Up and Ready

AutoCAD Structural Detailing 2013 activation issue

We are getting some cases where customers cannot activate their product due to a licensing error message basically saying that the license has expired. There are no choices to either reactivate or run the product.

FRE:  Cette licence ne peut être prolongée.
ENU:  The license cannot be extended.

Development has released a Hotfix that address the issue. You can download it at the following address:
http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=DL20784586

Error 1305. “Error Reading from file” error message

We managed to resolve a tricky installation issue after trying several alternative solutions like:

•  Creation of new local admin user.
•  Run installation in diagnostic mode.
•  Modifying the registry according to the following blog post: 

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2012/03/general-systems-windows-7-administrator-tips-tricks.html

The installation was stopping at the beginning, while showing “Installing DirectX” on the title bar. In all cases, the failing installation was writing a very short log (<product>_install.log) with no useful information.
Trying to run the .msi instead of the setup.exe, lead to a different result, triggering the error 1305 “Error reading from file”. This error has a relatively high number of possible causes and solutions, mainly related to communication with the source drive, listed below.

Before going through all of those options you may hopefully save time and just have a look at the permissions (security TAB) associated with the folder(s) containing the installation sources. Make sure that the SYSTEM account is there.
In this case, apparently the default permissions for SYSTEM were removed from it.
After adding SYSTEM with full control to the folder, in this case, the installation continued normally.

 

Possible causes and solutions for the error 1305 are:

•  Examine the CD-ROM or DVD Disc
•  Clean the Program CD-ROM or DVD
•  Test the CD-ROM or DVD in another Drive
•  Clean the Drive
•  Quit Unnecessary Software
•  Look for Known Issues with the Drive or Recording Software
•  Check for Drive Firmware Updates
•  Make Sure That You Are Using Protected Mode CD-ROM Drivers
•  Enable and Disable UDF Support
•  Reduce Drive Caching
•  Disable Auto-Insert Notification
•  Remove Duplicate Drives
•  Restart Windows in Safe Mode
•  Check for Alternate Installation Locations
•  The file was saved to an invalid or corrupt drive.
…

Alias Design 2012 for Mac: The case of the @ symbol, Time Machine, LMU & the disappearing splash screen.

Watson, we have an interesting case of the @ symbol, Time Machine, LMU and the disappearing splash screen.

The problem was that Standalone Alias Design 2012 for Mac would not startup. There was a splash screen and then it disappeared.  When you switched over to a Networked version Alias Design 2012 for Mac, it would work as expected.  

Clue #1

It does have something to do with the adskflex_*_tsf.data file as noted in this other solution for Windows, but more on that in a bit.

http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=TS15176093

In this case, on the Mac,  there was no adskflex_*_tsf.data file in the FLEXnet folder:

/Library/Preferences/FLEXnet Publisher/FLEXnet

Clue #2

The Console displayed a Time Machine and LMU (License Manager Utility) error:

Jan 16 11:23 MAC Alias[7990]: invalid drawable
Jan 16 11:23 MAC Alias[7990]: This process is attempting to exclude an item from 
                        Time Machine by path without administrator privileges. This is not supported.
Jan 16 11:23 MAC LMU[7996]: 7996 DAEMONIZE: setting umask 0
Jan 16 11:23 MAC LMU[7996]: 7996 DAEMONIZE: session parent exiting
Jan 16 11:23 MAC LMU[7996]: exiting and supressing hooks: 0
Jan 16 11:23 MAC LMU[7997]: 7997 DAEMONIZE: session new session leader
Jan 16 11:23 MAC LMU[7997]: 7997 DAEMONIZE: tty disconnect parent exiting
Jan 16 11:23 MAC LMU[7998]: 7998 DAEMONIZE: tty disconnect child
Jan 16 11:23 MAC LMU[7998]: 7998 DAEMONIZE: closing file descriptors
Jan 16 11:23 MAC LMU[7998]: 7998 Execing /Applications/Autodesk/Adlm/R4
                        /LMU.app/Contents/MacOS/lmuopen
Jan 16 11:23 MAC LMU[7998]: 7998 with argument: lmuopen
Jan 16 11:23 MAC LMU[7998]: 7998 with argument: /Applications/Autodesk/Adlm/R4
                        /LMU.app/Contents/MacOS/LMU
Jan 16 11:23:51 MAC lmuopen[7998]: Launching: /Applications/Autodesk/Adlm/R4
                        /LMU.app/Contents/MacOS/LMU
Jan 16 11:23:52 MAC com.apple.launchd.peruser.2[186]
                        ([0x0-0x492492].com.autodesk.Alias[7990]): Exited with code: 255
Jan 16 11:24:42 MAC LMU[7997]: exiting and supressing hooks: 0

Clue #3

If you use the Terminal and use the command:  ls-la, you will notice that there are some @ symbols for some files and folders.   It is an extended attribute in Mac OS X and we are getting a bit closer to the solution.

I just found out that there is a @ Time Machine extended attribute that will affect all Autodesk Mac-Compatible Products except for AutoCAD LT 2012 for Mac. App Store purchases are different then the conventional Standalone licensing methods that we currently are using.   

Here is that obscure reference of extended attributes in this AutoCAD 2011 solution:

http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=TS16276182

"When this folder is migrated using the Apple Migration Assistant or restored using Time Machine, these utilities save metadata onto the folder. When metadata is attached to the folder, FLEXnet is not able to create the trusted storage files required to launch and run....[your product]."

Elementary, my dear Watson.

The solution for this Alias Design user was to rename the FLEXnet Publisher folder, uninstall your Autodesk product and then re-install it.   This will force the installer to create a new FLEXnet Publisher folder with the proper permissions with no metadata attribute on it.  This will allow you to register, launch and run your product.

NOTE:  You may also notice that if you have an Adobe *.data files in that folder, you will need to move those files from the renamed folder back into /Library/Preferences/FLEXnet Publisher folder.

Thanks to Sherlock (Platform Licensing team) and Roberto Tomarchio for sharing this tip to the community.

The License Transfer Utility doesn’t start

When trying to run the License Transfer Utility of an Autodesk product, the LTU application doesn't start and nothing happens. No error message and no entry in the Event Viewer will indicate a problem with the utility.

This happens because for an unknown reason, the license file, or the entry for a specific product in the license file is corrupted.

In some situations, where more than one Autodesk product is installed in the system, the LTU can run for a specific product but not for other(s).

To solve this issue, you need to delete the license and the license backup files and then LTU will start correctly.

Please be aware that deleting the license files will remove all the licenses for the Autodesk standalone license based products on the system, after this, activation will be re-done automatically for all the products installed on the system when your start the program again. This applies only for the products after release 2010. Release 2009 and lower, are not affected by this problem.

There are two possible scenarios:

1. If the LTU doesn't start in the machine where the license is active, delete the license file and activate the product. After this export your license.
2. If the LTU doesn't start in the machine where you want to import a previously exported license, simply delete the license files, no activation is necessary.

The license files to delete are:

• adskflex_00691b00_tsf.data
• adskflex_00691b00_tsf.data_backup.001

Which are located in the directory:

• Windows XP > C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\FLEXnet
• Windows Vista/7 > C:\ProgramData\FLEXnet

More information about License Transfer Utility can be found here:

http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=GS18221949

Register Today (Product Activation Wizard) displays only two radio buttons

You start the Autodesk product and choose the Register and Activate option.

The Product Activation wizard launches but displays only two radio buttons with no associated text descriptions and there is no Next or Cancel buttons to allow you to proceed with the activation or cancel it.

In addition of the JavaScript execution disabled or impaired under the local security settings like explained in the technical solution Register Today (Product Activation Wizard) displays only two radio buttons the problem occurs as well with IE9 even if those parameters are correctly set.

There is no workaround for instance to IE9, the only solution is to roll back to IE8 to be able to activate the product.

Thanks to the M2 Technologies Inc Team (Tim Shaul, Mark Adams, Andrew Carlson, Thayne Wickam) for sharing this tip.

Thanks to Alison Gangler & Timmy De Austria for confirming this tip works in some customer cases.

License Transfer Utility, AutoCAD 2012 and Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion)

License Transfer Utility may fail to launch although you followed the documented procedure…

 

...not because you cannot find the directory or the LTU utility mentioned in the Help that is not giving the exact names…

 

…but because the utility does not launch at all or displays the following message:

 

In this case try running it from a terminal window, using sudo, as follows:

 

And you should be able to transfer your license file.

Epilogue:
There is a known issue with the LTU on Mac 10.7 (Lion) and this command will not work.  Development has been alerted of the issue.