Preparing for a Critical Software Failures

Sometimes software has a critical failure and you are better off (or forced to) reinstalling. It could be AutoCad, Office or even Windows. Just in case, it pays off to have the product information and serial keys saved or written down somewhere.

Autocad

You can access Autocad product and serial info via the about command:
Hit the downward arrow next to the help button then click "About..." to bring up the serial info. Either write down the info or screen capture it is a image file and put it in a safe place.

Windows & Office

For Windows and Office product keys, you can hunt them down through the registry key. A better solution though, is to use a free utility to do it for you. A good key finder currently is Magical Jelly Bean. It installs clean, works quickly and is free.

System Restore Points 

If you have not checked recently, be sure to check you operating system and make sure you have a recent system restore point. Having a good restore point can save you hours of reinstalling software from scratch.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Alignment to Polyline: How to Make a Polyline Copy of an Alignment or Profile

Sometimes we need a polyline copy of an alignment whether it's for presentation, making target lines, drawing right-of-way lines, etc.   *update (JHK 2018-07-29)* The easiest way to create a polyline copy of an alignment is to just select the alignment and use the offset command. I will test if it can be offset by 0 (I doubt it). If not, just offset it back. I will also test if the offset command works on profile and re-update this article.  Here is how to make a polyline copy of an alignment: Adjust the alignment or profile style to prepare. Usually this involves making sure that the line layer is turned on and the extension lines and markers are turned off. Copy the alignment/profile. Select the copy of the alignment/profile and explode it. It should have turned into a block. (Optional) Select the block and isolate it. It helps to do this when there is a lot of clutter around the alignment in question. This can be done either via the light bulb icon in th...
Continue »

The XLIST Window is too Narrow!

The default width of the XLIST information window is quite narrow. If either the layer name or the drawing name is long, you may not be able to see all the layer information from an xlist. It's a lot easier to see the layer name if the dialogue box is set wider.  Here is how to change the width of the xlist dialogue box: Go to the following folder: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D 2014\Express Open the file XLIST.DCL with a text editor. Look for instances of the following setting : text {         key = "sLayer";         width = 30;       } In each instance of the seeting, change the width value to something bigger. I use 150 myself. e.g.: : text {         key = "sLayer";         width = 150;       } Note that there are three instances of this setting in the fil...
Continue »

Infraworks: Javascript to Randomize Species and Height

What it Does and Where to Paste It The script below is to replace the default tree feature script that is in the "Script" tab of the data source configuration.  Adjust percent chance of tree type by modifying the if condition (Math.random() > 0.5) Set the base line scale factor for each tree type by modifying the scaleFactor variable. Set how much variance you want to allow by modifying scaleVariationMax variable. The Script: I hope you find this useful.
Continue »