AutoCad 2010

[phillock]

Hi,

 

Relative newby here on the site and was hoping to find if anyone has managed to deploy Autocad 2010 across the domain via group policy?

 

we have 100 machines to install it on and when deployed get back error messages that the software has not installed properly any help to solve this would be appreciated.

 

thanks

 

Phil

[gerardsweeney]

Hi, Phil..

 

You're not alone. Once again, I'm facing the interminable battle with AutoCAD and their sub-standard installation engines.

 

The installer builder on 2010 insists on trying to check the WWW for updates. Except it doesn't support proxies, so sticks for 45-60mins before saying it couldn't connect to the WWW (well, dur!). ANd then doing the same for the second part of the program - GAAH!!

 

With 2008, I ended up abandoning their laughable installer and doing a series of msiexec /i type commands.

For non-admins, I ended up copying out my HKCU\Software\Autodesk bit, and reimporting chunks of that for all other users - otherwise it just tries to reinstall itself over and over.

 

I really hoped for better things with 2010, but it seems that was a pipe dream.

 

And that's just to get the thing installed - let alone getting it running as non-admins!!

 

Has anyone out there managed to get this working without someone having to be logged in to install it?!?!?

 

Cheers,

Gerard

[smadison]

For those of you may not know it is woth looking on the AutoDesk website as they have

Access over 25 free* downloads of the same design software used by professionals worldwide

 

Autodesk Student Community: Login

[Oops_my_bad]

I thought I cracked this for 2009, however it seems the installer doesnt copy certain files (wtf - some installer). It's the same for manually installing it, I had to make a little script to copy all these files.

 

We have 100's of pieces of software, some of which is just shocking, they all deploy except the autodesk stuff. Unfortunately for us it's a manual install after every imaging

[gerardsweeney]

It gets better..

 

The installer creator for 2010 is broken, in that filenames for about 40-odd samples have been truncated as they go over the limit for a CD/DVD.

 

I ended up having to wait for each "file missing" dialog box, copy paste it into Notepad, browse to where it expected the file to be and manually rename each of the ~1 files to their correct (yet stupidly long) filenames.

 

Nice to see some thorough product testing has been done with that. To make it worse, I gather this is also the case with 2009.. How much does this product cost again?!?

 

Sorry - busy venting here!!!

 

Regards,

Gerard

[gerardsweeney]

OK - the saga continues..

 

After much swearing, deploying and wiping of test PCs, I now have AutoCAD 2010 running as a non-admin.

 

However, if I try Inventor 2010 it can't find a license server.

 

Run Inventor as me (local admin), and it works.

 

Make a test pupil account into local admin, and it works.

 

GAAHH!!!

 

I've given users FC of HKLM\Software\AutoDesk and C:\Program Files (purely as a test, mind).

 

Autodesk have been their usual less than useful selves - "give users admin rights" - fine, and I'll just format drive C: while I'm at it, and save them some additional time, will I?!

 

The usual fixes don't work (of course), including the ones used for AUtoCAD/Inventor 2008.

 

Has anyone out there managed to get this monumental piece of whatnot working without giving pupils admin rights?

 

A packet of biscuits to the one who can cure my problems!!

 

Regards,

Gerard

[phillock]

Gerard,

 

Do you use Active Directory? i have a adm line added in that points to the license servers - if its any help - we just gave up and visited every pc for a manual install and point them at a license server- I cant wait until this summer as i am sure there will be a 2011 version and requests for it

[gerardsweeney]

Hi. Phil..

 

Yep, we use AD.

 

I have the product installed - apparently correctly?!?! - and AutoCAD works, but Inventor doesn't.

 

Anything you can offer will be more than gratefully received!!

 

Regards,

Gerard

[phillock]

I have the following line setup as an adm file that then in group policy i edit it to include the license servers

CLASS Machine

 

CATEGORY "name"

CATEGORY "Logon settings"

KEYNAME "Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WinLogon"

POLICY "AutoCAD license server"

EXPLAIN "Server to contact for AutoCAD 2002 licenses in form @server"

PART "ADSKFLEX_LICENSE_FILE" EDITTEXT

VALUENAME "ADSKFLEX_LICENSE_FILE"

END PART

 

END POLICY

END CATEGORY

 

Hope it works

[gerardsweeney]

Thanks for that..

 

Unfortunately - I already have a bit in the login scripts to set the environment variable from the setup notes from 2008 (which works)..

 

I have another theory I'm going to have a bash at. I'm not wildly optimistic, as it doesn't really make any sense - but what the hey, it's AutoCAD, right?!?

 

Thanks again for the feedback, though.

 

Kind regards,

Gerard

[Oops_my_bad]

I've found the first time it runs on a PC it does indeed fail to find the licence server, but it works ok subsequently. Not ideal, but meh..

[Greenbeast]

Gerard - I'm starting out with 2010 at the moment, can you give me any intructions or tips?

I'm not really a packaging guru, so not sure where to start

[gerardsweeney]

Gerard - I'm starting out with 2010 at the moment, can you give me any intructions or tips?

I'm not really a packaging guru, so not sure where to start

 

 

*** Please don't laugh too hard at this monstrosity, though feel free to supply alternative ways of doing it! ***

 

I'll go through roughly what I had to do. The school involved haven't actually started using 2010 yet, so I can't say for definite that it works - but at least the damn thing installed!

 

First and foremost - if your school uses a proxy server, then either get your workstation made exempt so it can go through the proxy, or consider taking a laptop/desktop home with you (if you have broadband).

 

The reason for this is that the admin install "builder" doesn't support proxies. Or at least it didn't for us. What happened for us was that it would go to a section where it would check for updates and it would stall for roughly 45 minutes before saying it couldn't connect to the WWW. Then we'd move to the next section and it'd do it again.

 

So - I took the laptop home with me. How much did we pay for this product again? (Moving on)

 

Anyway, this is roughly what I did. I say roughly because it's from memory from several months ago!

 

** Connect the laptop to your home broadband (or make sure you can get through to http://WWW.anything without proxy settings in your browser)

 

*1 Copy all of the program DVDs to individual folders on your laptop/external drive

(XCOPY Y:\*.* c:\ac2010\disc1 /y /e /s /r /i /c /h)

(XCOPY Y:\*.* c:\ac2010\disc2 /y /e /s /r /i /c /h)

(etc)

 

*2 MERGE a COPY of the program discs into 1 folder

MD c:\ac2010\all

xcopy c:\ac2010\disc1\*.* c:\ac2010\all /y /e /s /r /i /c /h

xcopy c:\ac2010\disc2\*.* c:\ac2010\all /y /e /s /r /i /c /h

(etc)

 

*3 Create a share to install the admin installer to

MD C:\ac2010\admin

(share as ac$)

 

I'm keeping it short because the installer for components of 2010 is buggy and cops out with long filename errors.

 

*4 Run the setup in the "all" folder, and go through the create deployment stages. Select to install it to your share (\\pcname\ac$)

 

*5 Let it check for updates. I went with integrated (as I found the "after" bit didn't always apply the updates - handy!!)

 

Once it's finished, you should end up with a deployment package in your ac$ share. Now you can go back to work

 

 

*6 Copy your newly created deployment installer up to your server share

 

*7 Edit the ini files inside the "AdminImage" folder replacing any references to the temporary pcname\ac$ share with the correct location.

 

* It's at this stage that I had to resort to BAT file trickery, since we need lots of additional components pre-installed before we can install 2010.

 

msiexec /i "\\server\AminImage\x86\support\WSE30\Microsoft WSE 3.0 Runtime.msi" /passive /norestart

Rem C++Runtime 2005 - might need to download this yourself
start /wait \\server\C++Runtime\2005SP1\vcredist_x86.exe /q:a /c:"VCREDI~3.EXE /q:a /c:""msiexec /i vcredist.msi /qb!"" "

msiexec /i "\\server\AminImage\x86\support\VCRedist\2008SP1\vcredist_x86\vc_red.msi" /q /norestart

msiexec /i "\\server\AminImage\x86\support\VBA\vba6.msi" /q /norestart

"\\server\AminImage\x86\support\NLSDL\nlsdl.x86.exe" /quiet /norestart

msiexec /i "\\server\AminImage\x86\acadm\en-us\AcadmLP.msi" /quiet /norestart

msiexec /i "\\server\AminImage\x86\support\DWGVIEWER\DWGVIEWR.msi" /quiet /norestart

rem the mst file will vary depending on what you called it at the creation stage
msiexec /i "\\server\AminImage\x86\acadm\acad-AC2010-1-for-GPO.msi" /qb /l*v c:\ac2010.txt TRANSFORMS="\\server\AminImage\x86\acadm\acad-AC2010-1.mst;\\serverTools\gpo.mst"

rem Inventor
msiexec /i "\\server\AminImage\x86\Inventor\inventor.msi" TRANSFORMS="\\server\AminImage\x86\Inventor\inventor-AC2010-1.mst" /q /norestart
msiexec /i "\\server\AminImage\x86\en-us\inventor\InventorLP.msi" /quiet /norestart

rem stuff that doesn't seem to install correctly!?

\\serverUtils\robocopy.exe "\\server\AminImage\x86\acadm\en-us\Acad\Program Files\Root" "C:\Program Files\AutoDesk\ACADM 2010" /W:1 /R:1 /E
rem  > c:\acmissing.txt

\\serverUtils\robocopy.exe "\\server\AminImage\x86\acadm\en-us\Acadm\Program Files\Autodesk\Root" "C:\Program Files\AutoDesk\ACADM 2010" /W:1 /R:1 /E
rem

\\serverUtils\robocopy.exe "\\server\AminImage\x86\acadm\en-us\Acad\Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared" "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared" /W:1 /R:1 /E

xcopy "\\server\AminImage\x86\acadm\en-us\Acad\Windows\System32\*.*" %systemroot%\system32 /y /r /h /c

xcopy "\\server\AminImage\x86\acadm\en-us\Acad\UserDataCache\Support\*.*" "c:\Program Files\AutoDesk\ACADM 2010\UserDataCache\Support" /y /r /h /c

MD "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Documents\ACADM\Translator"
xcopy "\\server\AminImage\x86\acadm\en-us\Acadm\Program Files\Autodesk\Root\Acadm\TRANSLATOR\*.*" "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Documents\ACADM\Translator" /y /e /s /r /i /c /h

 

 

Save that off, and this is your installer job.

 

I can't remember if .net anything is a required component - my deployment script also calls a custom script which we use to install all manner of additional stuff including the various flavours of .net framework.

 

Phew.

 

There's probably a far simpler way of doing all of that - I just know that the "out-the-box" method simply would not work for me (or others, going by other discussion forums).

 

Regards,

Gerard

[Greenbeast]

I managed to get the package to install and work for a system admin but it doesn't for for students and staff, unless systemadmin has run it first.

This would be fine, in fact i went round both classrooms and logged on to each machine and ran it as systemadmin, only to find that once the machines restart, it doesn't work anymore.

 

any ideas?

[gerardsweeney]

I managed to get the package to install and work for a system admin but it doesn't for for students and staff, unless systemadmin has run it first.

This would be fine, in fact i went round both classrooms and logged on to each machine and ran it as systemadmin, only to find that once the machines restart, it doesn't work anymore.

 

any ideas?

 

I ended up creating a "launcher" which imports quite a few settings to the per-user.

I logged in as admin, exported HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\FLEXlm License Manager as 2 reg files.

 

Then I created a small AU3 script which imports those and a few others, then launches the main program.

 

My installer script replaces the "proper" AutoCAD/Inventor icons with ones which point to this launcher script, with the proper exe passed as a parameter.

 

It's a total bodge, but it seems to work.

 

I did it this way rather than having it in the main startup where everyone runs the importer. Though I suppose if that works for you, then that's equally fine.

 

I can mail you the AU3 script if you'd like? Just don't soil yourself at the shonky coding!!

 

PM me (and let me know here that you have), and I'll bung it somewhere for your persual/amusment (delete as applicable)

 

Cheers,

Gerard

[Greenbeast]

Thanks for the offer i will take a look just in case but i think i've got it working.

 

I used Process Monitor to see what was denied when logged on as a teacher, allowing read/write access to this folder seems to have sorted it:

C:\documents and settings\All users\app data\ audodesk\adlm