Issue:

You would like to export or back up your AutoCAD settings and customizations to save them for the future. Also, your AutoCAD installation may have been reset or reinstalled on a different computer and you want to transfer or import your saved settings.

Solution:

Windows: 


Utilities for importing and exporting AutoCAD settings are in the Start menu:


Start > All Programs > Autodesk > AutoCAD 20xx > Migrate Custom Settings 


You have two options:

  • Export AutoCAD 20xx Settings. Saves a ZIP file with your settings.

  • Import AutoCAD 20xx Settings. Lets you pick the ZIP directly without extracting or locating files within it. Use this option to import the settings into a new or existing installation of AutoCAD on either the same or a different computer. This is useful if something happens to your user interface in AutoCAD and you need to restore it.

In the Windows 10 operating system, these options may be located directly under  Start > All Programs > Autodesk > AutoCAD 20xx and not nested in a Migrate Custom Settings folder . 


Note: For migration to be successful, the language and version (year) of the AutoCAD products must be the same. For example, you cannot export settings from an English version of AutoCAD and then import them into a German version. Likewise, you cannot export settings from a 2014 version of AutoCAD and then import them into a 2016 version of AutoCAD.


Mac OS: 


There is no utility in AutoCAD for Mac to backup or transfer settings. However, resetting AutoCAD for Mac automatically creates a backup of the current settings and stores it all in a .tgz archive here:

~home/Library/Application Support/Autodesk/Settings Backup <date/time>.tgz

The settings folder for the active program is located here:


AutoCAD 2016 and newer:

~Home/Library/Application Support/Autodesk/AutoCAD 20xx


AutoCAD 2015 and older (two folders):

~Home/Library/Application Support/Autodesk/roaming/AutoCAD 20xx

~Home/Library/Application Support/Autodesk/local/AutoCAD 20xx


Copy this to save a backup, to put on another computer, or to put into another user account on the same system. Overwrite the existing folder. Be sure to not have AutoCAD running when doing so.


Note: The same restrictions apply as to language and version as noted above for AutoCAD for Windows. The Library folder in the above path is a hidden folder. To access it, hold down the Option key while clicking the Go menu in the Finder, or alternatively, turn on hidden files in the system (see How to enable hidden files and folders in the Mac OS).

See Also: