Loading Tool Palettes & BC Upgrades

Charles Alan Butler

Updates of BricsCAD do not update my custom tool palettes
I moved all my btc files to folder C:\Users\Alan\AppData\Roaming\Bricsys\BricsCAD\V17x64\en_US\Support\ToolPalettes\Palettes
But BC loads the BC palettes & ignores my palettes.
I can IMPORT then "one by one" but I want to avoid this process every upgrade.
What am i missing?
Thanks

Jason Bourhill

Hi Charles,
I would check:
1. That your "BcTpCatalog.btc" isn't being overwritten with your BricsCAD updates. This file sets which palettes are loaded.
2. That you don't have a GUID naming clash. BricsCAD assigns a GUID as a unique identifier for each palette. You can get a naming clash if you have customised any of the palettes provided by default with BricsCAD.

There are a couple of methods that you can use to avoid issue 1.
1. Keep your tool palettes in a different location to the BricsCAD defaults. The TOOLPALETTEPATH can be set to multiple folder locations, which allows you to load the default ones and your own.
2. Put your palettes in a separate sub folder under Toolpalettes. BricsCAD will recursively search through sub folders for "BcTpCatalog.btc" files, and load their related palettes.

Regards,
Jason Bourhill
CAD Concepts

Charles Alan Butler

I found the BcTpCatalog.btc file in two locations:
C:\Program Files\Bricsys\BricsCAD V17 en_US\UserDataCache\Support\en_US\ToolPalettes
and
C:\Users\Alan\AppData\Roaming\Bricsys\BricsCAD\V17x64\en_US\Support\ToolPalettes

the last one is the one that was modified when I added my pallets.
My pallets btc files are in both loactions sub fiolder \Palettes

When I import my pallet a copy of the btc file is created in that folder with a slight name change
Simpson_CBD6E88-1C11-47A4-A997-5AD678E2997.btc
Simpson_BD6E88-1C11-47A4-A997-5AD678E299.btc

So to preserve this in future updates I need to back up the file?
C:\Users\Alan\AppData\Roaming\Bricsys\BricsCAD\V17x64\en_US\Support\ToolPalettes\BcTpCatalog.btc

I do not have a separate sub folder for my palettes, is that desirable?
I noticed an images sub folder under /Palettes/Images
Looks like I have 3 sets of images. i.e. the images were duplicated from each time I had to re install the palettes.

martin@enco.us

Alan,

I don't use tool palettes, but I do have my computers set up to make updating relatively easy. I set up folder C:\CADmaster as a repository. It has subfolders for things like plot styles and plot configurations. C:\CADmaster contains files enco_B17.cui and enco_B17.mnl. I have folders on a network drive for fonts, our custom blocks, and our custom toolbar icons.

'Settings/Settings/Program options/Files/Support file search path' has been set with C:\CADmaster, the blocks folder, and the font folder at the top of the list, before any Bricscad default folders. The icons folder is not accessed frequently so its near the bottom of the list.

When I update Bricscad on first run I turn off all the Bricscad toolbars then I run MENULOAD to load enco_B17.cui and I'm at my default setup. I have found that I generally have to manually turn on and place a few of my toolbars -- I use 16 and Bricscad only seems to automatically set the first 12.

I would recommend using a dedicated subfolders for all customizations. Anything in a default folder is subject to being overwritten during an upgrade. Bricscad does a top down search based on 'Settings/Settings/Program options/Files/Support file search path' so if you list a custom folder above the default folder Bricscad will find and use the custom data rather than the default data.

Charles Alan Butler

Thanks for the advice.
I have set up a support folder, I'll start moving stuff out of the BC path

Jason Bourhill

@Charles Alan Butler said:
I found the BcTpCatalog.btc file in two locations:
C:\Program Files\Bricsys\BricsCAD V17 en_US\UserDataCache\Support\en_US\ToolPalettes
and
C:\Users\Alan\AppData\Roaming\Bricsys\BricsCAD\V17x64\en_US\Support\ToolPalettes

the last one is the one that was modified when I added my pallets.

The UserDataCache folder is the support file source. The contents of this folder is used to initially setup the folders in the Users %APPDATA% & %LOCALAPPDATA% locations. You can test this by closing BricsCAD down, then temporarily renaming the "%APPDATA%\Bricsys\BricsCAD\V17x64". When you re-start BricsCAD, the app will see that the support files are missing, and re-populate from the UserDataCache.

AutoCAD uses a similar method for user files

Regards,
Jason Bourhill
CAD Concepts

Jason Bourhill

@Charles Alan Butler said:
When I import my pallet a copy of the btc file is created in that folder with a slight name change
Simpson_CBD6E88-1C11-47A4-A997-5AD678E2997.btc
Simpson_BD6E88-1C11-47A4-A997-5AD678E299.btc

Yes, when you import a tool palette BricsCAD actually takes a copy of the original, it doesn't use directly. It adds a unique identifier to the palette to avoid name clashes. If you open a .btc file in a text editor (they are actually written in XML), then you see internally that BricsCAD refers to the palette by its id rather than the name you've given it. e.g.
"Simpson_CBD6E88-1C11-47A4-A997-5AD678E2997.btc"

"Simpson" is the name you gave the tool palette. On creation BricsCAD adds "CBD6E88-1C11-47A4-A997-5AD678E2997" as a unique identifier. This is what it refers to internally, it doesn't use the name you provided.

So to preserve this in future updates I need to back up the file?
C:\Users\Alan\AppData\Roaming\Bricsys\BricsCAD\V17x64\en_US\Support\ToolPalettes\BcTpCatalog.btc

Plus the related sub-folders and files. BcTpCatalog.btc is just a pointer file to the palettes.

I do not have a separate sub folder for my palettes, is that desirable?

Like Martin said, storing your customisation in a separate location makes management a lot easier. For a start you can keep it independent of BricsCAD versions, secondly it makes it a lot easier to work out whether it is a customised file created by you or one installed with BricsCAD.

I have a sample setup for BricsCAD available here that includes examples of custom tool palettes, and illustrates a typical cad library folder structure.
http://www.cadconcepts.co.nz/bricscad/bricscad-setup/

Regards,
Jason Bourhill
CAD Concepts

Charles Alan Butler

All good info Jason, Thanks

tulpan

I suggest to try KrojamSoft BatchRename