August 9, 2013

PLANT 3D 2014 :: Extension 1 - DO NOT INSTALL-To Everyone Until You Test



On the Plant Exchange, there is a new (sorta new anyway) Extension that has alot of promise for BOMs in Orthos and Center of Gravity calculations, as well as some Isometric improvements.
http://autocad.autodesk.com/?nd=plant_home

However, upon installing, I started getting errors, crashes, problems problems problems with my Plant 3D.  I tried to uninstall the Extension, but ended up having to completely uninstall and reinstall the Plant 3D.

So, at this time, I would not recommend installing the Extension.  Other links to reference on the Plant 3D Discussion board:


http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-Plant-3D/Plant-3D-2014-Extension-1/td-p/4349963

UPDATE:
Here is what I have found with my reinstall of Ext 1 on a fresh install of Plant 3D.
REGENALL must be performed on all Orthos and all Isos, what I mean is:  
If i have multiple Orthos open, and toggle between them, I will need to REGENALL.  This will also happen if I have multiple Orthos and Isos open.  When I toggle from an Iso to an Ortho, I must REGENALL.
If I have multiple ISOs open, similar to the Orthos, provided I am looking at the ISOs in model space.  Seem ok if I am viewing the ISOs in PaperSpace.

My original problem that caused me to reinstall P3D in the first place has not come back, which was locking up during Ortho creation.  One note, I definately believe the dialog that says "this may take several minutes" when creating Orthos.  The only thing I can think of that is different is I did uninstall/reinstall .NET Framework 4.5.

Some have reported anomolies in ISO creation, but I am not seeing that.
All my orthos have xrefs, and seem to work fine.
Dimscale looks good.
Properties Palette good.
All my tests were with existing projects.
I tested on another PC that had only Plant Design Suite, no other suites installed.  Same issue with REGENALL, but none of the others problems people have reported.

So, at this time, for me, I think I will put up with having to REGENALL in exchange for the added functions/capability of the Ext 1.  

I recommend that in any given environment, that one person on the Plant team install the Extension and do some detailed testing before everyone on your team installs it.

And I do request any feedback from others on this issue.  I do believe the Plant Team at Autodesk is always pursuing quality with this product and will be attentative to all issues.