Pull Down Menu Customization

[Anonymous]

On older versions of Acad, I was able to go into the .mnu file and do a macro such as follows:

***POP10
**LIB2
ID_MNLIB2 [&Lib2]
[->Bolts]
[->Bolt ****'y]

[#10]^C^C-insert;F:/STD/LIBS/BOLT-01/BOLT010A;\;;;
[* 1/4]^C^C-insert;F:/STD/LIBS/BOLT-01/BOLT025A;\;;;

[5/16]^C^C-insert;F:/STD/LIBS/BOLT-01/HH031A;\;;;
[*3/8]^C^C-insert;F:/STD/LIBS/BOLT-01/HH038A;\;;;

And a new pull down menu would be created and my listing of bolts could be inserted from the std libs bolt file as I clicked through the route.  I developed all of this on older versions at a different company.  With 2014, I went to the CUSTOMI ZE under the main Drafting and Annotation / AutoCAD Classic pull down and created a New Menu, renamed to BOLTS and then pulled the INSERT command and dropped it ontp the BOLTS pull down and changed the DISPLAY NAME to 1/4" and edited the MACRO from ^C^C _insert to ^C^C_insert;F:/STD/LIBS/BOLT-01/BOLT025A;\;;;  Seemed to work fine....until I added another 10 bolt assemblies and then noticed that they all showed up as whatever the last bolt I had put in the Macro line was.  The display name stayed correct but the insert was gloabally changed on all pull down to whatever the last item was.  I have reset 2014 back to the original settings now to clear out everything I had done.

Long time user but I would like to get these developed to help with production time.  I do still have my years and versions old .mns files.

Any help would be appreciated.

Ted

[Charles_Shade]

It's late for me so I will not get back to you but do you have experience with the CUI and creating new Commands there?

Have you ever used the Palette for inserting Blocks before?

Waht version dod you come from and what are you on now?

I'm assuming each of these Macros is for inserting an individual bolt.

[Anonymous]

Not used the tool pallete as of yet.  My primary experience was up through 2004i and then swapped comapnies and now on 2014 LT,  You are correct; each macro did a single bolt.

use of the CUI seems to be similar to Proiles but not sure; answer is VERY limited.  

Thank for the tool pallette suggestion.

[Charles_Shade · Accepted solution]

I think the Palette is going to give you the flexibility you want as well as an easy way to Insert your Blocks.

Since you have moved form 2004 you may want to start looking at Dynamic Blocks. With these you can create one Block that will be all of your fasteners, or at least all in one family.

Why be limited to 6 or 7 or 8 when you can have 100's?

A link to the DynBlk Forum is in my signature.

CUI can be somewhat like Profiles but is not loaded in the same way I do believe. You can create dropdown toolbars in the CUI if you are so inclined but the Palette is far easier and easier to add and delete from. Right clicking on a Palette block gives some additional options that can be helpful as well.

[pendean · Accepted solution]

Here is a tutorial (one of many) from the Internet:
http://www.cad-notes.com/2012/03/5-autocad-customization-cui-tutorial/ Help yourself to find others if this was not sufficient.

Here is one of many tutorials/guides to using toolpalettes, there are dozens of others out there too for free:
http://www.cad-notes.com/2012/03/5-autocad-customization-cui-tutorial/

ADCENTER command is also a great tool to drag/drop blocks if you organize them either in folders or container files: it was even there in 2004. You can use use ADCENTER to quickly create toolpalettes with a right-click.

CUI also has a simple TRANSFER option for you to drag/drop from old MNU/MNS files into the current or custom/unique CUIx file. No re-coding required, you just have to remember to place all those button icons in LT2014's search paths.

So... with all these many options, may I ask why are you trying to do it 'old' school and from scratch? The above options are way more productive methods to get back up and running quickly. Dive in, even 2004 had these abilities and there is little reason for you to start from scratch again.

[Anonymous]

Thanks to Charles and Pendean.

I started on tool pallettes and then found ADCENTER last night and pulled the fastener, 8020, cylinders, drive motors and everything that I wanted over. They were already in the appropriate directory so it took just a few minutes.  This also allowed me to purge out everything that was duped or obsolete, also. Basically, I moved in 2 hours what took me 15 years to build up.  Extremely easy to work with.

I am starting the dynamic blocks now for our fabricted parts - I may swap out the fasteners but I am pretty pleased with how it is going so far using individual blocks.

As an old 2.2 and lsp coder, that was my first thought - but not my last!  

Thanks again for the nudge onto a newer path

Ted

[dgorsman]

A quick primer on why you were getting the same thing, over and over.  Think of the commands in the CUI editor like XREFs.  You create a command with a specific macro, and that command/macro can be referenced in multiple places: Ribbon, menu, toolbar, palettes.  Lets say you need to change the naming convention for your blocks or IT makes a unilateral decision to change drive letters.  With the CUIx system you can change the macro, icon, and other settings for that command in *one* place and that change will be reflected everywhere that command is referenced.  Very handy when you have the path names included in the macros and multiple user interface methods.  🙂

For each of your ten bolts, you would first create a single command for each of them.  Then you decide where you want to reference them, creating menus, toolbars, and Ribbon panels as needed.  Once you have those, you can drag the bolt commands to each of them, assured that the one on a toolbar will always get you the same result as the one from the Menu as well as the Ribbon.