Compiled by Mike Dickason [72711,3404] August 3, 1992 Initial posting Bugs 1-12 August 11, 1992 Second posting Bugs 13-19 August 17, 1992 Third posting Bugs 20-24 August 31, 1992 Fourth posting Bugs 25-29 September 12, 1992 Fifth posting Bugs 30-44 October 11, 1992 Sixth posting Bugs 45-50 Updated for R12c1 The following list of ACAD 12 bugs and corresponding work arounds was compiled from a combination of problems I have personally encountered and from messages posted on the ACAD forum of Compuserve. I am not an employee of AutoDesk, nor did I compile this list to discredit AutoDesk. Indeed, I am quite happy with R12, but as with any program of this size and magnitude, there are some bugs. This is not an official nor a complete list of R12 bugs. It is meant to be used as an informative list to help other users who might be encountering similar problems. All of the problems on this list have been reported to and acknowledged by ADESK. If you know of any bugs which are not included on this list, I would be interested in hearing about them, solely for the purpose of keeping the list up to date. Unless noted otherwise, the bugs are present in the North American version of ACAD R12c1 for DOS. Numbers prefixed with an '*' are either new to this posting, or have been updated from the previous posting to include additional information. Those bugs fixed with the release of R12c1 have been noted as such. *1. If you run any command which accepts the new fence selection option to select items (like the trim command), any subsequent usage of the lisp function (ssget "f" (list p1 p2)) will generate a heap error and will either instantly reboot the computer or dump you out of the editor to the DOS prompt without saving your drawing. Fixed in R12c1. 2. Lantastic bug with DOS 5.0 and R12. Unable to run ACAD across the network, or edit any drawing located on the network without generating sharing violation errors. To solve the problem, download the file R12LAN.ZIP from the forum. This patch allows AutoCAD to run on various networks, including LANtastic, 3Com and DEC Pathworks, under DOS 4.0 and 5.0. See the README.DOC file included in the archive for specific instructions on how to use the patch. This patch is still required for R12c1. *3. The Hitachi HDG driver shipping with R12 does not work with the Hitachi HDG 1111C and possibly earlier models. Need to download the file DG386.EXP from here on the forum. Fixed in R12c1. *4. The display filters for color with the DDLMODES command in R12 don't recognize the ~ wildcard. If you specify the color filter as W*, only those layers which have a color beginning with the letter 'w' are displayed, as expected. But if you specify the wildcard as ~W*, all of the layers are displayed instead of only those which don't have a color beginning with the letter 'w'. No known work around. *5. The layer DEFPOINTS is supposed to be an unplottable layer, but in R12 it is showing up on plots, regardless of whether it is turned on or off. Fixed in R12c1. 6. When Release 12 compiles a PFB PostScript font file into an SHX font file, it makes the font approximately 30% too small. If you insert some text with a regular AutoCAD font (such as Simplex) with a height of 2.5", it is drawn 2.5" inches tall. If you insert text with a converted PostScript font with a height of 2.5", it is drawn 1.7" high. No known work around. 7. The path to the R12 drivers is stored within the ACAD.CFG file. If you change rename the ACAD directory, or move it to a different location, then attempt to reconfigure ACAD using the "-R" switch, it will not find any drivers because it looks at the path stored in ACAD.CFG instead of the environment variable ACADDRV. The only workaround is to delete the ACAD.CFG file and reconfigure ACAD. 8. When plotting with R12, if you use a plot scale of 1/8=12, the plot dialogue box rounds the scale off to the nearest tenth and displays the plot scale as 0.13=12. It also plots the drawing at that scale. Use 1=96 to get a 1/8" plot scale. *9. When you try to plot a R10 drawing it works just fine if you bring up the drawing in the editor. If you use the freeplotting feature by calling acad with a -P then it crashes with a EREAD error. The only workaround is to plot from within the editor. Fixed in R12c1. *10. The Calcomp plotter driver shipping with R12 produces erratic plots under various situations. Download the updated driver PLPCC.EXP from here on the forum. Fixed in R12c1. 11. The HP-GL2 plotter driver has a problem handling smart fills. and will exhibit problems with filled areas such as plines with a width. The only known work around is to use an HP-GL2 driver written for R11. 12. Here's a minor bug with R12's help command. Run the help command, and select "Index" from the opening dialog box. Double click on any item in the index list (I'll use 3D as the example) and the help screen for that item comes up as expected. Now select "Index" again and the index dialog pops up with the selected item still highlighted. Select "OK" to view the same item again and you get a prompt that says "Nothing selected." even though the item is still highlighted. To get the item again, you have to physically select it instead of just selecting "OK". 13. If you perform a PEDIT Join command on a polyline containing curve information, the resultant joined polyline is stripped of all the curve information leaving you with a polyline made entirely of straight line segments. No known workaround. 14. With a closed polyline, if you perform the sequence PEDIT, Edit vertex, Break, the command will not only break out the segment between the specified vertices, but it also removes the "closing" segment of the polyline leaving you with two separate polylines if you attempt to break out an interior section. No known workaround. Note: This problem occurred in earlier versions of ACAD and is not unique to R12. *15. There is a problem in the plot command when specifying MM as the plot units. If you change any of the default pen widths, each time you go into the pen parameters menu, the pen widths are multiplied by 25.4. This eventually leads to a general protection fault and ACAD crashing. Fixed in R12c1. To show this, run the plot command, set the units to MM, then select Pen Assignments. Start clicking on pen 1, and watch the width display in the bottom right corner. Each time it increments by a factor of 25.4. Click on pen 1 twenty six times, then select OK, then immediately select Pen Assignments again. You will get "FATAL ERROR: General protect exception" which immediately returns you to the DOS prompt without saving the drawing. Again, this is fixed in R12c1. *16. When plotting units are set to MM, retrieving a pcp file results in the paper size being multiplied by 25.4, even if the pcp was stored with MM units. No known work around. When restoring plot defaults from a file, make sure to check the paper size before you plot. Fixed in R12c1. 17. There is a problem with certain DIMVARS when DIMSCALE is not set to 1. It affects all DIM variables with distance-type values, like DIMCEN, DIMTXT, DIMASZ, etc. With these variables, if you are in the DIM command and you type in the variable name (like DIMCEN) and hit enter to take the default, the default value is divided by the value of DIMSCALE and the result becomes the new default. You can avoid the problem for now by setting DIM vars outside the DIM command (like other system variables), or by retyping the default value rather than using ENTER to retain it. 18. When using the new Shift to Add feature for building selection sets, the "Window" and "Crossing" selection options add to the current selection set instead of replacing it as documented. No known work around. 19. If you perform a Dview Twist on a drawing, then plot with a window, the coordinates of the window corners displayed in the new plot dialog box do not match the actual coordinates that were picked. Regardless of what the plot window shows, the actual coordinates picked are used for generating the plot. This appears to related to the variable "TARGET", which changes after a DVIEW, but never seems to be set back to its default value (i.e. start a new drawing, look at the value of TARGET, then do a Dview Twist 300, Dview Twist 0, and then look at TARGET again and it is different). No known work around. 20. There is a bug with variable width polylines and the commands PEDIT and Undo. If you have a variable width polyline, then perform a Pedit on it and change the width to 0, then at the command prompt do an Undo which backs through the Pedit, the starting and ending widths of the first segment of the polyline will be applied to the entire polyline. The following sequence demonstrates the problem: Command: PLINE From point: 0,0 Current line-width is 0'-0" Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width/: W Starting width <0'-0">: 0 Ending width <0'-0">: 3 Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width/: 0,0 Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width/: W Starting width <0'-3">: 0 Ending width <0'-0">: 0 Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width/: 10,10 Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width/: 20,10 Command: PEDIT Select polyline: Last Close/Join/Width/Edit vertex/Fit/Spline/Decurve/Ltypegen/Undo/eXit : W Enter new width for all segments: 0 Close/Join/Width/Edit vertex/Fit/Spline/Decurve/Ltypegen/Undo/eXit : X Command: U No known workaround. *21. Here is a bug with the R12 menu command. With FILEDIA=0, run the Menu command and type in the name of a non-existent menu. ACAD will report that it can't open the file and display the search path used. It then prompts "Enter another menu file name (or RETURN for none):". If you hit the return button on the digitizer instead of the keyboard, you will get a "FATAL ERROR: Null pointer referenced" "Do you want to save your changes? " The workaround is to use the keyboard for hitting the Enter key. Fixed in R12c1. 22. There is a problem with the pen parameters dialog box in the R12 plot command. The program is handling pens in groups of 10, ie. 1-10, 11-20, 21-20, etc. If you make a change to any of the pen parameters for pens 11-256, the corresponding pen in group 1-10 is changed as well. For example, change pen 11 to have a width of 1.0, then scroll up and look at pen 1. Its width will have changed to 1.0 as well. It also works the other way. Change pen 1 and pen 11 changes, and pen 21 changes, etc. No known workaround. 23. R12 has a problem with Wblocks and file locking when using relative paths to specify the drawing name. With file locking turned on, if I open a file with a relative path, then attempt to Wblock the drawing back to itself using the same relative path, ACAD reports the following error message: Unable to lock file .\MIKE File write locked by USER1 at 10:00 on 08/13/1992 The command sequence to show this... Command: OPEN File name: .\MIKE Command: WBLOCK File name: .\MIKE R11 didn't exhibit this problem. The only way to make it work in R12 is to type out the full path for the Wblock name, which is a pain when you have long paths for the file directories. The same problem occurs if you open a new drawing with a relative path then attempt to save it using the SAVE command. *24. There is a problem with any command which uses the new File Dialog box to allow for file selection. When you change the file search pattern so that it matches enough file names to require the slider bar to be used then slide the bar to the bottom of this list it jumps back to the top of the list. To see this, load a drawing with enough blocks to enable the sliders in a list box. Call DDINSERT and pick Block to get a listing of the blocks. Change the Pattern specification to anything that will retain the sliders (or just delete the "*" and enter it again). Then slide the list to the bottom and release - it goes back to the top of the list. It happens whenever you change the Pattern specification. However, it will work correctly if you do it a second time - only happens the first time after changing the Pattern specification. This problem occurs in every command which utilizes the R12 file dialog box. 25. The variable XREFCTL is ignored by the OPEN command. Regardless of the setting of XREFCTL, an .XLG file will be created when you open an existing drawing which already contains Xrefs. No known workaround. 26. With file locking enabled and FILEDIA=0, if you shell out of ACAD and delete the MNX file for the current menu then return to the editor and run the MENU command, you get: "FATAL ERROR: MENU1 1" The reason for the error is that ACAD keeps the .MNX file open, and when you run the menu command ACAD is trying to close a file which no longer exists. The reason for deleting the .MNX file was to force ACAD to recompile the .MNU which had been edited on a different machine and was newer, but had a date older than the .MNX file. The workaround is to change to a different menu, then shell out and delete the .MNX of the original menu, then change back to the original menu. 27. There is a bug in the implementation of the alternate-font- prompt-reduction (AFPR) mechanism. AFPR is a new feature in R12 which is supposed to cut down on the number of prompts for "Can't find font 'XXX'" when you open a drawing by substituting the font you specify for the first missing font for each remaining style in the drawing which uses the same font. Turns out that AFPR is case-sensitive, so if the first font was really entered as "helv", then it won't match the next one if it was entered as "HELV". No known workaround. 28. Here is another problem with the DLDMODES command in R12. Start a new drawing, make a layer called ZEBRA, then run the DLDMODES command. Set the filter for the layer names to "Z*". Pick to select the ZEBRA layer, then rename it to MYZEBRA. At this point ACAD displays a message that no more layers match the specified filter, then places a string of garbage characters in both the layer name field and the current layer field of the dialog box. ACAD appears to be having problems when the last layer of a filtered display is removed from the list. Select OK, then immediately run the DDLMODES command again. On large drawings, this sequence is generating a "FATAL ERROR: NULL pointer referenced" about 20-30% of the time. No known workaround. 29. If you specify an old ACAD .MNU/.MNX file for the current menu name and there is a matching .MNL file in the ACAD path, the next time you run the menu command you will generate a fatal "HEAP MANAGEMENT Error #6" and get dumped instantly to the DOS prompt. Because your menu is named ACAD.MNX, AutoCAD finds and loads the ACAD.MNL AutoLISP file, which in turn loads ACADR12.LSP. Well, ACADR12.LSP contains (menucmd "Pn.i") calls to gray-out certain menu items (which makes little sense for your menu, since its structure is different). Anyhow, the problem appears to be due to those (menucmd) calls being for items beyond what your menu defines. The only workaround is to call your menu something other than ACAD.MNX. 30. The new variable PICKAUTO does not work. Regardless of its setting, ACAD allows you to draw a selection window (both window and crossing window) automatically at the "Select objects: " prompt. Setting PICKAUTO to 0 is supposed to disable this automatic windowing, but it doesn't. 31. There's a bug in the POSTSCRIPT sampleprolog. If you included the code-handling for linetypes, there's a line that refers to "acad-ltype-known", and another that refers to "acad-linetype- known". They should both be the same; if not, your printout will probably fail silently. In acad.psf, globally change acad-ltype-known to acad-linetype-known. *32. With certain Sparcstation configurations, the R12 DDEDIT command will crash ACAD when you hit the key to finish editing. The only workarounds are to use the change command to modify the text instead of DDEDIT, or to use the system mouse to click on the OK box. *33. If any portion of a block is visible within the graphics window it is included in a "window" selection set if the insertion point of the block is outside the graphics window. No known workaround. It turns out that this is not a bug and is performing as documented under the "Window Selection" command of the ARM. 34. After restoring a PCP file which has a default plot file name which contains a path, any PCP files saved (during the same editing session) will contain the default plot file name with path that was originally read in, instead of the current default plot file name. 35. When saving a PCP file, if the current time is less than 10 minutes past the hour, the leading 0 of the minutes in the time field of the PCP is dropped, i.e. 3:05pm is written as 15:5 instead of 15:05. 36. The TRIM command is not properly handling PLINES during a trim operation. To show this, draw two vertical lines, then draw a pline which crosses both lines. Run the TRIM command and select the two vertical lines as the cutting edges, then trim the left side of the Pline hanging outside the left line and then the part hanging outside the right side. Finally select the remaining pline section between the two lines. You have now in effect trimmed the entire pline. No known workaround. 37. When rendering using SVADI in dual screen mode, the Render option places garbage on the >graphic display< (note: ACAD menu still visible) in 1024x768x256. Turning off dual screen corrects the problem. *38. Configuring for a binary plotter file with 1 pen causes AutoCAD to ask a nonsensical question, viz., "How many pens?". Also, the description for both the "AutoCAD file output formats" and "ADI plotter or printer" choices says "pre 4.1". 39. The DDEDIT command is supposed to accept 256 characters, but it only accepts 255 it only returns 254 characters. *40. On some systems AutoCAD will dump straight to DOS without a warning when you run the DXFIN command with FILEDIA=1 and enter the name of the file direct from A: with no floppy in the drive and answer "F" to the resulting "Retry, Fail:" prompt. The same thing happens with OPEN, (getfiled) and INSERT A:XXX. Same thing with drive B:, too. This problem seems to be caused by the floppy drive not being able to detect whether the drive door has been opened (change-line support). 41. In LISP, passing a "nil" instead of a 2D point to the new_dialog command generates a "FATAL ERROR: NULL POINTER REFERENCED". The following code demonstrates the problem: (setq di_dcl_id (load_dialog "dlgtest.dcl")) (new_dialog "dimensions" di_dcl_id "" nil) 42. With file locking enabled and FILEDIA=1, save the current file, make some changes, then shell out of ACAD and delete the .DWK file. Now end out of ACAD. You get an alert box stating that ACAD was unable to lock the current drawing. Select OK and the same alert box reappears. Select OK a second time and you are returned to the DOS prompt as expected. Do a directory of the file you were editing and you will see that there is a .BAK file and a 0 byte .DWK file, but no drawing file. Any changes since your last save have been lost. The same problem occurs if FILEDIA=0, except when you end there is no alert box displayed and ACAD appears to hang, but it is really waiting for you to hit "RETURN" to acknowledge the message in the alert box (which isn't visible). The work around is to either not delete the .DWK file while editing the drawing, or disable file locking in the configuration menu if file locking is not needed. 43. The DDCHPROPS command will not allow you to change an entity to a locked layer while both the CHANGE and CHPROP commands will. 44. There is a problem with the hatch angle recorded and reported by BHATCH. Draw a rectangle and rotate it 25 degrees. Then adjusted the UCS by using the UCS Entity Command. Hatched the rectangle and the angle displayed is 25 degrees. After applying the pattern and attempting to hatch again the angle displayed was 50 degrees. Apply it and hatch again and it reads 75 degrees. *45. The lisp expression (ssget "X" (list (cons 0 "INSERT") (cons -4 "=,=,=") (cons 10 (list 0 0 z)))) doesn't work. The z coordinate isn't being evaluated in the relational test with blocks. *46. Documentation bug. The ACAD Reference Manual index is missing references to these AutoCAD commands: GraphScr, TextScr, Redefine, Undefine, Script, RScript and Resume. *47. Documentation bug. The ADS Reference Manual example on page 108 which shows how to use ads_entmake() to generate a polyline is incomplete. The codes for the linetype and color were omitted for each VERTEX and for the SEQEND. If the linetype and color are not included in the ads_buildlist() command for these items, the AUDIT command will report several errors in the drawing after running the example as shown. *48. When plotting using MM units, if you specify any paper size other than MAX, the resultant plotted dimensions were 25.4 times smaller than specified. The workaround is to either specify MAX for the paper size, or multiple the desired paper size by 25.4 (e.g. 841,594 becomes 21361.4,15087.6) when entering the size. *49. Create a visible attribute on layer 0. Create a block called TEST which consists solely of the attribute you just defined. Make a new layer called HOWCOME and insert the TEST block onto this layer and enter "THIS IS TEXT" at the attribute value prompt. Freeze layer 0. The attribute value of "THIS IS TEXT" is still visible on the screen, as it should be since anything created on Layer 0 is supposed to take on the properties of the insertion layer. Now try to select the block using any command, including DDATTE, ERASE, MOVE, COPY, etc. and you will not be able to. The only known workaround is to THAW Layer 0. *50. When plotting from Paperspace, filled entities (i.e. arrow heads, fat polylines, solids, etc.) contained within an XREF but are on a layer which is frozen using VPLAYER, show up in the plot preview and also in the actual plot. The following script demonstrates the problem. layer m solids solid 5,5 10,5 7,10 saveas DWG1 new DWG2= xref attach DWG1 0,0 tilemode 0 mview 0,0 15,15 zoom ext vplayer freeze *solid* All At this point, if you do a full plot preview, the solid is displayed even though the layer has been frozen. The only workaround is to freeze the layer in the original drawing instead of using VPLAYER in the drawing which contains the XREF.