The new RegApps infection warning is causing my co-workers and me more issues so far than the RegApps infection itself.
When I open a given file, the recently redesigned, orange RegApps infection warning dialog box appears. The "close" button in this dialog box is grayed out and has what appears to be a delay of 40 seconds before the "close" becomes un-grayed, rendering AutoCAD disabled during those 40 seconds. While I wait for the "close" button to become un-grayed, I am presented with two links to the Land F/X website. As I read through these links, I am inevitably led to the same solution, to download the RegApps utility from the Autodesk website. When I try running this utility, however, a sequence of error messages appear, saying that the utility could not locate the necessary support files to run (see attached images). Since both options in the orange Land F/X dialog box inevitably lead to the same defective utility from the Autodesk website, all I am able to do when the orange box appears is sit and wait for the "close" button to become usable. As I open and close the various xrefs of a multidisciplinary project, this time adds up noticeably over the course of one work day.
As a workaround, I tried running the DELREGAPPS command on a specific CAD file as soon as I am able to close the orange box. When I ran this command, the command bar reads, "97,831 registered applications deleted." I immediately saved the file. The next time I opened the file or any file it is xref'ed into, the orange box appears again, saying, "97,831 corrupt objects detected." Every time I run DELREGAPPS on this same file, the same result happens.
This "infection" issue has happened in multiple projects over the last year for my co-workers as well. We have never tried to "disinfect" the files other than through the same procedures given in this post. We have also never lost a file or a Land F/X project due to an "infection" (knock on wood).
Here are my questions:
- Is there a solution that we are unaware of to resolve a Land F/X file infection?
- Is there a solution that we are unaware of that will cause the orange box to stop appearing if I cannot get the Autodesk utility to work or the file disinfected?
- Are my co-workers and I the only users the new orange box is causing a larger problem for than it is solving?
Neal,
Typically that error about the missing acdb23.dll file only occurs if you do not extract the files into your AutoCAD folder under Program Files.
The question you didn’t ask, is what sort of risk you can have in not cleaning these files. You can expect any number of Land F/X entities to be reverted to dumb blocks. Some users have even had files so damaged they couldn’t be opened. Knock on wood indeed.
—J
Neal,
Typically that error about the missing acdb23.dll file only occurs if you do not extract the files into your AutoCAD folder under Program Files.
The question you didn’t ask, is what sort of risk you can have in not cleaning these files. You can expect any number of Land F/X entities to be reverted to dumb blocks. Some users have even had files so damaged they couldn’t be opened. Knock on wood indeed.
—J
Neal,
As part of our workflow at our office we run the BATCMAN command on any and all files that we receive from clients/consultants. You can run the BATCHMAN command on all files at the same time vs running the DELREGAPPS command one at a time. As an extra step, we also run the NUKE command on files that we know are prone to issues such as civil files and any arch files that get "saved down" from Revit. We do this to any and all files before we ever xref them or even place them in our project folders. This has eliminated over 99% of the "Orange Box" issues.
While these steps take time to do, we rather spend the time to "fix" the files before they become a project wide issue. Land F/X has several Power Tips and help topics on how to make this part of your workflow.
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
-CadMonkey
Glasir Design Irrigation Consulting
Jeremiah and CadMonkey,
Thanks for your help. Several of the CAD gurus in my office took charge on this issue on my behalf a several months ago and discovered that there was a cleaning utility I did not have on my computer. Once they ran that cleaning utility on my files (there were several of them with the infection issue), it resolved this issue, and the infections have yet to be seen again.
One of these people hypothesizes that the infection issue was likely related to the way an xreffed civil engineering drawing was configured (maybe a pipe network or surface or something). Have either of you encountered an issue related to this before?
Neal :)
Neal,
I'm happy to hear that the cleaning utility has been added to your workstation and that you are no longer experiencing the error when you open your files. I can't say what type of configuration on civil CAD files cause the errors on our CAD files because we've never looked into why civil files are typically the culprits of errors. Even if we did figure out the configuration/s causing the errors on civil files, it's next to impossible to get a consultant to change their workflow especially when their workflow doesn't include getting files cleaned up for a program that they don't use or depend on like Land F/X. What I can say is that in our experience civil files and files saved down from Revit are typically the worst 'offenders' when it comes to errors and reg apps that can infect our working CAD files in Land F/X. And since we can't get other consultants to change the way they do things, we can change the way we do things. So that's why we use the BATCHMAN and NUKE commands/tools on any and all files we receive from outside consultants.
-CadMonkey
Glasir Design Irrigation Consulting
CadMonkey,
Same; I have never inquired about this either. This information about Revit is good to know. Thanks!
Neal :)
CadMonkey,
I agree with your workflow. Our problem runs deeper. One of our Civil offices has an engineer, or engineers, that use their own CAD routines. We ref their drawings and can't so much more than cleanup the regapps (no nuking). Then everything works fine until that (those) user(s) open back up the drawings. I've tried to find out who it is, but have been unsuccessful.
Good hearing from you L. It would be nice to have a taco and beer some time.
- Seaweed
Neal,
Reassociating all of our LandFX blocks would be bad. I'd recommend taking the correct precautions. Even if it's a hassle, its ropable less of a hassle than reassociating multiple blocks. Right?
-Seaweed
Seaweed,
I do not envy the problem that you have with your civil files. When we have similar issues in our office (from in-house Arch to Larch), we copy the Arch xref files from the Arch folder, clean them up, and then copy them to our Larch folder. The Arch people are tasked with letting us know if and when they modify the Arch files for any reason so we can clean a copy of the files and copy them over. A couple extra steps that can sometimes be overlooked, I know, but it sure beats having their files mess up ours.
Man, a taco and a beverage sure sound pretty good right now. Unfortunately, I'm still mostly locked up tight in my "bunker" due to the goings on around the country and the world. Once things start looking better we should definitely get together and talk shop again.
-CadMonkey
Glasir Design Irrigation Consulting
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