MEP 2013 Devices Have a 0' 0" Elevation in Navis 2012

[rwjohnstone]

Hi there, we recently updated our suite to 2013 (not recomended) we broke the company rule of waiting for the first update to be released before doing any upgrading, but we wanted to see if some of the new features would help with what we might be getting into. I know that 2013 has the new format that autocad updates every 4 years bla bla bla. All of the projects we are working use the old file format, so we save to the 2010 option. I have several lights that I created devices for in 2013, when this file is saved as a 2010, and brought into Navis or MEP 2012 all of the lights are inserted at the insertion point of the world coordinate system (under additional information in the properties box). Has anyone else had this problem? I have changed proxy graphics, blocked things, ex.... If you have found a way around it I would greatly appreciate it! Thank you to all of those who have sharred other information in this forum in the past!

[StykFacE]

How are you getting these files into Navisworks? Are you using NWCOUT to load the Navisworks Cache file into the program, or simply Appending the DWG file?

[rwjohnstone]

The file is being appended into Navisworks, I will try a cache file to see what that does...

[StykFacE]

NWCOUT is always the method you want to technically use. It creates much less headaches and there's more info embedded for Navisworks to work with.

[rwjohnstone]

I would agree, however, we use each others files in AutoCAD as xreffs while we are drafting for obvious reasons, and not everyone has NavisWorks to check themselves...

[StykFacE]

I would agree, however, we use each others files in AutoCAD as xreffs while we are drafting for obvious reasons, and not everyone has NavisWorks to check themselves...

That's all fine and dandy but NWCOUT has nothing to do with your current XREF situation. It doesn't interfere with the AutoCAD setup in any way, unless I am missing something.

[rwjohnstone]

Even when the light file is xreff into autoCAD 2012 as a dwg, the devices have no elevation to them. I need to be able to send a file or "files" out that can be brought into AutoCAD as an xreff and into Navisworks to show the elevation of the lights.

[StykFacE]

Ah, so you're having issues with the AutoCAD file itself, not necessarily the Navisworks export. Hmmm.... well I don't have 2013 at work yet so I can't help out. Seems a lot of people are having issues with the new file format though.

[rwjohnstone]

I would NOT install it yet, personally I would wait until 2014, the first two installs I did crashed about 20-30 times a day, now I get a ton of errors before the program starts, I hit ignore about 50 times and it works fine for the rest of the day???? Oh well. Thanks you for your time

[StykFacE]

Well, Revit 2013 and Navisworks 2013 we have and those have been working flawlessly thus far. AutoCAD it seems has always had problems when they jump versions. Hell, even non-file format versions have been horrific. AutoCAD 2009 was the biggest upset and that was a last year version of the file format lol. *shrugs* I guess some things never change.