Multiphysics 2012: how to configurate program for multi-seat installations?

[Anonymous]

Hi folks,

we're going to use AutoCAD Mechanical, Inventor and Simulation Multiphysics in lectures, starting next semester. Because of that we're integrating those programs in our windows 7 image for the deployment.

The students' profiles are roaming profiles, which get loaded on logon. If a student starts one of the autodesk programs for the first time, a installer window appears and the student's profile gets configured. That's fine for AutoCAD and Inventor, but not for Simulation Multiphysics. In the latter case, the installer comes up if you create a new model (it doesn't matter whether FEM or PV). During the configuration/installation, the installer doesn't find a .msi-file (algor_2012.msi) which is stored in a folder not accessable for students (one of our file-servers on the domain-network). So the configuration won't finish.

Using an account that actually have priviledges to access the .msi-file, everything finishes without problems (but it takes quiet a long time...). So my question is, how to avoid the installation phase on startup? Did anyone face the same problem?

By the way, students don't have administrator priviledges on the machines.

Best regards,

Markus

[PipePakPat · Accepted solution]

The Autodesk Simulation software will operate correctly when users are both logged in as an administrator, or logged in as a "User" account.  I have seen problems when custom login scripts are used which can cause some problems with the software.  Specifically, the two environment variables "TEMP" and "TMP" should point to directory's for which the "user" has full read/write permissions.  It doesn't make sense for the program to not have permission to edit and delete its own temporary file?

Next, the program must have read/write permissions to the following portion of the computer's registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\ALGOR\

or

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\ALGOR, Inc.\

or

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\

or

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Autodesk, Inc.\

Typically, the need to register from the original installation MSI results from un-installing a different program after the Autodesk Simulation software was installed.  This problem can relate to shared files on the system that were removed by the other program's uninstall.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your reply.

As I mentioned, I've customized a windows 7 image for deploying. For the purpose of reducing the per-machine installation time, we've added several programs like AutoCAD Multiphysics into the image. Everything worked fine on my master system - I tested it with several accounts, including some students.

After deploying the image, Multiphysics didn't work anymore (at least as long you're not an administrator on that machine). I thought about read/write access problem on several directories or registry hives, but I wasn't able to figure out if that was the case. We wrote a script that deinstalls the program and reistalls it afterwards. That fixed the problem.

But nevertheless, we'll check your advise for the next image. For the meantime, I'll mark your reply as a solution.

Best regards,

Markus