Disable creation of dwl/dwl2 files

[w64bit]

How can I disable creation of dwl/dwl2 files?

Thank you.

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

you can't, otherwise AutoCAD would not see that anyone else has that drawing already opened. It's used for file-locking.

What issues do you have with that files?

- alfred -

[rkmcswain]

Alfred.NESWADBA wrote:

you can't, otherwise AutoCAD would not see that anyone else has that drawing already opened. It's used for file-locking.

A common misbelief, but those files have nothing to do with file locking. They are plain ASCII files used by "WhoHas" command and probably by the Open command. They simply contain the username and hostname of the open drawing.

OP, you used to be able to disable "whohas.arx", but I think this is built into the core product now. I'm not sure and don't have the time at the moment to research further.

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

thank you for the information (that this changed with AutoCAD 2013) ... I've missed that.

- alfred -

[rkmcswain]

Alfred.NESWADBA wrote:

thank you for the information (that this changed with AutoCAD 2013) ... I've missed that.

Actually, R13 (1997), not R2013.

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Wow, looks like I was sleeping some years 😉

[Jedimaster]

I know this an old post but in case someone else is hunting like me.

I know whohas.arx  was around in 2007. If you want to disable in AutoCAD 2015 registry keys.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R20.0\ACAD-E001\Applications\AcCoreApp\Commands

WHOHAS

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R20.0\ACAD-E001\Applications\AcCoreApp\Groups

ACORE_WHOHAS

Delete these keys and no more dwl generation. Always backup your registry before changing.

I know they are small files but when you have 100,000's they slow down search indexing.