AutoCAD Launch Freezes at "Preparing Working Evironment... Toolpalettes"

[sbrusco]

Hi All,

In an office of many AutoCAD users, four of them noticed a problem when saving and then closing files when they had several files open at once. So to relieve their suspicion that something was wrong, they rebooted AutoCAD only to have it freeze during the launch at the point where the splash screen says "Preparing Working Evironment Toolpalettes"

I have uninstalled and reinstalled AutoCAD and it doesn't help.

WHAT CAN BE WRONG???

Please, someone help me because already this morning, four different users than yesterday have told me that they are experiencing the same freeze.

Sal

[dgladfelter]

Hi there, not sure if it will be the ticket or not, but have you tried (temporarily) disabling UAC? http://autode.sk/2m39Xxj

Something else I've found to help when troubleshooting similar oddities is logging in as a different user with local admin privileges. Launch AutoCAD and let it run the first time, then log out and try launching as the intended user.

[sbrusco]

Hi Donnie,

(Cute kid)

Thanks for your reply. I should've given more information but I was struggling with my entire CAD force being out of commission. Only a couple users are Windows 10, most are still Windows 7 Pro.And the freeze happens during the launch - ACAD never opened, or so I thought. Now, I found that if we wait long enough (10-15 minutes) ACAD does eventually start and at least for the short-term, seems to be running okay even WITH the tool palettes.

I believe AutoCAD is trying to tell me that there is a problem with the tool palettes but this is the same TP we've been using for years and in fact, no changes have been made therein for 3-4 months. Why is it a problem now?? Once things settle down around here I'll try to find the TP booger but for now, there are still too many fires to put out.

Just to be clear, I attached a pic of where AutoCAD hesitates.

If anyone can offer advice on how to debug a tool palette, I would greatly appreciate you passing it on to me.

TIA

Sal

[dgladfelter]

Are you just using the out-of-the-box profile, or have you configured it to use a company-specific set of support file paths?

Along those same lines, does AutoCAD launch any faster if you disconnect the workstation from the network?

I ask those questions because I've run into several clients whose AutoCAD startup issues were related to broader network issues. The most common issue I've run into is customers with their support files hosted on a NAS. Since the Start Tab seems to read the Drawing Template path, I've found that combination has caused AutoCAD to take a profoundly long time to launch.

I offer that background simply to say temporarily disconnecting from your network will at least answer the question of whether that's the issue you're experiencing, or if it's something else. 

[sbrusco]

Hi Donnie,

You seem to have, as they say, hit the nail on the head. As I and our IT look into this more closely, it appears to be related to our network access but I don't know if it is NAS or not. The squirrely thing is...

Okay, as I was writing this response above, my IT "fixed" the problem. Somehow, there were 260,000 zero length files (*.tmp) added to our toolpalette directory. We removed those files and now our AutoCAD launch is a fast as it has ever been. So now the question is, how did these files get created? And as we looked at them, they were 'mostly' created in the past two days. And in a directory that only I and IT have write permission to. Can or does AutoCAD create tmp files in the toolpalette directory?

The good news is, everyone is back to work with confidence that all is good in the world. The bad news is I don't know how or from where these files were created.

Sal

[john.vellek · Accepted solution]

HI @sbrusco,

Do you have two versions of the palettes, one for each version of AutoCAD?

You might be able to explain this behavior if you are not using two versions.  Please take a look at this article that details this and let me know if this might be part of the equation.

If you are using all the same version, then tell me how the palettes were created and then migrated. Perhaps rebuilding one or two as a test might be in order.

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

[sbrusco]

Hi John,

This is very likely the reason. I usually install new releases on MY computer and test it with all our customization BEFORE upgrading all the users. With this release, I installed it on my computer and while testing it, had to make a quick update to one of our palettes so I just jumped in and did it. Later on, while working in the earlier release, I attempted to make more TP updates and was blocked because of the version. Even after that I didn't think of this as a possible problem. Just goes to show how wrong "I" can be.

So now we have a mix of users, some in 2015 and some in 2017. Is this where the many, many TMP files are coming from? Does AutoCAD create these? Can a software app create files, any files, in a directory that is write protected?

Thank you SO much for your input. 

Sal

[john.vellek]

Hi Sal,

Yes, some applications (especially ones with associated services) might be able to create temp files in protected folders.

I am not sure how your environment is structured but in the past I have actually created a batch file or script for my backup software to execute on a regular basis to clean out a whole variety of tmp and bak and err and logfiles from my network locations.

Such a script can also be run in Task Scheduler on user workstations or be run in login scripts to clean out some junk.

[sbrusco]

Yeah, a scheduled script would solve the problem and will probably be our short-term fix, but its too reactive for my boss. He wants something more proactive so he wants to know how and why...

At least now I know what the problem is and how I can not go through that panic I had this morning.

Sal