Computer upgrade help, please

Where I work I use Autocad 2006. I'm not a very fast typist, so over the years my screen periphery has accumulated a fair share of custom buttons and menus.

My company is (finally!!) upgrading our computers. Now I might have a bit of a problem.

1. How do I survive the upgrade without losing the custom interface I've come to depend on, without spending hours to rebuild it item by item?

2. What steps must I take to basically make a "copy" of my custom AutoCAD interface so I can then load it onto the new computer?

3. Incorporating the custom LISP routines is easy, and I know I can save a profile, but does a profile contain all the menus, button bars, custom buttons and images?

I believe you will need copies of your custom .mnu and .mns files also, ( if I remeber right CUI started in 2007) Macro's and customized toolbars would be stored there, don't forget your PGP file also if you customized keyboard commands also... you could backup your profile on your existing system and test it all out by unloading your custom menu and changing to a generic profile, to see that you can reload it before the switch..

I believe that will copy over everything if you load and import to the new machine , maybe someone else will remember something i forgot..

Where I work I use Autocad 2006. I'm not a very fast typist, so over the years my screen periphery has accumulated a fair share of custom buttons and menus.

 

My company is (finally!!) upgrading our computers. Now I might have a bit of a problem.

 

1. How do I survive the upgrade without losing the custom interface I've come to depend on, without spending hours to rebuild it item by item?

 

2. What steps must I take to basically make a "copy" of my custom AutoCAD interface so I can then load it onto the new computer?

 

3. Incorporating the custom LISP routines is easy, and I know I can save a profile, but does a profile contain all the menus, button bars, custom buttons and images?

In answer to the questions

1. What version are you upgrading to? Depending on the version then I think others here have upgraded their own settings with relative ease. You might want to check on previous threads for this.

2. You need to save your workspace. Probably best to do this anyway as a backup. It is described in help.

3. A profile doesn't contain the menus, buttons etc.

Sorry for the confusion.

Only the computers are being replaced.

AutoCAD version will remain 2006.

2006 does indeed have that strange CUI braintwister thing.

Steve

The computer will change but the software will not. Good. Then I have a suggestion. Take your "old" hard drive and have it installed in the new computer as a "slave" drive. Why? Just in case you forget something (one of those custom files you worked so hard to create) you can retrieve it off the old hard drive. Then wait 90-120 days. If you haven't gone back to the old drive in a long time to retrieve anything else, consider reformatting the drive and using it as extra storage or as your "vault" for those special files you want to keep a copy of.

Take your "old" hard drive and have it installed in the new computer as a "slave" drive.

Oh. If only I could. The IT guys here at work do not agree with that at all.

Well, thanks to all for the ideas. I'll keep searching the help files.

Steve

Tell the IT guys to go pound sand.

Look. Chances are you're going to pull 99% of the files you need off the old hard drive. But what if you miss just one? How is that file (and it will always be THE most important file) going to be retrieved from a hard drive that has been erased and reformatted, thrown out or physically destroyed? Are they willing to at least back up the entire contents of your hard drive to the company server instead? Who is the CAD Manager? I'd take up the matter with that person first. Or would IT rather take the blame later on if the necessary file cannot be made to magically appear out of nowhere?

Ah. Inspiration from ReMark!

It took a while, but all those important files are now securely on a USB-powered portable hard drive. I put most of them in "zip" files, so the path is regenerated when they're extracted.

Looks like I still have to rebuild my interface manually, but at least I'll have all the support files in the right place to do it. Nothing gets lost.

Thanks,

Steve

StevJ: Smart thinking. I'd still tell the IT guys to take a hike.

Tell the IT guys to go pound sand.

hahaha I haven't heard that one before but you know what???? I'm definitely going to use in the future

I'd still tell the IT guys to take a hike.

.....just in case the didn't get the message the first time..... yep stay on their case.....hahahaha

Just because a person works in the iT department doesn't mean they know anything about CAD or the recommended specifications for a CAD computer. There's a world of difference between AutoCAD and some Microsoft product like "Word".

I am so paranoid, I backup to a server and two desktops. To their slave drives.

I can access any of my files wirelessly from my Thinkpad™ regardless of where I'm working' from (under my roof usually).

Traveling, I carry a portable Linksys wireless router. Why be tied down to a wall in your room?

If, and seldom these days, I can access the XP OS's using remote, and open a file if I need it.

ALL backup using a simple program, Handy Backup.

Simple, works like a charm.

"To pound sand" goes back a long way. In the early days of industrial pipefitting, a large-diameter pipe to be bent was installed in a deep hole, and filled with sand, so that when placed in the bending machine, the pipe would not buckle. It was important for the sand to be packed, and people were employed to 'pound sand,' striking the sides of the pipe being filled in order to settle the sand uniformly. Although important, it was true drudgery, requiring no mental effort from the pounder.

(Trust me to know all kinds of pointless trivia. If it's important, it's written down somewhere, so I can clutter my head with the unimportant.)

"Go pound sand." Another useless bit of trivia. LOL

Isn't it amazing the stuff that clutters up our brain cells? No wonder I have trouble with quantum physics!

OK. Here's what happened.

Basically, every Autocad-related directory on my old computer was put in a zip file, so that when the files were extracted, their directory structure would be re-created.

After I extracted all those zip files to the new computer (Autocad 2006 already installed), and double-checked to make sure everything went where it was supposed to go, I fired up Autocad.

Yeah. I couldn't believe it either. Everything was just like on the old computer. I only had to change the position of a couple things, but no rebuilding necessary. All the custom commands and buttons worked. The familiar interface was just the way I needed it.

I was anticipating hours of rebuilding, but it was over in mere minutes.

Thanks,

Steve

Be carefull on the selection of bits.

I have a software called FastLynx loaded up an all computers here. They use a wire connecting them in one by one. I can communicate and file transfer between either of these or to a portable laptop when using it.

Problem lies not in communication or connection rates, but in the file size allocation on the hard drive. I have chosen to stay on a 16 bit operating system (Acad don't know the difference), such then that all computers can communicate with one another. Those at are on 32 bit (and loaded up with Fastlynx) require me to erase the file name before inserting a new and updated file in place if using same exact title. I assume this is done as they file title has to have a whole new spot on the hard drive. Thus if I have a 3000k file that I did just some five minute alteration to, in order to archive and use this on the foreign 32 bit computer, I have to first erase the aprticualr file, and then transferr the newer one in. Acad then works fine, but otherwise if not transferred, you do not see the latest information. If the two computers are on equal bit rate, then there is no file transition problem from them, only on non-identical ones.

Wm.