---

@shibdas wrote:

I filed a bug but so far we have not been able to hit the crash. We are running the AutoCAD 2023 cert suite. Is there a specific model for which this happens? if you run the AutoCAD cer suite do you see the crash?

---

Hey shibdas & mjkrol, thanks for attention to my report.

TL;DR After extensive testing it appears there's some problem with  the way VMware Workstation Pro 16.1.0 creates and runs VMs and it's not related to AutoCAD 2022/2023. VMware Workstation Pro 17.0.0 doesn't have this kind of problem if the VM is created in VM Workstation Pro 17.0.0 (and not imported from earlier versions).

See, I downloaded a vanilla AutoCAD 2023 and standalone update to 2023.1.3 (as you suggested), installed both to brand new VMware Workstation Pro 17.0.0 VM with 2 GB VRAM created from en-us_windows_10_enterprise_ltsc_2021_x64_dvd_d289cf96.iso, and applied VMware Tools 12.2.0. And the FATAL CRASH doesn't happen when 3D objects are called/view rotated, etc.! The interesting thing is for some reason this way AutoCAD does initiate DirectX 11 mode by itself, so no Software mode triggered by AutoCAD 2023.1.3 in virtual environment by default.

However when I do exactly the same with VMware Workstation Pro 16.1.0 VM the crash happens.

But wait, there's more. I have tried free QuakeSpasm-Spiked 0.94 in 2560×1600 in both versions of VMware Workstation Pro 16.1.0 and 17.0.0 with VMware Tools 12.2.0 using newly created VM with the same specs each time (2 GB VRAM, 1 CPU with 8 cores, 4 GB RAM) and same Windows 10, version 21H2 guest ISO. And here's what I found:
- VMware Workstation Pro 17.0.0 provides ~300 fps, game starts with game config file imported directly from a real hardware machine (which runs at 600+ fps), no crashes
- VMware Workstation Pro 16.1.0 provides ~10 fps, game does not start at all with game config file imported directly from a real hardware machine, however if no config file is preset game can be started and performance is ~10 fps, almost not playable.

I then took VM folder created with VMware Workstation Pro 17, edited VMX virtualHW.version from "20" to "18" so VMware Workstation Pro 16 would accept the "downgraded" VM. Uninstalled VMware Workstation Pro 17, reinstalled VMware Workstation Pro 16.1.0 once again. Imported "downgraded" VM with edited VMX. VM started, however the game will crash just as in VM that was created with VMware Workstation Pro 16 from scratch.

I then reinstalled VMware Workstation Pro 17, took an unedited VM created with VMware Workstation Pro 16.1.0 and imported it to VMware Workstation Pro 17 (without editing VMX virtualHW.version), game started but the FPS is again at ~10! Unfortunately I forgot to test if "upgrading" virtualHW.version of VM created with VMware Workstation Pro 16 from 18 to 20 actually fixes the VMWP16-created VM to run as expected in VMWP17. I will try to test this too.

All this makes me believe there's something wrong with VMware Workstation Pro 16, maybe specifically with my laptop configuration. I'm attaching the game in ZIP too (wit my config files as well, no installation required, just unzip and run EXE), or you can download it yourself from official website for security reasons (and use pak0.pak file from my archive since it's actually maps and models file as I understand it). I believe this crash may be connected to AutoCAD crash so it may be quicker to troubleshoot using lighter process (AutoCAD installation takes ages). 

I attach both logs of crash of both VMs (one natively created in VMWP16, other one created in VVMWP17 and manually downgraded to work with VMWP16) when executed in VMware Workstation Pro 16. It may be also worth a look into those logs because the new error window appeared, previously unseen in AutoCAD crash. This window says:

VMware Workstation urecoverable error: (mks)
ISBRendererComm: Lost connection to mksSandbox
A log file is available in:
You can request support.
To collect data to submit to VMware support, choose "Collect Support Data" from the Help menu.
You can also run the vm-support script in the Workstation folder directly.
We will respond on the basis of your support entitlement.

I actually did use Help menu but it never saved the ZIP file with Support Data. So I just ZIP logs and attach to my message here (date may be off in LOG files).

Oh, I know I could use Blender to test everything instead of some Quake game but I actually accidentally tried it and I'm quite exhausted from all that testing. 

---

@mjkrol wrote:

I'm trying to reproduce the crash with AutoCAD 2024 but no luck so far. Since I'm not familiar with AutoCAD, I'm probably doing something wrong.

Can you provide baby-steps after AutoCAD is launched that reproduce the crash?

---

Hey mjkrol, sure, I attach Baby Steps ZIP file with all the steps I took up to crash, all other settings are default. Here's a link to download entire faulty VM that gets created by VMWP16 — … Please use 7-Zip to unpack (8.7 GB unpacked size). Basically it's the VM what was created for Baby Steps sequence.