A quick heads up to watch out for a bad version of the Autodesk Desktop Connector... plus info on how to find the current installer and how to find who might have a bad, or out dated, version!
FYI: Desktop Connector is installed on computers when using BIM 360 Design to work on Revit models in the cloud.
Info from Autodesk:
Note: The September 30 release (v. 14.3.0.1087) was found to contain regressions which may affect users. For this reason the September 30 release (v. 14.3.0.1087) is no longer supported. If you installed September 30 release (v. 14.3.0.1087), we recommend rolling back to the August 11, 2020 (v. 14.1.0.1074) release. The Issues identified are:- Unpredictable crash in Desktop Connector- Some DWG files (authored in Civil3D) uploaded using Desktop Connector have resulted in a corrupt file in the cloud. Clearly identifiable in the web client as having the broken file icon
How to find the current installer
This is more difficult than it should be.
Installing Desktop Connector is interesting... I always do a Google-search for "install desktop connector" which brings me to this page: Install Desktop Connector. From here, there is a link to the latest version (see image below). Otherwise, the new version is only accessed via notifications in the system tray, which is only valid if you already have it installed. I don't think we can access it via the Autodesk Desktop App or the Autodesk portal (manage.autodesk.com).
How to find bad or old installed versions
If your company has Kace, which is usually only used by the IT department, see if you (e.g. the BIM Manager) can get access. This tool allows you to search for an installed application, across all computers in the firm, and check which version is installed.
In the image below, I searched for "Desktop Connector" and received the following results. Thus I know that all active computers have the current version. The older versions listed are old computers that have not been turned on in a while or don't exist anymore and have not been weeded out yet.
Do you have a related tip to share? Please do so in the comments below...
For BIM Chapters updates, follow @DanStine_MN on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn
Check out my video-based courses on ArchSmarter.
I also write blog posts for Enscape - a new paradigm in rendering, animation and VR for AEC.
