Launch Civil 3D from double clicking DWG and NOT acad map

[CCarleton]

.................
Don't forget the wise words of Mark Kiker: "Don’t let a management problem become a technology problem"

Interesting read overall but....

Page 14: Dealing with troublemakers.
Employ pier pressure.

Dying over here

On topic, Not going to lie I'm sure I also click from windows a good bit, but I know that seeing a red icon is bad and I never see it. I did tell a co-worker the other day to make sure he doesn't have that.

[BlackBox]

.................
Don't forget the wise words of Mark Kiker: "Don’t let a management problem become a technology problem"

... Never will, he's had a significant impact on me personally & professionally, during a very challenging time my life:

2018-01-26_12-03-13.png


Cheers

[Coolmo]

Just to make things even more fun with this topic... Turns out that the only computers in our office that actually work by double clicking from Explorer (to bring up the "blue" icon) are the ones that are still running Windows 7 and not Windows 10. The one guy who's computer IS running Windows 10 where double clicking works, was upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 7. I'm not certain... but I'm pretty certain this has something to do with it.

[BlackBox]

Interesting observation, Coolmo.

Again, icon color aside, everything works fine using the correct product and Profile using the Registry modification above (per Autodesk's KB, using YOUR app icon's Target path + switches) in Windows 10, and is something that can be modified using REGEDIT, GPO, Netlogon Script, or even included in your Acad.lsp using Vl-Registry-Write LispFunction like so:

(vl-load-com)

;;; Fix DWG double-click from Explorer
(defun c:FixDwgDc (/ key)
  (vl-registry-write
    (strcat
      (setq key
             "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Autodesk\\DWGCommon\\shellex\\Apps"
      )
      "\\"
      (car (vl-registry-descendents key))
    )
    "OpenLaunch"
    "\"C:\\CAD\\FOO.bat\""                                              ; <-- Your Target value here
  )
  (princ)
)

;;; Autorun for Acad.lsp
(c:FixDwgDc)

(princ)

Cheers

[Coolmo]

Thanks BlackBox
Is that just a one time run thing where I type and run that little lisp routine once with my "target" info in it and then it'll work from there on out or is this something that needs to run from my ACAD.LSP file every time?

[MKearney028]

As much as I agree with everyone that it should not be done this way, some battles just aren't worth fighting. I know I have bigger issues than this. I've found this to work without editing the registry.

o Right click on a .dwg file and select Open with…>Choose another app>More Apps>Look for another app on this PC (be sure that “Always use this app to open .dwg files” is checked.)
o Browse to the location of your Civil 3D shortcut (i.e. your desktop or C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D 2016 – English) and select Civil 3D 2016 Imperial

[Tom Beauford]

Remember to change it every time you upgrade and don't expect those drawings you opened to be in Civil 3D's recently-used file list and your open drawing may or may not be in the current folder which can cause issues with xref paths, etc…

All just to avoid doing it the way AutoCAD says it should be done. Surprised it took so long for someone to post the answer, hopefully gave them time to think about it at least.

[C3Dguy68]

You've already told them how to do it correctly. If they're still lacking the mental tools to open Civil 3D I wouldn't rely them to work with it either. Fire them and when interviewing replacements have them show you they can open Civil 3D by themselves.

I so much agree - I wish it were that simple!

[kbiggs]

I use the Send To right click option on my mouse to open drawings with different versions and profiles, works well, I have desktop shortcuts setup with different profiles, then copy these to my Send To folder
SendTo.png

Keith Biggs

[rkmcswain]

I browsed this thread again (but did not read every single word...).

We mostly all agree that double-clicking DWG files, will, at best, give unpredictable results.

Ignoring the management aspect of this for a minute, did anyone figure out the technical reason WHY there might be a different colored icon and in some cases, different splash screen (sometimes I see the red AutoCAD splash screen instead of the normal C3D blue one)?

Obviously, there has to be a technical reason behind this. Did the programmer write it to chose a random splash screen and icon color? Doubtful.