AutoCAD Electrical: "Access to the path 'Autodesk.Electrical.Database.Config.xml' is denied"
Issue:
This issue can have several symptoms and we've seen this issue with multiple clients. The most recent case we’ve come across is with a user who was able to open the Catalog Database palette and use the catalog as expected. However, when he tried to do a Catalog Lookup from within the Edit Component dialog, he would receive an error in the command line and then AutoCAD Electrical would lock up.
Causes:
The problem is apparently due to a corruption of XML file(s). There does not appear to be any clear indication as to the root cause of the file corruption at this time. In each instance we’ve seen, only a single user has experienced the problem and no other user had this or similar issues at the same time.
Solution:
To correct the issue, you will need to replace the corrupt file(s) with working copies. Ideally, you will want to use a copy of the file(s) from a co-worker’s machine since you will likely not have a backup of these files. The other consideration is if you have made any customizations (favorites, etc.). Replacing these files with the default XML files may not provide the desired results if you have made any customizations.
There are two files that we’ve seen cause this error:
- Autodesk.Electrical.Database.Config.xml
- Autodesk.Electrical.SharedControl.Config.xml
In order to find these files, you may have to dig just a bit due to a randomized portion of the file path. This means that a portion of the path is unique for each user. Let’s take a look at the path and break it down.
Example path: “C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\IsolatedStorage\akdw5c5g.p2h\ippgznae.vkb\Url.ndu1joy0pmbdhfmmfoehl1jd4ujilgq0\AssemFiles”
- This portion is the same for all users (C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\IsolatedStorage)
- This portion is randomly generated and is unique for each user’s system – the following text is for illustrative purposes only - (\akdw5c5g.p2h\ippgznae.vkb\Url.ndu1joy0pmbdhfmmfoehl1jd4ujilgq0)
- This folder will contain the XML files {see below for an example} – (\AssemFiles\)
Please note that if you have more than one version of AutoCAD Electrical installed or if you have the Inventor Catalog Browser installed, you will find multiple folders that have similar paths so there may be some trial and error involved finding the correct files.
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