Ribbon or QAT Issues

You’ve noticed that your Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) or Ribbon is suddenly, um… not optimal!  Would you like to restore it to a recently-good (or saved) state?    

1. First, save your project file (if you want) and close Revit.
2. Find the UIState.dat file and
   • Rename it (to save the current state in case you want to use it later) or
   • Delete it (if it’s missing, Revit makes a new one when you close). 
3. Where is the UIState.dat file?  Type this line into your operating system’s browser address line.
   For Revit 2011:
   • XP:               %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Autodesk\Revit
   • Vista:            %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Autodesk
   • Windows 7:  %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Autodesk

   For Revit 2012 and 2013:

   • XP:            %USERPROFILE%\Application Data\Autodesk\Revit\<product name and release>
   • Vista:         %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\Revit\<product name and release>
   • Windows 7: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\Revit\<product name and release>
4. Open the folder of the product that you’re using (say Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011) and you’ll find the file, and delete it.  If you re-start Revit now, the QAT will be in its out-of-the-box default state.
5. The folder will also contain UIState.dat backups, appended with date stamps (i.e. something like UIState.dat.201112021500).  This backup contains your most recent good QAT version.  Delete all the date digits after the .dat and it becomes your new UIState.dat file when you restart Revit.
6. When you have a ribbon configuration you like, consider making a back-up by copying the file, and saving it with a new name (say UIState_YourName.bat).  Later, if you have a ribbonissue, you can copy and re-name the file UIState.bat and restore your preferred ribbon configuration.
    
7. Bonus:You will also find your Keyboard Shortcuts settings file (KeyboardShortcuts.xml) in this location—you can back it up as mentioned above (say KeyboardShortcuts_YourName.xml).  Deleting the file will also restore Revit’s default Keyboard Shortcut settings.