AutoCAD 2014 / 2013 / 2012 / 2011 Setting Default Save Format By Registry

We have come into an issue recently that new deployments of AutoCAD LT needed to be set to save as the 2007 format by default.

Unfortunately I was unable to find much information pertaining to ACAD LT for this issue, but was able to use a blog post on changing the old AutoCAD settings and used that as a spring board for solving my issue.

AutoCAD Post can be found HERE

Our versions of LT range from 2010 to 2014 and so far I have only nailed down the 2014 LT path, but will work on the others and post them as well.

I focused on mapping the following formats and their respective  hexadecimal codes in the registry:

2013 DWG = 0000003c
2010 DWG = 00000030
2007 DWG = 00000024
2004 DWG = 00000018
2000 DWG = 0000000c

For ACAD LT 2014 the path is located here:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD LT\R20\ACADLT-D001:409\Profiles\<<Unnamed Profile>>\General

If importing into the registry here is the line for the save attribute

"DefaultFormatForSave"=dword:00000024

This one is set for 2007.

Let me know if you have any questions and ill try to help out.


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

EDIT : Adding ACAD LT 2013 Path

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD LT\R18\ACADLT-B001:409\Profiles\<<Unnamed Profile>>\General

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

EDIT : Adding ACAD LT 2012 Path

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD LT\R17\ACADLT-A001:409\Profiles\<<Unnamed Profile>>\General

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

EDIT : Adding ACAD LT 2011 Path

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD LT\R16\ACADLT-9001:409\Profiles\<<Unnamed Profile>>\General

Another Macros Script for saving tons of emails into a standardize format

I honestly was passed down some of the code in this script so I am not sure who to give the original credit too!

I modified it to include both emails and meeting requests and error out if neither is acceptable. Added another cleanse group, saved the file in the following format (Project# SenderName DateTimeReceived Subject.msg)

If the senders name was not available (which is the case in some situations) it pulls the last 11 characters and creates a string to save it to when referenced.

Default save folder is C:\

If anyone can find the original poster please leave a comment below!

Enjoy!



Sub MASS_SAVE()
    Dim Mitem
    Dim prompt As String
    Dim name As String
    Dim Nname As String
    Dim Exp As Outlook.Explorer
    Dim sln As Outlook.Selection
    Dim saveSubject As String
    Dim senderName As String
    Dim senderCheck As String
    Dim msg As Object
    Dim timeSent As String

    Set Exp = Application.ActiveExplorer
    Set sln = Exp.Selection
   
    If sln.count = 0 Then
        MsgBox "No objects selected."
    Else
        myPath = BrowseForFolder("C:\")
        Set Mitem = Outlook.ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(1)
 
        Nname = InputBox("Please enter in the Project #")

        For Each Mitem In sln
     
            If TypeName(Mitem) = "ReportItem" Or TypeName(Mitem) = "MailItem" Or TypeName(Mitem) = "MeetingItem" Then
       
                saveSubject = Mitem.Subject
               
                If Nname = "" Then
                    name = Mitem.Subject
                Else
                    name = Nname
                End If
               
                ' Cleanse illegal characters from subject... :/|*?<>" etc or sharepoint wont have it!
                name = Replace(name, "<", "(")
                name = Replace(name, ">", ")")
                name = Replace(name, "&", "n")
                name = Replace(name, "%", "pct")
                name = Replace(name, """", "'")
                name = Replace(name, "´", "'")
                name = Replace(name, "`", "'")
                name = Replace(name, "{", "(")
                name = Replace(name, "[", "(")
                name = Replace(name, "]", ")")
                name = Replace(name, "}", ")")
                name = Replace(name, "  ", "_")
                name = Replace(name, "   ", "_")
                name = Replace(name, "  ", "_")
                name = Replace(name, "..", "_")
                name = Replace(name, ".", "_")
                name = Replace(name, "__", "_")
                name = Replace(name, ": ", "_")
                name = Replace(name, ":", "_")
                name = Replace(name, "/", "_")
                name = Replace(name, "\", "_")
                name = Replace(name, "*", "_")
                name = Replace(name, "?", "_")
                name = Replace(name, """", "_")
                name = Replace(name, "__", "_")
                name = Replace(name, "|", "_")
               
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "<", "(")
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, ">", ")")
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "&", "n")
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "%", "pct")
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, """", "'")
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "´", "'")
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "`", "'")
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "{", "(")
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "[", "(")
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "]", ")")
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "}", ")")
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "  ", "_")
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "   ", "_")
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "  ", "_")
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "..", "_")
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, ".", "_")
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "__", "_")
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, ": ", "_")
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, ":", "_")
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "/", "_")
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "\", "_")
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "*", "_")
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "?", "_")
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, """", "_")
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "__", "_")
                saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "|", "_")
               
                If TypeName(Mitem) = "MailItem" Then
               
                    senderCheck = "/O=EXCHANGE"
                   
                    senderName = Mitem.sender
                   
                    timeSent = Mitem.ReceivedTime
                   
                    If Left$(senderName, 11) = senderCheck Then
                   
                        senderName = Right$(Mitem.sender, 11)
                       
                    Else
                       
                        senderName = Mitem.sender
                   
                    End If
               
                ElseIf TypeName(Mitem) = "MeetingItem" Then
               
                        senderCheck = "/O=EXCHANGE"
                   
                        senderName = Mitem.senderName
                       
                        timeSent = Mitem.ReceivedTime
                   
                    If Left$(senderName, 11) = senderCheck Then
                   
                        senderName = Right$(Mitem.sender, 11)
                       
                    Else
                       
                        senderName = Mitem.senderName
                   
                    End If
               
                ElseIf TypeName(Mitem) = "ReportItem" Then
               
                        senderName = "Read Receipt"
                       
                        timeSent = Mitem.CreationTime
               
                Else
               
                    MsgBox "Unknown mail type....ERROR"
                   
                    'senderName = ""
                   
                    'MsgBox senderName, vbCritical, "Sender Name"
                   
                    'variable111 = Mitem.CreationTime
                   
                    'MsgBox variable111, vbApplicationModal, "Creation Time"
                   
                End If
               
               
                If myPath = False Then
               
                    MsgBox "No directory chosen !", vbExclamation
                   
                Else
               
                    Mitem.SaveAs myPath & "\" & "Project#" & name & " " & Left$(senderName, 20) & " " & Format(timeSent, "MM-DD-YY HHMM") & " " & Left$(saveSubject, 40) & ".msg", olMSG
               
                End If
               
            Else
           
                MsgBox "A message was not saved because it does not match an EMail format."
               
            End If
       
        Next Mitem
 
    End If
       
MsgBox "Export Complete!", vbOKOnly, "Export Status"

End Sub

Function BrowseForFolder(Optional OpenAt As Variant) As Variant
     'Function To Browse for a user selected folder.
     'If the "OpenAt" path is provided, open the browser at that directory
     'NOTE: If invalid, it will open at the Desktop level
    Dim ShellApp As Object
     'Create a file browser window at the default folder
    Set ShellApp = CreateObject("Shell.Application"). _
    BrowseForFolder(0, "Please choose a folder", 0, OpenAt)
     'Set the folder to that selected. (On error in case cancelled)
    On Error Resume Next
    BrowseForFolder = ShellApp.self.Path
    On Error GoTo 0
     'Destroy the Shell Application
    Set ShellApp = Nothing
     'Check for invalid or non-entries and send to the Invalid error
     'handler if found
     'Valid selections can begin L: (where L is a letter) or
     '\\ (as in \\servername\sharename. All others are invalid
    Select Case Mid(BrowseForFolder, 2, 1)
    Case Is = ":"
        If Left(BrowseForFolder, 1) = ":" Then GoTo Invalid
    Case Is = "\"
        If Not Left(BrowseForFolder, 1) = "\" Then GoTo Invalid
    Case Else
        GoTo Invalid
    End Select
    Exit Function
Invalid:
     'If it was determined that the selection was invalid, set to False
    BrowseForFolder = False
End Function

Outlook macros for travel time and notifying someone you are out of the office automatically

Lately we have had some questions from employees wanting to automatically add travel time to their calendars. After some research and links from them I came across a script written here that was modified at the bottom of the page for adding in 2 separate times as well as working for meetings and appointments. I modified a few things on it to make sure there was no buffer time as well and then decided to add in one more thing.

Our office uses a global calendar mailbox called Out that they can send a meeting request to stating they will be out of the office so that our Admin team knows easily and from one calendar who is here and who is not. The downside is users forget, so I made a script to automatically send a request to that mailbox (or whatever mailbox you wish) as soon as someone saves an appointment or meeting with the Out Of Office status.

Enjoy!




Dim WithEvents olkCalendar As Outlook.Items


Private Sub Application_Quit()
    Set olkCalendar = Nothing

End Sub

Private Sub Application_Startup()
    Set olkCalendar = Session.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderCalendar).Items

    Const OLK_TRAVEL_SCRIPT_NAME = "Schedule Travel Time"
    Const OLK_INVITE_SCRIPT_NAME = "Notify FAST Team"
End Sub

Private Sub olkCalendar_ItemAdd(ByVal Item As Object)
    If Item.BusyStatus = OlBusyStatus.olOutOfOffice Then
        If MsgBox("Do you need to schedule travel time for this meeting?", vbQuestion + vbYesNo, OLK_TRAVEL_SCRIPT_NAME) = vbYes Then
            CreateTravelAppointmentEntry Item           'setup TO travel time
            CreateTravelAppointmentEntry Item, False    'setup FROM travel time
        End If
        If MsgBox("Do you need to nofity the FAST Team of your absense?", vbQuestion + vbYesNo, OLK_INVITE_SCRIPT_NAME) = vbYes Then
            CreateFastAppointmentEntry Item           'Notify FAST Team
        End If
    End If
End Sub

Private Sub CreateTravelAppointmentEntry(ByVal Item As Object, Optional ByVal isTo As Boolean = True)
    Dim olkTravel As Outlook.AppointmentItem
    Dim intMinutes As Integer

    intMinutes = InputBox("How many minutes " & IIf(isTo, "to", "from") & "?", OLK_TRAVEL_SCRIPT_NAME, 15)
    If intMinutes > 0 Then
        Set olkTravel = Application.CreateItem(olAppointmentItem)
        With olkTravel
            'Edit the subject as desired'
            .Subject = "Travel " & IIf(isTo, "to", "from") & " Meeting: " & Item.Subject
       
            If isTo Then
                .Start = DateAdd("n", intMinutes * -1, Item.Start)
            Else
                .Start = DateAdd("n", 0, Item.End)
            End If
       
            .End = DateAdd("n", intMinutes, .Start)
            .Categories = Item.Categories
            .BusyStatus = olBusy
            .Save
        End With
    End If

    Set olkTravel = Nothing
End Sub

Private Sub CreateFastAppointmentEntry(ByVal Item As Object, Optional ByVal isTo As Boolean = True)
   
    Dim olkInvite As Outlook.AppointmentItem
    Dim intMeetingLength As Integer

    Set olkInvite = Application.CreateItem(olAppointmentItem)
    With olkInvite
        .MeetingStatus = olMeeting
        .Subject = "Out of Office"
        .Start = Item.Start
        .End = Item.End
        .Categories = Item.Categories
        .BusyStatus = olBusy
        'Edit below line with your email address to send to'
        .RequiredAttendees = "out@epicsysinc.com"
        .Send
    End With

    Set olkInvite = Nothing

End Sub

Questions You Should Answer in a Project Proposal

Over the past year I have had to create more and more project proposals instead of just going crazy and buying things as I want to (Probably a good idea). As I have become hopefully better with each passing proposal I wanted to share a list of questions I try to answer in a project proposal helping me to better sell the project to management. I don't use them all, and each project results in the use of different questions and answers but this is a good place to start, maybe you will find your own questions as well when you create your own proposal.

1. Who will benefit from the project
2. Why are we doing this
3. What is our end goal
4. When could it be done
5. What are the steps of the project
6. What is the cost
7. What is the potential savings
8. What is wrong with the current system
9. Who will we purchase from
10. Why will we purchase from said vendors/people
11. Who will install this
12. Who is the project leader
13. What will it look like when its finished
14. What are the tasks of the project, and the timeline they will be finished in
15. What is the long term cost of the project
16. What is the goal of the project (Much like the question Why are we doing this)
17. How long will the end result last
18. Does it scale up easily

Office 365 Lync 2013 - Unable to Upload a Profile Image

I encountered this issue few weeks back and found it to be very perplexing, especially since the upgrade to O365 2013. Users who tried to change their profile picture in Lync 2013 or Exchange Online were greeted with a message that told them they did not have permissions to do so, even global admins got the error. After joining a community forum as well as starting a service request through the support portal I was able to get a resolution to the issue.

Turns out the upgrade has a few bugs (who knew) and that Microsoft has a hotfix they can apply if your service is showing a permission issue like mine. Ill include the link to the forum below so you can add to it and get your issue resolved as well.

Microsoft did get this resolved and fairly quick too. Good luck!



Community Link

UPS Shorts Out and Kills Nortel Phone System PSU

I had the strangest bit of luck a week ago regarding our 4 APC units (Smart UPS 1500 for reference) that supply backup power to our server closet. I walked in that morning for an unrelated event and see a bright red light shining at me telling me that a one of the UPS's (#4 in particular) needed a battery change. I figured sure, I will replace it tonight at 9pm and move on with my simple life.

That evening a simple battery change resulted in the same issue again when I fired back up the UPS unit, a glowing red change battery light. At this point our telephone and internet had been down for long enough that I decided to replace the UPS entirely so I could get those items back up again. Not thinking about anything else I replace the UPS, plug in the power cables for a 2nd time and let everything take it time to come back up. The good news was that due to redundancy in our ISCSI network backbone and dual PSU's in our servers and SAN storage no data was lost, damaged or stopped working internally during this time.

30 minutes later however, the telephone system had still failed to come up and multiple telephones gave off a creepy Silent Hill like static warning me of coming danger. I decided then something had happened and gave our phone vendor a call, he was not optimistic and prepared for a long night with me at work. In the end (1am at this point) we were able to keep our programming by replacing the 300$ power supply and get her back up and running, but we were still perplexed as to how 1 system behind a UPS, attached to a surge protector went bad out of 12 items plugged into the unit.

Here it is a week later and the "Bad" UPS has functioned fine during tests with both its original battery and the one I tried to replace it with. I surely won't place this into production, but I would love to know what happened last week and any way I could prevent it from happening again.

1. Make sure the UPS is unplugged and all items are also unplugged before removing the battery

2. Replace the battery and power on the unit before plugging in any items to the back

3. After 15 minute run time plug in items one at a time so as to not create a large power draw if items are booting up.


Hopefully changing my steps a bit will help me, and you if this happens in your IT world.

Adding Facebook Like Button to Blogger Blog

Ill try to make this a quick and helpful write-up. By default Blogger will let you easily add in a Google+ widget to your site, but no easy way to add in one for Facebook. There are a few add-ons out there but this covers just adding a Facebook "Like" button, skipping the extra flair (I've never used Digg anyway).

1. First head over to Facebook HERE

2. Configure the Like button to your personal preference

3. Click Grab Code

4. Copy the Javascript SDK and head over to your Blogger Admin portal

5. Find Templates and click on it
























6. Click on EDIT HTML

Right after the line that says

  <body expr:class='&quot;loading&quot; + data:blog.mobileClass'>

Enter in the SDK code

7. Now go grab the DIV code from the Facebook page

8. In the HTML find the spot you want it to appear at (mine is just under the Google + button on the side)

(The google plus one widget should be available to jump to if you have it implemented)

9. Add your code right before the end the widgets code

End of widget code : </b:includable>

  </b:widget>

10. Click Save

Should you have a dream job?

I have pondered this a lot lately and have decided that yes, you should.

Making progress toward something is human nature, accomplishments as just as important as your goals for without them you would never have an accomplishment. I believe having a Dream Job set, no matter how unrealistic it is, it helps your state of mind on a day to day basis.

Don't get me wrong though, I do love my job. This place is amazing to work at, and tough as nails to really push me to do my best. A dream job though is always something to hope for, to keep on your mind. For me, I pick working as a Network Systems Admin for Ducati in Italy. Will it ever happen? Probably not, but just like being a kid and saying "when I grow up" it lets me dream and focus more on the work it would take to get there. Maybe it's about time I learned some Italian?

An Outlook Quirk

I discovered a slight bug recently when designing a new signature for our company that I would never had caught in a million years of troubleshooting and is testament to how hard it is to make a perfect application/design.

After setting up tables, images, fighting outlooks lack of support for certain layouts in versions previous to 2013 I thought I had done it all. I checked, printed, sent and printed some more and everything was in great shape. Then I roll out to my first beta group, and man did something so strange happen.

Our CEO has multiple monitors and as such small print can definitely be hard to see way out in the corners, so he has increased the OS rendering 125%. I've seen people do this before, but I have never seen it effect Outlook like it has now. He runs 2013, and every time he sends an email out with the new signature 2 of the 4 images increase in size by 25%. We have compared them to the others, and can not find anything different. It's amazing but so frustrating at the same time. I have yet to find a solution to this issue other than changing the screen back to 100%, but there has to be something that's different....right?

Well after a few hours of prodding I was able to figure it out. The issue seems to only happen when the image has Inline Word Wrapping turned on. Setting it to Top/Bottom seems to fix the image blowup for good.

Laziness of Computer Repair Shops

After years of hard work and honestly I get the pleasure of looking over friends and family's computer to make sure they are in tip top shape when the owners believe otherwise.

This week I was approached by a friend and handed a machine that was a friend of a friends etc. They stated that the user took the machine to a repair shop and was told it was a mainboard issue, the user didn't want to spend the money and had asked around to see if anyone could take a second look. I responded to my friend with a "Sure ill be glad to" and was off to my work bench.

I worked on the toshiba laptop for 5 maybe 10 minutes doing basic testing and was able to conclude in that amount of time that the mainboard was fine, in fact the only fault part on the laptop was the hard drive. Bad hard drives can definitely cause a no POST situation and sure enough this was one of those times.

Then after my excitement of finding the issue started to wain I realized that the company that looked over this the first time was either lying or missed a basic part of computer troubleshooting. I really do not see how any company could stay in business after such a poor performance. Honesty and common sense should be a standard of any company, and small businesses are not omitted to that.

Rule of thumb, always get a second opinion from someone you can trust. Hopefully in the future that will be more businesses and less individuals.

Windows 8.0 Review

After using Windows 8.0 for 2 months (this would be my second try at using this OS) I have come to somewhat of a conclusion about the state of the OS and its potential as well as drawbacks. My wife has also acquired a Windows 8.0 laptop (Dell brand) and her discussions and opinions on it have made me rethink many things as I have to face the coming of deploying it to users once Windows 7 becomes extinct.

I will focus on 5 items to make this post short, sweet and hopefully information.

1. Start Button - A lot can be said of this. I installed Classic Shell day 1 of trying this system out again and there hasn't been 1 time when I have said to myself, yes I would love to have a hot corner back to get to my programs. In fact I use it much like I did in windows 7 and before. The missing start menu is still an issue of frustration for my wife (whom will get Classic Start installed as soon as I get the chance). Why this was missing and waiting to 8.1 I will never know, and by then neither of us will care.

2. Start Screen - No, just no. The whole thing is confusing and I am in the IT field. For my wife it's even worse. There are times I can't even help her, I end up opening some random application and then constantly switching to it via another hot corner. It's a mess. Since Classic Start I have only ventured into the Start Screen when I get curious about an app, in fact I haven't really used any apps since then. When the computer is setup I could be able to pick Laptop or Tablet experience and have it optimized for my use.

3. Speed - Windows 8.0 is fast, there is no denying that. My wifes new Dell is not a power machine by any means but the speed at which Windows 8 runs vs Windows 7 is blinding. I love how a restart can take less than a minute. Startup time is even less. Keep this, at all costs.

4. Apps - Poor selection and the fact that on a laptop if I want netflix I can just bring up a web browser to do it negates any reason for the app store in the first place let alone the App like start screen. Are my apps taking up processing power and ram? Probably. Is it a lot? Probably not. But if I never get into it, id like that extra 5% please, especially on a budget machine.

5. Program compatibility - Great! In fact I have only come across 1 program that wouldn't run in Windows 8 due to a missing driver. Being able to run to old programs without the need for a virtual machine is a great thing.

Would I deploy it to my users? - Sure, If I had to. You could bet yourself that I would install Classic Shell and disable most Windows 8 features though. And my users are on their own signing up for a Live ID to purchase things if they really want into the App Store.

Blog design changes

After quite some time not updating this blog I come back to find that Google has messed it up big time. Really sorry for anyone who visited during this time. I have fixed a few issues and will really work on making this site more professional and easier to navigate.

 - Justin

iPhone 5C and 5S Release Feedback

After watching the keynote today i've decided that Apple makes cool things, but doesn't know how to price the "Cheap" model as such....450$ for the iPhone 4S? Really? iPhone 5c starting at 550$? 650$ for the iphone 5s? If a market is in the early stages of moving to no contract, and the rest of the world is no contract....wouldn't it make more sense to build a cheaper phone thats actually cheap?

Compared side by side the Nexus 4 = iPhone 4s, when I bought my Nexus 4 it was 100$ less, now its 200$ as they finish off their supply before the Nexus 5 comes out. 2 completely different marketing strategies (contract vs non) and I somehow think that if you release 2 phones you could easily cover both markets no?

On the plus side, I do like the fingerprint reader concept and a 64bit phone OS makes me happy and could cause some change at Google for better performance..

P.S. - This comment was more about marketing/pricing than an android vs apple fight. In comparison much of the android market has the same problem, the good thing there is some of it doesn't...and the some that doesn't is still more than apples limited selection of 0 cheap phones.

In fact, i'm just generally pissed about how much cell phone makers screw everyone over on price.

There, I said it. This market needs to change, and that can only happen when people stop paying out the bum for contract phones and expensive no contract phones.

Money talks people, find a cheap smartphone and wait out the storm.

Set Office365 Password Expiration (Business Accounts) - 2013 Edition

Since Microsoft has started upgrading accounts under the Office 365 umbrella the Admin Center has changed a lot and might be a bit confusing for some simple operations. I will take you through the steps below to change your users password expiration policy.

The main dashbard for O365

1. Log into the Admin Portal HERE

2. On the left find Service Settings

3. Now on the top navigation bar, find Passwords

4. Edit the password expiration age, and notification options and click Save.


I know this is a simple operation, but I hope this helps.

For reference, the policy settings used to be under Users and Groups.

USB 3.0 Device Not Recognized

Its been a while since my last update, and today is as good of a day as any to get back on the right track to documenting resolutions to issues I've encountered.

Today it was my USB 3.0 drive not being seen by my laptop. I could have sworn it worked before sending my laptop back to Dell (Model is a Latitude e6430s if that helps at all) but now however, the 3.0 Super-Speed port won't see anything but 2.0 Super-Slow devices.

The 3.0 drive works fine in the 2.0 ports, however in the good name of technology and speed, I want that sucker crankin' at its theoretical limits.

I started with driver update which did me no good, then dove into the BIOS to mess with some settings here and there. Among the changes I enabled the Power Share feature for the laptop (thus enabling the laptop to power USB devices while off), after saving my setting and powering up the laptop Viola! the hard drive is seen one again, and much quicker at transferring data.