Solid edge community edition download problems

Hi I have been trying to download this, but it halts very early on with

Error 1606. Could not access network location D; Pictures\.

The only option then is to cancel and finish

I have a fast modern desktop running W10 The program is needed to test an assembly which can’t be done in the free version of fusion 360, and I am very familiar with it as I taught GCSE and A level students to use an earlier version a good while ago now

Ps I even put it into the said location and it still wouldn’t go  did the obvious, restarted the computer  etc

Any ideas?

thanks

Graham

Edited By Zan on 09/03/2023 17:52:32

As the error complains about D:\Pictures when the usual location is C:\Pictures, I think the problem is due to a folder redirection. On a single disk (or partition) system, Windows locates everything on the C: drive. But on a bigger system with more than one disc or several partitions on several discs, mechanisms are needed to locate data in places other than the C: drive.

As C:\Pictures is often stuffed full of thousands of multi-megabyte photographs, it's not unusual to install a second drive, usually D: and then to link the original C:\Picture folder to D:\Picture. Then when software writes photographs into C:\, the operating system follows the link and writes them to the D: drive. Looks as if C: is being used, but actually the data is stored on a different drive.

Most applications don't know or care where the data is actually stored: they let the operating system sort it out. Unfortunately, not all software uses the standard operating system calls to read and write files. The usual reason for DIY file access is improved performance, as needed by file intensive programs like databases, image editors, and, er, CAD...

I can't remember off-hand how folder redirection is set up. There's a cmd.exe program that does it, and I vaguely recall doing it with the GUI from settings. I think it needs admin privilege. Perhaps a Windows expert can provide the detail, but I'd try:

1. Removing the redirection from C:\Pictures to D:\Pictures
2. Installing SE
3. Replacing the redirection after the install.

Might be bother later if SE is asked to save screenshots, but I think that's the only reason it uses the \Pictures folder. May be possible to change an SE setting to send pictures elsewhere (like D:!)

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 09/03/2023 18:30:39

Thanks Dave. A comprehensive reply, Not sure about messing with cod and dos! Tried to move the pictures from d 1 tb to c: but the sad is too small to take the 57 k photos…….didn’t realise there were so many!

just looked at GUI and don’t like that either even doing a google search displays a lot of very complex info, most of which seems a foreign language, even though I used to do loads of dos mods with - dare I say it- windows 3.1…….

I’ll hang fire and see if other experts can give me a hand

thanks again

Graham,

I've installed the Solid Edge Community version on my PC and Laptop with no problems, the desktop running Win10 Home and the laptop running Win10 Professional. But the "Pictures" subdirectory on both my machines is not a folder in the root of the C:/ drive but is a sub-directory in the Users folders - i.e. C/Users/Jim/Pictures in my desktop. So presumably the installation software has searched for this sub-directory on both my PCs. I am no expert on the intricacies of the Win 10 setup so I've no idea why your installation is looking for a directory which doesn't exist on either of my machines.

Perhaps a question on the Siemens support forum might get a solution.

Siemens Solid Edge Community Forums

Jim.

Thanks I’ll try that in the morning, interestingly, I tried or put in a 22 year old 3£ cadprogram I got a full licence for at school, but it’s slow and difficult compared to bots SE and fusion This had exactly the same problem

As a Windows expert hasn't volunteered yet, let's see what a Linux fanboy can do!

I looked up 'folder redirection' last night and also found a mass of complicated advice! Microsoft's online help is particularly unhelpful, basically an overview of how redirection is managed on a server in combination with a bunch of other complicated set-ups rarely seen outside a corporate computer room. Full throttle system admin, using Group Policy and other big computer controls most Windows users don't need to know about.

After half an hour I learned redirection can be used to distribute files across discs and across the network in complicated ways, but couldn't find an example.

Having slept on it, I decided "it can't be that difficult", so here I am on Windows 10. Quite often file management stuff can be accessed using File Explorer to open a file's Properties, so I tried that first. Bingo, but it requires several steps and you may not feel it's worth the effort!

Open File Explorer:

Go to the Pictures folder (left ringed in red), and right click it. At the bottom of the pop-up list, left-click Properties, which will open the Pictures Properties dialogue. Left-click the 'Location' tab (red-ringed), and note what's is the lower text-box, also ringed in red. My computer is set to "C:\Users\Dave\Pictures", your's - if I'm on the right track - will be something like "D:\Users\Zan\Pictures".

If it is, IMPORTANT, take a backup copy of whatever is in the D: folder. Then delete the contents of the D:folder/

Back on the location screen, change the folder to "C:\Users\Zan\Pictures" and click the move button. This will move (transfer) the contents of the D:Pictures folders, to C: Won't take long because the D: folder is empty. After the move has finished, the C: folder is no longer redirected. Now install SE. Fingers crossed, now Pictures is just an ordinary folder, not redirected, SE will load.

Last step is to go back to the File Properties Location tab and redirect c: Pictures back to the D: drive, and then to finish off by restoring the backup taken earlier.

COMMENT.

I guess Zan's computer came with a small fast expensive SSD on which is stored the Windows operating system, and a much larger, inexpensive, but relatively slow Hard Disc Drive on which user data, like Pictures, is stored. This is a good arrangement, exploiting the virtues of both SSD and HDD to get high performance at reasonable cost. It's how my computer is set up, except I didn't redirect Windows Pictures to the Hard Drive because all my photos are managed by Linux.

May be a booby trap though! If the computer is bought to run CAD, or any other application that doesn't recognise redirection, the owner might find it can't install. It's a configuration problem, nothing wrong with Windows, SE, SSD or HDD other than they're combined in way that SE can't deal with. Not just SE - I found last night that the Autodesk website says none of their products support folder redirection.

Why is nothing ever easy?

With luck a Windows expert will know of an easier way of sorting this out. It's possible my answer isn't the best way of doing it, in particular I think a system admin would write a script to perform the actions rather than use the GUI. Though I'm sure they exist, I don't know what the commands are!

Dave

I use Windows 10 on my desktop and always have my user folders ( my documents, pictures etc) on a separate drive to the system and I have just installed Solid Edge without a problem. I do not think that Solid Edge does need to or actually does access the Picture folder, certainly not in my case.

Is your computer standalone or part of a network? Also is it your personal machine or a company machine as this can affect permissions?

Richard

It does sound like a windows permissions issue

Me too, but I didn't use folder redirection to achieve it. Although the system has two discs, all my folders are addressed conventionally, not by telling windows that a folder addressed as if it's on the C: drive is actually located on drive D:

Did you use folder redirection on C:.../Pictures? If so, my diagnosis and solution is probably wrong.

The most likely reason Solid Edge uses the Pictures folder is to save images - model views can be saved as BMP, JPG etc, and it also does animations.

Most applications save Pictures, Music and Videos in the folders provided by Windows for that purpose. I'll try to confirm by saving an image to see where SE puts it.

I think what's happening is that the SE Installer checks that the file system is tickity-boo before starting, and it's bombing out because Zan's Picture folder isn't available in SE compatible form because it's been redirected. (Bit like telling the Post Office to redirect mail after moving house, only to find that Amazon and their ilk don't follow PO redirects.)

Dave

I have all my user folders referenced as d:/users/richard/... and have used this on many computers and it is the Microsoft recommended way of doing it.

I do not think the problem is with Solid Edge as, if you search for error 1606 during install, there are many references to problems with program installs and one of the main reasons seems to be corruption of the registry, especially if a program uninstall went wrong. There are various solutions including using compatibility mode to install the program and let it try to correct errors or use a PC optimisation tool to search for errors.

Richard

Agreed it could be a registry or previous install problem.

No doubt you 'have all my user folders referenced as d:/users/richard/", but was the set-up done with "folder redirection" or conventionally? Microsoft provide more than one recommended way of providing networked storage. I also use the D: drive to store user folders, but I didn't use Microsoft's "folder redirection" functionality. Did you?

My suspicion, could be wrong, is that Zan has a preconfigured SSD and HDD computer set up by the manufacturer so that C: Pictures is redirected to a folder on the D: drive. I think it's the folder redirection mechanism SE is gagging on, not the D: drive.

If Zan checks the Location as described above, it will show whether or not his Picture folder is redirected. If it is , then redirection is still a suspect. If not redirected, then I'm wrong and the other possibilities step forward. But I'm not keen to look for registry or previous install errors until redirection is definitely off the table.

Wasn't able to check Solid Edge's full hardware/software requirement because it requires an account, which would also stop a search engine finding 1606. Autodesk are more forthcoming, my bold: "The most common cause for this issue is folder redirection. Folder redirection is not supported with any Autodesk products and may cause installation or startup failures."

I asked SE to save an image and can confirm they're stored in the Pictures folder.

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 10/03/2023 16:01:13

Thanks guys esp SOD Yes it is an ssd/ had machine, when I got it I created a pictures directory in the had (D and did nothing to redirect. It was purchased from the local computer store to a negotiated specification

I will copy all pictures into another file perhaps my external drive before trying anything

I will try the redirection stuff later, been busy with hospital today perhaps tomorrow as I don’t think now that I will be going to Harrogate.

ps the     c: pictures      does exist still I didn’t remove it  but have put nothing into it 
 

thanks

Graham

Edited By Zan on 10/03/2023 19:07:24

I am far from being an expert here, but whenever I have downloaded a programme from the internet (including Solidedge), my browser, Firefox, allows me to download to either downloads or to any other directory. Then when the download is complete and I go through the installation process I can nominate or create a directory to install the programme to.

Am I miss-understanding the problem the poster is having?

There seems to be misunderstanding as to how Windows uses standard user folders. These are all of the form c:/users/name/foldername where name is a user name, Default or Public and foldername is Documents, Pictures Video and Downloads. These folders are also Libraries which are virtual containers for user content. Any user created folder such as c:/pictures or D:/pictures is completely separate from the windows created default folders and could not be accessed by reference to the single name Pictures unless a location change has been performed as Dave has shown in the Picture-Properties-Location tab.

I also asked Solidedge to save a picture and it came up with a dialogue box that allowed you to select the file location. I selected Pictures and it saved it OK. It does not automatically store it in pictures.

Graham has said that he created the D:/pictures folder himself, not that it came with his PC.

As Solidedge does NOT automatically use the Pictures folder I suggest that there is a different reason for the install to fail.

+1 on what Tricky says, if I am understanding the problem correctly. Somewhere along the line, things have got confused, possibly - likely - if there have been a number of failed attempts to installl SE. As others have mentioned, there may be rogue registry keys floating around.

I can recommend CCleaner as a fairly simple way to perform registry cleanups - doesn't require any in-depth knowledge, and has never yet, for me, created any issues rsulting from its cleaning actions. Might be worth trying, there is a free version available.

Rob

No they're not. They are of the form c:\users\name\foldername (this is Windows).

Most download programs allow the user to specify the download location on the fly and D:\pictures would be quite acceptable if it exists ... and if it is input correctly - not

D; Pictures\ as the OP (mis) typed. (And not D:/Pictures either.)

Failing user input on the download location, the download agent (browser or download-manager) will save the file in whatever default location it has been set for.

Edited By Peter Greene 🇨🇦 on 11/03/2023 20:40:40

My SE opens the 'Save As Image' dialogue in "This PC > Pictures" by default, but like as not it's just remembering what I told it last time! Apologies for misleading the team.

So I agree the evidence is on Tricky's side, the above plus there's no sign the 'Location' feature is used on Zan's computer.

So, next step, mangled registry or uninstalling a previous version. I've used ccleaner successfully on the registry but not tried the uninstall part. If ccleaner doesn't work, any other recommendations?

Dave

All very fine chaps but I don't see what this has to do with the OP's stated problem which concerned downloading the installation software in the first place ... a Windows/Download-Client issue.

Nothing to do with SE's handling of folders, it's issues with the registry .... or anything else to do with SE come to that. He hasn't got to the installation yet.

At least, the way I read it (maybe it's just me).

Thanks guys. Still working on the SOD method first,, seems the least intrusive I saved photos to ext drive, but it took a long time there were a lot of duplicates in my iPhone files which had to be deleted, did several hundred, but stil a lot to do and the rugby was on interestingly right vpclick didn’t bring up the menu fir properties, just continued scrollintpg and had to close file manager to stop it. Only epway was to use the properties tab at the top. More. Trias tomorrow

yes It was a typo. ; Not :

can’t modify anything i after the install as it failed as I said very early on in the installation. Perhaps a dozen seconds

That was what I thought originally, but gradually became convinced it was an installation issue. Then read the subtitle of the thread which confirmed it.

Rob