Where are the settings for v16 kept?
I unexpectedly had to reinstall windows on a new drive, and am now reinstalling v16. After installation, I replaced everything in Appdata/roaming and support folders (with the files from the old drive), and although it appears my custom commands, etc installed, all of my settings are still incorrect... did I miss a file elsewhere that needs to be swapped? What file contains all of the settings data?
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Some Settings are saved in the drawing, others are saved in user profiles in the Registry. User profiles can be exported/imported as *.arg files using the Profile Manager (= profilemanager_app.exe in the BricsCAD program folder: C:\Program Files\Bricsys\BricsCAD V16 en_US).
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Search didn't find any *.arg files, and when I ran the profilemanager app, I couldn't find anything to import... how do I find my previous settings in order to import them? They had to be written in a file somewhere; the drive hasn't changed since I last used BricsCAD (I have it set up as a storage drive for file access).
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If you didn't export the profiles, you will not find *.arg files ... User profiles are saved in the Registry and the export/import procedure is used to save copies of user profiles or to transfer them from one computer to another.
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Is there a way to retrieve the registry entries from the old drive and replace on the new one? It would have to be quicker than figuring out and redoing a couple years of adjustments...
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Hard to say without knowing whether the old drive still works. Can you boot from the old drive? If you did not create a named custom profile you would probably need to be able to access the registry.
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@H Martin Shoemaker said:
Hard to say without knowing whether the old drive still works. Can you boot from the old drive? If you did not create a named custom profile you would probably need to be able to access the registry.Yes, so far it seems stable as an accessory drive, that's how I copied the old program files over after I installed Brics on the new one. I have full access to the files on it. Booting from it for long enough to do anything is iffy though.
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Okay, I was able to boot to the old drive long enough to make a new profile based on my settings where I last left them and exported the "profile1.arg" file.
On the new setup, I started over by uninstalling Brics, deleting all remaining folders related to Brics, and reinstalled. I did not yet reinstall Express tools.
I entered Brics and ran Profile Manager, imported the "profile1.arg", and set it as "current". I clicked "OK", but nothing changed; my settings were still the same as default. I went back to profile manager, set default back as current, then deleted "profile 1", exited, re-entered, and "profile1" was back and reset to current... I deleted again, closed Brics, and deleted the "profile1.arg" file.
I returned to the other drive, opened Brics and made 2 more profiles; profile2 & profile3.
Back to the new drive, imported profiles 2 & 3, set "profile 2" as current, exited, nothing changed, still default settings... I reopened profile manager, to find that "profile1" had been reset to current... I repeated with "profile3", with the same results.
Obviously, this isn't correct behavior, what's going on?
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Hard to say with general descriptions. Perhaps if you pasted one profile from the old disk and one from the new disk?
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@Casey Fry said:
Okay, I was able to boot to the old drive long enough to make a new profile based on my settings where I last left them and exported the "profile1.arg" file.On the new setup, I started over by uninstalling Brics, deleting all remaining folders related to Brics, and reinstalled. I did not yet reinstall Express tools.
I entered Brics and ran Profile Manager, imported the "profile1.arg", and set it as "current". I clicked "OK", but nothing changed; my settings were still the same as default. I went back to profile manager, set default back as current, then deleted "profile 1", exited, re-entered, and "profile1" was back and reset to current... I deleted again, closed Brics, and deleted the "profile1.arg" file.
I returned to the other drive, opened Brics and made 2 more profiles; profile2 & profile3.
Back to the new drive, imported profiles 2 & 3, set "profile 2" as current, exited, nothing changed, still default settings... I reopened profile manager, to find that "profile1" had been reset to current... I repeated with "profile3", with the same results.
Obviously, this isn't correct behavior, what's going on?
I recommend that you don't run the user profile manager from within BricsCAD. This is because BricsCAD doesn't commit profile changes until you exit the application. Depending on how you went about capturing your profile from the old machine, you may have captured the wrong settings.
When working with profiles I always make sure BricsCAD is closed, then run the user profile manager application from the Windows start menu. These instructions detail the approach. Create a New User Profile.
.arg files are text files (Registry snippets actually). It is possible to open them in a text editor after export to confirm the values exported.
Regards,
Jason Bourhill
CAD ConceptsCome to the Australasia BricsCAD Conference
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What we need is a Help file, tutorial etc on the whole business of handling version updates, profile manager, whether to customise/overwrite default User Info files or leave them alone and set all pointers to a copy of same etc. Help advice on how to handle this in respect of customised BIM files contradicts sort-of advice on other kinds of User Info.
My communication with Support shows that their thinking on this subject is at best a 'work in progress' amongst a raft of alternative approaches. I'm even told it's best left alone by amateurs - but no default-with-understandable-options procedure is provided. Only just now a dialog 'update or not' upon install/update was simply removed, without explanation.
I have to say, as someone who's not completely green, I don't understand the jargon-laden explanations in this thread. Same in those Help files that do exist. As is common in IT advice, the 'expert' has no idea what his audience doesn't know - basic principles unexplained, vital steps skipped, assumed obvious, or expressed in jargon, best-practice illustrative examples absent.
So the needed Help file, tutorial etc needs to be from-basics, 'for Dummies'. Brics can do this, as is shown by the excellent series of short Shape videos - except towards the end of that series, where it lapses into 'normal' gobbledegook, every sign of being composed by a different author.
I assumed that Ralph Grabowski's Customising Bricscad book would cover this in his usual plain-language excellent way, but no, not in the v18 edition. The v19 edition is imminent, and does cover some extra ground, but I fear not this - to be seen.
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Would be nice if backup and conversion of user settings would be
simpler and more straight forward.
At least the annual upgrades make it annoying for end users.
Also there is transfer to other machines.I get it done quite easily in Vectorworks and C4D. But that also needed
years to develop that workflow and it will still need some manual editing
to repair changes and integrate new features.
Modo migration works too. Normally effortlessly, but if these legacy
settings lose compatibility it can lead to a crash monster.
Microstation was also much too complicated in a Sys Admin non-UI style
but managable at the end. (It helped that they don't upgrade very often)For me in Bricscad it is also too complicated (and more than needed ?).
At least I managed to transfer my partial CUI and some other Settings
from its different places, when migrating things over to Windows.
But I still don't really understand the "Workspace" concept.I think there is still a lot of potential for improvements.
But even things the latest settings filter "show blue changes only" is an
invaluable help.0 -
Interesting, I'll have to give that a try instead. The way I did it (within Brics) was actually based on a video tutorial...
I tried several different ways since my last post, and uninstalled/reinstalled Brics several times, with different/inconsistent/weird results every time. The profile process certainly doesn't seem to work quite as intended. At least I got Express Tools working again though.@Jason Bourhill said:
I recommend that you don't run the user profile manager from within BricsCAD. This is because BricsCAD doesn't commit profile changes until you exit the application. Depending on how you went about capturing your profile from the old machine, you may have captured the wrong settings.
When working with profiles I always make sure BricsCAD is closed, then run the user profile manager application from the Windows start menu. These instructions detail the approach. Create a New User Profile.
.arg files are text files (Registry snippets actually). It is possible to open them in a text editor after export to confirm the values exported.
Regards,
Jason Bourhill
CAD ConceptsCome to the Australasia BricsCAD Conference
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Hi Casey, note that the imported profile name comes from the contents of the exported .arg file, not from the filename. In other words, export + import always results in a profile of the same name that was exported, regardless of the filename it was exported to. I suspect this may be one source of confusion.
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