AutoCAD Electrical 2020 – Using 7-Zip to Publish Your Project

By Miles Nicholson

7-zip is a little unusual in associating as the default zip utility within AutoCAD® Electricall. You need to download from the 7-zip web site https://www.7-zip.org/download.html the following:

1. Extract the .7z standalone console version first.
2. Browse to the install directory and rename a copy of the file 7za.exe to rar.exe
3. Move the rar.exe file to one of the following locations:
   a. C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2020\Acade
   b. C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\AutoCAD Electrical 2020\R23.1\enu\Support
4. Browse to where your environment file is located. This will in the root of the AeData folder. You can right click over the current activated project within AutoCAD Electrical > Settings to determine the path if needed.
5. In the WD.ENV file use one of the following:
   a. WD_ZIP,%PF_DIR%/rar.exe, (for product installation folder)
   b. WD_ZIP,%DS_DIR%/rar.exe, (for AppData Roaming folder)
6. Restart AutoCAD Electrical.

Here is the WD.ENV file snippet:
(Located by default under:   C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\Acade 2020\AeData):

AutoCAD® Electrical will then create a rar file. However you need to extract the 7-zip.exe, in addition, in order to be able to open the compressed file hence the 2 downloads.

When you open the rar file using 7-zip, the Add command doesn't work either:

However you can drag and drop additional files you may want into the "white" area and the additional files will be within the compressed file.