Solved: Re: Error: malformed string on input

hanchris · ‎08-19-2013

I have been running AutoCAD Electrical 2014 for about a month now and just this morning I recieved this error whenever I start AutoCAD and just after "AutoCAD Electrical menu utlities", which it appears to try to startup twice on intial load - perhaps one is for program and one is for DWG. Also seem to get the same error after the _Ribbon attempts to load; but the ribbons appear to be there and working.

I tired deleting the lastproj.fil. I also tried repairing and reinstalling on seperate instances; but nothing has helped.

I also get the "Error: malformed string on input", whenever I try to open a project; but the project still opens.

Anyways, it looks like most of the menus are working; but the Right Click AutoCAD Electrical menus are not showing up. I cannot spend any more time troubleshooting on my own, so I guess I am going to have to hope all the Icons and Commandline functions work as well, which they seem to be - I guess that is fortunate. It seems to just be an error in the "Right Click Electrical menus" and having to start with a clear Project Manager every time. Yet, these are just the noticiable "bugs", I am not sure what is going on that is unnoticiable to me.

I will check back here occasionally to see if there is any other advice. I am running Windows 7 32-bit.

hanchris · ‎08-19-2013

I was wrong most Electrical commands are not working. I was fooled because one of the first items I had to do was add a new wire layer and that works just find; but most of the Electrical commands are not working. AutoCAD knows about them, as the icons are there and the command line "suggest" them; but nothing happens when you excute them.

RobinShou-Autodesk · ‎08-20-2013

Hello,

Seems some problem happen for your ACE2014, please try to uninstall the ACE, delete the remain folders and registry, then do a clean install for the ACE2014 again.

Thanks,
Robin Shou
Quality Assurance
AutoCAD Electrical

hanchris · ‎08-22-2013

Alright, thanks to "Command Trace Mode" I determined the issue was definitely with the lastproj.fil, as the fault was always coming up with something relating to the Project Manager and would go away whenever I loaded a single project.

As I mentioned before, I was already deleting lastproj.fil from my local hard drive; but apparently AutoCAD at some point attach itself to a server copy. I renamed this and the problem was fixed. I am not looking at that directory in the "Support Files List".

My advice for those who encounter this in the future, also check your server, even if AutoCAD is not looking at it in the "Support" list perhaps it picked it up somewhere else.

This thread right here was a big help. http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-Electrical/How-to-fix-ERROR-malformed-list-on-input/td-p/31832... I guess they just knew how to ask better questions.

I do have one more question to any Autodesk employees here, could you find out where that address is set? Currently, my idea is that this is set when our Administrator created the Installation file on the server. Also can it be changed?

If I do not get an answer to this question, then alright, at least I know what to look for in the future and I hope this further helps others that encounter this issue in the future. I am sure there will be others. 🙂

RobinShou-Autodesk · ‎04-19-2016

Hello,

We have found the problem for this issue in AutoCAD Electrical now.

It is because the double quotation in the project description. Please check the following video about the issue, as shown in the video, remove the double quotation in the project description will resolve this problem.

http://autode.sk/20SQXis

We have put this issue in our issue system, will consider to fix it in the future.

Thanks,
Robin Shou
Senior Quality Assurance
AutoCAD Electrical
Autodesk, Inc.

Facebook Page : https://www.facebook.com/AutoCADElectrical

Blog Page : http://autodesk.typepad.com/systemsdesign/

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_6ApchKwjN-0Wh8PzIjA_O0P6HRazOwH

AutoCAD Electrical App: https://itunes.apple.com/app/autocad-electrical/id736763190

electricBT · ‎10-17-2016

I had this problem today and tried the following suggestions and they did not work. I have had " in the project description before and the suggested fixes did work.

This time I tried the fixes below and they didn't work.

Delete lastproj.fil -> reboot -> open WDDEMO Didn't fix it

Tried to repair installation -> reboot -> open WDDEMO didn't fix the problem

I was wondering why the demo project was not working and I remembered that I had just added a wire number to the WD.ENV file. I looked in that file and sure enough I made a mistake. I missed a " on a new number. So for example my entry was "0V" 24V_EXT1" "0V_EXT". The missing " is what it was. I updated the file, saved then rebooted and everything was OK. This was driving me nuts.

Hopefully if others are having this problem maybe this is the fix. So it is not just limited to project descriptions. At the time of writing this I am using ACE 2016 SP1.

rhesusminus · ‎10-17-2016

Thanks for sharing!!

Trond Hasse Lie
AutoCAD Electrical and EPLAN expert
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