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.