Visual Enterprise Author Release Notes

Right Hemisphere (an SAP Company) introduces Visual Enterprise Author (VEA), version 7.0. This is the same code base as Deep Exploration 6.5, and has been brought up to SAP Corporate Security Standards and re-branded.

This document includes information relating to these products as well as any clarifications that may be important.

These release notes address any issues not discussed in the Help reference or Readme documentation, and they include information regarding installation.

Please note that this document may be updated as more information becomes available

Product Trial Period and Activation

• The trial period remains the same for Visual Enterprise Author; 30 days after which functionality will cease. Product activation uses the same mechanism via the internet or email.
• All licenses moving forward will be perpetual, and will include the full functionality of the former 'CAD Edition'. More specifically, this includes the CAD Loaders. For existing Deep Exploration users with a Standard subscription, upgrades will be to Visual Enterprise Author, which includes full functionality.
• XML Document Editor now has a 90 day trial period.

Network License

• Network licenses created for Deep Exploration 6.5 will NOT work with VEA 7.0. The license file has to be re-signed. Please contact Support for a new license file.

Video output to MPEG4

• In order to output to Mpeg4 (*.mp4) video format, users will need to install either an open source codec or a commercially available codec.
• Saving output to video in Visual Enterprise Author does include an option to save to MPEG4. When selected, a message displays to the user, that contains the following instuctions:
• 1. You can find download link to the FFmpeg Windows Builds on the offical site: .
• 2. Select the latest of either the 32-bit (static) or 64-bit (static) builds.
• 3. Download.
• 4. Unpack the contents of the library to the folder: C:\Program Files\SAP\SAP Visual Enterprise Author 7.0\plugins\.
• Please note the that the download is archived with 7z. You can download from here:
• When the download is complete and the codec installed, the user can press Retry button to continue with creating an mp4 video output.
• For users who cannot or do not want to install open source FFMPEG there are commercial solutions.
• MainConcept Reference 2.2 is a commercially available option.
• After downloading the software, the steps to install and configure are:
• 1. Install MAINCONCEPT REFERENCE 2.2.
• 2. Render video as normal but select output as set of JPEG2000 images in separate folder.
• 3. Open MAINCONCEPT REFERENCE 2.2.
• 4. Drag and drop resulting images as source for video
• 5. Start transcoding.

• Visual Enterprise Author is delivered with a new SAP installer. Other than branding, it is basically the same. There is one exception; there is no option to install for single or multiuser. All installs are for multiple users.
• Some features are not included in the install:
• Xmax: When XML Document Editor Panel is selected, the user is taken to a JustSystems landing page where the product can be downloaded for trial or purchase.
• The Visual Enterprise installer does not include .NET framework 4. It is required for the Green Button plugin.
• JRE: The Java Runtime Environment is required to preview documents created using XML Document Editor. This can be downloaded for installation from here.

• Illustration tool disabled for Standard version of Deep Exploration.
• Software Z-buffer raster renders no longer displays “Rich Text” with large in appropriate font sizes.
• Crash fixed when editing an existing note, and then undoing the change.
• Crash fixed when deleting a callouts list.
• Step Metadata test box only allows for 260 characters.
• Crash on merging files.
• Fixed issue where users were not able to export out to RH format from a JT assembly.
• Fixed an issue where Deep Exploration was failing on JT exports.
• Fixed poor translation of ProE.
• JT scene tree collapsing behavior now controlled through new import option.

General

• Part of adhering to SAP Corporate standards included a review of features and functionality that could be removed. Care was taken to avoid a negative impact on current customer workflows.
• Plugins that have been removed are:
• Update.x3d - The Internet Update process will no longer be used.
• ILoad.x3d.
• Websearch.x3d.
• Benchmark.x3d.
• Shatterer.x3d.
• GL.cpp
• IGES2D.x3d
• LoadDiagram.x3d.
• MentalImages.x3d.
• PRC.x3d.
• Recipe.x3d
• SketchUpUploader.x3d.
• TaskManager.x3d.
• Batch.x3d.
• Connector.x3d.
• Dpexml.x3d.
• Map.x3d.
• Mkvoxels.x3d.
• proxy32.x3d.
• quake.x3d.
• u3drhmesh.x3d.
• viewpoint.x3d.
• vmdemo.x3d.
• Sunflow.x3d.
• 3drm.x3d.
• Older versions of Autodesk 3ds Max and Maya have been removed. Versions 2010, 2011, and 2012 for each product are supported.
• File formats no longer supported:
• Mocap.
• Nendo.
• CADTools: Remove Small Parts has been removed. This was removed to simplify the UI. Additionally, this particular tool was not considered the best way to perform the task.
• Slideshow was removed.
• Toolbars that have been removed:
• Display Toolbar was removed to save on space and omit redundant menu options. All of the options can be found in the Navigation Toolbar.
• The Lights Toolbar was removed. All of the options can be found in the Display button on the Navigation toolbar.
• Surfaces Toolbar was removed.
• Spatial Search toolbar was removed. It has been replaced with Spatial Query.

CAD

• 'Alternate Approach' Import Option for ACIS (SAT), IGES, PARASOLID, and STEP are no longer supported.
• CADDS and VDAF format are no longer supported.
• Import Option Import Mode 'Assembly' from all CAD assembly files has been removed.
• JT import options:
• Extensive re-structuring of import options has been performed in order to bring JT in-line with rest of the CAD formats.
• BREP Mesh import mode has been removed due to some issues, and when improved will be added back in next CAD update. This may affect some of our existing customers.

General

• Deep Exploration and Visual Enterprise Author can co-exist on the same machine. There is one minor incompatibility when Acrobat 3D v8.1 is installed as well. When launching a 3D PDF an error displays, and if you click OK, the 3D PDF displays. To eliminate the message, manually delete the RHTemplateDesigner.api file from C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0\Acrobat\plug_ins\ folder.
• Spatial Query using Contour\Grow Region by percent: please avoid using grow by percentage contour as there can be performance implications that cause VEA to appear as though it has hung. This is actually not the case, as VEA is processing. The workaround for this workflow is to use Scene units for the contour.
• When saving VDS to RH, occasionally bounding boxes are saved instead of meshes. This occurs if you set the thumbnail size to anything other than 'None', which is the default.
• When using Query to highlight color of the objects, it does not get saved with the file. Upon reloading the file the highlight colors of the object will not be retained.
• VEG generated *.rh files cannot be imported into Max with the RH import/Exporter.
• RH PDF template designer control 'Animation End Options' causes Adobe Acrobat to close down.
• The cross section setting 'Cross section outline width' can cause unexpected behavior with the width numbers.
• Measurements in U3D file format have an inconsistent look when compared to the measurements created in VEA.
• Custom colored thrustlines are not being preserved in the save.
• Primitive points created in VEA disappear after a save. This is due to the point having its 'Size' setting reset to 0.
• Entering certain numbers into the Rich Text font size adds an extra digit to the number.
• HTML exits unexpectedly when loading in Safari v5.1.
• 'Conversion Protected' and 'Read only' rh files cannot be imported into Max Maya and XSI.
• To view customized callouts in the drop-down list, users need to:
• Copy their custom *.cst file to c:\users\[username]\appdata\roaming\SAP\SAP Visual Enterprise Author 7\.
• Delete the current callout.xml, and
• Restart VEA in order to re- populate the list, and make it visible in the callouts profile drop-down list.
• Users will need to establish an environment variable for their installation of Maya, in order to import Maya files with Maya versions 2009 and upwards; please refer to the help file for details.
• CADKey (cadl), and WMF (wmf) no longer supported.
• Manual folder functionality in the VEA Parts list is not automated and needs to be manually inserted.
• Users cannot overwrite existing VDS file formats, only make copies
• In a 3D PDF scene, duplicate objects are renamed with an additional '_1' suffix. This is by design, and is the nature of how the Adobe 3D format controls objects in a scene with the same names.
• VEA now validates *.rh file in load and save for possible changes to instance reference hierarchy. The utility displays a message warning that metadata could be lost.
• CADTools has been updated for this release. A new method for detecting hidden geometry has been included.
• Drawing Toolbar is no longer able to create Notes or Notes with Leaderlines. This is now handled by the Text and Notes toolbar.
• For WinXP operating systems, VEA now requires Service Pack 3. This enables .NET v4 which is included in the installer. WinXP x64 has no Service pack 3, therefore one feature in VEA that will be incompatible with this operating system: Greenbutton.
• Deep Exploration users will need to manually transfer their user profiles across to Visual Enterprise Author, in order to work with their current profiles and thumbnails. We are working on implementing a feature that will do this automatically for the user in future releases.

CAD

General

• For any CAD files: parts are instanced, sub-assemblies are not instanced.

CATIA5

• CATDrawing: Text can be out of position.

Solidworks

• The 'Quick view' approach loads a snapshot of the last saved model extracted from the file. This may differ from result when loading using the 'Load Solidworks solid' (previously called 'Alternate' approach).
• The 'Load SolidWorks solid’ approach loads the SolidWorks files by referencing the sub assembly and part files. Warning will be reported if files are missing.
• The 'Quick view' (previously called 'Recommended') approach does not support configurations.
• SolidWorks does not save geometry for all configurations by default. This means that some configurations will have no data and are empty. Activate the required configurations in SolidWorks before importing into VEA.
• When using " Load SolidWorks Solids " approach the default view is rotated 180° around the Z-axis.

ProEngineer

• Assembly level features partially supported.
• Family table instances only supported with accelerator files.
• Pro/Cable files supported as wireframes.

Inventor

• When using the assembly workflow, both part and assembly import options should use the same load approach. Either both 'Quick view' or both 'Load Inventor solid'.
• The 'Quick view' approach loads a snapshot of the last saved model extracted from the file. This may differ from result when loading using the 'Load Inventor solid' approach.
• The 'Load Inventor solid' approach does not support metadata import.

STEP

• Export of polygonal mesh not supported.
• Export of views/capture not supported.
• Export of metadata not supported.

JT

• Expect a performance impact when using 'Solid' import preference. This should be avoided if possible.

The Help reference information is available from the SAP Visual Enterprise Author menu and by pressing F1 on your keyboard within SAP Visual Enterprise Author.

The version number scheme is 1.2.3.4567 where:

1 = Major version indicator. This would be incremented for a major release.
2 = Minor release that indicates new feature release between major releases.
3 = Indicates a patch that includes fixes only.

4567 = Build number as an identification of the build that is released.