BlueCielo Meridian Enterprise Server 2016 Administrator's Guide

Understanding the Autodesk AutoCAD rendering module

The Autodesk AutoCAD rendering module converts AutoCAD DWG files to PDF, DWF, or JPG files. Based on the module's configuration options, the module uses the AutoCAD ActiveX interface to plot drawings.The AutoCAD software is not included with Meridian Enterprise Server and must be purchased and installed separately.

Notes

• Except when used with the Meridian Enterprise system link, no reference resolution is performed and all assembly files must reside in the same source folder.
• Multiple layouts within the same drawing file can be rendered to individual sheets and the property values of multiple insertions of the same title block can be mapped to the destination system.
• Rendering with this module using a scheduled task is not supported unless the account running the task is a member of the server's Administrators group and Windows User Account Control (UAC) is disabled.

To better control the plotting process, the Explorer rendering module provides a configuration option to invoke a custom AutoLISP function that can contain the AutoCAD PLOT command among other commands. The AutoLISP function can use input parameters from a Meridian Enterprise property value. The AutoLISP function can also invoke VBScript. Any information that cannot be obtained via AutoLISP programming or Meridian Enterprise properties cannot be used for rendering. The details of the custom function depend very much on each Meridian Enterprise environment and the customer's requirements and therefore require custom programming. Examples of such a configuration are provided in Configuring the Autodesk AutoCAD rendering module options and Rendering Navisworks models.