Posts

Johan Dalenius

Issue with database connection when using borrowed license i Autocad

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Solution for Issue: Elmaster Design Not Establishing Database Connection 

Introduction 

When AutoCAD runs with a borrowed license, a popup can disrupt initialization, affecting the Ides CAD-driver COM-server and causing the application to switch to standalone mode. 

Problem definition

The popup that appears when the AutoCAD license is borrowed prevents proper initialization, causing the COM-server not to load in a timely manner, and the driver fails to connect to the database. 

Solution 

Run the MCSTARTUP command manually: 

  1. Once all components have loaded, open the command prompt in AutoCAD. 
  2. Execute MCSTARTUP to initiate the connection. 

Preventive Measures 

  • Manage AutoCAD licenses. Avoid borrowing licenses if possible. 

Summary 

To resolve the issue, manually run MCSTARTUP after AutoCAD/MasterDesign has fully loaded.

Check the license configuration and avoid borrowing licenses to prevent the problem. 

References and Resources 

Johan Dalenius

Invalid Class String

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Introduction

When the process is being run with administrative privileges the user is unable to get Elmaster Design started properly.

Symptoms

Error messages at start of Design that says Failed to load Master Concept dlls and invalid class string.

Cause

To make it possible/easier to switch between parallel installed versions resources are registered during the initialization of the application. The registration is done for the user who is logged in.

If the application is run by another account – even if that account has high privileges – the part of the registry being used is not the same as where the references to the resources have been set up.

It is a limitation that the acad.exe process about to load Elmaster Design must be run by the logged in user.

Confirmation

To confirm if processes you initiate are being run by your logged on username one can often determine by opening a command prompt and looking at its title bar if it says administrator or not.

Another way to determine if you have this problem is by looking at the acad.exe process via Task Manager. Go to the information pane and select the columns to show via the context menu on the column headers. Choose to show elevated privileges. If your acad.exe process is running with elevated privileges that means it is being run as the administrator account.

Solution

If you are using the context menu on the icon and Run as Administrator – don’t.

Instead run in normal mode by clicking on the icon in start menu och double click on the desktop icon to start Elmaster Design.

Usually, this problem occurs when the user temporarily gains elevated privileges to install new software. Via policy or similar management, the processes initiated by the user are impersonated and run by the administrator account for the duration of the installation period. If that is the case, let whoever gave you the elevated privileges know when you are done. When impersonation ceases, the problem ceases.

Preventive measures

Avoid running the acad.exe processes as administrator. Run it as your logged on user.

If users are temporarily given local administrative privileges for installing software, it is advisable to plan ahead and schedule the installation at a time when the user is not supposed to be productive using Elmaster Design.

Also available in format for download and attachment: Invalid Class String.docx

Johan Dalenius

Language settings and AutoCAD

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It has been brought to our attention there is another problem with AutoCAD and Windows language settings. There is a new language setting in Windows and AutoCAD does not support having it activated.

Symptom

AutoCAD is unable to start. The following error message appears.

Exception in vl.crx ARX command

Exception in vl.crx ARX command

Solution

To solve this problem go to Windows settings for Region and Change system locale…

In the Region Settings dialogue you uncheck the option Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support.

Further reading

The vl.crx-problem is described in short above. In Autodesk Knowledgebase there is a full description.

Recently we wrote about AutoCAD crashing upon start with error “VLISP internal error: Unhandled exception on init”. Our solution was to rearrange the Windows language priority so that there no longer was a red warning icon showing. Autodesk posted a workaround to that problem. The same/similiar problem also have a another article in their knowledgebase with solution same as above.

In short you should be wary about changing language settings as it might break things.

Johan Dalenius

Hög processoranvändning för AutoCAD

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Om man på en inaktiv AutoCAD ser att underprocesserna drar mycket processoranvändning är det ett varningstecken. Underprocesserna listas vid namn Chromium host executable eller AcWebBrowser.exe.

autocad_cpu

Aktivitetshanteraren för en frisk inaktiv AutoCAD

Har dessa underprocesser hög processoranvändning är det troligt att de kämpar med att komma åt online-innehåll. Det kan exempelvis vara online-hjälp, välkomst-meddelande, community eller  molntjänster. Problemet kommer av att man å ena sidan försöker använda online-resurser i AutoCAD men samtidigt inte tillåter det. Åtgärdas genom att antingen i skyddsprogramvara tillåta dessa processer att kommunicera eller konfigurera AutoCAD så att man avstår online-material.

Skulle du ha problem med hög cpu rekommenderas länkad artikel i Autodesk Knowledge Base.

 

Johan Dalenius

Sökbart innehåll i PDF

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Vid incheckning när PDF automatiskt genereras så indexeras dess innehåll. Indexeringen lägger grunden för att ord och beteckningar som förekommer i ritningar, instruktioner, etc går att hitta via sökläge innehållssökning. Sökningen innebär enbart att man i MasterExplorer kan få fram vilka ritningar som söktermen förekommer.

Sökning på "exempel" ger många träffar. Länkar för att visa i grid respektive hoppa till träffarna i trädet i tur och ordning.

Ordet “exempel” förekommer i många dokument.

Första träff markeras i trädet. Blå länkar vid sökfältet dyker upp för att visa alla träffar i grid respektive hoppa till nästa träff i trädet.

Huruvida det inne i en öppnad PDF går att hitta söktermen så är svaret att det beror på. Vilken applikation man hanterar huvudfilen med och hur dokumentet är gjort spelar in. För PDF av ritningar gäller att styles i ritningen påverkar om texten behandlas som text eller grafik. Sökbart resultat får man om man använder fonter som är TrueType.

Exempel TrueType

Sökning i PDF av ritning med TrueType ger träff. Träffen markeras.

Exempel SHX

Sökning i PDF av ritning med SHX ger inte träff då beteckningen vektoriserats och inte lagrats som text.

Går man till sin file server location och bläddrar in under \Scripts\Lsp finns per default en fil changeStyleToArial.lsp som uppdaterar styles STANDARD och LABEL att använda typsnittet Arial Unicode MS. Sedan vi tog fram den skriptfilen som exempel har Microsoft valt att inte längre skicka med (sluta betalat licenskostnaden för) det typsnittet så det kan vara idé att välja ett annat typsnitt.

Om gammal och ny font har märkbar skillnad i bredd kan attributtexter behöva linjeras om. Justering görs automatiskt när man redigerar symbolerna. Ett sätt att trigga omjustering av alla symboler utan att öppna och stänga DDATTE är att genom skript loopa över och peta på alla symbolerna. Det kan göras via skriptfilen UpdateDesignation.lsp. Via länk återfinns båda kodsnuttarna i samma skriptfil.

Johan Dalenius

AutoCAD och språkinställningar

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Symtom

Efter uppdatering till senaste Windows 10 kan följande meddelande komma vid start av Autocad: “VLISP internal error: Unhandled exception on init.” Sedan kraschar Autocad.

Orsak

Problemet orsakas av en konflikt mellan tangentbordslayout / språk / region i Windows.

Åtgärd

Gå till språkinställningar

langinst

Kontrollera att Land eller region och Visningsspråk för Windows stämmer med hur du vill ha det.

langprio

Under Prioriterade språk finns det en lista på olika språk som finns tillgängliga. Arrangera ordningen på språken så att den röda varningstexten under listan försvinner. Det går att plocka bort de språk som inte används. Nu ska Autocad fungera.

Johan Dalenius

Disable AutoCAD PDF Preview

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By having Pdfs generated automatically you get some neat features including Pdf preview, Thumbnails and Content search. For most customers it is preferred setup to enable the automatic Pdf generator.

If your drawings are plotted using the default Pc3 provided by Autodesk, its default setting is to have the PDF opened. Often it is preferred to not have every Pdf opened. For example a batch function or checking in multiple drawings would result in a lot of open windows. The quick fix is to disable this setting.

PLOT
Select DWG To PDF.pc3 in the dropdown Plotter Name
Properties button
Plotter Configuration Editor window opens
Custom Properties in the tree
Custom Properties… button
PDF Options window opens
Show results in viewer – Disable
Close and Save.

For administrators

Note that generating Pdf is a setting on/off for all document types; drawings, reports, instructions and so on. Once you have activated generating Pdf by setting the variable EPC_GENPDF=TRUE, the application where your users are most likely to notice a difference is AutoCAD. When the drawing is saved to database a plot progress bar flashes by.

What settings will be used to plot can be set up in MasterExplorer via Administration > Document > Document types > Document starts and the column Pdf-settings. If no configuration is found it will default to DWG To PDF.pc3 and using the PLOT-configuration from the drawing.

A common setup is to save a Pc3 with your desired settings and call that file in the Pdf-config.

Johan Dalenius

Set which AutoCAD to run elMaster Design

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When starting elMaster Design the application start will first start the AutoCAD you used last and then load elMaster Design functionality. If there are more AutoCAD products installed you need to make sure the desired product is the one you had last started before starting elMaster Design. Assuming you always want the same version and product there are settings to make switching applications easier.

Settings for MasterConcept

The configuration of what application to start is found among the document settings; Administration > Settings > Document > Document type. Go to the tab Document Start and look for the columns External Application and Switches.

External Application & Switches

Currently using AutoCAD 2015 while trying out 2016.

The column Switches works very much the same way as adding switches to a program shortcut. The following switches are supported both as shortcut and document start setting.

/product is passed on to AutoCAD and accepts the same input as the native AutoCAD switch. It expects a product shortname like; ACAD, ACADM, MEP

/acadver accepts version as written in the name of the vertical; 2014, 2015, 2016. Version numbers on format R19.1 are currently not supported. Please note that support for this switch was intruduced in 12.2.2.

/p is the native AutoCAD switch for profile. For some starts you may have to refer to an existing profile to get the desired environment. If no profile is specified AutoCAD will be launched and AutoCAD will continue using which ever profile is current.

When setting external application to MasterDesign the Design profile is loaded by the document start and there is no need to specify profile.

 

Settings for stand alone elMaster Design

The switches above are supported by stand alone elMaster Design by editing the shortcut adding the desired switches.

Shortcut with switches

Shortcut with switches

 

Depricated

Edited. The tags described below are depricated from 12.3 and the above alternatives are  recommended. Tags are only to be used for older AutoCAD versions before acad.exe had support for the product switch.

As an alternative the settings are also available through the settings file.
%appdata%\Ides\Master Concept 12\Cfg\IdesSettings.xml

IdesSettings.xml

Tags in IdesSettings.xml

To set a preferred version of AutoCAD add the tag SelectedAutoCADVersion and a version number such as; 2014, 2015, 2016.

To set a preferred AutoCAD-product add the tag ElmasterAutoCADProduct and a product shortname like; ACAD, ACADM, MEP.

Johan Dalenius

Larger drawing area for small screens

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For those of you who use elMaster Design on laptops with small screens there are some tweaks one can do to improve the drawing area. Minimizing toolbars to improve the drawing area can also be useful for those users who spend a lot of time reviewing drawings.

Minimize to improve drawing area

Minimize these to improve drawing area – Click image to see full size

1. Size of ribbon can be set to text only menu, a compromise or a full size ribbon page.  If you prefer how elMaster Design looked prior to the introduction of ribbon you can mimic that appearance using this setting. If you are reviewing and do not intend to work with the drawings you can save even more screen area with RIBBONCLOSE to hide the ribbon. Use RIBBON to show it again.

2. Ides Toolpalette can be docked. If you by accident close it you can have it opened again using IDESTOOLPALETTE.

3. Hide the command line with Ctrl+9 or COMMANDLINEHIDE. As an alternative one can undock it to have it floating in the drawing area which allows for a larger drawing area.

Large drawing area

Large drawing area – Click image to show full size

Johan Dalenius

Search in AutoCAD to find commands

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AutoCAD comes with a neat search feature. It is useful for those occasions when you don’t recall what the icon to find that command you’re looking for looks like or where in the ribbon it can be found. There is also the case with uncommon commands that do not have an icon in the ribbon. If you know what you’re looking for it’s quicker to search this way compared to searching in the help.

AutoCAD search feature

AutoCAD search – Click image to see full size

Note that how the search result is presented it shows you at which ribbon page the command is located. It lets you know where to find it next time.