Without A Net

Recent AutoCAD Installation Training Videos

Greetings, all (and Happy Thanksgiving to all my US readers). Autodesk is currently observing a company furlough so, with the exception of staff dedicated to manning our critical systems, all United States employees are taking some vacation time this week. Since many of us (including myself) are busy preparing for Autodesk University next week, this time off definitely feels a bit less like an actual vacation.

As I was working on my AU classes today, it occurred to me that I never posted about the recent batch of tutorial videos that I created on the subject of installing AutoCAD 2010. The new videos include Stand-Alone and Network installation of AutoCAD 2010, as well as some of the common post-installation tasks that you need to do immediately after installation.

I've embedded the videos here or you can go to YouTube and watch them from there.

For a complete list of the videos that I've created, you can always check the AutoCAD and Platform Product Support Video Solutions playlist on YouTube.

If you are attending Autodesk University in Las Vegas next week, feel free to stop me and say hello. I'd love the opportunity to meet you and chat.

Cheers,
Tom

Crash Problem with recent NVIDIA drivers in Windows 7 and Vista

We have recently seen issues where customers running the NVIDIA FX with the 191.00 driver are experiencing crashes when the screen saver enables, the user locks the system, or the system goes into hibernation. In these instances, AutoCAD will crash without generating a CER when you return to the application. The problem seems to be limited to 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Vista and Windows 7.

If you are running the NVIDIA FX with the 191.00 driver and are experiencing this problem, we recommend downloading and installing the following drivers instead:

32-bit Vista and Windows 7

64-bit Vista and Windows 7

Autodesk is actively working on certifying and posting newer drivers from NVIDIA.

Update to Autodesk Graphics Hardware List

The Autodesk video card certification database has recently been updated. The current version is now 18.0.0.4. To see the current supported cards please click the following link:

Graphics Hardware List

The changes from version 18.0.0.3 include 575 new certification results for the drivers below:

ATI®

• Adds support for the ATI® FireGL & FirePro Version 8.634 for Windows XP (6973), XP64 (6973), Vista (678), Vista64 (678)


• Adds support for the ATI® Mobility FireGL V5700 for Windows XP (6973), Vista (630), Vista64 (630)


• Adds support for the ATI® Radeon Catalyst Version 9.8 for Windows XP (6983), XP64 (6983), Vista (685), Vista64 (685)

Nvidia®

• Adds support for the Nvidia® Quadro for Windows XP (191.00), XP64 (191.00), Vista (191.00), Vista64 (191.00)


• Adds support for the Nvidia® Geforce for Windows XP (190.62), XP64 (190.62), Vista (190.62), Vista64 (190.62)

Parallels®

• Adds support for the Parallels® Virtual machine Version 4.0.3646 for Windows XP (3846), Vista64 (3846)

For more information about certified, supported, and nonsupported graphics hardware, check the AutoCAD certified hardware FAQ.

New Training Video: Subscription Advantage Pack for AutoCAD 2010

I posted a new video to the Autodesk section of YouTube:

The video is about 24 minutes in length and provides an overview of the new features and functionality provided in the Subscription Advantage Pack for AutoCAD 2010. The Subscription Advantage Pack is a benefit to Subscription customers and provides early access to new features in AutoCAD.

In addition to AutoCAD 2010, the Subscription Advantage Pack can be installed on the 2010 versions of AutoCAD Map 3D, AutoCAD Mechanical, AutoCAD P&ID, AutoCAD Plant 3D, and AutoCAD Structural Detailing. It can also be installed to an AutoCAD included in the Inventor, Revit Structure, Revit Architectural and Revit MEP suites.

The Subscription Advantage Pack has no dependency on AutoCAD Update 1 so it can be installed on either the original shipping version or a version that has been upgraded to include Update 1.

AutoCAD Raster Design 2010 and Mixed License Types

Recently, Product Support has seen cases where AutoCAD Raster Design 2010 is failing to retrieve a license on launch. Installation of Raster Design runs without incident but when launching the integrated product, the following message displays:

In most cases this is the result of AutoCAD Raster Design 2010 having a different license type than the product to which it was integrated. Here are some examples of this kind of mixed-license scenario:

• AutoCAD 2010 Stand-Alone with an AutoCAD Raster Design 2010 Network license
• AutoCAD 2010 Network with an AutoCAD Raster Design 2010 Stand-Alone license
• AutoCAD 2010 Multi-Seat Stand-Alone (MSSA) with an AutoCAD Raster Design 2010 Stand-Alone license

AutoCAD Raster Design 2010 must be installed using the same license type (or deployment method – depending on the mix of license types) as the AutoCAD-based product to which it was installed. The requirements are as follows:

Network and Stand-Alone Products

• An AutoCAD Raster Design 2010 Stand-Alone license must be used with an AutoCAD 2010 Stand-Alone license.
• An AutoCAD Raster Design 2010 Network license must be used with an AutoCAD 2010 Network license. The exception to this requirement is if the Raster Design 2010 Hotfix has been applied, which allows AutoCAD Raster Design 2010 network deployments to be installed with supported Stand-Alone AutoCAD products.

Multi-Seat Stand-Alone (MSSA) Products

In the case of MSSA products, AutoCAD Raster Design can fail to retrieve a license if the license type is mismatched during the installation of AutoCAD Raster Design and the accompanying product. For example, when AutoCAD is installed from the physical media but AutoCAD Raster Design is installed from an administrative deployment, or vice versa.

The workaround for this scenario is to use the same deployment method for both products. For example:

• If AutoCAD was installed from the physical media, you need to install AutoCAD Raster Design from the physical media.
• If AutoCAD was installed from an administrative image, you need to also install AutoCAD Raster Design from an administrative image.

I've referenced AutoCAD 2010 in these examples but the same requirements apply to any products based on AutoCAD, e.g., AutoCAD Map 2010 or AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010.

This information is also available in the following technical solution:
AutoCAD Raster Design 2010 Licensing Mismatch

Update 1 Released for Multi-Language AutoCAD LT 2010

A new version of Update 1 has been released for the Multi-Language Distribution versions of AutoCAD LT 2010:

AutoCAD LT 2010 Update 1

The MLD version of AutoCAD LT 2010 (build D.59.0.0) enables language packs for the following regions:

Americas
English, French and Spanish languages

Asia-Pacific (except Japan)
English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and Korean

You can determine your version of AutoCAD LT by entering _VERNUM at the command prompt.

If your product is version D.55.0.0 (UNICODE), use the following files:

• autocadlt2010update1.exe
• autocadlt2010update1x64.exe

If your product is version D.59.0.0 (UNICODE), use the following files:

• autocadlt2010update1mld.exe
• autocadlt2010update1x64mld.exe

INPUTHISTORYMODE and the Action Recorder

I'm sure many of you are familiar with the INPUTHISTORYMODE system variable, first introduced AutoCAD 2006. This sysvar controls the content and location of the display of a history of your command input and allows you to decide if your command input history gets displayed and where (command line, tooltip, context menu). It doesn't affect the display of commands that you entered, it affects the display of input values that you provided to commands, e.g., points that you picked during a LINE command.

If you're one of those people that sets INPUTHISTORYMODE to 0 because you don't like AutoCAD offering you a history of recent input values, you will have a problem recording macros with the Action Recorder. If INPUTHISTORYMODE is not set to at least 1, the Action Recorder will not properly record input. It seems to record some input from using the Properties Palette but it doesn't play back reliably.

At present, the only workaround for this is to set INPUTHISTORYMODE to an acceptable positive value prior to recording an Action Macro. The INPUTHISTORYMODE setting does not affect playback of Action Macros - only recording.

New Training Video: Multiple Language Support in AutoCAD 2010

I posted a new video to the Autodesk section of YouTube:

The video is about 8 minutes in length and is intended to provide an overview of how to download and install language packs for use in installations and deployments.

I used AutoCAD 2010 for the demonstrations but support for language packs also extends to the AutoCAD Electrical, AutoCAD Mechanical, Inventor and Navisworks products. AutoCAD LT 2010 does not support language packs.

Note: Support for language packs does not currently extend to products that ship to Eastern and Western Europe.

LMAN Layer State Conversion Issues

In AutoCAD 2008, the Layer States Manager was updated to automatically convert existing Express Tools LMAN layer states and Architectural Desktop Snapshots into AutoCAD layer states. This conversion happens automatically when the Layer States Manager is opened in a drawing containing these legacy types of layer states. After conversion, the old layer states are deleted from the drawing.

Occasionally, we receive a report from a customer that the Express Tools LMAN layer states are being converted every time the Layer States Manager is run, resulting in a new set of converted layer states being created every time. The only time we’ve seen this problem is when customers have a very large quantity of LMAN layer states.

LMAN data was stored on individual layers as xdata and there is a limit to how large the xdata can be. After each layer state is converted, the Layer States Manager deletes each layer state from the blob of xdata and then reapplies that truncated xdata back to the layer.  However, when that xdata exceeds the size limits, the truncated data is rejected and the original xdata is restored (LMAN was an AutoLISP routine so it seems that xdata limit did not apply as strictly to AutoLISP as it does to the ObjectARX app doing the converting).  This is why it keeps converting the LMAN layer states - because it can't successfully delete them.  If you have less than about 100 layer states  this conversion process should work without issue but when you have large numbers of LMAN layer states it's just too much xdata.

If you've experienced this problem with duplicate conversion of LMAN layer states, the workaround is a two-step process:

1. Start the Layer State Manager and let it do the conversion.
2. Run the following AutoLISP routine (LMANKILL) immediately after the conversion.

Download LMANKILL.LSP

LMANKILL.LSP will remove all Express Tools LMAN layer states from the current drawing.  It is quick and complete.  In fact, if you don't want any of those LMAN layer states to be converted, you could run this first and be done with them for good.

Again, this problem should only present itself when there is a large number of LMAN layer states being converted.

Updated HP drivers address AutoCAD plotting issues in Vista

HP has released updated drivers for the DesignJet 70 and DesignJet 500 series plotters that fix errors when plotting from AutoCAD in Windows Vista.

Click through to the following technical solution for more detailed information on the errors and links to the updated drivers:

Plotting to older HP plotters on Windows Vista causes error messages during plot and when closing application