Blast from the Past - Autocad R12 & R14

Hi All,

I was wondering if anyone has tried loading Autocad R14 onto Windows XP.

The reason I ask is that we (our office) would like to go old school.

Currently we are running Autocad 2006 - okay this is old school too but not as old school as R14.

We are thinking of getting a copy of R14 so that we we can plot ink on mylar drawings using a vintage HP technical pen plotter (an HP 7475A).

From what I've read Autocad R14 was the last version of Autocad to work well with vector plotters - please let me know if this is not correct.

Also, on a side note, can 2006 drawings be imported into R14 without much fuss?

Many thanks!

You should be able to save to a R14 drawing file format from 2006.

A friend of mine is running R-14 on his computer.

He has the computer setup for dual boot with Win98 and XP.

I send him dwg's often, I just have to save them in the R-14 format before sending.

A friend of mine is running R-14 on his computer.

 

He has the computer setup for dual boot with Win98 and XP.

 

I send him dwg's often, I just have to save them in the R-14 format before sending.

Hi, thanks for the intel. Dual boot - hmm, this sounds interesting - but not something I've done before. Would you happen to know if this is easy to set up - we mostly run laptops here? Might be just the ticket though, as we wouldn't have to dedicate one computer to Win 98 to accomplish our pen plotter (using R14) mission.

I was checking the 'save as' feature in our Autocad '06 software. It allows us to save in an Autocad R12 format (as a dxf file) or in Autocad 2000 (as a dxf or dwg file). Is Autocad 2000 the same thing as R14? Thx again!

AutoCAD 2000 is not the same as R14. There were a number of differences between the two releases.

I checked AutoCAD 2007 and it had R14 listed but only for .dwg file format.

Run r14 in Win2K mode and you should be home free. You should be able to install as normal, after installing right-click on the icon and select properties and click on the compatibility tab. Select either Win2K or Win98. Honestly I have run r12 LT in XP so I do not see why r14 will not run in XP. Forget dual boot, it's just not worth it. If you need to go that route MS gives away Virtual PC which can run other OSes without dual booting.

I have r14 at home and might try to run it tonight when I get home to see if it works.

AutoCAD 2000 is not the same as R14. There were a number of differences between the two releases.

 

I checked AutoCAD 2007 and it had R14 listed but only for .dwg file format.

Hi ReMark. Our version of Autocad 2006 has R12, 2000 & 2004 but no R14. Do you think I could save as an R12 dxf file and then import into R14 - or maybe it's better to find an old copy of R12 right off the bat? Then the question is - what is the most current version of Windows that R12 will run on. Thx!

Run r14 in Win2K mode and you should be home free. You should be able to install as normal, after installing right-click on the icon and select properties and click on the compatibility tab. Select either Win2K or Win98. Honestly I have run r12 LT in XP so I do not see why r14 will not run in XP. Forget dual boot, it's just not worth it. If you need to go that route MS gives away Virtual PC which can run other OSes without dual booting.

I have r14 at home and might try to run it tonight when I get home to see if it works.

Hi f700es. Thank you for the info. Okay, Win2k mode - and apologies in advance for this basic question - but how does one get to Win2k mode from Win 98? Regarding running r12 Lt in XP - if I could ask, were you using r12 to allow you to have a pen plotter? I'm fine using r12 or r14 whichever we can find working used copy of. We would like to take line drawings (no text) from our current version of Autocad (v. 2006) and import them into an earlier print vector friendly version of Autocad so we can send to our 'new' HP 7475A plotter. Thx!

Hi f700es. Thank you for the info. Okay, Win2k mode - and apologies in advance for this basic question - but how does one get to Win2k mode from Win 98? Regarding running r12 Lt in XP - if I could ask, were you using r12 to allow you to have a pen plotter? I'm fine using r12 or r14 whichever we can find working used copy of. We would like to take line drawings (no text) from our current version of Autocad (v. 2006) and import them into an earlier print vector friendly version of Autocad so we can send to our 'new' HP 7475A plotter. Thx!

Oh OK, so it's the plotter drivers that are the sticking point correct?

In WinXP you can install and run applications in compatibility mode (such as Win98 and Win2K).

Oh OK, so it's the plotter drivers that are the sticking point correct?

 

In WinXP you can install and run applications in compatibility mode (such as Win98 and Win2K).

Hi, exactly - yes, from what I've read the current Windows' drivers - I think post Win 98 - aren't friendly to vector style plotters as they are set-up for raster plotters. We were thinking to purchase an old copy of Autocad R12 or R14 and run this on Win 98. We would then 'save as' from '06 to R12 or R14 before plotting line drawings. One snag here seems to be that '06 (at least our version) has r12, 2000 & 2004 as options - but no R14 (perhaps we can save as r12 and still use with r14?). We do have an old licensed copy of 2002 (when we started our office) - not sure if this gets us anywhere though. I was looking through eBay and there look to be copies of both r12 and r14 available for a song. Thx!

Right. Autocad 2006 does not Save As R14 format for some reason. So you might want to download the free Autodesk DWG TrueView software. It will allow you to convert your files back to R14.

Right. Autocad 2006 does not Save As R14 format for some reason. So you might want to download the free Autodesk DWG TrueView software. It will allow you to convert your files back to R14.

Hi Cad64, Thank you. I'll check out this link. So I can open an Autocad 2006 drawing in TrueView and then save as an r14 file?

Hi, exactly - yes, from what I've read the current Windows' drivers - I think post Win 98 - aren't friendly to vector style plotters as they are set-up for raster plotters. We were thinking to purchase an old copy of Autocad R12 or R14 and run this on Win 98. We would then 'save as' from '06 to R12 or R14 before plotting line drawings. One snag here seems to be that '06 (at least our version) has r12, 2000 & 2004 as options - but no R14 (perhaps we can save as r12 and still use with r14?). We do have an old licensed copy of 2002 (when we started our office) - not sure if this gets us anywhere though. I was looking through eBay and there look to be copies of both r12 and r14 available for a song. Thx!

Huh, well I am going to have to disagree and say that they are vectors drivers until I am proved wrong. Not doubting you but I fail to see why they would switch and what advantage it would be to switch like that. They might be that way but I have no idea about it

I can still try to see if r14 will install on XP when I get home though.

Sean

So I can open an Autocad 2006 drawing in TrueView and then save as an r14 file?

Yes, you will be able to convert your files to R14 format. The documentation on the website will explain everything.

I run R12Win R13Win and R14 under XP without any problems.

I've tried several virtual machines to Run 98SE under XP for R12DOS and R13DOS. Video drivers are a major problem and you take major performance hit as well.

R14 is a problem under Vista:

http://discussion.autodesk.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=543852

Intellicad 2001 runs under XP as well. I can get it to run ( poorly ) in Vista. The install program bombs at the end and doesn't fully finish the configuration.

R14 wasn't all of that freindly as setting up plot drivers. It only see 1 system driver ( the default plotter) and drivers that are setup directly in AutoCAD so you will need to have access to the driver.

Good Luck! -David

Huh, well I am going to have to disagree and say that they are vectors drivers until I am proved wrong. Not doubting you but I fail to see why they would switch and what advantage it would be to switch like that. They might be that way but I have no idea about it

I can still try to see if r14 will install on XP when I get home though.

 

Sean

Hi Sean, You could be right and thank you for taking a look at R14 on XP. To be honest I guess I won't know until I get the plotter here in our office. I did find - on our version of Autocad (2006) that there is an option to select an HP 7475A pen plotter. Could be that this will work no problem using 2006 and Win XP - though from what I've read it seems like pen plotter users are saying Win 98 & Autocad R14 are what you need to be running to be compatible. Best.

I was able to plot from AutoCAD 2004 using a Mutoh pen/pencil plotter. That's a couple of versions past R14.

I was able to plot from AutoCAD 2004 using a Mutoh pen/pencil plotter. That's a couple of versions past R14.

Hi ReMark. Great news! We have a copy of Autocad 2002 here so maybe we could go this route if 2006 proves tricky for our HP. If I could ask, how did you set up your pen assignments? Thx!

Pen assignments were AutoCAD standard. Pen 1=red, pen 2=yellow, etc.

Pen assignments were AutoCAD standard. Pen 1=red, pen 2=yellow, etc.

Hi ReMark, in our version of Autocad (2006) the Plot Style Table Editor has the following categories:

color | dither | grayscale | pen # | virtual pen # | screening | linetype | adaptive | lineweight | line end style | line join style | fill style

How did you set up these to communicate with your pen plotter?

Thx!