& Construction
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Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
& Manufacturing
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Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Autodesk Support
Feb 10, 2025
Products and versions covered
How to export, import, backup, and transfer settings (Options, User interface, templates, etc.) for AutoCAD products?
The following are the procedures to export, import, and back up custom settings for both Windows and MacOS.
Notes :
Importing settings does not work between different release versions of AutoCAD. For example, settings cannot be exported from AutoCAD 2014 and then imported into AutoCAD 2018. Instead, able to use the Migrate From a Previous Release utility for this.
Importing settings does not work between different types of AutoCAD. For example, settings cannot be exported from AutoCAD and then imported into AutoCAD LT, or exported from AutoCAD Architecture and imported into AutoCAD Mechanical, etc.
Importing settings only works with the same language install of AutoCAD. For example, settings cannot be exported/imported to and from an English and German installation of AutoCAD, etc.
Exporting settings does not included drawing templates (DWT). If want to include them in a backup, can either copy them manually or have to use the command "Reset Settings to Default" and choose the option "Back up and Reset Custom Settings". In the ZIP-backup file the templates are saved.
Utilities for importing and exporting AutoCAD settings are in the Start menu. For AutoCAD versions that do not have these utilities available. See How to manually transfer AutoCAD settings.
AutoCAD for Mac has no utility to automatically back up or transfer settings. Do the following for all versions:
Note: This automatically creates a backup of the current settings and stores it in an archive named Settings Backup <date/time>.tgz placed in ~home/Library/Application Support/Autodesk.
Note : The Library folder in the above path is a hidden folder. To access it, hold down the Option key while clicking the Go menu in the Finder, or alternatively, turn on hidden files in the system. See How to enable hidden files and folders in the Mac OS.
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