"Cannot find the specified drawing file. Please verify that the file ex

[Anonymous]

Windows 8.

Autocad LT 14

Thunderbird 24.3

When I double click on a .dxf attachment in my email program Thunderbird it automatically opens Autocad.  However when AutoCAD opens I get the error message:

"Cannot find specified drawing file.  Please make sure the file exists."

This does not happen with .dwg files attached to email messages.......only with .dxf files.  Dwg files open just fine.

This problem occurred in AutoCAD 2008 as well.  I recently upgraded to 2014 and the problem persists.  I can't say for sure if it was a problem with earlier versions of Thunderbird. 

What I have to do is save the file to disk, open Windows Explorer and double click on the file there.  Then it opens fine.

This error message shows as a common problem when searching this forum and on Google.  However I have yet found a solution.

Can anyone help with this?

Thanks,

BH

[pendean]

The error message relates to AutoCAD not finding the temp folder your Email client uses, or it cannot access it for another reason. The problem is not present in Outlook for me for example, but I'm logged into my PC as full admin. Perhaps your email client has a similar quirk.

The "proper" method, in line with not running with open scissors etc., is to do what you normally do 🙂

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the response.

Since posting the question an hour ago I continued working with some of the other threads that posed posibile solutions.  One included a suggestion to do a registry edit which I was at first hesitant to do.  Given more thought though I backed up the registry and tried their solution.  Below is what I did to solve the problem.

The root of the problem was that Windows was not recognizing what needed to be done with a .dxf file even though I was telling Thunderbird what I wanted.  The only weird part of this was that while the registry key did not exist for dxf files and they were NOT opening, it also did not exist for .dwg files and they were opening anyway.  Perhaps it was because there was a .dxf listing but no CONTENT TYPE key existed while there was no .dwg key at all.

I also posted these results on two other threads that were discussing the same issue.

BH

March 14, 2014

For those fighting this problem this worked for me.

First I backed up the Registry by copying REGEDIT to a temp folder, renamed it REGEDIT <today's date> and copy/pasted it back into the Windows directory.

Then in REGEDIT:

Under [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT] find or add  ".dxf".
Right click on .DXF and press NEW, STRING VALUE
For the string value enter "Content Type"
Right click on CONTENT, MODIFY and enter "application/dxf"

Close the Registry Editor and reboot the computer.

Open your email program (works on Thunderbird at least) and try to open the .dxf file.

I did the same for .dwg (I had to create the .dwg key) and it allowed Thunderbird to open the file in AutoCAD by default as well.