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ACA 2024 Releases

LotSpec for AutoCAD Architecture 2024.2.0

Release –  4/29/2024

New Feature

Auto Dimension Groups

Automatic dimensions can now be organized into groups to allow for uniquely generated sets of dimensions within a single drawing that adhere to specific level and layer assignments. This capability will better support multi-disciplinary or multi-level content management strategies where all design elements are placed within one drawing as opposed to creating multiple drawings with separate sets of dimensions to achieve the same outcome. (Video Available)

Enhancements

  • Upgrade Note: LotSpec Remote Dispatch 3.0.4 has been republished to support minor changes made during this release. Customers using this application alongside LotSpec for ACA 24.2 are advised to perform simultaneous upgrades.

Fixes

  • Resolved an issue where solved projects had ignored exclusion rules that were applied to Option Groups resulting in inaccurate outcomes.

LotSpec for AutoCAD Architecture 2024.1.1

Released –  11/27/2023

Fixes

  • Revised the ‘Add Option to Option Sets’ functionality to allow users to maintain the original Option Set Code and Name values when the fields are left empty. The original automatic file update and re-pathing activity associated with this function is now controlled by a toggle to give the user more control over when or even if they desire this activity to occur.

LotSpec for AutoCAD Architecture 2024.1

Released –  10/23/2023

New Features

Poly Preview Test Solve

Allows users to temporarily preview poly options in their solved state, actively edit poly option objects while in their solved state and restore those edits back to their pre-solved poly box locations when finished. This aims to significantly improve the user’s ability to design and refine displaced objects by allowing the preview and edit activities to occur at the same time while in context to neighboring objects. This also aims to net significant long term time savings by mitigating the back-and-forth review of before and after solve results to find and fix intersecting design issues. (Video Available)

Enhancements

  • Additional right-click capabilities have been added to the Option Sets palette to improve the efficiency of making changes to existing lists. ‘Add Option to Checked’ now allows users to seamlessly integrate new options into existing option sets and will automatically re-path xref links as necessary. ‘Copy Checked & Add Option’ now allows users to duplicate and rename multiple selected option sets while adding an additional option as a new method for creating additional new option sets. (Video Available)
  • The File Option now contains a ‘Refresh Override’ setting that will tell LotSpec not to overwrite and replace specific drawings but to run the AutoCAD ‘Refresh’ command on them instead. This will be useful when performing post-solve edits to the initial solve using the AutoCAD ‘Linework’ command and wish to preserve those edits on reoccurring solves thereafter.
  • LotSpec Remote users now have additional job priority settings for more control over queue behavioral preferences when using mixed job types or to lock out a job type to focus on the other. LotSpec users can now also flag jobs being sent to Remote as high priority to ensure they are next inline at the top of the queue.
  • Upgrade Note: LotSpec Remote Dispatch 3.0.3 has been republished to support minor changes made during this release. Customers using this application alongside LotSpec for ACA 24.1 are advised to perform simultaneous upgrades.

Fixes

  • Fixed an issue that resulted in Remote job interruptions when multiple sessions of Remote required simultaneous write access to the project’s solve history file.
  • Fixed an issue that occasionally prevented Remote jobs from printing .PDF documents because the .DSD files were still being used by other processes.
  • Fixed a Clone Sheets dialog issue that prevented users from using multiple periods within their sheet number values.
  • Fixed an issue where the Clone Sheets and Find & Replace QuickSheets functions did not properly support mirrored Option Sets created by solving with the mirror toggle.

LotSpec Remote Dispatch 3.0.2

Released –  5/8/2023

Enhancements

  • The LotSpec Remote Dispatch utility has been upgraded to 3.0.2 to support minor changes made to common areas within recent LotSpec for AutoCAD Architecture and Revit releases.

LotSpec for AutoCAD Architecture 2024.0

Released –  4/17/2023

New Features

Option Browser

The Option Browser provides users with a single place to view and edit all option rules throughout the entire project to simplify rule management which was a fragmented and frustrating process before. The Option Browser displays and filters rules by option type, element category, and drawing while also providing the ability to search conditions. Existing rules can easily be revised or removed and the elements that have rules applied can quickly be selected for deeper levels of inspection. Any option related errors will be highlighted in red making them easy to find.

Video Available

Incremental Solve Progression

The Drawing Solve and Project Solve dialogs now contain a ‘Show Progression’ toggle designed to slow down the solve process making it easier to understand how each rule is executed and to better visualize where and when an option related error occurs when troubleshooting. With ‘Show Progression’ toggled, users can manually step through each incremental change at their own pace. If any errors are encountered along the way, LotSpec will notify the user the moment it occurs and auto-zoom on the problem area.

Video Available

Poly Option Copy Behavior

The Poly Option type has been enhanced to support an additional ‘Copy’ behavior toggle. This supports circumstances where content needs to be copied to multiple solve locations within the same solved drawing.  This will allow for more efficient use of reusable content that could exist in multiple locations at the same time.

Video Available

Remote Monitor

A new Remote Monitor feature has been added to the Solve panel for viewing and managing the progress of all jobs submitted to LotSpec Remote while active within LotSpec and no longer requires the use of the LotSpec Dispatch utility to do this. The job status grid, job information and right click capabilities behave exactly as they do in LotSpec Dispatch and will empower LotSpec users to monitor activity load before sending jobs and track progress of their own jobs after sending them.

Video Available

Enhancements

  • LotSpec for AutoCAD Architecture is now compatible with the new 2024 AutoCAD Architecture platform.
  • The Find & Replace Rule utility has been enhanced to allow the user to select additional constructs and views outside of the active drawing so that changes can be propagated throughout the entire project if desired. Renaming or deleting options from within the Options Palette will also trigger the Find & Replace utility automatically. Find & Replace activities will now be logged to a text file within the project folder when complete. – Video Available
  • The Quick Sheets tools that originally only worked for Sheets can now also be used on Constructs and Views for greater efficiency. Actions that drive Construct or View related changes can now be found within the ‘Quick Drawings’ tab which is adjacent to the ‘Quick Sheets’ tab.
  • Right click menu options have been standardized across all solve dialogs to include Check All, Uncheck All, Expand All, and Collapse All for consistency and improved efficiency.

Fixes

  • Addressed an issue where Find Source Object utility would not trace back to source project correctly from drawings that were renamed using File Options. It may be necessary to rerun a solve for any drawings where this issue existed before for LotSpec to have the information it requires to trace back correctly.
  • Fixed an issue where the Clone Sheet tool would not work as expected when sheet subsets were not set to ‘Yes’ within the ‘Create Folder Hierarchy’ for project settings.