Expert: Bill DeShawn - 6/6/2010

Question
I recently had to wipe my hard drive and reinstall AutoCAD 2009 Mechanical.  I saved a copy of my entire hard drive and program files.  Is there a simple way to restore all of my settings?

Answer
Beres:
There are a number of ways to restore settings.  First, I should ask you what steps did you take to preserve your settings?  Did you create a template with all your settings?

There are many other things you can do to preserve your settings, but since you are asking about restoring your settings, I don't think you took the time to do the customization required to do the ones I am thinking of at the moment.

If you saved a template file on the old hard drive to start your drawings with, then you can copy that over to the new hard drive.  If you didn't do that, you could open one of the drawings you've worked on in the past and save it as a template file.  Then in "Options; Template Settings; Default Template File Name for QNEW", you can enter the name of that template file This will help you to get at least a few things done.  Perhaps you will be able to restore some

1  page setups
2. system variable that are saved to the drawing
3. layers
4. layer states

You should be able to copy your PC3 and PMP files and plot styles (ctb or stb files) from one hard drive to the other without much problem.  

To find the path in the current AutoCAD for files like ACAD.PGP type or paste the following at the command line:
(findfile "acad.pgp")
AutoCAD should return something like this:
C:\\Documents and Settings\\Beres\\Application Data\\Autodesk\\AutoCAD Mechanical
2009\\enu\\Support\\acad.pgp
Just take out the second of each double slash so it looks like this:
C:\Documents and Settings\Beres\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD Mechanical
2009\enu\Support\acad.pgp
If your old hard drive is now F:, your old acad.pgp might be found here:
F:\Documents and Settings\Beres\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD Mechanical
2009\enu\Support\acad.pgp
These are just samples to help you find files you may need.
Another file would be ACAD.PAT if you have any custom hatch patterns you want in your new installation.
Custom dictinary files (ending in .CUS
Custom partial menu or customization files ending in CUI or MNS
Right-click customization might have to be redone.

If you get lost on any settings, give me a follow-up msg and I'll help you get going again.

Bill DeShawn
http://my.sterling.net/~bdeshawn


No fast way to get this done.  Plan on spending a full day to get most of it done.