Deploying Syncture

The file

Package it once.

Syncture-Setup.exe holds no version of Syncture. When it runs, it reads which release is current, downloads that release's installer, checks its size, its SHA-256 and its signature by DI Osama Almughanni, BSc, and runs it. So the file you package today installs whatever is current on the day it runs, and the package never needs replacing.

After that, Syncture keeps itself current from inside Revit. It looks forty seconds after Revit starts and every two hours, puts a new version beside the one in use, and every Revit loads it at its next start. Nobody at a desk is asked anything.

Commands

Every switch, on the command line of Syncture-Setup.exe.

--silent

Installs Syncture for the person signed in, into every Revit on the computer, with no window. /S, /quiet and /qn mean the same.

--uninstall --silent

Removes it, with no window. Revit has to be closed. Workspace keys stay on the computer.

--log <file>

Writes the log to that file. Without it, the log is %TEMP%\Syncture-Setup.log.

0

Done.

1

Failed. The log says why.

2

Revit is open, so it could not be removed. Retry.

3

No Revit that Syncture supports is on this computer. A required assignment is offered again within about a day, so a Revit installed later still gets Syncture.

4

It ran as SYSTEM or another service account. Deploy it in the user's context.

5

syncture.com could not be reached. Retry.

1618

Another Syncture install is running on this computer. Retry.

Intune

Detect that Syncture is there, never which version: it updates itself, and a rule that names a version makes the tool install it again and again.

App type

Windows app (Win32), with Syncture-Setup.exe packaged by the Microsoft Win32 Content Prep Tool.

Install command

Syncture-Setup.exe --silent

Uninstall command

Syncture-Setup.exe --uninstall --silent

Install behavior

User. Syncture installs into the person's own profile and their own Revit add-in folders, so it has to run as them.

Return codes

Add 2 and 5 as Retry, and 3 and 4 as Failed. 1618 is already Retry.

Detection rule

Registry, key exists, on the key below.

Assignment

Required, to the groups of people who use Revit.

Configuration Manager

Deployment type

Script installer, with Syncture-Setup.exe as its content.

Installation program

Syncture-Setup.exe --silent

Uninstall program

Syncture-Setup.exe --uninstall --silent

User experience

Installation behavior: Install for user. Logon requirement: only when a user is logged on.

Detection method

Registry, HKEY_CURRENT_USER, the key below without its hive, which must exist.

Return codes

Add 2 and 5 as Fast Retry. 1618 is already Fast Retry.

Holding a version

Every computer follows the current release unless you say otherwise. To hold an estate at one version, set TargetVersion, a REG_SZ under the policy key below, to a published version such as 1.0.120, by Group Policy or Intune. Every install and every update then puts that version in place, older or newer. Delete the value and each computer returns to the current release at its next look. A value that is not a published version is refused, and nothing changes.

Computers that only run allowed programs

Syncture-Setup.exe is the one program that starts. It runs the release's installer inside its own process, and Revit loads the add-in from %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Syncture. Every file is signed by DI Osama Almughanni, BSc through Microsoft's Artifact Signing, which renews its certificates every few days, so allow the publisher and never a single certificate.

In AppLocker, that is a publisher rule for this publisher:

In App Control for Business, it is a signer rule on the identity every one of our certificates carries:

Workspace keys