Support Path Confusion

I was reading where to install downloaded hatch patterns and they said to place them in the support path. I have a question though, what the heck is the difference between:

C:\Users\TBD\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\AutoCAD LT 2012 - English

&

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD LT 2012 - English

I see they both have different folders in them so I am slightly confused.

Thanks!

I would say that the second path is the one that AutoCAD creates and is more likely to be in the support path, and the first one is something that Windows creates.

But I may be wrong. The sure way to check is to go to those folders and see whether the standard hatch patterns are there, and to put the new ones in the same folder. Using the second path, there may well be a sub-folder called Support. That is a good place to look for those files.

Use _OPTIONS>Files>Support Files Search Path and you can add a path to any folder as well as see which paths are already there.

AutoCAD tends to put a lot of stuff in the USER folders these days. Makes getting your old computer working for a new log-in REALLY tricky. "it used to work OK when it was my machine"

Each log-in has its own USER folder so things like personal customisation should go in there. The Program Files folder is for items that should be universal for that installation so I would tend to use that one for hatch patterns etc.

Two final points,

AutoCAD and I disagree about what things are global and what are individual

the AppData folder often appears to be Hidden by default