Building Images with AutoDesk Software and Default Profiles

AutoDesk offers their software to K-12 institutions and students and teachers at no cost.  Besides benefiting us by not having to pay for very expensive software, I think that's a fantastic move for them.  By doing that, they ensure students will learn their software rather than a competitor's and if/when they're in the field, that's what they'll buy.

There's always a downside, though:  Their software relies on many components stored within the profile that installed it.  This is a problem for a few reasons:

• Our lab PCs are setup to erase profiles that haven't been used in 24 hours.  This prevents them from building up and filling up the SSDs.  It also maintains some degree of consistency in the user experience.
• When I build images, I use audit mode to setup the default profile. (If you're not doing this, I think you're building images incorrectly, but that's besides the point)  In the process of doing this, the AutoDesk software is installed.  Problem is, sysprep copies the admin profile over to default so when you launch the programs after you image, it's looking for files in the admin profile that don't exist.  Even if that weren't an issue, your users probably (hopefully) don't have rights to other user profiles.

At one point I had written scripts to work around this that would move the files over and modify permissions.  They worked, but it's a clunky solution.  I found this solution after scouring the AutoDesk forums.

As written, it almost works, except for the fact that MDT syspreps with the copy profile function at deployment time, so it's a little more labor intensive than indicated.  Here's how I got it to work:

1. Image a PC/VM with your base image.  Presumably, you already have one and it's got a nice default profile setup.
2. If it auto-joins, disjoin it from the domain.
3. Run sysprep.exe /audit /reboot
4. Install AutoDesk software and whatever else you need for your CAD image.  You'll need to prepare a deployment that points to your licensing server.  We use AutoCAD, Revit, and Inventor.  I also add Bridge Designer 2016 and SketchUp.  DO NOT run the AutoDesk software after you install it.
5. Here's the part I don't like:  Because you're not able to do another copyprofile task, you will more than likely want to use desktop shortcuts in the public folder so they appear for everyone.  I don't like desktop shortcuts because they're inefficient when multi-tasking (ordinarily, I use the pin to start option), but it is what it is.
6. Sysprep/Capture and deploy the image with CopyProfile set to false in your answer file.

Following this process, I'm able to run the programs successfully with a user account that has very limited rights and can keep my user interface looking relatively consistent with the default profile from my base image.  Hopefully this helps someone else out!

AutoCAD 2018 Education running after deployment showing some of my default profile customizations on Windows 10.