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Maya 2012: Deployment with Hotfix 4

Currently, you cannot include a Hotfix 4 when installing or creating a deployment for Maya 2012.  If Maya 2012 is already installed, you can script the installation of the hotfix by using this command:

msiexec /p  c:\path_to_hotfix\autodesk_maya2012_hotfix4_win_**bit.msp  /quiet /l log_file.log

This will take about 15 minutes to complete depending on the performance of your computer.

To add the Maya 2012 Hotfix 4 into a deployment:

1. Download Maya 2012 Hotfix 4 and put the *.msp file into the x86\maya or x64\maya folder:

x86 location

x64 location

2.  Rename the original setup.ini and place the attached setup.ini in its place.

Maya-2012-32-bit-setup.ini
Maya-2012-64-bit-setup.ini

3.  Rename Maya-2012-32-bit-setup.ini or the Maya-2012-32-bit-setup.ini to Setup.ini

4.  Create the deployment image.

5.  Select your target platform. i.e. 32 bit or 64 bit.

6.  Uncheck “include only product required for this deployment”.

7.  Select your Products.  We have tested and confirmed that this works with Maya and Backburner selected.

8.  Proceed with the deployment creation.

9.  Install Maya 2012 & Hotfix 4 from the deployment image.

Thanks to Avto Chachava for this tip.

http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=TS17756644

Revit 2012: Website URLs with Chinese Characters

I wanted to report an interesting issue that came into Product Support and it was resolved with a bit of serendipity.  

On Windows 7, Revit MEP 2011 would startup properly but Revit MEP 2012 would only start with the splash screen and then it would disappear.  The problem appeared to be a bad ProductInformation.pit file but it was not the case.

The error in the Event Viewer was pointing to the KERNELBASE.dll:

Faulting application name: Revit.exe, version: 2012.0.2011.622, time stamp: 0x4e01f7ea 
Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 6.1.7600.16385, time stamp: 0x4a5bdfe0 
Exception code: 0xe0434352 
Fault offset: 0x000000000000aa7d 
Faulting process id: 0x108c 
Faulting application start time: 0x01cc5cf89e83eacd 
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Revit MEP 2012\Program\Revit.exe 
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\system32\KERNELBASE.dll 
Report Id: e6f1446d-c8eb-11e0-9991-001ec92b35c6

When we used Procmon to analyze the crash, it was pointing to a problem with .NET.

In this scenario, the user had some website shortcut URLs on the desktop that had Chinese characters in the title.  Once the shortcut was deleted, Revit 2012 MEP would startup.  The interesting thing was when the shortcut was re-created on the desktop, Revit MEP 2012 would start normally.

Thanks to Darren Shields for sharing this tip.

 

Licensing: Using standalone licenses with Selective Startup

As a Windows techie, you will often try to disable some Services to make your computer faster.  Do not disable this service if you are running a Standalone version of Autodesk software or it will stop working!

• Autodesk Licensing Service (2005 through 2009 releases)
• FLEXnet Licensing Service (2010 and 2011 releases)

You can also check out some additional reference posts here:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Installation-Licensing/LIcense-was-not-obtained-Tried-Maya-2011-657C1-2011-0-0-F-error/td-p/2680100#M25145

http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=TS1054234

Thanks to Nelson Cruz for confirming this problem.

Downloading Software: Browser Download vs Download Manager

We have been getting a lot of posts in our forums regarding corrupt installations and downloads.  My suggestion is to use Firefox and the Browser Download instead of using the Download Manager.

In the Subscription Center, just click on the appropriate button.

If you are downloading a Trial version, just cancel out of the automatic installation of the Download Manager and you will be able to see the download using the browser option on the webpage.

 

If you are using the Download Manager, the downloaded Autodesk software packages are located here:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Akamai\Cache

Thanks to Travis Nave for this suggestion.

Epilogue

There has been some Community Activity to use this 3rd party tool.  We don't support it but it appears to work.

http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/download.htm

Instead of your normal download options, you will get this option to add it to the Download Manager and the progress bar will look like this:

Thanks to Colin Bradshaw for this tip.

Epilogue II

Additional info can be found at this post:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Installation-Licensing/Tips-on-the-use-of-the-downloaded-product-files/m-p/2663763

Thanks to Doug Lauritsen for this tip.

Epilogue III

Here is a demo of the process to not choose the Download Manager in Firefox:

Video:  Download-Akamai-bypass

 

General Systems: Windows Remote Connection Client for the Mac

I was trying to setup some training for our team so that we are a bit more savvy on Mac OS X.  I found this cool application from Microsoft:  Windows Remote Connection Client for the Mac and it's free:

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/remote-desktop-client

This allows you to connect to a Windows computer on your network.

 

Autodesk 2012 products: Multiple Language deployment image within a single shared folder, save some space on your server

When you can save some space why don't we? Even though storage has gotten cheaper over the years, there is still cost associated to it. If you are a network administrator who has to deploy Autodesk 2012 Products to Multiple users in different languages, you would be creating one deployment image for each language.

How can we save the space on the server?

There are many methods to achieve this, which could involve editing the setup.ini files, creating shortcuts and copying the Language pack files manually.

The one which should make your life simpler would be to always create new language using the original media but provide the same Target path for the deployment AdminImage with different Name. The shortcut will be side-by-side with the original shortcut and the AdminImage will be updated with the necessary localized files from the second language pack.

This is a workaround and is not an officially documented workflow.

Thanks to Alison Gangler for this tip.

 

General Systems: What is the Cloud?

So, what exactly is the Cloud?  I googled for the definition and it's most basic definition is here*:

  

  *http://www.novell.com/cloud/faq.html

Here are some posts on Autodesk Cloud Computing:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=17136545

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Autodesk-Vault/Autodesk-and-the-Cloud/td-p/2877090

Some products that already do this, include:  Autodesk Buzzsaw & AutoCAD WS.

General Systems: Maya on the Mac will freeze when using multiple accounts (semaphores)

Recently, we had an issue and solution reported to Product Support & Development in regards to Maya on the Mac, using multiple accounts & semaphores.

1. Restart your Mac.
2. Login as non-admin user first.
3. Launch Maya.
4. Logout.
5. Login as Admin user.
6. Launch Maya and it should freeze at the splash screen.
7. Force Quit Maya.
8. Open a Terminal.app
9. Copy and Paste this command and hit return:

sudo ipcrm -s "`ipcs -b | grep -A 1 -i semaphores|tail -1|awk '{print $2}'`"

10. Launch Maya.

I would like to thank Rusty & Rhon Fitzwater for this tip.

Vault 2012: Is It Possible To Edit The Username For A User Imported From A Domain

You would like to know if it is possible to edit the User Name field for a user that was imported from a Windows Domain.

Please check out this post:

http://crackingthevault.typepad.com/crackingthevault/2011/08/is-it-possible-to-edit-the-username-for-a-user-imported-from-a-domain.html

Thanks to Richard Rankin for this tip.

 

General Licensing: Mac License server - EXITING DUE TO SIGNAL 37 Exit Reason 5

In some instances, when you start a license server for Maya, you may get the following  error:

EXITING DUE TO ERROR TO SIGNAL 37 Exit reason 5
adskflex exited with status 37 (Communications error)
Please correct problem and restart daemons. 

 

To resolve this issue, you may need to edit your /etc/hosts file so that it will contain the IP address and the hostname of the license server.

1.  Type hostname in Terminal.

2.  Get IP address of the license server in Network System Preference.

3.  In the Terminal and type the following commands:

open /etc
<Enter> 

Drag hosts file to the Desktop.

Open the hosts on the Desktop with TextEdit.

Edit following entries noted in Step 1 & 2.

4.  Move hosts back into /etc.

I have included a video of the workflow for further reference:   

Video: Editing the Mac hosts file

To start the license server on the Mac is noted in the forum post below:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Installation-Licensing/Installing-Maya-2011-2012-with-a-Network-license-Mac/m-p/2766718#M23828