problem downloading draftsight

I've been running 32 bit draftsight on my W7 desktop for quite some time. I've just tried downloading the 64 bit version onto my whizzy new laptop, and although it does all the download stuff, when I try to open it asks me to activate by entering e-mail etc, then looks as tho' it is trying to open, but shuts down straight away.
Is it something I said? Can't ring them till Monday and I'm an impatient so and so

Duncan

Exactly the same happened to me at work this week, we use Solidworks 3D and therefore have a service contract with them, so hopefully our I.T. guys will get an answer from support next week.

If you still have a copy of the old version, that might still work.

Phil

It may be that your antivirus doesn't like it. I find that Norton won't install certain apps first time after downloading because they are very seldom used across the whole user base and it thinks they may be malware. You have to tell it, can't remember how, that you don't want nannying with that particular application!

I've had that occasionally but it has worked OK when I tried a few days later. Could be that their authorisation server is down for some reason?

Russell

Hi Duncan

Some program's must be installed with administrator privileges turned on.
Autocad for instance. The installer must be run as administrator. it caught me out when I forgot and installed this years update.
I had to uninstall then rerun it.

Regards
John

We got this response from our support call today, it did not help me because my PC has an AMD graphics card.

Logging in as administrator did not make any difference on mine either.

• Open the NVidia Control Panel, Right click on the desktop
• Select '3D Settings from the left column and select the 'Global Settings' from the right column
• Under 'Global Presets' choose Dassault Systems CATIA - Compatable
• Under 'Preferred Graphics Processor' choose 'High Performance NVIDIA Processor'
• Click 'Apply'
• Click the 'Program Settings' tab
• Next to 'Select a Program to Customize' click 'Add'
• Enter the path to the DraftSight.exe. (ie. C:\Program Files (x86)\Dassault Systemes\DraftSight\bin\DraftSight.exe)
• Under 'Select the Preferred Graphics Processor' choose 'High Performance NVIDIA Processor'
• Click 'Apply'

John, I think it has installed, it took a while to download/install, and I have have icons. It tries to start up, but fails

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling, it went through all the steps you would expect, same problem

Russel, tried again just now, no joy

John, I've checked my account and I seem to be an administrator. It installed Libre Office OK

Thanks Phil, but it doesn't seem to help me either. When I right click the desktop it doesn't mention NVidia.

Just found out that Dassault have an office in my home town, so I'll ring them tomorrow.

Maybe try a fresh download. With another CAD system I've seen an incomplete download appear to install, but the program didn't run. Only afterwards did I notice the download file was smaller than it should have been.

Also, watch during the install process - some programs install 'pre-requisites' during the installation process and may need to seek permission to do so, if the yes/no dialogue times out, you are left with critical stuff missing.

I contacted Draftsight. Sounds like it's a known issue. They don't really offer a tech support for the free product, hardly surprising as they don't make any money out of it, but they have sent me a set of instructions which involve renaming various files and fiddling with the registry. I'm waiting my computer savvy friend getting home form work before I mess with that. I'll report when I've either fixed it or blown the laptop up!

Edited By duncan webster on 22/08/2017 12:20:04

Duncan

Try it again, I just did on my work PC and everything seems to be OK now.

Phil

tried again, still no joy. Have sent you a pm

You haven't said what operating system you are using so I guess it's W10. I have Draftsight 64 working on both my Linux and W10 partitions on a laptop without NVIDIA graphics. If it has installed O.K. you should find an entry in the start menu labelled "Dassault Systemes" and under that "Draftsight 64". If that's not there it hasn't installed. Also if you search the registry for "dassault" using regedit you should find a number of entries.

Assuming it has installed it may be worth trying to uninstall it, delete all registry entries concerning dassault (unless you have Solidworks installed!) and try again installing from a new download.

Bonne chance!

Russell

Duncan

My home PC was still having problems with activation, so I uninstalled it with this utility

https://geekuninstaller.com/

After re-installing it again everything worked fine, I think the normal windows uninstaller leaves things behind that causes the problem, this Geek Uninstaller got rid of everything.

Phil

I tried all the suggestions, even the one from Draftsight themselves. No go. After much internet trawling it seems this is a well known widespread and intractable problem, but I found this suggestion

Don't open draughsight using the normal windows command - go to a drawing you can open in draughtsight (eg .dwg), right click and select "open with". If draughsight isn't listed, then browse to the draughtsight.exe file (usually in c:/program files/dassault systemes/bin folder). Select draughsight with "open with". When it runs, you will get the message that an email has been sent - open this and activate. Worked for me!

At least I've had an activation e-mail, a link to click, and a message saying it has activated. Tried opening DS and it worked.

I know this is a free product, but it doesn't really tempt me to buy the professional one if they can't get this right!