Topic: tool pallets missing

[Fish]

Hey everyone been awhile since I posted hope all is well.  Can anyone tell me how to get the tool pallets back, specifically the materials tool pallet.  I really don't want to re-load AutoCad 2007 but I will if I have to.  I know when I installed 2007 I installed them, I've found the folder that cad created when I loaded it.  Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[JCTER]

What happens when you type "materials" at the command line?

[mjfarrell]

restore your profile from where you exported it to.....

OR

You entered TOOLPALETTES on the command line, but the tool palette was not displayed on the screen as expected.


Solution


This may happen if the screen resolution is larger than the actual screen, causing the tool palette to be located outside the display area.

To move the tool palettes back into the drawing area, try temporarily changing the screen resolution. Follow these steps:

Right-click the Windows desktop background. Click Properties.
In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Settings tab.
Under Screen Resolution, move the slider to lower the screen resolution.
Click OK.
If this does not bring the tool palette back into view, you can manually edit the position of the tool palette in the AWS file. Follow these steps:

Browse to the profile.aws file. This file is typically located in the following folder:

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Autodesk\<AutoCAD Version>\<Rxx.x>\<language code>\Support\Profiles\<current profile>

For example:

C:\Documents and Settings\myusername\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2007\R17.0\enu\Support\Profiles\Unnamed Profile


Open the profile.aws file with a text editor such as Microsoft® Notepad.
Locate the first instance of the element FloatInfo Left and change the values as follows:

<FloatInfo Left="100" Top="150" Width="175" Height="750"/>


Save and close the AWS file and restart AutoCAD

[Fish]

After typing in materials I get the available materials in drawing, wood, metal, paint.....just seems to be the basic materials, I thought the tool pallets that normally hang out on the side of your screen had huge amounts of materials, more than just one option for wood, that is what I'm after.

Tools>pallets>tool pallets and I get nothing but emptiness on the side of my screen the finishes-materials, wood and plastics yada yada yada show up but there is nothing in them.

[mjfarrell]

starting to sound like a repair installation might be in order....

under>>Option>>Profiles

what profiles are shown?

Perhaps try switching to a different profile....

[JCTER]

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2007\R18.0\enu\Textures

How many files are in this folder?  A lot?  Or just a few?

[Fish]

No profiles are shown.

C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2007\R17.0\enu\Support\ToolPalette\*

It has
Actpcatalog
actpmaterials
actpmaterialsex


It doesn't have textures.

[mjfarrell]

no Profiles...that is odd, as I recall there is at least <<unnamed profile>>

[Fish]

Your correct unnamed profile.

[mjfarrell]

one might try locating...and deleting that unnamed profile(while acad is closed)
then start autocad...and see if it will not recreate that profile for you...and restore your palettes in the process

[Fish]

So I think I'll have to reinstall Autocad, do you usually have to uninstall it and then reinstall it for it to work properly?

[mjfarrell]

So I think I'll have to reinstall Autocad, do you usually have to uninstall it and then reinstall it for it to work properly?

Fish, I would suggest you start with a REPAIR install; this will NOT require un-installing first.

[Fish]

Well I reinstalled the whole thing, didn't know anything about a repair install, what is that?  I watched it load all the materials and I still have empty pallets, any ideas?

Thanks again.

[mjfarrell]

Well I reinstalled the whole thing, didn't know anything about a repair install, what is that?  I watched it load all the materials and I still have empty pallets, any ideas?

Thanks again.

Are you installing and running Autocad as ADMINISTRATOR on your PC?
Did you turn OFF any anti virus application?

[mjfarrell]

Results of a DEEP search,



If you use a registry cleaner, or if you have McAfee VirusScan and it cleans your registry for you, then you need to do a repair reinstall.  Do the Repair Registry reinstallation option from the Control Panel / Add-Remove Programs.  You will need your Installation disk handy.

[Fish]

I installed it as a stand alone version on my p.c.  I did not turn off anti-virus.  I just don't get it, the old customized tool pallets that I made a while back are still there eventhough I re-installed autocad.  Finishes-Materials, Woods and Plastics are empty, shouldn't those be populated with different choices for me to choose from?  Thinking back when I first installed AutoCad 2007, years ago, I thought there was an extreme amount of pallets that came with AutoCad, now I don't have any of that.

[JCTER]

Are you using the Migration Assistant at all to pull from previous installations, by chance, or telling it to migrate anything?

When you right click on the Tool Palette and select "Customize Palettes", what is listed in the right-pane where it shows Palette Groups?  What about the left pane where it lists the palettes?  It is possible the palettes are there, and simply not being added to the active group, for some reason.

[mjfarrell]

Stand Alone install or not, did you perform the the installation, and or running the application as ADMINISTRATOR?
And please TURN OFF the anti virus application...if that troubles you, unplugg the Network Cable while doing the install.

Further you might also try reinstalling or installing the latest version of AxtiveX, I've found a few oblique references to that helping 'solve' the empty tool palette issue...however can not verify.

[mjfarrell]

As a LAST resort you may need to perform the dreaded CLEAN Removal of your ACAD2004 reboot, and reinstall. (As Administrator, with NO Anti Virus application running)

[Fish]

I'm assuming I would have installed this as Administrator, not sure how to check that.

No migration assistant.  

Palette Groups:
Dynamic Blocks
Samples
3D Make
Materials
Materials Library
Lights
Cameras
Visual styles

It seems to me the pallets are there.

[JCTER]

What happens when you set any of those groups "Current" ?  Do your palettes show on the Tool Palette, then?

[Fish]

The tool pallets show but there is nothing in them.

[mjfarrell]

I'm assuming I would have installed this as Administrator, not sure how to check that.

Is this YOUR computer at home or at work?  Check your user permissions in control panel>>users.

[Fish]

Work/Admin.

[mjfarrell]

Work/Admin.

Install or verify you have latest version of Active X...Launch Autocad...No content on pallets....Remove ACAD completely, reboot, and reinstall, As Admin, No Anti Virus running...otherwise something else is fishy here.

[KewlToyZ]

There are a few things you can do here.
The first one that is a bit more time consuming:

Download and install revosetup http://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_uninstaller_free_download.html
Run the program and uninstall your AutoCAD using Revo Uninstaller.
Do advanced so it cleans all registry entries as well.
Make sure you select and delete the registry entries & the leftover files as well.

The easier less time consuming approach.
Restart & Login to the PC as Administrator.
Rename the previous Windows User Profile you were using with a -old.
Log back in as your self to create a new Windows profile for yourself.
That should remove the old settings you had on your account.
You can always go to the old-folder and copy over your favorites and tunes etc...

[Fish]

Okay here is an update.  I've found my texture folder  Tools>options>files  its under all users instead of just my name which is where the tool pallets are located.  Does that make sense?  What I see in my tool pallets is exactly what i see in that folder which is mostly nothing, the textures are what I'm looking for, are the textures loaded into your tool pallets I remember seeing a lot of different options to choose from for materials.

Should they both have the same path?

Thanks everyone for your help if I haven't mentioned it.

[JCTER]

That folder, the one I asked about earlier, just has .jpg files which are used in standard material definitions. 

The fact that those do not exist clues me in to the fact that it appears Autocad is possibly not installed -with- the materials library.

Let me upload a Screenshot of my 'textures' folder, for comparison.  I believe it would be the same in 2007 as 2010 (my version), if memory serves.  Nothing's really changed on that front, since.

Notice I have 430 files in there.  These files are included when you install the Material Library.  You did actively seek out the Materials Library, during the installation process, and ensure it -is- checked to be installed, right?  This is not automatically selected for you.  The default installation option is to -not- install the Materials Library, so you have to go out of your way to ensure it is installed.

[JCTER]

You can also see the file path for my folder... you are correct in you installation.  It should be in the 'all users' directory.  That's because any user that logs on to the computer will require equal access to the material library, regardless of who it is.  Things like your acad.lsp, acad.pgp, profile, etc... are all user-specific things that get customized to suit each user.  If you try to think of it as if the computer was being used for drafting "shift work" and you had multiple people using one machine, who each wanted to customize their system... it helps remember which files are in "all users" and which are in "specific user name" folders.  For me anyways... YMMV

If you -do- select to install the materials library, and you still lack all these files, that's stupid weird that it would still be off for you.  As a last resort, I can .zip up the tool palette files, and texture files, and tell you where to put each of the files, to sort of brute force it... that's more like giving Autocad the finger, instead of actually solving the initial issue, but hey, whatever gets you working again, eh? Let me know.

[Fish]

James thanks for the reply, I kinda found a backdoor to my problem.  After searching for the textures and finding them under all users I was able to access them from the materials dialog box but I still don't have the pallets but this is ok I can work with this.  I double checked when I re-installed AutoCad that the materials was checked to install.  I'm not sure how the pallets disappeared or why they didn't re-install but this will work.  Thanks again for the help.

P.S. I like the finger comment.