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Autodesk's true intent... YMMV

18 REPLIES 18
Reply
Message 1 of 19
Anonymous
412 Views, 18 Replies

Autodesk's true intent... YMMV

Create as many folders as possible on your hard drive and cluster bomb them
with files.

Folder organization: cryptically little - humanly impossible to discern.

This is so sad, I guess I just have to laugh about it.

Lessee:
C:/Autodesk
C:/Documents and Settings - stashes of 'em strewn to hell and gone under
practically every profile
C:/Program Files/AutoCAD Architecture 2010
/Autodesk
C:/ProgramData

And those are just the main ones I found.

Is there some reason behind this HD mess?
Please explain. Stop. Please Stop! Stop!

I guess modern programming design has just taken 'spaghetti coding' and
lowered it to another aleph-meta-level. Makes me wonder what the program is
doing to our actual drawing files.

Me like simple. Simple is good. Me luddite?

Regards,
David Kozina
18 REPLIES 18
Message 2 of 19
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Is it a fact that customers are paying to lease ? One of the
fundamentals of software or compiler design is to automate generating parts
of itself so the software is self-documenting at runtime.


"David Kozina" <"David Kozina"> wrote in message
news:6157148@discussion.autodesk.com...
Create as many folders as possible on your hard drive and cluster bomb them
with files.

Folder organization: cryptically little - humanly impossible to discern.

This is so sad, I guess I just have to laugh about it.

Lessee:
C:/Autodesk
C:/Documents and Settings - stashes of 'em strewn to hell and gone under
practically every profile
C:/Program Files/AutoCAD Architecture 2010
/Autodesk
C:/ProgramData

And those are just the main ones I found.

Is there some reason behind this HD mess?
Please explain. Stop. Please Stop! Stop!

I guess modern programming design has just taken 'spaghetti coding' and
lowered it to another aleph-meta-level. Makes me wonder what the program is
doing to our actual drawing files.

Me like simple. Simple is good. Me luddite?

Regards,
David Kozina Edited by: mandrew@athenaeast.com on Apr 7, 2009 10:37 AM
Message 3 of 19
OwenWhitehouse
in reply to: Anonymous

Some of this is forced on them by Windows file system architecture, but you do have a point. I manage multiple disciplines' AutoCAD verticals, and remembering where all the resource files, palettes, catalogs, caches, materials, documentation and whatnot is more intimidating than any other software I work with. Makes Visual Studio look like a piker. I used to whine about having to remember to tell VS what libraries to reference...then I remembered AutoCAD.
Message 4 of 19
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

I don't view AutoCAD's installer as von Neumann machine-like; rather more
like a pig.
:)


"clintonG" wrote in message
news:6157203@discussion.autodesk.com...
Is it a fact that customers are paying to lease crippleware? One of the
fundamentals of software or compiler design is to automate generating parts
of itself so the software is self-documenting at runtime.


"David Kozina" <"David Kozina"> wrote in message
news:6157148@discussion.autodesk.com...
Create as many folders as possible on your hard drive and cluster bomb them
with files.

Folder organization: cryptically little - humanly impossible to discern.

This is so sad, I guess I just have to laugh about it.

Lessee:
C:/Autodesk
C:/Documents and Settings - stashes of 'em strewn to hell and gone under
practically every profile
C:/Program Files/AutoCAD Architecture 2010
/Autodesk
C:/ProgramData

And those are just the main ones I found.

Is there some reason behind this HD mess?
Please explain. Stop. Please Stop! Stop!

I guess modern programming design has just taken 'spaghetti coding' and
lowered it to another aleph-meta-level. Makes me wonder what the program is
doing to our actual drawing files.

Me like simple. Simple is good. Me luddite?

Regards,
David Kozina
Message 5 of 19
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

David Kozina wrote:

> Create as many folders as possible on your hard drive and cluster
> bomb them with files.

Lets not forget that *most* of the time Autodesk is following the
Microsoft model, even on lousy interfaces that don't match your desktop.

Terry
Message 6 of 19
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Yea but why blame the software that has been imputed with the properties of
those who control how it is made?

"David Kozina" <"David Kozina"> wrote in message
news:6157513@discussion.autodesk.com...
I don't view AutoCAD's installer as von Neumann machine-like; rather more
like a pig.
:)


"clintonG" wrote in message
news:6157203@discussion.autodesk.com...
Is it a fact that customers are paying to lease ? One of the
fundamentals of software or compiler design is to automate generating parts
of itself so the software is self-documenting at runtime.


"David Kozina" <"David Kozina"> wrote in message
news:6157148@discussion.autodesk.com...
Create as many folders as possible on your hard drive and cluster bomb them
with files.

Folder organization: cryptically little - humanly impossible to discern.

This is so sad, I guess I just have to laugh about it.

Lessee:
C:/Autodesk
C:/Documents and Settings - stashes of 'em strewn to hell and gone under
practically every profile
C:/Program Files/AutoCAD Architecture 2010
/Autodesk
C:/ProgramData

And those are just the main ones I found.

Is there some reason behind this HD mess?
Please explain. Stop. Please Stop! Stop!

I guess modern programming design has just taken 'spaghetti coding' and
lowered it to another aleph-meta-level. Makes me wonder what the program is
doing to our actual drawing files.

Me like simple. Simple is good. Me luddite?

Regards,
David Kozina

Edited by: Discussion Admin on Apr 8, 2009 4:06 PM
Message 7 of 19
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

I have my complaints too, but simple is not good when it does not work.
Autodesk does a fairly good job of dividing things up, believe it or not.
The issue I have is sometimes the installer does not copy things right the first time a user runs a product.
Other than that though, they just need to have a few departments talk to eachother so the doc and settings folder does
not have similar named folders for same product.

Suggest how you would do it and I can probably shoot down most of the ideas, the file splitting has purpose.
Too bad its not more simple though, I like simple too.

David Kozina <"David Kozina">
|>Create as many folders as possible on your hard drive and cluster bomb them
|>with files.
|>
|>Folder organization: cryptically little - humanly impossible to discern.
|>
|>This is so sad, I guess I just have to laugh about it.
|>
|>Lessee:
|>C:/Autodesk
|>C:/Documents and Settings - stashes of 'em strewn to hell and gone under
|>practically every profile
|>C:/Program Files/AutoCAD Architecture 2010
|> /Autodesk
|>C:/ProgramData
|>
|>And those are just the main ones I found.
|>
|>Is there some reason behind this HD mess?
|>Please explain. Stop. Please Stop! Stop!
|>
|>I guess modern programming design has just taken 'spaghetti coding' and
|>lowered it to another aleph-meta-level. Makes me wonder what the program is
|>doing to our actual drawing files.
|>
|>Me like simple. Simple is good. Me luddite?
|>
|>Regards,
|>David Kozina
James Maeding
Civil Engineer and Programmer
jmaeding - at - hunsaker - dotcom
Message 8 of 19
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

James,
Your comments are on mark, IMO.

Generally I don't really mind the *quantity* of folders/files Autodesk needs
to create, as long as my computer can handle it, and the program runs well
enough. If it needs 20 GB, or more or less or whatever, so be it.
But I really get annoyed by the additional high-level folders it is
creating.

Used to be (long ago) you could *tell* the installer where to install the
program (with default under Program Files). Of course, times and OSs
change, and I've gotten a *little* more used to looking for certain
folders/files under the user profiles. But, what's the (new for me)
C:/ProgramData about? Couldn't *that* have been placed under C:/Program
Files/Autodesk/ProgramData ? Apparently not. But it just makes me wonder
why the need to keep staking out additional 'claims' off my root drive, as
it makes it more difficult for me to sort through and find things. (My
filing habits are bad enough as it is -- I don't need help!)

As for the C:/Autodesk folder, it seems that when I ran the installer (from
a downloaded file, instead of off the DVD), that was the file it created
when the AutoCAD_Architecture_2010_English_SLD_Win_32Bit.exe began
(apparently some type of self-extracting zip linked to a main installation
program). Can this folder be deleted now that the program has installed?
If so, then why not at least label it as C:/AutodeskTEMPforInstallation (or
such-like), then I'll know it's expendable afterwards?

And, lest I forget, now I see that there's a new (for me) and ever-popular
C:\3b9e279ae01effd1d911... folder.
Such a lovely site for sore eyes. No doubt it's important.

Regards,
David Kozina


"James Maeding" wrote in message
news:6159050@discussion.autodesk.com...
I have my complaints too, but simple is not good when it does not work.
Autodesk does a fairly good job of dividing things up, believe it or not.
The issue I have is sometimes the installer does not copy things right the
first time a user runs a product.
Other than that though, they just need to have a few departments talk to
eachother so the doc and settings folder does
not have similar named folders for same product.

Suggest how you would do it and I can probably shoot down most of the ideas,
the file splitting has purpose.
Too bad its not more simple though, I like simple too.
Message 9 of 19
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

On Thu, 9 Apr 2009 14:22:24 +0000, David Kozina <"David Kozina"> wrote:

>James,
>Your comments are on mark, IMO.
>
>Generally I don't really mind the *quantity* of folders/files Autodesk needs
>to create, as long as my computer can handle it, and the program runs well
>enough. If it needs 20 GB, or more or less or whatever, so be it.
>But I really get annoyed by the additional high-level folders it is
>creating.

Welcome to computing in the 20th century.

The issue can be broken down to simple terms. For any application, you have
files which are

1. Specific to that program only;
2. Shared with other programs (usually by the same company);
3. Specific to the user only.

User-centric files can also be broken down into those which are "roamable," i.e.
those files which are static from session to session and should follow a user
from computer to computer, and those which are temporary in nature or should
stay on the local computer.

Windows' standards attempt to place those files in their proper location. How a
developer implements this may vary depending on things like how many shared
components there are.

With an application like AutoCAD or its verticals, you also have to take into
account support files which are customized and shared across the company, e.g.
Templates or custom menus.

Sometimes it all gets screwed up; when I uninstalled DWG TrueView from a
machine, VisualLISP suddenly stoppped working. A registry repair would not fix
it - I had to uninstall, clean the Registry, and reinstall AutoCAD to bring it
back to life.

Matt
matt@stachoni.com
Message 10 of 19
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Yeah, but at what point do we get to graduate to computing in the 21st
century?
.-P


> Welcome to computing in the 20th century.
Message 11 of 19
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

What I'd really like to see is a "non-roaming" installation. Everyone
in my office has their own computer. We don't share. I really dislike
having to drill down through 8 or 10 layers of directories to find a
file. I do what I can to move things I modify frequently to places like
C:\Program Files\Autocad 2010\Support instead of
C:\Users\Martin\Appdata\Roaming\Autodesk\AutoCad 2010\R18.0\enu\Support,
but I find that service packs and such often put things back in the
"right" place. I've suggested in the Win7 beta groups that MS offer a
"non roaming" installation option but I don't expect that they will act
on the suggestion.

Matt Stachoni wrote:
> On Thu, 9 Apr 2009 14:22:24 +0000, David Kozina <"David Kozina"> wrote:
>
>> James,
>> Your comments are on mark, IMO.
>>
>> Generally I don't really mind the *quantity* of folders/files Autodesk needs
>> to create, as long as my computer can handle it, and the program runs well
>> enough. If it needs 20 GB, or more or less or whatever, so be it.
>> But I really get annoyed by the additional high-level folders it is
>> creating.
>
> Welcome to computing in the 20th century.
>
> The issue can be broken down to simple terms. For any application, you have
> files which are
>
> 1. Specific to that program only;
> 2. Shared with other programs (usually by the same company);
> 3. Specific to the user only.
>
> User-centric files can also be broken down into those which are "roamable," i.e.
> those files which are static from session to session and should follow a user
> from computer to computer, and those which are temporary in nature or should
> stay on the local computer.
>
> Windows' standards attempt to place those files in their proper location. How a
> developer implements this may vary depending on things like how many shared
> components there are.
>
> With an application like AutoCAD or its verticals, you also have to take into
> account support files which are customized and shared across the company, e.g.
> Templates or custom menus.
>
> Sometimes it all gets screwed up; when I uninstalled DWG TrueView from a
> machine, VisualLISP suddenly stoppped working. A registry repair would not fix
> it - I had to uninstall, clean the Registry, and reinstall AutoCAD to bring it
> back to life.
>
> Matt
> matt@stachoni.com
Message 12 of 19
GrantsPirate
in reply to: Anonymous

I get around the longggggg folder paths by creating shortcuts grouped in a MY Shortcuts folder on my computer. It takes a half hour to set up but saves lots of frustration and time. You can see that I name each one with a number first so I can force a particular order to them each time and can group them to logical groups.

I drag the shortcut folders onto the favorites in ACAD and now instead of 30 or more folders there I have three sorted by ACAD related, local drive related, and Project file related.

This, in my mind, is better than memorizing their location or using cheat sheets.

GrantsPirate
Piping and Mech. Designer
EXPERT ELITE MEMBER
Always save a copy of the drawing before trying anything suggested here.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
If something I wrote can be interpreted two ways, and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, I meant the other one.

Message 13 of 19
rhenley
in reply to: Anonymous

The network deployment allows you to set these folders for instance:

Program Install Folder\Support
Program Install Folder\Plotters
Program Install Folder\Data Links
Program Install Folder\Template
Program Install Folder\Rendering

I've gone back to doing that this year, but I'm starting to miss the user profile file separation the standalone installer enforces.

Even in the one user per computer scenario. I've been forced to deal with the profile locations for so long, I've adapted.

> What I'd really like to see is a "non-roaming" installation.
Message 14 of 19
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

C:\Program Data is VISTA's equivalent to NT/XP's C:\Documents and settings.
That is, you will have C:\documents and settings when using NT/XP, and have
C:\ProgramData when using VISTA. It is not Autodesk specific folder, so,
make it as C:\Program Files\Autodesk\ProgramData is definitely a bad idea.

Whether you have C:\Autodesk forlder will depends on how you build your
Autodesk product installation package. By default, all autodesk products
should be installed unter C:\program files\..., but you can specify
different location. Many companies may have their own software installation
rules that cause autodesk products (or other software, for that matter) to
be installed in certain location, rather than default location. In your
case, I tend to think your "C:\Autdesk" folder is created by your/your
company's installation, not automatically by AutoCAD installation.

As other posts pointed out, Autodesk is closey followed MS' Widnows system
guide to install its products, and it better follows that than invent a
different rules. After all, AutoCAD is purely Windows application, so far.


"David Kozina" <"David Kozina"> wrote in message
news:6159436@discussion.autodesk.com...
James,
Your comments are on mark, IMO.

Generally I don't really mind the *quantity* of folders/files Autodesk needs
to create, as long as my computer can handle it, and the program runs well
enough. If it needs 20 GB, or more or less or whatever, so be it.
But I really get annoyed by the additional high-level folders it is
creating.

Used to be (long ago) you could *tell* the installer where to install the
program (with default under Program Files). Of course, times and OSs
change, and I've gotten a *little* more used to looking for certain
folders/files under the user profiles. But, what's the (new for me)
C:/ProgramData about? Couldn't *that* have been placed under C:/Program
Files/Autodesk/ProgramData ? Apparently not. But it just makes me wonder
why the need to keep staking out additional 'claims' off my root drive, as
it makes it more difficult for me to sort through and find things. (My
filing habits are bad enough as it is -- I don't need help!)

As for the C:/Autodesk folder, it seems that when I ran the installer (from
a downloaded file, instead of off the DVD), that was the file it created
when the AutoCAD_Architecture_2010_English_SLD_Win_32Bit.exe began
(apparently some type of self-extracting zip linked to a main installation
program). Can this folder be deleted now that the program has installed?
If so, then why not at least label it as C:/AutodeskTEMPforInstallation (or
such-like), then I'll know it's expendable afterwards?

And, lest I forget, now I see that there's a new (for me) and ever-popular
C:\3b9e279ae01effd1d911... folder.
Such a lovely site for sore eyes. No doubt it's important.

Regards,
David Kozina


"James Maeding" wrote in message
news:6159050@discussion.autodesk.com...
I have my complaints too, but simple is not good when it does not work.
Autodesk does a fairly good job of dividing things up, believe it or not.
The issue I have is sometimes the installer does not copy things right the
first time a user runs a product.
Other than that though, they just need to have a few departments talk to
eachother so the doc and settings folder does
not have similar named folders for same product.

Suggest how you would do it and I can probably shoot down most of the ideas,
the file splitting has purpose.
Too bad its not more simple though, I like simple too.
Message 15 of 19
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

On Thu, 9 Apr 2009 21:31:58 +0000, Martin Shoemaker wrote:

>What I'd really like to see is a "non-roaming" installation. Everyone
>in my office has their own computer. We don't share. I really dislike
>having to drill down through 8 or 10 layers of directories to find a
>file. I do what I can to move things I modify frequently to places like
>C:\Program Files\Autocad 2010\Support instead of
>C:\Users\Martin\Appdata\Roaming\Autodesk\AutoCad 2010\R18.0\enu\Support,
>but I find that service packs and such often put things back in the
>"right" place. I've suggested in the Win7 beta groups that MS offer a
>"non roaming" installation option but I don't expect that they will act
>on the suggestion.

Your wish is my command.

Head over to the AU Online site and check out my 2007 class AB218-2 on
Installing AutoCAD Architecture 2008 (specifically, Chapter 5 on page 18). I
detail how you can make a simple Registry change which modifies your
%RoamableRootFolder% location to any place you wish.

Basically, check out this Registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R17.x\ACAD-xxx:409\

And check out the RoamableRootFolder value. This single path tells ACA where the
"Roamable Root Folder" is located. Modify this to your desired location.

Note that you want to copy the default RRF to the location first, before you
make the Registry change (outside of ACA, obviously). Refer to the handout on
specific instructions regarding your profiles and so on.

I use this to create truly "roamable" users without the required use of Windows
Roaming Profiles (i.e., I set this to be on a network location), but you can
repoint it to a simpler local location.

However, be aware that any time you perform a registry repair, it torpedoes this
registry hack.

Matt
matt@stachoni.com
Message 16 of 19
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Thanks

Matt Stachoni wrote:
> On Thu, 9 Apr 2009 21:31:58 +0000, Martin Shoemaker wrote:
>
>> What I'd really like to see is a "non-roaming" installation. Everyone
>> in my office has their own computer. We don't share. I really dislike
>> having to drill down through 8 or 10 layers of directories to find a
>> file. I do what I can to move things I modify frequently to places like
>> C:\Program Files\Autocad 2010\Support instead of
>> C:\Users\Martin\Appdata\Roaming\Autodesk\AutoCad 2010\R18.0\enu\Support,
>> but I find that service packs and such often put things back in the
>> "right" place. I've suggested in the Win7 beta groups that MS offer a
>> "non roaming" installation option but I don't expect that they will act
>> on the suggestion.
>
> Your wish is my command.
>
> Head over to the AU Online site and check out my 2007 class AB218-2 on
> Installing AutoCAD Architecture 2008 (specifically, Chapter 5 on page 18). I
> detail how you can make a simple Registry change which modifies your
> %RoamableRootFolder% location to any place you wish.
>
> Basically, check out this Registry key:
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R17.x\ACAD-xxx:409\
>
> And check out the RoamableRootFolder value. This single path tells ACA where the
> "Roamable Root Folder" is located. Modify this to your desired location.
>
> Note that you want to copy the default RRF to the location first, before you
> make the Registry change (outside of ACA, obviously). Refer to the handout on
> specific instructions regarding your profiles and so on.
>
> I use this to create truly "roamable" users without the required use of Windows
> Roaming Profiles (i.e., I set this to be on a network location), but you can
> repoint it to a simpler local location.
>
> However, be aware that any time you perform a registry repair, it torpedoes this
> registry hack.
>
> Matt
> matt@stachoni.com
Message 17 of 19
Valacho_H
in reply to: Anonymous

>
{quote:title=Guest wrote:}{quote}

C:\Program Data is VISTA's equivalent to NT/XP's C:\Documents and settings.

That is, you will have C:\documents and settings when using NT/XP, and have

C:\ProgramData when using VISTA. It is not Autodesk specific folder, so,

make it as C:\Program Files\Autodesk\ProgramData is definitely a bad idea.




More specifically, it seems to replace the "All Users" area of C:\Documents and Settings.



I was wondering myself after installing the software yesterday. I did not get a C:\Autodesk folder, presumably since I did not install from a download that had to be extracted. The specific user profile information went to the user folder under C:\Documents and Settings as from prior versions.
Message 18 of 19
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

With only three stations (and 1.8 of those idle with our current work
load) I have never looked at deployments. Maybe I should.

rhenley wrote:
> The network deployment allows you to set these folders for instance:
> Program Install Folder\Support Program Install Folder\Plotters Program
> Install Folder\Data Links Program Install Folder\Template Program
> Install Folder\Rendering I've gone back to doing that this year, but I'm
> starting to miss the user profile file separation the standalone
> installer enforces. Even in the one user per computer scenario. I've
> been forced to deal with the profile locations for so long, I've
> adapted. > What I'd really like to see is a "non-roaming" installation.
Message 19 of 19
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Good approach. Thanks.

COJonez wrote:
> I get around the longggggg folder paths by creating shortcuts grouped in
> a MY Shortcuts folder on my computer. It takes a half hour to set up but
> saves lots of frustration and time. You can see that I name each one
> with a number first so I can force a particular order to them each time
> and can group them to logical groups. I drag the shortcut folders onto
> the favorites in ACAD and now instead of 30 or more folders there I have
> three sorted by ACAD related, local drive related, and Project file
> related. This, in my mind, is better than memorizing their location or
> using cheat sheets.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>

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