Temporarily unload a plugin while Autocad is open

[Anonymous]

Hi

I am working with a small group of people in an office. We have an Autocad license for each computer but we use a plugin called Autoturn which is a single license shared over the network. At the moment, we go through the tedious process of closing all our drawings so that someone else can access the Autoturn plugin.

Is there a way we can close the Autoturn plugin by itself without having to close Autocad?

[pendean]

Q: how do you all load AutoTurn in the first place?

[Anonymous]

We all have Autoturn installed on our machines as a network license. The license only allows one computer to use it at a time. The plugin only properly opens up (as if it was an individual application) when you select a function from the Autoturn tab or run a command from the plugin. Otherwise the plugin hasn't actually launched, even though it is visible on the tabs. I guess you can say the plugin is dormant until you use it.

The problem is when someone selects a function on Autoturn and they are done using the plugin, the only way another person can access the plugin is if the original user completely closes AutoCAD, not just the drawings that were using the plugin. 

[user181]

Isn't Autoturn a menu you can load and unload with the menuload command?  If so you could probably just make a profile that has it loaded and one that doesn't and switch between them.

[Ed__Jobe]

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@user181 wrote:

Isn't Autoturn a menu you can load and unload with the menuload command?  If so you could probably just make a profile that has it loaded and one that doesn't and switch between them.

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@user181 A menu doesn't contain the commands it runs, which would still be loaded if you unload the menu.

@Anonymous It sounds like AutoTurn is a .NET dll that can be set to load the first time a command from it is called. If that is the case, then it can't be unloaded. You have close AutoCAD. Sorry. You can verify if this is the case using the ARX command select the COMMANDS option and then hit ENTER to list them all. If you see the Command Group for AutoTurn listed, then it is either an arx or .NET dll.

[dgorsman]

Kinda-sorta on the loading/unloading.  Yes, once loaded it cannot be unloaded.  The method of loading may be through a number of means, most of which have a "demand load" option which only loads the module (and calls for a license) when a command is called.  By default most add-ins load at start-up to keep things simple.  The loading process, and how you can control it, should be nearly the same as the more common Raster Design add-in.

If this uses an ACAD.RX file (look for the first one in the Support file search path), then it will have an entry for the AutoTurn module.  The only ways to handle this is to either remove the entry, then manually load the module when you need it; or to have different profiles with different search paths that point to different ACAD.RX files (one with, one without).

If this uses registry loading, find the registry entry for the AutoTurn module.  There is a flag value which controls how it's loaded (on start-up, on command call, etc.), which will need to be changed to a different value.  I don't have those precise values handy right now, perhaps others could chime in.

If this uses package loading, find the XML file for the Autoturn package.  It can be edited in notepad or other plain text editor; there will be a loading method value in the file similar to registry loading.  Again, I'll have to leave the precise details to others.

[Ed__Jobe]

If you do find that AutoTurn uses an *.arx, that can be unloaded using the UNLOAD option of ARX. However, I'm not certain that simply unloading a dll will release a license. It should, but I can't be sure.

[pendean]

I bet if you contact the author they could tell you http://www.transoftsolutions.com/contact-us/

[gotphish001]

They will probably just tell you to buy multiple copies. I was going to suggest that too until I saw how much it cost. No wonder why you only have 1 copy of it. 

[pendean]

The question can be phrased with a simpler "how can I unload the app without restarting AutoCAD" I'm sure.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the replies! So I just got into work and I had a look in the installation folder. There are both .arx and .dll files in the folder. I'll have a go at seeing if unloading the arx plugin is possible.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi everyone, just an update:

So I contacted the author and apparently its possible to release the license by just unloading arx file using the APPLOAD command. I have tried this and can confirm it works. Hope this will help anyone else with this issue.

[gotphish001]

Mark your findings as the solution so someone having the same issue will have an easier time finding it.