Revit 2014 Deployment; ini file failed validation

[tittlek]

I'm trying to create a deployment for Autodesk Building Design Suite Premium 2014. I'm at the stage where I am configuring the Autodesk Revit 2014 settings.

Under the Customize Application Settings section I'm choosing "Custom Revit.ini" I'm pointing it to a customized revit.ini file located on a server on our network and I'm using an absolute UNC path.

After I have all the configuration settings set up and try to close the Revit configuration I get the following error:

The ini file failed validation. Please specify a valid value for the "Usage" key in the  [InstallationSettings] section.

In the revit.ini file I have the following text under the [InstallationSettings] section:

Language=ENU
Usage=Architectural

These settings are exactly as they are in my default revit.ini file. I have not changed any syntax from that. Why is this error coming up when Architectural is indeed a valid value for the Usage variable?

[david.lau]

Just a thought but the Building Design Suite 2014 is Revit that has all 3 disciplines init.  Is there one for Revit vs Revit Architecture?  Are the different?

[tittlek]

I just so happen to have both Revit 2013 and Revit Architecture 2013 installed on my workstation. I checked the current (working I might add) revit.ini file for both programs. 

Each of those have the exact same value for the Usage variable as the ini file I'm having the issue with in the 2014 deployment. 

[david.lau]

Can you attach your Revit.ini file to this forum post?

[tittlek]

I've attached the file as a text file since it doesn't allow you to upload .ini files. 

[tittlek]

In the process of trying to track down what exactly is wrong with the Revit.ini file that's causing it to fail validation, I noticed the InstallGUID variable.

I realized that the GUID was not for the correct product since I had started with a Revit.ini file from a previous installation. I believe it was from a Revit Architecture 2013. 

So I went ahead and did an individual install of the product on a test machine so that I could take a look at the 2014 Revit.ini file. The GUID was in fact different so I put the proper one in the Revit.ini file that I'm trying to use for this deployment. 

Now when I try to close the configuration I get a similar error:

The ini file failed validation. Please specify a valid value for the "DataLibraryLocations" key in the  [DirectoriesENU] section.

Depending on the last thing I edited in the ini file it seems to switch up which variable it has an issue with. It seems to be quite random. Sometimes it's the IESFileLocation, sometimes its something else. 

[tittlek]

I think I finally figured out what the problem was. I should have known this, but I didn't think it through completely.

The real problem was that my revit.ini file had mapped paths. Which, as far as I know is totally acceptable within a Revit.ini file. 

However the deployment does not allow mapped paths, they have to be absolute UNC paths. Therefore the deployment was referencing my Revit.ini file that had mapped paths and was trying to then utilize them in the installation. It didn't like this, and as I mentioned seemed to spit out random errors involving paths. 

Once I changed all my mapped paths to absolute UNC paths the errors went away, and I was able to continue on with the deployment procedure.