Automating Updating Cached Views


 Product(s):AECOsim Building Designer
 Version(s):N\A
 Environment:N\A
 Area:Drawing Views
 Subarea:Output

Problem

I would like the cached views in my project to get updated automatically over night.

Solution

The following steps are to be followed to achieve this:

  1. Create a Task in Task Scheduler to open a file in AECOsim Building Designer. In the following video, an example of this process is shown where the application is set to run at 10:00 pm every night. You can select your own specific time. You can also select your own specific file to open by selecting the file where "AECOsimBuildingDesigner.exe" is selected in the video.
  2. Create a batch process to update the Cached Visible Edges in your selected files. Please follow this wiki to learn more about creating a batch process for this purpose. The process of creating a Batch Process in both V8i and CE is more or less the same.
  3. Please download this MVBA project and save it at a preferred folder. Open it using AECOsim Building Designer. Go to modMain and change "...D:\testBat.bprc" with path to your batch process. Please check the "Load on Start up"/"Auto-Load" check box in the VBA Project Manager as shown below:

This workflow would now run AECOsim Building Designer or the file selected by you at your preferred time, which in turn will run the VBA Macro that automatically runs the Batch Process to update the Cached Views and exits the program.

Please note that selecting a file to open in the Task Scheduler helps as it removes the manual step to select a file when AECOsim Building Designer is opened. Please also note that any dialog box that comes up when AECOsim Building Designer is evoked would result in a pause in this process until the dialog box is exited manually. Hence, it is recommended to check whether there are any dialog boxes that come up when AECOsim Building Designer is opened, and get rid of them, if any.