cdn_sfl401as.dll was not found while launching Orcad V16.3 

 Has anyone else seen this error?  We installed Orcad V16.3, including the hotfix, yesterday, and it was working just fine.  I came in today and tried to launchOrcad Capture CIS, I get the following error window:

This application has failed to start because cdn_sfl401as.dll was not found.  Re-Installing the application may fix this problem.  I don't want to re-install every day!!  Any ideas out there?

Thanks,

 Todd Moore

 Update... I forgot to mention I'm running WinXP Pro SP3.  I found a work-around for this problem :-).  I had to add the path to where cdn_sfl401as.dll was residing (C:\Cadence\SPB_16.3\tools\bin).  I added it by going to control panel-> click on the Advanced tab-> then click on Environment Variables.  I added it to the PATH user variable for me (the variables at the top). I hope this work-around helps others.

Todd Moore

 Hi Todd-

 Thanks for the post and the workaround.  It was helpful.  I think you left out one step in your instructions.  It shoud be:

 control panel-> system -> click on the Advanced tab-> then click on Environment Variables

 Anyway, in my case, I have the same OS and OrCad version as you...and the same problem after 3 weeks of successful operation.  In my case, following your instructions, I confirmed the path to the dll was already in my search path.  The path was there, yet windows couldn't find the file.  In the end, I rebooted and it started working again. 

 Hi DigitalCreator,

   You are right.  I missed that one step in my explaination of the workaround I found.  Thanks for the clarification.  The problem has not come back since I put in the fix.

Todd

 I had the problem again today.....and 3 reboots wasn't enough to make it run.  Its odd....I've been running this successfully every day since the last posting. 

 Todd, your advice paid off even more soundly this time.  My path already contained "%CDSROOT%\tools\bin" with a separate environment variable CDSROOT set to:  "C:\Cadence\SPB_16.5"  This was set up automatically by the OrCad install 1 month ago.  I didn't change it.  This sort of arrangment usually works well on Linux systems.  However, my guess here is that the order in which Windows XP sets the environment variables may not be completely consistent each time it boots up.  If the CDSROOT env variable doesn't get set before the path is set then the path will be wrong.....  I added the path to the dll file explicitly as you suggested (without the embedded CDSROOT ) and it works....for now at least.  I'll update if this changes.

 I am really fade up with this dll failed error.. 5th time i am faceing  this same problem.. every time need to reinstall my soft...

 This problem has returned for me now 2 days in a row, though it worked fine every day (6-7 days a week) since my last posting.  Last night when it occured, it started working again when I moved the "C:\Cadence\SPB_16.5" entry in the PATH variable to the beginning of the variable instead of the end.  My theory of why this might help was that I had recently installed additional (non-Cadence) software and it may have added to the beginning of the PATH variable.  If there is a limit in the length of the PATH variable (as there was in some older Unix versions) the end of the variable might not be engaged if it is too long.  This seemed to fix the issue last night.

 However, alas, it has returned today.  This is really getting frustrating.  I'm supposed to be designing...not installing software.

You should inspect your PATH variable and insure that only 1 copy of each Cadence item in the PATH. Note there will be several Cadence entries such as tools\bin, tools\fet\bin, etc. It is best if they come first in the PATH. Also from a mgmt perspective it is best to group them all together.

So if you see one "%CDSROOT%\tools\bin"and another "C:\cds\tools\bin" you are going to have problems.

There is a limit to the PATH variable but it should be 1024 characters.

It is best to maintain the %CDSROOT% variable since it gives you the ability to switch amoung Cadence releases.

Also you have 2 locations that PATH can occur, System and User. The Cadence items should all come from one location.

Since it is hard to see the PATH all of the entities in a long PATH, I would suggest the following:

- start a cmd.exe

- in the console window type: echo %PATH% > a.txt

- inspect the PATH shown in a.txt via your favorite editor. (note these paths are expanded).

 Hi fxffxf-

Thanks for the very thorough information.  The tip on echoing environment variables from the command prompt is especially useful.  Unfortunately, this did not solve the problem.  My path is as follows:

C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\WINDOWS\system32\nls;C:\WINDOWS\system32\nls\ENGLISH; <<REMOVED OTHER NON-CADENCE ENTRIES FOR SECURITY>> ;%CDSROOT%\tools\bin;%CDSROOT%\OpenAccess\bin\win32\opt;%CDSROOT%\tools\Capture;%CDSROOT%\tools\PSpice\Library;%CDSROOT%\tools\PSpice;%CDSROOT%\tools\specctra\bin;%CDSROOT%\tools\fet\bin;%CDSROOT%\tools\libutil\bin;%CDSROOT%\tools\pcb\bin

 Notice that the \tools\bin path is no longer repeated (I did have it twice before due to the non-variable path I previously added).  Note also that I'm using %CDSROOT% as you advised and that the dll exists in this locaton:

 

C:\>echo %CDSROOT%
C:\Cadence\SPB_16.5

C:\>dir %CDSROOT%\tools\bin\cdn_sfl*.dll
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is C883-2860

 Directory of C:\Cadence\SPB_16.5\tools\bin

06/13/2008  10:22 AM           667,648 cdn_sfl401as.dll
               1 File(s)        667,648 bytes
               0 Dir(s)   3,306,053,632 bytes free

C:\>

Note also that these errors started occuring BEFORE I manipulated my PATH variable.  This all started after weeks of running after a normal install.

 Note also that these problems are intermittent even now.  I just never know when I start up my PC each time whether it will work this day or not....

 Just now, I got OrCad to start working by causing the path to be reloaded....without changing the path at all!

 Here's what I did:

Right Click My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Environment Variables

(select PATH from User variables section)

Click Edit

Click OK without changing anything -> OK -> OK

Is this problem occuring because the OrCad development team is relying on an environment variable based system and that this system is unstable in Windows?  The use of environment variables is fundamental to Unix and Linux, but doesn't seem to be mainstream for Microsoft.  Software originally written for Unix/Linux and later ported to Windows seems to end up using this Windows feature more. 

If you checked the PATH in the registry editor (regedit), you would probably see the PATH was a variable of type REG_SZ. For variable expansion to work, it needs to be type REG_EXPAND_SZ. Going into the My Computer property sheet may have reset the variable to the correct registry type.

In the registry these are located @:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Enviroment -- user env variables

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment]  - system variables

I've got the same issue running Orcad 16.5 on a Win 7 machine.

My PATH variable was type REG_SZ and was blank.

I added %CDSROOT%\tools\bin as the value for PATH. 

The PATH variable type changed to REG_EXPAND_SZ and Orcad worked.

As an experiment, I changed the value of PATH to a different directory (identical to the setting for TMP).  The PATH variable type remained REG_EXPAND_SZ, but Orcad did not work.

So given the fine description of this problem in this thread, and the excellent clues offered by fxffxf and others, and the fact that the first post on this was in July, how come Cadence hasn't fixed it?  Don't they monitor this forum?????   I'm not a happy camper about this.

Cadence installer would always create PATH variable with REG_EXPAND_SZ type. It would also update/modify PATH variable to REG_EXPAND_SZ, if that found to be REG_SZ type at the time of installation. This is also evident since things were working fine after installation for several days/week. It is likely that some other installation program is altering the PATH variable, and breaking this.

There's a utility (part of the SPB installation), I recently blew away my older SPB installations but at least I know it's there in release  16.50  ....  that can be called upon to set up the command paths etc. --

C:\Cadence\SPB_16.5\tools\ConfigUtility\installation_setup_utility.msi

After running this (and asking for the first Task called  Configure Environment Settings  , I opened a command shell, saw my path had been nicely fixed up, and then was able to launch Capture with normal/satisfactory outcome.

I didn't notice a link to in my  " Start Menu "  (program group), but was able to find it in the installation tree (at this path location).

Perhaps it's there in  16.3; if so, this seems to be very convenient.  Larry