Losing Support Paths / Network Problem

[mzabritski]

All of our AutoCAD installations run with all support paths and profiles mapped to a drive that is on the server. No problem in our 2 main offices.

We have a third small office that uses a Vista desktop computer with a shared folder instead of a true server. That shared folder is mapped to a drive (K:) on each computer and all support files are located there, just like the other offices. The problem is that even though the computers there have K mapped and don't lose the path, AutoCAD loses the profile and all support paths when starting. We then have to reload the user profile. After it is loaded, it works fine until the next day / login. Then we start all over again.

This is happening on the 2 computers that are connected to that K drive. Any ideas? I'm wondering if there are any issues in mapping AutoCAD to a shared drive instead of a true server share.

Michael

[irneb]

I think it's a similar scenario to what's happening in this thread: http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?p=927560

Mapping in a Pier-to-pier network (i.e. no server and 10 or less users) was bad for this even since the old Win98 days, we've even had this happening on MS 2008 Server. The drive may be mapped, but until you actually view it in Explorer it's not connected, so AutoCAD opens and finds that the path doesn't exist (as if it's a CD you didn't insert), then removes that path from the support folders.

It's not an ACAD fault ... it's a M$ "feature". All I can say is open the folder in explorer prior to starting ACAD. Maybe add a link to that folder in your Start menu's Start Up foler so this is opened every time you boot up.

[mzabritski]

That fixed it. Thanks for the help! It was driving us crazy.