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DWG TrueConvert only run fro account that installs?

21 REPLIES 21
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Message 1 of 22
Anonymous
2421 Views, 21 Replies

DWG TrueConvert only run fro account that installs?

We recently installed dwg true convert onto a number of machines with an adminstrative account but soon found out that the users of those machines could not run the software when logged in as themselves. When the user tries to run DWG true convert it attempts to do an another install and fails because they don't have rights to do the install. However (and obviously) if I log back in with adminaccount it will run.

Not sure what we missed....any advice on how to install for the user without giving them administrative rights to install it themselves?
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Message 2 of 22
troye
in reply to: Anonymous

you have a couple of choices
1) Put the users into the administrators group on the local computers (they should be in there anyway)

2) make the c:\temp not read only and give the local user full control fo the c:\ and all of the subfolers
Message 3 of 22
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

give them admin rights, install, take away admin rights.

digio wrote:
> We recently installed dwg true convert onto a number of machines with an adminstrative account but soon found out that the users of those machines could not run the software when logged in as themselves. When the user tries to run DWG true convert it attempts to do an another install and fails because they don't have rights to do the install. However (and obviously) if I log back in with adminaccount it will run.
>
> Not sure what we missed....any advice on how to install for the user without giving them administrative rights to install it themselves?
Message 4 of 22
troye
in reply to: Anonymous

they sould have admin permissions on the local dive anyway. keep them in the users group for the domain.
people like the above need take that computer management course again.
keep it simple less work for the IT people means mor money for the company Message was edited by: troye
Message 5 of 22
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

as a 'user' and not IT, even I have to acknowledge that giving admin rights
isn't for all users. some will abuse the right (knowingly or out of
ignorance). that's up to the company to choose (sometimes right or wrong).
I was here for almost 2 years before I had admin rights on my pc (and then
others), and I've proven myself competent with them.
I know people who would be dangerous to say the least, and that wastes the
company's resources.

--
Melanie Perry
***not all who wander are lost***
http://mistressofthedorkness.blogspot.com/

wrote in message news:5448596@discussion.autodesk.com...
they sould have admin permissions on the local dive anyway. keep them in
the users group for the domain.
people like the above need take that computer management course again.
keep it simple less work for the IT people means mor money for the company

Message was edited by: troye
Message 6 of 22
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Making all CAD users as local admin would not "keep it simple and less work
for the IT people". Rather, it often gets the opposite, if the CAD users are
not very self-disciplinary enough.

So many (I'd say, mojority) CAD users that I know, know very little about
the OS and computer, even they use Acad for many years. However, almost
everyone likes to install/download different programs/files to their working
computers. This certainly make IT's job more complicated and increase the
chance of compromizing computer's working condition, not to mention the
danger of a user operating a computer constantly connected to the netwith
admin right, but having little knowledge of computer security.


wrote in message news:5448596@discussion.autodesk.com...
they sould have admin permissions on the local dive anyway. keep them in
the users group for the domain.
people like the above need take that computer management course again.
keep it simple less work for the IT people means mor money for the company

Message was edited by: troye
Message 7 of 22
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

It's like AutoCAD I believe: Local Admin rights first time a
user runs it, after that the user can run it with limited
account.

--
Dean Saadallah
Add-on products for LT
http://www.pendean.com/lt
--
Message 8 of 22
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Wow thanks every one for all the responses. I respect that each company has to do what works for them and the world is not a one size fits all kind of place. But from my chair and for any one curious to know…I will not be giving our users local admin rights to solve this.

This may work in some organizations and that is each company’s prerogative, but I’m in an enterprise environment. I manage over 500 CADD installations (along with a multitude of other design software) in over 23 geographic locations. Doing this would most certainly not make less work for me or our IT personnel.

Besides, even if I install it by giving the user account admin rights, and then remove those rights…what if another user logs onto the machine. Giving all users local admin rights on all machines to avoid an issue with one small utility program would be ridiculous for us to do.

Plus, in my specific “real world” I do installs at off peak hours. We package and distribute our software to our users using SMS, scripts etc. I do not want to have to interrupt my users at work during the day or reset their passwords on them just so I can log in with their account do an install. For us it is not more productive or making us more money to have 500 users spend x amount of time performing installs on their pc’s when they could be doing chargeable work.

In my humble opinion, the software install was packaged incorrectly and I will log it with Autodesk web support. I can deploy and install all of my other software for Autodesk without having the user do it with local admin rights. I expect the same for DWG TrueConvert. It should be installable by an admin account and all user accounts should be able to run it on the PC with out any additional rights..no excuses.
Message 9 of 22
troye
in reply to: Anonymous

the domain admins can put the user in the administrators group. they can also give that user the same permissions that they had in the users group
Message 10 of 22
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Try PowerUser rights....

--
Inventor AIP11 sp2
Dennis Jeffrey, AICE, MICE
Center for Design Excellence
260-312-6188
wrote in message news:5448467@discussion.autodesk.com...
We recently installed dwg true convert onto a number of machines with an
adminstrative account but soon found out that the users of those machines
could not run the software when logged in as themselves. When the user
tries to run DWG true convert it attempts to do an another install and fails
because they don't have rights to do the install. However (and obviously)
if I log back in with adminaccount it will run.

Not sure what we missed....any advice on how to install for the user without
giving them administrative rights to install it themselves?
Message 11 of 22
troye
in reply to: Anonymous

power user rights gives you fgull control of the local machine same as admin and they dont want to let the user have full control of their computer
Message 12 of 22
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Then you can't use the free TrueConvert. Find something else, lots of
purchased products has more relaxed system requirements.

--
Dean Saadallah
Add-on products for LT
http://www.pendean.com/lt
--
Message 13 of 22
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Dean Saadallah said the following On 1/14/2007 1:32 PM:
> Find something else, lots of
> purchased products has more relaxed system requirements.
>


Such as?


--
R.K. McSwain
http://rkmcswain.blogspot.com
Message 14 of 22
troye
in reply to: Anonymous

microstation
Message 15 of 22
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Actually these are power users and they still can't run it if their acount did not install it.
Also one of the users was a local admin but could not network admin then let the local admin install it and then it ran.
Message 16 of 22
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

IIt's NOT like AutoCAD. Our AutoCAD is deployed through the network with an administrative account. It does not require that the user account who will be running the software be the user account that initially installed the program onto the PC. Plus multiple accounts can log onto the machine and run AutoCAD after the intial install.
Message 17 of 22
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

good point. We have MicroStation 🙂 Wouldn't Bentley love to be the solution to converting AutoCAD files instead of Autodesks own product lol
Message 18 of 22
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

troye said the following On 1/15/2007 10:43 AM:
> microstation

Since when are Micro$tation and TrueConvert comparable products?

TrueConvert has one purpose - to batch convert DWG/DXF files between
versions.

Micro$tation is a complete CAD program.

--
R.K. McSwain
http://rkmcswain.blogspot.com
Message 19 of 22
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Well to anyone who still interested here our wrap up to my initial post.

What Web Support said:

“Since DWG TrueConvert is based on AutoCAD, it is designed to be installed as an admin level user account, but can be successfully run thereafter as a restricted user or higher. The recommended installation is as an administrator-level account. After installation the user can be reduced in privileges, but should be the account that installed the program."

…so we found our own easy solution

Our Solution:

• I can install with an admin account
• ALL users who log onto the PC (even with restricted rights) can run the dwgtrueconvert program.
1. Start the install as admin and harvest the folder with the msi etc from c:\documents and settings\"admin account"\local settings\temp\...
2. Now move it to a different network location that users will have access to. And then cancel install
3. Run the extracted setup.exe on the PC as admin account
4. Log on a restricted user and the program will run because in the background it is able to automatically and successfully locate the msi file (and whatever else it needs) and run
5. ALL users who log onto the PC can run the program.

What most other programs do that would avoid the issue:

They know IT managers or people with admin rights normally do installs for users, they also know that users with restricted rights might need to run the program, and that it is possible all users on the pc need to run the program…so during the install they prompt to find out:
1. The location I would like to extract the install files to
2. They ask me if I want all users or just this user to run the program

What the problem is:

The dwgtrue convert installer automatically extracts itself to c:\documents and settings\"admin account"\local settings\temp\ to a folder it auto names. Then it cleans up and deletes the folder after the install completes. So when another user logs on (and it doesn't matter if they are power user, local admin or restricted user) and tries to run the program it wants to go and find the msi file etc. under the documents and settings folder of the account that did the install and of course it has no access.

We pay a hefty amount in subscription fees to Autodesk so I don’t really think it is reasonable to suggest that I should be looking for a third party software with less restrictive rights instead of the one Autodesk provided as a benefit of subscription.

Having to have admin rights to do an install is fine that’s not my beef, but if Autodesk doesn't understand why the design of this install was such an annoyance to an organization like ours, then I wish they would interview more firms of our size to understand how our IT and CAD Operations are managed.
Message 20 of 22
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Have you tried deploying this as a group policy.
Try giving the users modify permission on the folder TrueConvert program files are stored in and also C:\Program Files\Common Files.
This can be done through Group Policy as well.

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