Hi everyone,

I am trying to install the PowerDraft 2009 driver for AutoCAD, but the install tells em that I do not have AutoCAD 2009 installed.

Problem is, I do have installed, but I have AutoCAD MEP 2009, so it is not finding the application. I have looked at the setup.ini file and I can't see anything to modify to have setup allow me to specify where AutoCAD is installed.

This is driving me nuts. The powerdraft driver is supposed to greatly increase performance and I can't take advantage of it. I have a quad core Xeon workstation with a Quadro FX 1700 gpu which should scream, but instead it crawls.

Arg!

Anyone can help?

Thanks!

D


This is the ini cntents:

----------------------------------

[Startup]
AppName=NVIDIA Performance Driver for AutoCAD 2009
ProductGUID=B08DDDE4-92B5-4F44-A392-9D7E6DA500C8
CompanyName=NVIDIA Corporation
CompanyURL=http://www.nvidia.com
ErrorReportURL=http://www.installshield.com/isetup/ProErrorCentral.asp?ErrorCode=%d : 0x%x&ErrorInfo=%s
MediaFormat=1
LogMode=1
Skin=setup.isn
Resource=_Setup.dll
SmallProgress=N
SplashTime=
CheckMD5=Y
CmdLine=
ShowPasswordDialog=N
EngineVersion=14.0.0.162
EngineBinding=1
[Languages]
Default=0x0009
count=1
key0=0x0009


-----------------------------

Hi,

Yeah some issues here. We have a thread going on here

http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa...threadID=669625

Nvidia are aware of the problems. As soon as i hear back will let ya know.



Cheers.

Oh and here.
http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?threadID=669312


2009 is slow ya right im having the same issues. Not only rendering but the general 2d useage is pants

I had the same problem when I tried to install it...

Here's my configuration story:

Since my AutoCAD 2009 was installed on my system as part of Inventor Suite 2009, and it actually has AutoCAD Mechanical 2009 and regular AutoCAD 2009, I think the nVidia installation software thinks that I do not have AutoCAD 2009 installed, but really I do.



Anyone else in the same boat?

I have the same problem with AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009 and Powerdraft driver: the driver refuses to install, telling that I have not installed AutoCAD 2009.

So, in a system with 2 Quad Core AMD Opteron 2.2 GHz, 16 GB RAM, Quadro FX 1700 and Win XP x64 Civil 3D 2009 runs very slow. Much slower than in a system with a single Intel Core Duo 2.4 GHz, 4 GB RAM, Win XP x32 and Civil 3D 2008.

What a pitty !!!

I've got an Inventor Suite 2009 load also and it loads Acad MEP 2009 as well. Inventor runs great but running the Acad 2009 part of MEP 2009 is a disaster. I also cannot load the Nvidia Acad 2009 drivers even though we all know we are all running Acad.exe underneath it all.

NVidia, why don't you just ask us in your driver install where Acad.exe is and then just put the drivers in the DRV directory below? I believe these are just Heidi drivers aren't they?. If you could just make the individual files accessible we could place them in our drivers directories ourselves. There shouldn't be anything magic about this.

I am also having problems with the "certified" drivers from the AutoDesk website. As soon as I installed the new card and drivers all the Acad tooltips text just turned into little grey squares. Anyone else seeing any of this? MDT 2008 works just fine and AutoDesk seems to be at a complete loss.

This is my first post on this site, does any NVidia people show up and give advice in the discussions?

I've found a work around to this problem.

1) Download Powerdraft Installer from nVidia
2) Launch setup - let the installer extract the files
3) Wait for the error message - do not hit okay or cancel
4) The installer creates a folder off the root drive, for me it was "04-28-2008-0710"
5) Copy the .hdi file(s) into the Autocad Driver Directory, for me C:\04-28-2008-0710\Disk1\win64\nv3d9.hdi -> C:\Program Files\Autodesk\ACADM 2009\Drv
6) You can now cancel the installer program
7) Launch AutoCAD
8) Type 3dconfig at the command prompt
9) Goto "Manual Tune"
10) Select nVidia driver from the Driver Name drop down box


Notes:
1) Seems to work well! No problems.
2) I've done this so far on an inventor suite workstation with bundled ACADm and a stand-alone seat of ACADm
3) The win64 folder only had the direct3D driver, nv3d9.hdi, while the win32 folder also included an openGL driver, nvgl9.hdi. The win32 folder also contained an additional file named nvglen.dll file which must be required for the openGL. I have not done this on a 32bit machine, but I would try copying all three files to the ACAD driver directory.

-Mike

Mike,

A very good way to get at the core files we have all needed. Great job! I will be on my way to get the driver and try it on my development PC.

Thanks much,

Mike Johnson

Hey guys,

What kind of performance increase can I expect to see in AutoCAD 2D?

Thanks!
Jeff

Jeff,

I ran through this exercise and didn't really see much improvement at all. It seems that the OpenGL option in the original driver seems to be best in 2D. I even tried the accelerated driver with and without the .dll registered. Maybe I did something wrong but it seems to do best running stock. It would be nice if NVidia put out something new that integrated with our CAD packages.

Sorry for the news,

Mike Johnson

Thanks for the info. Mike!

I think there is some kind of toolbar that might be useful for zooming and panning or whatever, but using the installation instruction above for the non plain AutoCAD install, I can't get anything but the 2 drivers and a dll file. Do you know if there is anyway to get the toolbar from the funky PowerDraft install?

Thanks again!
Jeff

Jeff,

Haven't seen any way to do what your asking. We will have to leave it to NVidia to realize there is a much larger world out there then just plain Acad. Let's hope they pick up on this.

Mike Johnson

Thank you for the help Mike!