Looking for ways to re-enable certain AutoCAD prompts…

OK, I credit a friend with pointing me to this tool and, once he did, I just had to share it. I admit, I never gave it much attention (ok, no attention) before. But now, it’s one of my first stops when looking for settings. Now, we’ve all been in this situation: You’re working in AutoCAD, you do some commands and BAM!, a window pops up with some message or warning or request or piece of advice, everything but the weather forecast. You’re in a rush to complete this drawing so you just click through the messages as quickly as possible. Well, if that message pops up enough times, you finally notice that check box that reads something like “Always ignore, never prompt, leave me alone etc”. So, you click that check box….after all, you’ll never need that box again. Whoa Nellie, are you ever wrong. Sure enough, sometime in the next year, you’ll need that box back to make your life a little easier.

If you fall into this situation, here’s how you might get out of it. In AutoCAD, go to the Options window, System Tab. On the System tab, you’ll see Hidden Messages Settings in the upper right-hand corner. In the Hidden Messages Settings window, you’ll have a listing of all the alerts and messages that you have chosen to disable. Simply select which messages you want back and you’re done. I recently spent nearly two hours searching for a system variable that didn’t exist to control a message box that was listed in this window. An outstanding tool in my opinion and, like I said, I had never really paid this button much attention. That’s what I get for not thoroughly inspecting my “What’s New” section of the software.