Sequencing DWG TrueView 2015 with App-V 5.0 SP2

TrueView2015

There are several recipes out there for DWG TrueView 2014 and older, but I couldn’t find one for 2015. So here’s one for your sequencing pleasure. I’ll start off by saying that the recipe is very similar to the other ones out there, but I modified a few things to make the process simpler.

Sequencing System:

Server 2008 R2

App-V 5.0 SP2 with HotFix 4


Prerequisites-

Microsoft .NET 4.5

The following Visual C++  redistributables (if not using App-V 5.0 SP2):

  • 2008 x64 with SP1
  • 2010 x64 with SP1
  • 2012 x64 update 4

If you are using SP2, you do not need to worry about having C++ in your base build.

A sample DWG file – I grabbed one from here


Exclusions:

Remove the local appdata exclusion

If you do not remove this, the application will not launch when deployed.


Installation:

PVAD: Default location of C:\Program Files\Autodesk

Install using all default selections

Launch the DWG TrueView software.

This is where I differ from the other recipes and I’ll explain why.

Launching TrueView while sequencing will create the FTAs in the virtual environment. There will be no FTAs in editing mode if you do not launch it before finishing the sequence. Another reason is that you will need to open one of the sample DWG files I mentioned above. Doing so will drop two DLLs into AppData that will allow the application to open CAD files when published to a user (that’s the purpose of this application, right?). If those DLLs aren’t put into the package, you will be presented with this lovely message:

TrueView Missing DLL

Normally you could copy the DLLs to AppData from the originating location, but you won’t find them anywhere. Or you could always copy in the DLLs from another machine and manually create the FTAs, but why go through those extra steps?

Anyways, after you launch DWG and open the sample file, close DWG and finish the sequence.

Go straight to editing unless you need to optimize the package or restrict OS deployment.


Editing:

There will be some extra shortcuts that show up due to us launching the application. I removed all shortcuts except for DWG TrueView 2015.  None of the others show up in the start menu or desktop.

Go to the package files tab and browse to: ‘VFS\AppData\Autodesk\DWG TrueView 2015 – English\R13\enu\recent\select file’

Delete the file that shows up in this folder (This is a shortcut to the sample file you opened).

Go to the registry tab and browse to: ‘CurrentUserSID\Software\Autodesk\DWG TrueView\R13\dwgviewr-E001:409\Recent File List’

Delete the ‘Recent File List’ registry key (This will clear the recent files in the application).

Save your package and deploy.

 

Possible errors you may receive:

  • A DLL error when opening a DWG file. Be sure to launch a sample file while sequencing as mentioned above
  • Launching the published application and receiving: Unhandled e0434352h exception at fe0xxxx. Make sure you have .NET 4.5.X on your target machine.

Bonus:

Direct download links for DWG TrueView 2015

64-bit

32-bit

29 thoughts to “Sequencing DWG TrueView 2015 with App-V 5.0 SP2”

  1. I’ve been working at this a good chunk of yesterday. This morning I found this post and first time out of the gate I’m up and running! I’m using SP3, and worked as advertised. Thanks!

  2. Works for me!! Sp2. I had a crash after the first start but the second time it worked good. Thx for the recipe.

  3. Hi Ryan, excellent recipe. I’ve sequenced the x64 bit version and while it appears to work the applications hangs when trying to use help. Help start a 32bit process achelp.exe from the common files folder but doesn’t display. any thoughts ?

    Regards

    1. I dug up my sequence and indeed it hangs when you try to open help. I did find if you close achelp.exe that it will open up after that.

      A few things to try:
      – Sequence using a Dummy PVAD, but installing to the default location. For example, set the PVAD to C:\Dummy
      – Try selecting or deselecting the local interaction options on the advanced tab in the editor.
      – If those fail, try running procmon.

  4. Thanks for the recipe; with a few minor adjustments, this also works with AppV 5 HF1 & Design Review 2016

    In the Design Review 2016 Edition, the regkey for recent files is not present. The shortcut in the VFS is the only artifact remaining.

  5. I just sequenced Autodesk DWG TrueView 2017 in AppV 5. In this case just including the DLL’s is not enough, the App wants to be able to recompile the files in the physical file system. Even if the DLL files are included with Full VFS permission it will give Access Denied or Path Not Found (even trying to delete the files in an Explorer within the sequence gives a Path not Found, even though attributes and permissions seem normal, so something strange is going on). I pointed the RoamableRootFolder to %temp% in the registry to allow the app to recompile the DLL outside of the package. That seems to work.

    1. Jorn – we are struggling with DWG TrueView 2017 in App-V 5. Interested in knowing which bits of the original recipe you stuck to and where / when you set the RoamableRoot regkey. Any help much appreciated.

  6. Jorn – can you do us a favour please? We are struggling to sequence 2017 in App-V. Would you mind explaining a bit more which of the stages in the initial recipe you kept to and where / when you set the RoamableRootFolder during sequencing. Would be much appreciated.

  7. Getting back to this. I just published my final working package to our customers.
    There was another issue with the exe AcWebBrowser being called by the main executable during runtime. The package did not like this at all and basically kept executing AcWebBrowser endlessly under a locked down user.
    This is something called Chromium, which you can find a lot of complaints about online (also for AutoCad).
    Crude solution I found online is to exclude the process by renaming the AcWebBrowser folder. This causes the initial screen to have an empty interface, but improves performance of the packaged app.

    So, very basically the steps (in Windows Server 2012):

    – Install all dependencies first (in the 3rd party folder of the source)
    – Start sequencer
    – Delete any “exclusion items” of the user profiles (LocalAppdata or Documents).
    – Run normal install (some DirectX, .Net and VCredist stuff will still be included in your package)
    – Run the app and open a DWG as well. Notice the startup screen with “Recently opened Items”.
    – Close the app
    – Rename the C:\Program Files\Autodesk\DWG TrueView 2017 – English\AcWebBrowser folder
    – Verify all paths in HKCU\Software\Autodesk\DWG TrueView\R15\dwgviewr-0001:409
    – Point the RoamableRootFolder to a location outside of the package where users will have Write access. I chose the tempfolder in the roaming user profile.
    – Change paths as you please, but make sure you also copy the associated folders to the new locations.
    – You can check the folder references in the app preferences only on an opened DWG file.
    – Warning – the Native MSI will repair on a change of HKCU\ Autodesk\DWG TrueView\R15\dwgviewr-0001:409\LocalRoot\! – so better not to touch that one.
    – When done run the app again and verify the functionality. Notice the now blank start screen.
    – Clear the HKCU\Software\Autodesk\DWG TrueView\R15\dwgviewr-0001:409\Recent File List
    – End sequence. Apart from clearing the Windows\Installer cache I kept most of it intact.

    – The package will keep a “First Run Initializing” phase and will have a blank initial interface with only the buttons in the top left corner (working of course). Also, it will stay dependent of the VCRedist 14.0 (2015) package.

    Another step I took may not be strictly necessary, but it does clean up the way the app works:
    (look here as well: http://www.brettgorley.com/blog/?p=790)

    -Create a new folder under Program Files\AutoDesk, copy the stuff from LocalAppdata, Roaming Appdata and Public Documents into this. You are now “breaking” the app if you don’t fix the HKCU regkeys to point to the new respective locations. Don’t remove the original folders from the sequence, just to be safe.
    – Verify all paths in HKCU\Software\Autodesk\DWG TrueView\R15\dwgviewr-0001:409
    – Verify all paths in HKLM\Software\Autodesk\DWG TrueView\R15\dwgviewr-0001:409
    – Verify all paths in HKCU\Software\Autodesk\DWG TrueView\R15\dwgviewr-0001:409\FixedProfile\General
    – Verify all paths in HKCU\ Software\Autodesk\DWG TrueView\R15\dwgviewr-0001:409\Profiles\<>\General
    – Verify all paths in HKCU\Software\Autodesk\DWG TrueView\R15\dwgviewr-0001:409\Profiles\<>\General Configuration

    I hope this helps. It took me a couple of tries, a lot of testing and Googling to tackle this one. Getting rid of the Chromium browser solved a lot of the errors (and turned out to be dead simple in the end).

    Cheers,

    Jorn

    1. Nice work. Unfortunately I don’t have the time to walk through this, but hopefully it helps the others. I’ll try and make a post about your findings.

  8. Hi trying to package 2017 but getting a similar error to what you stated above when you dont open a DWG file. But the correspponding DLL is there and within the package but after the second time the package runs i get that error. Any ideas sorry to ask this of you but cant seem to find anything on this software with appv its mainly 2015.

    1. Hello, Thanks for all of the information in this guide and in the comments. I was able to successfully virtualize DWG TrueView 2018 for Windows 10\AppV5 following Jorn’s instructions and the only tweak I made was to eliminate the use of environment variables in the RoamableRootFolder data the registry. Instead of using %temp% or %localappdata%\temp, I had to enter c:\users\username\appdata\local\temp – The AppV sequencer then set the value in the Virtual Registry to [{localappdata}]\temp. using an environment variable for this location always threw an error that the app could not find c:\users\username\Documents\%localappdata%\temp\…

  9. Hello Guys,

    I have tried Jorn’s steps, but the viewer is stuck on “First Run Initializing” any thoughts?

  10. Hi everyone,

    I have tried my hand at App-V recently and had limited success. DWG TrueView 2018 is currently the one that will not play ball. I can get the package sequenced and it runs fine as an administrator user, but for any non-admins I get a crash message. I have done the initial run of the sample file at the beginning of the sequence, which fixed the main crash error mentioned above, but still getting a general crash error for non-admins.

    Just to confirm the part about not excluding local AppData, to do this do you need to remove both in the Options menu, AND modify the VFS section to include said paths? Not sure if it is a lack of inclusions that are causing this crash or sometime else. Any help greatly appreciated.

    Regards,

    Michael

  11. Used this recipe for the 2018 version and it works as well. Some notes, starting the application during sequencing does not place the needed dll’s in the localappdata folder. This needs to be done manually and also they need to be present in the users localappdata physically. Otherwise Trueview can not compile file previews and the app will crash.

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