Re: How to switch user without reinstalling

Anonymous · ‎06-08-2015

Is there a way to switch the user profile associated with CAD 2015 without having to do a full reinstall of the program?

In Civil3d 2014 we used to do a soft reset if we needed to reset CAD back to default settings by running the following in a batch file:

reg delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R19.1\ACAD-D000:409 /f

rmdir "c:\users\%username%\appdata\Roaming\Autodesk\C3D 2014" /S /Q

rmdir "c:\users\%username%\appdata\Local\Autodesk\C3D 2014" /S /Q

As you know you get errors when you install CAD and then log in as another user and try to open it. If another user needed to use CAD on that computer we could log in as the regular user, run the script above, and then log in as the new user and launch CAD. This was very handy if we were in a pinch.

I have used the Reset Default Settings tool in the start menu to fix issues in 2015 but it doesn't seem useful for switching user profiles because at the end of the settings reset it launches CAD which seems to recreate the reg files that it deletes.

Am I doing this wrong? What is the easy way to switch the install to another user?

Thanks.

scot-65 · ‎06-08-2015

AFAIK the folder in "Program Files" is for everyone.
It's the building of the individual profiles that might be confusing.
For each HKCU-profile created on a workstation, the first time AutoCAD is launched, the individual files associated with AutoCAD is built. It has nothing to do with anything inside the Program Files area.

If you can get one HKCU-profile to "see" another HKCU-profile with other programs, I have not heard of ACAD being able to do this.

As a suggestion, Run -> REGEDIT and go into the HKCU and export the ACAD profile. Edit this ASCII text based file with notepad or equal and assign a new HKCU path. Save and exit. When in the new HKCU-profile, double click this REG file and it will be loaded. If one exists, it will be overwritten.

However ACAD made this easy to do by exporting the profile as a ARG file and one can import into the new HKCU-profile (unsure here). Command OPTIONS, Profiles tab. The ARG file is also ASCII text based and can be edited just like the REG file.

[limited testing]

???

Scot-65
A gift of extraordinary Common Sense does not require an Acronym Suffix to be added to my given name.

bryce.thelin · ‎06-10-2015

Hi Steve,

What you can do is export the settings from AutoCAD and then put that ZIP file somewhere that anyone can access. Whoever needs it can then import it and be all set. The settings export/import options are under Start > All Programs > Autodesk > AutoCAD 20xx > Migrate Custom Settings. However, not all versions of AutoCAD have this. You mentioned AutoCAD Civil 3D... which is one that does not. Using a profile ARG file like Scot mentioned would be the way to go, or use the folder copying method you already figured out. You can put the profile ARG in a common place and edit the AutoCAD shortcut on the desktop to load it.

It might also be possible to create a login script or batch file that copies things over. That would run each time a user logs in. You could probably make it check somehow so that it only does it once.