Without A Net

AutoCAD for Mac launch issues following a crash

There is a new technical solution available that addresses a problem where AutoCAD for Mac or AutoCAD LT for Mac may not launch following a crash on Mac OS X 10.7.x:

AutoCAD will not launch following a crash on Mac OS X (Lion)

Don't fear the Terminal.

Flash videos not playing in Autodesk Exchange on 64-Bit systems with IE9

We have had some customer reports that the videos in Autodesk Exchange were not playing. Instead of the videos, customers only saw a message saying "Flash Version 9.0 or greater is required - You have no Flash Plugin installed" - even though a higher version of Flash was already installed.

This issue is specific to Internet Explorer 9 on 64 Bit Systems and has already been reported to our development team.

One way to resolve this is to download the latest Flash Player version from the Adobe Website with the option "For other Browsers": http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions/

With this installed, the videos should run fine within the Exchange window.

A simpler alternative to work around the issue is to click the "Open in Browser" icon in the top right corner of the Autodesk Exchange window:

This will open Exchange in your browser and the videos should also run fine, without the need to install another Flash version.

 

New Layer - Color change not applied as expected

When creating a new layer and changing its color, you may sometimes find that the color change is not applied as expected.

This can happen when you change the layer color while you are still in the editing mode for the layer name.

In this scenario, two pieces of information (the change of the layer name, and the change of the layer color) are sent to AutoCAD exactly at the same time.

On fast machines, this is not a problem, but on older machines that cannot compute the information as quickly, it can happen that only the first piece of the change (the change of layer name) is actually applied.

Our development team is looking into this already. In the mean time, if you run into this issue, you can work around it by making sure that you let the change of the layer name complete (just click once outside the layer name field) before changing the layer color.

AutoCAD LT for Mac Update

Hot on the heels of AutoCAD 2012 for Mac Service Pack 1, there is also an update available for AutoCAD LT for Mac:

Launch the Mac App Store and check the Updates section for the 2012.1 version.

AutoCAD 2012 for Mac - Service Pack 1

Service Pack 1 for AutoCAD® 2012 for Mac® is now available for download at the following link:

AutoCAD 2012 for Mac Service Pack 1

This update resolves compatibility issues that have been reported while using the software on the latest versions of Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6.8) and Mac OS X Lion. It also resolves problems reported by the Customer Error Reporting (CER) utility and other general problems identified after AutoCAD 2012 for Mac was made available.

General changes and improvements have been made to the following features:

Blocks

• The program is no longer unstable after inserting a block with attributes using AutoLISP.

Hardware

• The mouse pointer cursor icon no longer disappears after closing a drawing.
• Shortcut keys now work correctly while a command is active.
• The Enter key adjacent to the Number Pad now works the same as the Return key.
• On Mac OS X Snow Leopard, the mouse pointer cursor icon no longer shakes when swiping with two fingers on trackpad to execute the pan operation.

Hatch

• The program is no longer unstable after creating a hatch object with the Hatch and Gradient dialog box.
• The program is no longer unstable after creating a hatch object using one of the Hatch or Gradient visors.
• Patterns can be applied correctly when creating Gradient fills.

Open/Save

• Drawings now save correctly to folders containing a # (pound) character in its name.

Publish

• Publish now correctly imports more than one sheet.
• Saving a drawing to a new file name no longer causes problems when being added to the Publish dialog box.

Plot

• The program is no longer unstable after clearing the X or Y offset values in the Offset for Printable Area of the Page Setup dialog box.

Viewports

• The program is no longer unstable after rotating a viewport.

As always, check out the accompanying Readme PDF for more details and installation instructions.

On a side note, notice the use of the phrase "Service Pack" instead of "Update". Personally, I hope this becomes a trend across all products as the term "Update" has been a source of customer confusion since we started using it in the 2009 releases.

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa and A Happy New Years!

 

 

With yesterday being the start of Hanukkah, today the official start of Winter and Sunday being Christmas, I wanted to take this opportunity  to wish everyone a wonderful and safe holiday season!  For all our customers, we really appreciate all your loyalty to AutoCAD and Autodesk products and look forward to another year where we can work together and hopefully create some amazing things together!   Enjoy and see you next year!!

Autodesk 2012 Content Explorer Service Hot Fix 2

Today seems to be the day for posting hotfixes! A new hotfix is now available for AutoCAD 2012, AutoCAD LT 2012 and several AutoCAD 2012-based products.

Autodesk 2012 Content Explorer Service Hot Fix 2

This hotfix applies to the Autodesk 2012 Content Explorer Service (Public and Personal) and addresses the following issues:

• In some cases renaming a folder in Windows Explorer, which is currently being watched by the Autodesk Content Service, can cause the service to stop running.
• The Autodesk Content Service could not be started because the size of the database file was larger than the configured maximum size. If you have encountered this issue please follow the steps found in the companion document "Configuring Maximum Database Size in Autodesk Content Service.pdf" after you have installed Hot Fix 2. If you have not encountered this issue these additional steps are not needed.
• Files fail to index when an English Autodesk Content Service is installed on a Turkish operating system.

AutoCAD 2011 Hotfix for Complex PLine Measurements

A new hotfix is now available for AutoCAD 2011 that targets some area measurements results when using complex PLINES.  This issue is not seen in AutoCAD 2010 and has been already addressed in AutoCAD 2012 with SP1. 

AutoCAD 2011 Hotfix for Complex PLine Measurements

For AutoCAD 2011 with Update 2 installed, this hotfix repairs the area calculation problem of polylines positioned at a great distance from the origin.

Please ensure that Update 2 for AutoCAD 2011 is installed before you apply this hotfix.

"Connection denied" message when trying to add network content in Content Explorer

When trying to add network content to Content Explorer, you may come across this message:

"Add Network Content failed - Connection denied from remote computer to Personal Autodesk Content Service"

This error indicates that the Content Service on the remote machine was installed with the "Personal Access" option instead of the "Public Access" option. The "Personal" version of the Content Service does not allow remote connections from other machines.

In order to allow other machines to connect to content on this machine, the machine you are trying to connect to needs to have the "Public" version of the Content Service installed.

In order to resolve the situation, the following steps should be performed on the remote machine (the machine you were trying to connect to):

1. Under Control Panel > Programs and Features, Uninstall the Autodesk Content Service
2. Delete the folder %programdata%\Autodesk\Content Service\Server
3. Install the ‘public’ version of the service from the install disk under “Tools and Utilities”.  

  

If you click on the down arrow, you see two options under "Installation Type":  "For Public Access" and "For Personal Access".
Select the option "For Public Access". 
 
 

Click on "Click to close and return to product list", make sure the box next to "Autodesk Content Service" is checked, and click on "Install"
 
 

After the installation finished, open the Content Service Administration Console and verify that Access is set to "Public":
 
 
 
Next, click on "Add Watched Folder" to add the desired shared folders.
 
Now you should be able to access these folders from Content Explorer on other machines.
 
 

Decompressing after AU 2011

Last week was Autodesk University 2011 and it was a great event. This was my 14th AU to attend and 13th AU where I was a speaker (16th if you count that year we did four AU events around the country). There is such great energy at AU and at times during the week it feels like that energy is the only thing keeping you from collapsing in complete exhaustion… which I am doing now.

This year I taught a class on managing Autodesk licenses called, "License and Registration, Please". It covered topics like cascade licensing, Online License Transfer, previous version and how to control your licensing with an options file. Thanks to everyone who attended (and don't forget to fill out your surveys).

My co-blogger, Silvia Menon, taught an excellent class titled, "First Aid for AutoCAD®: Troubleshooting Common Issues". Silvia ran through detailed troubleshooting steps and how to work with Product Support if you have an issue you can't resolve yourself. This was Silvia's first time to attend AU and her first AU as a speaker and she did an outstanding job. If you didn't catch her class, be sure and check it out when it comes online at the AU Web site.

One of the things I always look forward to at AU is getting to hang with AU friends: people that I only see once a year at Autodesk University. After 14 years of attending AU, I've developed so many good friendships with fellow speakers even though I only see them once a year. It was great to see you all again and I look forward to seeing you next year (dave, next year I'm going to sushi, no matter what).

Were you in attendance this year, either live or at one of the virtual AU sessions? Let me know how it was for you?