Quick Access Toolbar loses commands

[proberts1]

I seem to be having an odd occurance. I am running Architecture 2010. and no... that's not the odd occurance,...

I have added certian commands to my Quick Access Toolbar. Every few days or so the Quick Access Toolbar loses the commands that I have placed on it and I must reattach them. I use the "More Commands..." option from the drop down of the Quick Access Toolbar, bringing up the dialog box from which I drag the wanted commands onto the toolbar.The commands could stay on the toolbar for as long as a week, and other times they last just for the day.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

Thank You

Patrick

[pendean · Accepted solution]

Did you actively save your workspace after making these changes? WSSAVE command, pick your workspace, then OK.
Repeat for other workspaces or other profiles that you launch.

[proberts1]

Thanks Dean,

No, I hadn't tried that.

I just saved the workspace using wssave.

Will that prevent the disappearring commands, or will I need to reload the workspace if it happens again.

What do I need to do to reload the workspace if that is needed?

[pendean]

Post back if it disappears: your experience now that you properly saved to the workspace will help others should somthing fail.

Did you note which profile you are running? Are you sure there are no startup routines reloading menus 'on your behalf'? That matters if it reverts back.

[pkolarik]

Saving your workspace will not keep those quick access commands from disappearing. It happens here every now and then too (just happened yesterday, in fact..but hasn't happened in a couple months now), and I *always* have my workspace updated to any changes I've made.

Long ago I tired of trying to track down *why* it happens;  I just re-add the 5 commands back up there whenever they disappear. (and reloading the workspace has never brought them back for me once they've disappeared)

[pendean]

QAT commands have never been lost here since I started adding to them back in 2012 and now through 2014: which is basically what you have experienced except for one trigger that changed it.
So what was that trigger? That's the challenge, start by examining what changed with your startup (loading a new profile, a 'helpful' revised enterprise menu being reloaded etc.): something changed at the CUI or workspace level.

[Anonymous]

Older issue, but I have this problem today and a possible trigger-- logging into my computer remotely and opening up AutoCAD (2014) always removes icons I have added to the QAT and reverts it to the default.  If this can be verified as a trigger, the next question is whether there are any known solutions.

Another odd behaviour of the QAT is that after setting it to be below the ribbon, it always jumps above the ribbon after plotting, annoying, but not nearly as much so as losing all my custom-placed icons.  Mentioning this in case related.  Thanks for any help.

[amalandfx]

This still appears to be an issue. My quick access toolbar reverted back to the AutoCAD default. I'm just noting my solution and what didn't work in case others have it.

I haven't been able to track the actual trigger yet. I tried setting WSAUTOSAVE to 0 and 1, and closing all drawings before closing the program as some forum posts suggest but that didn't recreate it.

I restored my acad.cuix from the .bak file and it corrected the quick access toolbar back to what I had customized. So that was a fix for me, but I'm still not sure what caused it. 

-Amanda

[pkolarik]

---

@amalandfx wrote:

This still appears to be an issue. My quick access toolbar reverted back to the AutoCAD default. I'm just noting my solution and what didn't work in case others have it.

I haven't been able to track the actual trigger yet. I tried setting WSAUTOSAVE to 0 and 1, and closing all drawings before closing the program as some forum posts suggest but that didn't recreate it.

I restored my acad.cuix from the .bak file and it corrected the quick access toolbar back to what I had customized. So that was a fix for me, but I'm still not sure what caused it. 

-Amanda

---

Yep, this is definitely still an issue. Although it happens very infrequently for me, it happened two weeks ago. All of a sudden, with no changes on our end, all 5 commands I have long had in my QAT disappeared. So I added them back in. They next day at startup they were gone again. This went on for four days.

On the fifth day, magically, they stayed in there. They didn't revert to what I'd had prior to the initial disappearance 4 days prior (the order on the QAT was incorrect), but instead stayed in the order I'd added them the previous day.

[pendean]

All menu items are stored in the CUIx files you have loaded and their state is controlled by your saved workspace state.

I personally manually save my active workspace (WSSAVE) instead of relying on the workspace-autosave function: I also am careful to implement my core menu changes in all workspaces and in all profiles I use in ACA. It helps to actively replace all externally saved ARG files with custom ones too. All these are lessons learned from years of using this program, hope it helps.

[pkolarik]

---

@pendean wrote:
All menu items are stored in the CUIx files you have loaded and their state is controlled by your saved workspace state.

I personally manually save my active workspace (WSSAVE) instead of relying on the workspace-autosave function: I also am careful to implement my core menu changes in all workspaces and in all profiles I use in ACA. It helps to actively replace all externally saved ARG files with custom ones too. All these are lessons learned from years of using this program, hope it helps.

---

I mentioned this a long time ago in this thread;  saving to your workspace doesn't necessarily affect the QAT. I've tested this and proven it to be accurate. I *never* use the workspace "auto-save" function and actually haven't had the need to change up my workspace settings whatsoever in a long, long time. Yet, the QAT buttons I've added disappeared as I mentioned previously. Despite absolutely no changes to any underlying menu settings / cui settings / etc.(as I'd be the only one making any menu/cui changes)

Just one of the many Autocad mysteries I guess. Fortunately, in my case, it's simply an annoyance, not a big hassle.

[pkolarik]

So my previous post on this topic was using ACA 2015. Today I'm (finally) getting some time to get ACA 2017 set up.

I went through and did all the needed things and exported my profile and saved a workspace. I'd added in my QAT commands, got my palettes all placed the way I want, etc.

Close down ACA and open it back up. Viola! QAT is missing 4 of the buttons I've added, 2 of my 5 palettes are out of order, it didn't retain all the changes to the status/toggle bar at the bottom of the screen, and it didn't remember to load my designated "home" workspace (even though in the settings box it shows my chosen "home" workspace as current, the layout on the screen isn't my chose workspace).

Unfortunately, these are all behaviors I've seen regularly when I was using ACA 2015 too.

So, yep, it's still an issue. lol

[amalandfx]

I can confirm that the same behaviour happens in AutoCAD 2018 as well (I know this is in the ACA forum but it is happening on other platforms as well).

I still haven't been able to replicate it consistently in order to pinpoint the full root cause. It will be fine for months and then one day, just up and deletes QAT buttons.

I've found a workaround solution to restore the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) back a little faster than adding all the custom buttons again, if you're finding that this happens often - 

1. While the QAT is working properly, in your Users/(username)/AppData/Roaming/Autodesk/(your AutoCAD platform)/R22.0/enu/Support folder, make a copy of your acad.cuix in the same folder and call it acad.bak.cuix.

2. If the QAT disappears again, copy the acad.bak.cuix and rename it back to acad.cuix, replacing the acad.cuix that is in the folder. Maintain the .bak for another rainy day.

So far I've been trying to NOT close CAD from the start screen when no drawings are open and that subconscious practice has helped me avoid whatever steps are actually causing the QAT to revert to default on the next startup of CAD, but I've confirmed that doing that alone does not replicate the issue.(Closing all drawings, then closing CAD with only the start screen tab open). It appears to just be one of the steps in the process to replicate the issue. 

-Amanda

[pkolarik]

---

@amalandfx wrote:

I can confirm that the same behaviour happens in AutoCAD 2018 as well (I know this is in the ACA forum but it is happening on other platforms as well).

I still haven't been able to replicate it consistently in order to pinpoint the full root cause. It will be fine for months and then one day, just up and deletes QAT buttons.

I've found a workaround solution to restore the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) back a little faster than adding all the custom buttons again, if you're finding that this happens often - 

1. While the QAT is working properly, in your Users/(username)/AppData/Roaming/Autodesk/(your AutoCAD platform)/R22.0/enu/Support folder, make a copy of your acad.cuix in the same folder and call it acad.bak.cuix.

2. If the QAT disappears again, copy the acad.bak.cuix and rename it back to acad.cuix, replacing the acad.cuix that is in the folder. Maintain the .bak for another rainy day.

So far I've been trying to NOT close CAD from the start screen when no drawings are open and that subconscious practice has helped me avoid whatever steps are actually causing the QAT to revert to default on the next startup of CAD, but I've confirmed that doing that alone does not replicate the issue.(Closing all drawings, then closing CAD with only the start screen tab open). It appears to just be one of the steps in the process to replicate the issue. 

-Amanda

---

I'll probably give that cuix thing you outlined a try. But with it just typically being 3-5 buttons that go missing on mine it's only 15-30 seconds to restore them. If I had alot more buttons that would be alot worse.

However, I can tell you that I never close autocad from the start screen. I have mine set up to always have a "drawing 1" open, so when I close that last drawing autocad closes immediately. (and so, likewise, I never open autocad to just the start screen, always to a "drawing 1".)

So, at least in my case, closing autocad from that start screen doesn't affect the AWOL QAT buttons at all.

[sharpl]

True that. Happened to me yesterday. I have lost about 12 command icons. Fun continues...

[-PaulR-]

Happens in 2020 as well very frustrating

[pendean]

@-PaulR- limited user account in Windows?
Is ACA 2020 fully updated?
Changing workspaces?
Changing profiles?
Using an Enterprise CUIx file?
What did you add to the QAT exactly?

Nothing has ever been "lost" from the QAT for any of our users in our office, so explain it in more detail please.

[amalandfx]

Pendean, it still happens to me sometimes in 2022, too. I'm fully updated. I help with CAD technical support for multiple offices, and have had reports from it happening to several others in many different offices.

- I do not have a limited user account on Windows.

- Using Drafting & Annotation workspace, not switching.

- Not changing profiles

- QAT on acad.cuix file. I do have another partial customization file loaded, but so far it's impossible to test if that's a factor because I haven't been able to determine steps to replicate, and that partial is needed.

- I have added many tools, like COPYBASE, BREAKATPOINT, EXPLODE, Draw order dropdown, HATCHTOBACK, QSELECT, Find Non-Purgeable Items, and more. I have some custom tools, too, but they are added properly to the acad.cuix and shouldn't cause an issue.

The issue is that we add these extra tools to the QAT, and then one day open up AutoCAD and the QAT reverts back to unedited acad.cuix. But it's not reverting everything. I've also edited the tools on the ribbons, such as the Home ribbon, and those remain the same. Just the QAT reverts as if it's a fresh install. So everything we've added is no longer there. If your users are not adding extra tools to the QAT, they would never experience this.

It appears to be an AutoCAD bug. I've reported it, but I think it's going to be very hard for the Autodesk guys to fix until somebody figures out the replication steps. After these years, I still haven't figured out the pattern because I only notice it when I next try to use the tools, and I'm not drafting every day, myself. It's hard to remember what I was doing the last time I had CAD open. I think it's only happened to me once in the last 4 months.

If somebody has an idea of the steps to replicate, I will gladly test and confirm.

- Amanda

[pendean]

>>>... it still happens to me sometimes in 2022...<<<
That may be he problem, "sometimes" never has a permanent fix until the conditions unique to it are identified. What's the trigger? That's the challenge, it needs to be re-creatable on demand.

Weird indeed.

[rcooper9QDTF]

I keep losing my Quick Access commands as well. And it's hard to tell what causes it; they will be there through days of opening and shutting down the program until they randomly don't show up on start up.
I've tried WSSAVE, Save Current Workspace As..., and the auto-save multiple times. None seem to work.
It's not a huge deal (I only add 3 commands), but it is annoying.