Local support files (default.pgp, classic-ribbon.cui) are missing or out of date

Where does BricsCAD copy these files?

The files are copied to the folders which path is stored in system settings LOCALROOTPREFIX and ROAMABLEROOTPREFIX. The values can be found in the Settings dialog box or by typing the names in the Command line. The paths typically point to subfolders of:

C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Bricsys\BricsCAD\Vxx\en_US\

and

C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Bricsys\BricsCAD\Vxx\en_US\

The program search path (SRCHPATH system variable) is also constructed from these settings so that the menu file, alias file are found automatically. When the menu file cannot be found, three things need to be compared:

  • What is the value of LOCALROOTPREFIX and ROAMABLEROOTPREFIX?
  • What is the value of SRCHPATH?
  • Maybe the classic-ribbon.cui files have been copied to a different path.

Do they exist in another subfolder in C:\Users?

Do they exist for the other users of the machine?

When does BricsCAD copy these files?

  1. When one of these values in the registry is missing or empty:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Bricsys\Bricscad\V24\languageCode\Settings\LocalRootFolder

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Bricsys\Bricscad\V24\languageCode\Settings\RoamableRootFolder

    In this case all support files are copied, overwriting any file that already exists.

  2. When (after installing an update) BricsCAD's internal value of VersionCustomizableFiles is higher than this value in the registry:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Bricsys\Bricscad\V24\languageCode\Settings\VersionCustomizableFiles

    In this case, if a certain file already exists, the central data-cache file will only be copied if it is newer, and in case the existing file was modified, the user will be asked if it is OK to overwrite it.

Symptoms

On startup the program shows a dialog Unable to open program parameter file default.pgp. The menu file (classic-ribbon.cui) and the aliases file (default.pgp) are not available.

Cause

All support files are installed in the BricsCAD program folders. Some of these will be used directly by BricsCAD (e.g. Fonts), but the menu file classic-ribbon.cui, the default.pgp alias file, the ctb files, the templates and others are all copied from a subfolder of the program folder, called userDataCache folder to the current user folder.

If the program searches for these files in the wrong location, the above error dialog is raised.

More information

Both update actions mentioned above will be triggered by editing/deleting the corresponding registry keys while BricsCAD is closed. The next time BricsCAD starts up, it will copy the files again.

Using support files from the user's local support files folder, is the default behavior of BricsCAD. This can be changed by pointing the SRCHPATH system variable to some other folder, but note that the copy actions described in 1. and 2. above, will not be influenced by such a change to SRCHPATH.