When a Softimage (or any other Autodesk product) installation fails, you’ll have to check the install logs to see what went wrong. Typically the only error message you’ll see during the actual install will be too generic to be helpful (for example, Error 1603, which could mean almost anything).

The installation log files are found in your %TEMP% folder.

The main log file is Autodesk_Softimage_IF.log.
If the installation works, you’ll see something like this:

2010/5/4:16:41:15	blairs	MTL-EXAMPLE	=== Setup started on MTL-EXAMPLE by blairs ===
2010/5/4:16:42:17	blairs	MTL-EXAMPLE	Install	Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable (x64)	Succeeded	
2010/5/4:16:42:23	blairs	MTL-EXAMPLE	Install	Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable (x86)	Succeeded	
2010/5/4:16:42:30	blairs	MTL-EXAMPLE	Install	Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable (x64)	Succeeded	
2010/5/4:16:44:10	blairs	MTL-EXAMPLE	Install	Autodesk Softimage 2011 Subscription Advantage Pack 64-bit	Succeeded	
2010/5/4:16:58:36	blairs	MTL-EXAMPLE	=== Setup ended ===

If the install failed, Autodesk_Softimage_IF.log tells you which component failed to install.
For each component, there will be a [much] more detailed log.

Depending on whether you installed 64-bit (x64) or 32-bit (x86) Softimage, you’ll see these log files for Softimage:

• Autodesk_Softimage_x64_Install.log
• Autodesk_Softimage_x86_Install.log

For the Visual C++ Redistributable, these are the log files to look for:

• vcredist_x64.log
• vcredist_x86.log

• vcredist_x64_2005.log
• vcredist_x86_2005.log

In these files, I generally look for the point where the install rollback started, and the look back up the file from there. Or I search for things like “error” or “result”.

Once you find the error, it’s off to google to see what you can find.