User profiles

In BricsCAD, you can customize the settings that control your drawing environment, which can then be saved in a user profile. You can create multiple user profiles, e.g. a profile for each of your drawing types or workflows. User profiles can also be used when multiple users share the same computer, and each user wants to create their own drawing environment.

User profiles can be exported to a file, which can then be imported on a different computer. This allows you to copy your settings to a new computer or to install the same settings on multiple computers.

If you use third party applications on top of BricsCAD, you might want to create a user profile to use with each of these applications.

The User Profile Manager is a standalone tool that lists the existing profiles and provides all tools needed to Load, Create, Set Current, Copy, Rename, Delete, Export and Import user profiles.

Content of a user profile

User profiles save many settings that control the drawing environment. Once you start BricsCAD using a user profile, it automatically tracks and stores changes that you make to your drawing environment, such as the following.

  • Main Cui file.
  • Current Workspace. BricsCAD has six standard workspaces: Drafting, Drafting (toolbars), Modeling, Modeling (toolbars), Mechanical and BIM.
  • Configuration settings: all system variables which are saved in the Registry and user preferences.
  • Default plot settings.
  • Settings in dialog windows, for example, search options in the Settings dialog.
  • Project settings.
  • Recent paths.
  • Status bar settings.
  • Properties panel settings.
  • Toolbar and menu configuration.
  • Worksets.

The User Profile Manager

To open the User Profile Manager dialog box:

  • When BricsCAD is running: launch the PROFILEMANAGER command.
  • Execute profilemanager_app.exe in the BricsCAD program folder (e.g. C:\Program Files\Bricsys\BricsCAD Vx).

In the User Profile Manager dialog:

  • The Current Profile is marked.
  • Create: Creates a new profile, using default settings.
  • Set Current: Loads the selected profile.
  • Copy: Creates a copy of the selected profile in the Copy profile dialog box.
  • Delete: Deletes the selected profile.
  • Export...: Exports the selected profile to a .arg file.
  • Import...: Imports a .arg file as a new profile.
  • Start: Starts BricsCAD with the selected user profile. This option is available only when the dialog box is opened using profilemanager_app.exe in the BricsCAD installation folder.
  • OK: Closes the dialog box.

Starting BricsCAD with a specific user profile

When you restart BricsCAD, the user profile that was current when you closed the previous session is used.

To create a desktop shortcut to launch BricsCAD using a specific user profile, do one of the following:

  • Add the /P option to the Target settings of the BricsCAD shortcut. To open the shortcut settings dialog: right-click the shortcut icon on the desktop and choose Properties in the context menu.

    A typical BricsCAD shortcut could be: "C:\Program Files\Bricsys\BricsCAD Vx\bricscad.exe" /P UserProfileName

  • Execute profilemanager_app.exe, then either double-click a user profile or select a user profile and click the Start button.
Note:
  • The /P option is case insensitive.
  • A space is needed between the file location and /P option.
  • When BricsCAD is already running, a second instance of BricsCAD is launched, at least on condition that the SINGLETON variable is OFF. This variable controls whether multiple BricsCAD sessions can run simultaneously. See the Settings dialog page for more information about variables and settings.
  • If the user profile in the argument of the /P option does not exist, the user profile is created automatically using default hard-coded values for all settings.
  • If the user profile name contains spaces, use double quotes: e.g. /P "background white".