Important system files to backup?

[Moosebeard]

An issue that I am having with engineers at our office is when their computer freaks out and we're having to replace it and not being able to get them set back up quickly. Their customizations weren't backed up and therefore they start over. What are the files that one needs to have backed up in order to quickly be back up and running as if nothing ever happened? My take on it right now is that they need the following items:

1) Profile
2) .cuix file (Thier acad.cuix and any other partially loaded ones)
3) .svf file
4) Workspace (or is that included in the cuix file?)

Am I missing anything?

Thanks!

[Coloradomrg]

I would say that any customizations should be saved in a central location... not on individual workstations. Then if a computer dies, or a user has to use a different machine temporarily, the settings are accessible. Then all of the support files can be backed up easily also.

[Moosebeard]

That is my intention. To place everyone engineer's customization backup in one location on our server. I did find some answers in the AutoCAD customization guide 2012 (which I found online) that creates a .zip file of much more than I thought of for this purpose. And now I wonder if something like that could help with new user setup. Merely importing the customized settings that I would create as a standard to then be run on that new users computer. Or is that asking for trouble?

Funny enough, the answer I found was an option under the Start Menu, AutoCad, Import / Export Custom setting. It was in plain sight! How else though have others handled this situation of customization backup? And what other files did they find important?

[Coloradomrg]

My previous company setup:

Company CUI (enterprise) located on server, with acad.cui loaded as a partial from the workstation.

Separate user folder for each user that housed a custom CUI that they could do whatever they wanted to. If they felt the need to create custom tool palettes, they could create them here also. Profiles were also stored here (though with a larger company I'd use a single company profile).

The company CUI, tool palettes, lisps, and other support files were all kept in a acad support folder. All the user folders and the support folder were part of our regular backups.

[Tom Beauford]

acad.lsp, acaddoc.lsp, acad.rx (if these have been created), acad.lin, any customized mnl, acad.mln, shape files (shp &shx), plot styles, and drawing template files, the Icon folder and whatever folders contain custom lsp, dcl, pat files, etc…

More for verticals, Civil 3D you will need the Survey folder with Equipment Databases, Figure Prefix Databases, and Linework Code Sets.

All this depends on what customization was used and how it was arranged.

[rkmcswain]

What Tom Beauford said above ^^^^

I keep everything such as this on a central server, all accessible by any workstation.
Now if a user has a different background color, wants the command line floating in the upper right corner, and wants Comic Sans for the command line font --- those things he/she will have to configure each time.
But for essentials such as templates, shapes, startup files, plot settings, etc. - it takes virtually no time on my end to get a new machine ready to go.