Absolutely Fed Up! Not working well with MAC LION OS - FIXED in V. 1.182

[gapdev]

Here is the deal with OS X Lion and the Carvewright software:

Whatever was licensed before updating to Lion remains licensed. Whatever you attempt to license after updating to Lion will only stay licensed while the program is running. As soon as you quit the Carvewright program, any software, projects, or patterns you tried to license will no longer be licensed and you will have to re-license them the next time you run the software.

This is because these two files are owned by root:

/Library/Preferences/com.LHR Technologies.Board Editor.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.LHR Technologies.Pattern Editor.plist

and the software cannot write to them. Since the License info is stored in one or both of those files, whatever you license will only stay licensed while the software is running.

Other effects of not being able to update those two files is Recent Projects and Preferences. Since the software cannot write to those two files, it cannot remember your preferences and the last project you had opened.

LHR can duplicate this very easily under Lion. Simply change a preference, quit the software, and then go back in. Your preference change will be the way it was before you tried to change it. Or, License a Pattern or Project. Quit the software and go back in. The Pattern or Project will no longer be licensed.

Kenny

[liquidguitars]

/Library/Preferences/com.LHR Technologies.Board Editor.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.LHR Technologies.Pattern Editor.plist

What happens if you just delete them all ? Designer would build a new plist that hopefully would have new access. I seen a bug on the PC version that needed this fix to run.

[gapdev]

What happens if you just delete them all ? Designer would build a new plist that hopefully would have new access.

If you move those two files out of the /Library folder, the software then runs in Demo mode, and it is unable to create new plist files so you remain in Demo mode even if you register the software, import your License file, etc - as per the OP's original message, he can't get the software out of Demo mode.

When I moved the files back in to the /Library folder, I had to authenticate and this is the problem. I believe those two files need to go into the Users Library folder ~/Library/Preferences, and that is probably where they should have been placed to begin with.

Kenny

[liquidguitars]

Sounds good as a test I would search to make sure no duplicates where hiding on the drive and delete all of them, this could give designer a chance to create new plist files that where OS friendly, I would also check my favorites files and possibly delete them two this could give you a vanilla GUI...

[Corvus Instruments]

I agree with Kenny's diagnosis of the problem. It's a very easy fix for LHR to move those preference files out of the /Library directory to the User/Library directory where they should have been kept all along.

I've seen Kenny's work-around posted in another thread. I also have a work-around which avoids having to use the Terminal and it's requisite knowledge of Unix commands.

I've used the Finder and navigated to /Library/Preferences then used the File>Get Info menu command. In the Get Info window go to the bottom and click on the lock; enter your login password to get access to the permissions for the Preferences directory. I changed "everyone" to "read & write" permission. My Designer app has worked fine since then and remembered all my licence and preference settings.

This is certainly not a desirable work-around from a security perspective. Hopefully LHR will release a proper update to the Mac version of Designer to address this issue.

Leo

[gapdev]

Hi Leo,

That works great. But, like you said, it is a security risk.

LHR shouldn't be IN that directory to begin with. Hopefully they will fix the problem instead of forcing us to use work-a-rounds.

Thanks,

Kenny

[Corvus Instruments]

Has there been any progress on this issue?

I've installed the latest version of Designer: 1.182 and I ran into this same problem when I purchased the DXF importer.

The DXF importer reverts to demo mode every time I restart Designer.

I had to go into the Library/Preferences directory and manually change the permissions for the two Designer preferences files previously mentioned in this thread.

/Library/Preferences/com.LHR Technologies.Board Editor.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.LHR Technologies.Pattern Editor.plist

Again this opens up a security vulnerability and is a very undesirable work-around for this problem.

I really hope LHR will implement the solution suggested already by Kenny: there should be no Designer preferences files in the /Library directory, they belong in the Users/(username)/Library/Preferences directory instead.

[gapdev]

This was fixed a couple of releases ago.

I think you need to delete the LHR/Carvewright files in the /Library/Preferences folder, then run Designer and it will recreate the files in the User's Library folder. You'll loose your Toolbar layout and what little preferences there are, and you'll need to re-license your Patterns, Software, Projects, etc but that is a simple process. After that, all should be good.

Kenny

[lynnfrwd]

From what I understand, if you are installing from the new version 1.182 for the first time, the files will go only under USER/. If you have already installed it using an older version, where it put it in the other directory first, then you must remove it first from the other directory. Re-installing with these files removed will put it only in the USER/ directory.

Call customer service and speak with a software technician. They can assist you in doing this over the phone, MUCH better than I can try to explain it here.

[liquidguitars]

I guessing that in the Mac universe two points in space can't occupy the same location at the same time... i.e your pattern and license file locations due to mutable installs.
seems like Mac OS your been told what to do and who you can do it with right or wrong