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CADAM Drafting FAQsGeneral CADAM Drafting QuestionsWhat releases are currently supported? For V4:
425 When and where are CCD classes held? On-site training for CADAM Drafting products is available from Dassault Systemes. Please contact Rick Watanabe at rick.watanabe@cadam.com. I have a lot of disk space on UNIX. Can I use it to store CCD drawings? Yes. But you must use a PCNFS product that supports both your UNIX system and the Windows system you will be running CCD on. The PCNFS products we have certified are Hummingbird's Maestro and Windows Services for UNIX 3.5. |
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What versions of CCD support AutoCAD 2007 DXF/DWG import and export? AutoCAD 2007 is supported starting with CADAM Drafting V5R18 SP1. Will CCD run on Windows 7? Yes. CADAM Drafting V5R19 SP3 (and above) has been certified on Windows 7. Will CCD run on Windows Vista? Yes. CADAM Drafting V5R17 (and above) has been certified on Windows Vista. See the V4 System Requirements and V5 System Requirements documents for more information. What about the latest 64-bit versions of Windows and associated hardware? The current versions of CADAM Drafting V4 and V5 have been tested and certified on all 64-bit editions of Windows and on Intel 64-bit processors. No additional CADAM Drafting software is required. Is it okay to access and modify the same database with different versions of CCD? CCD has always been upward compatible. That is, a model filed in a given release can always be called up by a later release. On the other hand, CCD has never supported backward compatibility or modifying a model on a given release after it had previously been filed on a newer release. CCD has not always enforced this non-support of backward compatibility, however. Therefore, with some releases, it was possible to modify a model on one release and still call it on an earlier release, as long as function unique to the newer release was avoided. This practice is undertaken at the user's own risk and is neither recommended nor supported by Dassault Systemes. Occasionally a new release of CCD includes enhancements that require fundamental structural changes to the model. When this is necessary, CCD will enforce the non-support of backward compatibility. The latest release to do this is 424. Therefore, if a model is filed in 424, it will not be possible to open the model with any release of CCD that is older than 424. The message "Illegal Model" will be displayed if the user attempts to open a 424 model with a release that is older than 424. Is it okay to access and modify the same database with CCD V4 and CCD V5? Can both releases coexist in the same network? We recognize that a customer's migration from CCD V4 to CCD V5 might be gradual, so we do support interoperability on a limited basis. The main requirement is that the customer uses versions of CCD V4 and CCD V5 that are "current" with each other. As of today, the supported combinations are CCD 424 (including any 424 Refreshes)/425 and CCD V5R17/V5R18/V5R19. I can open a CCD model from CATIA V5, but when I do a "Save As", I don't see the file type for CCD (.cdd). What system setting am I missing? Add the environment variable DRW_CCDTOV5 and set it to YES. When I transfer models between CCD and CATIA V5, the appearance of the characters in the drawing text changes. Is there a font I can select on either side that will allow text to have the same appearance in both CATIA V5 and CCD? Yes. The CATIA V5 SSS4 font is meant to be compatible with the CCD font. If you are using CCD and CATIA on AIX, simply use the SSS4 font on CATIA V5 and your text should appear identical. If you are using CCD and CATIA V5 on Windows, you will want to download and use the CATIA V5 SSS4 equivalent font for CCD. You can download a copy of this font from our V5 Drafting Download page. The readme file that is included in the download package will have additional information on using this font. When I mount the CCD CD on my HP workstation and I list the contents of the CD, the file names are incorrect and also have semicolons in the names. The install script fails. Is there a problem with the CD or is there a system setting I have to set? There is no problem with the CD. On HP-UX, you must mount the CDROM drive as follows: Mount -F cdfs -o cdcase /dev/dsk/c0t2d0 /cdrom In this example the cdrom device file is c0t2d0, yours may be different. Check under the directory /dev/dsk/ for the correct device file name. What compilers have been certified for developing IUE applications? For Fortran, we have certified both Absoft ProFortran Version 6.0 (and above) and Intel Fortran Version 9.1. For C and C++ development, we have certified Microsoft Visual C++ Version 5.0, 6.0 and 7.0. Note that these are the compilers that we have certified. Certification means that we use these compilers here for our testing and can offer a higher level of support than with any other compiler. Most other Windows compilers will probably work. However, for problem reports or support, we can only address the problem or question using one of these certified compilers. It takes too long to display a model list (over 10,000 drawings) on HP-UX. Sometimes the program runs out of memory and a lot of FIGARO errors are displayed on the window where CCD was started from. There are 2 FIGARO parameters that may need to be modified when trying to handle very large model lists. The first is FIG_MEMORY. This has a default of 1 million. Increasing this will resolve some cases (depending on size of model list). The second is FIG_TEMP. This defaults to the current directory and is used as a scratch file when FIGARO runs out of memory. The current directory may vary depending on which function is being performed in CCD. For model callup, the current directory will be the group/subgroup containing the file MDLLST. If the user does not have write-permission to this directory, then FIG_TEMP must be set to a directory the user can write to. Windows takes a while to display directories with large number of files. CCD seems to take even longer. What is the recommended maximum number of files in a directory? This is a difficult question to answer, because there are so many variables. A lot has to do with the speed of your system and network performance. Let's use as an example an 800 MHz CPU with 256 MB of RAM, 133 MHz BUS and SCSI disk drives, accessing the data across a 10 Mbps network. We have found that if you keep your directory sizes to no more than 5,000 files, the performance with little network traffic is acceptable at less than 5 seconds to display the model list. On the same system, though, we ran a test with 10-15,000 files in the same directory and it took 30 seconds to display the list. This is why we recommend that the number of files in a directory be less than 5,000. This, of course, will become less of an issue as system and network speeds increase. The variable geometry symbols in the symbol table that I transferred from Mainframe CADAM to CCD, come across as regular symbols. What needs to be done for these symbols to maintain their attributes? Before you transfer the table (in UNIX using cadtran) with the variable geometry symbols, you need to include a special file in the $CCD_ROOT directory that tells the system that you have some variable geometry symbols. The file is named vargeo (no extension) and is located in $CCD_ROOT/DATATRAN. This file contains the Host symbol table number(s) that contain Variable Geometry symbols. Datatran will create the symbol table that contains Variable Geometry symbols in the $CCD_ROOT/DRAWINGS/system/symbol directory. Once this table is transferred using the UNIX cadtran utility (not available on NT), it can be copied to CCD on NT, using the CCD NT symbol table convention, of course. I would like to grant everyone access to the drawings database in my group. Will I cause any problems if I set the file permissions to 777? I'm running CCD on AIX 5.3. YES, you will cause problems by doing this. On UNIX (AIX and HP-UX), CCD uses the owner execute bit as a plot-data flag. Setting the permissions to 777 will turn this flag on for all the drawings, confusing CCD as to whether the file contains plot-data or not. All the models will have the P flag indicating that the model contains plot-data, which some may not. The correct file permission to grant access to everyone is 666 NOT 777. When I start CCD on AIX it will not run and I get the message: "Unable to initialize data management, Unable to initialize proper environment." What could be wrong? The reason you get this message is because CCD cannot find the DRAWINGS directory. Make sure that you can cd to $CCD_ROOT/DRAWINGS. If you have replaced the directory DRAWINGS with a symbolic link, check to make sure the link is still valid. My CCD clients on Windows access the CCD database on AIX. Is there a way to prevent these users from filing local? Yes. There is an option in CADPROF under "Drawing Management Parameters" called "Restrict Local Filing". If it is set to YES, the user can only file to the remote system selected. The "Save" and "Save As", local file options are permanently disabled, until you change the CADPROF setting back to NO. This only works with ICF, not PCNFS. Is it possible to run different releases of CCD on the same PC? Yes. Just make sure you install the new release/update to a different directory. Then use the Ccdraft\Bin\ccdver.exe utility to switch between releases. Note however that some combinations may not work. For example, if you use 424 and you activate the new Macro Toolbar, you will no longer be able to run previous releases of CCD on the same machine because previous releases will not know how to handle this new toolbar setting. We still have Mainframe CADAM and plan to keep it for a few more years. Can CCD on Windows access the CADAM database? Yes. The mechanism we use is called Interactive Call File (ICF). It allows the CCD Windows user to open and file the CADAM models, interactively. It even allows you to use the current plotters used by Mainframe CADAM. It works over TCP/IP and the only requirement is that the IBM's TCP/IP product be used. See the CCD Windows Installation Guide for more details. ICF is also supported on AIX and HP-UX. I have a good TIFF file that I can open with Windows applications, but I cannot import the file into CADAM Drafting. What could be the problem? Most likely, the problem is due to the way the drawing was scanned. It was probably scanned using true color or grayscale color options. CADAM Drafting only supports two color monochrome images. I'm trying to run CADEX on Windows. When I open my CADEX drawing, I get a message saying "Invalid group". What does this mean? The CADEX product was ported to Windows from the UNIX. On the UNIX platform, the "group,user" directory structure is still being used by CCD. Due to the high customer demand to have CADEX on Windows quickly, it was decided to not rewrite CADEX entirely and leave the "group,user" directory requirement in place. CADEX models can reside in any "group,user" on UNIX. On Windows, the CADEX models can reside in any "directory\subdirectory", as long as these directories are under the drawings directory defined in Cadprof's "Drawing Management Parameters". The default is $CCD_ROOT\Drawings. For example, if using the defaults:
I have very old Professional CADAM models archived on tape. The files all start with D_. What is the procedure or translator to read these models into CCD? Professional CADAM is the predecessor to CCD. The data is binary compatible with CCD. Therefore CCD (on Windows or UNIX) can open the files, even with the older naming convention of D_XXX. Of course, though not required, it is best to rename the files to the new convention used by CCD (XXX.cdd). There is a model update tool (mdlupd) on our Tools Download page that can be used to convert large numbers of models. I am using a Logitech mouse with a scroll wheel. CADAM Drafting should recognize pressing this wheel as a middle button press or an indicate, but does not. Do I need to do something special to configure this mouse for use with CCD? There is a bug in the v9.75 Logitech mouse driver that prevents CCD from recognizing a press of the center wheel as a middle button mouse click. This problem is fixed in the v9.76 and higher drivers. (The specific levels that we have validated are 9.76.046 and 9.78.034.) If you encounter this problem, you should obtain and install the latest mouse driver from Logitech. How do you erase the speaker icon in a CADAM drawing? The speaker icon is created when you are in FK Note and select the menu /VOICE/. If your PC has a microphone, you can record a message. This way you can record even a long message on your CCD drawing without having to type it. Anyone can replay your recorded message by double clicking on the speaker icon. If you have created the icon by mistake, or you wish to remove a recorded message, first select the icon, then go to the pull-down menu at the top of the screen |Edit|. Select the pull-down menu "Delete Object". The icon and the recorded message will be erased. Plotting QuestionsMost of the drawings transferred from Helix to CCD plot out blank and only some lines are plotted in grayscale. This is a typical problem if the drawing was transferred from MICROCADAM, Helix or DXF/DWG, especially if the default color is white. Make sure that the color_map file (also provided with the HelixMigrationPackage) is in your Ccdraft\Plot\ directory. Also, check the Ccdraft\Plot\xxxx.opt file being used with the plotter selected to make sure that the COLORMAP parameter is set to YES. This file can be used to map white to black so that the white geometry will appear on the plot. See the Plotting Installation Guide for more information. I can see the format names in the plot data screen, but even though the drawing plots, the format does not. What am I missing? Check to see if your format drawings exist under the directory specified in cadprof's "Drawing Management Parameters". The default directory is $CCD_ROOT\Drawings\System\format. I have customized my plot scripts for HPGL-2 format, but I cannot get any plots out. The plot status reports no errors/warnings, yet nothing is sent to the printer queue. I send plots to the same plotter using the Windows Printer option in CCD and it works fine. What could be wrong? By your description, it sounds like your printer queue and plotter are working fine. First check your .bat script to make sure that the copy command is sending the plot file to the desired computer and printer shared name. This copy command can be run manually from a DOS shell. Simply replace the %2 parameter with a valid HPGL-2 file name. If this works then the problem could be due to spaces in the path or plot script names. The plot scripts cannot have any spaces in the name. For example, if you install CCD into the "Program Files" directory, the space between the word Program and Files, would be enough to cause this problem. Where does the plot output file go after it is created? Plot output files are placed in the CCD_ROOT\Tmp directory temporarily. At the end of each plotter's .bat file there is a statement to remove this file once it has been spooled to the appropriate printer. If you want to keep the file, simply comment the delete statement. Take note, however, that plot output files can be rather large, so not deleting plot files can quickly use up a lot of space on your hard drive. Can we create a TIFF image from a CCD model? Yes, see the sample scripts in CCD_ROOT\Plot\Samples\Tiff\. The scripts assumed that you are using Ghostscript to produce the TIFF files, athough you could use any other converter. Ghostscript is available free of charge from www.ghostscript.com. While Dassault Systemes does not endorse or support any particular converter, we have verified that TIFF files can be obtained by using the Ghostscript converter and the sample script that we provide. Is there a way to keep the Windows Printer from scaling the drawing to the size of the paper? The Windows Printer Driver always scales the drawing to fit the paper size. This driver is provided to give users a way to get quick prints of their drawings. It is not intended to replace the "traditional" CCD plotting drivers as it does not offer the same level of control and customization. Customers will usually want to continue to use the traditional HPGL, HPGL2 or PostScript plot methods for production plots that must adhere to drafting conventions. (Note, however, that even the HPGL2 and PostScript plot methods will scale the plot if it is larger than the available paper.) Licensing QuestionsIf CCD V5 is a CATIA V5 add-on product, will one CATIA V5 configuration license with CCD V5 as an add-on product be all I need? No. CCD requires a license that is separate from CATIA V5 configuration license. If you receive a single configuration key from IBM that simply shows CCD as an add-on product in the annotation field other CATIA V5 products will work, but CCD will not. In this case you should call the IBM License Center back and request a separate key for CCD V5. Can I use UNIX as a license server? Yes. You can use any UNIX platform that is supported by LUM. What combinations of LUM and Windows are supported by CADAM Drafting? The following table shows what releases of LUM, Windows and CADAM Drafting can be used in combination. The left side of the table shows the versions of Windows supported by CADAM Drafting. The top of the table shows the versions of LUM that are supported by CADAM Drafting. The CADAM Drafting releases shown inside the table show the minimum level of CADAM Drafting required when using the corresponding versions of Windows and LUM.
I just upgraded my PC from Windows NT to Windows XP and CCD can no longer obtain a license. What might be wrong? First, as shown in the table above, you may need to install a later version of LUM. Once you have installed LUM 4.6.5 (or above), you will need to run the i4target command again and obtain a new key from IBM. This occurs because the newer versions of LUM running on Windows XP return a different target ID than the older versions of LUM running under Windows NT on the same PC. Can CCD be run in a client/server environment? Yes. When installing CCD, you have the option to do a "Typical" install or a "Distributed Install". "Typical", is a full install, which you do on the machine designated as the code server. The "Distributed Install" is then performed on all the clients. This only takes a few seconds to creates a few working directories and add a few entries in the registry. If I have a LUM license server configured and the CCD keys enrolled, do I have to install LUM on every client for CCD to find the license? No. If you already configured your license server, all you have to do is copy the file i4ls.ini, located in the server's Winnt directory, to the client's Winnt directory. CCD will use the information in this file to find the license server and, if the network communication between the client and the server is working properly, CCD should get a license in a few seconds. In my environment it can take as long as 30 seconds to one minute for CCD to get a license. Any suggestions to cut down this time? There are several factors that could cause this problem. Two of the most common causes are:
My server has 3 network cards. The i4target utility does not return a win32mac ID, instead it returns a win32 ID. The licenses I get from IBM don't work. How can I get a valid target-id? In this case, you need to tell LUM which network card you will be using. First, using the command ipconfig find out the name of the active network card. For example, if you are using a Token Ring card, the name may be IBMTRP3. In this case, you would run i4target as follows: i4target -d IBMTRP3 Now i4target -O should return a valid win32mac target-id. I installed LUM and, even though the install was successful, I can not run the Basic License Tool. This problem occurs if you install LUM with a user ID other than the system administrator. A user that belongs to the administrators group is not sufficient to install LUM and make all the registry entries required. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
