Manual Object Enabler Install

[wizard_ettore]

It's a weird question, and I did my best with Google to no avail.

We have installed the Siemens 2020 FactoryCAD Object Enablers on our PCs at work. However, they only do their thing if they're run on an account with domain admin access OR they've been run at least once on a user that previously had administrative access.

Our shop has an I.T guy that is generally not here. Only he has the power to grant administrative access to users. I am the "junior" I.T guy in charge of fixing this problem "soon". The head I.T guy will not grant temporary administrative access to users, and to be fair, solving this will be a thing we need to eventually do anyhow.

How does AutoCAD know what enablers to use? I found a folder with similarly named items to the proxy entities that were installed with FactoryCAD, but manually loading them gives errors (crashes AutoCAD). I'm trying to figure out how to tell AutoCAD that these enablers are here, and/or grant access to the folder the tool requires to create these initial conditions.

Siemens support is ... lacking.

[ed57gmc]

Have you tried installing under the user's account (while he is logged in) and then right click Run As Admin and enter your admin credentials?

[wizard_ettore]

I was done for the day yesterday, so I wasn't as complete with my question as I should have (steps in order):

1. Install as the user, run as admin. Software installs, AutoCAD cannot use the enabler.
2. Login as my admin user, AutoCAD "CAN" use the enabler.
3. Login as the user, AutoCAD cannot use the enabler.
4. Set the user as an administrator on the folders that the software uses (program files\siemens ... and program files\common files\siemens...), AutoCAD cannot use the enablers.
5. Start AutoCAD and appload what I believe are the enablers (the names of them correspond to the proxy names that come up at load), AutoCAD crashes.
6. Remove the software and install as my administrative user. Try the above, same results.

Users that had these enablers installed when they were admins, the enabler still works. I was unable to find anything that is different for a working user vs a non-working user, but since it corresponds to the user, I'm guessing it's either in %appdata% for that user, or in HKEY_CURRENT_USER in the registry. I expect the software, because it is installing as an administrator, is using the administrator's account to store some secret-sauce that makes it work. Hmmm, I "COULD" give them access to my administrator folder ........

I tried monitoring the registry, but AutoCAD hammers the registry so bad, I can't catch what is happening.

[Simon_Weel]

The install guide doesn't mention you need admin permissions to run the stuff. There's a part in the Siemens 2020 FactoryCAD Object Enablers install guide about file locations and registry settings, see page 4-2 and 4.3: Factory 2020 Install Guide (siemens.com)

Could that be of any help?

[mdavis22569]

You might need to reach out to Siemens for their requirements.

Autodesk requires some Admin rights. 

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Error-...

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/learn-explore/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/You-want...

[wizard_ettore]

It fails to install without administrative rights. I assume it's not in the guide because they tested with a user that had admin rights, or they just omitted it. Of all the design houses I've worked at, almost all of them required users to be administrators for the software to work; legacy software being poorly patched to work with new design considerations, I expect.

[wizard_ettore]

I did. Their solution was to make users administrators temporarily. I'm hoping to get a hold of someone who knows how this software works, but I doubt it will happen.

[mdavis22569]

Some Admin rights are needed for updates / installs etc. 

If the Senior doesn't want to allow it .. then he should try installing all of the updates.  There has to be some give on rights for it all to work properly.

Autodesk and Siemens both have said you need to give some Admin rights.. I that should be enough for him 

[wizard_ettore]

AutoDesk has not said you need admin rights; they fixed this issue a long time ago, their software works perfectly in this regard. There are many object enablers that work totally fine as a "regular" user (including the Siemens ones, if the followed proper programming practices), it's Siemens who is writing data to an inaccessible spot to a regular user during installation.

I was just hoping to figure out how AutoDesk tracks where the enablers are, so I can manually update that to point to the spot the Siemens ones are installed. I'll probably just give them administrative access to my admin user; it's a dumb workaround, but I don't have anything of value in my admin user folder.

[mdavis22569]

Autodesk has not said you need admin rights;  - OK .. 

(we've shown they have and they have AKN's saying some are needed. If it works for the IT with rights .. that's telling me it's needed too) 

"Administrative privileges are required for installing or configuring the product" when installing Autodesk software

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Error-...

For: I was just hoping to figure out how AutoDesk tracks where the enablers are,

Put a support ticket in .. get with the developers.  Not going to get that full answer on the forums unfortunately

[wizard_ettore]

(we've shown they have and they have AKN's saying some are needed. If it works for the IT with rights .. that's telling me it's needed too)

My first post points out you do not need administrative rights for AutoCAD to use the tool. You just need them during the installation process on your specific user so the installer knows to use your user folder instead of some spot that you're not supposed to use (aka: a protected folder).

I've got it licked anyway; I installed the software using an installation tracking tool and found out where the offending files were being installed to.

[mdavis22569]

For the installation and a few things, they do require some admin rights.

Some folders and registries need access.   ( see tickets all the time about having to grant access) 

[wizard_ettore · Accepted solution]

In case anyone wants to know how to fix this.

I ran software to track the installation and, as expected, the tool writes registry settings to HKCU instead of HKLM. To fix this
- Install the enabler as normal (ideally logged in as an administrator; you'll eventually have to do it anyway). 
- Open the registry editor and export this "folder" to a spot accessible by all users (an external drive, c:\temp, etc etc)
-- HKCU\Software\Autodesk\ObjectDBX\R23.1\Applications
- Login as the user.
- Merge the registry file.

I'm not sure what happens if you put this in HKLM instead (you can edit the .reg file with a text editor and find/replace), but I expect it probably works. If it does, you will not have to merge that file for every user.