NOTE: We have had the best success installing this product using our Converter solution on Windows 8 and Windows 10
Installing your Autodesk Mechanical Desktop R3 (otherwise known as MDT 3 and built on the AutoCAD R14.01 platform) on Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 32bit or 64bit can be very easily defined in these short steps…
Instructions on installing Autodesk Mechanical R2 can be found here…
NOTE: These steps do not bypass normal Autodesk licensing/authorization, you should expect to use your own serial numbers in the normal way.
A quick word of advice: best to follow the instructions below precisely and to the letter, including folder names and paths, that way you will reduce the risk of having any problems…
- Obtain your copy of the Longbow Converter here
- Using Windows Explorer, copy your entire MDT 3 CD to your hard drive, to a folder path c:\Autodesk\mdt3R14
- Start the Longbow Converter tool
- select the 2nd tab named “Old AutoCAD Installer Reviver“
- pick the c:\Autodesk\mdt3R14 folder and click the “Run Old Installer” button.
- Read and understand all the prompts before pressing OK.
- Now, I know it’s unheard of these days, but at this point expect to wait up to 45 minutes for your Mechanical 3 setup.exe program to appear.
- Once the setup starts, stop and read the next step…
- In the setup program…
- navigate through each setup dialog as normal **except** when you get to the installation folder, **it’s vitally important to make sure you install to c:\mdt3R14 (not .\Mechanical as usually prompted)**
- Now carry on with the install…
- Do not reboot once the install is complete.
- Ignore any errors related to not being able to create the shortcut folder “Autodesk Mechanical 3”, you will have to create a shortcut on your computer Desktop pointing to your c:\mdt3R14\acad.exe by hand.
- You will also be prompted that Adobe reader 3.01 needs to be installed – when you press OK, again, expect to wait up to 45 minutes for the Adobe setup.exe program to appear install as normal accepting all defaults this time.
- Again, do not reboot if prompted to do so…
- Once installed, go back to the Converter tool…
- select the 3rd tab named “Old AutoCAD Program Reviver“
- pick the newly installed c:\mdt3R14 folder and click “Fix Old Program“.
- At this point, you can actually run AutoCAD, simply run c:\mdt3R14\acad.exe using Windows Explorer… However…
- You will notice that you are running raw AutoCAD, to enable your Mechanical Desktop features, carry out these next steps, either…
- Add a shortcut (recommended) to C:\mdt3R14\acad.exe making sure that the Target Property of the shortcut is set to:C:\mdt3R14\acad.exe /p C:\mdt3R14\desktop\desktop.arg
- or update your AutoCAD support path by hand…
- At the AutoCAD Command line, type the command ‘Preferences’, add new Support path folders c:\mdt3R14\acadm and then also c:\mdt3R14\acadm\support, now click ‘Apply’ and then ‘OK’ out of the dialog.
- Next, restart AutoCAD.
- When you are back in AutoCAD, type ‘Menuload’ at the command line, click browse, then navigate to C:\mdt3R14\acadm\support, change the file filter at the bottom to *.mnu, then open acadm.mnu, finally click Load, then pick Close.
- Now restart AutoCAD
- Now you can happily run your Autodesk Mechanical Desktop 3 on Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 32bit or 64bit