Troubleshooting

Common problems, what causes them, and how to clear them. If something here does not cover your case, use FILE ▸ Feedback in Studio or email support@bezaleldesignlab.com.

In AutoCAD

The BDL ribbon tab is missing

The plugin loads at AutoCAD startup from the Autodesk ApplicationPlugins folder. If the tab is not there:

• Confirm the plugin task was selected during installation. Re-run the installer and check Install the AutoCAD plugin if it was not.
• The plugin requires AutoCAD or Civil 3D 2025 or newer. It will not load into older releases.
• Type EXPORT_TO_STUDIO at the command line. If the command runs, the plugin is loaded and only the ribbon is missing. Switch workspaces once and the tab rebuilds itself.
• The tab is shared with other Bezalel Design Lab products. If HydraLink or HydraStorm is installed, look for the AutoStyle Pro panel on the existing BDL tab rather than a second tab.

"EXPORT_TO_STUDIO must be run from a LAYOUT tab"

The export builds a sheet, so it needs a layout. Switch from the Model tab to the layout you intend to plot and run it again.

"No visible layers with geometry found"

Layers that are off, frozen, or set not to plot are excluded, as are layers that hold no exportable geometry. If the dialog reports nothing at all, the layout is likely empty, or its viewport is displaying only frozen layers. Thaw the layers you need and re-run.

Some entities did not come across

After an export, the command line reports what was skipped, by type and count. Lines, arcs, circles, polylines, splines, ellipses, hatch boundaries, text, MText and block references all export. Annotation objects (dimensions, multileaders and tables) do not. If you need a dimension or a table in the presentation drawing, explode it before exporting, or add the label in Studio with the text and leader tools.

The sheet size is wrong in Studio

The page size comes from the layout's plot paper size, and the units from the drawing's INSUNITS setting. A layout with no page setup assigned, or a drawing with INSUNITS set to Unitless, can produce a page that does not match the sheet. Assign the correct page setup in AutoCAD, set INSUNITS, and export again.

Plot PDF cannot find a plotter

Plot PDF looks for an installed PDF plot device. If none is found, install one of the standard Autodesk PDF plotters (for example AutoCAD PDF (High Quality Print).pc3 or DWG To PDF.pc3) and try again.

Pick Style or Sync Styles says the drawing must be saved

Layer styles are stored in a sidecar file next to the drawing, so the drawing needs a path on disk. Save the drawing once and re-run the command.

In Studio

The drawing opens blank or almost empty

• Use VIEW ▸ Zoom Extents. The view may simply be parked off the sheet.
• Check the scene tree for layers whose visibility is off.
• If only the title block is showing, the export may have included paper space but not the viewport contents. Re-export with the model space layers checked in the export dialog.

Text is in the wrong font

Two separate causes:

• The look substituted it. Every look except CAD Line has its own lettering font, and text follows it. To pin one label to its own font, select it and check Keep this font in every look on the Text or Leader tab. To change the look's lettering for the whole sheet, use VIEW ▸ Look Settings ▸ Lettering.
• The font is not installed. Studio warns once, on load, listing the fonts the document uses that this machine does not have, and shows ⚠ Font not installed under the family picker. The font name is preserved in the file, so the text renders correctly again on a machine that has it. To make a document portable, pick a family from the Recommended group at the top of the font list.

A hatch or linetype was not recognized on import

Auto-mapping knows the standard AutoCAD pattern and linetype names plus common office conventions, but it cannot guess every naming scheme. Open FILE ▸ CAD Mappings: the middle column lists the CAD names present in the open drawing and what each currently resolves to. Select an unmapped name, click Add Rule for Selected Name, choose a target, and save. See Mapping Rules.

A block came in as a diamond marker

That is the placeholder for a block exported as a symbol whose name did not resolve to a library asset. Either add a block rule in FILE ▸ CAD Mappings pointing the name at a library symbol, or re-export that block with the Explode treatment so its linework comes across instead.

A layer should not be stylized at all

Select the layer and check Render as plain CAD on the Fill and Stroke tab, or use the same item on the layer's right-click menu. That layer then draws with clean lines, no look shadows or depth shading, and its own lettering, while the rest of the sheet keeps the look. The sheet's paper and grain still apply, because those are one pass over the whole page.

Style changes are not appearing

• The object may carry an override that is winning over the layer style. Overrides are marked in the scene tree; right-click the object and choose Clear Overrides, or the layer and Clear All Overrides.
• An explicit texture always beats a material. If a surface refuses to follow the look, set its texture back to None and let the material drive it.
• The layer may be locked. Locked layers reject edits and say so.

A texture looks too coarse or too fine

Textures are drawn at a physical size on the sheet, not in pixels, so a texture tuned on a 30×42 sheet will look different on an 11×17. Adjust Texture Scale on the Fill tab.

Export is slow or the file is enormous

Resolution is the usual cause: a 30×42 sheet at 600 DPI is an 18,000×25,200 pixel image. Use 300 DPI for print and 150 DPI for review copies, or export PDF, which stays vector-crisp for linework.

Studio will not start, or crashed

Diagnostic logs are written to %APPDATA%\AutoStylePro\Logs. Describe what you were doing through FILE ▸ Feedback (which sends your product version with the report), and attach the most recent log to an email to support@bezaleldesignlab.com.

Recovering unsaved work

Studio autosaves every five minutes to %APPDATA%\AutoStylePro\Autosaves, as <project>.asp.autosave. Copy the autosave elsewhere, rename it to .asp, and open it.

Licensing

The license lock screen appeared

The trial ended, the license expired, or the machine has been offline past the grace period. Click Activate License and enter your key, or reconnect to the internet and let the next check revalidate. See Licensing & Updates.

Moving to a new machine

A license is bound to one machine. Open FILE ▸ Account on the old machine and click Deactivate This Machine before activating on the new one. If the old machine is gone, contact support to release the activation.

Where Your Data Lives

What	Location
Autosaves	%APPDATA%\AutoStylePro\Autosaves
Diagnostic logs	%APPDATA%\AutoStylePro\Logs
Layer Style Database	%APPDATA%\AutoStylePro\LayerStyleDB
Style presets (global)	%APPDATA%\AutoStylePro\Presets
CAD mapping rules	%APPDATA%\AutoStylePro\CadMappingDB\cad_mappings.json
Layer style sidecar (AutoCAD)	Next to the .dwg file

All of these are per-user files. Copying the presets and mapping rules folders to another machine carries your office standard with you.