Microsoft Office 365 August updates (version 1707) are causing crashes in AECOsim Building Designer


 Product(s):AECOsim Building Designer
 Version(s):10.00.00.154, 08.11.09.xx
 Environment:Windows 7 64 bit,Windows 8/8.1,Windows 10
 Area:General
 Subarea:N\A

Problem

Microsoft Office 365 August updates appear to be causing issues with some Bentley Products. In particular, it is impacting AECOsim Building Designer and affects both V8i ( v 08.11.09.xx) and CONNECT Edition releases (10.0.0.xx). 

The Microsoft Office 365 August updates (version 1707 (Build 8326.2087+)) cause Microsoft VBA applications having Windows Forms 2.0 controls (FM20.dll) to crash. This only impacts the Office 365 version specified and other versions of Office are not affected by this issue. Since AECOsim Building Designer is a Microsoft VBA client, crashes are being experienced by some users at start-up. We are working diligently with Microsoft to address the issue.

Update!

[11-1-2017] See the updated information in this MicroStation Wiki.

Solution

If you install these updates and/or are experiencing this problem, you currently have the option to apply one of two workarounds until we get a more formal resolution from Microsoft:

Option 1: Make the following Microsoft intermediate cached object files read-only.

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Forms\AECOsimBuildingDesigner.box
%USERPROFILE%\"Application Data"\Microsoft\Forms\AECOsimBuildingDesigner.box

Option2: Delete the following Microsoft intermediate cached object files, then start AECOsim Building Designer.

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Forms\AECOsimBuildingDesigner.box
%USERPROFILE%\"Application Data"\Microsoft\Forms\AECOsimBuildingDesigner.box

    Please note, that this file will need to be deleted for every session. This could be automated through a batch script (see below for batch example).

Batch Example:

@del %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Forms\AECOsimBuildingDesigner.box 2> nul
@del %USERPROFILE%\"Application Data"\Microsoft\Forms\AECOsimBuildingDesigner.box 2> nul
start "" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Bentley\AECOsimBuildingDesigner V8i Ss6\AECOsimBuildingDesigner\AECOsimBuildingDesigner.exe"
exit

 If these workarounds are ineffective, please contact our Technical Support Group.