I use this program every 2-3 years for short 2-D projects. In 2013 (? about) the pgm ran fully under X-ovr using a 32bit XP bottle; but since about 2018 I can draw CAD documents fine but the symbol library does not work any more. I'd like to get this working again because my current 2-D project is not so small. Since it worked fine back when, it seems like it should work now, but... After trying dozens of dll overrides in wine, I tried the current X-ovr again, but I get the exact same behavior.
The program is not crashing. It's catching some kind of database or display error and popping a complaint box. I think their implementation uses Explorer routines and maybe a VisualBasic or some other MS routine to access and create the symbols. This version of SmartSketch is from 1998-2000 (not sure the exact release date for this version) and worked fine on Win98 and, I think XP - I'm pretty sure I used an XP bottle when running it succesfully. So the tech used would all date from 1998 or prior.
Below is a screen shot of the problem. The library of symbols appears in the right panel and, when working, drag/drop places a symbol (eg. a door or a window, or an electrical box...) in the CAD drawing. Now it pops the complaint box. Notice the symbol library icons all are the same generic "page" image. This display is not correct. The symbols should each have their own related image, eg. an image of a door if the symbol relates to a door. The icons shown can be dragged to the main drawing area, but result in the complaint box shown. Back in 2013 I used symbols all the time and they worked properly. I also used the "Create Symbol" procedure in the CAD pgm to build half dozen complex interactive symbols which worked fine; I did not use any programming language to do this but rather the GUI provided by SmartSketch.
SmartSketch will open and edit the symbols directly as files. The CAD drawing (of the symbol), the features such as drop points, attach points, etc are all available for editing. However, from the main drawing GUI it will not drag/drop a symbol from the library panel into the CAD drawing space.
This behavior leads me to suspect that SmartSketch cannot call the routines needed to expand the symbols. And I think that means a dll override is needed. But I cannot find my way to right one(s). All thoughts are appreciated.
Thanks
Rufus
ps. The image insert does not seem to work with google drive.