Why won't some drawings add to the Hurricane queue? (File name and path limits)

Hurricane works with standard (ANSI) file names and with paths shorter than 260 characters. Two kinds of drawings fall outside that and may be skipped or reported as not found:

• Non-Latin or Unicode names. Drawing or folder names that use characters outside your Windows code page, for example Chinese, Japanese, Cyrillic or Greek letters, or accented letters that your system's language setting does not include.
• Very deep folders. Drawings nested so deeply that the full path (drive, every folder and the file name together) passes the classic Windows limit of 260 characters.

This is a known limitation, not something wrong with your drawings or your AutoCAD install. The drawings open fine in AutoCAD itself; Hurricane just cannot pick them up by that name or path.

Fix 1: shorten the path with a drive letter

The quickest fix for deep folders is to give the folder its own drive letter, so the path Hurricane sees is short. For a network folder, map it to a drive letter (see I can't see my Network Paths in the file selector?). For a local folder, the Windows SUBST command does the same thing:

SUBST P: "C:\Projects\Client\2026\Site A\Phase 2\Architectural\Sheets"
REM Now add drawings from P:\ instead of the long path
REM Remove the drive letter when you are done:
SUBST P: /D

Run it from a Command Prompt, then browse to the new drive letter in Hurricane's file selector.

Fix 2: rename the drawing or folder

If the file or folder name uses non-Latin or Unicode characters, rename it with standard characters (A to Z, 0 to 9, spaces, hyphens and underscores are all safe), then add it to the queue again. If you need to keep the original names, copy the drawings to a working folder with standard names, run the batch there, and copy them back.

Related

• I can't see my Network Paths in the file selector?
• When I "drag and drop" files into Hurricane, all files are added?
• Message: "hurricane.scr file not found"