Support bundle

AFDIM has two buttons that make a file for a support request. Each button shows what the file holds and asks before it writes anything. Nothing is uploaded. You decide what to send.

Both buttons are in the settings dialog, on the About tab, in the Support group. To open the dialog, click Settings on the AFDIM ribbon tab in AutoCAD®, or type S at the AFDIM selection prompt. The windows that the buttons open follow the language chosen in the dialog header. This page quotes the English texts. In Vietnamese, the tab and the group are named Về AFDIM and Hỗ trợ.

The group says: “Wrong dimensions, or an error? Send one of the files below to support. Each button shows what the file holds and asks before writing anything; nothing is uploaded.”

Button	Contains your drawing geometry	Use it for
Create support zip…	No	Any problem: install, licence, update, a failed run
Export the last run’s geometry…	Yes	A part that is dimensioned wrongly or not at all

Start with Create support zip…. Add a geometry export only when the problem depends on a specific part.

After either button, the Support group shows the result. When a file was written, Open the file’s folder opens File Explorer with the file selected.

Create support zip

The tooltip of the button reads: “A .zip on the Desktop: version, settings, log. No geometry or layer names from your drawings.”

1. Choose Create support zip….
2. A window titled Create a support zip on the Desktop? lists what the zip will hold. It says: “The zip holds at most these 3 items and nothing else. NO geometry, dimensions, callout text, layer names or drawing file name.” Choose Create support zip to write the zip, or Cancel to write nothing.
3. The Support group shows Support zip created: <path>. The zip is on your Desktop, named AFDIM_support_<yyyyMMdd>_<HHmmss>.zip.

Cancel, Esc or closing the window shows Cancelled — nothing was written. If AFDIM cannot make the zip, the group shows Could not create the support zip: <reason>.

The zip holds at most these three items and nothing else:

File	Contents
about.txt	The AFDIM version, the folder that AFDIM runs from, the active and previous version, the install scope (one user or all users), the update channel, whether the build is signed, the CAD product with its version and release series, the Windows version, the .NET version, and the time the report was made.
settings.json	Your AFDIM settings, including the drawing-unit choice. Layer and linetype names that you picked from your drawings are removed. See below the table.
logs\afdim-*.log	The AFDIM log. Each AFDIM run adds one line with counts of what was read and written, and the number of warnings. A warning adds a line with its code. A failure adds a line with its code and the technical trace of the failure.

In settings.json, AFDIM replaces a list of layer names (the bend layers) with <n layer name(s) removed for privacy>. It replaces a single layer or linetype name (the centreline layer and the dimension layer) with <name removed for privacy>. A name that is empty stays empty.

In about.txt and the logs, your Windows profile paths are replaced by %APPDATA%, %LOCALAPPDATA% or %USERPROFILE%, and your Windows login name is replaced by <user>.

The zip contains no geometry, no dimensions or callout text, no layer names and no drawing file name.

Export the last run’s geometry

The tooltip of the button reads: “The objects you selected in the last AFDIM run on this drawing, written to a JSON file so support can reproduce the problem.”

This button writes the objects of your most recent AFDIM run to a JSON file, so that support can reproduce the problem. The button does not ask you to select anything. It uses the objects that you selected in the last AFDIM run on the drawing that is open, in this AutoCAD session. This includes a run that stopped with a warning, for example because it found no closed outline. That run is the one worth sending.

Some command-line messages point to the buttons:

• Three [AFDIM] WARNING: messages end with Settings > About > Support > Export the last run's geometry. They are printed when AFDIM finds no closed outline, when an analysis step failed, and when a dimension or callout could not be written.
• The [AFDIM] ERROR: message for a run that stopped part-way ends with Settings > About > Support > Create support zip.

The export contains your design

Both levels of detail contain the full coordinates of every object from that run. These coordinates are the shape of your part, or of your customer’s part. Treat the file as confidential. Send it only if you are allowed to share that drawing.

Step by step

1. Run AFDIM on the part that comes out wrong, even if the run stops with a warning.
2. Right after that run, open the settings dialog, go to the About tab and choose Export the last run’s geometry… under Support.
3. A window titled Write the last AFDIM run's <n> objects to a JSON file? opens. Here <n> is the number of objects. The window says that the file goes to %TEMP%\AFDIM and that nothing is uploaded: you send the file to support yourself. It also lists what Full and Reduced contain. Choose Full or Reduced. Reduced is the highlighted button. Cancel writes nothing.
4. A second window titled Also copy the JSON to the clipboard? says: “The file is already on disk. The clipboard only helps if you mean to paste it straight into a chat — and it is your drawing’s geometry, so think about where it goes.” The buttons are Copy to clipboard and No. The file is already written either way. Choose No unless you want to paste the data into a message, so that the design data does not stay on the clipboard.
5. The Support group shows Exported <n> objects (full): <path>. or Exported <n> objects (reduced): <path>. If you copied the data, the message ends with Also copied to the clipboard.

Cancel, Esc or closing the first window shows Cancelled — nothing was written.

If AutoCAD was restarted since the run, or another drawing is active, step 2 shows AFDIM has not run on this drawing yet in this AutoCAD session. Run AFDIM on the part that comes out wrong, then come back here. Run AFDIM on the part again, then repeat step 2.

If the export fails, the group shows Could not export the geometry (finish any running command and try again): <reason>. Finish any running command, then try again.

Full or reduced

Content	Full	Reduced
Coordinates of every object from the run	yes	yes
Entity types	yes	yes
Linetype names and colours	yes	yes
Drawing units, recognition tolerance and dimension text size	yes	yes
Text in dimensions, multileaders, MText, Text	yes	no
Layer names and the drawing’s layer table	yes	no
Drawing file name (in the content and the file name)	yes	no
Error messages and stack traces, if any	yes	no

Choose Reduced when the problem is about the shape. Choose Full when the problem involves text, layer names (for example bend lines found by layer) or existing dimensions, or when support asks for it.

Where the file goes

The file goes to %TEMP%\AFDIM. Its name is <drawing>_geometry_dump_<yyyyMMdd>_<HHmmss>.json. In a reduced export, <drawing> is redacted. For a drawing that is not saved, it is unsaved.

The file stays there until you delete it, or until you uninstall AFDIM with the delete box ticked. See Uninstall.

Send them

Use the Support page, or send an email to support@afdim.com. Include:

• the support zip, and the geometry export if you made one
• your AutoCAD version and year
• what you did, what you expected and what happened
• a screenshot of the command line or of the result, if it helps

Reply time: within 1 business day (ICT, UTC+7).

For a licence question, also include the request code of this computer. Request licence in the Licence group of the same About tab shows it. The code contains no drawing data. See Licensing.

If the installer itself fails, run it again with /LOG="C:\path\afdim.log" and send that log file. See Deployment.