Double-clicking or opening a DWG file starts a new instance of AutoCAD

[Anonymous]

Hello, everyone!

I'm lifting the title for this post off of the relevant knowledgebase article because we've tried every step in the KB, plus some historical forum posts, and cannot find a resolution.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Double...

This is the KB article in question. Each suggestion in there did not resolve the issue.

Any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

We're running 2020 on a mix of Windows 7 and Windows 10 machines -- about five total affected since the 2020 update. That KB article has not resolved it on any of them.

Cheers!

[pendean]

So you did the second part of that link... Right-click on any DWG file in Windows File Explorer: what is listed as the default app? Compare PCs and find the difference, make them all the same.

If all your PCs and AutoCAD setups are identical, they would be identical in behavior: so what else is unique about the 5 units?

[Anonymous]

They presently are all the same, unfortunately.

We tried switching the default from acad to the launcher and back. It affected no change.

[dgladfelter]

Typically the “DWG Launcher” is set as the default application for DWG files. With it, on a machine with multiple versions (2019, 2020, etc) or multiple “flavors” (vanilla, Architecture, etc), the last used version/flavor will open when you double-click a DWG from Windows Explorer.

The blog is a little dated, but this post outlines the above in detail: https://geek.how/yrovi

[jaguarpawl]

Just transitioned to AutoCAD LT 2024 and encountered this problem.  Solution: Follow the instructions given by Autodesk and de-elevate your permissions by unchecking "Run as Administrator".  This also solved another minor annoyance: Every time ACAD was opened, the UAC would ask if I wanted to allow the App to make changes to the Windows environment.

Also, there is no AutoCAD Launcher in AutoCAD LT 2024, so don't bother with trying to associate it.  You only need to associate the "acadlt.exe" executable file if necessary.