Troubleshooting

What the plugin's messages mean and what to do about them, where the plugin keeps its files, and the notes your IT department may need.

Messages

Each row starts with what you see, in AutoCAD or in your web browser. The loader's sentences, which appear as AutoCAD starts, are in the table under For IT Administrators on this page.

Files and Logs

The plugin keeps its files under %LOCALAPPDATA%\AVstackr\AutoCAD\: settings.json, the encrypted sign-in, downloaded blocks in blocks\, and the log in logs\. The log is one file a day named like avstackr-2026-10-12.log, kept for 7 days. Open cache folder in the Settings tab opens the blocks folder, and Open log the log folder. The log records each request to AVstackr with its status and duration, and every error. It never records a token, a key or what a request sent.

The loader writes its own log, one file a day named like loader-2026-10-12.log, also kept for 7 days. It records the version folders the loader found, the version it loaded, and why it fell back to the previous version or refused one. It is always in %LOCALAPPDATA%\AVstackr\AutoCAD\logs\, even when settings.json moves the plugin's log elsewhere. Open log then opens the plugin's log folder, not the loader's.

For IT Administrators

This section is for the person who manages AutoCAD's security settings and installs software on your company's computers.

Each Windows User

An install in %APPDATA%\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\ belongs to one Windows user, so each user installs the plugin for themselves. Each user also signs in separately. The sign-in is encrypted for that Windows user, and the plugin's files are in that user's own %LOCALAPPDATA%\AVstackr\AutoCAD\.

Settings You Can Set in Advance

The plugin reads %LOCALAPPDATA%\AVstackr\AutoCAD\settings.json when AutoCAD loads it. A setting the file leaves out keeps its default, and a file that cannot be read gives every setting its default. The file holds these settings:

The plugin writes the whole file again whenever someone changes a setting in the palette.

Network

• The plugin sends its requests to the server set in serverUrl, over https for https://avstackr.com. That includes the update check and the update's download.
• Library block files are downloaded from links that AVstackr gives the plugin, each valid for 15 minutes. A link may name a file-storage address other than the AVstackr server. The plugin's log records each download's address without its signed query.
• The browser sign-in ends at an address on this computer only, http://127.0.0.1, on a free port the plugin picks. The plugin listens on that address alone, so nothing outside the computer can reach it.

Trusted Locations and SECURELOAD

SECURELOAD is the AutoCAD setting that decides whether AutoCAD loads code from folders that are not trusted locations. AutoCAD loads the plugin's loader, AvEngineering.AutoCad.Loader.dll, and the loader loads the plugin, AvEngineering.AutoCad.dll, from its version folder: Contents\net8.0\versions\…\ in AutoCAD 2025 and 2026, and Contents\net10.0\versions\…\ in AutoCAD 2027.

Instead of answering AutoCAD's question at the first start, you can add %APPDATA%\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\AVstackr.bundle\Contents\... to the trusted locations in OPTIONS → Files. The \... at its end makes the entry cover the version folders inside Contents, and an entry without it does not. With SECURELOAD set to 2 the entry is required. When only the loader's folder is trusted, the loader refuses the version folders and says "AVstackr … was not loaded: … is not a trusted location (SECURELOAD 2). See the loader log." When the loader cannot read SECURELOAD, it acts as if SECURELOAD were 2 and trusts only the Program Files folders.

Installing under Program Files

The loader trusts C:\Program Files and C:\Program Files (x86) with all their subfolders, as AutoCAD does, so an install in C:\Program Files\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\ needs no trusted-location entry. AVstackr has not yet run the plugin from that folder.

1. As a user with administrator rights, extract the zip into C:\Program Files\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\, and check that AVstackr.bundle\PackageContents.xml is directly inside that folder.
2. For each newer version, close AutoCAD, delete the old AVstackr.bundle folder and extract the new zip the same way, again with administrator rights.

A Windows user without administrator rights cannot write there. Such an install therefore cannot update itself: Update plugin ends with "The update could not be written to …", and each newer version is installed again as the steps above say. Removing such an install also needs administrator rights.

Copies Not Installed from the Zip

A copy of the plugin that does not run from an installed bundle shows "Plugin … (development build)" in the Settings tab, and its update badge says Updates off. Such a copy never updates itself, because it has no bundle to put an update in.

Where an Update Goes

An update downloads the zip into memory and writes only the new versions\…\ folder inside the bundle. No updates\ folder exists under %LOCALAPPDATA%\AVstackr\AutoCAD\.

How the Server Tile Decides

The Server tile says Unreachable when the last request could not reach AVstackr, timed out, or got an answer of 502 or above. An update check that gets no answer within 10 seconds is an exception. The plugin itself stops waiting, so only the update badge says Check failed, and the tile does not change.

The Loader's Messages

The loader is the part of the plugin that AutoCAD loads first, and it starts the newest installed version of the plugin. It writes these sentences on the command line as AutoCAD starts, and its log, described under Files and Logs on this page, says more.