Opened files becoming read only in 2014

[Anonymous]

My team is using AutoCAD 2014 and multiple people have noticed that while they're working, when they try to save the file it pops up a message saying the file is read only.

Multiple people on our team has had this issue and it only started recently. (We've had it installed a few months now) Can someone tell us what is happening? Could it be the new file tabs feature in 2014?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

[Anonymous]

This thread has been quiet for a while but wanted to share my similar experience.  I provide IT services for an engineering company that started using AutoCAD 2014 within the same week they got a new fileserver deployed.

We have had intermittant (1-3 times a month) problems with AutoCAD 2014 clients not closing the files when the application closes.  On the Windows Server 2008 Standard server share, the username shows that they have a connection to the file active.  This connection causes a read-only condition for other 2014 users and when browsing the share in Windows Explorer, users are unable to delete the file as it is held open by another user.  

There are a few ways to correct the issue; from the server, force the connection closed.  From the workstation that had the file open last, close explorer.exe and restart it (I don't have solid evidence that actually rebooting the client computer will unlock the file).  

Users who are found to have locked the files are on several different switches and we've swapped a couple out.  In the last 10 days we have had one particular user lock a file 3 different times.  There are no apparant networking or OS issues on that particular computer.

I read in another thread that the DWG file version could be a possible cause if you are saving back to 2010.  I have yet to confirm that with the CAD manager.  

[walkermacy]

that's pretty much been my experience: there are no particular issues anywhere in hardware or OS that appear to cause the problem. I still contend that AutoCAD 2014 is the cause, and yes, we are using 2010 file format. I have never, EVER encountered this issue from any version of AutoCAD 2008-2013, only after 2014 upgrade did it start and only with a few people using the same drawing sets. Occurrences of this have mostly stopped, but it still happens on occasion. I will take a look at the server "open files" next time it does happen to see if there are persistent connections to someone.

Thanks for posting.

[walkermacy]

the problem continues, though randomly. It's always the same files that are involved, so my newest line of conjecture is that there's something messed up in the drawings. I have done the obvious basic purge and audit, to no avail. Not sure what else to do short of somehow building new drawings from scratch, which no one here wants to do. They have many, many objects and layers and there are at least a dozen drawings like this.

[pendean]

RECOVER then WBLOCK to create new files often are the best fixes short of something more dramatic.

[Anonymous]

We have isolated three different file problems with AutoCAD 2014 in this environment.

1.  CAD users are opening 5-20 files at a time, with 2-4 CAD users working on the same project.  They frequently save, and from time to time there's a read-only problem.  This goes away after a few minutes, we suspect due to competing save commands.  This happens frequently but if they just try to save again it will clear up.

2.  CAD users open a file and cannot save (or get a read-only message) because there's an error that the file is open.  No other CAD users have it open.  The last CAD user opened the file, modified and saved successfully and exited AutoCAD, however the file doesn't close.  So the new user has to contact IT to get the file closed at the server console so they can save it.  This happens about 2-5 times a week and can't be resolved without IT intervention.

3.  CAD user can't save a file and the DWG file disappears because the BAK file is corrupt.  The file shows no ownership information in the security settings, and cannot be deleted without rebooting the server.  This has happened twice since deploying AutoCAD 2014 in May.

[pendean]

1. slow or very busy network conenction.
2. AutoCAD not closing/ending at the user PC happens to a few: it basically is still open in the background and still holding on to the file. I've never seen a definitive solution beyond asking the user to CLOSE the file before properly exiting AutoCAD (not using the X top-right), which is tedious.
3. Using RECOVER on the file (and all XREFs) plus keeping RECOVERYMODE variable on helps identify problem files before they create issues. I've had that happen to me once last year and I think I could have saved the file if I only noticed the qsave error before I closed AutoCAD. This may also be related to #1.

[Anonymous]

Another new wrinkle here. 

I was contacted by the client to say that his DWG file disappeared and is trying to rename the .BAK file but he can't modify the file.

I went to the server as admin and also could not modify the BAK.

The server indicated that the DWG file was open (but was not present in the share), and open by the client who requested assistance.  He reiterated that AutoCAD was closed. 

I closed the file from the server console and then the BAK file disappeared.  The DWG file was also not present.

I recovered both from a shadow copy snapshot. 

So how does that work?

[Anonymous]

Are .dwl files (which are intended to be temporary) being left behind?

[pendean]

Any TMP files?

[Anonymous]

No DWL files or TMP files were left for the drawing in question.

[JJahn1]

My associate here running 2013 on a faster machine than mine had a similar problem.

Any AutoCAD file he opened becam "Read Only".

Accross our network or on downloaded on his PC!

He closed the Windows Explorer "Preview".

Closed the Windows Explorer.

Reopened the Windows Explorer and double clicked the file to open again.

THE PROBLEM DISAPPEARED! 

[Anonymous]

In our case, the users are following the AutoCAD best practice of opening DWG files from the File>Open dialog from AutoCAD rather than double-clicking the files in Windows Explorer. 

Also they do not use the Preview window in Windows Explorer either.

[KeithSWD]

I have been having this read-only ("drawing is write-protected" error) for a while - really annoying. I am loading drawings from a Windows 2008 server (SMB share) into Autocad 2014 for Mac (running OS X 10.9). I do find it is drawing specific, but haven't figured out exactly why some drawings do it and others do not. I suspect presence/absence of XREF's may be relevent.

I have been saving as 2010 format.  Having read this thread I changed to saving in native 2013 format. I haven't had the error for two days now.

I just need to remember to use Package Drawing to change the format when I issue DWG format files now...

[danway]

I'm an IT Manager who has been investigating this problem for one (and only one out of 60) user who has been seeing this in ACAD 2014. It started with migrating all of the project files from an old decrepid phisical Windows 2003 Server to a new virtualized (on Xenserver) Window 2012 server, on much much better/faster/stronger hardware. Again, it is only this one user, who happens to be one of the rather busy ACAD users (a drafter) on a Win7 64bit SandyBridge (or better) comptuer. For what it is worth, I went at this from a network perspective and swapped out cables, drops, switch ports and none made a difference. Then I installed a USB NIC and moved to that, and now it happens less often, but it still happens.

I personally feel that, yes, there are some problems or rather timeouts happening at the OS level that is causing Autocad to mark these files read only, but to me this reveals a problem with the way Autodesk has programmed the save routine. I personally feel that there is a lack of resiliancy in the save process that causes Autodesk products to flop. If Autodesk wants to blame it on MS Windows OS or the Hardware, they are going to have to publish some requirements for us IT Managers to follow. Otherwise, they will need to deal with these issues themselves by adding resiliancy for whatever timeouts are causing fully writable files to turn read-only on some subsequent save (or autosave). 

Please understand that this problem doesn't happen with ANY OTHER SOFTWARE. In all of my years of IT, I have never seen open and writeable file turn read-only in another application. Only Autodesk products do this.  

[Anonymous]

I'm so glad to hear about how you went the network route in an attempt toresolve this.

This was going to be my next step but I have no evidence to really support going that route other that it's something I haven't tried yet.  There are no dropped packets even during threaded file copies using 100% network utilization, and there's no latency.

It is also evident to me, with over 20 years of managing networked file servers, that I've ever seen this issue and the unique way Autodesk uses to save files is pretty high on list of likely causes.

Unfortunately without recognition, assistance, or advice we IT professionals are stuck having to point the finger at Autodesk developers. 

[JJahn1]

To recap:
The engineer new to our department, Robert, was opening AutoCAD files from windows explorer and each file he would open would become "read only".
This didn't happen in SolidWorks 2012, also on his PC.
He is working from the newest Win7 64bit desktop we have in the dept., and no one else had this problem.

Also the former user on this same PC didn't have this problem.
I remember a discussion with him some time ago, on why he didn't have the Preview Pane on when he opened files from windows explorer.
His answer was, "he didn't like that puny preview pane". So it wasn't on.
Robert closed the windows explorer "Preview Pane" and this problem with his PC stopped!

Yea I've been scolded already. I should open the AutoCAD files from the open program "Select Files" (Ctrl O), but reality is what it is, as stated above.

Just sharing!
J.Jahn
CAD Designer II
(440) 710-5373 cell (440) 477-8893
De Nora Tech
7590 Discovery Lane
Concord, Ohio 44077

De Nora Tech
7590 Discovery Lane
Concord, OH 44077, USA
www.denora.com

*** This message and its attachments are intended only for the use of the recipients and contain information that is proprietary to Industrie De Nora and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient of this communication, you are prohibited from reading, printing, copying, forwarding, or saving it. Please delete the message and attachments and notify the sender by e-mail immediately. Thank you in advance for your cooperation. ***

Please consider the environmental impact before printing this e-mail

[danway]

Yes, the save process is way too convoluted for me to believe that it doesn't contribute to this problem. Also, the read-only locking mechanism, as far as I understand, is based on the .dwl and .dwl2. But, one thing that I have observed on the server is the open files listed under the Computer Management. What I see is the .dwg, .dwl, and .dwl2 listed for the open sheet file. The path is written out in a mix of upper and lower case just as it looks on the filesystem and all three have the Open Mode of "Write+Read". After it turns readonly, what I see is the path for the .dwg is in ALL CAPS and the file's Open Mode is listed as "Read", while the .dwl and .dwl2 file remain as before. In this instace, it looks as if it's a SMB timeout. 

Since this started with a transition of files from Win2003 to Win2012 servers, it could be SMB 2.0 being the problem. As it all seemed to work fine with an older server that only supported SMB 1.0. I know Autocad had perfomance issues in the past with SMB 2.0. Maybe it's still a problem.

[rkmcswain]

plaskowski wrote:

Yes, the save process is way too convoluted for me to believe that it doesn't contribute to this problem. Also, the read-only locking mechanism, as far as I understand, is based on the .dwl and .dwl2.

1. It's pretty simple actually. The data in the editor is written to a .TMP file. The existing .DWG is renamed to .BAK, then the .TMP is renamed to .DWG. What I *have* learned is that Autodesk makes use of some sort of Microsoft API calls (for lack of a better description) and if you are not working on a pure MS Windows environment all the way around, strange things can and will happen.
   
2. No, the .DWL and .DWL2 files have nothing to do with file locking. They are simple text files that the command WHOHAS uses to supposedly identify who has the file open. This can't be fully trusted since these files can get left open after a crash, etc.

[danway]

You can call it simple, but in my opinion, that's convoluted and allows extra room for problems. 🙂

http://blog.microsolresources.com/2013/01/29/autocad-files-that-delete-themselves/

This article above details problems in the past with SMB 2.1 and Autocad that seems related to this problem. In that the result was locks not being removed quickly enough, that then left the .dwg file with a sharing violation that cause it to not be created. Maybe in the case were dealing with, the .dwg becomes read-only instead. 

I am going to disable SMB 2.1 on this problem comptuer and see what happens. 

[rkmcswain]

In theory, it prevents reduces the chances of data loss due to power and/or hardware failures.

Good article, I think I ran across that a while back. I think this statement is important:  "....our client’s issues began exactly when their network team upgraded the filers on one of their NetApp storage devices to  NetApp OnTap OS 8.1.1"

We had similar issues until we reverted back to a standard MS server O/S with no SAN/NAS involved.  BTW: Neither link at the bottom of that page are valid. I would have liked to take a look at them.