AutoCAD Electrical FILEDIA Resets to 0
Issue:
For years AutoCAD Electrical users have dealt with the system variable “FILEDIA” resetting to “0” if certain commands were interrupted. This causes portions of the interface like the “File Open” Dialog to run in command line mode. If the “FILEDIA” system variable is set to “0” as shown above, using the “File Open” command will result in the following instead of the normal open dialog:
With the latest version of AutoCAD Electrical (2022) this appears to happen more frequently, with more users becoming frustrated with the lack of the expected dialog on startup.
Although this is most commonly seen in AutoCAD Electrical, we have had reports of users seeing this behavior in AutoCAD and its other verticals as well.
Causes:
We are seeing this issue with increased frequency and currently the root cause is unknown.
Historically, the issue would occur most often when interrupting or escaping commands before they had completed.
Solution:
The simplest solution is to be notified by the System Variable Monitor (SYSVARMONITOR).
When triggered by a system variable change, the monitor will pop up in the lower right portion of your AutoCAD session (assuming you have the balloon notifications turned on). You can then click the link to review the changes or reset the values.
Once you select the link to view the changes, you’ll see a list of monitored variables along with any that have been changed. This dialog will also allow you to reset changed variables to their default values, as well as change which variables you would like to have monitored.
- Allows user to select if they are notified when a variable changes and whether they get a balloon notification.
- Any variable that has changed will display with a warning icon in the Status column. The Preferred and Current columns will show the variable’s active value along with the Preferred or Default value.
- The Reset All button does just that and will reset all the modified values to the corresponding value in the Preferred column.
- If you’d like to change which system variables are being monitored by the tool, then you can use the Edit List button to bring up the following dialog.
- This column contains all the available system variables. Keep in mind this is a very extensive list and you should only monitor variables that are important to your daily workflow.
- This column designates which variables your system is actively monitoring.
- If you would like to add or remove a variable from monitoring, select it in the appropriate column, then select the directional arrow to move the variable.
- If unsure of the functions or options related to a given system variable, you may select the “?” beside the variable and you will be directed to the Help system entry pertaining to the selected system variable.
Once you reset the variables, the System Variable Monitor window will look similar to the above image. This indicates that the variables have been reset. Any variable that was reset will have a Green Checkmark beside it. All other variables will remain unchanged.
Alternately, if you would rather not be bothered with the System Variable Monitor you can add a “acad.lsp” file containing the proper system variable setting to your support search path. This allows the software to startup with the preferred system variable setting in effect. The following is an example:
By default, his file will be loaded each time AutoCAD Electrical starts, however you can set it to load when opening each drawing if desired.
Include the following text inside the file:
(setvar "FILEDIA" 1)
For your convenience, I’ve included a link to a Dropbox Transfer where you can download an example file:
https://www.dropbox.com/t/pSU0wL7lW3rZgqfe
If you’d like more information on using lisp files with your AutoCAD installation, please see the following Autodesk AKN article:
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