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VW8.5.2 on Windows XP


Kristen

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We would like to install VW8.5.2 on a Windows XP machine. The installation seems to go fine. However, when we try to open previously created files, we get the error message:

-49 Another read or write path open

VW9.5.2 and VW10 work fine on this computer, but we have one still-active job for which all drawings were created in VW8, and we need to get it working.

If we have to reinstall, is there some PC equivalent of the Mac Preferences file that should be deleted?

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Actually, the error message is different if the file is being opened from a network.

Is this file on a network or on your local computer?

Also make sure the file has read, write permissions.

Another thing to check -- Right click on the file and select Properties.

It should say Open With and an application name.

Does the application name say VectorWorks?

[ 01-22-2003, 01:18 PM: Message edited by: Katie ]

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Thank you Katie, for helping us narrow down the origin of our problem. We have not solved it yet, but we discovered that the files we've been trying to open were set to read-only. We unclicked this setting. However, when we try to open them in VW8.5.2, the same error occurs. When we check the file again, it is read-only again. We can convert the file in VW9.5.2, though (when it is not read-only), without it reverting to read-only. It seems that VW8.5.2 is changing the read/write setting. Does this make any sense?

To answer the other questions you asked:

The files are on a network (our server is a mac running OS9.1)

The "open with" application is VectorWorks 8.5.2

Could it make any difference that VW9 and VW10 were installed before VW8?

[ 01-22-2003, 03:55 PM: Message edited by: Kristen ]

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The other thing is to check permissions on the folder the file is being stored in.

a -49 error message is usually because a file has a read only conflict (which is what it looks like what is happening), or the file is in use by another application - another instance of VW.

There have been some people that were able to do this in the past with VW 8, I still don't know how .. but do you have TWO instances of VW 8 running on your computer?

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Sorry to ask a stupid question, but how do you check the permissions on the folder? That seems like a good bet, because when we copy a file from the server to the desktop, we can open it from the desktop.

Fairly certain that the file is not in use by any other application...

We don't deliberately, or knowingly, have two instances of VW running. But we did uninstall and reinstall it. I know that there's the Preferences file on macs that needs to be deleted to really start fresh. Is there a corresponding file on the PC that we should look for?

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It's in the registry, but you shouldn't need to mess with the preference file.

If you have a network with network accounts, it would be associated to that account.

OR, permissions on the folder itself. YOu have to have admin rights to change permissions on folders.

Do you guys have an IT person or do you handle it all by yourselves?

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No, that's not the problem. The same files can be opened on computers running Win 98 or on our macs (not at the same time that we were trying to open them on the XP machine! we tried them on other computers afterward to make sure the files themselves were not causing the error).

Besides, the message for trying to open a file that's already open is "This file is already in use. Select a new name or close the file in use by another application."

The error message we're getting on Windows XP is not one we've run into before.

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Nope, we don't have an IT person. In general, among everyone in the firm, we have enough knowledge to keep things running...

Yes, we have network accounts for VW. Is this the source of the problem? The person with the account on this new laptop was originally operating from a different computer. Where on the registry would we look for the network account's preference file?

If the problem were with permissions on the folder, that should mean that he wouldn't be able to open the files in VW9 or copy them to his desktop, right? It doesn't seem like there's problem with accessing the folder in general; just from VW8. Or am I misunderstanding?

Thanks again for your help.

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Nope, we don't have an IT person. In general, among everyone in the firm, we have enough knowledge to keep things running...

Yes, we have network accounts for VW. Is this the source of the problem? The person with the account on this new laptop was originally operating from a different computer. Where on the registry would we look for the network account's preference file?

If the problem were with permissions on the folder, that should mean that he wouldn't be able to open the files in VW9 or copy them to his desktop, right? It doesn't seem like there's problem with accessing the folder in general; just from VW8. Or am I misunderstanding?

Thanks again for your help.

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If the file is on a server and the server is a mac server, make sure you have the most recent version of Apple Talk on the Win XP machine.

Also, try to save the file to the desktop and see if you can open it in VW from the desktop.

Also make sure it's a VW 8 file. If it's been converted at any time to a VW 9 or 10 file, you won't be able to open in VW 8 until the file is exported as a VW 8 file from either application.

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Hmm... as far as we can tell, AppleTalk is not on the WinXP computer at all. But, yes, the files are on our mac server. However, we have not run into any conflicts with the server other than with VW8. Does VW8 specifically need AppleTalk?

Yes, if you copy a file to the desktop, VW8 can open it.

These are and always have been VW8 files, never converted in VW9 or 10.

We tracked down the preferences file in the registry. There were actually two files in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Graphsoft

one simply called "Vectorworks" and one called "Vectorworks 8".

Is this what you were talking about with two instances of the program?

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Those are the registry entries storing the preference files, but you do not need to mess with those.

If you have a mac as your server, you have to have Apple Talk along with TCP/IP to talk to that server, so it's probably turned on. It's a communications protocal.

When that file is on the server, how many folders deep from the root of the driver is that file?

[ 01-23-2003, 03:02 PM: Message edited by: Katie ]

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I don't know -- doing a search turns up TCP/IP, but not AppleTalk (or any files with "apple" in the name other than "applets") I'm out of my element with Windows XP.

The files we're looking at are 5 folders deep on the server, although we've tried and had the same problem with files that are 3 folders deep.

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This could be one of the limitations with using Win Xp and VW 8.

VW 8 was never designed for Win Xp nor tested with Xp as XP came out long after the development of VW 8 was completed.

One more thing that just dawned on me ..

make sure the file has a .mcd at the end of the file name on the server.

How are you opening this file?

Are you double clicking on it or going to File Open and selecting it from the list of files ?

If you move the file to the root of the server, can you open it ?

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I guess maybe we're stumped here. Moving the file to the root directory of the server doesn't seem to help.

The file does have the .mcd extension. We've tried opening it both from the File > Open menu in VW, and by double clicking it in Windows explorer. If VW wasn't already open, and you double-click the file, it does start up VW8, so it's recognizing the file type. However, when VW tries to actually open the file it gives the same old error message.

I guess it could be worse; at least you can work on the file from the desktop, and then move it to the server.

Thank you for putting so much time into helping us.

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