How much time do you actually spend restoring a CAD environment on a new PC?

[VicoWang]

Whenever the topic of setting up a new CAD workstation comes up, the standard advice is almost always: "Just export your .arg profile, CUI, and system variables. It should take about an hour or two to set everything up."

 

But spending an hour or two per PC is exactly the IT nightmare I'm talking about. Plus, exporting a profile only transfers the registry pointers and UI layouts. You still have to physically move all your .lsp/.dll plugins, custom .shx fonts, and .ctb plot styles. You have to recreate the exact folder structures on the new local drive and pray the Support Paths map correctly.

 

I got so tired of this manual grind that I ended up building a solution for it. I developed VedaCAD—a cloud package manager that completely bypasses this archaic process. It just pulls your entire custom environment (physical files, aliases, and paths included) onto a new machine in a couple of minutes. No manual folder mapping required.

 

Curious how you guys are actually managing this across multiple office workstations. Are you writing custom deployment scripts to copy the physical files, keeping everything on a mapped network drive, or just suffering through the 1-2 hour manual setup every time someone gets a new PC?

[BIGAL]

As previously stated, used an install lisp, only a few minutes.

[VicoWang]

1 hour ago, BIGAL said:

As previously stated, used an install lisp, only a few minutes.

 

Fair point, BIGAL! A solid install.lsp is definitely the fastest traditional way to beat the manual grind.

 

I basically built VedaCAD to take that exact same concept into the cloud, so we don't even have to carry around the ZIP files or maintain the installation scripts anymore.

[Steven P]

A Single LISP sets up the workspace, trusted locations and so on, drag, drop and run, add a single file to appload - startup suit, add in a single plotter and page configurations, I think that was it, do that every 5 or 6 years per user when the hardware is renewed. Set up LISP is unique to and adjusted by each user for their drafting style and preferences rather than company prescribed settings.

 

LISPs and settings are saved on the company drives rather than c drive so are never 'lost' if a PC fails or is upgraded, the file structure is migrated when the rest of the PC is being set up.

 

It is no major hardship to do so.

Edited 51 minutes ago by Steven P

[VicoWang]

5 minutes ago, Steven P said:

A Single LISP sets up the workspace, trusted locations and so on, drag, drop and run, add a single file to appload - startup suit, add in a single plotter and page configurations, I think that was it, do that every 5 or 6 years per user when the hardware is renewed. Set up LISP is unique to and adjusted by each user for their drafting style and preferences rather than company prescribed settings.

 

LISPs and settings are saved on the company drives rather than c drive so are never 'lost' if a PC fails or is upgraded, the file structure is migrated when the rest of the PC is being set up.

 

It is no major hardship to do so.

 

You bring up a very interesting point, Steven. If the philosophy is that every user manages their own unique, individualized drafting setup every 5 or 6 years, keeping a personal "setup LISP" on a company network drive works beautifully. It really is no hardship in that specific scenario.

 

But the reason I built VedaCAD is because the AEC industry is shifting rapidly towards two things that break that traditional method: Hybrid Work and Strict Company-Prescribed Standards.

• The Network Drive Problem: When LISPs, .ctbs, and .shx fonts live on a mapped company drive, the second an architect takes their laptop home or to a construction site without a flawless VPN connection, AutoCAD freezes searching for those paths. VedaCAD solves this by physically pulling the assets into an isolated local sandbox on the C drive, making it 100% immune to Wi-Fi drops.
• The LISP Barrier: While writing a setup script is easy for veterans, 95% of today's users can't write LISP to adjust their preferences. They need a simple GUI.

VedaCAD essentially takes your "network drive + master script" logic, turns it into a foolproof GUI, and adds local sandboxing so CAD never crashes offline. It’s built specifically for teams that do need to enforce company standards, but your approach is definitely the classic gold standard for independent drafting!

 

We basically took your "master script" logic and turned it into a trackable, zero-code SaaS that doesn't break when the Wi-Fi drops.