ACA 2014: Customizing the CUIx causes loss of menus!

[FitzUS]

Doesn't CUIx mean Custom User Interface?

Background:  Using a new release of 2014 out of the box.  Made some changes to the .PGP file, created a custom palette and dragged some tools and gave them some standardized styles.  Worked fine all day. 

Problem: The next morning I booted up ACA and the menu ribbon failed to load. At the command prompts suggestion I tried CUILOAD.  Got the dialog box, found the ACA.CUIX file, but despite pressing the LOAD button nothing happened. 

Fix: I looked into the folder where the ACA.CUIX file was located (first folder on the support path), noticed there was a ACA.bak.CUIX file in the same folder.  I renamed the ACA.CUIX file and then took the .bak "extension" off of the other file.  Everything loads fine... except no customization.

Odd note: Last night, after I closed all my applications I went to shut down my computer and got Windows 7 version of the Blue Screen of Death.  I immediately rebooted and all looked OK, but I did not start ACA.  Not sure if related but just thought I mention it.

Request:  Is there a special step that I missed when creating a custom palette that caused it not to reload? 

I tried attaching the offending .CUIx file but the forum rejected it by stating "The contents of the attachment doesn't match its file type."

[FitzUS]

One addition. I just noticed that my design palette now fails to load. Clicking on the "Tools" Icon gives me the following
Command: _AecSetPaletteGroup
Command: Design
Unknown command "DESIGN". Press F1 for help.

[David_W_Koch · Accepted solution]

Not sure I have a solution, but here are some thoughts and observations:

1.  PGP file modifications and adding a custom tool palette have no effect on the CUIX file.  The next-day issue with the ribbon failing to load is not related to those changes.

2.  I am not clear on what you are describing.  Are you saying that after you restored the BAK version of the ACA.cuix file, that you were able to launch ACA and have the ribbon back as it was before?  If so, great.

3.  Do you currently have any tool palettes at all?  Or are you only missing the custom palette that you created on the first day mentioned?  If you do not see the tool palettes at all, does CTRL+3 bring them back?  (The Tools ribbon tool should open the tool palettes if closed, and then set the Design tool palette group current.  CTRL+3 toggles the presence of the tool palettes, and should open them if they are closed, even if the Tools tool is not doing so.)

4.  If the tool palettes remain missing in their entirety, check the path(s) that are specified for them in the Options dialog, on the Files tab, under the Tool Palettes File Locations node.  You need to have at least one path here that points to a folder that contains either a local workspace catalog with palettes or a catalog file with palettes.

5.  Are you using Project Browser/Project Navigator for your work?  Do you have a project set current?  Does that project have project tool palettes set active?  That can affect whether or not a newly created palette is always available or only available to that project.

6.  Did you crash out of ACA on the day you created the custom tool palette?  Changes to the palettes do not get written out until ACA is closed; a crash can cause changes made prior to the crash to be lost.

[CV438]

I read here that you should set up a completely separate profile when creating/editing custom CUI files.

http://www.archidigm.com/lounge/architectural_desktop/general_tips/a_ribbon_for_AutoCAD_Architecture...

Craig

[FitzUS]

Sorry for the late reply as I sort of just gave up on tool palettes and was able to get along fine until recently.  I had just posted some other messages about disappearing tags and the comments I got made me realize I better get the palettes working again.

David's suggestion #4 did the trick.

I looked at the search path for Tool Palettes and it was pointing to a customized folder:

C:\Users\me\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\ACA 2014\enu\Support\Profiles\ProjectCatalogs\CF446CB7_37E5_4E7C_860B_9A07CAF65F4A

I changed it to:

C:\Users\me\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\ACA 2014\enu\Support\WorkspaceCatalog (Metric)\Palettes

And now all seems to work well.  Except that my RibbonTools still cannot find the "Tools in the current workspace".

Tom

[David_W_Koch]

The AEC tools on the ribbon do not, in and of themselves, contain the information needed to execute a command. Instead, they leverage the existing Tool palette tool infrastructure, using the AECRIBBONTOOL command. This command searches for a tool with the specified name in the current workspace (it need not be present in the current Tool Palette Group, just available in the workspace).

The content that ships in the United States includes both a WorkspaceCatalog (Imperial) folder and a WorkspaceCatalog (Metric) folder (default installation location is C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\ACA 2014\enu\Support\, your location may vary), both of which contain a file called Ribbon Tools.atc, a self-contained catalog file that also includes the palette definition (the images are in a separate, Images folder, under the WorkspaceCatalog (xxx) folder). When the corresponding WorkspaceCatalog folder is made part of the Tool Palettes File Locations, this file generates a tool palette called Ribbon Tools - AutoCAD Architecture (US xxx), where "xxx" is "Imperial" or "Metric". The tools on this palette are the ones that are referenced by the ribbon tools. This palette is not included in any of the out-of-the-box Tool Palette Groups, no doubt with the idea that excluding it would reduce the odds of unwanted editing or deletion. The palette is viewable if the All Palettes Tool Palette Group is selected. If this palette is not available in your workspace (either because it was never installed, was subsequently deleted or the WorkspaceCatalog (xxx) folder is not in your Tool Palettes File Locations search path, then the ribbon tools will not work.

If you are missing that file, you may be able to restore it by copying the file from the UserDataCache that is used to set up new users on a given machine. On my computer, for the 2014 release (default installation location), I found the Metric version here (your location may vary):
C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2014\UserDataCache\en-us\Support\WorkspaceCatalog (Metric)
Copy the Ribbon Tools.atc file from there to the WorkspaceCatalog (Metric) folder under your user name. You may also want to create a tool catalog (in Content Browser) and copy that palette to the new catalog, for back up and easier restoration in the future. So far as I know, the "Ribbon Tools" tool palettes are not in any of the out-of-the-box tool catalogs.