November 30 December 3, 2004 Las Vegas, Nevada Speaker: Bud Schroeder, Autodesk Inc. IT32-1 This presentation will focus on how to use existing built-in AutoCAD tools to migrate your customization from earlier versions of AutoCAD up to AutoCAD 2005. We will be using the built-in Migration Wizard, the Menu and Toolbar Wizard to make your customization current with the new release. We'll also discuss how to make migration smoother for future AutoCAD releases. We will touch on custom paths, Profiles, PGP, LIN, PAT, and menu files. We'll also cover how to move forward PC3, STB, and CTB files. Who Should Attend CAD managers and AutoCAD users of all skill levels who want to migrate their customization to the current release Topics Covered * How to use Autodesk migration tools to move customization forward * Built-in migration tools in AutoCAD 2005 * Updated and free migration tools available on the Autodesk website * How to customize to make future migration easier * Using custom.mnu for your customization About the Speaker: Before joining Autodesk, Bud worked for a power utility in Northern California where he was the CAD manager, IT administrator, as well as graphic artist. Bud started using AutoCAD at version 2.6 and used it in production until R14 when he started at Autodesk. He now works on the AutoCAD team as a senior test engineer. Bud@autodesk.com
Where do I find tools to help me with my Migration from previous releases of AutoCAD? The latest version of the tools are available on the Autodesk WEB site. Here is the marketing URL that will always point to the latest version of the Migration Tools. This paper will just highlight these tools the main focus is on the Migration Wizard and the Menu and Toolbar Porter. http://www.autodesk.com/migrationtools What tools will I find on this WEB Site? Menu and Toolbar Porter Import your menus, toolbar items, and keyboard shortcuts (accelerators) from previous versions of AutoCAD into AutoCAD 2005. Autodesk Batch Drawing Converter Convert any AutoCAD or AutoCAD-based drawing file to AutoCAD Release 14, AutoCAD 2000, AutoCAD 2000i, AutoCAD 2002, AutoCAD 2004, and AutoCAD 2005 file formats. Autodesk Customization Conversion Tools Convert your customized menus, files, command aliases, and layer states, and script with greater ease. Tools included: The following four tools are included in the Autodesk Customization Conversion Tools download: 1. AutoLISP Compatibility Analyzer details AutoCAD 2004 and AutoCAD 2005 compatibility issues found in AutoLISP and Menu LISP files. AutoLISP Compatibility Analyzer searches for known AutoCAD 2004 and AutoCAD 2005 compatibility issues. When an issue is found, an explanation of the compatibility issue and suggestions on how to correct it are provided. 2. Command Alias (PGP) Porter designed to help you bring your custom command aliases from previous versions of AutoCAD into AutoCAD 2004 or AutoCAD 2005. You can also use this tool to add, replace, or remove command aliases from any AutoCAD PGP file. 3. ScriptPro takes AutoCAD scripting to a new level with an easy-to-use interface, logging, reusable project files, enhanced scripting with new keywords and utilities, and robust error recovery. Using ScriptPro you can apply a set of commands to multiple drawings by simply specifying a script file and the list of drawings that you would like to apply the script to. 4. Layer State Converter allows you to convert between the layer states created by LMAN (one of the AutoCAD Express Tools) and the saved layer states introduced in AutoCAD 2000i software. To use Layer State Converter, type one of the following commands on the AutoCAD command line: CONVERTLS - Converts AutoCAD layer states to LMAN layer states. CONVERTLMAN - Converts LMAN layer states to AutoCAD layer states. Are there any other tools to help me migrate between releases of AutoCAD? Starting in AutoCAD 2005, Autodesk introduced a NEW Feature called Migrate Custom Settings. This feature is designed to help Migrate your Customization between releases. In order to make this feature work you will need to have a previously supported version of AutoCAD on your system. For example if you are upgrading from say AutoCAD 2004 to AutoCAD 2005. You would install AutoCAD 2005 side by side with AutoCAD 2004. Then when you start AutoCAD 2005, a Migration Dialog box will pop up asking what settings you would like to migrate. You can migrate all of them or just take a few. Autodesk recommends that you migrate all of them at once. 2
Migrate Custom Settings dialog box for AutoCAD 2005 Extensible help from the Migration Wizard Dialog box 3
If you re not sure about something here be sure to check out the help in the Wizard as well. There is a lot of great information available in the help file. If you don t want to migrate your settings at this time, no problem. You can run the tool later on. You will find it in the START/ All Programs/Autodesk/AutoCAD 2005 group - Migrate Custom Settings. Start/Programs/Autodesk What will get migrated to my NEW AutoCAD 2005? User Profiles AutoCAD Defined Line Files User defined Line Files AutoCAD Defined Hatch Patterns User Defined hatch patterns ACAD.PGP User Profiles: AutoCAD 2005 Migration Wizard will migrate your custom settings in your AutoCAD Profiles. This is every thing in the Options dialog box that is not a drawing specific setting. AutoCAD Defined Line Files: Contains standard linetype definitions (an AutoCAD library file). The file itself is not migrated; however, any linetypes that you created in this file are migrated to the AutoCAD 2005 acad.lin file, in the User Defined Linetypes section of the file. User Defined Line Files: This is the location of your user defined line files. This data gets migrated to AutoCAD 2005. AutoCAD Defined Hatch Patterns: This was the location of your AutoCAD defined Hatch Patterns. User Defined Hatch Patterns: This is the location of your user defined Hatch Patterns. These files are migrated. 4
ACAD.PGP: This is the location of your command aliases. Just the customization is migrated. We also migrate any template files that don t look like standard AutoCAD Template files. Your CTB and STB files as well as your PC3 files. Note that we put these files under the AutoCAD 2005 versions. What other type of settings get migrated with this new tool? Pretty much anything in Options that is NOT a drawing setting. What is nice about this tool is you don t have to import a profile to get these settings. Also the tool knows what can and can not be migrated. How do I know what is a drawing setting and what is not? When you bring up the Options Dialog box you will see that some sections have a DWG icon next to them. These are all drawing specific settings. 5
AutoCAD also migrates the paths in the Files Tab of Options. One thing to watch for is if you re using the File and Support search path to point to your menu files. AutoCAD loads the menu file from the first path it finds it in. As long as you use the Menu File path you won t have any issues with the custom paths. Files Tab that shows Support paths and menu path What about my menu files? You mentioned that the Migration Wizard does not migrate the menu file, so how do we migrate your custom menus? Right now the Migration Wizard will not migrate the menu files. But in the future we are looking at adding this ability to the Migration feature. But for now you can use the Menu and Toolbar Porter to migrate your custom menu files forward. You can also bring your existing menu file forward to the latest version of AutoCAD. Note: If you do this you could be missing features that Autodesk has added to the latest menu file. At this time, we recommend that you use partial menu files so that you can migrate your custom menus with out having to decouple them from the AutoCAD menus. Or be sure to only migrate your customization from the previous AutoCAD to the latest version of AutoCAD. 6
Is there anything I can do to help make my customization migrate smoother in the future? Starting in AutoCAD 2005 we are suggesting that you put your customization at the bottom of the files that you have customized. For example if you have added data to your PGP file we would like to see you put this at the bottom of the file. Here is an example of what we have in the AutoCAD 2005 PGP file. ACAD.PGP PREFERENCES, RECTANGLE, SHADE, VIEWPORTS, *OPTIONS *RECTANG *SHADEMODE *VPORTS ; -- User Defined Command Aliases -- ; Make any changes or additions to the default AutoCAD command aliases in ; this section to ensure successful migration of these settings when you ; upgrade to the next version of AutoCAD. If a command alias appears more ; than once in this file, items in the User Defined Command Alias take ; precedence over duplicates that appear earlier in the file. Bud *line You want to do the same for you.lin and.pat files. What if things go wrong in my Migration? There are several things that you can do if you have problems. First look at the Migration log file. If things failed that is the first place to look. If AutoCAD is having problems while your running it, be sure to take a look at your profiles. You can always set back to the default profile to see if the problem is still there. One last option is to re set your profile but be warned that re setting will put the profile back to the default install profile. 7
Menu and Toolbar Porter: This tool has been around for a while. But for AutoCAD 2005 it has been updated and now allows for drag and drop. You can use it to migrate your full menus and your partial menus. Menu and Toolbar Porter You can use this tool to copy your existing customization to the NEW AutoCAD menu file or to help create a partial menu. Notice that we have an AutoCAD 2004 and AutoCAD 2005 menu file loaded in the Menu and Toolbar Porter. This tool is pretty easy to use, just drag your customization from the older menu to the newer menu. Source to Target.
Menu and Toolbar Porter ACAD 2004 to ACAD 2005 One way to insure clean migration of your menu files is to keep your customization in a partial menu file. Then when you move from release to release you can just re load the partial menu files. You can also use the Menu and Toolbar porter to crate partial menu files. With AutoCAD 2005 we introduced a blank partial menu that is installed by default. The file is custom.mnu. You can open up your AutoCAD 2005 ACAD.MNS file and drag your customization into the custom.mnu file. Then load it up in AutoCAD 2005. I would also point out that you don t have to do this, but it makes it easier to track your customization between releases. 9
Menu and Toolbar Porter creating a partial menu The Menu and Toolbar Porter will allow you to migrate 3 types of files. Menus, Toolbars and Accelerators. This concludes the migration paper. There will be more details in the Power Point and live examples of Migration in the class. 10