support path settings get *deleted* if no network connection present

[Gh_man]

At our office, we save some of our files (xrefs and lisps) on the network. Unsurprisingly, the location of these files is saved in the "support file search path". Occasionally however, our network goes down. If the network is down when a user loads up CAD, the support file directories are not found. So far... all as expected.

What is NOT as expected is that when CAD fails to find the network paths, it DELETES the invalid paths from "support file search paths" list, and when the network is once again available, reloading CAD does not bring the now-valid paths back, but instead they have to be manually added back through the options menu.

Is this normal behavior for CAD? (It's not limited to a single workstation, but perhaps our setup process is flawed?) Is there a way to avoid it?

thanks!

[pendean]

Are you sure another AutoCAD ARG profile or a default ARG profile is not being reloaded instead?
Do you all actively crate custom ARG AutoCAD profiles for all users to permanently have these required setups available to easily recall?

Sounds like your priority ought to be fixing your network too.

[Gh_man]

We use the vanilla profile. The only other profile on the PC's is ACADMPP, but I'm sure we'd notice if we suddenly had the extra Mechanical features present, so I don't think that's it.

We also have a custom CUIX in addition to ACAD.CUIX, but I'm assuming this wouldn't cause the behavior we see? The custom CUIX also fails to load when the network is down, and thus also needs manual reloading, but AFAIK, the custom support paths wouldn't / can't be saved in the custom CUIX?

The network issue is unquestionably a problem, but out of my hands.

[drjohn · Accepted solution]

I remembered seeing this issue before and a quick forum search brought this up:

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I just found this, but it may answer your question.  This is a legacy item from AutoCad Release 14.

http://download.autodesk.com/ProdSupp/updates/td105129.htm#E10E11

Why are network paths removed from the support search path?

AutoCAD R14 will remove any invalid path from its Support File Search Path. This is designed behavior to insure that performance is not degraded when AutoCAD searches through all support paths that are listed. A path that becomes invalid during an AutoCAD session, such as when a network connection is lost, is still displayed in Preferences. This is because the path remains in the Windows registry even though AutoCAD cannot access it. Any invalid path is removed when you exit and restart AutoCAD. If you work in an environment where paths regularly become invalid, there are two methods you can use to quickly restore the Support File Search Path.

Method 1

Use the /s command line start-up switch to add the paths to the shortcut icon used to start AutoCAD. For example:

"C:\Program Files\AutoCAD R14\acad.exe" /s "C:\Program Files\AutoCAD R14\support";"C:\Program Files\AutoCAD R14\fonts";"C:\Program Files\AutoCAD R14\help";"C:\Program Files\AutoCAD R14\bonus\cadtools";M:\temp;\\myserver\searchpath

In this case, suppose either drive M or the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path to a mapped drive to a server that is frequently unavailable. If the server is down and you start AutoCAD, \\myserver\searchpath is not added to the Support File Search Path. Restarting AutoCAD when the server is up restores the Support File Search Path automatically.

Method 2

Export a Profile with the required settings for the Support File Search Path (this creates an .ARG file). When you notice that some support paths have been removed in Preferences, start AutoCAD when the paths become available again, and then import the saved profile to restore the Support File Search Path.

FWIW

Regards,

DJ

[Gh_man]

Ack, that seems like a terrible design choice by Autodesk. 😞 At the least, it would make much more sense if CAD prompted the user asking if they WANTED to permanently delete a path, or made it an on/off option.

Method 1 (command line switches) might solve my issue, though I ran into a problem with Windows allowing a limited number of characters in a shortcut. Also /s seems to override the existing list of paths, so I have to squeeze in the (still working) local support paths on C: as well as the missing ones. I might be able to do it with a batch file though, so I'll give it a shot.

Thanks for your help, this has been an on-going mystery and source of frustration for years within our department!

[pendean]

We create, store (in read-only folders centrally located) and use external AutoCAD ARG profiles to ensure we always get what we want, when we want it: the days of assuming the software will remember and give us what we want have long passed, we cannot afford such avoidable downtimes for our billing hours. Can you?

It's the best approach, yours is not really in this day and age or tight margins and the need to bill every moment at work.

[Gh_man]

I'm not too familiar with ARG profiles, and what sort of data they are capable of saving. Is there a way to have the ARG save the support paths? As a test, I saved my current settings to an ARG, switched profiles, removed the paths, and loaded the saved profile, but this didn't restore my paths.

As an aside: thanks for the advice, and I may gently offer some of my own? There's no need to scold people into taking advice. The fact that the question is being asked implies that the asker wants to fix the problem; what's needed is understanding of methods, not more motivation. 🙂

[Gh_man]

Dr. John, your method #1 combined with a batch file seems to have done the trick. Since one of the default support paths is unique to each PC, there's a bit of tweaking required with relative paths etc, but I think it should solve this part of the issue. Many thanks!

[dgorsman]

I've had the drive problem in the past.  Even now that we're past it, I still open a Explorer window first thing just out of habit.  I actually have a local start-up ACAD.LSP file (it gets superseded by the network file under normal operation) which gives the user a smack (ok, an alert dialog...) if required drives are missing before closing AutoCAD.  We've got too much on the network to have people trying to operate independently.

One "emergency" thing you can do is keep a REG file handy with the support paths for the specific user/AutoCAD Profile combination - they're stored as a semi-colon separated list under a single key.  If something goes really, horribly wrong you can close AutoCAD, load the REG file, and get going again.  Works better when you have a network ACAD.LSP and ACADDOC.LSP file which manage the paths for you, since those will fix any problems once things are pointing in the right direction again.

A potentially better solution is to set up Offline Files for the read-only support files.  This will automatically mirror files to the local computer.