Remove reference to ADT

I have a client running ADT as raw AutoCAD. However, due to the nature of
ADT, many drawings have something, perhaps a dictionary, that causes all the
background ADT stuff to load when the drawing is opened. This of course is a
real pain, given that the office is NOT using any ADT content. All the
drawings have been started from a template that has no ADT content, verified
by the fact that ADT stuff doesn't load when starting a new drawing.
My questions are...
1: What causes this? Is it a dictionary? Is there a way to look at the
drawing and verify what is causing the ADT load? I have verified that there
is not any visible ADT stuff in the drawings, so it is something hidden.
2: Is the a way to automatically delete whatever is causing the load, either
when the drawing is opened, or as a batch process?

I had hoped the office would eventually adopt ADT, but it looks as if raw
AutoCAD is the way of it for the forseeable future. I suspect that they will
downgrade their subscription to just AutoCAD next summer, but in the
meantime, I would love to find an answer.

Best,
Gordon

 

Hi,

Try using "menuload" and unloading the ADT menu files.

Close down and start again.

--

Regards,


Laurie Comerford
www.cadapps.com.au

 

Hi Gordon,

Not quite sure about ADT, but in LDDT (Land Desktop), there is a profile
called "Land Enabled Autodesk Map" which starts AutoCAD without the LDDT
menus, initialization etc. This is automatically created during
installation. If there is something similar in ADT, you could use this
as a starting point for a clean AutoCAD and then remove the
ADT-objects-enabling objects.

Regards
Rakesh

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Sorry all, should have mentioned in more detail. All menus are unloaded,
templates are scratch built with NOTHING even remotely like ADT content.
Profile is built based on the 'ADT as AutoCAD' profile that the R2005
install will build for you. Also, have hacked the registry so the Layer
dialog is the Acad dialog, not the ADT version. Also, have managed to avoid
a right click on the Tool Palette, which will also load ADT stuff for no
reason.
Net result, given that Autodesk even provides a profile that claims to be
ADT as AutoCAD, there should actually be a way to get ADT to behave like
AutoCAD and stay that way.

Best,
Gordon

 

I suspect that this is it. Now to figure out how to delete everything in the
named object dictionary that starts with AEC_. Hmm... could be fun.

Thanks.
Gordon

P.s. This KB article has the scoop on the Layer Manager stuff.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/item?siteID=123112&id=4306481&linkID=2476059

 

Gordon,

If the ADT data you want to delete is contained in a single dictionary (unlikely I
guess) you could use the dictremove function. Or if you prefer a vlisp method,
something like the following.

;; function: delete a dictionary from the dictionary collection
;; argument: string - dictionary name
;; returns: T if successful
(defun DeleteDictionary ( dictname / dicts dictobj )
(setq dicts
(vla-get-dictionaries
(vla-get-activedocument
(vlax-get-acad-object))))
(and
(setq dictobj (ValidItem dicts dictname))
(not (vla-delete dictobj))
)
) ;end

;; check for item in collection
(defun ValidItem (collection item / res)
(vl-catch-all-apply
'(lambda ()
(setq res (vla-item collection item))))
res
)

If there's multiple dictionaries to delete, and again using vlisp.

(defun ListDictionaries ( / dicts lst )
(setq dicts
(vla-get-dictionaries
(vla-get-activedocument
(vlax-get-acad-object))))
(vlax-for x dicts
(if (vlax-property-available-p x 'Name)
(setq lst (cons (vlax-get x 'Name) lst))
)
)
) ;end

Then use a foreach item in the list returned, with some distilled version of the
functions above, to test for and delete the ADT specific dictionaries.

HTH
Joe Burke

 

I run ADT as STD Autocad, You will note that the desktop shortcut calls a
file adt.arg not acad.exe so first create a shortcut to acad.exe.

If you check what arx's are loaded, either command line arx command or look
in menu Tools->AutoList->Load...
you will see what AEC??????.arx are loaded, you will note that one is called
AecStartup.arx, this is responsible for renaming the title bar of autocad,
if you rename or take it out of the search paths you should end up with a
STD acad app.

Note if you want to run as ADT this will need renaming back or placed in
path. I personally leave in as I do not mine what the title bar says.

Laurence Skoropinski
Amdega Ltd

 

Gordon,
ADT loads on many triggers. The number 1 trigger is the
layer command. Another trigger is clicking on the extended tab
of the properties palette. I'm not sure what all the triggers are but
I gave up using 2005ADT for standard AutoCAD work and
reverted to 2004ADT. The service pack did not address the
problem.

In other threads, some have found that it is possible to move all
the AEC*.DLL files to another sub-directory and set up the ADT
profile to include that directory in the support files. ADT designers
discourage that workaround but for some it works fine. An obvious
problem with that approach is that patches and updates won't work
correctly if the original files are not where the install program expects
them.

Best wishes.

 

Have you checked the ObjectARX Applications on the Open and Save tab of the
Options dialog box?
Do you have it set to "Disable load on demand"?

 

They don't work on ADT2005. Good thinking though.

 

Really?? Didn't know that.

 

You can use SuperPurge at http://www.manusoft.com to VERY CAREFULLY delete
any AEC references. Backup DWG first.

Dan

 

Herman,
any chance you can email a copy of that dll? No download that I can find,
and I would really like to browse the db before I go deleting dictionary
stuff.

Much thanks,
Gordon

 

Go get Superpurge as Daniel suggested. It will show what is in the drawing
and will allow you to select what to remove. You will want to uncheck the
"Only Purgeable" option and for the objects try Registered Applications and
Dictionary Entries. When you are sure you have what you want, check the Hard
Purge option.......then purge away

 

Gordon,
There's no need for anything special. Just use ExportToAutoCAD.
It should eliminate all the ADT stuff from a single file. The difficult
task comes when there are xrefs involved. Then you must start with
the source files and work to the host files, using either aecobjectexplode
or exporttoAutoCAD on each. If you use the ExportToAutoCAD, then
you must rename to eliminate the ACAD prefix it adds to each file.

Regards,
Doug

It became such a problem for me that I reverted to ADT2004 except
where I needed something that only ADT2005 could do.

 

My problem isn't just fixing old drawings, it is the fact that we have ADT
installed to be 'only AutoCAD' and yet all this ADT crap gets into the
drawings anyway. My goal is to make the ADT install not ever break the
drawings in the first place, as I otherwise have to go thru this 'clean up
the unneeded, and unwanted, ADT crap' all the time. The whole thing has
become incredibly frustrating, and the office is looking at it as an ADT
problem, and becoming even less interested in ever adopting ADT.
At the moment my frustration level is thru the roof. I will look into
SuperPurge, but the idea of paying $30 a seat to 'fix' drawings that ADT
broke is not going to fly with the office. Truth be told, I am regretting
the decision last summer to renew the ADT Subscription. We could have saved
$1500 and a lot of hearache just admitting then that ADT is not the answer
and going back to base AutoCAD. Arg!!!

Best,
Gordon

 

Gordon,
I completely understand. Thats why I'm currently doing
all my non ADT work with ADT2004.

Sorry I couldn't be more help. Its doubtful that SuperPurge
will help much.

Regards,
Doug

 

here's a thought: if you got a vanilla copy of autocad, couldn't you downgrade your installations of ADT to just ACAD? it would seem the license agreement would support it.

--Jeremiah