Up and Ready

AutoCAD + Norton Utilities = AutoCAD secondary installer when running Norton Utilities

Just a note that this issue will happen if you install AutoCAD and Norton Utilities. 

1.  Install AutoCAD, in this case it was AutoCAD 2013 LT.

2.  Install Norton Utilities.

When you run Norton Utilites, you will get a AutoCAD secondary installer and you need to cancel the secondary installer for AutoCAD to run Norton Utilities.  There is a brief note about it here:

http://community.norton.com/t5/Other-Norton-Products/Norton-utilities-interfere-with-autocad/td-p/801560

To repair the issue, you will need to use Microsoft Fix It to remove the 2 products and reinstall AutoCAD.

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2012/06/windows-the-basics-of-using-microsoft-fix-it.html

Here is another interesting secondary installer issue:

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2011/09/autocad-map-3d-2012-other-applications-cause-map-3d-secondary-installer-to-launch.html

Thanks to Richard Conn for confirming this issue and sharing the tip with the community.

Security and installing Autodesk 360 [Component in AutoCAD]

For some of the more secure sites, you may not want to have Autodesk 360 installed.  The easiest way to not install it is to customize the installation.

Expand the accordian and change the value from Typical to Custom and uncheck Autodesk 360 for AutoCAD.

Thanks to Vicki Coleman for sharing this tip with the community.

Epilogue

The AutoCAD SQA team has informed me that this only prevents the 360 component from being installed from within AutoCAD.  You may need to manually remove it from Programs & Features.

The only way to completely not install it is to edit the setup.ini file as noted in the forum post below:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-2013-2014-DWG-Format/How-To-Install-AutoCAD-2014-WITHOUT-Autodesk-360/td-p/3871851

Please check out the comments in the post via http://www.jtbworld.com for more info as well!

AutoCAD + SpaceNavigator for Notebooks = Freezes the Grid

A bit of serendippity is in involved when you are trying to solve problems on computers. The problem in this case was when you tried to click in the Grid using AutoCAD to create a Line, Poly Line,  Circle or anything, it would just lock up the UI and nothing would happen. We used Teamviewer to connect to the computer (like a Remote Desktop) and I saw the problem first hand.  What we don't actually see is what is connected to the computer.

I basically went into the Programs and Features of the computer and I saw the following software driver/device on the computer:

3Dconnection3DxSoftware

This was the only piece of software that I have not seen on other workstations and the user had indeed a SpaceNavigator for Notebooks on his computer.   We basically uninstalled the software and then AutoCAD started to work perfectly! 

Thanks to Nathan Presley for confirming this solution worked.

Other notable posts:

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2012/07/toshiba-dynadock-software-will-cause-setupexe-to-crash.html

Simulation CFD 2013: The (basic) Solver license could not be checked out from license server

Typically, Simulation CFD users use their local workstation as a license server.

1. Setup your Simulation CFD workstation as a license server.  i.e. PC-WORKSTATION1

2. Install Simulation CFD and set it up as a network version and put in the servername.  i.e. PC-WORKSTATION1

3. Run Simulation CFD 2013.  When you try to use a Solver, there is an error:

The (basic) Solver license could not be checked out from license server

You have the correct licenses and it is noted in the Licensing dialog box above but for some reason, it is not being picked up.

4.  The solution is to search for the LICPATH.LIC file in C:\Program Files\Autodesk and edit it.

Default:

SERVER PC-WORKSTATION1 000000000000
USE_SERVER

Updated:

SERVER 127.0.0.1 000000000000
USE_SERVER

NOTE: If you edit the file using Notepad and you can't save it after editing it.  Just save ithe file your desktop and manually move it into the C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Simulation CFD 2013 folder.

5.  Ah, there is no place like home...ah...127.0.0.1.

Thanks to Royce Abel for sharing this to the community.

Parallels + Fusion + Boot camp + Autodesk Products

We have been getting a lot of questions on Parallels + Fusion + Boot Camp + Autodesk Products. I have created an infographic that will explain everything, I hope...

1.  The default setup of Parallels or Fusion on a Mac is supported. Please note that the performance of your Autodesk product will be slow because you are basically running Mac OS to run a Windows OS that is running an Autodesk product.

2.  This default setup of Boot Camp is also supported.  When you use Boot Camp on your Mac, you are partitioning your drive. One part is the Mac OS and the other part is the Windows OS.  You will have the best performance when running your Autodesk software because you are running Windows OS.  The only disadvantage is that you can't switch back to the Mac OS without rebooting the computer.

3.  The last setup is an 'Advanced' setup of Parallels or Fusion and is not supported and this will cause problems with your Autodesk product.  You are using Parallels or Fusion to 'point' to a Windows Boot Camp partition.

If you run your Autodesk software in native Windows mode (Boot Camp) and Parallels/Fusion, the licensing will break and fail. Basically, the Autodesk software doesn't know if it was licensed on the Mac OS "System ID" or Windows OS "System ID".

If you don't want to reinstall the Windows operating system on the Boot Camp partition, you may try the following workflow to get your Autodesk product running again.  After fixing it, you should not use Parallels or Fusion to point to a Boot Camp Windows partition to run an Autodesk product.

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2012/05/general-systems-parallels-on-the-mac-and-standalone-licensing-issues.html

Epilogue

There is really no need to use Parallels or Fusion because technically, you can license and run your AutoCAD on the natively on the MAC or Windows.  Just remember to use the correct Product Key when installing it.

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2013/03/cross-platform-licensing-of-autocad-mac-windows.html

Reference

http://usa.autodesk.com/products/mac-compatible-products

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2012/07/autocad-for-mac-how-is-it-different-from-autocad.html

Simulation CFD 360 2013: An unknown failure has occurred.

If you are receiving this error when launching Simulation CFD 360 2013:

An unknown failure has occured.  Please visit your Autodesk Account online to learn more about your account benefits.

The solution is noted below:

1. Close the Simulation Interface.

2. Access the Simulation Job Manager in the computer tray by the clock and choose to “Sign Out”.

3. Access the computer’s Task Manager’s “Processes” tab and right-click on “SimJobManager.exe” and choose to “End Process”.

4. Delete this folder: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Autodesk\Simulation Job Manager.

5. Delete this folder: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Autodesk\Web Services.

6. Access “START|ALL PROGRAMS|AUTODESK|SIMULATION JOB MANAGER 2013|Simulation Job Manager 2013”.

7. Sign In to the Autodesk Simulation Job Manager.

8. Open the Simulation software.

Thanks to Royce for sharing this tip with the community!

AutoCAD Electrical 2013: OLE and Fatal Errors

When working in AutoCAD Electrical 2013 and you are opening mulple files, you may get a FATAL ERROR:

FATAL ERROR:  Unhandle Access Violoation Reading 0xd25994a8 Exception at 770b32d0h

There is a known issue with FATAL ERRORs only happening on drawings (dwg) with OLE objects (Microsoft Object Linking and Embedding), which can range from image, audio, video to Microsoft Word/Excel objects, etc. Not all drawings (dwg) with OLE objects will crash.

This may happen with AutoCAD verticals but it happens a lot more in AutoCAD Electrical 2013.

A workaround to improve the stability of the product is to:

1. Remove OLE objects from the drawings, if possible.

2. Replace OLE objects with Autocad native objects, if possible. i.e. Re-draw the company logo with AutoCAD directly without embedding an image/object.

3.  Create external references to image files (xrefs) instead of using copied/pasted images in the drawings.

4. If none of the above is possible or if you plan on using the existing drawings with OLE objects as is, then please do not open more than one drawing at all time. i.e. Always open a drawing at zero-doc state.

Thanks to Zachary Travis for providing this tip to the community.

Reference

Another AutoCAD workflow is noted below to solve another type of FATAL ERROR:

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2012/07/fatal-error-unhandled-e06d7363h-exception-at-fe17cacdh-on-autocad-lt-2013.html

Color Change in Revit 2012 after Updating Windows 7 - KB 2670838

FYI, anyone using the Revit 2012 family of products, an Update for Microsoft Windows (KB 2670838) will change the Revit settings color scheme from blue to red.

Please check out the blog post in the Revit Clinic for further details:

http://revitclinic.typepad.com/my_weblog/2013/02/color-change-in-revit-2012-after-updating-windows-7.html

AutoCAD on Mac locking up when printing or saving to PDF

We have had a couple of reports of AutoCAD/AutoCAD LTon MAC (any version) locking up when printing or saving to PDF:

When the Mac locks up, you will need to force quit the application or wait for it to respond which will take forever.

To get around this issue and to avoid the Mac beach ball,  you will need to remove the printer before you print or save out the PDF file.

Once you remove the printer, you can save to PDF 'instantly'.  Just a note, not all printers are problematic but some will work as expected.

Thanks to Ben Simms for confirming that this solution worked.

“Please wait while windows configures Raster” message – every time user launches AutoCAD.

If you are seeing a Configuring “Please wait while windows configures Raster Design 20XX” Screen every time you launch an AutoCAD version it means that the Raster “Secondary Install” that writes the user specific configuration files cannot complete.

The most common reason for this is because Raster cannot find the folder it needs to write the configuration too.  Raster will put its configuration files into one AutoCAD family folders in your user profile.  It could be in AutoCAD, AutoCAD MEP, AutoCAD Structural Detailing etc.

The problem is, if that version of AutoCAD has not been launched by on the user account logged in, then those folders don’t exist yet and raster won’t be able to write its configuration files there.  The solution is to launch that version of AutoCAD once, that creates the folders needed and will allow raster to finish its setup

To tell for certain which AutoCAD Version your raster is using to write it’s configuration file too you can check the registry. Here is the location for 2013 Raster’s keys.

“HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R19.0\AutoCAD Raster Design 2013”

You will find two keys “LocalRootFolder” and “RoamableRootFolder”. Those will tell you the location where Raster is trying to write its files. In the below example Raster will be trying to write to AutoCAD Electrical profile folders so the user must launch AutoCAD Electrical at least once for the Raster configuration to complete. 

“C:\Users\userprofile\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\AutoCAD Electrical 2013\R19.0\enu\”

 Thanks Jeffry Asbury for sharing this solution to the community!