"Thank you" from Autodesk

[CADTutor]

Thank you

 

 

Autodesk are nothing if not polite. The AutoCAD error reporting system is a good idea and at least makes you feel that they are interested in your problem: "We actively analyze..." etc. 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.

[NBC]

I actually got a response from a CER I sent off. The email arrived within 4 hours too; they basically requested more information about how the error came about. This was given to them; and by the next time I arrived at work the next day, the solution email was in my inbox.

Please note, however, that I have only sent off 1 CER, so this is by far from the norm.

[ASMI]

One my acquaintance - official tester AutoDesk, the person which receives beta versions AutoCAD and then and the official version free of charge. He speaks that AutoDesk very unlikes when to it specify in a considerable quantity of bugs after official release. And not always answers that messages. But very much likes enthusiastic messages about utility of new options.

[CADTutor]

I actually got a response from a CER I sent off. The email arrived within 4 hours too; they basically requested more information about how the error came about. This was given to them; and by the next time I arrived at work the next day, the solution email was in my inbox.

Please note, however, that I have only sent off 1 CER, so this is by far from the norm.

 

Wow! That's a great story and certainly restores my faith in the system. I've lost count of the number of CERs I've sent off and have never received a single reply.

[ReMark]

No replies here but none were ever expected in the first place so I can't say I was disappointed.

[AlinOz]

Sounds like I'm one of the few lucky ones. Like NBC I managed to get a quick response to one of my Error reports but I think that I can put it down to a function they were particularly keen to get resolved. To explain, I can replicate and crash AutoCAD 2009 (and now, so can they) at will and Autodesk is concentrating on their new fangled gadget (the Ribbon Menu). As such, it was flagged to them as a problem.

 

In the end, it wasn't sorted, but at least there was a 'sort of' workaround.

 

By the way, if you're on 2009 and you are in the 'null drawing' mode (i.e. you have NO drawings open at all -including the template you get when you firsst open AutoCAD) and you try to use the recent documents or the Sheet set manager and the drawing preview trys to pop up, you can guarantee it's good night AutoCAD.

 

Workaround is to always have at least one drawing open or don't use the recent documents or Sheet Set Manager - that was Autodek's solution - roll on 2010

[Trebuchet]

I've gotten a response form AutoDesk after submitting an error report. They emailed me and asked to get a copy of the drawing that I was working on. I complied, and never heard from them again. Although, the gentleman was indeed very polite.

[t1320t]

I've probably sent them 30-40... and NEVER received a reply. Like said above, I too, wonder if anyone is really on the other end. I'm actually communicating w an AutoCAD tech via email right now... I send him an email, then 3 days later he offers a fix like "uninstall & reinstall AutoCAD". It's hard to have any faith in a system like that.

[AlinOz]

Well, believe it or not, I've had another major bug and Autodesk has at least been back to me and been through it with me (there's another thread all about this one). OK, no resolution has been supplied, but they could most certainly replicate the problem and it has now been passed on to the Programmers for them to look at - here's hoping.

 

That being said, what you may find is that your particular issue is being experienced by thousands (perhaps tens of thousands) users worldwide and as such,it would be impossible to reply to everyone about the same problem. Sure, there have been many reports I have put in too without a response, but when an update becomes available, I get a message to say that 'you had these issues..., there is a service pack available that resolves these...' (or something like that).

 

This makes me think that there is a computer sitting there looking at your reports and if it has been submitted previously, it just stores it for later - a new issue it sends for action by a tech. So hang in there and keep sending the reports as it may just highlight a particular problem to them...

[Glen1980]

I received a response (attached below) unfortunately it was a week after the crash and I couldn't remember why it had happened.

 

Hello,

I am a developer working on the AutoCAD product line. First, let me apologize if you have already been contacted about this problem by anyone here at Autodesk and this email is a duplicate request.

Recently you submitted a crash report against AutoCAD LT 2010 but did not indicate what you were doing at the time of the crash.

 

The crash report indicated that the following drawing was current at the time of the crash: "WH119 Second Floor Central flats.dwg".

A reproducible crash means that each time you repeat a certain sequence of steps the crash happens. If this crash is reproducible would it be possible to get a copy of the drawings and the steps needed to cause the problem? Any data set you provide data will be kept confidential and only used to research this problem. From the crash report it's difficult to tell exactly what went wrong and having a way to reproduce the crash would be very helpful to us for improving the quality of the product. Any additional information that you could provide on this would be greatly appreciated. Please refer to report 28120555 for any correspondence on this issue.

Please do not send your data set if the crash is not reproducible.

 

Regards,

Mike Dickason

Senior Developer

AutoCAD Group

Autodesk, Inc.

[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:D

[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.

Edited November 27, 2012 by PotGuy
*Typo*