Help, Design Review hijacks keyboard

[jfarmerDR3XV]

For multiple years now Autodesk Design Review will randomly hijack my keyboard, and I can't find a way to stop it. I will have Design Review running in the background, and I always have at least one instance of Design Review running as I'm constantly looking through drawings in .DWF format, and without maximizing or using Design Review recently it will randomly take control of the keyboard and not allow the application currently in use to receive any keyboard input.

When this started to happen I thought that I had a string of bad keyboards, until I noticed that Design Review is the culprit. When this occurs I can either see the green 'D' logo in the upper left corner of my screen, or an 'F' in a grey box in the same location, as if someone were using Design Review and pressed alt to access the menu via keyboard. This has become highly disruptive as I then have to stop working, force quite all instances of Design Review via the task manager, then reopen all of the drawings that I previously had open.

I contacted Autodesk help, and they claimed that I didn't have the most recent version installed, so I uninstalled Design Review and then reinstalled it, with the most recent download directly from Autodesk's website. The build number stayed the same before and after all of that, at 14.0.0.177. I was then instructed to check for updates, and it tells me "New Autodesk Design Review information is available." so I click "Get it now" and absolutely nothing happens. I searched online, and found two hot fixes for Design Review, so I downloaded and installed both of them, and now my build number is 14.0.2.191.

Unfortunately, even with the newer build number, it is still hijacking my keyboard, and checking for updates still does nothing. I really can't afford to keep wasting this much time on malfunctioning software, so I'm hoping that someone has a fix for this. Thank you!

I'm running Windows 10 Pro, 64 bit. The Design Review component build versions are:

DWF toolkit: 7.7.1.15

Whip! toolkit: 7.13.601.15

Heidi: 10.1.41.0.31

[jfarmerDR3XV]

I was searching around and found this thread that sounds similar to the malfunction that I've been experiancing:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/design-review/hotkeys/m-p/8651227

A couple of times when the keyboard was hijacked I have found that (minimized) Design Review had randomly chosen to open a save dialog box, so this may be the same problem.

[Anonymous]

I have also the same issue.

[pendean]

read the last line of the post right above yours for what is happening and the item you need to address.

[jfarmerDR3XV]

I have contacted Autodesk support directly about this problem, and I have been told that they will NOT fix it.

Autodesk has said that DesignReview is a discontinued product, and they will not fix or update it at all, ever again. They have provided only two options:

1) Use DesignReview as is, bugs and all.

2) Use their online DWF viewer.

Unfortunately, for many industries it is not practical, or even permitted (by policy and/or law) to upload drawing files to a 3rd party server to be viewed. It appears that the only real solution is to abandon the DWF file format entirely.

[Anonymous]

Same issue

[Anonymous]

I have been having the same problem.  I've found that often when I notice the keyboard "not working" that if I hit the "F" key the problem goes away.  Not the best solution but typically beats some of the alternatives.

Mike

[jfarmerDR3XV]

Of course Autodesk has still ACTIVELY REFUSED to either fix the software, or offer any kind of alternative at all. I HIGHLY recommend that everyone stay clear of any and all Autodesk products. They have made it clear that they will not support or fix their products, and as a result it would be unwise for anyone to invest any money in Autodesk products.

And no, uploading drawing files to Autodesk's servers for their online viewer is never an option. Not only would it violate most company's IP rules, it is in blatant violation of export and ITAR regulations and laws, so is actually illegal in many cases.

Shame on you Autodesk. There is no excuse for your behavior, and it is near impossible to have any respect for, or loyalty to a company that chooses to behave in this manner.

[pendean]

@ jfarmerDR3XV ADR is on the dead but not gone yet list at Autodesk: development stopped back in the year 2017.

You should be questioning your commitment to DWF and ADR in general at this point above all else.

[jfarmerDR3XV]

@pendean I agree that if I were starting a company I would not want to invest in Design Review or the dwf format. Unfortunately after a company DOES make that investment, it is a very big ordeal to uninvest in that. Autodesk has to understand that they are not making trivial cell phone games that don't need to work for more than a couple of months, they are creating software that companies are investing in long term, and Autodesk needs to support these products long term. Especially considering the outrageous prices that Autodesk charges, they have zero excuse to drop the ball like this, and they should be ashamed of themselves.

The company that I work for, starting many years ago, has automatically published all drawings in our Autodesk Vault to a server folder in dwf format for all in the company to access. For those of us who do have AutoCAD and Vault access, Design Review still has a very real usage. When rapidly referencing dozens of different drawings, sheets, and drawing sets, Design Review is orders of magnitude faster and more efficient than AutoCAD at changing between drawings and sheets. DWF also allows for accurate measuring, which cannot be reliably done via pdf.

[pendean]

@jfarmerDR3XV Autodesk stopped caring about ADR some time ago sadly: and they stopped looking in here for user feedback about the same time (+/- the year 2017). They keep promising an online variant, but that's never appeared.

Change is tough, but so is recognizing you are stuck in a 'stockholm syndrome' situation.

AutoCAD2022 introduced a concept called TRACE, it appears this is likely the future of CAD markups in the program as DWF fades further and further away from being useful

AutoCAD 2023 (or whatever the next version is that is out in the next month or two) may likely expand ever more on the feature, and future releases will finally put that ultimate nail in the coffin of DWF as a markup need forever.

Stay tuned, start exploring, start developing new workflows to embrace it all. Do it now or soon.

HTH

[dthede]

@pendean I don't expect Autodesk to develop and support a product forever, especially one considered "free."  BUT, can any of you provide a reference to any official statement by Autodesk indicating Design Review is or has been sunsetted, discontinued, etc.? I must have missed that memo.

[CGBenner]

The closest I can find to an official announcement was made in this forum back in 2013.  ADR still exists and is still free to download and use,  but it has not been updated in a long time so it's bound to start acting wonky on newer hardware and operating systems... like those old iphone games that we finally had to delete because they just don't play anymore.

[WG1987]

"Change is tough, but so is recognizing you are stuck in a 'stockholm syndrome' situation."

Exactly,  still using Autodesk products.

[William_Kelly1]

I used to think it was my pc not liking ADR until I got a new pc and the very same thing now happens.
Simplest workaround is to press the ESC key which cancels the ADR highjacking.....for a while.

[ia8169483]

Is there any possibility of Autodesk Design Review (ADR) getting an update soon for better compatibility with newer systems? It’s similar to how older games, like Nulls Brawl, eventually need updates to stay playable on modern devices. Would be great to see ADR optimized for those who still rely on it.

[pendean]

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@ia8169483 wrote:

Is there any possibility of Autodesk Design Review (ADR) getting an update soon for better compatibility with newer systems...

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ADR development stopped in the year 2017: sorry. It is discussed in this ADR forum.

Autodesk had opted to eventually move to a cloud solution back them but I'm not seen such a tool yet. Perhaps it will never be (judging by their actions alone).

[SER4]

So what are people using to review 2D drawings instead of ADR?  Surely the online (Forge?) Viewer is still limited in functionality & insufficient!

[pendean]

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@SER4 wrote:

So what are people using to review 2D drawings instead of ADR?  Surely the online (Forge?) Viewer is still limited in functionality & insufficient!

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ADR can still be used, just don't expect any updates or fixes or feature adds.

Some users prefer BLUEBEAM tools, others purchase Autodesk DOCS access or projects and teams.

And... Autodesk programs like AutoCAD have offers in-app shareable reviewing for some time now, same for REVIT and INVENTOR software etc.

The possibilities are endless, you just have to looks beyond old tools.

[Electrik]

We also see this problem occurring with the Job Processor from the Vault. I wouldn't expect them to be related, but stranger things have happened... The "f" key trick does NOT work for me...although they were a lot of F bombs before I tracked down what was happening.