Meeting Planner - Outlook 2013 - AutoCAD 2015 Issues

[bobbyorlando]

I am working on resolving a 'bug' with Autodesk Build Design Suite 2015. I have installed it via a deployment I created to bake in the license since I have a 5 seat license.

We use an Outlook 2013 addin called "MeetingPlanner" which is made by Emergingsoft. Whenever I click on new meeting, then click MeetingPlanner to reserve a room, AutoCAD wants to install something. It started with AutoCAD MEP, but that stopped once I opened MEP. Then it switched over to AutoCAD Architecture after I uninstalled AutoCAD MEP 2015. The install 'completes,' but it takes a while and then MeetingPlanner will open afterwards, and never happens again UNTIL you reopen Outlook -- it tries to reinstall the SAME thing. No telling what it really is, though.

Funny thing is, the installer never comes up when you run Outlook as admin -- this is not a permanent solution, or even a workaround, in my environment. I've tried running all the AutoCAD apps as Admin to see if it needed higher permissions to install to a directory on first run, but that didn't resolve the installation issue.

Event Viewer shows the following events when I click MeetingPlanner:

Event 1

Spoiler

Log Name: Application

Source: MsiInstaller

Event ID: 1004

Level: Warning

User: mis\daimi

Description: 

Detection of product '{5783F2D7-E004-0000-0102-0060B0CE6BBA}', feature 'P', component '{370E1EB0-04EF-4807-8B56-4562457473B8}' failed. The resource 'C:\Users\rpellegri\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\WebServices\Dummy.txt' does not exist.

Spoiler

Event2

Log Name: Application

Source: MsiInstaller

Event ID: 1001

Level: Warning

User: mis\daimi

Description:

Detection of product '{5783F2D7-E004-0000-0102-0060B0CE6BBA}', feature 'MS_Core' failed during request for component '{FC3E0B6E-F62B-11D1-B144-00C04F990B2B}'

Event 3

Spoiler

Log Name:      Application

Source:        MsiInstaller

Event ID:      1040

Level:         Information

User:          mis\daimi

Description:

Beginning a Windows Installer transaction: {5783F2D7-E004-0000-0102-0060B0CE6BBA}. Client Process Id: 5736.

Event 4

Spoiler

Log Name:      Application

Source:        Microsoft-Windows-RestartManager

Event ID:      10000

Level:         Information

User:          mis\daimi

Description:

Starting session 0 - ‎2014‎-‎10‎-‎21T21:41:56.655653900Z.

Event 5

Spoiler

Log Name:      Application

Source:        MsiInstaller

Event ID:      11728

Level:         Information

User:         mis\daimi

Description:

Product: AutoCAD Architecture 2015 - English -- Configuration completed successfully.

Event 6

Spoiler

Log Name:      Application

Source:        MsiInstaller

Event ID:      1035

Level:         Information

User:          mis\daimi

Windows Installer reconfigured the product. Product Name: AutoCAD Architecture 2015 - English. Product Version: 7.7.104.0. Product Language: 1033. Manufacturer: Autodesk. Reconfiguration success or error status: 0.

Event 7

Spoiler

Log Name:      Application

Source:        MsiInstaller

Event ID:      1042

Level:         Information

User:          SYSTEM

Ending a Windows Installer transaction: {5783F2D7-E004-0000-0102-0060B0CE6BBA}. Client Process Id: 5736.

You may notice that in event1 there are two different accounts, but it was installed under an admin account and it shouldn't make a difference IMO -- but I could be wrong. Also wondering WHAT is being reconfigured with ACA and why it's being triggered.

I believe '{5783F2D7-E004-0000-0102-0060B0CE6BBA}' is just AutoCAD, but I'm not certain of the other items as the registry cannot find them.

I did not recieve any errors during installation, however it IS a silent but I cannot find a log. However, everyone is having this issue, including a DIFFERENT installation of a totally different suite (AutoCAD 2015 monthly sub, but this one sometimes launches AutoCAD -- I have to check the event log on that one though still). 

Has anyone seen anything like this? Any ideas would help. I'm not sure what to do from here.

Thanks.

[jeremy.h · Accepted solution]

For future reference, here are the steps that resolved the issue:

Something about the MeetingPlanner add-in is causing the Autodesk software to try to launch. It looks for the Dummy.txt file in the folder of the admin account that installed the software, which requires admin permissions to access. When it can't access that file it assumes the install is broken, so it tries to run the secondary installer again to fix the issue.

To fix the issue, you'll need to copy the Dummy.txt file to a different folder that is accessible for all users on the system, then update the Windows registry to point to the new location. Currently that file is here:

C:\Users\rpellegri\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\WebServices\Dummy.txt

I would suggest copying the whole WebServices folder to this location:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\Autodesk\

You'll probably need to create the Autodesk folder since it likely does not exist yet in that location.

You will then need to update the values under the following registry key to point to the new location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Components\0BE1E073FE407084B86554265447378B

There will likely be several entries under that key. All of them should be updated to point to the new location. Once that is done, close the Registry Editor and reboot the computer.