MegaCAD
MegaCAD was probably my first real program on any computer. Back then it was running on DOS. I was not exactly proficient but learned a few valuable lessons. Sometimes when dealing with vector based illustration programs such as Inkscape I really miss the precision of the CAD software.
MegaCAD has obviously developed over the years and has made the jump to Windows. After upgrading from W2K to XP I was coming across a few issues running the software as non-privileged account. Below are some notes how I got rid of them.
All of the below instructions were tested with MegaCAD 3D 2007 on Windows XP.
Mini Howto
MPserv - License Server
Although I installed from CD the licensing server did not start after a reboot. As a non-privileged user the MPserv.exe binary can not be started. This became apparent after a reboot when MPserv was no longer automatically started. After some trial and error I installed it as a service and everything.
sc create MPserv start= auto binpath= <PathToMPserv> displayname= "MegaCAD License"
When MegaCAD starts up it will query for the license and MPserv will serve it up with all the privileges required.
Temporary files
MegaCAD has its own directory for temporary files. After opening files MegaCAD would complain about not finding temporary files. After some reasearch it turned out that the %ProgramFiles%\Megacad_3D_<Version>\TMP directory was not writable by the user. Changing the ACL to allow user Everyone full access fixed the issue.
The following command sequence as an administrative user adds the necessary privileges:
cd %ProgramFiles%\Megacad_3D_<Version>
setacl -on TMP -ot file -actn ace -ace "n:S-1-1-0;p:full:s:y"
setacl -on CONVERT -ot file -actn ace -ace "n:S-1-1-0;p:full:s:y"
setacl -on PLOT -ot file -actn ace -ace "n:S-1-1-0;p:full:s:y"