Portability of Profiles, Menubars, Settings

Every now and then I get an upgrade to either my computer or my AutoCAD
version and I have to go thru hoops to get it set up exactly the way I had
it before. Is there an easy way to make the settings for my menus, toolbars
and profiles so I can make the least amount fiddling with things to get it
to work?

Tim

 

I agree with Chip. See also Mark Middlebrook's excellent article on
"modular" customization at
http://www.cadalyst.com/cadalyst/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=80817

Basically, leave everything that Acad installs absolutely untouched. Create
your own folder(s) for your customizations, which may be different from the
Acad-supplied files (such as acad.pgp) or in addition to them (such as
custom partial menus). Put these earlier on the search path than the Acad
folders.

I go a step beyond Chip's suggestion. I keep an entire tree of folders which
parallels the Acad folder tree -- with folders for support files, plotters,
templates, and so forth. Our company-standard profile points to "our"
template folder, for instance, instead of Acad's. This means the user only
sees the new drawing templates which we want him to use. In other cases,
like fonts, our folder is on the path in addition to the Acad folder.
Basically, keep every single customization separate from the default Acad
installation, and life will be infinitely easier.

To setup Acad, I run the setup disk and take all the defaults, then drag and
drop our "custom" folder (containing our whole tree of subfolders) onto the
local drive, then import and set current our standard profile (which is in
the folder tree). That's all. Takes only a few seconds -- the file copy is
the longest part.

 

Exactly, I modify absolutely none of the default "Out of the Box" AutoCAD
files. Everything that I change or edit is seperate.

 

Great minds...

 

Thanks! Does this also bring any lisp routines or loaded applications I
have running as well? Our firm uses some custom lisp routines that I seem
to have to reload everytime...

Tim

 

Yes, if set up to do so.

I have a custom partial menu titled profile.mns, when it loads it brings in
profile.mnl which autoloads my lisps ..some run on start, some just autoload
the function, like this ....

; The following will load accelerators from ProfileCH.mns
;
(menucmd "Gacad.ACCELERATORS=ProfileCH.ACCELERATORS")
;
; The following will set system variables
;
(setvar "modemacro"
(strcat
"DIMSCALE = $(getvar,dimscale) ."
)
)
;
(setvar "mtjigstring" "Chipster")
;;
(autoload "chOSM.fas" '("chOSM"))


;; The following will load aux menus from Profile.mns
;;
(menucmd "A1=Profile.AUX1")
(menucmd "A2=Profile.AUX2")
(menucmd "A3=Profile.AUX3")
(menucmd "A4=Profile.AUX4")
;;
;;
;;
;; The following will load specified lisp programs on
;; startup from the Profile folder
;;
(acad-push-dbmod)
(load "chCORE.vlx")
(load "chResetPSS.fas")
(load "chLockVP.fas")
(autoload "chZOOM.fas" '("ZE" "ZW" "ZP" "ZA" "ZC" "ZD" "ZS" "ZL"))
(autoload "chArrowLines.fas" '("arrow1" "arrow2" "arrow3" "arrow4"
"arrow5" "arrow6"))
(autoload "chToggleBase.fas" '("chToggleBase"))
(autoload "chTogglePlan.fas" '("chTogglePlan"))
(autoload "chAddTextDimension.fas" '("chAddTextDimension"))
(autoload "chSECTIONS.fas" '("chSECTIONS"))
(autoload "chSPANLINE.fas" '("chSPANLINE"))
(autoload "chTrussHanger.fas" '("chTrussHanger"))
(autoload "chFOOTING.fas" '("chFOOTING"))
(autoload "chGirderLine.fas" '("chGirderLine"))
(autoload "chDIMS.fas" '("chDIMS" "chDIMC"))
(autoload "chLEADERS.fas" '("chLEADERS"))
(autoload "chTEXT.fas" '("chTEXT" "chTEXTR"))
(autoload "chSlabRebar.fas" '("chSlabRebar"))
(autoload "chWallRebar.fas" '("chWallRebar"))
(acad-pop-dbmod)
;;
;; **** End of File ****
;;

 

I tried to emphasize ALL customizations. That would include custom lisps. I
keep them in a Lisp subfolder.

Lisps need to be loaded or autoloaded in order to be available. Arx files
need to be arxloaded. This is best done in your startup sequence (which
would also be composed of custom files).

One option is to put a series of autoload statements in an acaddoc.lsp. This
file loads automatically in each drawing. Another option (which I use) is to
do the same thing in an mnl file associated with a custom menu. In our
setup, the mnl associated with our custom partial menu triggers the loading
of all our lisps.