A Cure for Disappearing Dialog Boxes

Cadalyst's own bug doctor diagnoses and treats CMDDIA-related ailments in AutoCAD

Editor's note: AutoCAD's CMDDIA is a troublesome topic that surfaces from time-to-time in Cadalyst editors' e-mail in boxes and in Cadalyst Discussion Forums. What is it and how do you fix related problems? Read on for answers from our Bug Watch columnist, Steve Johnson.p>

If you're in the habit of reading AutoCAD-related newsgroups and forums, sooner or later you will see someone ask for help because his or her AutoCAD dialog boxes no longer appear. Typically, you will then see someone else suggest setting the FILEDIA or CMDDIA system variable to 1. The first suggestion will help as long as it is only AutoCAD's File dialog boxes that have gone missing. It will have no effect on any dialog box that is not prompting for a file. The second suggestion is unlikely to help in any recent AutoCAD release.

There is some confusion about CMDDIA, and a few misconceptions are flying around. Let's see if I can clear things up.  Read more >>

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