Up and Ready

Mac OS 10.10 [Yosemite] + AutoCAD Mac 2015 + Column View = CRASH

Please check out this article for more details:

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad-for-mac/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Select-File-dialog-in-Yosemite-crashes-AutoCAD-for-Mac.html

TIP: Optimizing performance for Mobile Workstations [laptops] + Desktops + Drivers

Autodesk products work best with the Professional GPUs (Graphics Processor Unit). There are some instances in which you can get adequate performance on Consumer GPUs but be prepared from some drawbacks. i.e. intermittent crashing, display issues, etc.

Nvidia Geforce (Consumer CPU)  vs   Nvidia Quadro (Professional GPU)
AMD Radeon (Consumer GPU)    vs   AMD FirePro (Professional GPU)

We often will use the following sites to show you what we have officially tested our software on:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syscert?id=18844534&siteID=123112

http://hardware.autodesk.com/

Some notable articles for each graphics vendor is noted below:

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/article/Autodesk-Software-and-Activation-freezes-on-laptops-with-Geforce-GT-series-cards

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Orbit-hangs-for-several-minutes-in-AutoCAD-with-an-NVIDIA-graphics-card.html

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit-products/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/For-NVIDIA-Graphic-Card-users-Revit-fails-to-start.html

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/AutoCAD-Help-Feed-Welcome-and-New-Tab-screens-appear-all-black.html  via Zarchary Travis (AutoCAD guru)

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/search-result/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Blank-material-tab-in-Simulation-Moldflow-Adviser-2013-2014.html

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Starting-AutoCAD-based-products-without-hardware-video-acceleration.html

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How-to-enable-or-disable-hardware-acceleration-in-AutoCAD.html

When re-installing a video driver, I prefer this old school method:

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2013/08/tip-reinstalling-a-video-driver.html

Reference

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5Npt1BSF04

http://fireuser.com/blog/professional_firepro_cards_vs_consumer_radeon_cards_whats_the_difference/ 

Sony VGN-Z750D Laptop + Autodesk Setup = Crash

If you are using a Sony laptop with Autodesk software, you should review this article:

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/search-result/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Setup-crashes-on-Sony-VGN-Z750D-Laptops.html

The problem is that if you run Setup.exe, it will crash.  Please note that this laptop is not on our Certified Hardware list.  Also, if you are going to use AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT, please check out this new tool:

http://hardware.autodesk.com/

Here are some other known conditions in which Setup.exe will crash:

Display Link Software
http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2012/04/inventor-lt-suite-2013-installation-wizard-hangs-and-submits-an-autodesk-error-report.html

ASUS Software
http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2013/10/2014-products-setupexe-crash-cer-report-.html

Thanks to Andrew Jergens for sharing this tip with the community.

AutoCAD 2015 + Dell M6800 = Slow video performance

This was an interesting scenario, we had identical Dell M6800 Workstations.  The system specs are below:

• Dell M6800 with Nvidia Quadro K4100M/ Intel HD Graphics 4600 with Nvidia Graphics Driver 332.21.

When running AutoCAD 2015,  one of the systems would have some display issues.  It would leave image trails and the performance is very slow with hardware acceleration ON.

The solution was to use a beta driver from Nvidia:

http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/76507/en-us

Thanks to Gary Pyles and Barb Berndt for sharing this tip with the community.

AutoCAD 2015 Application Error (0xc0000142) + Autoruns for Windows

We have been getting some cases in which AutoCAD 2015 would not launch. The error is:

The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000142).  Click OK to close the application.

To solve this problem, we needed to use an advanced Windows Sysinternals Tool called Autoruns for Windows:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

Launch the program and look for the following tab:  AppInit.  This will basically tell you if a dll is unsigned or digitally no longer valid on your computer.  All you have to do is rename each dll listed, one at a time and launch the product to determine the problematic dll.

With a bit of serendippity, we [Avto Chachava] also solved a (0xc0000005) error using the same process, in this case the problematic dll was:

nvinitx.dll

We have been using Procmon for ages, here is another tool in our troubleshooting arsenal.  Thanks to Kenny Chan for sharing this tip with the community.

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2011/10/general-systems-the-basics-of-using-process-monitor.html

Reference

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DLL_injection

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_signature

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/The-application-was-unable-to-start-correctly-0xc0000142.html

Epilogue

This appears to be an issue with Adobe Acrobat 9.5.x Extended Web Capture module and this can be easily seen in AppInit tab of Autoruns for Windows.

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Installation-Licensing/AutoCAD-2015-0xc0000142-Error-occured/m-p/4923686/highlight/false#M84203

Epilogue II

Below is another vendor that has an unsigned dll.

 

Epilogue III

One of our technical gurus [Osamu Motoyama] was able to change a setting in the registry to solve this problem. You can try to change the value to default of 0 in the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\LoadAppInit_DLLs

 

FYI, some of the offending 3rd party applications may change this value to 1 upon launching them.

Epilogue IV

Kaspersky 2011 AV is another problematic Appinit.

Reference

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/dd744762%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

 

Inventor 2014 SP1 crash on Start-up Windows 8.1 with Intel HD Graphics 4000

We have recently seen some CER Report about this issue.It happens mostly on laptops with dual graphics cards and using Intel HD Graphics 4000 (Driver Version 10.18.0010.3316).

When starting Inventor 2014 SP1 on Windows 8.1, you get the Autodesk Inventor Error Report Details and Inventor cannot start. Our developers are investigating this.

In the meantime, you can :

1. Disable the Intel Video Card in the Windows Device Manager.
2. Start Inventor.

 If you’re not satisifed with the performance, these additional steps could help in some cases :

1. Go to Inventor Application Options / Hardware Tab / Enable Compatibility Mode.
2. Enable the Video Card in the Windows Device Manager.
3. Start Inventor.

Some users experiencing this with AUTOCAD could solve it by right clicking on the ACAD Icon :

1. Run with Graphics Processor.
2. Integrated Card.

Pierre Masson.

via beinginventive.typepad.com

Maya 2014 + Windows 7 [Clean] + Unexpected Error

We recently received a case into Product Support. Basically after a hard drive and video card replacement, the software would not start up.  When starting Maya 2014, there was an unexpected error and this was not a licensing (activation) issue.

We basically tried using procmon and we did fix some permission issues but the problem persisted.  In the end, we even reformated the drive and re-installed Windows to no avail.

The solution was to disable WMI.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa826517%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

http://computerstepbystep.com/windows_management_instrumentation_service.html 

I want to thank Daniel Jay for sharing this tip with the community and the tenacious troubleshooting skills of Dell [Steven M.] Technical Support.

Epilogue

Thanks to Daniel Jay again for finding some additional reference data on the same issue but with 3DS Max.

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Installation-Licensing/3ds-Max-2014-and-possibly-earlier-LMU-exe-crash-on-startup-cause/td-p/3929893

AutoCAD 2012 and Sabrent USB External HD Video Adapter

This is another example of a 3rd party software causing a problem with AutoCAD. When the user launches AutoCAD 2012, there is a FATAL error:

Fatal Error. Unhandled Exception 0x006c Exception at de835debh Aborting.

The system was a laptop with a Quadro 2000M video card that was certified. In this case, the problem was caused by a Sabrent USB Display Adapter and the Sabrent USB Software Driver that is used to connect the computer to the monitor. 

In this special scenario, they were trying to use 3 monitors on a laptop and the solution is to uninstall the Sabrent USB Software even if you don't have a 3rd monitor connected.

Thanks to Rakesh Hora for sharing this tip with the community.

Reference

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

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2013/02/autocad-and-iogear-usb-external-hd-video-adapter.html

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2012/06/autocad-2012-for-mac-using-3-displays-will-send-an-error-report-to-autodesk.html

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2013/08/tip-reinstalling-a-video-driver.html

Mac OS Mavericks [10.9] + Autodesk Products

I love updates that are free but please update with caution! Any full point release [10.9] is pretty much a whole new operating system on the Mac.

If you are currently using Autodesk products on the Mac, please don't upgrade yet. There are some known issues noted below:

Maya 2014

Maya 2014 Extension 1 SP1 – Available on Subscription Center
Maya 2014 SP3

Maya LT 2014

Maya LT 2014 Extension 1 -  Available on Subscription Center
Maya LT SP1

Mudbox 2014 for Mac

Mudbox 2014 Extension 1 SP1 – Available on Subscription Center
Mudbox 2014 SP2

AutoCAD 2013 for Mac

AutoCAD 2013 for Mac SP2

AutoCAD LT 2013 for Mac SP2

Alias 2014

Alias 2014 SP 3 & Alias 2014 SR1 SP1

Sketchbook Pro

http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=DL22442489

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/sketchbook-products/downloads/caas/downloads/content/sketchbook-pro-for-enterprise-2014-service-pack-1.html

Reference

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2013/10/maya-2014-on-mac-109-mavericks-error-110-when-activating.html

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2012/11/the-joy-of-windows-8-and-anything-new.html

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/10/os-x-10-9/

http://through-the-interface.typepad.com/through_the_interface/2013/10/autocad-2014-for-mac.html

http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/2013/10/have-you-tried-or-use-autocad-for-mac.html

 

Autodesk Smoke 2013

 

Smoke 2013 is currently unsupported on 10.9.  

 

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/General-Discussion/IMPORTANT-Mac-OS-X-10-9-Compatibility-with-Autodesk-Smoke/m-p/4547681

 

Epilogue

As of October 23, 2013,  AutoCAD & AutoCAD LT 2014 for Mac has just been released and it supports Mac OS X Maverick [10.9].

Please check out the Comments section for a note in this post for users of Maya 2014 & Mudbox 2014.

Autodesk ReCap crashes during Windows Remote Session

This may not be common but during those instances where you try to launch Autodesk ReCap remotely via windows Remote Session, the product will crash with a OpenGL warning (below).

This is a known limitation where Recap will not work in windows remote session due to graphics requirement. So if you need to work on ReCap remotely, please leverage on other remote utilities, like VNC or HP remote graphics.