mgajewski

Thanks, Cary. Will that maneuver cause me to lose my customizations? Mark

After opening a drawing in CAXA Draft and then closing it, a scene that I had open got messed up. The browser self docked horizontally by itself, the windows got resized etc. I have restored order but all I can get out of the Scene / Properties / Search browser menu now is the Properties browser only. When I click on "show Scene browser" it does not show but the command only toggles the Properties browser on/off. The tabs at the bottom of that menu have disappeared. When I right click on a part and select "Find in scene browser" nothing happens. How can I recall the Scene / Properties / Search browser to its duty? Heeeeelp Mark

Cary, I've tried both the JPGs from the IRONCAD folder and tothers. I've also tried PNG files. No good. Now my attachment will not upload to this website for some reason. I'll email it to Support. This is not my day Mark

I do not know if this is a bug or if I'm doing something wrong even though what I am doing has always worked in the previous versions of Ironcad. I am trying to use a JPEG file as background and I keep getting this message: "Image file's data is corrupt - file not used." I have tried this with various JPEGs and got this message every time. HDR files work fine. Perhaps so do some other formats. But I think JPEGs being so common, and useful, should work, too, as they always have before.

I'd like to create a shortcut for the "Hide Selected" command found in the pop up menu when right clicking on a selected part. I don't seem to be able to find the command in the Customize/Keyboard dialog box. Where is it hiding ? Is there a quick way of finding commands in the Customize/Keyboard dialog box? Also - I have an idea for an enhancement that might prove useful for creating shortcuts for any command: how about if you right clicked any command, a pop up box would appear with: "Create a Shortcut for This Command"? Mark

Hi Guys, Is it possible for me to obtain the ExtrnalLinkManager tool and if so, how? Thanks. Mark

Thank you, Cary and Kevin, that's very clear. Mark

I have Ironcad installed on two laptops and I would like to install it on a desktop. I tried installing it on the desktop but I could not due to license issues, if I remember correctly, since there is a limit to the number of machines the software can be simultaneously installed on with a single user license. If that's indeed the case, how can I "remove" the software key or whatever it is from one of the laptops so that I can install the software on the desktop? I would then have it on the desktop and the other laptop which I assume is allowed? Could you please clarify on how many computers a single use license holder can have Ironcad installed simultaneously? I only use it on one machine at a time - I am the only user in my office. Thanks. Mark

I have found the answer to my own question. Right clicking on the view and selecting "Edit View Orientation" and then selecting "Select part / assy to project" does the trick. Mark

The "Select Part/Assembly to Project" option in View Creation is a terrific feature that links a part in a scene to the views depicting this part. My question is this: I happen to have many linked instances of a certain part and I selected one of them to create a view using the "Select Part/Assembly to Project" option. Subsequently I may need to delete some of the part's instances from the scene. I am concerned about accidentaly deleting the one used in the view creation. Is there a way to tell from a drawing view specifically which part instance in the scene was used in creating the view? Or would one of the remaining linked part instances take over automatically? Mark

Thanks, Cary. Perhaps the "Save All As External" command should come with a Surgeon General's warning for the unwary considering the sweeping devastation it can wreak Mark

Thanks again, Tom and Kevin - it works great. Mark

Cary, Sorry if this is a dumb question, but where are the backup folders? I feel I'm in a bit of a trouble now because of the irreversible nature of the "Save All as External" command. Especially that I am finding that when I create new linked part instances in the file now and move them to another assembly within the file, the Keep Link / Break Link dialog box does not appear and the link is broken. It seems to have become a sick file. I have a lot of drawings based on it. I hope that when I do the Unlink (External) command and laboriously recreate all the internal links to restore the file to the original condition, the drawings' views will still all work. Thanks. Mark

That sounds like a great idea, Kevin. I'd like to try it. Two questions: 1. Where can the search or find command you refer to be found? 2. In the "Common / Display" section of the ribbon I found "Linked Instances (All)" command whose description indicates it can find all linked instances of the selected part in the scene but when I clicked on it, with a part selected, it did not seem to do anything. Is it supposed to do something else or is it simply not working? Mark

The "Find in Scene Browser" command locates only the selected part in the browser. I wonder if there's a way to quickly find all the linked instances of the selected part in the browser? Mark

Thanks, Kevin. Now I know what I need to do. Mark

By way of an apparently foolish experiment I saved a file which contained a good number of parts and assemblies using the "save all as external" command. I thought this would produce separate linked external files for each part and assembly - which it did. But it also seems to have irrevocably changed the original "mother" file so that those external files seem to have two way links to it and if one of the external files is missing the original file asks for it and won't display the part unless it is found. Can I restore the original file so that all links to the externalized files are removed (but preserve the internal links between parts within the original file that I had before I did the "save all as external")? I just would like to go back to the file I had before I used the "save all as external" command - that is, a self-contained, integrated file with all the parts and assemblies inside of it and without any external links to parts or assemblies. Any help with conquering the monster I've created would be very much appreciated Mark

Even though I've been using Windows forever, I would run, not walk, to an Apple store and buy two or three Macs if Ironcad were able to run on a Mac natively. From a business standpoint for Ironcad, I think if it ran natively on Macs, picking up new customers (in droves) would be like shooting fish in a barrel. Ironcad and Apple philosophies of ease of use seem to mesh. I think that Ironcad is to other CAD software as Mac is to other computers. For all the endless discussions and heated passions, Apple, for all its imperfections, is in another league compared to its competitors. Ironcad - please consider working with Apple - the very best in the field. Mark

Cary, I see - I was kind of uneasy about that aspect of it. However, there seems to be a bug in the approach suggested by Kevin. When I make a linked copy of the part with a cosmetic thread previously added to it from Annotations as Kevin suggested, the thread does not show on the linked part. It shows in the scene browser but it seems to be stuck there without responding to right clicking, delete attempts or anything else. I guess having a solid cylindrical eqivalent to "Custom Hole" would be best but it might not be an important enhancement. Mark

Thanks, Kevin, that works but I still need to manually add the chamfer. I've just realized that I may not be able to drop fasteners as Intellishapes onto parts, but I can reverse the order and drop other Intellishapes onto previously created fasteners so this way, and by suppressing unwanted fastener features, I can create my custom part. Mark

Is there a way to drop a fastener onto a part as an Intellishape feature? Right clicking and dragging "Fastener" from the Tools catalog does not produce the usual "drop as part / Intellishape etc." options. Otherwise is there an easy way to add a standard thread onto a rod? There is the "Custom Hole" feature but not a corresponding "Custom Rod". Mark

Hi, When installing XG I saw a dialog box that asked about the default units for all new scenes and choosing ANSI, ANSI metric or ISO formats for all new drawings. Can these options be reset after installing the software? If so, how can they be accessed? Thanks. Mark

Good to know! Thanks, Mike.

Great! I love the simplicity of this solution. Thanks, Jonas. Mark

Hi, If I have say three parts in a scene, is it possible to create drawings for each part linking to the scene so that each drawing shows the corresponding part regardless of which parts are supressed or unsupressed in the scene? Right now, when I suppress or unsupress a part, my drawings change upon updating them to reflect the unsupressed parts in the scene. I'd like to make the drawing stick with a particular part or group of parts in the scene regardless of their suppression status. Is that possible? If not, is there some way to manage this situation? Thanks. Mark