ACE Technical Troubleshooting & Support Best Practices 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A user reports that AutoCAD crashes immediately after opening a specific DWG file. What is the FIRST step in diagnosing this issue?
- Reinstall AutoCAD
- Open the file in a previous version of AutoCAD
- Test the file in AutoCAD's safe mode (using /safemode flag) (Correct answer)
- Delete the user's profile and recreate it
Correct answer: Test the file in AutoCAD's safe mode (using /safemode flag)
Safe mode disables startup plugins and customizations, helping isolate whether the crash is caused by the file itself or third-party add-ins.
Question 2: Which Autodesk tool is used to collect system information and diagnostic logs to share with Autodesk Support?
- Autodesk Desktop App
- Autodesk Health Report (Correct answer)
- Autodesk Access
- Autodesk ReCap
Correct answer: Autodesk Health Report
The Autodesk Health Report tool gathers system specs, error logs, and application state to facilitate faster diagnosis by support teams.
Question 3: A support technician needs to replicate a user's issue but lacks access to the user's network license server. What is the best alternative approach?
- Use a standalone license to replicate behavior in an isolated environment (Correct answer)
- Ask the user to record a video of the issue
- Close the support ticket and reopen when server access is available
- Reinstall the license manager on the technician's machine
Correct answer: Use a standalone license to replicate behavior in an isolated environment
Using a standalone license allows reproduction of most software behaviors without requiring access to the customer's network licensing infrastructure.
Question 4: When troubleshooting slow performance in Revit on a large project file, which of the following should be investigated FIRST?
- Network bandwidth to the BIM 360 server
- Hardware acceleration settings in the graphics options
- The number of views open simultaneously and linked models (Correct answer)
- The Windows page file size
Correct answer: The number of views open simultaneously and linked models
Too many open views and excessive linked models are among the most common performance culprits in large Revit projects before hardware factors are considered.
Question 5: A client's Autodesk license fails to activate after a network change. The license manager shows the server as unreachable. What is the most likely cause?
- The license file has expired
- The firewall is blocking port 27000 used by the FlexNet license server (Correct answer)
- The Autodesk product needs to be reinstalled
- The DNS server is misconfigured
Correct answer: The firewall is blocking port 27000 used by the FlexNet license server
FlexNet Publisher (used by Autodesk network licensing) communicates over port 27000 by default, and firewall rules commonly block it after network changes.
Question 6: Which log file should a support engineer review first when diagnosing a failed Autodesk product installation on Windows?
- Windows Event Viewer Application log
- Autodesk_Install_<ProductName>.log in the temp directory (Correct answer)
- IIS logs in C:\inetpub\logs
- The FlexNet license debug log
Correct answer: Autodesk_Install_<ProductName>.log in the temp directory
Autodesk installers write detailed logs to the user's temp directory, capturing step-by-step installation actions and error codes.
Question 7: A user's AutoCAD drawings display incorrectly with missing or corrupted fonts. After confirming fonts are installed, what should the technician check next?
- Reinstall the operating system
- Check the FONTMAP file and SHX font search paths in Options (Correct answer)
- Disable hardware acceleration
- Reset the CUI file
Correct answer: Check the FONTMAP file and SHX font search paths in Options
AutoCAD uses a FONTMAP file and configured font search paths to locate SHX and TrueType fonts; misconfigured paths cause substitution or corruption.
ACE Technical Troubleshooting & Support Best Practices 2
A user reports that AutoCAD crashes immediately after opening a specific DWG file.
What is the FIRST step in diagnosing this issue?