Up and Ready

Deploying Revit 2013 [One Box] with a Building Design Suite license

If you want to save a bit of time and you have a network Building Design Suite 2013 license, you can download the Trial version of Revit 2013 aka [One Box] and deploy it.   

Revit 2013 is about 3 GB and the any flavour of the Building Design Suite is going to be 20 GB +.  I have included some of the screen captures as proof of concept.

Just a quick note, Revit 2013 [One Box] is a special version of Revit that has all 3 disciplines in it: Architecture, MEP and Structural.  For example, if you have a Revit Architecture Suite 2013 license, it will not license Revit 2013 [One Box].

Reference

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2012/04/autodesk-revit-one-box-licensing-and-installation-faq.html

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2013/01/quick-start-downloads.html

http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=TS19726931

AutoCAD Error: "base.dll" Can't find file.

Recently, I got a case in which the following errors came up when launching AutoCAD:

base.dll Can't find file.

Error loading dialog control file.

 

Semantic error(s) in DCL file.  See file acad.dce for details.

I absolutely dread an error message like.  Luckily, all I did was reset AutoCAD and everything worked again.  Please check out the post below for details:

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2012/07/the-easiest-way-to-reset-autocad.html

Thanks to Aaron Morley for confirming that this solution worked!

Happy 31st Birthday Autodesk

On this day January 30th, 1982, 31 years ago a small group of people held an initial meeting in Marin County California to organize what became Autodesk. They risked it all including all the money they cold scrape together and it paid off for millions of people from employees, customers, partners, and investors.

Please check out the story here: Between the Lines [ All things Autodesk & Technology ] !

This is a photo of some of the Install and Licensing [Flying] Team members in San Francisco in front the Autodesk Gallery [ground floor] in 2012.

Quick Start: Everything you wanted to know about downloading our software

When downloading and installing our software, you will be presented with 3 options: 

A. Download Now

Benefits...

Delivers a complete standalone installation package with up to 50% compression and automatic download resumption after connection interruptions.

What Happens...

A small download manager is first installed and enables an optimized download of the complete software installation package. Once the installation package has downloaded you can begin the software installation on this or other computers without further connection to the internet.

Recommended for...

Creating deployments, installing Autodesk products on a different computer, or at a different time

B. Install Now

Very similar to Download Now but you will not have any deployment options.  It is typically a Standalone installation of the software.

C. Browser Download

Benefits...

Works without installing additional software. As compared to other methods, in-browser downloads are less efficient, and less reliable especially when saving large files. Browsers cannot take advantage of superior compression (smaller file sizes) and automatic download resumption abilities built into Download Now and Install Now.

What Happens...

The built-in file save mechanism of your web browser is used to deliver a complete stand-alone installation package. Once the package has downloaded, you must extract it, then begin the software installation on this or other computers.

Recommended for...

Users who cannot or prefer not to install Autodesk Download Manager.

If you got the old school Browser Download route, please check out the following very helpful 2 posts:

1.  Downloading Software: Saving your settings in the Subscription Center & Ordering Media

http://www.autodesk.com/subscriptionlogin

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2012/04/downloading-software-saving-your-settings-in-the-subscription-center.html

2.  Browser downloaded files vs Extracted files & installing Autodesk software

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2013/01/tip-browser-downloaded-files-vs-extracted-files.html

 

3.  Use Matthew, our Virtual Agent to download some of our products.

• Go to:  http://www.autodesk.com
• Click on Support > All Support

• Click on Contact Us

• Click on Customer Service
• Click on Virtual Agent

• Once the Virtual Agent opens, follow the screen shots below:

    

NOTE:  If Matthew is empty, you will need to clear your cache and delete cookies in your web browser.

Epilogue

Our Virtual Agent has been integrated on our blog site!

 

4. For space requirements for downloading and installing our Suites, please check out this post:

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2012/06/downloading-software-you-need-at-least-triple-the-space-of-the-size-of-the-download.html

 

 

5.  Downloading Software: Suites + Internet Explorer + Pop-up's

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2013/04/downloading-software-suites-internet-explorer-pop-ups.html

Tip: Getting your system information

One of the things that we will need to troubleshoot computer problems is to get your system information.

On Windows:

1.  Go to the Start button >  Type:  msinfo32 > Enter

2.  Make sure you have System Summary highlighted and go to File > Export and save it as a Text File.  

3.  You can also  compress you file to make it smaller.

_____________________________________________________________________

On the Mac: 

1.  Go to the Apple > About this Mac and click on More Info.

2.  Click on System Report button.

3.  File > Export as Text...

MSSCRIPT.OCX Error

We seem to be getting quite a bit of inquiries lately regarding this msscipt.ocx related error message when working with pipe networks. It is not limited to Civil 3D and also manifests itself in AutoCAD MEP.

via beingcivil.typepad.com

Trend Micro + The System cannot open the device or file specified. + SetupDesignReview2013.msi

We have been getting several reports with our software not installing properly and getting this error:

The system cannot find the device or file specified.
C:\Users\~\AppData\.\.\.\SetupDesignReview2013.msi

As soon as you run the setup.exe, The error happens right away and there is no option to select anything in the Installation Wizard. i.e. Eula, Serial Number, Product Key etc.

You will need to basically disable Trend Micro Anti-virus software to complete your installation.

Thanks to Jarod Schultz for sharing this tip with the community.

Reference:

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2012/11/data-encrypted-drives-autodesk-software-temp-folders.html

Tips: Browser downloaded files vs Extracted files & installing Autodesk software

I have a very precise workflow when saving and archiving our software and I would consider this as a best practice. 

1.  Save  the downloaded [Browser Download] files and store them in a safe location for future use.  In this case, I have downloaded the Autodesk 2013 products and placed them in a 2013 folder.

2. Copy the .exe and .rar files to the local workstation and run the installer locally.  The default location for extracting the software will be C:\Autodesk folder.

3.  I will rarely will copy the AutoCAD_Architecture_2013_English_Win_64Bit folder to a network location or a USB thumb drive because:

a.  The size of the files/folders is larger.  i.e. 2 GB (compressed) vs 4 GB (uncompressed) for AutoCAD Architecture 2013.
b.  There is the potential corruption of the installation of the software as there are 9434 files in AutoCAD Architecture 2013.  If one of these files are on a bad sector of the 'external' hard drive, you will be hosed.  

Reference:

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2011/09/windows-the-cautodesk-folder.html

Quick Start: Home Use Licenses

Please check out the following Technical Solutions regarding home use of Autodesk products:

http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=GS17292987

Basically, if your site is running a network license of our products, the system will generate a different standalone serial number to install the product at home.  This serial number typically will expire in a year so you will need to request it again after your year is up.

Here is the Technical Solution to reset/extend the home use license:

http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=TS13845691

 

Backburner 2013 APPCRASH + V-Ray + Logmein

If you use  Backburner 2013, V-Ray Distributed Render Spawner and Logmein installed, you will need to disable the Hamachi Network Interface to get all the all the remote rendering tools to work properly.  In this case, Backburner will "APPCRASH".

http://community.logmein.com/t5/Hamachi/Hamachi-conflicts-with-internet-network-adapter-conflict/td-p/60088

To get around this problem, please check out the following notes:

1. Alter the settings in Hamachi (System, Preferences, Settings, Advanced Settings) so that the IP protocol mode is set to IPv4 only:

2. Enter into the Device Manager and disable the 6TO4 network adapter using the instructions at:  http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/maxstation/n138-resolving-quotunable-to-bindquot-errors-in-backburner.

· In Device Manager use the view menu to show hidden devices (as it's not visible by default).
· In the Network Adapters section find the 6TO4 adapter.
· Right click on it and select Disable.

3. Restart the system.

Thanks to David Lyddll for sharing this tip with the community.