Resetting Defaults in AutoCAD 2012 - You Arrived When I Wasn't Looking!

“Combined they could be extraordinary, but that doesn't [automatically] move them to the upper echelon. It puts them in the right path but not by default.”
Allen Weiner

This week I'm off at a two day seminar learning how to cover fabric surfaces on aircraft. 

In other words, if you're me, it's a major geek fest.

That's not a table cloth.  :-)

Since I'm spending the weekend in a hotel room, I'm not able to do much by way of video recording this week!

But that doesn't mean I can't offer up something!

I don't spend as much time in AutoCAD as I used to.  Most of the time, I'm working in Inventor, Vault, or Showcase.

But there are times I have to return to good old AutoCAD.  Like a trusty old friend, it's there for many tasks I still do, like editing dxf files, to minor edits on AutoCAD data from a different source.

The other day, I managed to break my AutoCAD.  And after trying to fix it the "old" way for an hour or two, I stumbled onto the new way. 

You know, the new way that does the job in about 15 seconds?

Back a few weeks ago, I was working on my laptop, and it just shut down.  Click.  Powered off with no warning.

I check that the power supply didn't come unplugged, and it hadn't.   Everything was powered the way it should be.

I check the underside of my laptop.  It's hot enough to fry an egg on.  I must have overheated it.  I'm in an air conditioned room, and I over heated my laptop?

I think it's time to check the cooling fans.

I finish the days task, grab the "Can o' Air", and blow a tribble or two out of my laptop's cooling fans.

I think I found my problem!

I fire up my laptop, and get a warning that my laptop did overheat.  Lovely.  It does some memory checks, and once again, is humming right along.

But a few days later, I go to fire up the AutoCAD 2012 that's part of AutoCAD Mechanical, and guess what.

All my toolbars have disappeared.  Every.  Single.  One.   Even the workspaces are gone.

So now what.  I know there are some settings I can erase that will prompt AutoCAD to reset it's toolbars.  So I search, and I search, and I search some more.

I searched so long, that my searcher was sore.

Then, during one of my searches, I find a "What's new" article for AutoCAD 2012.  What do I see?

There's a "Reset Defaults" button in AutoCAD!

What's this I see?  Reset Settings to Default?

I find the button, click it, and a few progress bars later, I'm back in action.

I can't say that I have a super tip for finding this.  I stumbled onto it through pure, dumb luck.

But I can share it and spread the word!  There's an easier way!