Having difficulty showing custom toolbar

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.

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.

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>.

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.