Autocad 2005 & Roaming Profiles

I need help getting AutoCAD working through Windows roaming profiles. I am working with a Windows 2000 Server and Windows XP workstations. The complaint from the users is that if they log on to another user's workstation, the AutoCAD settings they are accustomed to are not loaded. The settings appear to be computer specific and not profile specific. I assume there must be some config file that can be redirected in order to have these settings follow the user to different computers. Can anyone direct me to information on how to do this? Thanks.

 

Never mind, just found the information I needed.

For those of you with the same problem:

You can set up one or more shortcut icons on the Windows desktop that will start AutoCAD and begin the drawing process using a specified profile (ARG) file.

To start AutoCAD with the profile you want:

On the Windows desktop, right-click the AutoCAD icon, and then click Properties on the shortcut menu.
In the Properties dialog box, click the Shortcut tab, and in the Target text box enter /p at the end of the name and path of the profile (filename.arg) that you want AutoCAD to use when it starts.

Example:

"C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 2000\acad.exe" /p "C:\Program Files\ AutoCAD 2000\FILENAME.arg"

Note: You must use quotation marks (" ") when the directory path names contain spaces.


Click OK to accept the changes and exit to the Windows desktop.
AutoCAD will use the profile that you set in the shortcut icon each time the program is started. If the shortcut icon specifies the same profile as one that is already defined in AutoCAD, the settings in the ARG file will not be imported.

Important Note: AutoCAD 2004 and 2005 recreate the default desktop shortcut whenever a new user runs the application. It is therefore recommended you make your customizations to a copy of the shortcut rather than the default.

If you want to choose between multiple profiles when starting AutoCAD, use these steps to create other shortcut icons so that each icon specifies a different profile. Be sure to give each shortcut icon a distinctive name.

 

Actually, what you want to do in your case is have each user create a profile
and place it somewhere in their Windows user profile, but NOT in the \Local
Settings folder, which does not replicate in Roaming Profiles.

(Local Settings is meant for local-machine specific files, mostly temporary
stuff for applications to use that's not efficient to move between machines.
Outlook Exchange mailboxes, for example. However, be aware that Autodesk put
some user-specific files under \Local Settings\Application Data folders, like
Viz Render UI stuff.)

In your case, make a standard folder in ech user's profile, e.g. "My
Documents\Acad Profiles\" and put the ARG file there. Then in the Target test
box use

<path to acad.exe> /p "%userprofile%\My Documents\Acad
Profiles\StdProfileName.arg"

Windows will properly expand the %USERPROFILE% environment variable for the
current user.

You can get pretty happy with using Envirnoment variables. For example, I use
each user's name as the standard profile name, so I use %USERNAME%.arg in the
target box.

Matt