"Thank you" from Autodesk

[AlinOz]

Well, my take on this is congratulations Autodesk for at least trying to resolve those problems we users try so hard to cause. I'm sure that being an Autodesk developer would rate as one of the most difficult (if not, frustrating) jobs on the planet. They'll sit there and try to come up with every possible way that we (the end user) will stuff up the software and try to cover for our inadequacies.

I'll guarantee you that if I gave every AutoCAd User the same drawing to produce, we'd all end up with the same output, but I'd guarantee that few of us would do it the same way (some would use Polylines, other Lines, etc..). and all in a different order too...

Let's see an Architect design a building that can be used for more than it's original intention - that's what AutoCAd can do. Don't get me started on the other side of things - working with an often flakier OS on some even flakier Hardware.

Good work Autodesk and let's keep helping them to help us...

[Glen1980]

If only they'd make it work on Linux!

[julimor]

But I wonder whether there is anyone out there who has ever received an email back from Autodesk saying something like:

"Hi,

We've been working on that problem you reported yesterday and we now have a solution..."

Only in your dreams, I guess.

Actually, I think I have received a reply to almost every CER I've sent. At the time I was working for a contractor that had some sort of agreement with Autodesk. I'm not sure of the details but the IT guy said the company gets automatic upgrades and that they had to satisfy certain criteria to meet their end of the deal.

I have no idea if it had anything to do with the responses I got.

Crashing wasn't that big of a problem before I came along. Actually, the company had never done 3D before and their CAD department was an as-built department. When I started doing CAD and 3D the crashes became frequent.

"Sorry, AutoCAD cannot continue." I love that error notice! Like, "Gee, we really tried but we just can't continue any more."

I told my boss we needed better computers and not the standard CAD machines the IT guy ordered. We were on a cost-plus job so he managed to come up with $10K and I ordered two new machines from Dell. I went top of the line on the video cards and 4GB on memory. That reduced the crashes by about 80%.

I could load xrefs in that totaled as much as 70MB and view it in 3D before it would freeze up. Many of the mechanical contractor's files were over 20MB (they had to switch to 64 bit). The largest file we had was a bit over 10MB.

I learned you can't rely on ACAD requirements, especially with the video card. Once we got the new systems with 750MB memory in the video cards, it made a huge difference. All their other CAD machines had 250MB and they constantly crashed.

I talked to a rep at length one time and he told me the problem was AutoCAD was built on 1995 architecture (this was 2007) and that was a major problem in why it crashes so often. It's the same problem Windows has. And at the time he said there was no plans to rebuild the program.

Julie

[Blam]

I've received responses back a few times. The fix was usually in the form of a Service Pack that was not upgraded to. The other day, it pointed to a knowledge bank link that pointed to a nVidia driver update. They do respond and it does help.

[AlinOz]

I talked to a rep at length one time and he told me the problem was AutoCAD was built on 1995 architecture (this was 2007) and that was a major problem in why it crashes so often.

Well, that was the official Autodesk 'Line' - "AutoCAD R14 (I think) was a complete rebuild from the ground up". Well, almost - I had it from a VERY reliable non-Autodesk source (a highly regarded developer who could drill down into Autodesk's code) that even the complete rewrite contained code from the original AutoCAD (V1) as they could not replace some of the core code with the then available programming languages. So, whilst arguably the most reliable version ever was virtually a whole new rewrite, it still has some 1982 technology in there.

As for classic bugs - I reckon the best was AutoCAD's capability in all versions pre-R14 to be able to construct lines and polylines with only one defining point! Good effort. They only found this in the first 'true' Windows version R13 and whilst AutoCAD on the DOS platform was very forgiving with these non-valid objects, Windows couldn't handle them and a crash was imminent for no apparent reason. R14 fixed that problem by locating these single ended objects and rewrote it to have both ends on the same coordinate. Open an old drawing and suddenly, all these points would appear out of nowhere...

Now, there's some past history

[Jack_O'neill]

I haven't communicated with them much since R13, but with that fiasco I got enough time with them to last a lifetime. One of the guys actually gave me his direct number. After we finally got that mess working, a blue Autodesk coffee mug showed up in the mail one day. I still have it in fact.

[dtaylor]

After what I'm guessing to be about ~100 error reports that I've sent in, I've gotten one response asking for more info and my drawing file about a year ago. I haven't heard anything since. Frankly, I don't know how they can handle the flood of error reports that must come in.

[ReMark]

I'm guessing you are not on Subscription. Is that correct?

[dtaylor]

I'm guessing you are not on Subscription. Is that correct?

I'm on a subscription. Just installed 2013 yesterday.

[PotGuy]

I'm guessing that they're intersted in unqiue or re-producible errors, the latter of which was stated eariler in this thread.

But, unless it does stand out, they just compile the data and treat is a common bug; something that probably stops them replying to each report.