Advanced Windows Installation Topics

Remove or Repair Installations

Any changes required to the current installation, such as removing it completely, repairing a damaged file or registry entry, or installing new features that were skipped previously, can be performed as follows:

  1. Use the Add or Remove Programs applet (on Windows XP) or the Programs and Features applet (on Windows 7 and 8) from the Control Panel.
  2. When the list of currently installed programs appears, select the appropriate version of Autodesk® Simulation Mechanical and click the Uninstall/Change button. Three options are available from the installation window—Add or Remove Features, Repair or Reinstall, and Uninstall. Choose the desired action and follow the prompts to complete the operation.

Side-by-Side Installation

Newer versions of Simulation Mechanical will be installed along side of older versions – a capability known as side-by-side installation. The user does not need to do anything to get this capability. So, if the older version is no longer needed on the computer, use the Add/Remove Programs or Programs and Features applet in the Windows Control Panel to uninstall it.

Starting the software through the Windows Start Menu or desktop shortcut will register the selected version of the software, if needed. For example, assume that two versions are both installed (say V20yy and V20xx). Also, assume that V20xx was the last version run. Then, going to Start All Programs Autodesk Autodesk Simulation Mechanical 20yy Autodesk Simulation Mechanical 20yy will produce the following warning message:

You are attempting to run a version of Autodesk Simulation other than the one last registered on this system (path to currently registered version of AlgFrame.exe).
Would you like to try to register this version now?

If you choose Yes, there will be a delay as the selected version is registered, after which the program will launch. Note that the user needs to have administrative rights in order for the registration to succeed. If you choose NO, then the program launch is aborted and the currently registered version of the software remains registered.

Note: If you start the software through any other means, such as double-clicking a .fem file, then the last version of the software used will be started. This will promote a model from an older version to a newer version, perhaps making it incompatible with the older version. Conversely, attempting to open of a model from a newer version in an older version will likely fail with an error message similar to the following:
This file was created in a newer version of the software and cannot be opened by an older version.

The program that detects an attempt to start an unregistered version of the software, and offers to register it, is alg_upd.exe. The Windows Start Menu and desktop shortcuts created by the Simulation Mechanical installation process will run alg_upd.exe prior to launching the main Simulation Mechanical executable (AlgFrame.exe). This is necessary to ensure proper side-by-side installation functionality.

Tip: If you create any additional shortcuts to start the software (for example, within a Quick Launch menu or other folder), each new shortcut should be configured to support side-by-side installations. Either copy one of the original installer-created shortcuts from the Start Menu or desktop, or use the following procedure to create the new shortcut:
  1. Right-click in the place where you want to create a shortcut and choose New Shortcut.
  2. In the Create Shortcut dialog box, click the Browse button.
  3. Locate the file, alg_upd.exe, in the program installation folder for the desired version of Simulation Mechanical. Select this file and click the OK button.
  4. The target location must be modified. The proper syntax is “installation path to the software\alg_upd.exe” /startup “installation path to the software\algframe.exe” (include the quotation marks so that the space characters within the file path are not interpreted as delimiters).
  5. Click the Next button.
  6. Enter a name for the shortcut (such as Autodesk Simulation Mechanical 2014), and click the Finish button to create the shortcut.
Caution: When starting an older version of the software, you may be notified about an available update. Most likely, you will not want to update the old version that you are starting when you already have a newer version of the program on your system. So, in this situation, cancel the update.

Issues with InCAD (add-ins for interoperability with various CAD products)

Pushing CAD models into Simulation Mechanical: A few CAD packages do not use the Windows registry to locate the current version for transferring a CAD model to Simulation Mechanical. Instead, they rely on files that specify the path to the software. These files are not automatically updated by the side-by-side software handler when the user switches between different versions of the software. Therefore, transferring (pushing) a model from CAD to the Simulation Mechanical may not function as expected. One or more of the following methods should resolve a problem if one occurs: