How to transfer your DraftSight Custom Settings between versions or computers

A common DraftSight question we receive is how to transfer custom DraftSight settings between installations?

This situation might crop up when upgrading versions, switching between computers, or cleanly uninstalling and reinstalling DraftSight.

Standard procedure is found by searching for “Migrating Preferences” in the DraftSight help.  The Help refers to the Migration Assistance shown below:

DraftSight Migration Assistance

If the Migration Assistance doesn’t appear…

At the time this article was written, during testing, this dialog seems to spawn when the original folder does not match the upgraded version.  If this dialog does not appear, such as when migrating to a new computer, then you can try this:

1. On the old computer, copy the folder C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\DraftSight\XX.X.XXXX   …where that last bit likely refers to year version, service pack, etc.  Some of that folder path may include hidden folders, so may need to type or paste in some of the path in order to access.
2. On the new computer, after installing DraftSight:  move the new folder (if any) elsewhere as a backup.  Now paste in a copy of the source version folder from the previous step.
3. Launch DraftSight.  It will look for the current version folder, but will see only the original one.  This discrepancy will spawn the Migrating Preferences dialogue.
4. Make selections, particularly which year version and service pack from which to migrate.  Click OK and your settings will be migrated.  Note that a new folder is created, per the new year and service pack version.
5. Inspect the user settings in the current version of DraftSight.  They should now be same as the version from which you migrated.