DeleteME error in AutoCAD with Excel

[Anonymous]

I have the dreaded "DeleteMe" excel file error.  It's not working on two designer's machines after running a large number of Microsoft office updates released almost 2 weeks ago.

In troubleshooting the issue - I saved the file locally, tried again.....DeleteMe.....  I saveas the file to "test.dwg" so no special characters....DeleteMe.... I saved to my root drive, saved to an external harddrive, etc....all resulted in DeleteMe...

The simple fix is to export to .CSV file format.  Can't do that as some of my attributes have commas in the data and that throws it off.... .xls is the only file format that I can use...

This is only happening on the two machines that ran the updates... None of the others.

We have been running data extractions on our drawing files for years without issue so it's not something new with our blocks or drawings...

I've ran audit's, recoveries, etc.... purged, copy and paste to new drawings, other drawings, multiple drawings, 2017, and 2018.... I even tried Architecture.... Still get "DeleteMe"

Help!!!

 @Anonymous,

john.vellek has edited your subject line for clarity:DeleteME arghhhhhh

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous

From your Windows Start button open your Control Panels and then open the Programs control panel. Select the option to View installed updates.

The Uninstall an update window opens. Towards the right hand side you can see the Installed on (date) column. If you click the little down arrow at the right side of this column you are allowed to filter the dates. If this just occurred then you can try selecting Last week.

Now, you should be able to scroll through the list of updates to find the Microsoft updates. Select the one you want to remove and select uninstall. You will likely also need to do a reboot.

Please let me know if this helps or if you need additional assistance.

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

[carl.coghill]

Stefan,

Try saving the data extraction as a .csv file rather than .xls

This has worked for me in lieu of removing Microsoft update.

[anita_sims]

As I stated before I am already saving to a CSV file as a work-around, but it adds a few more steps for each spreadsheet and with the amount of them I create I need as few steps as possible. So I was asking for an actual solution, not a work-around. 

Thanks anyway!

[Anonymous]

Hi John

 Thank you for letting me know how to get to the updates.  Just before I Uninstall the updates, what is the risk of Uninstalling the update.  The last thing I want is to be the cause of letting a virus in from my computer due to Uninstalling the update.  I just need to way up the risk vs the extra work before Uninstalling the update.

Hi Carl. 

Thank you for your input regarding the .csv file but as Anita indicates there could be a lot of extra steps required to sort the data.  We have circles and text.  I need to compare the position of the text to the position of the circle inorder to know what coordinate fits what text.  If you look at the data we require you will see Centre X, Centre Y, Position X, Position Y, Value.

If you export to .csv file it moves all the data to the left.  I have created a text file, csv file and excel file.  The excel does not work at all.  I have also tried to open an empty excel and import the text and csv file.  The best I can do is to create the csv file and move the columns to the correct locations manually or create a VBA to sort the data.

[carl.coghill]

ArnoJvr,

Sorry to hear that csv is not suitable for you.

I was unable to remove the security update, therefore changing to csv was my only option. The data that I am working with does not have the same issue as you with regards to shifting columns.

Sounds like you are doing everything else correctly (file name without commas etc). I have not come across any other solutions to this issue.

[Anonymous]

Morning,

I have also experienced this today on 3 work machines. once IT had uninstalled the Update, it all worked ok.

Thank you John

[Anonymous]

The data shifts because you have commas in your data... I had the same issue with using a CSV file.

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous,

• KB4041676
• KB4041691
• KB4041681

I have linked the above KB articles numbers to the Microsoft Knowledge Base Articles for your examination.  I obviously can't tell you to install or uninstall them as your IT group will be better judges of what is appropriate for you environment. At this point all I can say is that uninstalling them does restore the Excel functionality in AutoCAD.

I am continuing to watch this issue for resolution and will add another post as I find out additional options or steps that can be taken.

[dbroad]

Thanks for your efforts @john.vellek to document the problem.  After reading the knowledge base articles you link to, it seems like Microsoft was aware that these updates would break some applications and offered, what would seem to be, relatively simple code fix suggestions to resolve the issues.  Following their directions should probably require changing less than a single line of dataextraction code. Isn't this something that could be addressed with a hot fix instead of requiring the removal of updates?

[Anonymous]

My company (Just north of you in Rivergate) - has asked the same question and have a ticket with Autodesk open asking this same question... and for the development team to call (I've talked to them several times in the past) and no response.  Even our reseller is involved with zero response from Autodesk. 

The patch causing is the issue is vital to keep our system's integrity in place and simply uninstalling it isn't an option for long.

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous & @Anonymous,

I am actually working on another possible workaround at this very moment.  This really is an issue that is out of Autodesk control but I am working to come up with another viable solution rather than uninstalling the updates.

Thanks all for your patience.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, @john.vellek - just frustrating when you don't hear from your support tickets you pay money to have.

[cadffm]

@Anonymous
Update
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-forum/recent-microsoft-security-updates-might-cause-some-problems/td-p/7458867

[mark.ahern]

Thank you this worked for me. Will there be a fix from acad or windows for the long term. Windows 10 only allows updates to be paused for 35 days.

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> Will there be a fix from acad or windows

It's a conflict with a dll fom Microsoft, so you might better ask Microsoft, Autodesk can't repair their applications.

Where have you seen a 35 day limit? You can set policies to control updates, there exist also tools from Microsoft to ignore some specific updates. >>>click<<<

- alfred -

[john.vellek]

Hi @mark.ahern,

There is a fix in the works.  Please see my notification thread for updates on this issue.

[mark.ahern]

Thank you

[ramcharger318]

The easiest solution is the right click on the data extraction table in the data extraction process/command (page 5 of 8) and select "COPY TO CLIPBOARD" and paste into excel.

[carl.coghill]

Ramcharger318,

That works a treat!

Thanks.

[anita_sims]

Thanks so much! That works perfectly, and it actually saves me some steps! 

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@ramcharger318 wrote:

The easiest solution is the right click on the data extraction table in the data extraction process/command (page 5 of 8) and select "COPY TO CLIPBOARD" and paste into excel.

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