FAQs

Please refer first to the section Common Issues When Publishing in the main CAD Tools training guide.

This section focuses on the specific scenario where ‘rogue’ drawing entities are appearing (or sometimes not even visible) outside the main floorplan area on the published FXC file, causing the view extents to be incorrect. These entities are not always visible or are sometimes on hidden layers.

An example of this is shown below, where the view extents is showing the floorplan not filling the view as one would expect; this is caused by a rogue entity which exists in the published plan, located within the red box area. This rogue entity is not on a published layer hence invisible to view in the published plan.

Recommended steps to resolve this:

1. Confirm that the AutoCAD drawing does not have any entities (with all layers switched on) in the opposite corner (the area highlighted above, for example).
2. Check to see if any of the entities on the drawing are 3D. This is normally easy to check by switching to a 3D view – click a corner of the ‘view cube’ to try this.

   

   If such 3D entities are present, and they are 3D faces or wireframes or another non-supported entity then they will be ignored for publishing. But if they are polylines that have perhaps been converted from previous 3D entities, this can cause publishing issues. Exploding these will generally resolve the problem.

3. Turn on a shaded layer in the web view. There can sometimes be an error with a polyline boundary resulting in incorrect coordinates – refer to the example below.

   

   In the example below, a room polyline for a particular room has been published incorrectly.

   
   In this scenario, trace the error to the offending polyline, then edit or recreate the polyline and re-publish.

4. Consider simply copying and pasting everything from the AutoCAD drawing model space into a new blank drawing. This can be a quick fix to eliminate any ‘artifacts’ in the DWG which are not actually visible and hence are difficult to identify and delete. Be aware of existing paper space layouts and unit settings when doing this. Also, be aware that any polylines associated to blocks will lose their reference and will need to be re-associated.
5. Check to see if there is a visible entity on the Web floorplan. If so, zoom in to identify it, it will often be a block. Inside AutoCAD, use the block edit button to quickly cycle through a preview of each block to identify which block it is.
6. If you can identify the block this way, you can either:

   a) Explode it permanently and try publish again.
   b) Delete it.
   c) Use the ‘Pre-explode before publish’ command in the CAD tools. This allows a temporary explode of the offending block without permanently altering the drawing (the explode is reverted after publish). See the section on this in this document.

7. If you cannot identify the offending block(s) this way, you may need to use the following technique for locating rogue entities on the FXC file.

Locating Rogue Entities on FXC Files:

You need to first publish a version of the FXC with the entity handles included. To do this, set the Value to use as object name field to HANDL in the relevant drawing publishing rule, example below:

1. Publish the drawing from CAD.
2. Then go to the TEST_READFXC.aspx page (with the correct URL prefix) and use parameters for MINX, MAXX, MINY, MAXY as required – example shown below.

   http://localhost:81/TEST_READFXC.aspx?file=FC2_00_S.fxc&MINX=-300000&MAXX=300000

3. Search the page for ***, and the value should give the AutoCAD handle – in the example below it is 323C39

   

4. Follow the below instructions to zoom to this entity in CAD:

   a) On the command line enter_ZOOM
   b)    Select the Object option.
   c)    When prompted to Select Objects, enter (HANDENT “HandleID”)
   where HandleID is the handle identification value of the entity.
   d)    Once the object is selected press ENTER to Zoom to this object.

5. REMEMBER TO REMOVE THE ‘HANDL’ ENTRY IN THE DWG PUBLISHING RULE TO PREVENT BLOAT OF THE FXC FILE(S).

In QFM Space, locations can have multiple Cost Codes assigned, which can be useful for spaces such as meeting rooms that are shared between departments.

1. Double-click on the green location icon to open the location details menu.

   

2. Expand the Allocation & Occupancy section and click the VIEW OCC
   
3. On the next popup, click ADD.

   

4. Click the appropriate ellipsis (…) button to select the departments you wish to add then assign the Charge Percentage for each. This can be an equal split between departments (click the Split button to automatically do this) or a custom split, but this must equal 100%, then click Save.

Use this procedure to rename a specific Space Type, for example ‘Workstation Standard’ to ‘Workstation’.

1. In the navigation pane click FUNTIONS > Maintenance > Config.

   

2. In the Administration tab click Space Types.

   

3. Select the Space Type you wish to update, for this example we’ll change WORKSTATION STANDARD to WORKSTATION.

   

4. In the Space Type field, enter the new Space Type name, then click the Rename current location to new name

   

5. A confirmation message is displayed; click OK to confirm the change.

   

6. Click the orange Save icon – bottom right.
   

Use this procedure to make bulk changes to a specific Space Type, for example changing from ‘Workstation Standard’ to Workstation Professional’.

• In the navigation pane click FUNTIONS > Maintenance > Config.

• In the Administration tab click Space Types.

• Select the Space Type you wish to update, for this example we’ll use WORKSTATION STANDARD.

• In the Swap to alternative type dropdown, select the new Space Type, then click the Swap locations to alternative areatype

• A confirmation message is displayed; click OK to confirm the change.

• Click the orange Save icon – bottom right.

This section shows how to add new Space Types to QFM Space. Adding Space Categories follows a similar process.

1. In the navigation pane click FUNTIONS > Maintenance > Config.
   
2. In the Administration tab click Space Types.
   
3. Click Add and fill out the form to add the new Space Type, also choosing a shading colour to display when highlighting by Space Type and then Save.

This section focuses on the specific scenario where plans are highlighted, by ‘Type’ or ‘Cost Code’ for example, and the furniture layout is unable to be viewed.

1. In the navigation pane Location Details, as well as turning on the desired highlight using the lightbulb icon, ensure that the tick box is checked.
   
2. On the layers function bar, click the Make selected layers transparent

This will reduce the opacity of the selected layers by 50% so that the Furniture Layout underneath can now be viewed.