Your AutoCAD Profile

• acad.cuix and Your CAD Profile
• Creating and Saving Your CAD Profile
• Backing Up Your Profile (and Other Important Items) in Your CAD Standards Folder
• Migrating (Moving) Your Profile to a New Computer

If you're like many AutoCAD users, you like your CAD interface to look a certain way. For example, you might have certain panels turned on or off on some of your ribbons. Whatever your preferences, you undoubtedly want to ensure that CAD looks the same way each time you open it. That way, you won't spend time hunting for tools. 

These settings are stored in two locations: your custom user interface (CUI) ;and your AutoCAD profile. It's a good idea to develop an understanding of how these two items work. Once you have your profile set up, make sure you back it up, along with your CUI (stored in a file named acad.cuix). We recommend setting up a CAD Standards folder to store these items, along with your other important CAD-related files. With this central backup system, you'll feel secure that you won't lose your settings in the event of a computer crash or reinstall.

acad.cuix and Your CAD Profile

As you probably know by now, AutoCAD behaves strangely at times. One prime example is the relationship between the CUI and CAD profile. Your CUI contains the default layout and positions of the various CAD ribbons. However, if you happen to move a ribbon, or turn it on or off, that setting may not be stored in your CUI. It will, however, be stored in your AutoCAD profile – if you take the time to create and save one. 

Although it's still a good idea to back up the acad.cuix file, which stores your CUI, you'll also want to create and back up a profile. 

Setting Up Your AutoCAD Profile

Your AutoCAD profile contains two main groups of settings:

• The position and status of your ribbons – that is, where they are on your screen and whether they are turned on or off. (Note that these values may be different from the values in your CUI.)
• The settings you configure in the CAD Options dialog box

We offer a number of recommendations for the CAD Options settings, which will provide the best possible user experience with CAD and Land F/X software. For detailed information, see our CAD Options Settings article.

Once you've configured all your settings to your liking, you can export and save your profile from the Profiles tab within the Options dialog box. For instructions, visit the Profiles Tab section of our CAD Options Settings page. Your profile will be saved as an ARG (.arg) file, and you can save it in the location of your choice. We also recommend backing it up, along with the file acad.cuix and other important files and folder, in your CAD Standards folder.

Backing Up Your Profile (and Other Important Items) in Your CAD Standards Folder

Yes, it's time for us to nag you again about backing up. If you have your profile and CUI backed up properly, you can rest assured that your CAD interface will look how you want it to look whenever you open CAD whether your computer crashes, you reinstall, or move your installation to a new computer. Taking the time to back up your profile and acad.cuix in this central location will prevent the stress and wasted work time resulting from lost settings.

Take a few minutes to read up on our recommendations for creating a CAD Standards folder.

Learn more about the importance of backing up your Land F/X data – and how to do it. See our Back Up Land F/X Data documentation.

Migrating (Moving) Your Profile to a New Computer

Getting a new computer? You can move all the settings in your existing AutoCAD profile to that computer. Find out how.