Control Which Screen You See When Starting CAD

Issue

You want to change the screen you see when you start CAD.

For example, opening CAD might open a blank drawing (Drawing 1), when you'd rather see the startup screen (which shows thumbnail images of your recently opened drawings).

Or you see the startup screen when you open CAD but would rather see a blank drawing.

Cause

The screen you see when you open CAD will depend on the value you've set for the STARTUP system variable.

Solution

Type StartUp in the Command line, and press Enter. When prompted to set a value, enter the value that will give you the screen you want when you start CAD:

Open a Blank Drawing Without Defined Settings: Enter the value 0.

Open the Startup or Create New Drawing Dialog Box (pictured to the right): Enter the value 1.

If the FILEDIA system variable is set to 0, dialog boxes will not open. Therefore, we recommend having the FILEDIA variable set to 1.

Open the Startup Screen (Pictured Below): Enter the value 2.

Open a New Tab With a Pre-Loaded Ribbon: Enter the value 3.