Vico Office Release Notes -...
Transcript of Vico Office Release Notes -...
Table of Contents
Vico Office R6.5 Release Notes 4
TheGolden Rule of Upgrades - Back up all existing projects 4
Previous version files 4
Disk cleanup precautions 4
Anti-virus software 4
Trimble Connect 4
VicoWinEst Integration 5
Installation 6
Networking 6
Administrative rights 6
The versant database 6
BIM connections 6
Trimble Solution Improvement 6
Reverting to Earlier Versions of Vico Office 7
Feature Enhancements 8
4D Task Without 5D 8
BCF Support 8
Cost Planner Enhancements 9
Display Engine 12
Publishers and Importers Enhancements 12
Rebars 13
Tasks in Reports 13
Schedule Planner / VOWS Enhancements 14
Takeoff Manager Enhancements 15
Trimble Connect Enhancements 16
Defect Resolutions 18
Vico Office Release Notes Page 2
Known Issues 21
Cost Explorer 21
Document Controller 21
Language Support 21
Report Designer 22
Publishers 25
ArchiCAD 25
ArchiCAD and Revit 25
Revit 25
SketchUp 26
Tekla 26
Takeoff manager 27
Vico Project Server (VPS) 27
Winest integration 27
Trimble GC-CEC Division, Support Services 28
Vico Office Release Notes Page 3
Vico Office R6.5 Release Notes
Welcome to Vico Office! These notes include detailed insight for users upgrading to Vico Office R6.5.
You will find details about new functions, fixed functions, known issues and best practices for using the
program. This document should be read and understood by all users of Vico Office.
The Golden Rule of Upgrades - Back up all existing projects
It is fundamentally important that all existing projects get backed up before upgrading to a new install-
ation of Vico Office. Deployment environments can vary greatly and the safest way tomitigate any data
loss occurring during an upgrade is to back up all of your projects before any new installation of Vico
Office.
Previous version files
Vico Office will not open projects that were created before R5.0. If you have a project that was created
before R5.0, pack it (compatible pack) before unpacking it with the current version of Vico Office.
Disk cleanup precautions
When running standardWindows Disk Cleanup, or other similar applications to free up disk space, it is
almost certain that all .log files will be deleted from your system. While most Windows .log files are
expendable, the Versant database logs are not. Permanently deleting them from your system will des-
troy your Vico Office projects. Please ensure that Versant .log files are excluded from the Disk Cleanup.
Anti-virus software
SomeAnti-Virus software blocks or slows down the communication between Vico Office and the Vico
Project Server. Exceptions should be added to the Anti-Virus software settings to prevent this – see the
Vico Office Installation Guide for these settings.
Trimble Connect
Trimble Connect, a cloud-based collaboration application, enables you to share files with other supported
applications and your teammembers. To access your Trimble Connect account from Vico Office, use
the following Server URL:
l app.connect.trimble.com
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You can then choose from a drop-down list the Trimble Connect region to which you wish your projects
connected.
Vico WinEst Integration
If you are using GC Estimator (Vico andWinEst), you will need to download the latest plugin from Vico
SupportLink. Select the VicoWinEst plugin for your version of Vico Office andWinEst.
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Installation
Networking
Important: When you use Vico Office in a configuration with separate server and client, make sure that
both server and client(s) systems are updated to the latest version of Vico Office.
Administrative rights
Installation of Vico Office requires administrator rights and elevated access rights in cases where User
Account Controls (UAC) are enabled; UACs may need to bemodified, or turned off, via the Control
Panel.
When installing Vico Office while connected to a network domain, the UAC settings may be different
from an offline profile, which can result in changed hardware identification characteristics. The changed
hardware characteristics may result in a “no valid license found” message. Reinstalling your license will
solve this issue.
The versant database
Versant is the backend database used to store and interact with information inside of the Vico Project
Server (VPS). Most local installations of Vico Office will see a folder for the c:\Versant directory stored
onto their machine for project storage. The project server can also be installed across a LAN for com-
munal project access. See the installation guide for more details.
In this release, Vico Office has updated its core database to Versant version 9.0
BIM connections
In some cases, the installer is unable to detect the folder in which ArchiCad, AutoCAD, Revit and Tekla
was installed on your computer. If this happens, the Vico installer allows for selecting the folder manu-
ally. All required files will be copied to the specified folder.
Trimble Solution Improvement
When running the Vico installer, you are encouraged to participate in the 'Trimble Solution Improvement'
program. When you select 'Yes', a crash report is automatically sent to Trimble. Only necessary inform-
ation required by developers to help them understand why a crash occurred is included in the report.
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When you select 'No', a crash report is NOT automatically sent to Trimble. However, you can send this
report manually. A prompt will be available on the UI after the crash has occurred.
Reverting to Earlier Versions of Vico Office
If there is a need to revert back to a previous Vico Office release on your machine, some files have to be
removedmanually, as the Vico Office database files are not backward compatible. Please check the
Vico Office Installation guide available on SupportLink and follow the steps on how to 'Revert back to a
Previous Vico Office' version.
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Feature Enhancements
4D Task Without 5D
l Schedule creation in Vico Office just got a whole lot quicker! Takeoff Quantities can now be
mapped directly to schedule tasks for “on the fly” planning from any 3Dmodel. Schedule tasks can
be created purely from quantities, or a mixed list of tasks can be driven by quantities and cost com-
ponents.
l Quick creation was added to allow users to create a task from a TOQ with only a right-click!
l The Tasks grid of the Compare & Update module now includes the 'Linked TOQs' column.
BCF Support
l BCF support has been added to the Constructability Manager module to help IFC users track and
communicate around their design management issues. This BIM Collaboration Format (BCF) is a
universally accepted method of transferring issue information via XML files. Users can then view
constructability items in other supported IFC applications, as well as in and out of Vico Office. In
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this release, BCF v. 1.0 and 2.0 are supported for import while v. 2.0 can be exported.
To help users quickly identify a BCF issue, a BCF column filter has been added to the Issue man-
ager:
Cost Planner Enhancements
l The 'Include Hierarchy' function has been added to Cost Planner to enable users to drag/drop com-
ponents from a reference project more elegantly. When enabled, this feature will transport all of the
upper level components of an item when it is brought over from a reference project. Using this fea-
ture will save both time and effort when building up a big cost plan from scratch.
Then, drag-and-drop the item. The parent level is also copied over.
Note that if the same code already exists in the project, you will be prompted to resolve this con-
flict.
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l Conditional formatting has been added to the Cost Planner module to help you visualize your estim-
ating data more easily. With conditional formatting you can create rules about information that
you’d like to be highlighted in the estimate. Rules can contain any unique combination of font
formats, which helps draw attention to specific information or trends inside the data. Right-click on a
Cost Planner column header and select Conditional Formatting to view your different formatting
options.
Choose from a list of predefined conditions:
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The formatting rules are saved in the CP_FormatingRules XML file, which is located in the fol-
lowing folder path:
C:\Users\<user_profile>\AppData\Roaming\Vico Software\Office\ConditionalFormattingRules
To share your formatting rules, simply copy the xml file to the new user's folder path. If the new
user does not have a 'ConditionalFormattingRules' folder, simply create one.
Note: When selecting a formatting style for your grid, keep inmind that Vico Office has default
formatting rules as they will take precedence over your own conditional formatting rules. For more
information, see the Vico Office Online Help topic 'Conditional Formatting'.
Display Engine
l Vico Office display engine has been updated to improve performance. Users will now see quicker
loading and more responsive interactions in all 3D views, especially those that include translucent
elements.
Publishers and Importers Enhancements
l The following publishers are supported in this release (bolded versions are new in this release):
l Autodesk Revit 2016, 2017 and 2018 (Architecture, MEP and Structure)
l Tekla Structures* 2016i and 2017
l ArchiCAD 19 and 20
l AutoCAD 2016 and 2017 (Architecture and MEP)
l Bentley is not supported in Vico R6.1. (To continue to use this publisher, youmust use
Vico R6 or earlier)
* Tekla Structures 2016i: The Tekla ribbonmay need to be customized to add the 'Publish to Vico'
button. Follow this video to add a 'User-defined command' to the ribbon. Use the following file-
names for each version:
l 2016i: C:\Program Files\Tekla Structures\2016i\nt\bin\plu-
gins\VicoExportPlugin\VicoTeklaAddon2016i.exe
l 2017: C:\Program Files\Tekla Structures\2017\nt\bin\VicoEx-
portPlugin\VicoTeklaAddon2017.exe
Note: The bolded folder names represent the default installation path.
l The following importers are supported in this release (bolded versions were added in this
release):
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l CAD-Duct – via XML
l IFC – Versions IFC2x3 and IFC4
l SketchUp: Versions 8, 2013, 2014 and 2015, 2016, 2017
l Trimble Connect
l Custom numerical parameters from your Revit can now be published to CAD quantities.(CN#
01406926)
Rebars
l Vico Office now supports rebar quantification from Tekla models. Having this new element type
allows us to read the individual rebar elements from the source model and apply our location-based
calculations to them. Rebars can be split and quantified with the same flexibility that was added for
all elements in the initial 6.0 release. Additionally, changes in rebar models can be visualized using
the Document Controller functionality.
Tasks in Reports
The Tasks field has been added to the Report Engine. Under the Tasks field, you will see a list of Mapped
Components and Mapped TOQs properties. These properties, which include task Codes, the TOQs asso-
ciated with a task, and duration of a task, can now be added to your generated reports.
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Schedule Planner / VOWS Enhancements
l Schedule Planner has been updated to publish additional production data, which includesmore
information about 'execution tasks' to the Vico database.
Additional published data includes:
l Actual Productivity
l Actual Project Costs (based on Forecasted Duration and real Project Cost)
l Supplier Name
l Resources (includes Crew composition)
l Incremental completion percentages from control chart
l Task parts (sub tasks) and detail tasks
Similarly, Vico OfficeWeb Services (VOWS) have been upgraded to receivemore information
from the production control engine inside of Schedule Planner. With the update, users can now
access detailed task, crew and completion information in any number of external applications.
Allowing users to see this detailed completion information in external applications paves the way
for more business intelligence (BI) and analytics to be applied to schedule completion data.
l Tekla Actuals XML files can now be imported to Schedule Planner while users are working in Vico
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Office. (CN# 01393999)
Takeoff Manager Enhancements
l Unassigned elements from a TOI are now automatically associated with a new 'Unassigned' TOI
with the following name: 'Unassigned-<ElementType>. This will ensure that unassigned elements
are included in the model's cost estimate.
l The TOI Builder now offers an expandable area that shows the first 5 Takeoff Item names based on
the current settings. Users will appreciate this addition when trying to see how their TOI com-
binations will appear on large projects. Note that when you change your settings, the Preview area
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will collapse. To preview your new settings, simply click on the down-arrows again.
Trimble Connect Enhancements
l Vico Ofice has been updated to use Trimble Connect's new Server URL (Project Settings view):
l app.connect.trimble.com
If you wish to connect to a different Trimble Connect region, simply choose it from the drop-down
list.
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l To log in to Prolog Connect from Vico Office, you no longer need to use an API Access Key as your
.password. Simply use your Trimble ID username and password. If you need a Trimble ID, go to
http://connect.trimble.com/
Vico Office Release Notes Page 17
Defect Resolutions
3D / 4D
l Resolved an issue where elements from published models appeared out of place on a 3Dmodel.
(CN# 01402544)
ConstructabilityManager
l After adding an image to an Issue, the image can now be viewed by clicking on the 'Images' button
available on the 'Card' mode and on the 'Issue Item Properties' palette). (CN# 01347324)
Cost Planner
l In a localized Vico Office, editing a Cost Plan formula in the formula bar may have resulted in incor-
rect values. To re-run the formulas, right-click on the component with the incorrect value and choose
'Re-evaluate Formulas'. (CN# 01416825)
l All rows in a Cost Planner grid cannot be deleted anymore. The minimum number of rows in Cost
Planner is 50. This is a safeguard to prevent the entire grid from being accidentally deleted. (CN#
01417255)
l Resolved an issue where Cost Plan items Base Cost were not populated when activated. (CN#
01422722)
Document Controller
l Resolved an issue with how 'fills' from a customer's multi-page PDF file appeared in Vico Office.
(CN# 01392531)
l Resolved an issue where the Export to PDF option produced incorrect colors. (CN# 01400515)
l If the fonts of a PDF file in Document Controller are not displayed correctly, delete the document
and re-import with the 'Convert missing fonts to images' check box in the 'Select Files and Layouts'
dialog box selected. (CN# 01414177)
l Resolved an issue where a PDF's text was changed to dashed lines when viewed in the Document
Register. (CN# 01419995)
Installer
l Vico Office temporary files in the 'ProgramData' folder are properly removed after Vico Office has
been uninstalled. (CN# 01396189)
l Vico Office can be deployed successfully using Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager.
(CN# 01409032)
LBSManager
l Resolved an issue with splitting the highest floor location. (CN# 01426385)
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Publisher / Importer
l Revit's 'Slab Edge' element now properly appears in Vico Office. (T-0251 / CN# 01358050)
l There may be a difference between Revit's calculation of railings and beams' length and the length
calculated by Vico. Vico calculates the length based on the exported object's true length, whereas
Revit may adjust the length based on what it expects the 'cut length' is supposed to be. (T-51565 /
CN# 01334914)
l Resolved an issue where a customer's IFC project was taking too long to activate. (CN#01366394)
l The IFC importer now supports unicode symbols. (T-66836 / CN#01384051)
l Resolved an issue where it was taking too long to activate/quantify a Door element in IFC. (CN#
01392004).
l Floor levels are now correctly imported from Revit. (CN# 01393768)
l Railings are now properly imported from an IFCmodel. (CN# 01410480)
l The 'Identity Data' > 'Type Name' parameter can now be used for TOI name generation. (CN#
01426488)
l Cast_Unit_Type, Class, and Comment parameters are now available in the TOI Builder. (CN#
01420772)
Report Editor
l Notes that are added to Components (via the Properties panel) will now appear properly in reports.
(T-51256 / CN# 01334210)
l 'Location Notes' are now displayed correctly when added to a report. (CN# 01335167)
l When importing report templates, report names that have the same name as an existing one will be
appended with a number. Example: "MyReport (2)", "MyReport (3)". (CN# 01352419)
l Fixed an error in the 'CP - Excel Cost Plan Data Output' template. (CN# 01420447)
Schedule Planner
l Resources can now be added to a Task successfully without Schedule Planner crashing. (CN#
01374633)
l After approving a schedule, selecting 'Show target' will now display the correct 'Current Start Date'
and 'Current End Date'. (CN# 01404759)
Takeoff Manager
l The 'Set as Default' check box in the Graphic Settings dialog box is no longer selected by default.
(T-60642 / CN# 01359519)
l Resolved an issue where the IFC importer was not importing some Layer information properly. (CN#
01377195)
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l Resolved a customer-specific issue where the window's 'Element Surface Area' was not calculated
correctly. (CN# 01383201)
l Resolved an issue where Vico Office would hang after creating a formula using specific localized
TOQs. (CN# 01423755)
VicoOffice Client
l Clarified the difference between Filter Editor's 'Is like' / 'Is not like' operators and the 'Contains' /
'Does not contain' operators. They behave similarly except that 'Contains' / 'Does not contain'
operators are case sensitive and 'Is like' / 'Is not like' are not case sensitive. (T - 43512 / CN#
01217856)
Vico Project Server Admin
l Old backups are now automatically removed based on the 'Number of backup sets to keep' setting.
(CN# 01348326)
Vico Office Release Notes Page 20
Known Issues
Cost Explorer
l When using a constant in a formula with a TOQ that is equal to zero, the constant will be ignored
and result in an incorrect answer.
Example:
WhenManualTOI.Length = 0:
ManualTOI.Length + 2 = 0 (incorrect answer)
l When using a constant in a compound formula where one of the TOQs is zero, it may result in an
incorrect answer depending on where you place the constant. Note in the example below that when
the constant is NOT placed next to the TOQ with a zero value, the formula will result in an correct
answer.
Example:
WhenManualTOI.Length = 0 andManualTOI.Net Surface Area = 5
ManualTOI.Length + 2 + ManualTOI.Net Surface Area = 5 (incorrect
answer)
ManualTOI.Length + ManualTOI.Net Surface Area + 2 = 7 (correct
answer)
Document Controller
l Deleting a model version that has a linked issue may cause Vico Office to crash. (T-67459)
l Some PDF font typesmay appear incorrectly (e.g., incorrect character spacing, missing characters,
or replaced characters) when imported into Document Controller. We have tested most common
font types; however, some outliers may still exist. Please contact Technical Support team if you
encounter such occurrences so that we can add support for your font type.
Language Support
l Vico Office is available in multiple languages. However, cross-language support is not supported.
Using Vico Office acrossmultiple installed languagesmay result in visual inaccuracies and defects.
(T-80855)
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Report Designer
l Calculated fields that have custom tag valuesmay not appear in a report when Print previewed.
There are two ways to ensure that they appear in your reports: (D-13464)
o Change the Data Source for your calculated field to "none".
o Add calculated fields using the CalculateField Collection Editor.
1. Create a Tag (in this example, name it "Subcontractor") and assign it Values.
2. Edit the report template. The Report Designer is displayed.
3. On the Field List tab, right-click onComponents > Edit Calculated Fields.
4. On the CalculatedField Collection Editor dialog box, clickAdd.
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5. Select theData Member.
6. Select the expression for this calculated field.
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7. Choose the created tag value and click OK.
8. Bind this calculated field to a report and preview it.
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l Changing the 'Tag' property of the Report object may cause Vico Office to crash when saving the
template. This is because it will change the edited report's name (Report.Tag), which is linked to the
template. Therefore, it is not recommended to change the Tag property.
Publishers
ArchiCAD
l Composite ArchiCADwall elementsmay show a different area selection to what might be auto-
matically expected at the corner of walls. This is due to a change in how ArchiCAD now classifies
ends and sides of walls. Quantities should be reviewed and the painting tool should be used if
deemed necessary by the user to facilitate required quantities.
ArchiCAD and Revit
l Composite element wall or slab layers cannot currently be quantified from Revit or ArchiCAD. Pro-
visions have been made to deploy the best possible results via the current API availability. If quant-
ities and/or TOI composition are not desirable when coming in from these systems, users are
advised to work out custom formulas (via TOM/TOP/CP) to come up with their own calculations that
reflect their preferred takeoff of such composite elements.
Revit
l Modifying Sub Elements of Revit slabs to create sloping areas where the slab has inconsistent
thicknesses (e.g., top surfacemodified with slopes and the bottom left flat) can occasionally
cause incorrect volume calculations.
l Revit models that are linked together and published into Vico Office do not always behave
predictably. In some cases, linked models do not respect the filtering constraints that were put on
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the publishing view and can result in undesired outputs and/or duplicate quantities. Users are
advised to remove the link between files and publish them separately.
SketchUp
l SketchUp does not store reference information in the same way as some other BIM authoring applic-
ations, thusmaking it harder for Vico Office to provide some quantity types coming from SketchUp.
Also, some element type classification are not currently being read well. The newOnscreen
Takeoff tools should help to supplement any occurrences of missing quantities, and element types
can be manually reassigned in TOM to address this. We are working with the SketchUp team on a
regular basis to resolve this.
Tekla
l Tekla content created and managed in the latest release using the ‘organizer’ tool may not be read
correctly by Vico Office. When this happens, usersmay find that the element type recognition in
TOM does not behave as expected. To resolve this, users can go into TOM and change the ele-
ments to the desired type inside of Vico Office, or they can manage the classificationsmanually in
Tekla.
Please contact our technical support team if you wish to classify the elements manually inside of
Tekla. When doing so, they will provide you with the ‘object.inp’ file that it can be dropped into
your Tekla dataset. Doing so will automate the creation of ‘Vico 01, 02, 03 and Vico object type’
inside of the Tekla classification tool. For more information, see our Knowledge Base articles
available on Vico Office SupportLink.
Vico Office Release Notes Page 26
Takeoff manager
l Each release of Vico Office brings with it improved quantity calculations, as well as support for new
CAD applications. As such, the calculated values for takeoff quantities (TOQs) can change from
release to release. The changes can be a result of how elements are quantified by Vico, how loc-
ations are derived by Vico, or how bodies are generated by the authoring application. Vico Office
does not force the reactivation of models with each new release, however it is strongly advised the
users reactivate in each new release to take full advantage of the latest and greatest calculation
methods.
Vico Project Server (VPS)
l The following error may appear when starting Vico Office (with Vico Project Server installed):
E7031 : UT_ER_DBID_NOACCESS
This error is due to the 'osc-dbid' file missing from the Versant database folder.
c:\versant\db
Tomanually create this file:
1. Ensure that Vico Office is closed.
2. Open a command windowwith Administrator rights.
3. Type "dbid -N" and then press Enter
The file is created. Now you can start Vico Office properly.
l Projects that are restored using only the VPSA backup command, rather than the packing func-
tionality, cannot be properly updated into newer (R5.0) versions of Vico Office. To avoid this prob-
lem, users should rely on the packing functionality to preserve their historical projects, rather than
simply replying on the VPSA backups.
Winest integration
l TheWinEst Integration utility must be reinstalled after Vico Office. This is because VOmay over-
write the default layout.xml information and the integration becomes unusable. A simple rein-
stallation of the connector will rectify the problem.
Vico Office Release Notes Page 27
Trimble GC-CEC Division, Support Services
Trimble GC-CEC Division Support Services is committed to offering timely, thorough, and efficient res-
olutions to your installation and operation issues in accordance with your Trimble Support Contract.
To receive the best support possible, be sure to review the Trimble Support Services Handbook.
You can contact Trimble GC-CEC Division, Support Services by:
l Email: [email protected]
l Internet: http://support.vicosoftware.com
The Trimble SupportLink includes a technical knowledge base, answers to frequently asked questions,
technical documentation, and a form to submit specific support requests 24 hours a day, 365 days a
year.
Vico Office Release Notes Page 28