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- TECHNICAL BULLETIN
- 08.13.90 ACAD10 JCR (update 10.23.90)
- CAD SOFTWARE: AutoCAD 10, Autodesk
-
- Comment
- AutoCAD is listed as compatible with LANtastic NOS 2.57 and 3.0X. It has not been tested in house. The
- following information has been compiled from various resources on using AutoCAD 10 with LANtastic.
-
- Guidelines for using AutoCAD with LANtastic
- 1. Use AutoCAD 10 rev. C-7 and up, if possible.
- If a user has AutoCAD Rev C-2 (which causes corrupted files even without LANtastic), Autodesk will provide
- a free upgrade if the user takes his original disks to the Dealer he purchased AutoCAD from.
-
- 2. Set FCBS=40,40 and FILES=40 on machines running AutoCAD. Higher values may actually degrade
- performance.
-
- 3. Specialty video boards on stations running AutoCAD 10 may cause problems. Users report the greatest
- results with Calcomp and Nth Engine video boards, and have reported problems when running the Photon
- Board with the Photon driver.
-
- If problems arise with the video boards, check to see which video driver is being used. If the driver running
- has been supplied by the video card manufacturer, change to the video driver supplied with AutoCAD (after
- putting the video adapter in the default mode for EGA or VGA). If the problems disappear, this will prove
- that the manufacturer supplied driver is probably the cause. In particular, the Photon board has a memory
- resident driver, also called Photon, that hooks into disk through INT 13. The AutoCAD supplied video driver
- for CGA mode with this board works.
-
- 4. AutoCAD files can be corrupted when used on a network since AutoCAD closes the file once it is placed
- into RAM (like Lotus 2.01 & below) leaving DOS and SHARE unaware another user has the file.
-
- 5. Using an AutoCAD server which is serving the plotter and or printers on the network as a workstation is
- not recommended. AutoCAD is such a memory intensive program (and disk intensive if a RAM disk isn't
- used for AutoCAD programs & overlays) that it is NOT practical to use the server that is servicing
- printing/plotting as a workstation.
-
- 6. Use RAM disks and Video drivers in Expanded memory only. Using extended memory will cause various
- problems.
-
- 7. DOS 4.01 is OK, but it is NOT recommend that HIMEM.SYS be loaded.
-
- 8. Almost all cad programs have memory resident utilities to speed up video display. Two well known drivers
- are Video Velocity and Lightning Zoom. These utilities MUST be loaded BEFORE the network. They do
- disk access like caches and must be loaded before the network to work correctly.
-
- 9. If users report that the plotter plots for awhile and then stops, they should increase the CPS to the plotter
- (to the max of 32767 is OK). This problem seems to be unique to HP Plotters.
-
- 10. Customers should use the plotter manufacturer's cable to assure correct DTR or DSR handshaking (also
- known as CTS and RTS). They also must be sure the plotter has been notified of this type of handshaking by
- changing menu choices or dip switches on the plotter. AutoCAD should be told to use Direct handshaking.
- Don't be fooled by the user saying a plotter doesn't do DTR handshaking. AutoCAD has no choice to DTR
- and the user may be reading the autoCAD choice instead of the plotter choices.
-
- 11. AutoCAD 386 works great, and in pure protected mode. The only problem with LANtastic seems to be
- caused by Video created drivers that can't use protected mode and have to keep switching to virtual mode.
- Have the customer call the video vendor for the latest drivers.
-
-
-
- FINAL NOTE:
- This document has been designed to provide a guideline for configuring AutoCAD with LANtastic. Additional
- configuration may be necessary to accommodate your specific network setup.
-
- If a unique problem arises which we are unable to resolve either through phone contact with our technical
- support or through this bulletin, a problem report can be filed through our tech support staff.
-
- Any questions or suggestions on this bulletin may be mailed to our offices:
-
- Artisoft, Inc.
- 575 East River Road
- Tucson, AZ 85704
- ATTN: Compatibility Department / AutoCAD Support
-
- Vendor Info:
- Autodesk, Inc.
- 2320 Marinship Way
- Sausalito, CA 94965
- (415) 331-0356
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