Normally, for Windows customers that do not have the newer version of AutoCAD, I suggest using DWG Trueview to handle the conversion to the older format. This doesn't work for Mac customers. An option (if you are not yet ready to upgrade to the newest AutoCAD for Mac 2018) is to use the AutoCAD Mobile site.
Luckily this is very similar to Autodesk DWG TrueView 2017 on Remote Desktop Services just with one additional registry value.
Problem: Running DWG TrueView 2018 on Windows Server Remote Desktop Services / Terminal Services (RDS/TS) without having to change permissions or give users administrative privileges.
Solution for DWG TrueView 2018: Install once as an Administrator, then create 11 registry entries per user and setup Group Policy to use dwgviewr.exe to open .dwg files.
Tested on: Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2
For TrueView 2019 on UPDs, see Michael's comment below.
For TrueView 2017, see Autodesk DWG TrueView 2017 on RDS.
The registry entries (all String values) can be copied from the user profile that was used when installing DWG TrueView 2018. The information below is for the English version of Autodesk DWG TrueView 2018; other language versions may vary the '1001:409' section of the key below.
Important: Three of these need tweaking per user (GraphicsCacheFolder, LocalRootFolder, RoamableRootFolder) to point at the appropriate user profile folder.
There is also a set of files installed to C:UsersPublicDocumentsAutodesk (or wherever your Public user folder resides) that need to be left in place.
When each user opens a .dwg file for the first time (or runs DWG TrueView directly) then the Autodesk installer will run and populate all other missing entries automatically (without trying to elevate).
By Theo Gray on November 15, 2017 | Permalink | Comment