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

[BlackBox]

Not sure that I can help with the icons, other than to say that icons tend to be the result of 'default app settings' within Windows.

The splash screens however, are derived from the BMP file assigned to RCData 144 : 1033 within AcBrandRes.dll & C3DBrandRes.dll respectively, which can be modified with any resource editor app. Here's an old post as example.

Typically, the applicable splash image is displayed via the /product switch in the respective application icon Properties target path, however I have seen situations where right clicking a DWG, selecting Open With results in the last used Profile (even if C3D in my case) but still has the red icon in task bar, vanilla AutoCAD splash and even a red menu browser icon. So long as C3D is already open prior to the right click, open with in File Explorer, everything seems to work as expected (opening the DWG in my active C3D session).

Cheers

[rkmcswain]

Thanks BB.

This is a new PC, new install of C3D 2017 and 2019.
User only uses 2017, and DWG action program is the "AutoCAD DWG Launcher"
In this particular case, if the user dbl-clicks DWG file then the C3D splash screen appears and Civil 3D 2017 loads, but the icon in the taskbar is the RED (AutoCAD) one.



If user opens C3D 2017 first, then opens the DWG file, the taskbar icon is the normal BLUE (Civil 3D)one, stacked on the taskbar icon.



Again, this is not a big deal functionality-wise, but I would love to just know WHY. Someone, somewhere made a programming decision on this.

[BlackBox]

Again, this is not a big deal functionality-wise, but I would love to just know WHY. Someone, somewhere made a programming decision on this.

Correct; There simply is no acceptable reason for this.

[BlackBox]

Resurrecting this old thread, as I recently stumbled onto a solution for this issue.

As example:

Say workstation has 2019 and 2021 installed, but 2019 is 'default' for all projects, and you want 2019 to be default version used for DWG double click from File Explorer, simply set this key in registry after copying the desired switches from the application shortcut you normally use:

(vl-load-com)
;;;--------------------------------------------------------------------;
;; Set default DWG double click open version
(if
  (setq	vrsn
	 (substr
	   (setq vrsn
		  (vl-registry-read
		    (strcat
		      "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\"
		      (if vlax-user-product-key				 ; If 2013+
			(vlax-user-product-key)				 ; Use new function
			(vlax-product-key)				 ; Use legacy function
		      )
		    )
		    "ProductName"
		  )
	   )
	   (- (strlen vrsn) 13)
	   4
	 )
  )
   (progn
     (vl-registry-write
       "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Autodesk\\DwgCommon\\shellex\\apps\\{F29F85E0-4FF9-1068-AB91-08002B27B3D9}:AutoCAD\\"
       "OpenLaunch"
       (strcat
	 "\"C:\\Program Files\\Autodesk\\AutoCAD " vrsn
	 "\\acad.exe\" /ld \"C:\\Program Files\\Autodesk\\AutoCAD " vrsn
	 "\\\\AecBase.dbx\" /p \"" (getvar 'cprofile) "\" /product \"C3D\" /language \"en-US\" \"%1\""
	 )
     )
     (setq vrsn nil)
;;;--------------------------------------------------------------------;
     ;; Disable DWG right click print 
     (vl-registry-write
       "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Autodesk\\DwgCommon\\shellex\\apps\\{F29F85E0-4FF9-1068-AB91-08002B27B3D9}:AutoCAD\\"
       "PrintDdeExec"
       ""
     )
     (vl-registry-write
       "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Autodesk\\DwgCommon\\shellex\\apps\\{F29F85E0-4FF9-1068-AB91-08002B27B3D9}:AutoCAD\\"
       "PrintLaunch"
       ""
     )
   )
)

This can be added to AcadDoc.lsp for all versions or even set via Netlogon script when user logs into Windows.

HTH

[Edit] - Per this post, revised this to work for any version; compared variations using substrings of vlax-user-product-key, vlax-machine-product-key, and (findfile "acad.exe"), and vlax-user-product-key won the speed test.