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#71
The Latest from AI MAXTools / Re: Code availability announce...
Last post by admin - January 27, 2015, 04:07:07 PMA new version of the AI MAXTools suite is available! The latest build (18.50.00.0443, 2015-01-26) has the following improvements/fixes/changes (see below for download link):
New Features/Functions:
Note that in addition to new behavior, new versions may also introduce occasional bugs -- please notify us if you experience anything unexpected!
New Features/Functions:
- AI Move 2 Pts in Direction: now allows for easier selection of "Next" functionality with an option to "Reset Pt/Dir after Next" which will clear those values, allowing the user to just click to re-specify all those value rather than clicking the variable each time to re-specify. Really speeds things up!
- AI MAX ViewHQ: Now keeps track of objects based on some internal identifiers, meaning that objects are tracked regardless of their name or location in the structure browser. Much better likelihood of successfully reloading drawlists between sessions.
- AI New Part: Now has an option to randomize new part color by clicking a button, as well as an option to set have the color randomized each time.
- AI MAX Workplane: Now, if the workplane is placed on a conical or toroidal face, is then projected (construction and/or real geometry), and then the "On Axis" button is selected, the selected face will be re-projected so that it is as though the projection had been done after the axis alignment. NOTE: Any other faces that had been projected before the axis alignment will NOT be re-projected and must be checked by the user (the geometry for those faces can still be deleted using the integrated delete buttons for each type, as usual).
- AI MAX Export: Added code and an option not to expand inseparable assemblies. Default value is t (don't expand).
- Added variable *ai-show-startup-message* to control whether the "Loaded AI MAXTools..." message will be displayed in the output box.
- AI New Part: Setting material default wasn't saved correctly. Fixed.
- AI QSave Package: Destination director was not always being saved correctly in some strange circumstances. Fixed.
- AI MAX Workplane: In some cases, workplane alignment would not be correct. Fixed.
- AI MAX Workplane: After projecting a face, additional faces would not be projected (though edges would still work). Fixed.
- AI MAX Export: Setting for STL Ascii/Binary was not persistent. Fixed.
- AI MAX Export: STL output would fail in some circumstances based on the output path. Fixed.
- AI MAX Workplane: "New Origin" section is now collapsible
- AI MAX Workplane: "Align Cyl Axis" section is now collapsible
- AI MAX Workplane: "Align Cyl Axis" section variables now have a radio button indicator rather than a checkbox since they're mutually exclusive.
- AI MAX Workplane: Fixed typos for some of the supporting variables that made them visible initially, making the interface REALLY tall before a workplane or face was selected. Not really a bug, but certainly not expected.
- General: The toaster popup showing the latest version now only pops up the first time the tools are loaded.
- AI New Part: Added a name collision check and more intelligent name default values.
- AI MAX Export: STL user-defined distance and angle are now persistent
- AI MAX Export: Package File version is now persistent
- AI MAX Export: Object renaming setting is again persistent
- AI MAX Export: If the user typed a directory that had backslashes or extra forward slashes, that value is now cleaned up and automatically converted into a forward-slashed path.
- AI MAX Export: Since UNC paths are not supported for exporting (yet), a warning is now thrown when a UNC path is specified (and no exporting will even be attempted until the directory issue is resolved).
Note that in addition to new behavior, new versions may also introduce occasional bugs -- please notify us if you experience anything unexpected!
#72
The Latest from AI MAXTools / Re: Code availability announce...
Last post by admin - October 07, 2014, 12:17:24 AM A new version of the AI MAXTools suite is available! The latest build (18.50.00.0411, 2014-10-06) has the following improvements/fixes/changes (see below for download link):
New Features/Functions:
Note that in addition to new behavior, new versions may also introduce occasional bugs -- please notify us if you experience anything unexpected!
New Features/Functions:
- AI MAX Workplane: When placing construction crosses, the user may nowtype in a 2D point and the cross will be located at that point! (3D Points were already allowed). Note: a 2D command must be active for the 2D points to work.
- Added calls to load files ai-maxtools-preload-options.lsp before loading the other dlls, and ai-maxtools-postload-options.lsp after the other tools are loaded.
- Under certain circumstances, saving directories in the options files (ai-export-options.lsp, etc) could cause corruption to the options files. This only happened if Windows shortened the directory using the 8-character per directory method that it sometimes uses (i.e. "C:/DOCUME~1/ADMINI~1/LOCAL~1/Temp" or something like that). Fixed.
- Some elements of selected dialogs weren't showing up in v15. Fixed.
- Options files are now loaded using a new method that checks the files for corruption before loading them. This allows a corrupt options file to be skipped, rather than preventing the rest of the tools from loading.
- Misc performance improvements
Note that in addition to new behavior, new versions may also introduce occasional bugs -- please notify us if you experience anything unexpected!
#73
The Latest from AI MAXTools / Re: Code availability announce...
Last post by admin - September 26, 2014, 01:02:11 AM A new version of the AI MAXTools suite is available! The latest build (18.50.00.0405, 2014-09-25) has the following improvements/fixes/changes (see below for download link):
New Features/Functions:
To download the latest version, please Click Here.
Note that in addition to new behavior, new versions may also introduce occasional bugs -- please notify us if you experience anything unexpected!
New Features/Functions:
- New Function: AI Multi-Cut Faces: Provides the ability to cut multiple faces from multiple parts in a single operation.
- AI MAX Workplane: Added ability to select edges when projecting real or construction geometry!
- AI Find Part: Added ability to skip objects for adding to/removing from the drawlists.
- AI Find Part: Added an option to highlight found object in viewport as well as in the structure browser.
- Commands to start AI MAX Workplane and AI MultiCut Faces weren't resetting the menu buttons (pre-v18). Fixed.
- AI MAX Export: Initial value for Object renaming wasn't always set correctly. Fixed.
- AI MAX Export: Destination directory wasn't always being saved correctly between sessions. Fixed.
- AI Mass Table header didn't show units. Fixed.
- AI MAX Export: When exporting assemblies to Granite format, the .g.zip file was not being added to the "all formats" zip file. Fixed.
- AI MAX Share: Circular Elements method: Changed the rotation options (Rot90, Second Ref Dir, Angle, etc) to radio buttons, and added a new option "No Rotation" to make the radio button set complete. NOTE: to turn off any rotation, you can also click on the active rotation button (like a checkbox) to turn it off.
- AI MAX Share: Circular Elements method: Clicking the radio button for "Angle" wouldn't automatically activate the field to specify the angle. Now it does (but only if they angle hasn't been specified).
- AI MAX Workplane: modified the way the Rotation buttons work -- now the offset is applied in a more consistent manner.
- AI Find Part: Added code to auto-select everything in the table of found objects. This has the effect of automatically highlighting all found objects in the structure browser and/or viewport if those options are turned ON. Prior to this change, it appeared that the found objects could not be highlighted (which they weren't, but only because they weren't selected in the table).
- Changed initial prompt line to "Checking AI MAXTools Files" rather than "Updating" which caused confusion.
- AI MAX Export: Destination directory field in preview table is now wider.
To download the latest version, please Click Here.
Note that in addition to new behavior, new versions may also introduce occasional bugs -- please notify us if you experience anything unexpected!
#74
The Latest from AI MAXTools / Re: Code availability announce...
Last post by admin - July 10, 2014, 02:19:45 AM A new version of the AI MAXTools suite is available! The latest build (18.50.00.0391, 2014-07-08) has the following improvements/fixes/changes (see below for download link):
New Features/Functions:
Note that in addition to new behavior, new versions may also introduce occasional bugs -- please notify us if you experience anything unexpected!
New Features/Functions:
- AI MAX Share: When using Circular Elements method, the user may now specify a rotation angle in addition to being able to specify a reference/target direction pair, or rotating 90, 180, or 270. In addition, when a ref/targ pair is specified, the ref/targ dialog now displays the angle between the two specified directions when projected onto the WP defined by the axis direction.
- AI MAX Share: When using Reference Parts method, if either "Shared In Assy" or "All Shared" is selected, the additional shared reference objects are all highlighted immediately, and a new field showing the number of shared references is updated.
- AI MAX Export: New variables *ai-export-rev-text* and *ai-export-ver-text* (set to "rev-" and "ver-" respectively) to control the formatting of how revisions are handled. This allows user-level control of that substring in the filename and object names.
- AI Find Part: Updated to include option to remove the found objects from the drawlist. Also improved clarity on the interface. NOTE: The removal option doesn't yet work in all cases. Coming soon!
- AI MAX Workplane: Now allows placing and aligning workplanes on spherical (and hemispherical, etc) faces! All other functions work as well (clipping, offset, etc).
- AI MAX Workplane: Added ability to immediately create a clipping plane on a workplane.
- AI MAX Workplane: Now works with preselected workplane, even if another workplane is active -- the preselected workplane takes precedence.
- AI MAX Workplane: Face projections and adding construction crosses now work even if no face is selected. An easy way to add geometry to existing workplanes!
- Now loads admin and startup-related variables from a new file called ai-maxtools-load-custom.lsp. This new file will only be written at installation if it doesn't already exist, so these load options will remain during updates. This file is loaded before the AI MAXTools code is loaded, so variables may be initialized here.
- Big News! When loading AI MAXTools, the load function now copies the AI MAXTools dll files to the asp-inno subdirectory under the Modeling temp directory, and then loads the AI MAXTools files from that location. This allows updates to be done to the main installation directory without having the dlls locked. In other words, you can update AI MAXTools files without needing to exit Modeling, and the new files will be installed the next time Modeling is started. This is especially useful when multiple users are running the code from a central location, since now the code can be updated without requiring all users to exit Modeling.
- AI MAX Share: "Use Previous Part/Posn" didn't always work when using the Two Points method. Fixed.
- AI MAX Export2D: In some strange circumstances, the upper right of a drawing was being set incorrectly. Fixed.
- AI MAX Workplane: if the user changed the default axis to U or W, it was not being remembered. Fixed.
- Help system didn't always work correctly on networked drives, but only when Annotation was active. Strange bug, indeed! Fixed.
- AI MAX ViewHQ: Interface scale will now go even larger (nicer for high pixel density and/or small fonts)
- AI MAX ViewHQ: Drawlist is "cleaned" before saving to help prevent attempting to save invalid drawlists
- AI MAX Share: When using Reference Parts method, if "Shared in Assy" is selected, the default value for the assembly is now the owning assembly of the Primary Reference object
- Available command for AI MAX Workplane on Axis somehow got deleted. Restored.
- Added code to bypass proxy server caching when doing update check.
- Message informing users that a new version is available, but that the admin has configured the system not to allow updates is now configurable through the variable *ai-update-available-no-download-message*. If this message has the string AILATESTVERSION in it, it will be replaced by the version number of the latest official version (from the website update check file).
- Added variable *ai-always-copy-files* (default nil) to determine whether copying files to temp dir will always copy files or only newer files. Setting this variable allows for the possibility of downgrading, etc. A good place to set this variable is in ai-maxtools-load-custom.lsp
- Extra quotation marks are now suppressed in AI MAXTools console output.
- AI MAX Export: Destination Directory field in the Preview window was not quite tall enough on some graphics configurations. Modified.
Note that in addition to new behavior, new versions may also introduce occasional bugs -- please notify us if you experience anything unexpected!
#75
The Latest from AI MAXTools / Re: Code availability announce...
Last post by admin - May 19, 2014, 11:24:56 AM A new version of the AI MAXTools suite is available! The latest build (18.50.00.0375, 2014-05-19) has the following improvements/fixes/changes (see below for download link):
New Features/Functions:
Note that in addition to new behavior, new versions may also introduce occasional bugs -- please notify us if you experience anything unexpected!
New Features/Functions:
- AI Reference Table: Added tables for Countersinks, both English and Metric.
- AI Reference Table: Double-clicking on a value in the Countersink tables will auto-populate the Machining Module dialogs when any Machining Countersink dialog is active.
- AI Reference Table: Single-clicking on a value in the countersink table will populate the fields at the bottom of the table. Clicking the "Upd" button at the bottom of the table will populate the Machining Countersink dialogs, if active. Note: All fields at the bottom of the table may be overridden to change countersink diameter, hole size, or angle, if desired.
- In some cases an error could be thrown when importing PCB data if AI MAXTools was NOT activated. Strange bug. Fixed.
- AI MAX Spell: A forward slash "/" on the drawing could throw an error when checking spelling. Fixed.
- AI MAX Spell: An error could occur if the user deleted all items in their personal word list. Fixed.
- AI MAX ViewHQ: When loading drawlists, Load Mode (i.e. "Load at end, replace all, etc) setting is now persistent between sessions.
- AI MAX Spell: When the user clicks "Replace All," a dialog would pop up showing how many replacements were made for that word. Now an alert box pops up (v17+).
- Added checks to ensure drawings conform to Annotation structure. If not, the user is warned and the dialog terminates.
Note that in addition to new behavior, new versions may also introduce occasional bugs -- please notify us if you experience anything unexpected!
#76
The Latest from AI MAXTools / Re: Code availability announce...
Last post by admin - May 14, 2014, 11:48:30 AM A new version of the AI MAXTools suite is available! The latest build (18.50.00.0371, 2014-05-10) has the following improvements/fixes/changes (see below for download link):
New Features/Functions:
Note that in addition to new behavior, new versions may also introduce occasional bugs -- please notify us if you experience anything unexpected!
New Features/Functions:
- None.
- Right-clicking on a pseudo-folder in the structure browser in Modeling v15 or v16 would generate an error because the function to identify pseudo-folders was not added by PTC/CoCreate until version 17. However, we generated a workaround anyway. So it's fixed.
- Some behind-the-scenes processing improvements.
Note that in addition to new behavior, new versions may also introduce occasional bugs -- please notify us if you experience anything unexpected!
#77
The Latest from AI MAXTools / Re: Code availability announce...
Last post by admin - May 02, 2014, 01:04:07 PMA new version of the AI MAXTools suite is available! The latest build (18.50.00.0370, 2014-05-02) has the following improvements/fixes/changes (see below for download link):
New Features/Functions:
Note that in addition to new functionality and behavior, new versions may also introduce occasional bugs -- please notify us if you experience anything unexpected!
New Features/Functions:
- AI MAX ViewHQ: Added notification when Saving Drawlists files is complete.
- AI MAX Export: Temporary Object Renaming now allows more flexibility when specifying what will be used for the temporary object names, including adding revision information and specifying the order in which the components will be used. A preview area indicating how objects will be renamed during export is also added to the main dialog. If the option to rename objects is turned Off, the area will display "Object Renaming Off."
- When changing AI Set VP Up Dir function to be available in all applications, Menu/Ribbon was not updated. Fixed.
- AI QSave: Would throw an error if one of the selected objects previously saved was deleted and AI QSave was called again. Fixed.
- AI QSave: Did not always process objects correctly when called from the structure browser, or when clicking "All Top-Level Objects" and back again. Fixed.
- AI QSave: If a new basename was not selected, it could be possible to generate an output file consisting of only a date or file extension. Now the function will notify the user if no new basenname has been specified.
- AI MAX ViewHQ: Saving drawlists files: overwriting existing file was actually just replacing the initial content -- if the file existed and happened to be larger than the new content, the extra content would remain. Fixed.
- AI MAX Export: Temporary Object Renaming would only rename the selected objects i.e. if exporting only a top-level assembly, the child objects would not be renamed. Now ALL objects below the specified objects are renamed.
- AI MAX ViewHQ: Added some code to help verify that all objects in a drawlist are real objects and still exist.
- AI MAX ViewHQ: Changed title of context menu from "Remove Current Drawlist" to "Delete Current Drawlist."
- AI QSave: If a single source object is selected and "Save all in One File" option is on, the default filename is now generated based on the object's basename.
- AI QSave: Added command-specific context entries for Part, Assy, etc.
Note that in addition to new functionality and behavior, new versions may also introduce occasional bugs -- please notify us if you experience anything unexpected!
#78
The Latest from AI MAXTools / Re: Code availability announce...
Last post by admin - April 24, 2014, 05:13:07 PMA new version of the AI MAXTools suite is available! The latest build (18.50.00.0364, 2014-04-24) has the following improvements/fixes/changes (see below for download link):
New Features/Functions:
Note that in addition to new functionality and behavior, new versions may also introduce occasional bugs -- please notify us if you experience anything unexpected!
New Features/Functions:
- New Module: AI SpellMAX for Annotation Module! Functionality includes multi-language spell checking and Find and Replace! Note: a separate license is currently required for this module! If you'd like to try it for yourself, just let us know!
- AI MAX Share: "Dest. Part" can now be toggled off to attempt to select the destination part automatically (only available when duplicating features).
- Pre-populated the AI MAXTools toolbar with some of the most commonly used buttons from the AI MAXTools suite to ease new user transition.
- AI Replace Part: New ability to specify Model Name for replacement objects, including using the Model Name from the Reference object, from the Source object, specifying No Model Name, or freely specifying it.
- AI Replace Part: Now has an option to keep the Reference Objects' ID, but replace the geometry. This does a reintegrate of the New object, allowing configurations to continue to work. NOTE: "All Shared" must be selected for this option to be available.
- AI MAX ViewHQ: Added buttons to interface bar to add one-click access to "Redraw Current Drawlist" and "Update Current Drawlist" functions. These two functions already existed, but previously were only accessible through right-clicking on the Action button.
- AI MAX ViewHQ: Dragging and dropping a saved drawlist file into the open Modeling session will now automatically open the "Load Drawlists" dialog with the filename set to the name of the dropped file. This allows full control over how to handle the new drawlists (replace all, etc).
- AI MAX ViewHQ: Added ability to Delete All Drawlists. To access, right-click on the Action button and select Delete All Drawlists.
- AI MAX Share: Auto-reversed reference direction is now better maintained for "Use previous Part/Posn"
- AI MAX Share: Destination part was being reset when clicking "Reverse." Fixed.
- AI MAX Share: Would throw an error if source object had an unusual pattern in its name (beginning with one or more digits, followed by one of a specific group of characters, followed by more digits). Yes, it was a very unusual error. Fixed.
- AI MAX Share: "Use Previous Part/Position" wouldn't always retrieve the previous feature. Fixed.
- AI MAX Share: In some special cases, objects could rotate unexpectedly when using Circular Elements method. Fixed.
- AI MAX Export: If the top assembly was selected for export, an error message would be displayed that the root could not be exported. Fixed.
- AI Replace Part: Sometimes the primary reference part would be deleted when it shouldn't have been. Fixed.
- AI Replace Part: Scan Model button wouldn't work in some circumstances. Fixed.
- AI MAX ViewHQ: Worked around a bug in the PTC/CoCreate code that would throw an error in certain circumstances (including previewing certain commands such as "thicken" and any of the "sweep" commands)
- AI UnShare and Group: Specifying new Model Name didn't always work. Fixed.
- AI MAX Share: When duplicating a feature, if the paste fails, the error message now asks the user if they want to continue or adjust their settings and try again. If they try again, it's like hitting the "Back" button and they can modify their options.
- AI MAX Share: Now handles circular element method even more intelligently by initially treating opposite directions as if they were the same direction. If the direction is not correct, the "Reverse" button can be used to adjust it.
- AI Replace Part: Easier to specify new Object Basename, including more clarity on keeping existing object names.
- AI Replace Part: Added ability to collapse the "Replace" and "Owner" sections without losing the ability to see which options have been selected.
- AI Replace Part: When multiple reference objects are selected, they're now sorted before the replacements are done. This makes it much more likely that the number order of the replacements will match the order of the reference objects.
- Moved AI Set VP Up Dir to Application "All" so it can be used in Annotation Aux VP.
Note that in addition to new functionality and behavior, new versions may also introduce occasional bugs -- please notify us if you experience anything unexpected!
#79
The Latest from AI MAXTools / Re: Code availability announce...
Last post by admin - February 19, 2014, 03:51:42 PMA new version of the AI MAXTools suite is available! The latest build (18.10.00.0345, 2014-02-19) has the following improvements/fixes/changes (see below for download link):
New Features/Functions:
Note that in addition to new functionality and behavior, new versions may also introduce occasional bugs -- please notify us if you experience anything unexpected!
New Features/Functions:
- Right-click menu in structure browser now works with Pseudo-folders!
- Added many more commands to the AI MAXTools right-click popup menu in the structure browser.
- AI Info: UI further improved. Added options to specify number of decimal places for density, volume and mass.
- AI Bill of Material Generator: Would not report mass for assemblies under some circumstances. Fixed.
- AI Reference Table: Deactivating AI DesignMAX would cause an error when trying to use AI Reference Table, even if the module was reactivated. Fixed.
- AI MAX Share: The "mutual exclusion" for the "Rot 90" etc, buttons had a typo, so some options wouldn't turn off as expected. Fixed.
- AI Info: If an object had an instance density set, and a new material was specified, the instance density would NOT be reset. Fixed.
- AI Info: Setting the density fields (either through setting the material or editing directly) would not update the mass field. Fixed.
- AI Bill of Material Generator: Improved UI: easier selection of objects.
- AI MultiRename: Improved UI: easier and faster selection of objects, including better handling of "Top-Level" objects. If a single object is selected (including the root) and "Top-Level Only" is ON, the object and its immediate children are selected for processing.
- Non-applicable commands are now disabled in the structure browser right-click menu instead of being hidden. This provides better visibility into available commands.
- AI MAXTools functions now attempt to activate the associated module, even when started from the Toolbox. Previously, they would auto-activate when started from either a toolbar or menu, but not the toolbox.
Note that in addition to new functionality and behavior, new versions may also introduce occasional bugs -- please notify us if you experience anything unexpected!
#80
The Latest from AI MAXTools / Re: Code availability announce...
Last post by admin - February 05, 2014, 10:08:48 AMA new version of the AI MAXTools suite is available! The latest build (18.10.00.0342, 2014-02-04) has the following improvements/fixes/changes (see below for download link):
New Features/Functions:
Note that in addition to new functionality and behavior, new versions may also introduce occasional bugs -- please notify us if you experience anything unexpected!
New Features/Functions:
- AI MAX Share: Selecting an offset (or turning the offset OFF) didn't immediately update (i.e. it previously would only apply to future shares). Now it is immediately applied to the current share.
- AI MAX Share: Default alignment is improved when using circular elements, including when using the "Reverse" functionality.
- AI Find Part/Assy: Improved interface, now shows number of found objects, gives user the option to display the table immediately as well as whether to immediately highlight the found objects in the structure browser. Also added a button to manually show the table of found objects. Title of display table now also shows the search string.
- AI Create Part: Added option to specify color of part at creation time.
- AI Info: Added ability to set an object's density from the same material lookup table used in AI Create Part and AI Volume. When a material is selected from the list, the corresponding density is assigned to the BASE density for the part (instance densities must be specified manually), and the aiMatl material attribute is set.
NOTE: Once a material is set, the Density is not editable until the user either clears the material or sets it to "Custom". - AI MAX Export: Added an option to rename the objects as part of the export process. When turned ON, the first part of the new name will always be the model name. This will be followed either by a numeric indicator or by the object's original part name.
NOTE: The main reason for doing this is that when exporting an assembly, some or all of of the neutral formats do not maintain the Model Name of the component parts and sub-assemblies. This option provides a means of capturing the Model Name within the part name so that the components in the neutral file can be more easily identified. - AI BOM: Improved so that now model names are shown in the header section of the BOM when multiple top-level assemblies are selected.
- AI BOM: Added a header style for objects (header section of the BOM). Edit in ai-bom.css.
- AI ReplacePart: Now includes an option to "Keep Reference Obj. Names." This option will give the new object the same name as the object it replaces. This is particularly useful for maintaining pin numbers, etc. where the order of objects is important.
- AI Polygon: Now includes a feedback element on the edge of the polygon indicating which side of the polygon is aligned with the specified reference direction. Note that no feedback elements are shown if the alignment direction is not specified.
- AI Info: Setting the density fields (either through setting the material or editing directly) would not update the mass field. Fixed.
- AI MAX Share: When using the "Circular Elements" method, the "Use Second Reference Direction" option didn't work correctly ever since the introduction of the "Rotate 90|180|270" buttons. Fixed.
- AI Info: Previous update to set densities from pulldown list introduced a bug where AI Info wouldn't start correctly if an assembly was selected. Fixed.
- AI QSave Package wouldn't always correctly save the destination directory. Fixed.
- AI Create Part: Density units are now displayed in the dialog.
- AI Info: Eliminated screen flashing when editing densities, object names, etc!
- AI QSave Package: Changed option from "Remember Dest. Dir" to "Use Last Dest Dir" which will attempt to save the destination directory and re-use it the next time AI QSave starts, including across sessions.
Note that in addition to new functionality and behavior, new versions may also introduce occasional bugs -- please notify us if you experience anything unexpected!