This is the new silent install locations for the AcroPlot Pro versions after 2012-09-19.
CADzation's Policy for 25 or more user common codes..
Customers with 25 and more licenses of AcroPlot Pro we allow to self-manage the licenses so we have no record of where or how many have been installed. Your common code is all that is needed to register it on any machine. The main reason for this is just to Keep It Simple. We have quite a few customers who told us one of the reasons (besides our PDF's being the best from AutoCAD and other apps) they were switching over to us was they were sick of having to call into our competitors to get licenses cleaned up so they could move it or re-install one after a hard drive crash.
While we've discussed changing it many times but we still come back to the fact that even with all of Autodesk's, Adobe's, and Microsoft's huge teams of programmers even their software gets hacked also so what's the point. If someone wants to rip you off they will. We would rather keep things as simple as possible for our users and trust in people to self-police themselves.
And we do have many customers who continue to add additional licenses as needed so we feel that the simple approach is working well. And we have had a couple customers both with single licenses and common code licenses that we have had to put our foot down and charge for illegal use of the software.
There are many software inventory and audit programs out there and it seams that many companies already have that in place anyways when they have this many users. And if you have 25 or more users it's probably wise to be auditing your systems because as a business the last things you want is to be held liable for illegal use of software even if an employee installed it on their own.
If you do not have a software inventory or audit program
in place you can check the registry for the version of our
software installed as of the 2012-10-21 version. In
that version and future versions at install time we will
write the following key to the registry.
Section = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CADzation\ACROPLOT
Key Name = Version
String Value = Release date of the software in the format
YYYY-MM_DD
Windows Registry Import File (*.Reg) Settings for Common Codes.
Example AcroPlot Pro Code:
PRO0500XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX-PXP50-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
Example .Reg File for importing the values into the registry for 64 bit systems.
Please note that the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Tracker Software\PDF-XChange 5 AcroPlot] key only uses the second half of the code starting after the first dash. This typically starts with PXP50.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CADzation\AcroPlot]
"RegCode"="PRO0500XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX-PXP50-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\CADzation\AcroPlot]
"RegCode"="PRO0500XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX-PXP50-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Tracker Software\PDF-XChange
5 AcroPlot]
"RegCode"="PXP50-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Tracker Software\PDF-XChange
5 AcroPlot]
"RegCode"="PXP50-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX"
Registry setting to point to a common saved settings location
You can also locate the saved settings files in a common network location and then push the value across to all users. If the path is read-only then the users will not be able to edit any of those settings but they will be able to save new user specific settings. If the files do not exist in the common network location or if the folder can not be found then the program will default back to the files stored in the uses AppData folder.
For 32 bit systems the path is stored in:
Section = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\CADzation\AcroPlot\
Keyname = SettingsPath
KeyType = String
Example Key Value = L:\CommonSettings\AcroPlot
For 64 bit systems the path is stored in:
Section = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\WOW6432Node\CADzation\AcroPlot\
Keyname = SettingsPath
KeyType = String
Example Key Value = L:\CommonSettings\AcroPlot
Alternative way to work with common settings
I have always preferred to have a login script that copies filed down from the network to the users directory. This way if a user is disconnected from the network or is working remotely on a laptop they still have the settings from the last time the logged in.
User specific saved settings location
To be compliant with Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 the settings files have been moved the the Application Data directory for the user. If you are using a common settings in a read-only directory the user will not be able to save a user setting with the same name. The location where the user settings are stored would be something like:
C:\Documents and Settings\Rodney\Application Data\CADzation\AcroPlot
Removing the Register Software menu from the Help menu
If you would like to remove the Register Software menu option from the Help menu you can do so using the APADD_REGISTRATION=0 and APADD_REGISTRATION_SHORTCUT=0 MSI Public Variables below.
Running the Install in Silent Mode
Please note that the silent installation is recommended
for CADzation clients that own +25 licenses of CADzation
software.
CADzation software is an MSI install based setup and you
can pass various command line switches through the setup
to make our applications install silently and to suppress
reboots.
To pass command line switches one must use a space /v and place quotes around the command line switches.
AcroPlotSetup.exe /v"[switches]"
Supported Command Line Switches
|
/qn |
Suppresses all dialog boxes. |
|
/qn+ |
Suppresses all dialog boxes except it prompts the user with a modal dialog box when finished. |
|
|
|
|
/REBOOT=Force |
Forces the computer to reboot after the install even if it is not needed. |
|
/REBOOT=Suppress |
This is the normal action. Will prompt the user to reboot if required but if the /qn option is used it will reboot the machine without prompting if a reboot is required. |
|
/REBOOT=ReallySuppress |
Suppresses all restarts so if a file was in use you would have to manually reboot the computer afterwards to actually finish the install. |
This will hide all dialogs but it will most likely reboot
the computer when the install is finished.
AcroPlotSetup.exe /v" /qn"
If you would like to suppress the reboot and handle it yourself
then you can use:.
AcroPlotSetup.exe /v"REBOOT=ReallySuppress /qn"
If you want to make it completely silent and also hide the
initial AcroPlotSetup.exe progress dialog, then you can
use the /s switch before the /v
AcroPlotSetup.exe /s /v"REBOOT=ReallySupress /qn"
Using the MSI Public Variables
There are several Public Variables that can be passed
to the exe to control the options in the setup. To pass
these you either pass 1 to turn it on or 0 to turn it off.
APADD_DESKTOP_SHORTCUT - This controls if the desktop shortcut
is created for all users. Default=1.
APADD_ADMIN_SHORTCUT - This controls if the AcroPlot
Admin shortcut is created for all users. Default=1. You
may want to turn this off so users do not try to change
the file name filtering and the AutoCAD menu options.
There is no option to not install the AcroPlot Admin because
the program is a required component.
APADD_REGISTRATION_SHORTCUT - This controls if the Registration shortcut is created for all users. Default=1. You may want to turn this off so the users do not run it.
APADD_REGISTRATION - This controls if the CADzWebReg.exe
program is added to allow you to register the software.
Default=1. Setting this value to 0 will also not install
the shortcut. When the program is not installed the
Register button will also be removed from the Help menus
in the programs.
APPATH - This is left if for backwards compatibility but
best practice is to just locate the files you want copied
over in the same directory as the acroplotsetup.exe or msi
file. This lets you pass the name of the directory
where you have common files located that you would like
to have installed instead of the defaults. These files include
the settings files, the titrules.rsl for custom naming filtering,
and the cadzationsoftware.txt file for multi user licenses.
You must wrap the pathname in a backslash followed by a
quote.
APPATH=\"Z:\Some
Directory\Data\"
APADD_MENU_AUTOCAD - This controls if the AcroPlot Menus and Toolbars are added into AutoCAD for all users. Default=1.
APADD_MENU_OFFICE - This controls if the AcroPlot Menus and Toolbars are added into Office products for all users. Default=1. Note: This parameter was added into the 2014-10-22 build.
For example, if you want to add the desktop shortcut, then
run the EXE from a batch file and pass the parameters using
the /V command line switch and wrap it in quotes.
AcroPlotSetup.exe /s /V"REBOOT=ReallySupress /qn APADD_DESKTOP_SHORTCUT=1
APADD_ADMIN_SHORTCUT=0 APPATH=\"Z:\Some Directory\Data\""
If you don't want to add the desktop shortcut, then the
correct parameter would be:
AcroPlotSetup.exe /s /V"REBOOT=ReallySupress /qn APADD_DESKTOP_SHORTCUT=0
APADD_ADMIN_SHORTCUT=0 APPATH=\"Z:\Some
Directory\Data\""
If you don't want to add the registration program or
shortcut but want all other dialogs to display the parameter
would be:
AcroPlotSetup.exe /V"APADD_REGISTRATION=0 APADD_REGISTRATION_SHORTCUT=0"
Extracting the MSI Package
CADzation software is a downloadable EXE file that contains
a MSI install based installation package. If you would like
to extract the MSI file, then use the /a command line switch
to install it in Administration mode which allows you to
provide a path to save the acroplotsetup.msi file. This
method will install the product as well.
The other method is to just run the acroplotsetup.exe and
then when the first dialog comes up just search your temp
directory for it. It's going to be in a GUID named directory
like {7B7756EF-5057-4870-87C9-03BBE8E0558E}. You can then
copy the msi over to a folder and then cancel the install.