Installation Instructions for *.ZIP and *.EXE / *.MSI files downloaded from Google Drive

First of all, thank you for your confidence in downloading and trying this app. Why do these instructions exist?

The distribution of this app is decidely low-cost / low-tech and skips over some of the standard security safeguards that folks with bigger budgets can afford. These include SSH protocols for websites and digital signatures (lots of people in the middle collecting rent with little or no competition). It is also nearly impossible to get a digital signature without first incorporating - meaning more middle people and more money (not to mention that the goverment now has its nose in it as well). Perhaps you could donate about $5k USD/year and I'd be happy to do all this and the legwork for you. Mind you, the labor that went into building this is still free.

All this means that Microsoft and all the antivirus software out there will do its darnest to prevent you from installing and running this app. Here are the instructions for overcoming these legitimate safety protections and installing and running this app anyway.

1. Download the *.ZIP/*.EXE/*.MSI

Sometimes the first challenge is to download the file. Browsers such as Microsoft Edge has a 'Smart Screen' filter that will warn you that it is not a verified app and hence potentially harmfull. You will have to take two or three overrriding actions in order to bypass this.

a. Hover over the ellipsis and click on more actions to 'Keep' the file.

b. This will bring up another pop-up window trying to convince you that the only way forward is to delete the file... but at the bottom, there is more information that will let you keep the file. See the screenshots below for the steps:

If you managed to keep the file so far, you can proceed to the next step.

2. Unblock the *.ZIP/*.EXE/*.MSI

After downloading the app, right-click on to its properties and towards the bottom of the properties panel, you should see a check-box that says 'Unblock'.

Once unblocked, you should be good to install it if it is an *.EXE or *.MSI

3. Additional steps for *.ZIP files

*.ZIP files contain the App files in folders that need to be manually copied to a place where Autodesk Revit can copy and load into the Revit Session for you. (The MSI and EXE files do this for you automatically).

What the App File Contain:

1. The *.bundle folder containing Revit-readable files.

2. The *.addin file telling Revit where the Revit-readable files live.

Both of these need to be in one of the two folders described below for Revit to be able to load into a session.

Scenario 1: The Windows User installing the app is the one using it as well

You can copy app files and folders to the user's roaming profile located here: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\Revit\Addins\2023. Please change the version year to the appropriate year for the version you are installing.

Scenario 2: Make the app available to all users of the computer

This is the folder that Revit users to load the app for all users of a given computer: C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Revit\Addins\2023 - Again, make sure that you choose the appropriate version year.

Librarian 2o - A sneak peek

 Its been several years in the making. Several stops and many more starts. The completely re-built version  of the Librarian is now here. It is not perfect, but it full of promises for future development.

What's changed?

Honestly, not much (on the outside). Under the hood though, it is a very different story. We took out everything that was extraneous to the tool and re-organized it so that different components can be improved separately without breaking each other whenever a bug is fixed or a feature added.

Visually, we have increased the size of the window an designed it as a floating window with the option to dock. The properties panel is integrated into the librarian window. You can still hide and go back to the old style if you still choose.

We've removed the health stats. While it was the most challenging part of the app from a development perspective, we did not find enough reasons for its existence in an app whose purported objective is to manage libraries.

We are left with a very minimal app that does only one thing... and we hope it does it well.

Future Steps

We have been listening to our users. We will extend the librarian to store and distribute things other than just Revit families. Keep those ideas pouring in.

Cheers!

CAD Tracer: Object Not Set to Reference

This error can be caused by one of two omissions: 1. The Revit project may not have been saved. 2. One may have selected the 'Trace In Family' option and missed selecting the Family Template to use. If your ini file does not contain the path to the family files, please ensure that the path is added under 'Places' of the Revit options. If you continue having this error, please send us an email.

Error: Revit cannot run external application "Librarian"....

 

There is nothing more frustrating than having a trusty tool you have been using all along suddenly stop working and throwing an obscure error. Fortunately, there is an easy fix.

Cause: Corruption of the Library database stored in the windows user profile. Changes in the windows security environment, updates, or installation of a new software may trigger this issue. The causes are not entirely clear.

Solution: The solution is to force the Librarian to create a brand new database library or delete the old database (*.db) files and restore them from a backup.

The database (*.db) files are located in the Roaming user profile %appdata%\Librarian\<YYYY>\_libdb\ folder. One can simply delete the folder or rename it so that the Librarian can re-create the folder when Revit is restarted again.

Privacy Policy for Autodesk App Store Users

We at Spicetools Technologies, take our customer's right to privacy seriously. Below are the terms of our Privacy policy: 

1. Our apps do not have any mechanism to transmit user data outside the user's environment back to us. Data collected by Autodesk or components supplied by Autodesk are unavailable to us.
2. By downloading our Apps, we are notified of the email address associated with the user's Autodesk account. We do not share this data with any one outside our organization.
3. We reserve the right to collect user-data for app performance and/or licensing in the future. Users   will have the right to refuse data collection by reviewing the details of the collected data and notifying us.

Error: Cannot Run External Application "Librarian"

Several users have complained about a persistent error when launching the Librarian. The most common reason for this error is the inability of the App to write into the Windows user profile folder.

Reason for the Error:

Microsoft Ransomware Protection through the 'Protected Folders'  is enabled. This prevents the App from accessing the user profile to Cache Library Data.

Solution(s):

Two possible solutions exist:

1. Disable Controlled Folder Access Control or

2. Create Exceptions (can be tedious) to allow access to the following location:

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\Librarian

Below are screenshots of the Windows Security User Interface leading to the Controlled Access folder:

Activating Autodesk App Store Licensing

This is post is intended for first-time users of the App Store. If one of the following situations apply to you, please read further:

1. You have never downloaded and installed any plugin (paid or otherwise) from the Autodesk App Store.
2. You have purchased an App in Bulk and your license was assigned by the software vendor.
3. You just created a new Autodesk Account in order to activate a license for an App (or download an App)

If you are trying to run a paid App and you are unable to authenticate the license, Autodesk recommends the following procedure to activate your account:

1. Download and install a free app such as the Family Size Reporter
2. Run the App at least once after logging into Revit with your Autodesk ID.
3. Now run the paid App that you are given an entitlement for and you should be able to authenticate your licence without a problem.