Having difficulty showing custom toolbar
I am having difficulty creating and showing a custom toolbar. I have created and loaded a custom CUI file. However, when I right-click on a tool bar to show my custom toolbar, only the BricsCAD menu is shown. Any suggestions about what I might be doing wrong?
I just made some small screen captures to show the windows I am talking about. Is there a way to show them here?
Joe Dunfee
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I been hunting for a tutorial or video on the subject, and did find a German language one on YouTube. I was able to follow some of it, but without success. I searched on Bricssys' web site, but didn't come across any similar items in English. Am I overlooking something?
Joe Dunfee
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Are you saying that there is a folder called "My Toolbars" or whatever, in the Toolbars tab of the Customize window, but when you right-click on a toolbar you don't see "My Toolbars >" just above or below "BRICSCAD >"?
Perhaps you could post your pictures at a file-hosting site, and then include the URL in your post here.
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Anthony said;
> Are you saying that there is a folder called "My Toolbars" or whatever, in the
> Toolbars tab of the Customize window, but when you right-click on a toolbar you don't see
> "My Toolbars >" just above or below "BRICSCAD >"?Thank you for the reply. I think this is what I am saying. The terminology on a visual interface can get messy.
I just created and uploaded the pictures on Flickr. I hope I am successfully linking to them.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/61352556@N02/
Note that I took these screen grabs since I had made my original post. Since then I have added the BricsCAD free tools. Thenew BricsCAD menu group is successfully showing up.
Joe Dunfee
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In that first screenshot, the lack of a plus sign next to "JOE MENUS" suggests that it's empty. It's a toolbar group with no toolbars in it. The "JOE MENUS" folder on the right is not a toolbar group; it's just a folder containing three of the many available tools that you can put in a toolbar.
Right-click on "JOE MENUS" on the left and select "Append toolbar" and then provide a name for a toolbar. Then right-click on the toolbar and append a tool. The Add Tool window will appear, and you can either choose from the list of available tools or else create a new tool.
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Anthony, you found my problem. I was used to the system with AutoCAD LT a few years back. When I tried in BricsCAD, I always was missing something. I have literally worked on this off-and-on for a few years, but always ended up abandoning the attempt.
I have menus working just fine now. The only problem is that now you are going to make me stay up late because I am excited about what I can do.
Thanks you very much Anthony
Joe Dunfee
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I found the menu customizing dialog hard to understand at first, but then very easy to use. The same applies to the Settings dialog, with its search features, and the Drawing Explorer.
You might want to consider deleting all non-custom menus and toolbars from your custom menu file, and then load both your own file and the standard Bricscad menu file as "partial" files to an otherwise empty "main" menu file.
Partials are similar to xrefs. Any CUI file can serve as a main, or can be attached as a partial to any other.
The point of making your file a "partial" is that new standard menu files come with each new release of Bricscad. If the standard and custom items are in a single file, you'll either lose all your customization or else miss out on the new standard items. But if both are attached as partials, then the new standard file automatically replaces the old, and your custom file remains unchanged, and you won't have to do anything about menus when you install a new version.
The procedure was first described by Roy Klein Gebbinck in <a href="http://www.bricscad.com/common/support/forumthread.jsp?id=12439">another forum thread (post #6)</a>.
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Thanks Anthony for that caution. However, at this point I am still a bit confused about the whole CUI files thing. I had though I was creating a new separate partial CUI, but perhaps not. I am afraid I will mess things up. So, hopefully I will figure it out soon and be able to convert my current custom work to a new partial.
Joe Dunfee
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Yes, that's the confusing part. The term "partial" was an unfortunate choice (by Autodesk). If it were called an "xref," users would understand how it works. <u>Create new partial CUI file</u> means "create a new, empty CUI file on the hard drive, and attach it to the current main file." The Customize window edits both the currently logged main file and also any "partial" files attached to it. But you can get a false impression that the partial CUI file is a folder in the main file.
Your custom work (everything listed under JOE MENUS) is in a separate CUI file, and that file is attached as a "partial" to the main menu file, which is called DEFAULT.CUI. When you install a new version of Bricscad, DEFAULT.CUI will be replaced by a new one. Your custom file won't be attached to that, so you'll have to re-attach it by using the "Load partial CUI file" command.
Or you can do this:
1. Use Notepad to create a text file called CONTAINER.CUI, in the support folder where the other CUI files are. Paste the code that Roy provided (in that other thread) into it.
2. In the Customize window:
- Right-click on JOE MENUS and select "Unload JOE MENUS"
- Use "Load main CUI file" to load CONTAINER.CUI as the main
- Use "Load partial CUI file" to attach DEFAULT.CUI to it
- Use "Load partial CUI file" to attach JOE.CUI (or whatever you named the file)
You'll still be able to edit your custom file in the Customize window, and whenever you install a new version of Bricscad the new DEFAULT.CUI will be attached automatically, without affecting your custom file.0 -
I'm trying to load a cui file (made in Autocad) and it doesn't load. I get a fatal error message and that's it.
As the original file was .cuix I had to change it to.cui in order for the Bricscad to see it.
Can anyone help me in here? Is there an incompatibility issue?
Fatal error.jpg0 -
Cuix is a compressed file. Have you unzipped it?0
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If you are not doing ribbon items, or things only a cui can do, I recommend writing and maintaining any custom menus as .mnu text files.
Then you load them into any acad or bcad version and they convert to whatever cui format that version wants.
.mnu's are easier to make, faster to edit and non-version specific, so why bother with the never-quite-debugged cui system of acad?
I bet the bcad version of cui works better than the acad one, it would have to.
I can give examples of pulldowns and toolbars in .mnu format, as well as how to compile the bmp images into dll if you want. Been doing it for 20 years now so have a lot of them.
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True!, I've just unzipped it and got a bunch of files. I have now bmps (probable for the buttons), some "cui" files and two "xml" files. My problem now is that I do not know how to make all this work in Bricscad.... any idea?
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the bmp's are for buttons, and the .cui file is actually an xml.
If you put those in a folder, and add to support paths, you should be able to load the .cui into previous versions.
Since you are just doing a toolbar, lets get that into a .mnu.
Can you post that cui file? or send to email if confidential:
jmaeding atsymbol hunsaker dotsymbol com
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Thank you guys for your support. I figured it out yesterday and it works just fine. The file loading path was the key.0
