DWG file association

[rkmcswain]

AutoCAD 2015, Civil 3D 2015, Windows 7

This week, on various days, we have multiple users report that the DWG file association was confused and/or lost.

One user got this dialog at startup one morning:

While several other users reported that same morning (or the next) that double-clicking on a DWG file in Explorer resulted in the drawing opening in DWG Trueview (instead of AutoCAD)

I know how the "AutoCAD DWG Launcher" works, and that it will set the last used application as the default DWG application, but NONE of these users used DWG Trueview the day before this happened (and quite frankly, many of them probably don't even know it's installed).

On these same machines, the icon used to represent DWG files has changed.  It should be this ->  , and now it's not. It has changed to various other icons on different machines.  Even after fixing the DWG file association in Windows, the icon is not fixed.  Anyone else seeing anything like this recently - maybe I can blame it on a Windows update??

If this were a single machine, I would fix it and move on, but it's strange how this happened to multiple machines at roughly the same time.

TIA

[ToddRogers-WPM]

I have been seeing this happen quite a bit.  I wonder if it is due to a Windows update?

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

if my remembering is correct, I got that message at the first start after I installed Civil 3D 2015 (and Map 3D as well as AutoCAD 2015 were installed before).

May be any update of Map 3D or Civil 3D can be a trigger for that? Not sure, just thoughts.

- alfred -

[nrz13]

We have not seen that problem in our office.  We're running AutoCAD 2015 (vanilla) only.

[pendean]

Not a problem in plain-Jane AutoCAD 2015 here either, but we have not pushed SP2 out to anyone yet either, still on SP1, and we have not implemented the 'geo' hotfix either (we don't use it here). Windows Updates where pushed out Wednesday to everyone for the month of November (next push in mid-December).

[nrz13]

I saw the problem on my home computer this weekend.  It's a standalone install, same as our in-office computers, which still have not had this problem.  All running vanilla 2015 SP2.  The home computer is running Windows 8.1 Pro while the in-office computers are running Windows 7 Pro.  The files are stored on a network at the office and locally at home, but when I open files locally at the office, I still don't see the message.  The only other difference I can think of, which doesn't seem relevant to me, is that the home computer is running NVIDIA graphics while the office computers are using AMD.

[ToddRogers-WPM]

 Good observation @nrz13 .  I noticed that this weekend as well.  Home computer (Windows 7 Pro), prompted me.  Work computer (Windows 8.1), never prompted me.

[quentin.contreras]

It might be that the Windows default may have been changed. I recommend opening drawing through the application file>Open. That should work. If you cannot fix file association of DWG to AutoCAD version of their choice using this Autodesk Knowledge Network article, How to change the file type association for DWG files. If that still does not help you may also want to try to run repair

[rkmcswain]

There is no "might" to it. That is exactly what happened. The point of the post is "why?" There was nothing done on the user end.

With all due respect, I am fully aware of how to change file association for DWG files. This is not a situation where running a repair on the AutoCAD install is the answer. This has happened on multiple machines at our office at the same time. Something else, such as maybe a windows update, is to blame here.

[dwahlz]

I am getting this too on fresh installs of AutoCAD 2015, AutoCAD Civil 3D 2015, and AutoCAD MEP 2015. I've been installing with SCCM on Windows 7 Pro machines. I would also like to find out WHY this is occurring.

[zmarcos]

Zride91,

Import the following into your default user hive and it will address the prompt post-install

[HKEY_USERS\Default\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R20.0\ACAD-E001:409\Profiles\<<Unnamed Profile>>\General]
"DwgAlwaysAssociate"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_USERS\Default\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R20.0\ACAD-E006:409\Profiles\AutoCAD MEP (Global)\General]
"DwgAlwaysAssociate"=dword:00000000

For command line importing see the following link: REG LOAD Command

I uses 'Default' as the temp name (step 5 from the link). If you choose to use something else be sure to edit the 'default' to your temp name in the above registry imports.

[EricWitter]

Just opened new AutoCAD 2019 installation and messed up before I got started.

How can one get this dialogue to open if we inadvertently clicked last choice to NOT associate .DWG with AutoCAD and also to not show that dialogue again.   Long time CAD user feeling embarrassed.....

(tried to reassociate via Windows "Open With" the DWG Launcher was from 2018