ASHRAE Standards (Database Instruction): Home

Red River College has obtained access to ASHRAE Standard documents via Techstreet. These documents are available to RRC Students and Staff through our proxy server.

Step 1: Important! Special Plugins Required

Prior to trying to open the Techstreet documents, you need to install the following two plugins on your workstation:

These plugins ARE ONLY NECESSARY IF YOU PLAN TO PRINT (you need them to be able to download the encrypted PDF), they are not required for just viewing the documents, as they have implemented a web-based viewer.

1. Adobe Acrobat Reader:  http://get.adobe.com/reader/
   Most college workstations have this plugin already installed.
2. Adobe File Open Plugin: http://plugin.fileopen.com/Default.aspx?bhcp=1 

If you are on a college lab computer, college laptop, or personal/home computer, you should be able to install this plugin.  If you are a RRC Staff member, you may have to place a case log request to install this plugin on your college workstation.

Step 2: View the ASHRAE Standard Documents

Once you have the plugins correctly installed, click this link to go to the ASHRAE documents RRC Library subscribes to:

1. Link: ASHRAE standards and guidelines
2. Login is required through the RRC proxy server.  Please use your regular college username and password.
3. In the left-hand column, click the "On Subscription" box to filter the list to just the items RRC subscribes to, you will see these as "Click Here to view all 22 ASHRAE subscribed products.).
4. The documents are large, and patience may be required as download times may be long.
5. Important: Once downloaded, open the documents in "Adobe Acrobat." If your computer tries to open the PDF in a web browser, it will fail. You may need to right-click on the PDF and select "Open With Adobe Acrobat."
6. Once you have downloaded the documents, they will appear in Adobe Acrobat Viewer. However, you will likely see that the documents are SECURED, and the publisher has made certain limitations on the documents.

Troubleshooting

Here are some known issues and solutions from instructors: 

1. You must download the protected files to your hard drive before opening them.  They will not open in your browser.

2. For Windows machines, Be sure to close Acrobat Reader before installing the plugin.  After the computer installs the plugin, it will open Adobe Reader and show you a test file.  This means it should be working properly.

3. Occasionally, the file will not open properly, and all the text will appear garbled.  There is no known reason for this, but it could be too many people from the college who are accessing the same resource or the default download state does not save the file correctly, or the download otherwise fails. 
   The solution to this is to re-download the file.  If it still doesn't work, try right-clicking the download link on the database page and selecting 'save link as...'.  Place the file in a location that is not your download folder (your desktop or the course folder).  Try opening the file from Acrobat reader (instead of double-clicking on the file from your explorer window).  See image. 

4. The files usually self-destruct after a set time period.  If you have saved a file and returned to it after 3 months, it will likely not open.  If this happens, you simply need to re-download the file from the database. 

5. You cannot make annotations or mark up the PDF file, but you can print the document out if you prefer!