Accessing the Autodesk Knowledge Base from AutoCAD

A couple days ago I was on a Twitter thread with Shaan Hurley and Lee Ambrosius and Lee reminded me of an undocumented command I had forgotten about long before I moved into Autodesk Product Support.

There is an undocumented AutoCAD command called AI_PRODUCT_SUPPORT. When you issue this command, it opens a browser and takes you directly to the AutoCAD Services & Support page at http://www.autodesk.com/autocad-support. If you're in AutoCAD LT it takes you to http://www.autodesk.com/autocadlt-support. I tried it in a couple of AutoCAD-based verticals like AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD Map 3D but it still took me to the AutoCAD support page so it may not be customized for products other than AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT.

There are two versions of this command: AI_PRODUCT_SUPPORT and AI_PRODUCT_SUPPORT_SAFE. They do the same thing however AI_PRODUCT_SUPPORT_SAFE will redirect you to a local HTML page if it doesn't find a network connection. In addition to these commands, there is also:

AI_CUSTOM_SAFE: Goes to the Autodesk Services & Support Developer Center at http://www.autodesk.com/developautocad.

AI_TRAINING_SAFE: Goes to the AutoCAD Services & Support Training page at http://www.autodesk.com/autocad-training (in AutoCAD LT, this will go to the LT training page).

AI_SEND_FEEDBACK: Goes to the Autodesk Contact Us page at http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=1109794.

So … not a life-changing tip but it could be handy for when you run into an issue and want to quickly check the support pages to see if there are any related technical solutions. If you use it often, I recommend creating a much shorter alias to cut down on the keystrokes.

If you want to go directly to some URL other than these you can use the BROWSER command and provide the URL you want to visit. As I recall, the default address (the one you'll get if you just hit Enter) is http://www.autodesk.com, but you should be able to provide another URL if you choose. I'm still at Macworld Expo and away from any computers with AutoCAD at the moment so I can't verify that one for sure.