Release Notes for As-Built for AutoCAD Software

Welcome to As-Built for AutoCAD 2021.0

FARO^® As-Built™ for AutoCAD^® Software offers all the functionality that AEC professionals need to evaluate 3D laser scanner data with the highest precision directly in AutoCAD. This software extends AutoCAD tooling for point cloud modeling and analysis, photogrammetry processing, total station control, and data evaluation captured from a variety of mobile mapping systems and hand- held laser scanners. A high level of automation efficiently creates 2D plans and 3D models for BIM purposes.

Industry-specific functions enable users to create deliverables customized to clients’ needs, company constraints, and stakeholder specifications. Numerous export options and analytical tools ensure that the required CAD deliverables meet client expectations.

This software is applicable to various industry applications, including architecture, civil/survey, industrial plant/process, construction QA/QC, mechanical, electrical, plumbing (MEP), facility/asset management, historic preservation, specialty trades, and more.

This version supports the latest Autodesk^® AutoCAD^® 2022, as well as its vertical applications. We also introduce our new software logo. As part of FARO’s continuing commitment to deliver reliable and professional quality software, this version also includes a series of improvements that address customer-reported issues.

This article provides a detailed description of each enhancement, enabling you to get started quickly.

Compatibility

VirtuSurv replaced by As-Built Modeler

As stated in earlier announcements, VirtuSurv, which was part of the As-Built for Autodesk products, will be discontinued. It is replaced by a more versatile and modern application called As-Built Modeler. Please click here for more information.

An As-Built for AutoCAD Software license includes FARO’s As-Built™ Modeler. As-Built Modeler provides high-resolution external scan views that are more intuitive and easier to navigate than the point cloud in AutoCAD. Clicking points in these scan views directly generates geometry in AutoCAD using the SendTo App.

You can find a video on Knowledge Base here.

Enhancements

Fixed Issues

Plant

• BOX-1663: When swapping inline fittings in a pipe run using Exchange Parts, gaps could occur between flanges of the pipe and the fitting. This is now fixed If you swap parts, the length of the pipe will be adjusted to match the new component. Select the component at the connection point that needs to be adjusted.
• BOX-1662: Removed some shortcomings in Walk The Run.
  • If precalculated cylinders exist, the dialog that offers pipe size alternatives is now sorted by likelihood, comparing the determined outer diameter with the catalog diameters (plus insulation).
  • The dialog for pipe selection now shows the measured outer diameter (previously the insulation given by the user was added here, which is wrong).
  • When changing the Active Set in the WTR dialog, the offered items do not match the new Active Set. Now the Active Set can be changed correctly and a new search for suitable parts is started.
• BOX-1658: MEP Plant Exchange: Reviewed and corrected localization.
• BOX-1661: Fit Beam Detect Type would lead to a crash, if the user selected the “round profile” filter and clicked Detect Type when no round profiles were available in the active set. The crash is fixed. If Detect Type is started with a round profile enabled and no round beam is available in the active set, the software will not crash. The general behavior was improved: If Detect Type is started with a type that is not in the active set, an error message is displayed.
• BOX-1651: Advance Steel Export issues: Export to Advance Steel does not work, if the user did not install the Advance Steel version that was used to derive the steel spec for modeling with As-Built. We improved the error message to guide users and implemented a fix so that it will work on newer Advance Steel versions.
• BOX-1385: Plant Export: Plant components had the wrong spec, when a user exported a kubit Plant object to Plant 3D while he had two different specs loaded, which contain the exact same component. E.g. Plant elbows were created/exported, arbitrarily with one of the two spec names without allowing the user to influence the spec name chosen by As-Built. We fixed this by adding a selection dialog:
  

General

• BOX-1684: Section Manager: The number of points for a section was not up- dated correctly, if the section was selected in the Section Manager and not visible. We fixed the issue.
  • counting points now also works when points are not visible
  •  exporting points now works when points are not visible
• BOX-1648: User manual: Context sensitive help now also works even if no Adobe Reader is installed. The PDF is opened in the standard browser at the chosen command reference.
• BOX-1653: PCDISTCOLEDIT (colorizes and analyzed point cloud) crashed AutoCAD when trying to overwrite an attached RCP file. This was fixed by providing an error message when the user tries to overwrite a file that is attached to the current drawing.
• BOX-1616: Installation terminated when additional files (e.g. As-Built Modeler installer) could not be downloaded. Now the installation of As-Built for AutoCAD can be continued, ignoring this.
• BOX-1613: Section commands now also work when no point cloud is visible: The section commands could not be used when the point cloud was not visible. There are situations in which, due to graphic card issues, the transparency setting in the Section Manager does not work when the user wants to isolate a section around existing geometry. In these cases, they can now turn off the point cloud and still use the section commands.
• BOX-1541: Automatic Rim did not work. The visualization of the preview plane failed, because there were too few points to create a kubit Plane. This led to an exception. The behavior is fixed.

Localization

• BOX-1644: Fixed various incorrect translations in the French version in building plan tools, as well as plant tools.
• BOX-1639: Improved the English wording.
• BOX-1628: German UI had wrong command names in tooltips. The command names are corrected.
• BOX-1695: Chinese product name fixed in Version Manager

Known Issues

More Information

For more details, visit FARO’s website or As-Built for AutoCAD software’s knowledge base.

Enhancements

Align Walls now also works if the XY-plane of the UCS is not parallel to the WCS’s XY-plane. This helps with the creation of elevation plans and vertical sections, aligning not only walls but also ceilings and floors. Make elevations orthogonal without having to used fixed angles in the Fit Outline Plan tool.

Fixed issues

General

• BOX-1657: Section Manager: The number of points for a section was not up-dated correctly if the section was selected in the Section Manager but not visible. We are only able to count visible points. We fixed the issue by disabling the option Number of Points in the context menu of a section if the section is invisible. BOX-1652: Undet vs As-Built conflict: When As-Built for AutoCAD was loaded it caused problems during zooming and panning with Undet tools, because As-Built changed the POINTCLOUDDENSITY system variable during these operations. As-Built now does no longer change the POINTCLOUDDENSITY during zoom/pan.
• BOX-1650: Cancel Fit Outline Plan issue: If you created a slice then started Fit Outline Plan and canceled this command, and afterwards run one of the section commands you would receive the message that either the point cloud or the layer is locked, although this was not the case. You had to close the drawing to enable point cloud management again. The point cloud was opened for reading and not closed if the Fit Out Line Plan command was cancelled. This issue is fixed now.
• BOX-1613: Section commands now also work when no point cloud is visible: The sections command could not be used when the point cloud was not visible. But there are situations when for graphics card issues the transparency setting in the Section Manager does not work and the user whats to isolate a section around existing geometry. In those situations they can now turn off the point cloud and yet are able to use the section commands.
• BOX-1541: Automatic Rim did not work. The visualization of the preview plane failed, because there were too less points to create a Kubit Plane. This lead to an exception. The behaviour was fixed now. Automatic Rim works again.
• BOX-1605: Shift Slice Up/Down did throw an exception in a particular example DWG. This was fixed and does not cause issues anymore.
• BOX-1609: The Segment Tool was not projecting the 2D Polylines to the correct plane. This issue is fixed now. 2D Polylines are correctly projected.

Plant Tools

• BOX-1662: Walk The Run: Removed some shortcomings.
  • If precalculated cylinders exist, the dialog that offers pipe size alternatives is sorted now by likelihood comparing the determined outer diameter with the catalog diameters (plus insulation).
  • The dialog for pipe selection now shows the measured outer diameter (previously the insulation given by the user was added here, which is wrong).
  • When changing the Active Set in the WTR dialog the offered items do not match the new Active Set. Now the Active Set can be changed correctly and a new search for suitable parts is started.
• BOX-1673: Plant Export to tagging objects did not work for “generic” objects. This is working now again.
• BOX-1661: Fit Beam Detect Type would lead to a crash if the user selected the “round profile” filter and clicked Detect Type while now round profiles were available in the active set. The crash is fixed. If Detect Type is started with round profile and no round beam in the active set, no crash occurs anymore. general behavior improved: if detect type is started with a type that is not in the active set, an error message is displayed.
• BOX-1651: Advance Steel Export issues: Export to Advance Steel does not work if the user has not installed the Advance Steel version that was used to derive the steel spec from for modeling with As-Built. We improved the error message to guide the users and implemented a fix so that it will work on newer Advance Steel versions too.
• BOX-1385: Plant Export: Plant components got wrong spec when a user exported a Kubit Plant object to Plant 3D while he had loaded two different specs that contain the very same component. E.g. Plant elbows were created/exported, arbitrary with one of the two spec names with no chance for the user to influence which spec name was chosen by As-Built. We fixed this by adding a dialog for selection:
  
• BOX-1632: Exception during Walk The Run: It is saying that there is a math error when trying to continue a run that is not connected at either end. This exception was fixed.

Analysis Tools

• BOX-1672: There was a memory overflow in the cylinder analysis tool when analyzing large tanks with high resolution (huge number of cells). It could happen that a negative number was shown for the number of cells. This issue is fixed now for all As-Built analysis tools.
• BOX-1653: PCDISTCOLEDIT crashes AutoCAD when trying to overwrite an attached RCP file. This was fixed by providing an error message when the user tries to overwrite a file that is attached to the current drawing.

Localization

• BOX-1644: Fixed various incorrect translations in the French version in building plan tools as well as plant tools.
• BOX-1667: In the Italian version two command line options of the Define Clipping Polygon command were Chiudi and Annulla were in incorrect order. We changed to the correct order.
• BOX-1628: German UI with wrong command names in tooltips. The command names are corrected now.
• BOX-1478: Total Station Measurement bar: The option Time/Zeit for setting a timer for delaying the measurement is now renamed to Timer for all languages, making its purpose more obvious.
• BOX-1695: Chinese Product Name fixed in Version Manager.

Photogrammetry

• BOX-1649: Detection of point cloud parameters works again in Orthophoto, Unwrap cylinder and Unwrap surface without errors when both point clouds and oriented images are used.

Feature Data Management

• BOX-1611: When creating a new object, the object labels didn't have the size defined in the class definition. This issue was fixed. Labels now do have the size defined in the class definition, when creating a new object.

Licensing

• BOX-1645: Updated to Faro Licensing UX 1.6.18

Fixed issues

General

• BOX-1567: 3D Dimension: The numbers were sometimes hard to read, because they were too close to the tip of the dimension arrow. We increased the distance between arrow and number to 0.3 x the text size.
• BOX-1541: Automatic Rim (region grow): Did not work and led to an exception. This was fixed and the command works again.
• BOX-1534: Create Scan Labels does now also support scan position CSV files exported from WebShare.
• BOX-1493: The Shift Slice commands did not work for slices that were created by Multiple Slices Along Axis. Slices can now be shifted along the axes that was used to define them.
• BOX-1495: Insert Point Cloud: Relative path option was not always selectable, even if the preconditions were fulfilled. Now, If the DWG was saved AND the point cloud and the drawing are on the same drive, the relative path option can be selected.
• BOX-1506: Segments: The 2D Polyline option did not project the polylines to planes parallel to UCS XY plane. This was fixed 2D polylines are now projected like lines always were.
• BOX-1496: Extend Multiple Planes crashed when input data was empty (planes with zero area). Now the algorithm does no longer accept empty input data.

Plant Tools

• BOX-1585: In the menu and one dialog title we renamed re-named Align beam axes to Adjust beam axes, because this better reflects what these commands do. We also removed the parameters dialog from the Adjust beam axes manually command, because it does not use these parameters.

Analysis Tools

• BOX-1573: Planar Analysis: If the reference plane lies completely above the analysed point cloud section, you just got the lowest point labelled. Now again both highest and lowest point are labelled no matter where the reference plane lies in relation to the point cloud.

Localization

• BOX-1510: We now integrated French and German user manuals.
• BOX- 1524: Checked and corrected translation for "Active set" in all languages.
• BOX-1505. Plant in French - Wrong UI Translation. Several commands on the As-Built Plant tab were translated to plant, which is a botanical thing. They are now corrected to Usine, which is a factory.

Licensing

• Updated HASP driver to version 8.13.39675.1

Fixed issues

Total Station Interface

• BOX-1501: Crash when trying to open the Extended Measurement Box (command 'MMT). This was fixed. The dialog now opens again without issues and allows for various specific settings for Single total station measurements.

Plant Tools

• BOX-1491: AutoCAD Plant 3D 2021 uses a new spec sheet format. Thus, the txt files that we delivered did not work with Plant 3D 2021. We now provide a new additional spec TXT file that supports the latest AutoCAD Plant 3D.
• BOX-1494: As-Built AutoCAD 2020 in a French Plant3D 2020 changed the visibility of certain options on the Plant 3D home tab. This does not happen anymore.
• BOX-1490: Corrected and updated some Plant 3D related error messages.

Licensing

• BOX-1479: Added translated EULA to the installer.

Fixed Issues

Insert Legend

• BOX-1416: Insert Legend did not work for point cloud visualization style Elevation. Works again.

Total Station Connection

• BOX-1393: Total Station Trimble: TPSDK angle measurement errors are fixed now.

Plant Tools - Beams

• BOX-1289: Advance Steel: Single beam elements were not displayed in DWG with As-Built included in AutoCAD 2020 with Advance Steel. This is fixed. Beams are displayed correctly now.

Analysis Tools

• BOX-1374: Clash detection and distance analysis: Calculation of the distance of points to AutoCAD solids is corrected.
• BOX-1344: Analysis commands did open the colorization dialog (DISTCOLEDIT) although the step before ended with "No point cloud in drawing". This was fixed. The analysis commands end with the message, when no point cloud is loaded.

Plane Extraction

• BOX-1281: Fixed performance regression in One Click Plane and Automatic Rim (PlanarRegionGrowing). The commands work faster now.

UI Corrections

• BOX-771: Colorize Analysed Point Cloud: Error message was available in English only. Localized error message "Destination Path Too Long".
• BOX-1297: Configure User Interface (KUBTCFGPROD): renamed As-Built Modeler into As-Built in the dialog, since the ribbon tab was already renamed with version 2019.2

Point Cloud Sections - Slices

• BOX-1326: French version had issues with Slice command. The É did not work as command line option. We now fixed all non-ASCII shortcuts.

Installation

• BOX-1340: New code signing certificate for Windows. May lead to warnings by Windows Defender. Please ignore.

Point Cloud Recognition

• BOX-1336: As-Built (under AutoCAD 2020) did not recognise point clouds that were inserted using the AutoCAD ATTACH command. They are recogized now without having to manually Put Point Clouds Under management

Enhancements

Improvements

Fixed Issues

Handheld Laser Meter and Total Station Connection

• BOX-1233: Connection to Disto Smart series devices is working again. Connection with BlueTooth 4.0 DISTOs (D510/D810) via handheld laser box did not work.
• BOX-1225: Extended Laser Meter Box lead to AutoCAD crash. This is fixed now.

Total Station Connection

• BOX-1232: Automatic target approach for setting out did not work for certain motorized total stations (e.g. Leica TCRM 1203). This is now fixed.

Plant Tools

• BOX-1229: Command Exchange a Part (PCEXCHANGE): If an object does not have continuations at all connection points the list for selecting new parts was empty. The list now offers suitable parts.
• BOX-1205: In in certain drawings KUBITPLANTBEAM could not be exported to solids. This is fixed now.
• BOX-1231: AutoCAD Plant 3D export failed with exception, when pipes had only one connection point.

Menu Load and Menu Update

• BOX-1249: After installation of updates the menus did not always update automatically, users manually had to run the ABMENU command. Menus are now automatically updated.

UI Corrections

• BOX-1269: French version, commands for creating recess/door/window: The dialog text did not match the symbols in the sketch. Also, the command line prompts have been corrected for all languages.

Feature Data Management

• BOX-1251: Export to Excel only showed feet values (no inch and fractions) when the CAD unit is set to Architectural. This is fixed now.
• BOX-1255: Small dialog layout fix in one of the sub-dialogs of the visualization definition.

Licensing

• BOX-1219: updated FARO Licensing package and fixed updater

Enhancements

Trim & Extend Multiple Planes

This new command extends and trims multiple kubit planes to their common trimming edge. It helps creating watertight models consisting of planar surfaces with very few clicks.

The command can be accessed via the As-Built Modeler ribbon tab:

Follow the command line prompts. Select multiple planes as input and define a tolerance. The tolerance defines the maximum distance to the plane intersection line. If the distance is larger than tolerance, the planes will not be intersected.

Before	After

The command line-based user interface will be improved in future releases. Therefore, the feature is marked as “experimental”. You can use it as any other As-Built command.

Improvements

Fixed Issues

Language Packs

• BOX-1189: Letters like É lead to exceptions on certain machines with French AutoCAD and French As-Built Modeler. lowerCase and upperCase functions do work locale independent now. Command line options support letters like É now.

Photogrammetry

• BOX-1207: Crash during Image Rectification was fixed. Improved error handling for certain exceptions.

Installation

• BOX-1198: Version manager did not automatically load new 2019.1 version.
• BOX-1191: Ensure that updated As-Built menu is loaded when installing a patch of version 2019. Fixed Automatic Update Notification

Total Station Control

• BOX-1197: As-Built TS Control ribbon tab and menu/toolbar was incomplete. Plan Analysis - Trace Outline now added.