MEP 2012 right click menus not available at all

[peter57733]

Hi,

I have a rather new installation of AutoCAD 2012 MEP and I have been having several problems getting it to work properly, #1 the right click menus are not working at all, they started out working then after tweeking my user interface they stopped working all togethrer, I have done a repair and a re-install and still no luck, so I was wondering if one or more of you good people have any Ideas or possible soulitions for this issue?

Pete

[Joshua.Benoist]

Perhaps if we had a better idea of what customizations you made, we could perhaps make some suggestions.  Did you use a different CUI?  Load toolbars?  Dis you add Partial CUI's?  Is the Acad.Cuix loaded?  What template and profile are you using?

[peter57733]

I migrated my cui profile from Auto CAD 2009 added express tools, and added tool bars, I am trying to have CAD Manager and The electrical environment but none of the tool catalogues load just get blank tool palettes or I just get a very small amount of electrical components none of the lighting device tag tools or the lighting fixture schedule creation tool (and there are several others which should be in the tool Palette which are not there

[Joshua.Benoist]

The reason you do not have right-click menu's and other issues is because of the AutoCAD 2009 CUI.  AutoCAD MEP CUI and AutoCAD CUI does not mix well, then complicate that with a CUI from a prior version and some features are just not going to work.  My recommendation is to set your CUI back to the 2012 MEP.cuix.  Do not add the 2009 Acad.cui as a partial and do not transfer any commands.  Instead, start with the MEP.cui and tweak it to be like the 2009 cui.  If you need help getting back to a pure MEP installation, let me know.

[peter57733]

Joshua,

I have found the acad.cuix file that came with the software, I am not finding one that is listed as an acad mep.cuix it is only listed as "acad.cuix" any way I loaded the acad.cuix file located in the program files c/users/app data/roaming/autodesk/acd-mep2012/enu/acad.cuix we like to call it "the basement" as you have to look so far into the file structure, well any way after that I did a repair to the system and went home I did notice that I got a rather large menu bar which had everything I required and more but alas no right click menus, I believe I need a "PURE FORM" of the program so I will need further help I guess I will need to remove the program right down to the hot keys and that is what I will need your help with.

Thanks,

Pete

[Joshua.Benoist]

Was following up and wondered if the clean reinstall instructions helped?

[peter57733]

It cleared up some of the issues but I think all instances of this software needs to be un installed from the computer in the regestry and everything as if it had not ever been loaded at all and then given a try. What do yo think?

[Joshua.Benoist]

It's worth a shot.  Just do not customize anything after reinstalling.  Test first and then add any customizations.

HTH.

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[peter57733]

so send the instructions on how to get it all out of the regestry please. (I have only did this once a few years ago so we will need to know which hkeys to remove) Our IT guy Seth Roberts was suposed to contact you if he has please forward to him as well.

Thanks,

petere@unityelectric.com

[Joshua.Benoist]

No need to edit the registry.  Our uninstaller since 2007 has done a decent job of removing keys.  Just follow the clean reinstall instructions I sent earlier by email.  You can apply those instructions to any Autodesk product, especially when deleting ALL Autodesk products off your system.  When it says to delete, for example, an AutoCAD MEP folder down a file path like C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD MEP 2012, substitute and delete the next Autodesk program folder.  Do one program at a time.  If you delete them all simultaneously then you will not be able to use the uninstaller.  So follow my clean reinstall instructions with one program at a time.  Don't touch the registry keys.

[peter57733]

OK  We will have it taken care of, but just to let you know the first time it was un-installed per your instructions all my tool bars came back up right where I had left them (before the un-install) and I had not done any modifications at that time, they just came up along with all the menus I had placed there prior to the un-install. I should just have the bare bones 2012 MEP which needs tweaking to my liking after all is done Correct?

[Joshua.Benoist]

Correct, provided you use the appropriate desktop icon.  AutoCAD MEP can have different content packs for MEP US Imperial, and AutoCAD and Architecture profiles.  They install different desktop icons.  If you de-select the MEP content packs and only install the Core AutoCAD or Architecture, then your desktop icon will only launch MEP as Core AutoCAD or Architecture.  Just make sure you have an MEP content pack enabled and the appropriate desktop icon to launch MEP as MEP.

[peter57733]

The MEP content packs are empty that is part of my problem

[peter57733]

Also I have an MEP imperal us Icon I use to launch the program

[Joshua.Benoist]

If you have a good computer, then you may be able to copy the missing content over.

[peter57733]

OK I have an awesome computer we just re_formatted it per Autodesk's recommendation before downloading anything else but the operating system we went to Autodesk's download site downloaded the latest 64 bit mep 2012 of AutoCAD and installed it on this machine, and you would not believe the weird problems I have been experiencing the layer manager is whacked out sometimes I want to switch a device to a different layer and it will change back to it's original layer I mean you can watch in the layer properties the new layer just fade back to the original layer this is really weird!! And I am not able to find the menu in the pull downs to let me tell the system to use my company's layer keys, at every turn I am finding it more and more difficult to use this product, Really I don't want to talk smack on a message board but really this product is supposed to save us time with our designs but just the reverse is true, We (meaning my department as a whole) have never had such a hard time with this product and now it is causing our careers to be at risk due to factors beyond our control (Autodesk software) sorry guys but this is just ridiculous you are supposed to be providing us with a highly usable product and it is just costing our company lots and lots of money and wasted time which should not be, don't you think this should not be the case?

My problems all started when AutoCAD MEP 2012 asked me if I wanted to migrate settings, we skipped 2 versions on our subscription in hopes that most of the bugs we had heard everyone complaining about would be repaired. We up graded our systems to 64 bit windows 7 with 8 gb of ram in hopes of solving some of our problems with the software, it did relieve the memory leak which still seems to be present (it is actually like a memory siphon it keeps your ram and doesn't let go of it until you close the program or it finally crashes) what is really going on here? My self I have no Idea.

What I am thinking is more quality control with the programmers and not let them have the idea in their heads that "we will just have our customers throw more ram at it to solve the problem" that just doesn't work guys my system is living proof of that and the other three identical machines in our department and I do mean identical they are clones of each other so we are all the same exactly!! And we all have the same problems to one degree or another. Sorry I am ranting but you all need to know the scope of the problem If our careers are at risk because of the product which is being provided by autodesk ask yourselves who else's careers are at risk?? When this software ruins too many careers where will Autodesk be? Filing bankruptcy? I can't say for sure but we are actually looking for something else as I type and it is a shame to have the leader of drafting software products failing it's core users, PLEASE I BEG OF YOU assemble a small team and fix this not just throwing a patch at it do a full redesign of the product in the back room and do not release it until it is right. That is all I am asking.

Thanks for your consideration in this matter

Peter Eells

[CADmonkey_UK_Building_Services]

Peter,

I have owned MEP since 2008, been using it since Release 10.There is rarely any need to go messing around in the Registry these days.

My MEP 2012 install has no Ribbon, all my toolbars and menus are there, and my Right-Click menu works. I have read the propblems you are experiencing and i find it hard to believe that the Adesk software is causing these issues. The erratic behaviour that you describe sounds more like a conflict either with hardware (espec. Video Cards/drivers) or some other software. Networking and security settings are, in my experience, the usual suspects. In-house or third-party lisps, block libraries, company standards will not always migrate happily from one release of Acad to another.

If you want rid of the ribbon and all your toolbars back, then open AutoCAD MEP as plain old AutoCAD and there will be a Workspace called 'Classic'. You can export this as a .cui file and then Import into Acad MEP.

Your right-click behaviour can be controlled in the Acad Options pages. I'm surprised that this hasn't been mentioned.

By the way, if you don't mind me asking, why are you posting frustrated comments on a public messageboard when you could be getting some proper support from Subscription Services?

[peter57733]

I DON'T MIND YOU ASKING AT ALL, I JUST HAVE BEEN ROUND AND ROUND WITH SUPPORT AND ALL THE PROPER CHANNELS PER ADESK PROTOCOL, I DO HAVE MY PROPER RIGHT CLICK MENUS NOW AFTER THE HARD DRIVE RE-FORMAT AND GOT SUPERB SERVICE FROM ADESK, BUT A WHOLE NEW SET OF WEIRD PROBLEMS AS DISCUSSED ABOVE. I WROTE THOSE THINGS IN HOPES THAT SOMEONE ELSE HAS BEEN HAVING THESE ISSUES AS WELL AND MIGHT CAUSE SOME ANSWERS TO SURFACE. WE FOUND THAT MEP 2012 DIDN'T PLAY WELL WITH OUR VISUAL BASIC LAYER SWITCHER AND ONCE YOU DOWN LOAD THE VISUAL PATCH FROM ADESK ALL YOU KNOW WHAT BREAKS LOOSE WITH THE SYSTEM. (I DO NOT HAVE THIS ON MY MACHINE OR A LISP ROUTINE FOR THAT MATTER) LIKE I STATED ABOVE THIS IS A BRAND NEW INSTALL ON A FRESHLY RE-FORMATTED MACHINE. AND MEP WAS THE FIRST THING LOADED AFTER THE O/S AND I HAVE NO ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE EITHER BUT OUR NETWORK IS PROTECTED.

I HAVE BEEN A ADESK USER SINCE 2001 STARTING WITH 2000i AND MEP 2006-2008 WITH NONE OF THIS ABOVE MENTIONED STUFF WE LOOSED MEP 2009 AND FOUND WE NEEDED TO SWITCH TO A 64 BIT VERSION OF THE SOFTWARE AS THE 32 BIT DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH POWER TO DO FULL BLOWN MEP ELECTRICAL PROJECTS GENERATING PANEL SCHEDULES AND ALL THE MEP DEVICES IT WOULD JUST BLINK OUT AND YOU WOULD BE STARING AT YOUR DESK TOP NO RECOVERY MANAGER, NO SAVE FILE (WITH THE SAVE TIME SET TO 10 MINS WE WERE LOOSING 2-4 HOURS OF WORK, THAT IS WHY THE SWITCH TO A 64 BIT SYSTEM AND THAT SEEMS TO HAVE FIXED MOST OF EVERYTHING IN THE 2009 PRODUCT. AND WE SKIPPED THE 2010-2011 SUBSCRIPTION AND MADE THE JUMP TOP 2012, I DON'T WANT TO COME ACROSS LIKE I AM RANTING BUT IF WE DON'T FIND THE COMMON DENOMINATOR SOON GOOD BYE JOB.

[CADmonkey_UK_Building_Services]

"OUR VISUAL BASIC LAYER SWITCHER" is doubtlessly obsolete. There is nothing more dangerous than keen-amateur grade scripts and routines created many years ago on a wet Friday afternoon by CAD/IT managers with too much time on their hands. Don't trust ANYTHING created pre-2012 until it's been thoroughly audited. This means DWGs, templates (ESPECIALLY templates!) VBAs, LISPs, libraries, styles, catalogues, tool palettes, standards, etc.

"OUR NETWORK IS PROTECTED" avoid the network entirely until you've learned what is broken and what is not.

"IT WOULD JUST BLINK OUT AND YOU WOULD BE STARING AT YOUR DESK TOP NO RECOVERY MANAGER, NO SAVE FILE" I've had this when using a 2012 drawing containing 2009 pipes, ducts, etc. or else created from 2009 templates

"WITH THE SAVE TIME SET TO 10 MINS" set it to 5 mins! and Ctrl-S after every step.

"I DON'T WANT TO COME ACROSS LIKE I AM RANTING" Lose the shouty CAPS and add some paragraphs, then. 🙂

[peter57733]

The caps have nothing to do with shouting as I switch from CAD to typing I almost always forget to switch so sorry if you felt that way,

Ok so let me get this straight so you say earlier versions of drawings created are bad to use in this newer application (2012 MEP)? Wow, That may really be a problem. The Blinking out we found was caused by 2009 MEP holding on to the memory resources and not letting them go at all we would watch on our task manager and when it could reach 2.4 gb of ram usage or there abouts pow back to the desk top as discussed above and I might also add that, that has not happened at all with my 2012 MEP so far.

Ok so I need something official that describes the effects of a network drive to this software my workmate Dave and I have suspected it causing problems for some time now as the server is rather busy we have often thought that we should have our own AutoCAD server for just us, do you have any thoughts on this?

If you would be so kind as to summarize all the things we have discussed previously and send me an official email at petere@unityelectric.com I would greatly appreciate it.

Here is what I have done so far with my Re-formatted machine and its hardware it has an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 8Gb ram, a Nvidia quadro fx1700 with the latest 64bit driver, windows 7- 64bit OS, 2012 MEP 64bit with sp1, I have Microsoft office 2007, Kip request for our plotter and a Visual Lighting program,

I am hooked up to a server and a mail server (I do not know anything about what it is running that is the IT stuff we aren't allowed to even mess with it. We had Dell build our computers specifically to run CAD, we have spent lots of $$$ to have better systems than recommended and if we have a weak link we certainly need to know where to start looking.

I did get a kick out of your description of a board CAD manager with too much time on his hands that was funny.

But the guy who wrote our visual script was an engineer who worked for us some years ago and it worked fine no problems (that we were aware of) until MEP 2012 all He-- broke loose incredibly long save times and I mean real long go make a pot of coffee and have a couple of cups kind of time no streatch here, so after we discovered it stopped using it and I never loaded any of those apps on this computer no lisp nothing just my CAD and what ever else I mentioned.

Pete