autodesk intune header

Deploying Autodesk AutoCAD 2023 with Intune

Hi everyone. Now that Autodesk has moved to a new method of creating custom installers for their products my older “Deploying AutoDesk AutoCAD 2019 with Intune” article needed some updating.

Below you’ll find the instructions to deploy any Autodesk application using Microsoft Intune and Endpoint Manager. I’ll be using AutoCAD 2023 in my examples, but the process should be similar for any Autodesk product that appears on the Custom Install screen.

In order to create a custom installer you’ll need to perform some customization steps through the Autodesk website, some in Windows, and finally some in Endpoint Manager.

Create the Custom Installation Package

Log into the Audodesk management site at: https://manage.autodesk.com/products/deployments

Click Custom Install

Click Create new

Under License Type choose Serial Number
Select the product you are looking to package
Click Next

Next to Package name, I’m going to use AutoCAD2023
You can use whatever you’d like, but choosing that will make sure your files look just like mine.

You can only create a deployment to a network share. Since we’re using Intune, this isn’t relevant, so we’ll pick the hidden C: drive share to specify your local computer. Choose \\localhost\c$\users\[your username]\Desktop\autocad .

You can uncheck the “Install Autodesk desktop app” if you won’t be using it.

Click Download

Run the downloaded file. This will create a folder on your desktop called autocad .

You may see messages like the below when installing. You can ignore them and click Continue.

Package the Installer

If you haven’t already, download a copy of the Microsoft Win32 Content Prep Tool to your Downloads folder from https://github.com/Microsoft/Microsoft-Win32-Content-Prep-Tool

Open Windows Terminal or PowerShell. Change directory into the directory just above the autocad folder you create for the network installation.

For me that’s:

cd ~/Desktop

Tell the Intune prep tool to create a package from the autocad directory, use the Installer.exe located in the image folder, and save the package to your current directory:

~/Downloads/intunewinapputil.exe -c .\autocad\ -s image\Installer.exe -o .

The package will be named Installer.intunewin . Since that’s not very helpful, rename it to something that is.

mv Installer.intunewin autocad2023.intunewin

Create & Deploy in Intune

Log in to Intune device management at: https://endpoint.microsoft.com

Choose Apps->All Apps

Click the Add Button

Choose the App Type “Windows app (Win32) then click Select at the bottom of the screen.

Choose the autocad2023.intunewin file you created.

Open the autocad folder on your desktop.

Right click on AutoCAD2023.bat and click Edit

Under the line

rem ========== Install the deployment silently ==========

Copy your installer version number.

Return to Endpoint Manager.

On the Program step change the install command to the following (making sure to use the version of the installer copied in the previous step):

image\Installer.exe -i deploy --offline_mode -q -o "image\Collection.xml" --installer_version "1.32.0.7"

For the uninstaller, this is a bit of a kludge since it only uninstalls the main component, not the rest. For me, this is sufficient.

The IdentifyingNumber seems to be the same regardless of version number, but to be sure, on a machine with AutoCAD 2023 installed, run the following in PowerShell.

Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product | where name -eq "AutoCAD 2023 - English"

Make the uninstall command like mine below, but making sure to use the IdentifyingNumber that you got above.

msiexec /uninstall 
{28B89EEF-6101-0409-2102-CF3F3A09B77D}

Choose 64bit Windows 10 under the Requirements

Under Detection Rules choose “Manually configure detection rules”

Click + Add

Choose MSI for rule type and enter the same identifier as above: {28B89EEF-6101-0409-2102-CF3F3A09B77D}

No Dependencies are needed.

Finally, assign it to whatever device groups you need. Devices in those groups will automatically download and install AutoCAD 2023. Alternatively, you can assign it to user groups and those users can install AutoCAD from the Company Portal app.

Thanks again for all of you that patiently waited for this while we got our licensing sorted with AutoDesk and the amazing staff there who got it all working for us.

Please feel free to leave me comments below and I’ll reply as soon as I can.

-Adam

29 thoughts on “Deploying Autodesk AutoCAD 2023 with Intune”

  1. We have an Education license with a serial number for AutoCAD2023. When logging in at https://manage.autodesk.com/products/deployments and go to Custom install and +New the screen remains empty-white. So I cannot choose License type Serial Number etc.
    Would this be related to the Education license and how would you suggest to get to some sort of deployment version we can use with Intune?

    Also tried the batch commands like in: https://www.autodesk.eu/support/download-install/admins/create-deployments/using-batch-file-templates but this resulted in the standard dialog which type of license to use ( serial, Autodesk ID or Network ) –> so the serial key added as an argument to setup.exe is ignored…

    Any help would be much appreciated. Alternative would be to use a tool like Emco

    1. Ed, thanks for reaching out!
      There are two possibilities. The first is that you just need to activate the serial number. Install the app on a device, run the app, then activate it. This should register the app with the custom installer.
      If the page is still empty after that, it’s a known issue. We had the same thing happen. You’ll need to reach out to support and ask them to fix your custom install screen.
      Good luck!
      -Adam

  2. Hi Adam

    Thanks for the great post. I have been trying to follow the instructions but it keeps failing without much logs. I have a feeling that it is something with the “cpollection.xml” which has local paths used in it. do I need to change that to /image/ as well?

    Thanks in advance,
    Omid

    1. Omid,
      Thanks for reaching out!
      For me, Collection.xml only lists a logging path and should use whatever you put into “Deployment Image Path” when you create the custom installer from AutoDesk’s website.
      Have you tried running: image\Installer.exe -i deploy –offline_mode -q -o “image\Collection.xml” –installer_version “1.32.0.7”
      just from a command prompt from within the autocad directory?
      Maybe try removing the -q so it doesn’t run in quiet mode.
      – Adam

      1. Thanks Adam. I got it working using this command
        Installer.exe -i deploy –offline_mode -q -o “Collection.xml” –installer_version “1.33.0.25”

        1. Omid,
          Glad to hear it! It sounds like your folder hierarchy is one level different from mine. That’s why I need to specify the image directory (since I’m one level up) and you don’t, as you’re operating from within the the image directory.
          -Adam

  3. Hi Adam,

    Thanks for this blog. I am experiencing the same issue with the collection.xml. I have just modified it to use the %username% instead of my username. I will package this up and try again.

      1. It seems as though that hasn’t worked either. I have followed your steps exactly. Does the collection.xml need to be included in the install command line? or could installer.exe -i -q work?

        1. I believe the installer does need to be pointed to the Collection.xml file in order to work correctly.
          If your folder hierarchy is someone off from mine, this might do the trick for you as it did for Omid:
          Installer.exe -i deploy –offline_mode -q -o “Collection.xml” –installer_version “1.33.0.25”
          He’s running from inside the image directory, so he needed to specify “collection.xml” directory, whereas I was one folder up, so I needed to specify the subfolder as “image\collection.xml”

  4. Putting Autodesk products in the Company Portal would be my holy grail. Unfortunately, it isn’t as easy as it sounds. Let’s say we want to deploy Revit 2023, which is 10GB. We would have to cut this install in half, or 3 pieces, and make them all dependencies of the main Revit 2023 install. After pressing the install button in Company Portal, the user would have to wait an hour for the product to download, and then another hour for it to install. All the while not being able to use any Revit product (and if we’re lucky no Office applications either).

    Also, i’ve noticed i can put the devices in required and have the dependencies install automatically, but not in available (Company Portal). For this to work i have to add the devices in available for every dependancy.

    I now deploy Autodesk and other large installs during lunch time, one at a time. But it’s a PITA…

    1. You can actually reach out to Microsoft through the intune portal to get the limit increased. Just submit a support case from your tenant and they should be able to increase it up to 30 GB.

  5. Thanks for the work you’ve done with this guide!

    I have a question regarding the uninstall.
    Why not use the AutoCAD 2023 UninstallString value from HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall? The one that starts with “C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AdODIS\V1\Installer.exe -i uninstall…”

    While msiexec /uninstall does the job just right, because 2022+ products use their own installer, I’ve found that running the above uninstall string will uninstall and ALSO clear up the installer engine records for that product. Running msiexec will do the job as well, but will leave the orphaned entry in the installer db, causing issues if you plan to reinstall at some point later.

  6. Adam,

    Just found this after a number of installs the old way with Endpoint Manager/Intune. I noticed a few comments for Revit on the 8gb size limit, Tenant admins can open a ticket with Microsoft to have the file size increased I think the ultimate limit is 30gb and most revit ones come in the 12-15 range just FYI.

    Thank you for posting all this.

    1. You’re right. But you would still have to battle the install/download timeout. I went with the ‘required’ install method. Where I split a 7zipped install into 2 or 3 parts. Then make these a requirement before installing.

  7. So it works well for the first install of Revit. But what about updates? Been battling that for the past few weeks. I created a new deployment and set it as superseded the last one. It goes through its thing, shows installed, but Revit is still the previous version. Any thoughts? Or is there a better way to do updates?

  8. Personally, I only push out new annual versions, not updates between versions since it’s not really necessary for our students.
    Have you tried enabling “MSI product version check”? I believe the issue may be that Intune detects that the MSI code of the older version matches that of the new version so it doesn’t detect an upgrade is necessary.

    1. Thanks for the reply. It seems it was a stupid mistake on my part. I use the presence of a registry key to determine if the program was there. On this instance I had mistakenly checked the “doesn’t exist” so it was thinking the software had been installed. I can’t say how many times I looked at it and it just didn’t click.

  9. Can someone please explain this part regarding the Microsoft Win32 Content Prep Tool. I have used the tool many times to convert the file to a .intune.wim file. However it only allows you to pick the source, destination and the file. So what does it mean by changing direction to ‘cd ~/Desktop’ and also the ‘~/Downloads/intunewinapputil.exe -c .\autocad\ -s image\Installer.exe -o .’ part.

    1. The ~ just means from the current directory. When you start powershell it starts in your user folder so ~/Desktop would be the same as C:\Users\xxxxx\Desktop

      1. Hi. I am working for first time on deploying AutoCAD to intune. End goal is to make it available from Company Portal. However I keep getting error from Portal AutoCAD does not install… could someone make a video of how this works please… it is wrecking my poor head

  10. I am seeing a super generic error when trying to deploy Revit 2023 following the above… “[DeviceName ERROR] Deployment initialization failed for Upi2: {B4E35F04-D559-35E9-AB70-E0131AF7AB5B}”. I am noticing in the Collection.xml that the ‘DeploymentImagePath’ is pointing back to that \\localhost\c$\ path from the Autodesk Deployment creation path… should that deployment path be changed to something like .\image instead since intune is not unpackaging anything to that \\localhost\ path? I’m not really sure what else to troubleshoot.

    1. Well… after trying different values there, even when launching the deployment as-is from the original build location, it was still failing… so I’m going to start over and see what happens

    1. The issue wasn’t the pathing. I rebuilt the deployment and left the pathing as-is. It turned out it was an issue with the autodesk deployment itself, before making the intune package. I believe it was a version conflict with other software already installed on the machines, but I don’t recall the specific details at this time.

Leave a Reply to adamCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.