topic Re: How to bring up the old screen menu? in AutoCAD Forum

How to bring up the old screen menu?

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 15:37:56 GMT

Ok, here is a question for you old-school users of AutoCAD.

Does anyone remember the old screen menu that you used to have in AutoCAD 11 and prior? It was a black vertical menu that always stayed on screen, and allowed you to scroll through commands. I just wanted to show it to a workmate, since he and I were talking about old commands in AutoCAD (he just learned AutoCAD in the last few years).

It used to be that it was still shown as a choice in the Options menu in AutoCAD, but I'm not seeing it there now. Does anyone know if you can still bring that up?

Thanks in advance!!

Re: How to bring up the old screen menu?

dmfrazier — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 15:53:48 GMT

It was deprecated several releases ago (can't remember when, though).

Re: How to bring up the old screen menu?

Patchy — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 16:10:54 GMT

That side menu bar with a scroll bar was DOS days.

Then it went to icons

and Ribbons killed the side menu bars.

Re: How to bring up the old screen menu?

imadHabash — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 16:43:45 GMT

Hi,

>> here is a question for you old-school users of AutoCAD.

if you mean the SCREENMENU , you can get it back by REDIFINE command.

Command: REDEFINE
Enter command name: screenmenu

Command: SCREENMENU

Enter new value for SCREENMENU <0>: 1

Betreff: How to bring up the old screen menu?

cadffm — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 16:41:42 GMT

@Anonymous

It's hidden since few versions..

;; copy&paste it into your commandline[CTRL+9] or textscrren[F2] (progn (if (and (setq obj(vla-get-Display (vla-get-Preferences (vlax-get-acad-object)))) (= :vlax-true (vla-get-DisplayScreenMenu obj)) ) (vla-put-DisplayScreenMenu obj :vlax-false) (vla-put-DisplayScreenMenu obj :vlax-true) ) (vlax-release-object obj) ) ;; +++++++++++++++++++++++++ ;; Or as Lisp command/toggle, command: SCREENMENU (defun c:SCREENMENU (/ obj) (vl-load-com) (setq obj (vla-get-Display (vla-get-Preferences (vlax-get-acad-object)))) (if (= :vlax-true (vla-get-DisplayScreenMenu obj)) (vla-put-DisplayScreenMenu obj :vlax-false) (vla-put-DisplayScreenMenu obj :vlax-true) ) (vlax-release-object obj) )

Re: How to bring up the old screen menu?

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 16:54:17 GMT

Hmmmm….

Doing that makes mine pop up, but it doesn't show the commands in it. Interesting.

Re: How to bring up the old screen menu?

dmfrazier — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 17:12:00 GMT

That just means you have no screen menu content defined in the CUI(s) that are loaded, or if they are defined in one of the CUIs, then your workspace doesn't have any turned on.

Re: How to bring up the old screen menu?

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 20:27:08 GMT

If you have it working, can you show me what your CUI has under it?

Re: How to bring up the old screen menu?

dmfrazier — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 20:44:38 GMT

Sure.

Running AutoCAD 2018 with an out-of-the-box (default) profile.

First, I REDEFINEd the SCREENMENU command, and then I ran it to turn it on (set to 1).

In CUI, under the ACAD CUI, at the Legacy node, this is what I see:

In the editor, this is what I see (because apparently the screen menu is on by default in the default workspace):

Ahhh... the good old days! 😉

Re: How to bring up the old screen menu?

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 21:07:25 GMT

Thanks! 😛

Re: How to bring up the old screen menu?

elucas_KWS — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 07:16:12 GMT

This still works in AutoCAD 2024 🤣

Re: How to bring up the old screen menu?

paullimapa — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 11:54:08 GMT

Curious if there’s a way to change the text color on the screen menu from the default of black to say white?

Re: How to bring up the old screen menu?

dmfrazier — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 15:13:31 GMT

My guess (no time to investigate right now) is that it follows the color assigned in Options, Display tab, Colors button (Drawing Window Colors), Command line, Command History Text:

Re: How to bring up the old screen menu?

ruslin — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 03:10:10 GMT

I have the same question too,

Re: How to bring up the old screen menu?

paullimapa — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 03:13:16 GMT

Unfortunately doesn’t seem to follow any of those options on the Color selections. I wonder if it’s based on the overall Windows color theme which controls foreground and background color of dialogue boxes

Re: How to bring up the old screen menu?

dacatalanV4FK6 — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 10:30:15 GMT

How does it work in AUTOCAD 2024? The command REDEFINE does not exist, so I cannot show the SCREENMENU

Re: How to bring up the old screen menu?

pendean — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 13:39:45 GMT

@dacatalanV4FK6 wrote:

How does it work in AUTOCAD 2024? The command REDEFINE does not exist, so I cannot show the SCREENMENU

Are you an LT2024 user by chance? REDEFINE has never been a function in any LT variant to date.

or are you perhaps using an OEM version of 2024?

REDEFINE works fine in R2024.1.2 here for me

https://help.autodesk.com/view/ACD/2024/ENU/?guid=GUID-E2B53E4D-28AE-4F6E-96E4-6FABE3FF823C

Re: How to bring up the old screen menu?

dacatalanV4FK6 — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 08:22:51 GMT

I am in LT2024, I do not know that REDEFINE does not work in that version.

Thanks for the answer!

Re: How to bring up the old screen menu?

sjxyz — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 10:03:46 GMT

Hi,

I have managed to keep the screen menu going through many upgrades, but sadly I can't see it in the CUI under the legacy tab. Is there anyone who would be able and prepared to transfer their Legacy Screen Menu to a new file and share it as I would really likely to change the commands that my menu offers.
Thanks