Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin ResortOrlando, Florida

11/30/2005 - 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm Room:N. Hemispheres (Salon A3) (Dolphin)

Migration Made Easy

Have you ever wondered if there is an easy way to migrate your custom settings between AutoCAD upgrades? Did you know that Autodesk has free tools available on its website that can help you do this? Did you know that AutoCAD 2005 and 2006 have built-in migration tools? This class will cover how to use these tools and resources to migrate your customization from earlier versions of AutoCAD up to AutoCAD 2006. We will also cover how to migrate your MNU/MNS files into AutoCAD CUI format in AutoCAD 2006.

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About the Speaker:

Bud Schroeder - Autodesk

Bud started using AutoCAD at version 2.6 and worked at Northern California Power Agency for 12+ years. He joined Autodesk and the Test Development team in 1997. Bud's focus is on AutoCAD, including such features as migration and the CUI for AutoCAD 2006. He is also active with local user groups. bud@autodesk.com

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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.

DWG TrueConvert This is the same tools as the Batch Drawing Converter except that it no longer requires AutoCAD to be on the system. So if you need to convert a bunch of DWG files to different versions you can now install DWG TrueConvert on a system that does not have AutoCAD installed. DWG TrueConvert will convert any AutoCAD or AutoCAD-based drawing file to AutoCAD Release 14, AutoCAD 2000, AutoCAD 2000i, AutoCAD 2002, AutoCAD 2004, AutoCAD 2005 and AutoCAD 2006 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, AutoCAD 2005 and AutoCAD® 2006 compatibility issues found in AutoLISP and Menu LISP files. AutoLISP Compatibility Analyzer searches for known AutoCAD 2004, AutoCAD 2005 and AutoCAD 2006 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, AutoCAD 2005 or AutoCAD 2006. 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.

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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 2006. You would install AutoCAD 2006 side by side with AutoCAD 2004. Then when you start AutoCAD 2006, 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.

User Profiles

Covers what is in an AutoCAD Profile. For example if you have a profile called NCPA that has custom paths in the Files TAB of the Options Dialog box, then this would be migrated between releases.

AutoCAD – defined line files

This covers the lin files that you have customized in the previous version of AutoCAD.

User - defined line files

This covers any lin files that you have created.

AutoCAD – defined hatch patterns

This covers any custom AutoCAD hatch patterns.

User – defined hatch patterns

This covers any custom hatch patterns that you have defined.

Acad.pgp

This covers any customization you may have added to the PGP file. TIP: be sure to put any new customization at the bottom of your PGP file for better future migration.

Migrate Custom Settings dialog box for AutoCAD 2006

At the point that your seeing the Migration Wizard, take a minute and click on the Help button. You can find lots of great details on what the Wizard does and more details about what it is migrating. Also notice that you can uncheck what options you don’t want to migrate. This gives you more flexibility in what you may want to migrate to the new release of AutoCAD.

At the end of your migration be sure to say yes to view the log file. It will give you some basic details about what did and did not migrate. This can be a big help when trouble shooting a migration that may not have went as smooth as you wanted it to go. You can also view the log file at a later date if you just want to see what migrated. You can find the log under your user profile.

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Documents and Settings\<user profile>\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2006\R16.2\enu\Migration.

If you don’t want to migrate your settings at this time, no problem. You can run the tool later on. Just cancle out of the Migration dialog and AutoCAD will continue to start up. To run the Migration Wizard later, you can find it in the START/ All Programs/Autodesk/AutoCAD 2006 group - Migrate Custom Settings. NOTE: This is also available in AutoCAD 2005.

Start/Programs/Autodesk

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. You’re CTB and STB files as well as your PC3 files. Note that we put these files under the AutoCAD 2006 versions.

What other type of settings get migrated with the Migration Wizard?

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. But if you get into trouble we do backup the default profile, so that you can restore it if needed.

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 and will not migrate.

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AutoCAD also migrates the paths in the Files Tab of Options. TIP: 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.

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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. So for AutoCAD 2005 and back you still want to use the Menu and Toolbar Porter. But for AutoCAD 2006 with the new CUI format you can convert the menu files on the fly. AutoCAD looks for MNS first and if it can’t find that, it converts the MNU file.

TIP: If your wanting to bring your 2005 and back MNU/MNS customization forward you should use the Transfer TAB of the CUI Editor.

By using the Transfer TAB you have the ability of controlling what you migrate into your AutoCAD 2006 CUI files. Just start CUI by typing CUI at the command line. Once it comes up click on the Transfer TAB. Now on the right side of the CUI Editor Click on the Open icon and browse to your MNS or MNU file. TIP: Always use the MNS file over the MNU file for the best possible migration.

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TIP: To migrate your partial menu files, just copy them to the location you want them to be used in AutoCAD 2006. Bring up Options and add them to the search path. Also be sure that any custom icons are in this location as well so that your toolbars will have icons when you load the menu files. Now just type MENULOAD and browse to these files. Select the files you want loaded as partial files. These will be converted on the fly and then loaded as partial menu files. TIP: to make it easy to migrate your custom menus as well as any custom Toolbar bitmaps that you may have. Be sure to put them in a unique folder and add that to the path so that AutoCAD can find them. Then for future migrations you just need to copy the files or point to this folder.

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, *OPTIONS

RECTANGLE, *RECTANG

SHADE, *SHADEMODE

VIEWPORTS, *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.

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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 full menu files and your partial menu files.

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.

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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.

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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 time permitting a live example of Migration in the class.