Saving Back to Earlier NWD or NWF Versions

Navisworks allows you to save you files back to earlier versions, even back to JetStream v5 if you are running 2010.  Yes, sorry…2011 can’t natively save back to JetStream file format.  If you are running 2011, you’ll have to save it back to 2010, then open it in 2010 to save it back to a v5 format.

But, there’s a little something I ran into regarding published NWD files.  Had a customer needing to get their files to v5.  They were publishing their files to NWD, but publishing doesn’t allow you to publish to a different format.  So they re-opened the NWD’s to do a save-as to get to the v5 (or in the pull-down, it’s called Navisworks 5) format but they were only getting the option to save as a NWF file.  I noticed during the publish, the check box for “May be re-saved” was unchecked.  So I had them do the publish again but this time check that box.  When they opened the newly published file, they now got the option to save it as a v5 format.  Here’s the screen shots (from 2010) showing the difference, the publish box on the left and then the subsequent save-as dialog when the published file was opened…

Now, you can also get around this by just doing a save-as to your current project and choosing the earlier format.  Just have to be careful that you then close the file and re-open the current project file to continue working.  Otherwise, you’ll hit save and “upgrade” the file you just saved back to an earlier version.

Navisworks 2011 – Part 1 – New Interface

So you’ve (probably) seen the list of new items Navisworks 2011, but I’m going to expand on this list in a series of posts.  This first post will focus on the new Interface in Navisworks 2011.

If you’ve been using practically any Autodesk product the past couple years, you’ve probably become accustom to the Ribbon interface.  For Navisworks 2011, the Ribbon is one of the first new things you will notice.  Below are some screen shots of the new Ribbon…

The Home tab of the Ribbon includes many of the features that were found in the Edit pull-down in 2010 and it also includes a Tools panel that allows the user to turn on certain tools (or Control Bars).  As in the other products, some Ribbon Panels have little arrows at the bottom to give the user access to additional tools.  Take the Select and Search Panel (shown below)…hitting the little down arrow expands the panel and allows the user to change the Selection Resolution on the fly, without having to go into Global Options (which has changed location…see bottom image)  This type of behavior is consistent throughout Navisworks.  As you can see in the image, if a tool has a blue background to it, the tool/control bar is active.   

For the Viewpoint tab, this is really the tools specific to working with a Viewpoint.  I don’t want to say there are a lot of new tools here, but there are some enhancements.  Take the big button for Save Viewpoint and the drop-down list for the Saved Viewpoints.  This allows the user to save and pick a saved Viewpoint without having to go to the Saved Viewpoints Control Bar.  Sure, you still have to go to the Saved Viewpoints Control Bar to give a new Viewpoint a name, but it allows easier access later on.  The other big item on the Viewpoint tab is the Enable Sectioning button.  This will open an extra tab just for Sectioning.  I’ll go into the Sectioning enhancements in a later post.

The Review tab gives you the tools for Measuring, Redlines, Tags and Comments.  Not much in the way of changes for these tools.

The Animation tab is really for turning on Animator and Scripter, plus playback capability.  You can get to the Record button in the Viewpoint tab, just hit the down arrow under the Save Viewpoint button.

The View tab allows you to turn on the Navigation bar (again more about this in a future post), the View Cube, Workspace Saving and Loading, etc.  The Windows button is actually for turning on the various Control Bars.

And last but not least, the Output tab.  This basically give you all of the Export, Print and Publish options.  It’s kind of nice not to have to go into the Application Button to get these options.  Don’t know what the Application Button is…see paragraph below. :)

The Application Button/Menu in the upper left corner (or what I call the “Bin N”) get’s you into the “typical” New, Open, Print, etc.  You’ll notice that some have a fly-out which will get you additional tools/options.    And speaking of Options…I’ve gotten the question a few times already - “Where is the Global Options in Navisworks 2011?”  Well, you’ll see a button in the lower right of the App Menu called Options…this is where you get to the Global Options.

So, that’s the new interface in a nutshell.  I’ll expand on a few items in the near future.  And speaking of the future…next on the list (other than expanding on the items stated above) is using the Classic interface!   Yep, I said it…there is a classic interface for Navisworks 2011.  And there are a couple “gotchas” with using the classis interface.

Navisworks 2011 TimeLiner - P6 Web Services Hotfix

This TimeLiner hotfix addresses two problems users may experience when accessing projects in Primavera using the P6 web services interface:

1. When importing projects from Primavera the project data in the Tasks and Gantt View tabs are not structured correctly under the top level “New Link” node.
2. When synchronizing or rebuilding projects in TimeLiner user data associated with a project’s tasks does not persist correctly.

The hotfix applies to both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Autodesk Navisworks Manage 2011 and Simulate 2011 and can be downloaded HERE.

Voting for Autodesk University 2010 Classes Now Open

Voting is now open to the public for classes submitted for Autodesk University 2010.  I threw together a class about how to utilize the exportable XML files in Navisworks to share between projects and co-workers.  If you are thinking about attending and would like to attend (potentially) this class, please log-in to the following site and VOTE for my class – Transferring Project Standards in Navisworks!

To vote for classes (and not just mine, pick your favorite classes!!):

1. Go to Autodesk University Class Voting
2. Sign in to the AU website using your AU username and password. This is the same account you use to access AU online classes, and register for the AU conference or AU Virtual.
3. Search through the class proposal list. You can filter by track, audience expertise, class type, software product, language, keywords and speaker.
4. Click on a class to get more information about the class or to vote for the class.
5. Respond to all three (3) questions in order for your vote to register.
6. Click Add Comments to insert comments about the class for the Track Manager.
7. Once you have completed your comments and answered all three questions, click Submit Vote.

Voting ends Friday, May 21.

Thank you in advance if you do vote for my class!