Visitor # 11889 since 14.SEP.2003
Here's
the most recent GL Driver
software for AutoCAD R12 (v3.35; 3MB).
'buttonfly' in
the extracted 'gldriver' directory.
The optimized GL display driver provides several advantages:
Included with the GL display driver are a number of other subsystems that serve to integrate AutoCAD into the Indigo Magic Desktop:
Autodesk made some changes to the Dialog Box interface that makes R12 (and R13_c3a for that matter) incompatible to some degree with the R13_c4 display driver. If you don't use the affected dialog boxes, it may be OK, give it a try and see what you think. You'll find the same problems interchanging the X/Motif drivers among AutoCAD versions as well.
As far as the Desktop Drag and Drop interface, I recommend you use a startup shell script. similar to the AutoCAD R13 script, called acadr12 and also to make sure AutoCAD R12 is accessible in the default directory: /usr/acad. If you have installed AutoCAD R12 in another directory, you can simply make a symbolic link to do this:
In this manner, AutoCAD R12 is accessible via /usr/acad in a similar fashion to AutoCAD R13 in /opt/acad13. The file type rules are written in such a manner to detect R12-style files and try to launch AutoCAD R12 if it is available. You may want to copy the latest AutoLisp support file sgitools.lsp from the AutoCAD R13 support directory to the AutoCAD R12 support directory:
The new sgitools file does not rely on AutoCAD R12 being in the executable search path as was done in the AutoCAD R12 Bonus Pack. The rest of the files from the AutoCAD R12 Bonus Pack should be OK as is.
As far as using the Inventor viewers with AutoCAD, in R12, the data flow was DXF->IV while in R13 it is 3DS->IV[->VRML]. In the sgitools.lsp file (and acad.mnu) the corresponding commands are slightly different.
In R12 the AutoLisp command sequence to invoke a 3D view of the current drawing is:
while in R13 the command sequence is:
This is handled for you in the acad.mnu file automatically.
NOTE: The R13 acad.mnu file should be used with R12.
If you run into other R12 compatibility issues, please let me know and I'll see if I can help with a work-around.
IMPORTANT: AutoCAD R12 will not (officially) run under the IRIX 6.x operating system. This is because R12 (which was built under the IRIX 4.x O/S is in COFF executable format and IRIX 6.x only supports the newer ELF format introduced in IRIX 5.x. If you need to retain R12 capability, you can try running AutoCAD remotely on an IRIX 5.3 server, making use of the client-server capabilities of Irix and the X Window System.
MORE IMPORTANT: If you really insist on running AutoCAD R12 on Irix 6.x systems, here's how to do it. First you'll need to obtain a copy of the AutoCAD/AutoSurf bundle from Autodesk. You'll not actually be using AutoSurf (unless you want to), rather you'll be using the AutoCAD binaries from it that are in ELF format. Since AutoCAD for AutoSurf was built on Irix 5.2, it is naturally in ELF format. Unfortunately, not all of AutoCAD was rebuilt for the AutoSurf bundle. There are some of the missing pieces from the R12J (Kanji version), AutoCAD R13 as well as some ADS and other support programs that I have re-built in ELF format. These files are:
elmd
elmadmin
elmrep
elmst.xmx
rcacadd
dsnull
geom3d
slidelib
geomcal
region
averendr
acadapp
Autodesk uses the Elan License Manager (ELM) for all Unix platforms. ELM is a network licensing system that provides floating AutoCAD licenses. It is based on a client-server architecture, in which one (or more) license servers (running the ELM license daemon; elmd) respond to license requests from one (or more) clients via a list specified by the ACADSERVER environment variable. Even in the trivial case of a single workstation, a license server and client process (AutoCAD in this case) are needed. Also, you should note that the ELM licenses work transparently across all the supported Unix platforms.
Here is an installable package to simplify the process of installing and configuring the R12 license server *. With the click of the mouse button, you'll install the license daemon, create all needed directories, network startup scripts, and even run the license administration program to generate your server ID to send you your dealer. It even creates a chkconfig flag for elmd to allow you to easily turn the license daemon on and off easily.
Did you know that the R13 license server can be used with AutoCAD R12? You'll need to do two things to get this to work.
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