topic Re: Custom Ribbon Panel Tab order in Revit API Forum

Custom Ribbon Panel Tab order

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 02:53:10 GMT

Addins with ribbon panel tabs know to create particular custom ribbon panels if they do not exist and then add themselves to that panel or just add themselves to the existing particular custom ribbon panels. The alphabetical order for the *.addin manifest files determines the order the panel tabs show up in the custom ribbon panel. I assume this happens because Revit gets an addin directory file list in alphabetical order and then attempts to process them in that order. The user can of course reorder the tabs in the panel, but that order is not retained. Revit builds that custom ribbon panel for every new Revit instance. Is there a simple way to order tabs in a ribbon other than employing a Rube Goldberg scheme that manages tab order by adding "XX-" number filename prefixes to the *.addin manifest filenames?

Re: Custom Ribbon Panel Tab order

Mustafa.Salaheldin — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 03:21:30 GMT

Try to use the " AdWindow.dll", I didn't try this for reordering tabs, but you have the chance to.

Let us know if this helps

Re: Custom Ribbon Panel Tab order

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Aug 2016 14:21:24 GMT

Thanks for the tip Mustafa. I browsed a bit through what I assume were the Adwindow.dll objects and I found some tantalizing methods but I was unable to figure out how to use them. I am also not sure Adwindow.dll exists in the Revit realm as for dedicated Revit use or as a bit of original AutoCAD stuff that has aspects that can be used in Revit.

As it seems to turn out with more thinking about the goal, the ability to control the panel order within the tab is only the first critical aspect to at least a three part problem. The second problem part is devising the scheme where an add-in panel knows where it is supposed to sit in relation to the other panels in the tab that may or may not exist at the time the add-in loads. The third, and ultimate goal, is devising the scheme to reorder all the panels to be in the order that the user last left them before they were destroyed when the last Revit session is closed. Some ideas come to hand. How these other parts would be implemented is going to the way back burner for now. Perhaps Autodesk might add this function in the future.

Thank you.

Re: Custom Ribbon Panel Tab order

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Aug 2016 14:35:23 GMT

have you looked at this post in the Building Coder?
http://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/2011/02/pimp-my-autocad-or-revit-ribbon.html
looks like Adwindow can be used in Revit (at least in the ways shown in the post if not more)

Re: Custom Ribbon Panel Tab order

Mustafa.Salaheldin — Wed, 03 Aug 2016 19:09:30 GMT

Ok, AdWindows.dll is the library that implements the framework for the following Autodesk UI features:

Ribbon classes
Autodesk controls
Tooltips
Menu browser
Task dialog, etc.

I guess you can save the order of your Panels to an XML file (e.g. app.config) in the OnShutdown method of your External Application then use the same file to build the Panels again with the same order by reading it from the XML file in the OnStartup Method.

Re: Custom Ribbon Panel Tab order

michellem — Sun, 01 Jan 2023 03:51:49 GMT

Hello;

Would AdWindows still be the approach for setting ribbon tab order with Revit 2019 and newer versions? Or is there some new API functionality that should be used instead?

Sincerely;

Michelle