All My Toolbars Are Gone

[MAK]

Hi All:

Admittedly, it's probably not an ACAD problem, I'm having some grief with my PC... but I thought I'd ask anyway.

I've been having problems with the computer locking up, and in an attempt to isolate the problem I've deleted most of my start up items, and have also repaired the registry using a downloaded free program. Seemed to be working OK, but when I loaded a saved drawing, ACAD 2008 mechanical didn't bring up any toolbars. The only menu items that show up at the top left corner are File, Edit, View, and Help. Clicking on View has a "Toolbars" drop down, but it doesn't work. Loaded a saved drawing, tried clean screen, no difference.

Has anyone experienced this? I'm not stuck as I have a laptop with the second copy that ACAD has kindly allowed us to legally run, but I'm about ready to reformat the PC. Any help appreciated.

[DVDM]

It's amazing the ease with which you can completely screw over your basic Autocad interface, and require a phd in Autocad Science to bring it back to life.
I once renamed the <<Vanilla>> profile directly; it screwed up my autocad so bad the admin ended up completely re-installing Autocad, but I digress.

What's probably happened in your case, is that you've unloaded or removed your acad.cui file (or acadm.cui if you run it as Mechanical). You'll need to find that file somewhere on your hard drive.

On our XP systems running acad 2010, you would find this file here:
c:\Documents and Settings\yourname\application data\autodesk\autocad mechanical 2010\r18.0\support\acad.cuix
(Note 1: This is a hidden folder, so you will have to set Explorer to show hidden/system folders or you'll never find it. Note 2: With Autocad 2009 and later it's cuix files, not cui files)
To load this file, you type 'CUILOAD' at the command line, browse for this file and load it. Do the same for 'acetmain.cui' if you want to load Express Tools back up.

There are other files in this same folder that will be needed for the autocad interface to load properly. If these have been deleted, you'll have to get them from somewhere else.

We had this issue arise several times in this office, and what I did to fix the problem was to simply copy the entire contents of my Support directory to the computer that had the problem. That fixed the problem quite nicely.

[MAK]

Thanks DVDM! I appreciate the detailed instructions, and will look for the file tomorrow. If it works I'll let you know.

[Car5858]

Hi All:


"repaired the registry using a downloaded free program"


Has anyone experienced this? Any help appreciated.

Acad has some registry keys that are needed for proper loading. This same thing will happen with AV programs that clean the registry.

You will have to repair you installation of Acad. This will restore the registry keys that are missing from the startup path.

Don't forget to disable the registry cleaners in you anti-viris programs.

[DVDM]

Yeah, I should mention that last this happened, someone got a virus on his computer, IT ran some program to clean it all up, and this cleared his entire 'document and settings/../support folder', which I then had to copy from another machine.

Seeing that autocad still starts up fine I'd say there's nothing wrong with the registry, just need to find and load your cui files. If this doesn't work though, then try repairing or re-installing autocad first, no need to format the system just yet!

[MAK]

Yeah, looks like my problem is a little deeper than I thought. A bit of clarification on my first post, I'm actually using ACAD 2008, not Mechanical, although both are included separately in the program. When I tried DVDM's instructions, 'some' toolbars came up, but they looked unfamiliar. The reason was my quick start icon loaded Mechanical, not the basic 2008 version.

Loading from >start>programs>Autodesk>Autocad 2008 Mechanical>Autocad 2008 revealed that 2008 was no longer there, just a generic launch icon which doesn't work. So it looks like somehow the 2008 portion of the program, or at least the boot instructions got wiped. Good advice on not messing with the registry, I'll educate myself a bit better next time.

Thanks very much for all your help! I'll let you know how it turns out.

[MAK]

So I repaired, then re-installed the program. ACAD 2008 is still missing, although a generic icon still shows up in the programs menu but doesn't work. ACAD 2008 Mechanical is there and mostly works, but I can't load my profile because the toolbars are different. Even then, the toolbar icons have ? marks on a lot of them, and clicking the 'About Autocad" button which normally brings up the version number results in some sort of 'can't access' message. Screw it, I don't have time to mess with it any longer, I'll finish the project on my laptop and nuke the drive later.

Just thought I'd update those that replied to my query and thank you for the information. This is a great forum!

[Glen Smith]

It's amazing the ease with which you can completely screw over your basic Autocad interface, and require a phd in Autocad Science to bring it back to life.

I ran into this today!

I have a new laptop and have been reluctant to try to copy my settings from my old machine to this one because I don't want to screw it up. So I carefully copied the acade.cuix file to a backup location, out of the path that AutoCAD looks at. Then tried to use the cui tool to copy my custom buttons and macros. BOOM. Tried to bring back the backup copy - no toolbars. I wound up starting fresh and just building a new workspace with the toolbars that I want. I STILL don't have my macros, buttons and custom toolbars.

Why does it have to be so difficult AutoDesk?

Glen

[DVDM]

Mak,
You mentioned Autodesk allows you to run a copy of acad on your laptop... but I believe that's only if you're currently on subscription, which means you're entitled to the latest version of Acad. Why not install 2010 instead?

Since you have 2008 running on your laptop, try the following:

First copy the entire contents of 'c:\documents and settings\yourname\etc etc ...\support' from your laptop to the same folder on your workstation (after you've cleared the contents of this one entirely)

Start Autocad Mechanical. I'm pretty sure that your problem with the toolbar icons showing up as questions marks will be fixed. The 'Support' folder should contain all the files required for your interface to load properly.

Keep in mind that Mechanical isn't a separate program. The difference between the two is in the profile: The shortcut you use to start Autocad Mechanical simply loads Autocad in the <<ACADMPP>> profile, which in turn is set up to load acadm.cui instead of acad.cui.
If you right-click on the launch icon, you can see that in the 'Target' it has something like '"C:\Program Files\Autodesk\ACADM 2010\acad.exe" /p <<ACADMPP>>'.
You should be able to go into your options (Commandline: OPTIONS), and in the Profile tab, switch to the <<Vanilla>> profile by double clicking. This will take you to the 'normal' autocad. If Autocad loads up screwy, that probably means that the Acad.cui file isn't loaded yet. Try to load those in the steps I described earlier.
Hope that helps!

Glen Smith,
I know what mean. In fact, as I write this my Mechanical doesn't work as it should either. The interface loads as it should, with all the Mechanical toolbars available, but none of the Mechanical commands it invokes work. I don't use Mechanical at all so I haven't even tried to fix it, but I also don't have a clue why it's not working, and this Autocad install is just 2 months old.

Anyway, do you make your customizations part of the acade.cuix file? I leave that completely standard. Instead I have 2 Partial Customizations files (one for each menu on the menu bar) that I have on the network that are available to everyone, and I can push any changes to them out to everyone instantly. They're in a folder that's read only for everyone except me to avoid tampering by others, and have been carried across all versions of Autocad for the past 10 years without much trouble (except 2009 which caused a bit of a headache). Even if you're the only one using these customisations it's still worth keeping it separate, so you don't have to mess with the acade.cuix at all.

Customisations to your profile (how you layout your interface, colors, etc) is a different matter though. Every time we upgrade our Autocad, I do not let anyone carry their profile across. I tell them to simply reconfigure their workspace on their new Autocad install. I do that simply because I found you'd end up spending more time trying to fix the problems you ran in to if you tried bringing your profile across. It's also a good time to rethink the way you work and layout your interface, and discover some of the new features and toolbars along the way (at least that's what I tell anyone who complains about it )

[MAK]

Hi DVDM:

I assume you meant the support folder in ACAD. I deleted and replaced that folder per your suggestion, but the result is still the same.

The program started as a subscription, originally ordered as ACAD 2007 Mechanical, but I received 2008 because it was probably around the time of the changeover. It was given to me when the company went bankrupt (the new owners didn't want any of the existing software) and I didn't keep up the subscription. As far as being allowed to have another copy running only if the subscription is active, I never read that in any of the product documentation. From what I remember, Autodesk allows you to have a legal second copy on another machine as long as both aren't being used at the same time. I thought that was generous of them, and it makes sense in my case because I use the PC at home, and take my laptop when on the road.

What you said about this being a single program makes sense now. I have 2 icons on my desktop, one for 2008 and another for mechanical. The 2008 icon brings up the ?mark toolbars because it's probably trying to load my profile, while the mechanical icon loads the factory toolbars. What I need to figure out is why the 2008 program selection icon in start>programs>autodesk is dead.

I'm not worried about reformatting C Drive. My drawings are stored on second and third drives, and this thing is over 3 years old and bloated. The IT girl we used to have said a reformat every year or so was a good idea. A lot of work, but I'm ready. Plus I can get rid of the free registry cleaning program I downloaded.