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Autodesk Simulation CFD 2013: You can run the user interface, but when you run the simulation. You get a licensing Error

Recently, we had few cases regarding Autodesk Simulation CFD wherein the users were able to open the Program but unable to actually run the Simulation job due to license error.

We have identified this to the Restricted Local System account, which is preventing the simulation server to contact the license service.

Please follow the steps below to fix this issue.

1. Login as the administrator on the client machine.
2. Type "services.msc" in Start menu search box (or Start->run in Windows XP) and hit enter to open Services window.
3. Once the Services windows is opened, locate the service that relates to CFD Simulation (eg:-CFD server).
4. Double-click on the particular service to open Properties.
5. Click Logon Tab
6. Click the Radio Button Next to the "This Account"
7. Browse to Choose a Local administrator account,
8. Enter and Confirm the Passwords in the respective boxes
9. Click OK to exit
10. Close the services Console
11. Start CFD as normal user.
12. Simulation job should run normally as long as the license is available on the server.

If you have issues starting the CFD program interface due to license error, please try these posts

Alias 2013 Crashes when Acrobat 9 Pro extended 64bit Add-on is installed

Recently a colleague in support Ruediger Ambs solved an issue with Alias crashing which was related to Acrobat 9 Pro Extended 64 bit Add-on.

The customer had to uninstall the Acrobat 9 Pro Extended 64 bit Add-on to resolve the issue.

Revit 2013 Crashes when “Devicelock” program is installed.

Issue:

You have Autodesk Revit 2013 programs installed along with devicelock. When you start Revit, it crashes with the following event log entry

Event ID: 1000
Faulting application name: Revit.exe, version: 2013.0.2012.716, time stamp: 0x500xxxx
Faulting module name: Utility.dll, version: 2013.0.2012.716, time stamp: 0x500xxxxx
Exception code: 0xc0000005

"Devicelock" can also affect other Autodesk Programs like 3ds Max, Autodesk Simulation Mechanical 2013. This affects mostly on Windows 7 ~ 64 bit editions.

Solution:

If the company policy doesn't allow you to disable the devicelock software, please try the following.

-> Uninstall both Autodesk and "Devicelock" software.

-> Install Autodesk software and run some tests.

-> Install latest version of "Devicelock" software.

If you have found any other workarounds, please share it in the comments of this blog.

Educational Master Suite and Eco Materials Advisor missing in Inventor

Issue

You're using the Education Master Suite and the Eco Materials Adviser is not available. The add-in does not show up in the Tools > Add-ins list and you've already double checked the troubleshooting section in following document:

http://sustainabilityworkshop.autodesk.com/media/engineers/tutorials/ema/EcoMaterialsAdviser_Workflow-ASW.pdf

Solution

This issue only affects the 2013 Education Master Suite. To get your Eco Materials Adviser add-in installed, it's necessary to run the MSI installation program directly. It is located in the following location on the media – depending on the bit-type of your operating system:

32 bit OS:   [media]\3rdParty\x86\Granta\EcoMaterialsAdviser2013-win32-en-US.msi

64 bit OS:   [media]\3rdParty\x64\Granta\EcoMaterialsAdviser2013-win64-en-US.msi

Once the ECO Materials Adviser dialog initiates, please follow the on-screen steps to get the software installed on the machine.

NOTE:  In some rare cases, it may be necessary to copy the MSI from the media to the computer itself.

Thanks to Daren Lawrence for this solution.

Maya on Mac - Don't rename the application, "Make Alias"

If you have Autodesk products on your Mac, I would NOT rename the Application. I would "Make Alias" of it and rename it to whatever name you wish.  Also, you can add this Alias to the Dock so that you know which version you want to launch.  This is very helpful if you have many versions of the same product.

Make Alias [Mac] = Create Shortcut [Windows]

In this scenario, Maya 2013 was functioning but when you label an older different version of "Maya" to "Maya2011", it can cause some licensing issues because some of the paths for the product are hard coded when you Show Package Contents.

[Please click on image for demo animation.]

Basically, if you rename everything back to the default name i.e. Maya, everything should behave as expected.

Thanks to Steven Weitz for confirming this very interesting behaviour.

The Importance of Customer Error Reports (CER)

Althought this has been blogged about a few times before on Without a Net and our very own Being Civil, I thought it needed a refresh to let you know how important these can be for us here in Support, you (the users), and the Development Team.

Please check out the full blog post via Being Civil team.

Where is AutoCAD in the Product Design Suite?

Here is another interesing Suite issue.   The Product Design Suite includes AutoCAD but I can't see via the Setup?  How do you get access to AutoCAD? 

In this case, AutoCAD Mechanical 2013 includes an AutoCAD shortcut in the Start Menu.  

AutoCAD Mechanical 2013 is running the acad.exe with a /p flag pointing to the AutoCAD Mechanical profile.

"C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2013\acad.exe"  /p <<ACADMPP>> /product ACADM /language "en-US"

Here is a bonus tip if you are running AutoCAD Mechanical 2012:

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2011/10/autocad-mechanical-2012-creating-a-pinnable-shortcut-for-autocad.html

Where is AutoCAD P&ID in the AutoCAD Plant Design Suite?

Recently, I got a case and when you install all the products in the Autodesk Plant Design Suite, there is no AutoCAD P&ID in the list of products.

Interestingly, it is a standalone product as noted in this product page.

http://usa.autodesk.com/autocad-pid/

The answer is quite simple, the AutoCAD P&ID is a part of AutoCAD Plant 3D.  It is just a workspace change.

Kudos to DarrenP,  another our ***Gurus that particpates a lot in our Install & Licensing Discussion Group.

Reference:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-P-ID/Installation-of-Autodesk-Plant-Design-Suite-does-not-install-P/m-p/3283931

New Security Controls in AutoCAD 2013 SP1 Help Combat Malware

Over the last few years there has been an increasing number of malware attacks on AutoCAD. These attacks typically leverage the legacy autoloading process of the stock customization files (acad.lsp, acad.dvb, etc.) that come with AutoCAD. Modified versions of these files end up getting automatically loaded into AutoCAD and can cause data loss, corruption, and general annoyance. Here is a typical scenario…

A customer receives a ZIP file containing a variety of files including drawings, fonts, and a modified version of a stock customization file such as acad.lsp. The customer unzips that archive to a folder and double-clicks on one of the drawings to launch it. Launching the drawing this way makes that folder the current working directory–check DWGPREFIX to see for yourself–and because the current folder contains anacad.lsp file, it gets loaded automatically and begins doing whatever malicious tasks it was modified to do. To make matters worse, that file might be flagged as hidden so the customer may not even know that it's in the zip file.

Service Pack 1 for AutoCAD 2013 introduces new controls that enable you to do the following:

• Restrict autoloading of default customization to a specified location ONLY.
• Disable autoloading of default customization files.
• Disable the ability to load any AutoLISP file, automatically or manually.

Note: These same controls will also be added to AutoCAD 2013 for Mac and AutoCAD 2013-based verticals when their respective service packs are released. AutoCAD LT does not run AutoLISP or VBA applications and does not require these security measures.

For a more detailed explanation of these new controls and recommended setup and repair workflow, refer to AutoLISP and VBA Security Controls in AutoCAD 2013 SP1.

Via withoutanet.typepad.com

Matchmover 2013 SP1 on Mac error: Tried Maya 2013 (657E1 2013.0.0.P), error 25

If you are installing Maya 2013 SP1 on the Mac and you require the use of Matchmover, please use the the original Maya 2013 media [dmg] to install it.  You are basically installing Matchmover 2013.

If you have installed Matchmover 2013 SP1, the error that you will get is:

Tried Maya 2013 (657E1 2013.0.0.P), error 25

The Development Team has been alerted of the problem and we are working to fix SP1 on Mac as soon as possible.  Thanks to Hashim Mundol for alerting us of the issue and various EDU sites for confirming the problem.

NOTE:  This applies to standalone and network installations of Maya 2013!

Epilogue

Maya 2013 SP2 has resolved this issue.  This was released on September 24, 2012.

http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=DL20537489