Lawrence Puckett

I have project where I need to produce single part
sheets for a few W-shapes and plate stiffners. The
titles under the W-shapes are correct and filled out.
However the plate titles are blank and only show the
dashes that show normally. Why are the titles acting
differently and how do I correct this?

I asked a question a week ago and haven't heard
anything from you guys in response. These are
important questions that keep coming up from our
clients and even in house. What's the status of
getting these questions answered?

Kiss Files

We've noticed that in our KSS files that some
dimensions of the parts are imperial for some, and
metric for others. I have the units set for imperial in
KSS generation. How do I get all the units to be
imperial units in the KSS file?

We have a few questions regarding how
numbering and KSS file generation work.
1. We have a customer that is asking if bolts
can be added to the KISS file. I’ve looked and
cannot find any setting that would allow for this
to occur. Is there any way these can be added to
the kiss file when I export?

2. On a recent project, a customer has noted
that plate sizes on the drawings are not
corresponding to plate sizes on the KSS file. For
example, part p4 on the drawing and in the
model, is a 3/8” thick plate. However, on the KSS
file, it is listed as 1/4” plate. We’ve also noticed
that a 2-3/4” long part was rounded up to 3” on
the KSS file. This leads us to believe that the
precision of the KSS file has been changed so that
the export is rounding to the nearest 1/4” or
1/2”. This causes confusion as to which is correct,
the drawings or the KSS file, and makes our work
look less accurate to our customers. Is there any
way to change this setting so that any plate
thickness we set in the model and on sheets is
exported to the KSS file correctly?

3. We’ve also noted on a project KSS file that
assemblies are listed on drawings they are not
on, or never have been on. An example would be
part CA49 is on sheet 49 but the KSS file shows
that it is on sheet 98. What can we do in the
future to prevent this from happening? See
attached KSS file.

4. When numbering, we’ve noticed that the
main part of an assembly gets the assembly
number and a single part mark. However, when
putting the assembly on sheets, the single part
mark for the main part is not shown. What is
shown is the assembly number is placed on the
BOM twice, and sometimes the single part mark,
which can also be given to multiple parts per
assembly doesn’t show up at all on the BOM but
will be in the KSS file. This causes great confusion
to both us and our customers. What would be
ideal would be to have the assembly get the
assembly number, but that each part of the
assembly would get a single part mark, and is
associated with the assembly number. Then on
the BOM, the assembly number is shown giving a
count of the number of assemblies, then the
single part marks are shown with a count of each
part per assembly, with the main part of the
assembly being shown as its single part mark. Is
this possible? Please see the attached PDF 81
and KSS file for the job in question.

Attachment: Questions.zip

I'm working with a model that has a few special
parts that need to be visible on drawings. These
parts contain quite a lot of objects. When I
create drawings, not everything contained within
the special part is visible. Even some of the
Advance Steel objects aren't visible in the views.
None of the special parts contain blocks of any
kind as I'm aware that these cause some issues
with special parts. What's causing this and how
can I solve the issue?

Tommy, thanks for the reply, I went ahead and changed the structural member and renumbering the quantities of both assemblies changed to 1. Thanks for the help.

I have a handrail that I'm working on getting onto
sheets whose count is wrong. There is only one of
these assemblies, however when putting this
assembly onto sheets it's counted 9 times. There
are two assemblies that are having this problem.
They are parts BA17 and BA18. We need to get this
job out rather fast, and can't have these two
assemblies miscounted.

Attachment: Sniper Tower.rar

We recently did a job where two different parts
were labled with the same single part number.
Both parts are plates, and are similar in thickness
but their shape is different. I tried to manually
change the number in the Advance Properties
dialog box, but when I did this the part numbers
for both parts changed. This is the first time in
the few years we've been using this software that
we've encountered this problem.

I'm including the model with this question,
hopefully it'll help figure out what has happened.

Attachment: 29 Bilge Block.rar

I have recently updated Advance Steel 2017 to
2017.1, as well as updating AutoCAD 2017 to the
same. However, this has been met with some
interesting results. I tend to use both 2D
Wireframe and Conceptual visual styles the most.
However, any orbit or pan or even zoom
command causes an alert window to appear in
the bottom right hand corner of the screen, 3D
Display Performance Notification. This window
contains a link to the VISUALSTYLES Command.
Upon following this link I'm taken to the Help file
for the command. It lists a few System Variables
to set when using certain View Styles. I've set
these system variables while in the view styles as
shown in the help file, but still get the same
display performance notification.

I've also found that while using the Conceptual
visual style if I save the model, half of the what
was visible is turned off and is not visible
anymore. I have to use the All Visible command
in the Quick Views Tool Pallet.

Both of these issues are new to the recent
updates to both programs, Advance Steel 2017,
and AutoCAD 2017. Prior to updating the
programs yesterday, I did not have this problem.
Both issues are inconvenient and can be worked
around or ignored, however, this creates two
programs that are no longer fully functional.
How do I solve this issue without reverting back
to the programs as they were before the update
and regain full functionality of both programs?

We're working on a project with multiple stairs,
handrails, and steel beams. For the stairs I used
the Drawing Style 6 - Stair - UCS. Most of the
stairs were brought onto the sheets without any
trouble. However, one of the stairs which has
multiple instances is not displaying. The BOM
and title for the stair are visible and in their
proper place, but the stair detail is not displayed.
I do not have this issue with any other stair or
assembly. How can I get the stair to display
properly?