User Profile Manager

Command: ProfileManager

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 to run BricsCAD with a white background and a limited set of toolbars and another profile with no command bar and all toolbars and snap settings needed to draw comfortably in 3D. User profiles can also be used when multiple users share the same computer and each user likes to create his personal 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.

• 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, e.g. search options in the Settings dialog.
• Project settings
• Recent paths
• Status bar settings
• Properties Panel settings
• Toolbar and menu configuration
• Worksets.

To Launch the User Profile Manager

Do one of the following:

• When BricsCAD is running, launch the PROFILEMANAGER command.

• Type User Profile Manager in Windows command line.

• Double click 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: Click to make a copy of the selected profile.
• Delete: Click to delete the selected profile.
• Export...: Click to save the selected profile to a file on your computer, disk, or network. The file is saved with an .arg extension.
• Import...: Click to open a profile that has been saved to an .arg file).
• Start: Starts BricsCAD with the selected user profile..
  This option is available only when the command is launched using profilemanager_app.exe in the BricsCAD installation folder.
• OK: Closes the User Profile Manager dialog
• Double click a profile in the list to load the profile.

Starting BricsCAD with a specific user profile

When you start BricsCAD, the user profile that was current when you closed the previous BricsCAD 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
  
  

• Launch the User Profile Manager, then either double click a user profile or select a user profile and click the Start button.

To import a user profile from another user

When you import a user profile of another user all user dependent search paths (e. g. the local root and roamable root folders - see BricsCAD User Files) still refer to the other user, as a result the folders cannot be found and error messages such as "Unable to open program parameters file: default.pgp" might pop up when you start BricsCAD.

To correct this problem do the following:

1. Open the exported user profile (*.arg) in a text editor such as Notepad.

2. Replace the user name dependent references with an environment variable.
   On a Windows XP computer replace C:\\Documents and Settings\\username with %USERPROFILE%.
   On a Windows Vista or Windows 7 computer replace C:\\Users\\username with %USERPROFILE%.

3. Use the Find/Replace procedure to quickly replace all references.

4. Save the user profile (*.arg)

5. Import the user profile.

Start BricsCAD using the imported profile.
The environment variable %USERPROFILE% will be replaced with: C:\\Users\\currentusername.