Disappearing locked floating toolbars after closing/reopening AutoCAD

[3DSquatch]

Not sure if this is the right forum to post this to, but anyway...

So, I started using AutoCAD again after nearly two years of strictly Rhino 5. I missed AutoCAD 2010...really I did and I couldn't wait to see what 2013 has to offer.

To lesson workspace confusion and keep everything running efficiently and smoothly I decided to reorganize my AutoCAD workspace to resemble my Rhino workspace as closely as possible, which I did very well....that is, until I closed AutoCAD and then reopened it only to find all the floating toolbars gone. Not sure how this happened considering the fact that I locked all the docked and floating toolbars, then I saved it as a new workspace.

Please tell me that there is a way to fix this. Otherwise, I'm going back to Rhino full time. Or at least back to AutoCAD 2010.     

[M_Hensley]

You need to manually save your workspace changes with the WSSAVE command.

You can set the WSAUTOSAVE variable to automatically save any changes, but it is off by default.

[3DSquatch]

Hey, thanks for the prompt reply!

The problem is, I already had the "automatically save workspace changes" selected in "workspace settings". To test it, I deleted the first workspace I created ("AutoCAD Classic Custom") and created a new workspace profile ("Classic Old-School"). I again selected the "automatically save workspace changes" option but the same thing keeps happening: every time I reload the program the floating toolbars are gone. I never had this happen with 2010 so I'm stumped....and it's a REAL PAIN reloading and resizing the toolbars every single time I open AutoCAD. It's enough to make me avoid using it altogether.

Any other suggestions?

[3DSquatch]

P.S. I tried EVERYTHING, even unlocking all docked and floating toolbars before saving a new workspace, but the program stubbornly refuses to load in the floating toolbars after closing and reopening. What I did notice is that it save the position and resized shape of each toolbar so that, when reloaded, they all appear as I last saved them. But it's quite an annoyance to have to reload all floating toolbars every time you open a new or existing file!

One question: when using the command 'WSAUTOSAVE', what does the numerical value '<x>' represent? What setting does it change if I enter '<2>' instead of the default '<1>'?

[M_Hensley]

WSAUTOSAVE only accepts two numbers, 0 for on and 1 for off.

If you manually save does it not work either?

[dgorsman]

Not many changes in Workspace management between the two versions.  Saving your workspace is only part of the solution.  When you start AutoCAD again, are you starting with the same Profile, or a different one (ie. is there a /p argument when starting AutoCAD)?  Changing to a different profile may change the Main CUIx file, which is where your Workspace is stored.  Different Main means you don't have access to your Workspace.  Once you get the same Main CUIx, then you need to ensure the same workspace is being chosen at start-up.  You can specify the Workspace name using the /w argument at start-up, or you can manually select the workspace to make current once you have started.  The latter should only be necessary if you are starting with a different profile (ie. your saved workspace isn't available).

For what its worth, some third-party applications and verticals have some quirks with saving and reloading Workspace settings so it would be good to know if this is vanilla AutoCAD and/or if anything else is being loaded.

[pendean]

1. you must manually save your current workspace, WSSAVE or -WSSAVE commands.
2. You must ensure you're startup isn't loading an externally saved profile and/or menu file, or a predefined workspace is being reloaded. Are you sure you are not using an Enterprise Menu file? That may be yet another issue.
3. When you installed 2013, did you also migrate from 2010 at the startup?
4. Absolutely nothing has changed between 2010 and 2013 asa far as this issue is concerned, so you are missing something less obvious perhaps.

[3DSquatch]

I'll try to reply to all posts in one here.

M_Hensley: 

Thank you. Unfortunately, however, using the 'WSSPACE' command doesn't help. 

dgorsman:

As for the startup shortcut properties, here is the target "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2013\acad.exe"  /product ACAD /language "en-US".  Therefore, I take it that no /p switches have been added.

"Changing to a different profile may change the Main CUIx file, which is where your Workspace is stored.  Different Main means you don't have access to your Workspace. Once you get the same Main CUIx, then you need to ensure the same workspace is being chosen at start-up.  You can specify the Workspace name using the /w argument at start-up, or you can manually select the workspace to make current once you have started."

I don't see why I would have to script a /w argument for startup because the profiles I saved are loading in; even the docked toolbar settings are loaded properly, as I arranged them. The custom workspace I created was set to 'current' and WSAUTOSAVE is set to <1> (i.e. 'on'). So, it seems that the Main CUIx file has been changed to save most of my workspace settings. The problem seems to only affect the loading of the floating toolbars which have to be manually loaded every time after startup (please refer to my image file attachments). 

Also, this is not a third-party version. I am not using "vanilla". I am using straight AutoCAD 2013 which is part of a stand-alone 2013 AutoCAD Design Suite install. 

Pendean:

1. Already done, with several attempts. The new workspaces are created and they load in at start-up but the floating toolbars have to be reloaded manually each time.
2. I'm not sure what an "externally saved profile and/or menu file" is. This is straight unaltered AutoCAD 2013. Every change to the workspace profile was made within the program. What do you mean by "predefined workspace being reloaded". The workspace set to "current" always loads, but with missing floating toolbars. I don't even know what an "enterprise menu file" is. Would it be something scripted by a corporate end-user? If so, then, no I am not using one.
3. No I did not migrate anything from 2010. 2013 was a fresh install, with a default settings until I tried to manually reorganize the workspace environment.
4. I figured that. I just wondered if a bug was somehow introduced during the development of 2013. Unlikely, but still possible? Is anyone else having this problem?
   

[pendean]

I just started up 2013 (fully patched here), made sure LOCKUI was turned off, moved around a bunch of stuf in a test workspace, manually saved to that workspace, closed 2013.
Started it back up, that test workspace opened and all my changes are there.

Maybe you need a test workspace to confirm the issue is not a startup?

[dgorsman]

"AutoCAD 2013" is what the "vanilla" term refers to.  That differentiates from the various vertical products like Map3D, Civil3D, Mechanical, etc. which have a "Run as AutoCAD" option.  If you have a suite, you might be running a vertical rather than the vanilla AutoCAD.

"Third party" refers to addtional plug-ins or add-ons like AutoPLANT, AVEVA P&ID, or SincPac which extend the features of AutoCAD.  It doesn't refer to the base AutoCAD product.

[3DSquatch]

Pendean: 

Thanks a bunch for your help! Really appreciated...

It's strange to begin with, but it just keeps getting weirder. By applying your 'Test Worskpace' idea, I discovered that ACAD will only save and reload the floating toolbars for my custom workspace if I close and then reopen ACAD from a different workspace. After creating a new workspace called "TEST", as per your example, I close ACAD and then restarted. The TEST workspace opened as predicted with everything in order as saved except the floating toolbars. So, I went to open the "Customize workspace" window and accidentally click on my "Custom Workspace"...lo and behold: all the floating toolbars appeared in position and resized according to my earlier changes! Weird isn't it! 

I began to experiment and realized that ACAD will only load in my saved floating toolbars if I close and then reopen ACAD from another workspace! 

Any ideas why it's doing this? I just downloaded SP2....think it will help? 

[3DSquatch]

dgorsman:

Thanks for the clarification. According to your definition, I have only ever used one vertical AutoCAD product: AutoCAD Architecture 2013 and, although I don't have it installed on my PC, I can't recall any of these issues. If you read my reply to Pendean, you'll see that this is a very strange quirk indeed!  

And as far as I know, this version of AutoCAD is vanilla, since none of the features (icons, menus, toolbars, etc.) seem different from what AutoCAD 2010 (vanilla) had accustomed me to. EXCEPT for the menus/toolbars added by AutoCAD Raster Design. Could RasterDesign be causing this issue? 

Just FYI, when I click on Help > About AutoCAD 2013 the title looks like this:

So, not sure if this is technically the "vanilla" version or not.

[pendean]

Which floating toolbars are they?

[3DSquatch]

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[StephenHFenton]

Hi,

I've been looking for a resolution to this problem for a couple of months now as well.  Has there been a development / fix yet as i noticed the message stopped before a satisfactory answer was provided ??

Many Thanks in Advance...

Stephen