Service Pack 3 for AutoCAD 2009 and related products such as LT, AutoCAD Mechanical, and Mechanical Desktop 2009 is now available for download from the Autodesk website. The patch includes Service Packs 1 and 2 in case you aren’t up-to-date on those.

Note: If you apply this update while running AutoCAD on Windows Vista, close AutoCAD manually before installing the update. Do not click the Automatically close applications and attempt to restart them after setup is complete option.
The patch addresses a lengthy list of problems. Here’s a list of actions that can cause AutoCAD 2009 to crash. It may help you determine whether AutoCAD 2009 is at the root of your problems. The list of fixes is so extensive, however, that you’d be nuts not to install the patch:

• Suspend Windows XP place it in hibernation mode.
• Plot a drawing when a layer is set to color Byblock and you plot the drawing.
• Save a drawing that contains incorrect block references when the SAVEFIDELITY system variable is set to 1.
• Use annotation scaling to delete a layout viewport.
• Use the Pasteblock command.
• Use the Insert command when a drawing contains a block that references itself.
• Explode mirrored blocks, then save your drawing.
• Audit a drawing (erased objects may be identified as invalid objects, and AutoCAD crashes when it tries to fix them).
• Open a corrupt drawing (AutoCAD may crash if data cannot be recovered).
• Use the Refedit toolbar to reference edit.
• Preview a drawing from the Recent Files list on the menu browser when all drawings are closed.
• Add Xdata (extended entity data) to a table style.
• Use OpenGL with drivers that are not certified by Autodesk.
• Leave your computer unattended long enough for your screen saver to start (AutoCAD loses its connection with your graphics card)
• Enable Dynamic Input while you are grip editing, then save and close the drawing.
• Open a drawing that has a hatch pattern name that is longer than 35 characters.
• Open a drawing with missing xrefs and click Cancel to ignore them.
• Right-click in the drawing area while a drawing is closing.
• Use the Tableexport command, then grip edit a viewport.
• Offset a polyline with a distance of zero.
• Right-click on an OLE object.
• Use the Copyclip or Insert command and receive a message about duplicate blocks.
• Click on a hyperlink to a drawing file in another application.
• Plot a drawing that contains geometry with corrupt layers.
• List the properties of a dynamic block that contains an attribute with an empty tag.
• Use the Rpref command.
• Load a CUI file or select an object to edit before a command is active.
• Generate a 2D/3D section from a section plane that overlaps an ellipse.

Many other problems that are addressed by the patch have serious consequences such as memory leaks, performance degradation, and loss of geometric precision. Other fixes address customer-reported issues.

In AutoCAD 2007 onward, AutoCAD’s digital signature feature can cause a fatal error or an unhandled exception when you open or close a drawing file, or simply when you’re in the drawing file. If this happens, open Windows Explorer and right-click on the drawing file (you should close the drawing first, but the fatal error probably took care of that). Select Enable/Disable Digital Signature Icons.

Caption: Browse to the suspect drawing, then right-click and select Enable/Disable Digital Signature Icons.

Uncheck the boxes for Validate Digital Signatures and Display Special Icons. Then restart your system.

An outdated DLL file (MFC80U.DLL, to be exact) can cause AutoCAD 2007 and up to display an error message and hang up when you try to select recently used files in the File menu. The error looks something like this:

FATAL ERROR: Unhandled e06d7363h Exception at 7c812a5bh

To solve the problem, use Windows Explorer to search all local drives for the file MFC80U.DLL. Check each one’s version number by right-clicking the file, then selecting Properties. If you find one with the version number 8.00.50727.363, you’ve hit the jackpot. Select Run in the Windows Start menu. Copy and paste (or type in for a fun challenge) the following command into the Run dialog box. 

MsiExec.exe /X{A49F249F-0C91-497F-86DF-B2585E8E76B7}

Caption: Paste long cryptic command above into Run dialog box.

Click OK, and restart AutoCAD. If you receive an error message during startup, you’ll need to visit the Microsoft Web site to retrieve and reinstall the correct version of the DLL File.

If you don’t want to be bothered tracking down the correct DLL, disable the Most Recently Used Files list by selecting Options from the Tools menu. On the Open and Save tab, set the Number of Most Recently Used Files to 0.

When starting AutoCAD, you might receive the following error message:

Unable to load profile file. Some profile information saved in last session may not be restored.

When you click OK to dismiss the error, AutoCAD runs very slowly, and some commands don’t work. The error indicates that the Microsoft XML parser is not installed or is corrupt. If you are using AutoCAD 2008 or later, you can insert your AutoCAD product DVD or CD (after closing AutoCAD) and browse to the appropriate file listed below:

• 32-bit operating systems: \support\msxml\msxml6.msi
• 64-bit operating systems: \support\msxml\msxml6_x64.msi

Run the file and accept all of the default settings. Next, go to the Windows Start menu and select Run. Enter the following in the Run dialog box:

REGSVR32 MSXML6.DLL

Caption: Type or paste the string above into the Run dialog box.

Select OK and restart AutoCAD.

For AutoCAD 2007 and earlier, close AutoCAD and select Run from the Windows Start menu. Enter XMLLIST in the Run dialog box.

Caption: Type XMLLIST into the Run dialog box.

Note: If you get an error that the file cannot be found, you must go to Microsoft’s Web site and download that file to your Systems32 folder.

Again, select Run from the Windows Start menu. In the Run dialog box, enter:

REGSVR32 MSXML3.DLL

Caption: Type or paste the string above into the Run dialog box.

Again note: If you get an error that the file cannot be found, you must go to Microsoft’s Web site and download that file to your Systems32 folder.

In AutoCAD 2010, you may try to use the Ribbon to export a drawing to PDF, only to find that no PDF is created. The Plot and Publish Details dialog box displays the message “ERROR: Internal Error: Null Pointer.” According to Autodesk, this problem occurs when the 2010 version of the DWG to PDF.pc3 file is overwritten by an older version of the file. The older version comes along for the ride when you upgrade from a previous version of AutoCAD. To fix the problem, start AutoCAD 2010 and run the Plottermanager command to open the Plotters folder (home to the DWG to PDF.pc3 file). Pull out your AutoCAD 2010 DVD, pop it into your DVD drive, and browse to this location:

:\x86\acad\Program Files\Root\UserDataCache\Plotters

According to AutoCAD, a security patch for Microsoft Office XP is making AutoCAD 2009 crash. The suspect is a security patch issued on October 14, 2008. The cure is to start one of the Microsoft Office applications (Word or Excel, for example) after the installation of the security patch and before trying to run AutoCAD.