stone, StudioTools, ToolClip, Topobase, Toxik, TrustedDWG, ViewCube, Visual, Visual LISP, Volo, Vtour, Wire, Wiretap, WiretapCentral, XSI, and XSI (design/logo).

LightWorks, the LightWorks logo, LWA and LWA-Enabled are registered trademarks of LightWork Design Ltd. The LWA-Enabled logo, Interactive Image Regeneration, IIR, A-Cubed, Feature-Following Anti-Aliasing and FFAA are all trademarks of LightWork Design Ltd. All other trademarks, images and logos remain the property of their respective owners. Copyright of LightWork Design Ltd. 1990-2007, 2008. This software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group. Contains a modified version of Open CASCADE libraries. See the license file "OpenCascadeLicense.txt" in the Navisworks installation directory. Source code is available from download.autodesk.com/us/navisworks/OpenCascade.zip.

Disclaimer

THIS PUBLICATION AND THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS MADE AVAILABLE BY AUTODESK, INC. "AS IS." AUTODESK, INC. DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE REGARDING THESE MATERIALS.

This User Guide was last updated on 12 February 2010.

Welcome to Autodesk Navisworks Manage 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 1 What Is New in This Release? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Chapter 2 How to Get Assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Finding Information Using the InfoCenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Overview of InfoCenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Search for Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Access Subscription Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Use Communication Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Save and Access Favorite Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Use the Help System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Specify InfoCenter Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Get More Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Learn the Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

View the Product Readme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Join the Customer Involvement Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Chapter 3 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Quick Start to Stand-Alone Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Prepare for Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

System Requirements for Stand-Alone Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Understand Administrative Permission Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Locate Your Autodesk Navisworks Serial Number and Product Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Avoid Data Loss During Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Choose a Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Configure Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Install Multiple or Bundled Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Install and Run Autodesk Navisworks Manage 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Install Autodesk Navisworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Launch Autodesk Navisworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

How to Launch Autodesk Navisworks in Another Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Add or Remove Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Repair Autodesk Navisworks Manage 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Uninstall Autodesk Autodesk Navisworks Manage 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Move to Autodesk Navisworks from a Previous Release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Install Autodesk Navisworks for Multiple Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Quick Start to Network Administration and Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Deployment Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Set Up Network Tools and Your License Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Contents | iii

Distribute the Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Distribute an Autodesk Navisworks Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Set Up a Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Preliminary Tasks for a Network Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Configure Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Your Deployment Choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Choose a Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Create a Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Final Review and Complete Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Modify a Deployment (optional) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Point Users to the Administrative Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Uninstall an Autodesk Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Installation Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

General Installation Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

How can I check my graphics card driver to see if it needs to be updated? . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

When performing a Typical installation, what gets installed? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Why should I specify the Project Folder and Site Folder? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

How do I share the Autodesk Navisworks settings on a site and project basis? . . . . . . . . . . 52

Where are my product manuals? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

How do I register and activate Autodesk Navisworks? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Deployment Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Is there a checklist I can refer to when performing a deployment? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Where should deployments be located? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Where can I check if service packs are available for my software? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

How do I choose between 32-bit and 64-bit deployments? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

What are information channels? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Licensing Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

What is the difference between a stand-alone license and a network license? . . . . . . . . . . 55

What is the benefit to using a network licensed version of the software? . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

What is Internet Explorer used for? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Networking Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Where do I find my server name? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

If I choose to create a log file, what kind of information does the log file contain? . . . . . . . 56

What is an administrative image (MSI) file? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

What is the impact of selecting all products to be included in the administrative image? . . . . 56

Uninstall and Maintenance Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

When adding or removing features, how can I tell what features get installed by default? . . . 57

Is it possible to change the installation folder when adding or removing features? . . . . . . . 57

When should I reinstall the product instead of a repair? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Do I need my original DVD to reinstall my software? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

When I uninstall my software, what files are left on my system? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Chapter 4 Quick Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Start and Quit Autodesk Navisworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Automatically Save and Recover Navisworks Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Command Line Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

The User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Parts of Autodesk Navisworks Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Application Button and Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Quick Access Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Keytips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Navigation Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

The Classic User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Scene View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Dockable Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Undo/Redo Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Autodesk Navisworks Workspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Default Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Navigation with the Wheel Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Autodesk Navisworks Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Location Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

iv | Contents

Display Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Search Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Gizmos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Get a Whole-Project View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Chapter 5 Work with Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Native File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Compatible CAD Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Supported CAD File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Supported Laser Scan File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Use File Readers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

3DS File Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

ASCII Laser Scan File Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Bentley AutoPLANT File Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

CIS/2 File Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

DWG/DXF File Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

DWF File Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

DGN File Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Faro Scan File Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

FBX File Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

IFC File Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

IGES File Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Inventor File Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

JTOpen File Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Leica Scan File Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

MAN File Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Parasolid File Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

PDS File Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Riegl Scan File Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

RVM File Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

SAT File Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

SketchUp SKP File Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

STEP File Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

STL File Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

VRML File Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Z+F Scan File Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Use File Exporters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

AutoCAD File Exporter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Revit File Exporter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

MicroStation File Exporter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Viz and Max File Exporter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

ArchiCAD File Exporter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Manage Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Open Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Create Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Save and Rename Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Complex Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Refresh Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Merge Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Email Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Receive 3D Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Batch Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

View Scene Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Chapter 6 Explore Your Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Navigate a Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Orientation in 3D Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Product-Specific Navigation Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

ViewCube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Navigation Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Contents | v

SteeringWheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Navigation Aids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Control the Realism of Your Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Gravity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Crouching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Collision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Third Person View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Chapter 7 Control Model Appearance and Render Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Control Model Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Select Render Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Add Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Select Background Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Adjust Displaying of Primitives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Control Render Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Use Culling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Control Rendering of Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Adjust Presenter Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Stereo Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Chapter 8 Review Your Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Select Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Interactive Geometry Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Set Selection Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Set Highlighting Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Hide Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Find Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Find Items Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Quick Find . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Create and Use Sets of Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Sets Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Create and Manage Selection and Search Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Compare Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Object Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Properties Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Custom Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

External Database Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Manipulate Object Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Transform Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Change Object Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Snapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Reset to Original Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Measure Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Measure Tools Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Measuring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Comments, Redlines, and Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Use Comments, Redlines, and Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Find Comments and Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

Manage Comment and Tag IDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Link Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Display Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Customize Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Add Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Find and Follow Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

Manage Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Quick Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

SwitchBack to AutoCAD and MicroStation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Chapter 9 Use Viewpoints and Sectioning Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

vi | Contents

Create and Modify Viewpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Overview of Viewpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Saved Viewpoints Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Save Viewpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Recall Viewpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Organize Viewpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

Edit Viewpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

Default Viewpoint Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Share Viewpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Sectioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Enable and Use Section Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Enable and Use Section Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Chapter 10 Record and Play Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Create and Edit Viewpoint Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Play Animations and Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

Share Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Chapter 11 Work Within a Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Collaborate Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Collaboration Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Chapter 12 Share Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Print . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Print Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Print Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Print Current Viewpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Import Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Search Criteria Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Search Set Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

PDS Display Set Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

PDS Tag Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Viewpoints Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Clash Test Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Export Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

3D DWF Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Google Earth KML Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Autodesk FBX Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Export Images and Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Current Search Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Search Set Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Viewpoints Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Viewpoints Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

TimeLiner CSV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

Clash Test Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

PDS Tag Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

Chapter 13 Animate Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Overview of the Animator Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

Animator Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

The Animator Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

The Animator Tree View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

The Animator Timeline View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

The Manual Entry Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Scripter Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

The Scripter Tree View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

The Events View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

The Actions View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

The Properties View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Create Object Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Work with Animation Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

Work with Animation Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

Contents | vii

Add Animation Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

Update Animation Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Manipulate Geometry Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Work with Cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

Work with Section Plane Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Work with Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Capture Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Edit Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Play Animation Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Add Interactivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

Work with Animation Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

Work with Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

Work with Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348

Enable Scripting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

Chapter 14 Create Photorealistic Visualizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Overview of the Presenter Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Presenter Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Use the Presenter Archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

Photo-Realistic Scene Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Use Presenter Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

Materials Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

Apply and Remove Presenter Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

Organize and Manage Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Edit Presenter Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

Advanced Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Use Presenter Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

Lighting Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

Add and Position Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

Organize and Manage Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Edit Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Shadow Casting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Advanced Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

Soft Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

Physically Accurate Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

Volumetric Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

Image-based Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Use Presenter RPCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

RPC Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

Use Presenter Rendering Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Effects Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Background Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Foreground Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Use Presenter Rendering Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Rendering Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Rendering Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

Predefined Rendering Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

Auto Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

Use Presenter Texture Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

Use Presenter Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

Rules Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

Predefined Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

Custom Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

The Presenter Rules Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Chapter 15 Simulate Construction Scheduling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Overview of TimeLiner Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

TimeLiner Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Tasks Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Links Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Gantt View Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Configure Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

Rules Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

viii | Contents

Simulate Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Select Link Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

Field Selector Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

Simulation Settings Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

Overlay Text Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

Get Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402

TimeLiner Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

Create Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407

Edit Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408

Attach Tasks to Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

Attach Tasks Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410

Use Rules to Attach Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411

Validate Project Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412

Use Gantt Charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

Link to External Project Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414

Supported Scheduling Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414

CSV Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416

Add and Manage Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416

Add Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416

Edit Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418

Delete Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419

Build Tasks from Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419

Synchronize Tasks with Project Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419

4D Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420

Play Simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420

Configure Simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420

Simulation Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420

Simulation Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420

Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422

Add Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422

Add Animation to an Entire Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422

Add Animation to Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424

Add Scripts to Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

Chapter 16 Locate and Manage Interferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427

Overview of Clash Detective Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427

Clash Detective Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427

Batch Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

Rules Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

Select Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430

Results Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432

Report Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

Get Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436

Clash Batches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436

Run Clash Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437

Manage Batches of Clash Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437

Merge Clash Tests from Multiple Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437

Import Clash Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437

Export Clash Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438

Create Custom Clash Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

Clash Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440

Select Items for Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442

Select Items for a Clash Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442

Select Clash Test Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

Time-Based and Soft Clash Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

Time-Based Clashing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

Soft Clashing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

Time-Based Soft Clashing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

Run a Clash Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446

Clash Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447

Understand Clash Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447

Manage Clash Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448

Review Clash Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449

Contents | ix

Visually Identify Clashes in a Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449

Add Review Comments and Redlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452

Time-Based and Soft Clash Test Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452

Report Clash Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454

Chapter 17 Autodesk Navisworks Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459

Animation Export Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459

Background Settings Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460

Collision Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461

Convert Object Properties Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461

Culling Options Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462

Customize Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462

Toolbars Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462

Commands Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463

Options Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463

Default Collision Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464

Edit Key Frame Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464

Edit Link Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466

Edit Viewpoint Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466

Export Rendered Image Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467

File Options Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468

Culling Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468

Orientation Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469

Speed Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469

Head Light Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469

Scene Lights Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470

DataTools Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470

File Units and Transform Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470

Image Export Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471

InfoCenter Settings Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471

General Node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471

Search Locations Node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472

Communication Center Node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472

Autodesk Channels Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472

Balloon Notification Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472

RSS Feeds Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473

New Link Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473

Options Editor Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473

General Node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474

Undo Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474

Locations Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474

Environment Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474

Auto-Save Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475

Interface Node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475

Display Units Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475

Selection Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475

Measure Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476

Snapping Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477

Viewpoint Defaults Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477

Links Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477

Quick Properties Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480

Developer Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481

Display Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481

SpaceBall Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482

Navigation Bar Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482

ViewCube Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482

SteeringWheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483

User Interface Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485

Model Node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485

Performance Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485

NWD Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486

NWC Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487

File Readers Node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488

3DS Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488

x | Contents

ASCII Laser Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488

CIS/2 Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488

DGN Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489

DWF Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490

DWG/DXF Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491

Faro Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493

FBX Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493

IFC Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494

IGES Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494

Inventor Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495

Leica Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495

JTOpen Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495

MAN Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496

Parasolid Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496

PDS Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497

Riegl Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497

RVM Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497

SAT Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498

SKP Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499

STEP Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499

STL Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499

VRML Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500

Z+F Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501

File Exporters Node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501

DWG Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501

Revit Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503

DGN Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504

Viz/Max Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506

Tools Node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506

Clash Detective Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506

TimeLiner Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506

Presenter Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507

Scripter Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508

Animator Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508

Publish Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508

Piranesi EPix Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509

QTVR Object Movie Settings Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510

Section Plane Settings Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517

Contents | xi

xii | Contents

Welcome to Autodesk Navisworks Manage 2011

Autodesk Navisworks Manage 2011 software is a complete review solution for design and construction management professionals seeking powerful insight and predictability to improve productivity and project quality. 3D design data, both geometry and information, can be combined, regardless of authoring design tools or file size. Navisworks Manage combines precise fault-finding analysis and interference management together with dynamic 4D project schedule simulation and photorealistic visualization. Entire project models can be published and freely viewed in NWD and 3D DWF™ formats.

2 | Part 1 Welcome to Autodesk Navisworks Manage 2011

What Is New in This Release?

Autodesk Navisworks Manage 2011 contains many new features and enhancements.

Installation

The installation screen provides links to the installation options, deployment options, installation tools and utilities, documentation and language settings. When installing the product you can select to install either the 32-bit or 64-bit version. You also have the option of selecting the DWG file readers that require installation, plus the exporter plugins that you require.

NOTE If you are installing the product on a 32-bit operating system the 64-bit install options are inaccessible.

User Interface

The new ribbon-based interface enables faster access to the tools and commands you need, helping you to spend less time searching through menus and more time focusing on your work.

NOTE Smart Tags are now called Quick Properties.

■ Application Button and Menu. The application menu provides access to many

common file actions, and also allows you to manage your files using more advanced tools, such as Import, Export, and Publish. See Application Button

and Menu on page 64.

■ Quick Access Toolbar. The Quick Access toolbar displays frequently used

commands. You can customize it by adding more ribbon commands to it. See

Quick Access Toolbar on page 66.

■ Ribbon. The ribbon is the horizontal area of the Autodesk Navisworks

application window that displays task-based commands and controls. The ribbon is divided into tabs, with each tab is supporting a specific activity. See

Ribbon on page 67.

TimeLiner

Changes to the TimeLiner tool support improved integration with third-party planning tools, and the introduction of Gantt chart reporting for fuller-featured view on the TimeLiner schedule.

■ Access to the Primavera P6 (Web Services) for quicker Primavera schedule linking.

See Supported Scheduling Software on page 414.

■ Ability to view data as Gantt charts on a separate TimeLiner tab.

See “Gantt View Tab” on page 390.

Sectioning

Faster and easier sectioning. The sectioning tools are now more intuitive to use, providing a visual representation of the section plane or box, and with direct manipulation you can position and adjust the section within the main view.

See “Sectioning” on page 287.

4 | Chapter 1 What Is New in This Release?

InfoCenter

You can use InfoCenter to search a variety of information sources with one query. You can also easily access product updates and announcements.

See “Finding Information Using the InfoCenter” on page 7.

Batch Utility

You can now use the Batch Utility to automate common file importing/conversion processes. The Batch Utility is integrated with Windows Task Scheduler to allow you to set up tasks to be run automatically at set times and intervals.

See Batch Utility on page 146.

Distributable Export Utility

The NWC file exporter pack enables project team members to generate the optimized NWC files directly from their design applications without having to install Autodesk Navisworks software.

The NWC file enables transfer of both object geometry and associated metadata (such as object properties and materials) from the design applications into Autodesk Navisworks Manage 2011.

The NWC exporter pack works with a range of products including AutoCAD®-based software, Revit®-based software, 3DS MAX® software, Bentley® Microstation software, and Graphisoft® ArchiCAD® software.

| 5

New Features Workshop

The New Features Workshop introduces you to what’s new in Autodesk Navisworks.

You can access the New Features Workshop from InfoCenter. On the InfoCenter toolbar, to the right of the Help button, click the drop-down arrow.

You can also access the New Features workshop from the Start menu. Click Start ➤ All Programs ➤ Autodesk ➤ Navisworks Manage 2011 ➤ New Features Workshop.

API

In addition to COM Application Programming Interface (API), Autodesk Navisworks Manage 2011 now provides a .NET API that is intended to replace the COM API for most use cases. The API component is an optional feature in the installer, and is installed by default into the API subfolder in the Autodesk Navisworks installation folder.

■ You can use the .NET API to:

■ Gain Access to application information.

■ Gain access to model/document information.

■ Perform simple operations on Navisworks documents (open, save, execute plug-in) without having to fully load the main

application.

NOTE The API gives you access to the same features available in the Autodesk Navisworks product you have installed. Using the API for a feature that is not available will result in an exception due to licensing.

For more details, refer to the API documentation set.

6 | Chapter 1 What Is New in This Release?

How to Get Assistance

There are various ways to find information about how to use this program, and multiple resources are available.

Finding Information Using the InfoCenter

You can use InfoCenter to search a variety of information sources with one query. You can also easily access product updates and announcements.

Overview of InfoCenter

You can use InfoCenter to search for information, display the Subscription Center panel for subscription services, display the Communication Center panel for product updates, and display favorites panel to access saved topics.

You can use InfoCenter to:

■ Search for information through keywords (or by entering a

phrase)

■ Access subscription services through Subscription Center panel

■ Access to product-related updates and announcements through

Communication Center panel

■ Access saved topics through Favorites panel

■ Access topics in Help

To display the InfoCenter box in a collapsed state, click the arrow to its left.

To browse search results

➤ On the panel for Search Results, Subscription Center, Communication Center, or Favorites, on the right

side of the category header, do one of the following:

■ Click the Next button.

■ Click the Previous button.

To rearrange the topics displayed on a panel

1 Display a panel by doing one of the following:

■ In the InfoCenter box, enter a keyword or phrase. Then press ENTER or click the Search button.

■ In the InfoCenter box, click the Communication Center button.

■ In the InfoCenter box, click the Favorites button.

2 Click and drag a category or group header to the desired position.

NOTE You can rearrange categories within a group, but you cannot move them into other groups.

Search for Information

You can enter keywords or a phrase in the InfoCenter box to search for information.

When you enter keywords or a phrase in the InfoCenter box, you search the contents of multiple Help resources.

NOTE You must have Internet access to display search results from the Autodesk Online category.

Keyword searches produce better results. In case of a misspelled word, spelling suggestions are displayed on the panel.

The results are displayed as links on the InfoCenter Search Results panel. Click a link to display the topic, article, or document.

To keep Search Results, Subscription Center, Communication Center, and the Favorites panel expanded, click the push pin icon in the bottom-right corner of the panel.

When you use InfoCenter to search for information, you can use the following special symbols in your query to refine or expand it. These symbols can be used alone or can be combined.

DescriptionSymbol

Replaces one or more characters when used at the beginning, middle, or end of a word. For example, “*lish”, “p*lish”, and “pub*” will find “publish”. Also, “anno*” will find “annotative”, “annotation”, “annoupdate”, “annoreset”, and so on.

Replaces a single character. For example, “cop?” will find “copy”, but not “copybase”.

Adds grammatical form variations to a keyword when added at the beginning or end of a word. For example, “plotting~” will find “plots”, “plotted”, and so on. Also, “~plot” will find “preplot”, “replot”, and so on.

8 | Chapter 2 How to Get Assistance

When performing the exact phrase search, use double quotation marks (" ") to enclose words that must appear next to each other in the specified text string. For example, enter "specify units of measurement" to find only topics with all those words in that order. You can also use the previously mentioned symbols in a text string that is enclosed in double quotation marks.

To search multiple sources for information

1 In the InfoCenter box, enter a keyword or phrase.

2 Click the Search button.

The search results display in the Search Results panel.

To search a single location for information

1 In the InfoCenter box, enter a keyword or phrase.

2 Click the down arrow next to the Search button.

3 Select a location from the list to search.

The search results from that location display in the Search Results panel.

To add a location to search

1 In the InfoCenter box, click the down arrow next to the Search button.

2 Click Add Search Location.

3 In the Add Search Location dialog box, specify a document or a file location to search.

4 Click Add.

Access Subscription Center

Subscription Center displays links to information about subscription services such as product enhancements, personalized web support from Autodesk technical experts, and self-paced e-Learning.

If you are a subscription member, you can access subscription services by clicking the Communication Center

button in the InfoCenterbox, and then clicking a Subscription Center link. To learn more about Autodesk

subscription membership, visit http://www.autodesk.com/subscriptioncenter.

About Subscription Center

With Autodesk Subscription, you get the latest releases of Autodesk software, incremental product enhancements, personalized web support from Autodesk technical experts, and self paced e-Learning. Subscription services are available to subscription members only.

By clicking the Communication Center button in the InfoCenter box, members have access to the following options (under Subscription Center):

■ Subscription status. Checks your subscription status.

■ Create support request. Provides direct one-to-one communication with Autodesk support technicians. You

receive fast, complete answers to your installation, configuration, and troubleshooting questions.

■ View support requests. Tracks and manage your questions and responses through Autodesk's state-of-the-art

support system.

■ Edit Subscription Center profile. Sets up and maintains your subscription account.

■ View e-Learning catalog. Features interactive lessons organized into product catalogs.

Access Subscription Center | 9

■ e-Learning Lessons. (For subscription members only.) Each lesson is 15-30 minutes and features hands-on

exercises, with an option to use a simulation instead of the software application. You can use an online evaluation tool that identifies gaps in skills, determines what lessons will be most helpful, and gauges learning progress.

Subscription Resources and Privacy

Subscription resources provide interactive product features over the Internet. Each time you access subscription resources (such as e-Learning or Create Support Request) from Communication Center in an Autodesk product, product information (such as the serial number, version, language, and the subscription contract ID) is sent to Autodesk for verification that your product is on subscription.

Autodesk compiles statistics using the information sent to subscription resources to monitor how they are being used and how they can be improved. Autodesk maintains the information provided by or collected from you in accordance with Autodesk's published privacy policy, which is available at http://www.autodesk.com/privacy.

To open the Subscription Center

1 Click the Communication Center button in the InfoCenter box.

2 On the Communication Center panel, under Subscription Center, click the subscription resource you want

to access.

NOTE Subscription Center is not available to all product users. If subscription resources are not available in your product, your product is not entitled to subscription benefits.

Manage Files with Autodesk Vault

If you are a subscription customer, you have access to Autodesk Vault, a file management tool that provides a repository where documents and files are stored and managed.

Autodesk Vault gives you more power to manage files and track changes. Versioned copies of master files are maintained, allowing you to easily revert to earlier versions of files. You can check files out for editing and later check them back in. The master copy is never directly edited.

Autodesk Vault consists of two required components: the Autodesk Data Management Server and the Vault Client. Optionally, you can also install the Vault Office Add-in.

For information about using the Vault, refer to the Vault Help system.

TIP The main components for the Autodesk Vault can be downloaded from the Autodesk Subscription site.

Use Communication Center

Communication Center provides up-to-date product information, software updates, product support announcements, and other product-related announcements.

Overview of Communication Center

You can click the Communication Center button to display links to information about product updates and announcements, and may include links to RSS feeds.

Whenever new information is available, Communication Center notifies you by displaying a balloon message below the Communication Center button in the InfoCenter box.

Communication Center provides the following types of announcements:

■ Autodesk Channels: Receive support information, product updates, and other announcements (including

articles and tips).

10 | Chapter 2 How to Get Assistance

■ RSS Feeds. Receive information from RSS feeds to which you subscribe. RSS feeds generally notify you when

new content is posted. You are automatically subscribed to several default RSS feeds when you install the program.

■ Product Support Information. Get breaking news from the Product Support team at Autodesk, including

when Live Update maintenance patches are released.

■ Subscription Announcements. Receive subscription announcements and subscription program news, as well

as links to e-Learning Lessons, if you are an Autodesk subscription member (available in countries/regions where Autodesk subscriptions are offered). For more information about Autodesk Subscription, see “Access Subscription Center” on page 9.

■ Articles and Tips. Be notified when new articles and tips are available on Autodesk websites.

■ Live Update Maintenance Patches. Receive automatic notifications whenever new maintenance patches are

released from Autodesk.

■ Featured Technologies and Content. Learn more about third-party developer applications and content.

You can customize the items that display on the Communication Center panel. For more information, see “Specify InfoCenter Settings” on page 15.

Communication Center Online Policy

Communication Center is an interactive feature that must be connected to the Internet in order to deliver content and information. Each time Communication Center is connected, it sends your information to Autodesk so that you receive the correct information. All information is sent anonymously to Autodesk to maintain your privacy.

Communication Center sends the following information to Autodesk:

■ Product name (in which you are using Communication Center)

■ Product release number

■ Product language

■ Country/region (specified in the Communication Center settings)

■ Your unique Customer Involvement Program (CIP) ID if you are participating in the CIP program

Autodesk compiles statistics using the information sent from Communication Center to monitor how it is being used and how it can be improved. Autodesk maintains information provided by or collected from you in accordance with the company's published privacy policy, which is available at http://www.autodesk.com/privacy.

To open Communication Center

■ In the InfoCenter box, click the Communication Center button.

To receive new information notifications

■ Click the link in the balloon message to open the article or announcement.

Save and Access Favorite Topics

You can click the Favorites button to display saved links to topics or web locations.

Any link that displays on the Search Results panel, Subscription Center or Communication Center panel can be marked as a favorite.

Save and Access Favorite Topics | 11

A link marked as a favorite displays a star icon on the Search Results panel, Subscription Center panel or the Communication Center panel.

To display the InfoCenter Favorites panel

■ In the InfoCenter box, click the Favorites button.

NOTE The links displayed on the Favorites panel are organized into the same groups or categories from which they were added.

To save a link in InfoCenter as a favorite

1 Display a panel by doing one of the following:

■ In the InfoCenter box, enter a keyword or phrase. Then press ENTER or click the Search button.

■ In the InfoCenter box, click the Subscription Center button.

■ In the InfoCenter box, click the Communication Center button.

2 Click the star icon that is displayed next to the link that you want to save as a favorite.

To remove a favorite link from the InfoCenter Favorites panel

1 In the InfoCenter box, click the Favorites button to display the Favorites panel.

2 Click the star icon that is displayed next to the link that you want to remove from the Favorites panel.

Use the Help System

You can click the Help button to display topics in Help.

You can get much more benefit from the Help system when you learn how to use it efficiently. You can quickly find general descriptions, procedures, details about dialog boxes and palettes, or definitions of terms.

The Help system contains complete information about using this program. In the Help window, you use the left pane to locate information. The tabs above the left pane give you several ways for finding the topics you want to view. The right pane displays the topics you select.

To display topics in Help

■ In the InfoCenter box, click the Help button.

How Help Topics Are Organized

Most topics in this Help system have three tabs above the right pane of the Help window. The tabs display different types of information.

■ Concept tab. Describes a feature or function. When you click the Concept tab, the Help Contents list in the

left pane of the Help window expands and highlights the current topic. The Contents tab displays the structure of the Help on that topic. You can easily display nearby topics by clicking them in the list.

■ Procedure tab. Provides step-by-step instructions for common procedures related to the current topic. After

displaying a procedure, you can click the Procedure tab to redisplay the current list of procedures.

■ Quick Reference tab. Lists reference information related to the current topic.

When you click a different tab, the topic remains the same. Only the type of information displayed—concept, procedures, or quick reference links—is different.

12 | Chapter 2 How to Get Assistance

Search in Help

Use the Help Search tab to find relevant topics based on keywords that you enter.

The basic search rules are as follows:

■ Type your keywords in uppercase or lowercase characters; searches are not case-sensitive.

■ Search for any combination of letters (a-z) and numbers (0-9).

■ Do not use punctuation marks such as a period, colon, semicolon, comma, hyphen, and single quotation

marks; they are ignored during a search.

■ Group the elements of your search using double quotation marks or parentheses to set each element apart.

Use Wild Card Characters

You can use the following wild card characters in any keyword:

DescriptionSymbol

Replaces one or more characters when used at the beginning, middle, or end of a word. For example, “*lish”, “p*lish”, and “pub*” will all find “publish”. Also, “anno*” will find “annotative”, “annotation”, “annoupdate”, “annoreset”, and so on.

Replaces a single character. For example, “cop?” will find “copy”, but not “copybase”.

Expands the tense of the word at the beginning or end of a word. For example, “plotting~” will find “plots”, “plotted”, and so on. Also, “~plot” will find “preplot”, “replot”, and so on.

Search for Phrases

When searching for a phrase, use double quotation marks (“ ”) to enclose words that must appear next to each other in the specified sequence. For example, enter “specifying units of measurement” to find only topics with all those words in that order. If you don’ t use the quotation marks around that text, Help finds all topics containing any one of the listed words, that is, all topics containing “specifying”, all topics containing “units”, all topics containing “of”, and all topics containing “measurement”.

TIP If you can’t find the information you need through a search, try using the Contents tab.

Use Boolean Operators

With the AND, OR, NOT, and NEAR operators, you can precisely define your search by creating a relationship between search terms. The following table shows how you can use each of these operators. If no operator is specified, AND is used. For example, the query spacing border printing is equivalent to spacing AND border AND printing.

ResultsExampleSearch for

Both terms in the same topic

“tree view” AND “palette”

viewpoint OR animationEither term in a topic

Topics containing both the words “tree view” and “palette”

Topics containing either the word “viewpoint” or the word “animation” or both

Use the Help System | 13

ResultsExampleSearch for

nwd NOT nwcThe first term without

the second term

user NEAR menuBoth terms in the same

topic, close together

NOTE The |, &, and ! characters do not work as Boolean operators. You must use AND (also +), OR, and NOT (also

-).

Find Information in Help Topics

The tabs on the left side of the Help window provide different methods for finding information.

Contents Tab

■ Presents an overview of the available documentation in a list of topics and subtopics.

■ Allows you to browse by selecting and expanding topics.

■ Provides a structure so you can always see where you are in Help and quickly jump to other topics.

Index Tab

■ Displays an alphabetical list of keywords related to the topics listed on the Contents tab.

Topics containing the word

“NWD”, but not the word “NWC”

Topics containing the word “user” within eight words of the word “menu”

■ Accesses information quickly when you already know the name of a feature, command, or operation, or

when you know what action you want the program to perform.

Search Tab

■ Provides a keyword search of all the topics listed on the Contents tab.

■ Accepts the Boolean operators AND (+), OR, NOT (-), and NEAR.

■ Accepts the wild cards *, ?, and ~.

■ Allows you to perform a search for a phrase when the phrase is enclosed in double quotes.

■ Displays a ranked list of topics that contain the word or words entered in the keyword field.

■ Arranges the results alphabetically by title or by location if you click on the Title and Location column

headings.

To find a specific word or phrase in the currently displayed Help topic

1 Click in the topic text and press CTRL+F.

2 In the Find text box, enter a keyword or phrase.

3 Click Next. If the keyword or phrase is located, the topic scrolls to display the result.

Print Help Topics

The quickest way to print the current topic is to right-click within the topic and click Print.

The Print button on the Help toolbar provides these print options:

■ Print the selected topic (recommended)

■ Print the selected heading and all subtopics

14 | Chapter 2 How to Get Assistance

NOTE When you select the second option, you may get numerous printed pages, depending on how many subtopics the currently selected topic contains.

To print a Help topic

1 Display the topic you want to print.

2 Right-click in the topic pane. Click Print.

3 In the Print dialog box, click Print.

To print a selected heading and all subtopics

1 Display the topic you want to print and make sure that the Contents tab is displayed.

2 On the Help toolbar, click Print.

3 In the Print Topics dialog box, click Print the Selected Heading and All Subtopics.

4 Click OK.

Show and Hide the Contents Pane

Use the Hide button on the Help toolbar to shrink the Help window to a compact size by hiding the pane that contains the Contents, Index, and Search tabs.

The compact window size is best for displaying procedures while you work.

Use the Show button to expand the Help window to display the pane that contains Contents, Index, and Search tabs. The expanded window size is best for locating and displaying conceptual and reference information.

Specify InfoCenter Settings

You can specify InfoCenter Search and Communication Center settings in the InfoCenter Settings dialog box.

In the InfoCenter Settings dialog box, you can specify the following settings:

■ General. Your current location, frequency for checking new online content and option to turn on or off

animated transition effects for the InfoCenter panels.

■ Search Locations. Locations (documents, web locations, and files) to search for information, as well as the

name that displays for each location and the number of results to display for each. Also, you can add or remove search locations. The Web Locations check box provides access to important information on the Autodesk website, including the Knowledge Base and discussion groups. When you add document locations, you can specify files on your local drive.

NOTE User-specified CHM (compiled help) files must be located on your local drive. InfoCenter cannot search CHM files located on network drives.

■ Communication Center. Set the maximum age of the articles displayed on the Communication Center panel.

■ Autodesk Channels. Channels to display in the Communication Center panel as well as the number of articles

to display for each channel.

■ Balloon Notification. Notifications for new product information, software updates, and product support

announcements. Also, you can customize the transparency and the display time of the balloon.

Specify InfoCenter Settings | 15

■ RSS Feeds. RSS feed subscriptions. You can add or remove RSS feeds. RSS feeds generally notify you when

new content is posted.

To specify locations to search for information

1 In the InfoCenter box, click the down arrow next to the Search button.

2 Click Search Settings.

3 In the InfoCenter Settings dialog box, Search Locations panel, in the right pane, select or clear the search

locations you want to include or exclude when you search for information.

4 Click OK.

NOTE With the Search All Available Languages option, you can specify whether to search the default language or all

available languages, including English, Japanese, and French. Select the check box if you want to search all available languages.

To add a new location to search for information

1 In the InfoCenter box, click the down arrow next to the Search button.

2 Click Search Settings.

3 In the InfoCenter Settings dialog box, do one of the following:

■ On the Search Locations panel, in the right pane, click Add.

■ On the Search Locations panel, in the right pane, right-click anywhere in the pane. Click Add.

4 In the Add Search Location dialog box, specify a file location to search.

5 Click Add.

NOTE A warning message is displayed when you add a search location with a file size larger than 5 MB. You

cannot continue to work in the application until indexing is complete.

6 Click OK.

To remove a search location

1 In the InfoCenter box, click the down arrow next to the Search button.

2 Click Search Settings.

3 In the InfoCenter Settings dialog box, do one of the following:

■ Select a location to remove, and then click Remove.

■ Right-click a search location. Click Remove.

4 In the InfoCenter - Remove Search Location dialog box, click Yes.

5 Click OK.

To specify the channels to display in the Communication Center panel

1 In the InfoCenter box, click the down arrow next to the Search button.

2 Click Search Settings.

3 In the InfoCenter Settings dialog box, in the left pane, click Autodesk Channels.

4 In the right pane, select or clear the channels you want to display in the Communication Center panel.

5 Click OK.

16 | Chapter 2 How to Get Assistance

To specify InfoCenter balloon notification settings

1 In the InfoCenter box, click the down arrow next to the Search button.

2 Click Search Settings.

3 In the InfoCenter Settings dialog box, in the left pane, click Balloon Notification.

4 In the right pane, select or clear the options to turn balloon notification on or off.

5 Enter the number of seconds to set the length of time for balloon notifications to display.

6 Enter the transparency value of the balloon or set the value using the slider.

7 Click OK.

To add an RSS feed to Communication Center

1 In the InfoCenter box, click the down arrow next to the Search button.

2 Click Search Settings.

3 In the InfoCenter Settings dialog box, in the left pane, click RSS Feeds.

4 In the right pane, do one of the following:

■ Click Add.

■ Right-click anywhere in the right pane. Click Add.

5 In the Add RSS Feed dialog box, enter the location of the RSS feed you want to add. Click Add.

6 In the InfoCenter - RSS Feed Confirmation dialog box, click Close.

7 Click OK.

To remove an RSS feed from Communication Center

1 In the InfoCenter box, click the down arrow next to the Search button.

2 Click Search Settings.

3 In the InfoCenter Settings dialog box, in the left pane, click RSS Feeds.

4 In the right pane, do one of the following:

■ Click Remove.

■ Right-click an RSS feed. Click Remove.

5 In the InfoCenter - Remove RSS Feed dialog box, click Yes.

6 Click OK.

Get More Help

You can access several additional sources of help.

■ Use Communication Center. Display the Communication Center panel for product updates and

announcements.

■ Press F1. Displays context-sensitive reference information.

■ Click the Help button in many dialog boxes. Displays reference information for the dialog box.

■ View the product Readme. Displays late-breaking information about this product.

Get More Help | 17

Other resources help you get information about Autodesk products and assistance with your questions about this program.

■ Autodesk website. Access http://www.autodesk.com.

■ Local support. Check with your dealer or Autodesk country/region office.

Learn the Product

Training programs and products from Autodesk help you learn the key technical features and improve your productivity. For the latest information about Autodesk training, visit http://www.autodesk.com/training or contact your local Autodesk office.

Autodesk Authorized Training Centers

The Autodesk® Authorized Training Center (ATC®) network delivers Autodesk-authorized, instructor-led training to design professionals who use Autodesk software. Autodesk Authorized Training Centers use experienced and knowledgeable instructors. More than 1,200 ATC sites are available worldwide to meet your needs for discipline-specific, locally based training.

To find a training center near you, contact your local Autodesk office or visit http://www.autodesk.com/atc.

Autodesk Official Training Courseware

Autodesk Official Training Courseware (AOTC) is technical training material developed by Autodesk. Designed for traditional 1/2-day to 5-day, instructor-led classroom training and used by Authorized Training Centers and other Autodesk partners, AOTC is well-suited for self-paced, stand-alone learning. The manuals cover key concepts and software functionality with hands-on, step-by-step, real-world exercises. You can purchase AOTC from your local reseller or distributor, or you can order it online from the Autodesk Store at http://www.autodesk.com/aotc.

e-Learning

Autodesk e-Learning for Autodesk Subscription customers features interactive lessons organized into product catalogs. Each lesson is 20-40 minutes in length and features hands-on exercises, with an option to use a simulation of the product or the actual application. You can also use an online evaluation tool that identifies gaps in skills, determines what lessons will be most helpful, and gauges learning progress.

If you are a member of Autodesk subscription, you can access e-Learning and other subscription services from within your Autodesk product.

For more information about how to access e-Learning in the product, see “Access Subscription Center” on page

For more information about Autodesk subscription resources, visit http://www.autodesk.com/subscriptioncenter.

Autodesk Developer Network

The Autodesk Developer (ADN) program for ADN members provides support for full-time, professional developers who want to build software based on Autodesk products. As an ADN member, you will receive the business, software, support, and training you need to be successful. If you are a developer, visit http://www.autodesk.com/adn.

Autodesk Consulting

Autodesk Consulting provides services that help set up processes and provide critical training that will help increase productivity so you can capitalize on the power of your products. For more information on general consulting, systems integration, or custom training services, visit http://www.autodesk.com/consulting.

Partner Products and Services

Autodesk works together with thousands of software partners around the world. These partners provide products and services that enhance Autodesk products for design professionals. Visit the Partner Products & Services page at http://www.autodesk.com/partnerproducts for a list of resources available for your Autodesk product and your industry.

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