Express Tools in AutoCAD 2002

I learned something new yesterday (or something I'd forgotten maybe?) while at a client's site.

The user had called to say that they didn't have their Express Tools. I get a fair amount of calls and emails about this and see a lot of posts in the AUGI forums with this question. I thought it an easy call.

I began to explain that the Express Tools had to be installed separately. The user then proceeded to explain further that he had the Express Tools menu, but none of the Express Tools would work. Still thinking this an easy call, I asked the user to type Expresstools at the command line. No luck.

Fast forward through some other suggestions with no luck so I offered to visit in person.

The software (which I'd failed to ask in advance the version) was Land Desktop 3. I don't normally handle Autodesk's civil software so I didn't make the mental connection of what version this is equivalent to in vanilla AutoCAD.

I tried a number of things such as menuload, changing profiles, etc. I offered to reload Express Tools only, but they couldn't find the CD. I compared the files on one workstation with another and everything seemed identical to me.

I looked in Autodesk's knowledgebase and had some difficulty finding something of use when I stumbled up this.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/item?siteID=123112&id=2879139&linkID=2475507
Migrate Express Tools from AutoCAD® 2000 to AutoCAD® 2000i or AutoCAD® 2002
Published date: 2001-08-20 ID: TS59037

Then the light bulb went off!

I discovered that the other two workstations in the office had Express Tools working were systems that had been upgraded from 2000i and had the tools migrated. The system with the problem was a brand new system which had only had version 3 installed.

I copied the file acettest.fas from one of the other stations to this computer per the instructions and performed the APPLOAD to load it in the startup suite. Everything worked fine now!

Another satisfied customer and another thing learned by me.

Some additional comments of my personal opinion on Express Tools:
In years' past, Express Tools were known as Bonus Tools and were a big deal whether you downloaded them yourself or paid extra for them. Autodesk did try not including them in one version and I can only guess that it was a mistake.

I have often been asked why the tools are extra parts of the menu and not simply included in Draw, Modify, Tools or wherever they belong within all of AutoCAD's tools. The only reply I have been able to think of is that it's mental. Those of us that are long time users are used to having a bonus. Even though it's my opinion that while the tools we have now are useful, they are getting stale.

I'd love to have someone tell us the REAL reason that Bonus or Express Tools remain and are kept separately.