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VW 2011 Installs but won't open!


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I upgraded from 2009 to VW 2011 about a month ago. Program seemed to install fine but wouldn't open. I have called Nemetschek and Dell several times. Both have poked around inside my computer with no luck.

Have uninstalled & reinstalled Quicktime - no luck.

Have updated video driver (twice now) - no luck.

Have removed Dell security software which is notorious for causing this problem - made no difference, 2011 won't open.

Have created new User account and installed 2011 from that account - doesn't matter, won't open.

Have scanned the drive for errors - no errors. 2011 won't open.

Have scanned the system files for errors - no errors. 2011 won't open.

Requested a new disk and was sent another. Didn't matter, 2011 won't open.

Downloaded and installed SP2, didn't matter, 2011 won't open.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled the program about 5x's now. Always installs but never opens.

Nemetschek thinks its a Dell problem & Dell says its a software issue. Meanwhile I'm stuck in the middle with a computer that can't run the software I bought it for and a worthless piece of software. To Nemetschek's credit they will not start the 30 day trial period until this issue is resolved, if it ever is.

Anybody have any ideas? I'm about done with this. I just may be relegated to using 2009 until I retire.

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In the resources directory of the install media there are three numbered exes. Try installing them in order. It's just a stab in the dark, but give it a shot. Also, uninstall the Quicktime you have and install the one from the DVD.

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Thanks for your suggestion. I did what you recommended, but unfortunately it made no difference, the program will not open. Dell has given up saying this is a software problem, meaning a Nemetschek software problem. And I haven't heard from Nemetschek tech support in over a week, even after several emails requesting an update.

I used to recommend VW to anyone looking into CAD programs, but now, after this disaster, I can't recommend this software to anyone!

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The same problem can occur in Windows Vista and has most likely to do with UAC (User Access Control). I have it installed on two Vista computers, and on one I had the same problem as you and on the other one it installed without this issue.

Did you try installing it as Administrator? (Right mouseclick on the install file and then Run as Administrator)

If yes and the problem persists then you could try another option...

If you browse the installation DVD (assuming you have one) then in one of the folder's subdirectories called "Data" you should find a series of files named Main2011xx.exe, Fundamentals2011xx.exe etc. etc.

xx is something after 2011, but that may not apply to the US version. I have the Dutch version, so in my case xx equals NL (i.e. Main2011NL.exe) In your case it might be Main2011US.exe or just Main2011.exe

Run the Main2011.exe installer as administrator. All other modules will be added as necessary based on your license.

After the installation has been done and you start Vectorworks 2011 it may either run without problems or the Windows UAC may kick in and ask you to allow Vectorworks 2011 to run. In the worst case you will have that UAC dialog pop up every time you run Vectorworks 2011

I hope this helps.

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I know, I checked the disk today. I intend to try another reinstall tomorrow. But I think I may have already tried "Run as Administrator" during install. Its hard to remember all the things I have tried there has been so many. I'll post my result either way. There has to be a solution to this.

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Before you do another reinstall, try running Vectorworks itself as administratore. (e.g. right-click on the VW shortcut and select run as administrator)

That is something I have to do at the laptop at the moment after a reinstall. Before this reinstall it worked without this problem.

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There is something you could try, if possible, but it is not recommended as a permanent solution and it is at your own risk.

You could try to **temporarily** disable UAC (User Access Control) in Windows and see if Vectorworks starts up after that.

I know of someone who had big trouble making VW run and the only solution left was to disable/bypass UAC, which in the end worked.

If it does work after disabling UAC then at least you have an idea where the cause of the problem might be and maybe Nemetschek support can provide a solution to work around this.

In the meantime you can re-enable UAC in Windows.

UAC is meant as a security measure to prevent malware to run freely so disabling it permanently is definitely not recommended unless you know very well what you are doing and have other security measures in place.

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Every time a program malfunctions in Windows 7 it registers in the Reliability Monitor. By selecting an individual event in the RM and right-clicking on it, will bring up the details of that event.

So, every time I have tried to open VW2011, the subsequent failure to open has registered in the RM. I have checked the details of several of these reports. They are all the same except for the time & date. I copy and pasted 3 of these reports to the clipbd. and subsequently emailed them to Nemetschek Tech Support about 5 days ago (Monday). I only discovered the RM the day before.

I had been working w/ Tech Support for weeks on this & no one thought to look in the RM for info on these failures. I haven't heard a word from Tech Support since.

I'm about to try another install here. I will post the results

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No good news I'm afraid.

Ran the install program using "Run As Administrator" option. Program still will not open.

Installed SP2, again "Run as Administrator" selected. Made no difference - still won't open.

And finally, turned off User Access Controls. That didn't work either.

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Too bad that even turning off UAC didn't work.

I've just been tinkering with the laptop and turning off UAC made VW2011 (and 2009) run without having to run it as admin.

Turning UAC off (or on) does require a restart, I assume you did do a restart of the computer.

I've also tried the reliability monitor in Vista and noticed that doubleclicking the VW2011 shortcut when UAC was still on does make VW2011 start up, but it stalls at loading quicktime.qts and nothing else loads and then VW2011 disappears within a few seconds.

In the reliability monitor, when you expand "disk" you may see VW2011 come up and try to load other files.

Columns are Image/Process/File etc.

Image = VW2011

File = file that VW2011 is trying to load

When running VW2009 as admin, it also loads DLL's and other stuff required for the program to work.

Maybe you could try to start up VW2011 while the reliability monitor is active with the "disk" part expanded and see if VW2011 does come up at all, and if yes how much it does (or doesn't) load. Perhaps that may give VW tech support an idea of where to look.

It seems that in my case UAC is indeed the culprit on the laptop, but it does beg the question why this does UAC issue not always happen (the problem does not (yet)exist on the desktop).

It also occurred to me that you are using a laptop, and the only times I ran into this issue was with laptops, never with desktops. This cold be coincidence though.

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This is the second computer that I have installed 2009 on. I've haven't had any significant problems, an occasional crash, but nothing fatal. I use it daily on this computer, with very few problems.

Reliability Monitor must be different in Windows 7 than in Vista. There is no "disk" to expand. However I have started Task Manager to watch processes when opening VW2011. Almost immediately WerFault.exe opens as well. WerFault is the Windows Error Reporting app. VW2011 shows on the Task Manager no more than 10 seconds. So it reports an error almost immediately.

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I know when installing windows there is a language selection procedure, but as far as I know my computer is set up for english. I don't know any other language anyway.

I have tried switching users. I have even create a new user and tried to install thru that, but nothing has worked.

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  • 2 months later...

Just in case:

My orig VW2011 disk was incorrectly packaged - the box was correct, but the disk was not. Not obvious to me, but the disk series did not correspond to my license number. Reported install problem to NemV. They asked a couple questions, determined the package error and sent me a new disk pronto.

If nothing else works, call your distributor to check for this problem.

-B

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Just in case:

My orig VW2011 disk was incorrectly packaged - the box was correct, but the disk was not. Not obvious to me, but the disk series did not correspond to my license number. Reported install problem to NemV. They asked a couple questions, determined the package error and sent me a new disk pronto.

If nothing else works, call your distributor to check for this problem.

-B

Had no problems with the license. Installed fine. I downloaded my evaluation copy.

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Should have posted this update a few weeks ago, but I guess I forgot. Identified the problem as Dell installed security software. Had Dell remove all of it & VW 2011 opened, and has opened just fine since. I have contacted NM tech support to let them know what the problem was. I hope this helps Kerma. If you have a Dell, that is probably the problem.

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