AutoCAD 2013 SP1

You had to be *really* fast today because if you blinked, you missed it. Yup, Autodesk released AutoCAD 2013 Service Pack 1 (SP1) into the wild on this date (22-Aug-2012)! Or did they? It turns out they both did and they didn't because almost as soon as it was set free Autodesk pulled it, ney, they yanked it like a bad tooth... because it was apparently. If you go to the Autodesk Service and Support site now (as this is being written) this is what you'll see:

AutoCAD 2013 Service Pack 1

Service Pack 1 for AutoCAD 2013 has been temporarily removed due to a newly discovered fatal error. The AutoCAD team is actively working on resolving this and a new service pack will be posted here as soon as it is available.

The words, "fatal error" always catch my attention. Maybe it's just "fatal". Anyway, that word in anything will make me sit up and get focused. The boards are still somewhat quiet (stunned?!) about all this so I'm not quite sure what any of it means other than:

1. It's becomming more important than ever to wait a few days (weeks, months, etc) before ever installing a new AutoCAD release; and,
2. It's equally worth your time, money, and sanity to wait a few days (weeks, or months, we'll see, etc) before ever installing a new Service Pack.

Whack-A-Mole anyone? Stay tuned!

AutoCAD 2013 Update Redux

The vast majority of visits to this site since it has been up have been to the various AutoCAD 2013 postings, and particular to the one titled, "AutoCAD 2013 Update".  There's no doubt that countless users are anxiously awaiting the first Service Pack or Hotfix or anything really that will make this first release of the 3-yr cycle work without issues.

Sadly, this isn't the page you're looking for.  Trust me... I'm waiting for the same thing you are.  But for those wondering how long Autodesk usually takes to issue updates I've spent a little time going back through their records to find out.  And it seems that it sometimes takes a while.  Normally the new versions of the program (over the last few years at least) have been sent out into the wild on or about the last week of March.  This year 2013 was released on March 27th.  It's now August 14th.  Let's see what the history is with respect to update releases.

The following list is not entirely comprehensive.  Left off are numerous language-specific fixes, and many for vertical products such as Revit, Inventor, and others.  I've picked out primarily the major updates and those that apply mainly to the base AutoCAD program itself.

	2013
03/26/12	Autodesk IPv4 Network License Manager for Windows
03/26/12	Autodesk IPv6 Network License Manager for Windows
06/04/12	Hotfix – Persistent System Tray Sync Error:
	2012
04/01/11	Content Explorer Hotfix:
06/13/11	Block Editor Save Corruption Hotfix:
09/27/11	Service Pack 1:
12/13/11	SP 1 Ribbon Hotfix:
12/08/11	Content Explorer Hotfix:
03/13/12	SP1 SMB V2 Hotfix:
06/11/12	Service Pack 2:
	2011
04/27/10	Info Manager Hot Fix:
10/13/10	Materials Library Update:
09/06/10	Layer Manager Hotfix:
09/16/10	Update 1.1:
05/30/11	Update 2:
01/04/12	Hotfix for Complex PLine:
	2010
06/19/09	Startup Error & Text Editing Hotfix:
06/24/09	MeasureGeom Hotfix:
08/21/09	Scale List Cleanup Utility:
08/21/09	Regapp ID Cleanup Utility:
10/01/09	Update 1:
05/11/10	Update 2:
	2009
05/21/08	Render Hotfix:
05/27/08	Solid Filled Object Hotfix:
07/30/08	Update 1:
08/28/08	Open Close Save Hotfix:
09/08/08	P&ID Hotfix:
10/30/08	Update 2:
06/08/09	Update 3:
	2008
05/23/07	Hotfix-Live Update:
09/14/07	Service Pack 1:
11/01/07	Hotfix-Linetype display:
05/02/08	Raster Issues after installing Service Pack 1:
11/04/08	Open Failure from Windows Explorer Hotfix:
01/30/09	Live Update Hotfix:
02/09/09	Hotfix-Autodesk Activation Update:
05/05/09	Plot to PDF Not Centered with Custom Margins Hotfix:
	2007
04/24/06	Hotfix-New Features Workshop Update:
06/14/06	Hotfix-Fatal Error During Save:
06/20/06	Hotfix-Cut & Paste:
04/05/07	Service Pack 1:
09/25/06	Hotfix-Regenerating Drawings Containing Text:
09/25/06	Hotfix-Plotting to Raster Files Performance Improvement:
10/19/06	Hotfix-Closing Drawings:
11/20/06	Hotfix-OLE Error:
04/19/07	Service Pack 2:

As the list shows, sometimes it can be a long wait, especially when it comes to fixes for the first version of a new cycle (2007, 2010, and now 2013).  It’s really not too surprising that nothing of substance has been issued for 2013 yet, and it could well be a while longer.

Only time will tell.

 

Olympic Memories

Perhaps a replay will help us wait another four years...

Brick by Brick - Olympic Beach Volleyball

So, your recorder failed the other day and you missed the XXX Summer Olympics final match of women's beach volleyball, eh? No worries, mate. We've got the replay for you right here! Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday

Curiosity

Is this all far too complicated, or not? We'll see. Mars has not been an especially good host to Earthly visitors in the past. The latest chapter is about to be written.

So be sure to watch the evening news tonight. One way or another *something* is going to happening way out there today!

UPDATE: Curiosity Has Landed! As crazy as the idea was the nerds at NASA made it work!