What should I do if I get "Unknown command" message when I try to run RMS

Usually this is caused by that RMS is not properly installed.

For AutoCAD Windows version, the installation program should
have taken care of everything. For AutoCAD DOS version, it
might be caused by that RMS directory is not included in the
AutoCAD support path. This can be fixed by adding RMS
directory to the ACAD environment variable which is usually
set in the batch file you use to load AutoCAD. Use a DOS
editor to edit the batch file (e.g. ACAD12.BAT or ACAD13.BAT
and append the RMS directory to the end of "SET ACAD=..." line.

If the support path is set correctly and you still get the
message, check the following steps:

Go into your AutoCAD directory (where ACAD.EXE is located)
and find the file ACAD.LSP. Then use an editor to edit the
file. Check to see if there is a section containinf "BOSS
RMS 3.0 ...". If not, please append the content of RMS.LSP
which is in the RMS directory to ACAD.LSP. If ACAD.LSP cannot
found, simply copy RMS.LSP which is in the RMS directory to
AutoCAD directory and rename it to ACAD.LSP.

Then try to run RMS again.

There are two things that could be happening here:

1. If AutoCAD cannot find the BOSS RMS application,
it will report back "Unknown Command". Generally
this is due to the ACAD environment variable not
being specified to include the drive and path to
which BOSS RMS was installed.

To check this under the DOS version of AutoCAD,
enter the DOS shell by typing SHELL at the command
prompt. At the "OSCommand:" prompt press the
<Enter> key. Then type SET and press <Enter>. DOS
will report back the current environment variable
settings. Examine the ACAD environment variable.
Chances are that this variable does not reference
the correct drive and subdirectory that contains
the BOSS RMS program.

See the subsection titled Altering the ACAD
Environment for DOS Versions of AutoCAD in our
Installation Chapter (Chapter 2) on page 2-24 for
more information.

If operating under the DOS version of AutoCAD, it is
quite possible that the batch file that is
initializing AutoCAD is not properly setting the
ACAD environment variable. There may be more than
one AutoCAD startup batch file with the same name.
To find all instances of the batch file, from the
root directory type:

DIR filename.BAT /s

where filename is the batch command used to start
AutoCAD.

Also, environment variables are limited to 128
characters. If the ACAD environment variable and
contents are longer than 128 characters, then the
contents will have to be shortened.

Another potential problem is that there may not be
enough DOS environment space available to store
all of the environment variables. The DOS
environment space is defined using the SHELL
command in the CONFIG.SYS file.


2. If the file RMS.LSP is not appended to the ACAD.LSP
file, then AutoCAD will not recognize the RMS
command. Many times there may be multiple copies of
the ACAD.LSP file present on the computer hard drive,
and AutoCAD is referencing a different copy of the
file than you may be expecting.

To globally update all versions of ACAD.LSP
contained on your hard drive, use the provided ALISP
utility contained in the RMS program directory. This
program will automatically scan the entire hard drive
and then append the RMS.LSP autoloader command file
to each ACAD.LSP instance it finds. Note that if it
finds an ACAD.LSP file that it already references RMS,
it skips over it without altering the file.

The command to run the ALISP utility is:

ALISP C: /a RMS.LSP

where C: is the hard drive to scan.