How to install company wide customized Revit 21 & AutoCAD 21 as default to 50 endpoints for all domain users? Sysadmin.

[rmitchellFGQ5Z]

Hello,

I'm working as a sysadmin at a 50 endpoint AEC firm. I've been trying to sort out how to cleanly deploy images of their customized version of AutoCAD 21 & Revit 21 to about 50 endpoints.

I know Autodesk documentation recommends a network deployment, using their installation tool and they have some method to create these tools via their website (revit.ini files, profile .arg, etc.). I have been able to use that, but it doesn't handle all the customization this company likes to do to their software, and how they want it to appear by default for every end user.

Should all customizeable features be located in the revit.ini files & profile .arg files, or are there other UIlayout type files that affect how the two softwares work?

Given my lack of success with the above method working (and taking a long time per machine) I thought that I could install these 3 softwares to a VMware instance, have their chief architect tweak and customize the software on the VM, and use that VM to capture a reference image that I use to deploy to the machines. I have been able to do this VM capture  & deploy to a target machine process with a local user via PDQ's smart deploy, however, the customizations and tweaks done to the image (plugins, tool palettes, etc.) do not apply or carry over to any of the domain users.

Do any of you have experience/knowledge about successfully doing something like this? How do larger firms tweak their CAD type software defaults to their company's liking and handle deployment to numerous machines? This is a relatively small firm, I can't imagine the large firms with hundreds/thousands of engineers/architects are tweaking each image/install manually or using the network deploy package for that many machines (given its slow speed). Things like default folders/templates, plug-ins, tool palettes, docked tool bars with specific tools in them, etc. Seems like this should be able to be configured once, captured, and deployed to the entire company. I don't know enough about the behind the scenes programming to know where all these settings are stored.

My next attempt was going to be doing this software customization on the VM image with it booted into Windows Audit mode, so hopefully all customizations apply to all domain users (via the hidden Default user folder), but I'm not sure this will make any difference?

Any advice or suggestions would be helpful, I'm really struggling with this issue/problem. Issue seems to be with how Autodesk products work or expect to be installed.

Thanks.

[Darin.Green]

The deployment option is what you're looking for...  Let me explain.

AutoCAD ARG file:  This file should contain all resource locations such as main and/or enterprise CUIx, lisp routines, custom blocks, etc.  The UI changes are part of the CUIx file, which the path to the CUIx is captured in the ARG file.  That said, if you have a location on the network where your company store enterprise CUI files, this will work.  However, you cannot deploy a CUI file with the deployment option directly, so you need to add additional lines within the batch file to copy those files after the install.

Revit.ini: Everything you need is in this file for Revit.  The only caveat is that you can't include custom applications outside of the ones developed by Autodesk and that's available for selection within the deployment configuration.

In my experience when working with large firms, they typically create a bare minimum deployment with only shared resources such as plot styles/configurations, and templates then push the package using SCCM.

My question for you, is what settings are you struggling with getting them added into the deployment?

[aimlessly]

@Darin.Greencan you have multiple ARG files and CUI files added via batch script as you mentioned? Is there any documentation for what kind of syntax I would use to do this, and which batch file you are referring to?

thanks

[Darin.Green]

@aimlessly Yes, you can store the ARG's and CUI files on a network drive, then within your Deployment batch file using RoboCopy.

Format:
robocopy <source> <destination> [<options>]

Example:
robocopy S:\CADConfig\CustomSettings C:\CorporateSetup /e /xo /r:3 /w:2

The example above would copy files from CustomSettings to CorporateSetup, with the following options

/e = Copy subdirectories (including empty directories)

/xo = Exclude older files from overwriting new files in the destination folder

/r:3 = If any failures, attempt 3 retries

/w:2 = Wait 2 seconds between retries

For more information RoboCopy Options see --> robocopy | Microsoft Learn

[Simon_Weel]

There's not much response to this question, to my surprise.

We're not a big firm, we run about 16 CAD stations. I created a deployment for AutoCAD and Revit using the Account-deployment tool and then download the image to a local share. We don't deploy customizations to clients but have them stored on a network share. For example, for AutoCAD we use modified menu's and LISP applications stored on that share. There's also a default AutoCAD profile on the share. You could point your users to load that AutoCAD profile, so they will have all the correct settings for support paths etc. What I tend to do is, at installation time, copy  a modified 'acad.lsp' to the client. When AutoCAD is run for the first tie, it uses the OOTB support paths and if it finds acad.lsp it will load and execute it. This acad.lsp sets the support paths to point to the network share and restarts AutoCAD. Then AutoCAD will pick up the acad.lsp on the network share, execute it and it will modify several settings.

For Revit - there's not much to customize, so what I do is prepare a revit.ini and have it copied to the client at install time. For modifications, I use the Domain login script and use the command line tool inimod to alter settings in the user's revit.ini file. If you're a Powershell-buff, then things are even easier to modify...

[rmitchellFGQ5Z]

Simon could you help point me to where ACAD stores these OOTB support paths? I haven't found good documentation yet to figured out where the program looks. I get the idea of modifying those files locations and think I can get that to work if I know where to change the files.

I know Revit - for 1st time logon/new users - pulls/copies profile default .ini and settings from the C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\<product & release>\UserDataCache folder.

Anyone have an idea where this folder/equivalent default OOTB file paths are for ACAD 2024? Or if Autodesk has documentation about it somewhere that would be great?

Thanks

[rmitchellFGQ5Z]

Darin,

I get what you're saying and I think I can make that work. I appreciate your example code for robocopy, but I'm still struggling to find the default user profile paths/locations that ACAD 24 uses to create new - 1st time logon - users. I can use that command, just am not sure where the default settings/CUI/arg files are stored for ACAD.

I know Revit - for 1st time logon/new users - pulls/copies profile default .ini and settings from the C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\<product & release>\UserDataCache folder.
as is explained here: https://help.autodesk.com/view/RVT/2024/ENU/?guid=GUID-ECD1B2C6-7612-431E-ACDE-92A557862020


Looking for the equivalent for ACAD 24 installs.

Thanks for the help!

Anyone have an idea where this folder/equivalent default OOTB file paths are for ACAD 2024? Or if Autodesk has documentation about it somewhere that would be great?

Thanks

[Simon_Weel]

There are several default support paths, but this is the main one for AutoCAD 2024:

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2024\Support

To see all support paths, just start AutoCAD and go to options: